Aure listened avidly, eyes progressively growing wider and wider. As Mother prepared to show off the same spell, the little wyvern rolled on the ground to break the frills. Goo seeped down his back and he immediately regretted it with a frown. Trying to stay positive, the hybrid watched in awe as slick darkness took over his Mother. Oh, he could do that? Immediately, Aure considered that he could coat himself in the goopy frills and run at Tanny and cover him with the goo. Oh, that'd be funny!

"Okay!" Aure flapped his wings as he rolled back onto his feet, preparing to pounce on Mother again. If the goo tasted bad, he wouldn't risk getting any in his mouth by attacking with his beak. It was all up to his feet, then. Springing into the air, he meant to grab at her face with his little feet. Instead, his dull claws did absolutely nothing. His feet just slipped upwards and he rolled back off of her face with a quiet little oof! Picking himself up with a little peep, Aure noticed that he now had the goop all over his tummy too. "Sticky!" Of course, that was the idea, wasn't it?

@Giggle

"Yes!" Giggle agreed, in a loud and enthusiastic crow.

Speaking of crows (sort of), she could feel Omen questioning tentatively at their shared link. Her roughhousing was unusual, and the bird seemed... concerned. Giggle sent her a sort of reassuring dismissal--an "everything is okay" emotion--and turned her attention back to Aure. The bird wasn't insulted at this brush-off, but rather intrigued, and Giggle could absently notice her changing direction to join them. She was a ways off, but the bird knew the way.

"So, now you know what will happen if you make those in a fight! You're learning," the hyena told Aure, approvingly.


"Any kind of mushroom you find, it has magic around it, and spores; you can carry them with you--with magic!--and keep them, and grow them wherever you like. You can even sense things through them, or put spores somewhere or on something and sense through them later, to keep track of someone, or of what's going on in a place. But!" Giggle turned, pacing back to her garden. "There's many kinds you can use for different things. If the lights ever go out--and they do, sometimes--you can use these to make your own light." A nudge, obviously, at the glowing fungi.

"And these ones, that smell good, they taste terrible. I was being attacked once by a few very strange Gembound who didn't speak, and I used them to distract them! I found the same creatures later on, attacking some cornered allies, so I put these on the one they were attacking, and they decided he tasted bad, and left. They're very useful! Remember them, all right, if you can?"

Giggle was quite enthusiastic, all told, about her fungal garden. She stank half the time, and was half-covered in fungus--but each one had a purpose, and a very valuable one. The more she could teach Aure, the more he'd have in his own arsenal to defend himself--and others--if ever the time came.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Auré

The little wyvern preened at himself, trying futilely to cleanse himself of the slimy goop. Of course, every attempt ended with his beak simply slipping off of his feathers. Not intending to interrupt Mother, he whined softly, "how get off?" If it tasted gross, he didn't want to be licked right this second. One of the first things Aure had discovered was that he liked being clean. It wasn't a compulsive thing and he was fine having a little bit of grime on himself, but this? This felt limiting, disgusting. Mother seemed content to be coated head to toe in the goo, but he sure wasn't.

He still listened though, eying all of the different kinds of mushrooms. What had seemed like simple fruit had, in fact, many purposes. They saw and felt everything, provided and nurtured light. They could be used for self-defense in a different manner, instead of icky frills. They could be used to deter things that wanted to bite and chew on him and others. Things like those strange Gembound Mother had tended off once.

Trying to contemplate further uses for mushrooms, Aure shuffled further down the shelving, eyes falling on some rather inocuous mushrooms with dainty little caps and a ring about the stem. "What these?" He would have tapped at them had he not been warned against touching some others. It was fortunate, since these referred to hallucinogenic magic mushrooms.

@Giggle

Giggle watched as Aure gestured to the pale brown, conical caps. Before answering, she paced over to lift Aure by the scruff of his neck, in her jaws, and then stepped over to the stagnant pool at the den's center--small, but drinkably clean, at least--and went to simply plonk him in.

"Either wait for it to dry, or was it off," she answered, once his feathers were out of her mouth.

"Those brown ones--if you blow the spores at someone, with magic, they see and hear lots of things that aren't real. It... distorts reality, into things that can be confusing, or even scary. It's very good to confuse an enemy in a fight," she explained, laying down and nodding to them. "These are all very useful, and that's why I keep them here! So I can get more samples whenever I need them. There's other magics, too," the matriarch continued, shifting her position where she lay.

She didn't want to confuse Aure overmuch with a full encyclopedic listing of magic just yet, but a few examples to open his mind--and to warn him of the possibilities--might be useful. "We're all born attuned to one kind--you have mushroom-magic, like me. But that doesn't mean we can't learn other kinds; it just takes more time. There's magic that can set things on fire, and magic that can let you read others' minds, and magic that can grow plants, or make storms. All sorts of things! Your father had magic that could help him fly, or make loud thunder and things." At least, she thought he had; it'd been a long time, now.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Auré

Aure didn't have a chance to squeak in surprise before he went limp in Mother's jaws. Curling up unintentionally — natural instinct to make carrying him a little easier — he watched where he was being carried to. A moment passed, and he had been plonked righteously into the den's resident puddle. He did not want to wait for this goop to dry, so he immediately set to bathe much like a bird would. It was fitting, considering he was half bird.

First, his feathers puffed out. Then, he sucked in a breath and membranes slid over his eyes to protect him from oncoming water. Aure's head then slipped somewhat underneath the surface of the water. In a matter of seconds, he was a fluffy mass of sparkling droplets and battering wings. Twisting his neck side to side, he threw water all over himself and preened. The water ran a little dark as he worked through the motions, but he figured it was okay. This was all done in a matter of seconds, so he was already prepared to listen to Mother's lesson on the tiny brown caps. Stumbling out of the water, sopping wet and feathers matted, he shook himself out.

Fluffy and somewhat dry, the baby scampered back toward Mother to inspect the reality-distorting shrooms. "I name them…" he paused to think of a name, "scary shrooms." That was fitting, wasn't it? He shuffled excitedly toward Mother some more, peering up with wide and excited eyes.

He knew there were other magics — thanks to Mother, already — but he wanted to learn specifically the kind that Azazel had known. It felt right, if he was to be a son of him. Father had been a master of wind and sky, and Aure wanted to mirror that. Aure splooted, again, next to the hyena, so that he could dry out better. "I want learn… Father magic. Fly and make thunder and storm!" For emphasis, the little wyvern threw himself forward and onto his haunches, flapping his wings.

@Giggle

Giggle leaned over to pull Aure closer with paw and jaws, to groom his feathers and help him to dry more quickly. Plus, she was warm, and that was always good, wasn't it?

"Hmm... Aza'zel's magic? I don't know how to use it, myself; and Eythan's not too strong with magic. He prefers being up-close and personal, and he has a point; magic fails sometimes, and you have to know how to fight with tooth and claw--and beak!--to survive, then." A short, barking laugh at her own 'and beak,' for whatever reason, and she continued.

"I'm not sure I've met anyone else with it, either. Kerberos--he just uses... well, it's like..." Just what the hell were those powerful pulses of pure destructive energy that the three-headed white dog spewed from his jaws?! "...white fire?" she tentatively decided, at last. "And my children all use mushrooms, as I do. But I'll keep an eye out, Aure. If I find someone who can use magic as he did, I will ask them to teach you."

Maybe she could send Vinea or Skeena to find someone. They were quick, and could be off through the caves on such a hunt--and perhaps back--very quickly.

"I have one last warning for you, and then you need to sleep, little one," Giggle continued, thinking.

They'd covered hunting--the basics, at least. And the very basics of magic had been brushed over. If she was killed tomorrow, he had at least the very foundation of knowledge to work from. He knew of his family, of the Bonebound.

But there was one, very important last thing to cover.

"I don't want to scare you, but not everything in the caves is nice. There's some things--like a big cat, with no fur--that use darkness. It's black, like nothing, no light--and it has silvery eyes. It can pull you in, and you can't get out, and it-..." Giggle cut herself sharply off, switching tack midsentence. "And if that happens, don't be afraid, all right? It can't hurt you. You just call for Omen, and Omen can find you, all right?"

She made a mental note to either grant Omen to Aure once he was old enough, or to find him another bird of his own--another that could do what Omen did. There was a horror about the void, but the black bird did much to mitigate it; she, and she alone was able--so far as Giggle knew--to flit in and out of the Void at will.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Auré

Mother dragged him closer, which Aure always appreciated because a.) grooming and b.) cuddling. Scrabbling little claws brought him to be damn near underneath Mother, tucked between her paws where she lay. A series of contented chirps rumbled from his chest as he did so. If Tanny wasn't the best at magic, that meant he still knew some of it, right? It was Father's magic, so he had to share it. Peering up at Mother with furrowed brows, the baby offered, "Tanny still teach me?" At least, until someone else came along to help him.

A yawn escaped his little beak as Mother mentioned sleep and a final warning. Tucking his wings closer to himself, he wiggled backward so that he was essentially attached to the rusty, carrion-stained fur behind him. Aure blinked in disbelief, though, as Giggle mentioned meaner things in the caves. Until then, he presumed everything except for the rats were nice. The rats were mean. Aure had never seen a cat before, so he inadvertently imagined a furless, wingless, beakless Eythan with shadows pouring and pouring and pouring. "I call Omen," he repeated with a small, unseen nod. If the bird could find him, Mother could. Omen would help him, with that haunting call and that cry. But Mother knew of this darkness that the big scary cat used. He wanted badly to ask her about it, but he suspected it'd make her upset again and he had done that once already today.

Instead, he rubbed the top of his head against Mother, cooing softly. "I sleep? I love you." Another yawn escaped him, much wider this time and showing off little pearly whites.

@Giggle

Giggle shrugged, a little.

"I don't know how much Tanny knows about magic, if anything, but you can ask him. It never hurts to ask," she added. Wise advice. Probably.

She turned, then, surprised somehow at Aure's sudden declaration of love--but he was her child, wasn't he, and she his mother..? She curled around him closely, exhaling a blissful sigh as she nudged her muzzle against his feathers.

"We both sleep," she agreed softly. "You were very good today. And I love you too."

She would lay there, half-asleep, until she was sure that Aure himself was sleeping--and even then, she'd keep curled protectively around him, ready to confront any threat that might approach--always aware, and always watching.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

exit Giggle ;

@Auré

"I ask," Aure agreed softly, settling down and tucking his chin into his neck; again, much like a bird. Clicking his beak a few times to ease off his latest yawn, the little wyvern blinked blearily. He was happy with his predicament, veritably trapped with Mother surrounding him. She was warm and a comforting presence. Nipping softly, tiredly at her nose, he hunkered down and essentially vanished into the hyena's curled form. All that remained of the child was his muddy brown head. "Good sleep," he purred contentedly, wiggling into his most comfortable position and closing his eyes.

Within minutes, Aure was out like a light.

; exit Aure