Giggle glanced back, one dot of a brow perked just a little. "I read the bones. If I have some with me, it means I can consult them at any time. Wherever I am," she explained, bluntly matter-of-fact. She could tell the kid was a little scared, too. Nervous. There was a stiffness to her, a hesitation in the way she lingered, and Giggle hesitated.

She didn't mind adults being scared of her. Gembounds scared of her meant they wouldn't try to rake her eyes out, a trauma that lived with her--and left her face scarred--to this day. And it added something, too, to the theatricality of her bone readings. But kids-? She liked kids; she was motherly, at her core. She didn't want them afraid of her. "Listen, kid--Acheron. You don't need to be nervous, here. I don't bite," she added, with gentle humor.

"Come on," she added, a kindly invitation, accompanied by a jerk of her head. "So you want to see your future? Just--what lies ahead, for you?"

Giggle padded up along the trail, and paused alongside the pit of bones. She glanced at Acheron, looking her over, then looked at the pit again; after a moment she chose a suitable bone, one that seemed a little reminiscent of the kid. It was a scapula, unusually long but still small, a little thick--strong--but still with an overall fragile appearance. She waded into the bones with a clatter, carefully taking this up in her jaws, and then clambered out and glanced to Acheron for confirmation.

If she could've flushed, she would have. "I'm not nervous," she protested, her words coming in an indignant rush.

Which, obviously, was a blatant lie; and she hesitated after speaking. Beneath the brief rush of shame, she was already realizing that it'd been a surprisingly nice thing for the predator to say. She was a little touched, but she didn't have the emotional maturity as yet to push down the embarrassment to say as much. Instead, still the child that she was, she skulked around the edge of the pit with her head low and her ears pinned, sulky.

Acheron had no idea why the hyena had a pit of bones, nor why she just clambered directly into it, and she stepped back and stared.

Why is she looking at me-? Oh-... she asked a question, Acheron remembered, and blinked. She hastened to respond. "Oh--yeah, just... my future. Thanks," she added, then repeated, clumsy, "Thank you."

Man, she was really blowing this, huh?

Giggle couldn't help but snort; she set the bone down and regarded Acheron with sardonic amusement. "Of course you aren't. My mistake," she answered, and there was humor in it instead of mockery. "Don't get me wrong, kiddo, I know how I look. And smell," she added, with a thick-toothed grin. "It's on purpose, mainly; there's some bad strangers who come by now and then. It's best if they think I'm not worth a tussle." She gave the pup-fawn a wise and meaningful stare--this was good advice, she thought, for anyone's future.

Then she picked the bone back up in her jaws. She started up the trail, then glanced back, realizing she'd forgotten to explain the process; after setting the bone back down, she spoke again. "Stay here, watch from here. I'll go up and read the bone from up top. I'll tell you what I see from there. And if you have any questions after, you can ask then."

She picked the bone back up again, and headed up the trail at a leisurely trot, mind on the question ahead.

She had, indeed, begun to follow Giggle; when the hyena turned back again, she stopped, one hoof hanging midair. "Ah--okay," she agreed, and stepped back again.

Her mind lingered on what Giggle had said, though. Looking scary was helpful-? She tried to think that over, reasoning her way slowly through it; it was hard, without the experiences of adulthood behind her. But she herself had been nervous on seeing Giggle; it made sense that if she'd been... mean, somehow--like some of the monsters her dad had warned her of--they'd think twice about a fight. Maybe I should wear some bones, she thought, in a half-absent sort of way. "Why do they want to hurt you?" she blurted, and then looked at the bones. Giggle was halfway up the trail, by now, a bone thick in her teeth, but she kept asking nonetheless.

Even though, from all the hyena had said, she was meant to ask things after. "How does this--uh, work? Is it--bone magic?" she hazarded, uncertain.

Ahh--more questions.

She sat down atop the ledge overlooking the pit, after carefully setting the old scapula between her forepaws. Giggle didn't mind the questions, really; she was, after all, bored without any guests and the pup seemed friendly enough. And anyway, she'd always liked kids. "Some... don't have good motives. They want power, and that can mean power over others," she went on, her mind flicking back now to Senka. "They lie, sometimes, too--so be careful who you trust, kiddo. Not to scare you," she added, eyeing the child. "It's just generally good advice."

Then Giggle looked down to the bones, and took a breath, settling in to explain her theory of the world. "Magic lives in all things. The rock around us, the air, the bones. The spirits of those who died linger," she went on, which was probably wildly untrue but the old hyena was fairly set in these beliefs. "You'll see some that can influence water, or plants--that air or rock--or light," she went on, and glanced to Acheron. A touch of her own old fear spiked through her, and before she knew it she was rambling. "And speaking of which--find some way to make light. There's those who can pull you into darkness, or turn off the lights. It's good to have light." Back on topic--"The future's full of... possibilities. Everything that is, right now, will become the future! And we can look at magic to see which is most likely. Some see it in just... magic; some see it in water, or rock. I see it in bones," she went on. "In the way they fall. The patterns. The spirits of the dead speak through them, for those who can understand," she finished.

Again, not... entirely factual, but the hyena had her faith.

"Are you ready?" she asked, at last, patient.

She made mental notes, silently attentive, surprised at the depth of the hyena's apparent knowledge. And Acheron wondered, for a moment, whether Giggle was actually, maybe, older even than her dad.

Ahh--but those mental notes-! She struggled to catch back up with what Giggle was saying: that not everyone had good motives, they wanted power over others; that she should have light-?, and that magic was in all things. Acheron tried, even, to commit to memory Giggle's perception of the present and future, but for someone so young it was all a little too absract. Maybe she'd understand in a few cycles, but for now it was a tangle of seemingly unrelated concepts, too confusing to make sense of.

I wonder if Dad knows light stuff, she thought to herself. Maybe he could teach her. Ah--but Giggle was asking if she were ready.

"I think so?" she answered, unsure--and then tried for a little more confidence. "Yes."

Giggle gave a little nod, and pushed upright. The kid was ready; there was no reason to delay. She picked up the scapula in her teeth and stared down into the pit of bones, concentrating. She focused on her question, eyes cutting briefly to Acheron as she did: Bones, what does the future hold for this child? For Acheron? What lies ahead, for her?

Then she lobbed it down, watching it spin and fall away, watching the way it clattered into the other bones and how they, in turn, were affected.

Oh... this is not good.

The signs were... unpleasant, to say the least. And Giggle, even in the middle of interpreting the bone-fall, was already wondering how the hell to break all this to a child. "...Damn," she breathed aloud, without really meaning to, and tried to disregard the immediate look of slightly alarmed attentiveness on the puppy-fawn's little face.

Shit, she thought, as a close second.

And then she took a breath.

"I see... power being drained away, or you being drawn, maybe, from where you started. It's a loss," she added. No other way of interpreting that. The way the bone had sunken-... But she pushed on. "I see problems with where you've come from. Parents, or where you were hatched--family, or your stone. Something like that. It's something that will never go away, but maybe you can... work with it," she added. It sounds like she'll have a break with her family, she thought, grimly. It was admittedly a little surprising; as standoffish as Pride could be, he didn't seem the sort to alienate those close to him. But maybe something else would happen, something to provoke it. Giggle didn't know. "In the end, I see... alliance. Someone or maybe more than one someone for you to join with, to team up with maybe. A bond with others that will last." Reconciliation? Maybe. Or maybe a new family, a new home, altogether.

Giggle looked to Acheron, trying not to appear too grim. "If you have any questions about any part of this... I can ask the bones for clarity," she offered.

Oh.

That sounded... worrying.

She listened with some alarm, ears sweeping back--and then, just like that, Giggle was done. She was asking a question--Oh, Acheron thought again. She cleared her throat, and tried to think, hesitating.

She was just a kid. She felt... overwhelmed; this was too damn much for her child's mind to comprehend. An entire future, laid out as potentially a tragedy? Her gut sank.

"Can you..." she managed, struggling to bring her thoughts into some semblance of coherence. "Can you tell me exactly what... will happen? What I'm gonna lose, or... what the problem is? With my stone or whatever?" She hadn't realized her stone was an issue. It hurt, sometimes, sure; it was big, situated right between her shoulder blades. If she moved just wrong, stepped awkwardly, it jammed against her bones.

"And... maybe who I'll ally with-?" she added, a little more hopefully.

Well--that was three questions, but Giggle didn't mind. She'd answer as many as the pup had, and anyway, she'd be worried about all of that too. It was an ominous reading, for sure.

Omen was awake, now, and as Giggle padded her way back down to the pit, the bird let out a haunting cry and perched atop the ledge in her place. "That's just my familiar," she informed Acheron as she passed. "Her name's Omen; she's friendly. I'll ask the bones one thing at a time--first one was... What exactly you'll lose?" she asked, with a glance at Acheron for confirmation.

She plucked the same bone from the pile, picking it back out with her teeth, and carried it to the ledge again.

When she lobbed it, and watched... her heart sank.

"I see... light, and change. Like the way the light changes through day and night--like that," even though that was a difficult metaphor to wrap even her own head around. "I see family," she added softly. "And I see loss." 'Family' was so often a good omen; it could, Giggle supposed, be that Acheron would keep family. But Giggle's question for the bones had been to ask what Acheron would lose; this didn't bode well.

"Light can mean... learning. Like when the light shows something in the dark, something you didn't see before. It might be that you see something about your family that you don't like, and you leave. Or that they learn something, or that... they die," she added.

"Just a moment," Giggle went on, suddenly. "I'm going to ask the bones something for myself."

She interpreted it--so to speak--in the same way.

Just a child, that's all she was; she'd meant this as a jaunty adventure, a chance to learn some fun things--hopefully good things--that might lie ahead.

'Hey kid, you'll split off from your family' didn't exactly seem like fun things. Would they fight? Would Pride run her off, or maybe she'd find out some weird and horrible secret about him-?

She wondered. And she didn't like the idea; she at once resolved to talk it over with him as soon as she got back.

For now, she fidgeted, waiting impatiently--but as quietly as she could--for Giggle to finish.