Testing, testing, he is asking too much. Pushing too far. None of his business.

Giggle curled a lip, long thick canines glinting down from her spot atop the ledge. Yet down she came, hopping slowly, almost reluctantly, back to the pit.

But it's a good question. One I've never asked. Asked about my life, yes, yes, but the caves' lives, all the life? No, ask Lorekeeper. No, ask bones. Ask the bones.

With a soft, shrill cry, the hyena, plowed into the pile again, standing chest-deep. For awhile she simply stood, staring down at them, blank. The seconds ticked away into minutes, and Giggle simply stood, head down, facing away from Louie.

At length she lifted a large bone. She wasn't sure what it was, only that it was many-chambered and huge, thick. A honeycombed thing. She turned, dragging it up, not sparing Louie a glance. It was a struggle to take the thing to her ledge: she was weak, emaciated, the bone dense and heavy.

By the time she reached the top, she was panting. She had to pause, and only now did she spare the forgotten fox an empty glance.

He may as well not have been here anymore, now; she felt like the question was hers, now, as much as his own. With a heave, she tossed the bone into the pile, and lay quietly atop her perch, her mind whirling with the patterns they had made.

Her mind began to swim with the magic, the patterns, the images. She sighed through her nose, peering down.

"I see that same emptiness. Need. Loss. The bones with an empty place and things that were missing. There is sorrow." She was quiet, for a moment, scanning them, and then continued. "That was now. This is then. This is where they twine and mix and cross and we are doing the same, yes? New life, mixed, changed. Yes, yes. And then the end, I see the end, too. The end. Where we do not hear. There is a voice, there is truth, but we miss it. We do not understand."

Giggle began to mutter to herself, abruptly standing and trotting back down to the pile.

"But how can we see? What is there to see? What was we learn? What did we miss?" the hyena muttered, trotting down. This time she grabbed a ribcage, flinging it sidelong, simply standing there and staring as it hit.

"It is a cycle. I see the bones the clear space, it is not empty now, it is light. There is a word, if we listen. There is truth, if we pay attention. I can see the Voice speaking. We are not listening and we must, there is something to hear, a truth to find. And I see danger."

Giggle looked up, meeting Louie's eyes with her own pools of darkness, staring solemnly and intently. There was a clarity to her gaze that was not often there, these days; it was her fear, her madness, in perfect accord with what remained of her sanity. Whatever this was, it was important.

"We will face great danger, fox, and we will need to find the strength to face it. We can only find that strength, if we find the truth."

Then she was staring at the bones, again, her jaws still moving as she muttered to herself. Her magic still swam, spinning, and she tried to push beyond the bones, into the visions that lay pooled beneath, to see more of the truth of the future of Origin Cave.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Louie

Another void. No breath. Endless. Drowning. Surfacing, gasping for air; so much water, glimpses of small islands, blurred silhouettes of fighting creatures - and under again, pushed under into the darkness. Lungs emptied of air. No sounds. No light.

@Giggle @Louie

Giggle let out a soft gasp, then a choke. A moment later she was thrashing, backing quickly away as if trying to break free from some invisible hold.

She leapt back, twisting midair, snarling--and a moment later stood silent and still, bar her heaving sides as she struggled to catch her breath.

The Hallowed Caller had taken flight, screeching in fear. Giggle's dark, haunted eyes turned to stare at Louie. They were wide. Her voice came soft, and oddly deep.

"The darkness will come. Endless. Water fills the spaces between, and then the battle comes. We drown in it. No light."

The hyena turned away, morosely watching her bones. She did not speak further.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Louie

---

A warning gesture, he swallowed and remained where he was. Afraid that any sudden movements would grab her attention. But she agreed, though it appeared reluctantly he watched her dive back into the pit of bones. No longer was she fixated on him, it was though he was a ghost as she lugged the largest bone of the lot back to the ledge. Repeating the cycle for the third time. Louie remained in absolutely silence as he always had as she tossed it in. It wasn't a clatter so much as a crash as bones scattered sideways.

Another cryptic message, Louie could follow, but it wasn't the answer he was looking for with talks of more danger. A voice, but if the voice was ignored it would only serve to bring about the end. All the other stuff he couldn't decipher by himself. He almost needed a Giggle to Louie translator. That last sentence was haunting him and there was a pause. A lull in the conversation as she mulled over something. Tension was so thick it was tangible. No longer did he want to know the answer and he began to back away.

Then it happened, she began to thrash and her caller let out a screech. It was upsetting to watch, a seizure of the body and mind and he found himself trembling. Those eyes set on him, her voice was oddly deep. As though she too was terrified. "The darkness will come. Endless. Water fills the spaces between, and then the battle comes. We drown in it. No light.". The colour, or what was left of it, drained out of his features and he found himself falling back onto his rump in shock as he tried to digest those words. His mouth was dry, his stomach feeling considerably hollow as it turned following the same tempo as his brain. There was nothing, water was going to drown them. They would suffer and then there would be no light.

Weakly, he watched her stare into the bones and spoke once more. "Giggle... Are you OK?" It wasn't out of compassion he was asking, he needed to know if she could process it. Whatever being she was would surely not see this in the same light he was. Where was her laughter? Those insane cackles that had driven her before? Louie debated going over to touch her. Slowly he moved to where she was and gently touched her shoulder, despite the fact her own familiar had flown the coop. This was a stupid decision, he knew it. But he had to make sure she was fine. Not broken. Not also consumed in this reveling knowledge.

Giggle turned her head only slightly as Louie approached, barely acknowledging his presence. She was exhausted--her mind, her body, her magic. He touched her shoulder, gently, and the sense of being reconnected to the world around her brought her back, just a little, from the darkness she'd slipped into in her visions. Still, there was a dull desperation in her gaze, a depth of hopelessness and pain that could only be described as despair.

"Never okay, lost in the void. Months, months, nothing, no sound, no light. Not again. We must learn or we will fall again. Drown. I do not want it. Not again."

The hyena looked nothing but miserable as she turned away from the bones. She seemed as if she were about to walk off into the cave, but she had only taken a few steps when she simply went limp where she stood, dropping to lie there on the cave floor. Her head lay over too-thin forelimbs, and she stared out, dark eyes empty.

A sound like a quiet sob escaped her and she closed her eyes, trembling a little. A soft growl escaped her, and her limbs twitched. The Hallowed Caller was nowhere to be seen.

I don't want to go back.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Louie

---

Perhaps it was because there was no definitive connection towards her that he found himself able to open up. No fear of him getting dragged into a relationship that would plague on his mind. Even in these moments he felt no bond being attached to her, only understanding and compassion for what they were both suffering through. The inevitable destruction of them all. Once more their eyes locked, before she broke away as she turned from the bones.

What she spoke of was disturbing. So she'd been to the void and back again and now, she was afraid of going back. How he wanted to pry, but her body language told him all he needed to know and he just watched her silently as she slumped to the ground. Defeated and she let out a choked sob. Louie wasn't sure what to do. But he remembered Othello's gift and how it had made him feel. It was childish, something stupid for him to do but maybe it'd mean something to her? Truthfully he wasn't sure what possessed him to try. Looked like he was a moron.

But it fizzled and he was even more humiliated as he had nothing to offer the seer who had answered his questions and shown him what was to come. Ears down, he tentatively followed after her, before stopping and coming up with a better idea. Mice were dancing between the bone piles and he would be damned if he couldn't catch at least one for the starved woman. Though it appeared she had eaten just before, one could always eat more. Swiftly catching one of the bastards, he went back to Giggle and placed it at her forepaws even as she stared into nothing. "I'm sorry I can't offer you more. But thank you Giggle. Maybe on this knowledge we can change the future. We need to stop whatever is coming and we will survive." Determination overrode his fear, and he gave a firm nod at the hyena before turning and melting away back into the tunnel he had come from.

One day he would be back, but he had a few friends he wanted to meet first.

-exit Louie-

Louie's attempt at magic went wholly unnoticed. Even the sound of his brief hunt did not stir her, and the deposit of a still-warm tiny fluffcorpse on her paw only made her crack open her eyes.

It was his words that made her lifted her head, even if only slightly; that made her turn to follow him with her miserable gaze. But the hopelessness, at least, had faded somewhat.

"Please," was all she said, quiet and hoarse.

She watched him go, lowering her head back to her paws. As he faded she was left alone with her thoughts, and with the dead mouse on her paw. She nudged it, gently.

I can see him leaving. The thought was distant, and the vision blurred; the red fox pacing away through the cave. Giggle miserably pushed the connection away.

She looked at the dead mouse, again.

Are you gone, little mouse...? He took you, from your house. Broken, life crushed away. I'm sorry. I was not hungry. I do not take more than I need. I will eat you, so you do not go to waste. The hyena peered at it for a bit longer.

Are you stuck there, in the dark place...? We will find out. We will uncover it. I do not wish anyone to suffer there forever. Are we sent to the void when we die? Do we stay there? Do we come back? Is it eternal? A hell. A hell for us. Nothing, no light, nothing. I am sorry, mouse.

Giggle snapped it up in her jaws, sorrowful as the tiny bones crunched away, as the blood splashed into her maw. She swallowed it in pieces, then laid down her head once more, closing her eyes.

She would not sleep--she could not sleep; her nightmares brought her ever back to the void.

But she no longer wished to face the truths of the waking world, either.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

(( exit Giggle ))