For once, she didn't mind the affection of a feline. She let the cat rub on her chin, instead, listening absently to her words.

Booker. That name... she was certain that it meant something. She'd heard it before, but where?

The cat's purring, and words, buzzed like insects in her mind, interrupting her thoughts and sending her sitting, sighing, with a huff.

"Hrm, well I don't think I know him, but I swear I've heard the name. Never mind. Maybe I'll remember, later. Are you planning to leave, now, little one; or would you like to stay for awhile? I could show you how I grow my gardens, perhaps, or take you back to the tunnel's mouth, where Kerberos stands guard. I had something to tell him, but I wonder if you will see what I see, there."

She looked down at the little cat, curious and a bit excited. Truth be told, she'd never had anyone to compare visions to, to double-check with, to test theories against. It could be enlightening--perhaps for both of them.

But then, maybe the cat didn't want to stay. Maybe she was in a rush to leave?

"If you want to go, now--then I would ask, could I meet your friends? Either here--or there? Wherever 'there' may be?"

________________

Roll the bones.

@Dovefeather

DOVEFEATHER

let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

"I wonder why the All Mother would cloud your memories like that."
Dovefeather mumbled this shortly to herself, almost sitting down beside the likeminded Seer, but not quite. She shook out her fur, a pause running through her tiny body. Abruptly, she licked her paw and ran it over her ear a few times, bubbly purr trembling her whole body.

"Oh no, Giggle, I am in no hurry. No hurry at all. I'd love to see your gardens-- my Sisters and I are nurturers of nature as well. I wonder what your set up is like. Fungus, right? You grow fungi?"
A yawn stretched up through the kitten's jaws, her crystal teeth glinting in the light-- though for once they did not cast rainbows upon everything-- and she stretched a bit, tail curling up against her back.

"We can go see the Ker-ber-os after. He didn't seem like he was going anywhere, anyway... And, oh, yes! I'd be happy to introduce you to my sisters. We live in the place where greenery thrives, a few tunnels away... I think you should see the All Mother's body and Eyes in person, anyway. It would be good."

"Of course, if you have to stay here, I can always get my sisters to come visit sometime."

words:......... >> << >> lets get this to 30 posts shall we
tagged:....... @Giggle
ooc:............ heck yea
muse:......... 6/10 heat stroke

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

Giggle let out a short bark of cackling laughter.

"Why, not everything is fated, or predestined," she exclaimed, glancing down at Dovefeather with amusement. "There may be overall threads and patterns but bones, cat, everything is not set in stone. What would be the point of living, if it were?"

With another short laugh, the hyena stood, padding down toward her fungal garden. Down by her den, where the water pooled around the mud and ferns grew, here and there, she'd set up a small nursery of sorts. But for mushrooms.

There was mud, and bones, and bits of rotten wood from trees outside of Canis. There was offal, even, and rotting flesh--and on each of these substrates, another type of mushroom grew.

The hyena glanced at her cat comrade, explaining as she drew up close.

"These brown ones, here, they seem to grow best on dirt, or on shit. If you inhale their spores or eat them, you'll see things--colors, shapes--even hear things, that aren't there. Now these--these reddish-orange ones--they grow on bones, and while they smell like a meaty meal, they taste absolutely terrible. These, over here--the short, dark red ones--those grow on flesh. I'm learning to grow them on real flesh," she added, a little more grimly.

"I've been attacked, here, before--it's necessary to have defenses prepared. Watch."

The hyena turned, trotting over to one of the dead rats she had stashed under the stone behind the fungus, and carried it back over, laying it beside the flesh-eating fungus. Then she sat, eyeing it--forgetting even the purring cat with its odd, almost crystalline teeth--and focused. She felt her mind twine with the whispering life that lurked within the red carpet of growth, felt herself connect, a strange buzzing vibrating in her mind, at her stone. Connecting them. She urged the fungus to grow, and to spread.

Instead, though, the red fungus seemed to simply consume its own meat quicker, the flesh on the bone it'd been growing on dissipating, until half the fungus rotted away from overgrowth without nutrients. The hyena sighed through her nose, glancing wryly at the cat.

"Well. That's not what it was supposed to do, but that's why I practice."

________________

Roll the bones.

@Dovefeather

DOVEFEATHER

let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Dovefeather's pale eyes glinted as Giggle laughed at her words, retorting that not everything was set in stone. The feline only purred louder, her tail swishing as she took careful pawsteps forward, peering around at the great variety of fungi.

"Oh, Owlfeather really needs to see this..."

She mewled, tilting her head as she stepped around the gore, carrying herself close to the garden but all too careful not to disturb it.

The hyena turned, and sat, a humming silence filling the air. The curly furred kitten approached, sitting beside the larger carnivore, her dull eyes observing the magic at work.

"... You control the fungi."

She knew her sisters could talk, could hear, the plants and mushrooms-- but control them? Her ears twitched, bowing down to the rat, sniffing at the red spores as they grew, spread, devouring the meat to the bone... And then, promptly, wilted and died.

She turned her eyes back to Giggle, a smirk pulling across her maw.

"The All Mother does not control our pawsteps, as you have pointed out. She does, however, lay the paths and guide us. That is why there are walls, pools, obstacles and hunger. There are many paths in life, which is why we must be ready for when the ways go rough and treacherous."

"Keep practicing. You will need your gifts some day for more than just the guidance of other's paths."

words:......... 8)
tagged:....... @Giggle
ooc:............ heck yea
muse:......... 8/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

Giggle tilted her head.

"I think that anything sentient is by default not a god, or an 'all-mother,'" she answered, though her tone was almost absent and not mocking. She was simply holding conversation, though it was clear that she seemed to, at least for the most part and for now, dismiss the concept of a guiding deity.

"For example, fungus holds many answers, and holds many secrets--but would it call me a god, for controlling it? What if I were to tell you I hadn't meant to do that at all, that I failed? That the best I can do is precisely that--guide it? Do you think your All-Mother might be something like that--fallible?"

The hyena looked at Dovefeather rather seriously.

"Be careful what you attribute godhood to, little cat. Something that holds secrets and gives guidance may not want to be considered eternal, immortal and omniscient. She may just be a helping hand. I say this because your words seem to be falling close to the point of no return," Giggle added, matter-of-factly.

"If you think of every hardship as a trial she has sent, every happening as something she has wrought, then you'll blind yourself to other possibilities. For example, that hunger is merely that--hunger."

Giggle snorted softly, leaning forward and tearing into a second rat, gulping and crunching half of it down. She offered the other half to Dovefeather, ever the hospitable host, but her thoughts as she did so--though her expression was only mildly polite--were both grim and wry.

It seems all cats truly are crazy, then.
________________

Roll the bones.

@Dovefeather

DOVEFEATHER

let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Dovefeather, for perhaps only the second time in her life, stopped purring. A sort of seriousness over took her, one that came with grim silence, her thoughts churning in her head.

For most, the kitten would whisper under their words, speak out loud without a single filter-- but no, not for this one. They were so close, yet so far differing, in their beliefs.

Yet the kitten found herself, in part, agreeing with the hyena.

She quietly, carefully, reached out a paw to scoop the rather large chunk of rat closer, and nibbled on it-- absolutely unaffected by the stench of the den or of the nature of the fungi.

"... I do not think of the All-Mother as a god."

Her pale eyes closed for a moment, a shiver running through her fur. She ran her dark, blotched tongue across her paw, wiped at her whiskers, and finally, sat up fully. She did not open her eyes.

"Thank you for the rat though."

Slowly the purring built up again, as she rose to her paws. Eyes still closed, she sniffed and wandered through the den, over to the reddish-orange shrooms that smelled of meat. She stopped by the bones, tilting her head at them, and sighed as she finally opened her eyes.

"What I do know of the All Mother is that I have much to learn. I suspect you are right that she is... what was that word you used... Fallible?"

She glanced back at Giggle, intensity in those pale, round eyes.

"But She Sees more than you or I, and She has answers that I Seek. There has to be a reason why the fungi speaks to you, why there are things to See in the bones. And She does guide, for what purpose I cannot See yet. I will find out, someday, but I need to let her guide me for now to get there."

And softly, she spoke, her eyes returning to the mushrooms.

"I think She needs us."

words:......... 8)
tagged:....... @Giggle
ooc:............ heck yea
muse:......... 8/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

Giggle listened, quiet, as the cat spoke. She turned her head on its long and muscular neck to watch her as she paced, eyes closed, from place to place.

When finally the cat fell silent, she thought it all over.

She had to admit to herself that she was rather surprised that the cat was willing to, if not concede a point, to admit that her "All-Mother" was not infallible. Giggle had somehow pictured the little feline growing defensive, aggressive, zealously arguing that this All Mother knew all, saw all, was all, controlled all.

The hyena was both pleased to be wrong, and ready to try to learn more of Dovefeather's beliefs--if only out of politeness. Still, something the cat had said struck her as interesting, and she tilted her head again, peering at her.

"She needs us? Do you think your All-Mother is in danger of some kind? Trapped?"

She thought about it, and then added another question--or, rather, more of a request.

"Do you think you could take me to her? Or, rather, where you think that she is?"

The hyena wasn't sure how far Eridanus was, but it would certainly be worth the journey--to sate her curiosity, at the very least.

________________

Roll the bones.

@Dovefeather

DOVEFEATHER

let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

""Hard to say, but if something as powerful as She is Seeking the help of a bunch of kittens, I would say She is desperate."

"If I am right, it is not much different than you or I giving our gifts to the rats, in hope that they will See us as good, and offer themselves in return to us."

The kitten was back on full purr mode, lidded eyes taking in all the mushrooms once more, going over the information under her breath.

""Brown ones, grow on dirt or feces, inhale or eat. Red grow on bones, smell good, taste bad. Short, dark red ones, on flesh."

Satisfied with the knowledge memorized, she bounced her way over to Giggle on her tippy toes, whiskers twitching in her all-too warm smile.

""Of course! I can take you to the All Mother. It's a bit of a trip, but there's plenty of places to hunt and rest on the way. Shall we go see Ker-ber-os now? And the tunnel? You had something to tell him, I recall."

She did not move to leave, not yet. It seemed as though she was still feeling out the reaction of the hyena, still waiting to follow her lead. Perhaps there was yet more that she sought from the older gembound.

words:......... 8)
tagged:....... @Giggle
ooc:............ heck yea
muse:......... 8/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...

The paranoia of the cat was refreshing. She was not only aware that her All-Mother might not be a god--but was aware that she might be outright using her and her companions. With a pleased snort, the hyena eyed Dovefeather with new perspective.

It was not lost on her that the cat seemed to be eyeing her up equally, as if searching for something, as if considering, and Giggle suddenly broke into a raucous cackle. She padded forward, giving the kitten a cursory lick over the head--brief, but good-natured--before making her way off toward the distant tunnel.

"You're more perceptive, and more cynical, than I could've hoped for. I'm glad your All-Mother doesn't have doting, mindless fools worshiping her," Giggle said drily. At the same time, she wondered if the kitten wasn't just telling her what she wanted to hear. Maybe they went through the caves, finding the lonely and the curious and bringing them back to see some god, only to be eaten by a larger predator.

Giggle found the idea amusing, and wondered vaguely if she could implement something like that with the Bonebound--except, well, they didn't really have any larger predators except for Kerberos, who truth be told, might be unbalanced by it.

Ahh, well.

"Let's go into the tunnel, and tell me what you sense, there--what you See. It's a mystery to me, and one that speaks volumes, but I am curious to know what another might make of it, if you have the time. Perhaps, after that, or some other time, you can take me to the All-Mother."

Giggle glanced back, her own amusement, or perhaps malice of some kind, glittering in her dark eyes.

________________

Roll the bones.

(( ooc -- @Dovefeather ; exit Giggle ))

DOVEFEATHER

let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

The kitten broke off into a laugh as the hyena licked her again, a tiny, mewling giggle. Her whole body quivered, flashing her crystalline teeth once more, eyes nearly closed in the short bout of praise.

"I do my best. It's a lot to learn, and even more to See. Anyone would be foolish to take the truth at face value-- there are hidden truths even in the most obvious of things."

She was, after all, just a baby gembound, and any amount of praise from an elder felt pretty good.

"Sounds good! I'll do my best. Practice makes perfect and all that jazz. Someday, y'know, I'll See as well as the All Mother herself."

She spoke in a light-hearted, absolutely childish way now, her seriousness forgotten to the wind. With all that said, the pair was off again, and the kitten kept her eyes out for any more signs or secrets. There were so many bones-- each section of the caves were so large.

It was a good thing she wasn't scared of all of the possibilities, all of the dangers, that lurked in the caves, in the unknown spread out before her. It was especially a good thing that someone as small as her held those notions of paranoia, of caution, despite her overwhelming curiosity and desire to learn and See everything.

words:......... 8)
tagged:....... DOVE EXIT :D
ooc:............ heck yea
muse:......... 8/10

"Talking looks like this."
Thinking looks like this...