The Bone King was busy trying to clean up the awful mess that Cancer had created. I mean, there were spikes everywhere. Canis was a literal spike pit of Hell because of that damn cat. Beak shut tightly and corners of it downturned into a deep scowl, he picked at the stones, hitting it with a hard rock and grunting with effort when the red quartz simply would not break.

Whilst slaving away at the stone, he felt an odd itch... right by his stone. He dropped his rock, and watched for a moment as it tumbled down the forty-five degree slope and onto the ground. Gripping the crystal tightly, he reached back towards his stone and itched at it. He first dug around at the feathers at the base, but soon realized it was right on the red jasper cabochon. Perhaps his gemstone seemed itchy?

He scratched at it gently, but when a shard was pulled off, he about fell off the damn quartz crystal.

The jasper shard clattered on the floor with a hollow clang, and he scrambled down to grab it... but maybe someone else would find it first.

@Cancer

The chime of crystal on stone was cut short as a wide, black paw fell over it before it could still. Carcino had woken, though it could still be brought into question just how awake the cat actually was.

He dragged the shard across the ground with a piercing scrape and held it there, hidden under that black, scarred paw. He stared down at it, then with a tired glance, observed the bird on the spike.

Oh, Azazel. He knew this bird. Recognition lit that remaining eye, but he still looked so... tired.

"Eight cycles and you still don't get it." He teased, but the tone was dark, void of emotion. "With life comes death." He brought the shard delicately up between two toes and held it at eye level, letting the dim lights above catch the tip of the sharp just slightly. "With death comes chaos." He turned his paw and watched the light glint across the dark shard. "The caves snuff out whatever natural light finds its way down here."

Depressing, much?

"And yet..." Oh, wait. "...and yet there is still promise." There was a subtle glow from his horns, his eyes...

...which crackled erratically, that dark red static lighting across his fur and into the stone shard he held and he'd place it on the ground against a spike of quartz and with a sharp hiss, it'd seal itself there, cemented. Alive.

"Promise of a dawning light to drag the filth of these caves from the darkness and into truth." He finally looked back up at Aza'zel, gaze dark... but somehow, alive again. Determined. "There will be closure... and there will be life everlasting. Someday." It was hard to tell whether or not the cat was in his right mind, or if he'd become insane, rambling on about tomorrow. His words were clear but his voice was level- too even. Dead.

[ uses my angst-ish aza table ]

As he scrambled for the stone, Azazel caught himself just barely as a dark paw fell upon it. He cringed a little as it pulled the shard back, a high and keening sound erupting from it as it did so. The Bone King stared and found the hollowed gaze of a former king. As he scooted down the crystalline spire to be eye level with Carcino, he noticed that his once sharp yellow gaze was now dull. Behind such a gaze was a strange flame... recognition. Had he forgotten him? Then he spoke.

He didn't get it? "Get what?" He tensed, feathers ruffling ever so slightly. He was sure that the feline would notice, but he had to be ready. With life came death, and with death came chaos. In that moment, it all clicked for The Bone King. Of course Carcino was still delirious over the death of Bevy.

When the candy red glow appeared in his gaze and stone, the lammergeier tensed up once again, wings spread a little in case he needed to flee from an unprovoked assault by the still unpredictable feline. But then it faded, leaving his own shard shimmering and crackling with new energy. He'd just given it life. The shard faded into the earth, already beginning to develop a neonate within. One of his children. He almost couldn't be mad, but... Cancer was delirious. He was going insane. But was he? The cat looked a little more awake, and he stared into his one eye. "Carcino, what are you doing?" The question slipped out of its own accord, but it was the best thing he could think of at the moment.

@Cancer