(small selfie thread taking place after this thread)

Bones would consider himself a proud uncle, sure - he felt close to Scarborough and was happy that he could do things he enjoyed (even if Bones forced it a little onto the hybrid.) In nature of feeling proud and happy for his nephew, he had decided to leave Canis briefly to locate a gift for him.

Leaving Canis wasn't something Bones often did - finding gifts for people was even rarer. He had given a gift to his mother, Giggle, who placed it within her den, but that was about it. Kerberos had not received anything and Booker- oh, poor Booker - had not either. Bones thought it would make it a special occasion, but he did keep it in the back of his mind that while he would hunt for a gift for his nephew, he would also try to find something for his dear brothers.

Kerberos - the gatekeeper of Canis - was asleep. Bones supposed it lucky as he wouldn't have wanted to explain himself to Kerberos, or be ordered back for his limp, but he did end up deciding to leave a rat he had caught earlier but not used by the cerebus for when he awoke. Caves knows Kerberos needed it; the hellhound had an endless pit in his gut instead of a functioning stomach. He could eat three times as much as Bones would and still sniff around for even more.

Thankfully, Scarborough didn't seem to inherit the endless hunger his father did, or perhaps he was hiding it. In the back of Bones' mind he knew this was the case, but a part of him still hoped he had a small bird-gut like Bevy did - unless Bevy had some diet secrets he didn't know about, of course.

Flicking his ears, Bones began to limp down the tunnel that Kerberos guarded with a limp in his step. It was thankfully short; or at least Bones considered it to be, but it was dark. He wondered only briefly if it was short because he would find himself picking up the pace towards the end of the tunnel; almost running right into Orion, the room of stars.

Next in his journey for gift-hunting was Orion, a room so much different from Canis. There was hardly any dust or stagnant air here, Bones could find himself shaking the dust off his pelt and not feel the need to do it again here, but for now he did not - in fact he found himself still running through the room of ruins and stars, as if afraid that the shadows of tunnel K would latch onto him and drag him back.

He had found his gift for Giggle here, or rather, he had found a strange lion who forged him a gift for Giggle. When he told his mother about it however, she almost seemed to hold distaste for Usui and even told him to keep away from such creatures. Bones had to admit that ever since he had never seen such a creature again, even that strange shaking cat seemed different. She was much smaller, and more fragile, but perhaps Bones being somewhat of an amnesiac and remembering wrong. He was only a pup when he was last outside of Canis, after all.

He did remember this room being his favorite; it was quiet and the quartz studded into the ceiling were beautiful to watch, even if they did not move. They would only stay still and glimmer quietly. He could remember lying on his back with his paws on his torso, watching them in silent awe.

He shook the memories off as he slowed down. He had no reason to stay here, it would only remind him of the ache in his legs again. After all - finding a gift for someone when he already found one here for someone else was highly unoriginal. The dog hobbled right out of Orion and instead up into the tunnel leading towards Polaris - a place where he would most likely find a good gift for his nephew.

The tunnel of the carvings was even shorter than the tunnel leading to Canis, Bones thought. He would often be distracted walking by here by the carvings on the wall - it was art that was better than his, painted by someone who may have been long dead. Bones couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness at the thought. He had never met another artist. Unless, of course, his inner amnesiac was showing again.

He was all the way sure that this was not the case however - he would have remembered meeting another gembound who enjoyed painting and such just as much as he did; he knew he would remember encouraging Scarborough to do it for cycles to come.

With a flick of his ears, Bones continued down the tunnel. The closer he got towards the spire the more the tunnel was illuminated by the Spire - the light even stretched down all the way towards the tunnel. It was impressive, at least for Bones.

He had been here when he was a pup, too - it was where he met Booker, before the dragon and the golems stopped anyone from entering. Bones had helped save other gembounds that were there, once, and it caused some damage to his legs - but the burns have long since healed now. That was before he had his limp, too - he could remember running through the fire with ease.

It was so long ago now - looking over Polaris, you wouldn't even think that it was once a place of fire and death. Looking at the Spire, standing erect over Polaris, you wouldn't even think there was once a dragon hanging over it, clinging to the blue crystals and claiming it his territory.

Regardless, Bones had business to do here. He limped further into Polaris and pressed his nose against the ground, sniffing for something, anything that he could use as a gift for Scarborough, Kerberos or Booker.

As the dog's nose took to the ground he could have sworn be smelled something; but he quickly lost the scent. With ears flicking and his tail lifted he padded around the cold ground for a solid minute or so. The thing he was looking for did not come to his nose, but something else did.

The scent was old and musty, it lead him to a particularly smooth stone. He nudged it quietly with his nose before picking it up in his mouth. He knew, somewhere deep down, that if he washed it, it would make a nice gift for Booker. He was fairly sure his particularly small brother loved these kinds of things - and he could even ask Scarborough to carve into it with those giant claws of his.

He smiled lopsidedly, to himself. He couldn't wait to introduce Booker to Kerberos and Giggle and now Scarborough, but of course, Booker had some issues of his own to deal with, involving the dragon that had injured Bones' legs so long ago.

With a proper gift planned for the numbat, Bones' nose touched the ground once more in search of something else, this time for Scarborough.

It took another moment or so for Bones to pick up a second scent; this one was strange. It reminded him, at first, of his mother and her fungal garden - but it was mixed with the scent of lizards and blood. Something that probably didn't bode well together, when he thought about it.

Following the scent lead him to a stone left near the spire. Perhaps it had fallen from the spire; it was certainly a similar colour. It was what Bones had initially hoped for, but the scent of blood was unmistakable.

His ears rotated quietly. There was no other sign that anything had passed by in a while, but somewhere he could hear the hear the sound of a dog or a wolf snarling, but he paid it no mind. Someone must have been hunting.

Bones spat out Booker's stone next to this new one. It glimmered faintly, but otherwise it was as lifeless as any other rock. A quick glance around Polaris told him, that aside from the faint growling in the distance, there was no one else around. No one who could have dropped it and no one to reclaim it.

Carefully, his nose touched it, but he quickly flinched away. It was cold, ice cold. The smooth stone he collected for his brother wasn't anywhere as close to as cold as this stone was. He watched it, carefully for a moment - as though expecting it to spring up and move.

The stone itself, of course, did not move. It was faintly blue-green, forming two small spheres either side of itself, but connected together it was large but not large enough for Bones to struggle carrying.

He wasn't too sure if he wanted that cold thing in his mouth, however.

Carefully, Bones reached out and touched the stone again with his nose. The cold shot through his muzzle and skull like a punch to the face, but regardless he stood his ground. He had seen something when he touched his bone cycles ago; darkness but a fleeting feeling of fear.

He hoped he would see something in the stone: something that would tell him where it came from.

He saw blackness at first - or rather, blackness during it all. He had suspected as such; it was a stone after all.

Then there was pain - searing agony that shot through his legs and persisted through his ribs, as though a knife had sunk in and were digging around in his chest. He gasped and he panted, pulling away and watched the rock with wide eyes, thin tail between his legs.

His ears flickered. Scarborough hopefully couldn't do that, and Bones went to pick up the stone and the smooth pebble he found for Booker. He just needed one more thing for Kerberos, now.

With legs aching, Bones shifted and began sniffing the ground when he realised something: with the two rocks in his mouth he couldn't carry a third thing for Kerberos. He'd have to get him something else later.

He winced and turned to limp out of Polaris. He got what he needed from here anyway and something extra for Booker. Upon entering Orion once again he recalled the place that he had hid the gift for his mother and quickly began limping through the remains of an old town to the throne.

He was never truly impressed by it; to him it was just another oddly-shaped rock. He curved behind it and began digging a hole, placing his gifts inside.

Bones had something important to do now, regardless of gifts or not, and Scarborough would simply have to wait for now.

Burying the rocks, Bones turned and began half-limping, half-running into Eridanus, where he stopped at the entrance to briefly sniff at the edges before continuing in.

-exit-