The stag leaned his head into Wynry's when the lamb rested it against his neck. The lamb was warm and soft and brought his own little brand of comfort to the young stag. He loved his brother so much, he'd do absolutely anything for him. Give his life, if the need arose. He knew he'd do it without second thought. Tell the lamb to run and find Arkrael while he himself was killed. Surprisingly the thought didn't scare him, it just brought a sense of duty with it at the clarity of his love for the lamb.

His eyes tracked the bones as she tossed a deer's skull into the pile. They did their thing, scattering as bones do and Vazi understood none of it. Not until the hyena explained. He frowned, not understanding. Missing a truth? A reality? How could he do that. Life wasn't hard. It was so simple and so easy and so nice. He looked at her briefly but back down when she indicated the pile. He would stand alone? But why? He didn't want that. He wanted to stand with Arkrael and his brother, Wynry. Not by himself. One needed friends to survive. He had to know more on what she meant.

"Please, Giggle, could you tell me more? Expound on what you have said, if you will." He asked politely as he peered hard at the bones. He wanted to understand. He wanted to know his future.

Words: 243

Wynry wondered what it might mean, the bones. This time the didn't sound as happy-- Giggle's voice took on a sharp edge, all the sudden. A misunderstanding? A separation? Wynry wondered... It didn't sound good, at first, and in fact for a moment the sheep was worried-- he didn't want to lose his friend. Not at all!

But shortly after, Giggle said, simply, that Vazi would be the light again. Or he would find his own-- and that seemed to bring the sheep peace. Yes... It would be okay in the end, see? Of course it would. Separation would only make his friend stronger! Hopefully it wouldn't be for a while yet-- he needed his brother to carry him after all. That was what the bones said, and the lamb saw no reason for them to lie.

The sheep's wide eyes turned to Vazi, to see his reaction, wondering what he made of all of this. As his brother spoke, he couldn't help but pick up on the confusion, the subtle worry. He nuzzled into the buck's neck. "I'm not going anywhere, not for a while," he whispered reassuringly, comfortingly. Maybe someday Vazi had to stand on his own, but that would be a day that he was ready to, big and strong enough to.

He knew his brother could handle anything.

Giggle listened, and looked between the two snuggling herbivores. Bones, how they made her hungry! They smelled of dinner. But she shook her head and made her way back down, picking through and selecting three bones to drag back up to the boulder with her. She did this one at a time, settling them atop the boulder. She then made a dash through and around the bone pile, smoothing and gathering them all, before heading back up.

The first bone was relatively round, a worn vertebrae. When she tossed it, it didn't dislodge too much, and she nodded to herself as if this made sense.

"The words, you misunderstand. The voice. The reality. It is to do with your light. And your bonds to others. Together, one can nurture another, but something has been misunderstood." She pondered. The way the bones were crossed seemed somehow like fertility, to her--like crops and breeding and the binding of two things. She wasn't sure how it applied, and so she stayed quiet, and dragged over the second bone--a shattered ribcage, one whole rib standing alone and away from the rest. She tossed this over the edge, and down into the pile.

Now, she stared. This was interesting. She looked at the bones, then back over at the two ungulates, then the bones again. She stood, peering down.

"I see a failure. A failure of protection, of effort. And then you will walk away, to learn again the bond, the bind, and the alliance. You will come back to what you knew, stronger--or you will find another bond, elsewhere." Was he going to fail the lamb, in some way? Giggle eyed the two, and then continued, turning to toss down a scapula. She watched it toss and turn and fall, lighter than the others, hitting with a slight clatter.

"This guiding guardian light. It is in you. It will not leave. It is your core and it is stable but you may hurt, I do not know. You think yourself a protector?" Giggle tilted her head, eyeing Vazi curiously--it was not an insult, but rather, a genuine question. She nodded to the bones. "You will find your truth, then, in any case--when you are alone. When you are apart. Just this warning: take no chances, stag-friend."

Giggle said this last with a sort of dark, dry humor, trotting back down from her boulder and eyeing the pair. She hoped that perhaps this had made more sense to him. If not--well, it wasn't really her problem, now was it? She'd told him what the bones said. It was up to him whether he would hear.

________________

Roll the bones.

The fawn turned to smile at the lamb's comforting words. He touched his nose to the top of his head and ruffled the fluff there fondly. "I know that you will not. You are my brother and you will always be there for me, and I for you. Always." He smiled at the lamb before turning back to Giggle as she spoke again. Her words, for some reason they shook him to the core. They brought feelings of upset for him and made him fearful of the future.

Failure?

How could he fail, Wynry? He wouldn't! He would never fail him! He looked at the lamb, worry clear in his eyes. No. Failure was not an option. He wanted to say as much but didn't want to interrupt the hyena. Even if her fortunes were off and not true. How could they be true if they were saying he would fail his duty? The gem on his chest turned green, displaying easily his fear.

Still, as he tried to move on and not think about it he found he worried more and more. For some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that she was right. That he would fail in protecting his little brother and that it would be the biggest mistake of his life. When she mentioned him being a guardian he felt that her words were true even more because he did see himself as a protector. Why was he growing horns if he wasn't meant to protect? She was right.

The fawn began to tremble, eyes widening with that classic "deer in headlights" look as he listened, the words ringing in his ears. He started to pant and panic. "No... Y-y-you're wrong. I-I won't fail! It is my duty to protect my little brother. It is my duty to protect all of my friends and I will not fail!" His words had risen to a yell as he rose to his hooves, glaring defiance down to the hyena and her lying bones! He wouldn't believe it! The gem on his chest turned red from that sickly green it was a moment ago in his fever of emotions.

He turned to Wynry. "Come on, Wynry, let us leave." With that he turned and marched away. Wanting to believe that the bones were fake but not able to shake the feeling that they weren't...

Words: 394
-exit-

The cub was wandering around following his encounter with the big beast Aquarius. The event had set his young mind working. He needed to know more! He needed to understand innately what this world was all about. Where was he and why was he born from a chrysalis. Though he was of a tender age, the cub had observed that almost all creatures had a shiny gem. His wasn't shiny though. It was a deep black colour that didn't really reflect anything. Did it...set him apart? Was he tainted? All these questions about life ran through the boy's head as he wandered fearlessly into a room. Then, he saw it. A room full of bones, with an audience which seemed to be commanded by a weird looking dog - and they were starting to leave rather unhappily.

Usui approached the dog-thing. Head tilted and tail swept around his hindlegs as he quizzed the other naively. "What are you? What you doing." Surely something about this spotted one was of importance for everyone to be gathered like that.

Giggle listened, and perked up large, rounded ears. The deer did not like what he had heard, clearly, and she started to shrug--to explain--but he was storming off. She frowned.

"The bones never lie!" she snapped after them, taking a step or two after. Then, malice rose in her. How dare they snub her like that! They feared the truth? Well, they should! Reality was harsh. Death was truth. And the bones, never lied.

"You'll find out, for yourself... And you will need the bones again. You will be back!" Giggle then let out a cackle--not one of amusement, but rather of stress, or annoyance, but the others probably didn't know that. It rang out instead like utterly insane laughter, bouncing and echoing over the walls of the cave.

Giggle finally fell silent, bitterly annoyed with all of this... This snubbing. She had given her time and her effort, and for what? They had mocked the bones! Or well, Vazi had. Damn them--... Though it was merely fear, she supposed. She could take some grim satisfaction in that.

She turned, and to her surprise found a tiny creature sitting there staring up at her. It was like the lioness from before, but younger, and Giggle's annoyance and instinctive dislike of the lions left her staring back at it. She hadn't heard it approach, for all her shouting and cackling, and as she opened her maw to snap at it--probably to ask "What are you doing here?!"--it spoke instead.

"Hmph," she grunted. "I am the Oracle of Canis. The Bonecaster. The Seer, the Shaman." She was annoyed enough that she'd decided she was more important than she was--clearly the others just weren't giving her enough credit, never mind that there weren't really any "others" around.

She stared at the young cub, then sighed shortly and turned away, pacing toward the bones, calming a little. "I tell fortunes, little one--I see the future in the bones. I read what they spell out. What is your name?"

Giggle turned so that she could see the lion cub, then flopped down beside her bone pile, watching him.

________________

Roll the bones.

The cub listened intently as the girl introduced herself. She sounded far more wiser than others her age. Oracle, seer, shaman. The lion cub committed these titles to memory. Telling fortunes though...what was that? He cleared his throat and replied her politely as she proceeded to relax a little and ask for his name. "Usui. My name's Usui." He elapsed into quiet, then burst out suddenly in excitement, eager to prove himself.

"Um..I can't read bones but, can you teach me how to read rocks? What is reading?" The boy focused his energy and mind, hoping to break the rocks in the room into two and show this dog thing what he could do! Unfortunately, nothing happened. The boy sighed, frustrated. He looked at the shaman with solemn, disappointed eyes and spoke again, his voice a tone lower for he was so upset. "But I...I tried. I did it before, and now it doesn't work. I broke the rocks. Teach me, please." He whimpered, upset with how lousy he was at this thing. A burning will rose in his chest, for the boy was ever more determined to master his trade.

Giggle eyed the lion cub, and watched as he tried to--... To do something. She tilted her head as he asked her to teach him. What?! A brief spurt of panic rose up within her. She didn't know how to do that. The bones just... they just showed her things, that's all! Thinking fast, she put on a faint sneer. Rocks weren't bones, after all. What sort of nonsense was that?

"Rocks aren't bones," Giggle explained, with a drily derisive tone. "And nobody taught me how to do this. They make patterns, you see--like this--" and she scattered a few with a kick of her hind leg "--and I see meaning within them."

The hyena glanced over to the bone pile, then to Usui, eyeing him with fresh interest. "You want to learn how to read patterns in rocks, instead?"

I doubt it would be easy, but... perhaps he can learn? More likely he will be an annoyance, and then leave. Still, if the bones are right, he could be useful...

________________

Roll the bones.

Usui was juvenile. A fresh fledgling if you may. And so, he was a bit dense about emotions, especially when the dog thing curled her lips up slightly, and spoke to him in a very plain tone. The lion cub did not catch that at all. So great was his thirst to understand that he could not fathom that perhaps, she wanted him gone.

When she spoke, he wanted to protest that he knew rocks were not bones but maybe she knew more than him so he kept quiet. The cub padded closer to her, solemnly nodding and listening to what she had to say. Ah, patterns. He looked at the bones she had kicked and observed that they had moved into an arrangement of sorts. Did not mean anything to him though. They just were.

She looked at the pile, then back at him. The cub flicked his ears in surprise at her offer. Was she willing to teach him? He smiled at her, eyes sparking up a little. "Yes! Usui will learn." Then he looked back at the pile of bones. "So um. What did the bones say, Shaman?" And quietly, he tried to channel his energy again and attempt to break his own rocks, inspired by how she had managed to shift the bones.

THERE! The small assortment of rocks lying in his path, towards the pile of bones shattered, and a larger rock nearing the pile of bones split into two. The cub whipped his tail once in excitement and jumped happily. "Didya see that? I shifted rocks! But...I don't know what it means." Whereupon he cast his pale green eyes upon her and waited for a response.

The hyena stared as the lion cub shattered a scattering of pebbles with little more than a look and a thought. Ahh, so he could call upon magic too, could he?

She sneered again, stepping forward to loom slightly over him, a bit of foul darkness blooming and pooling around one paw. Outward and forward it spread, tiny fungal heads popping up over the ground--harmless, but stinking, dark and slippery. They would spread to and beneath where the little lion cub stood--whether he stayed there or not.

"So you can call up magic, hmm?" Her voice was dark and purring, the annoyance at the deer who'd and her instinctive dislike of lions left still welling up within. But she wouldn't attack the little thing; no, there was no need for that.

"Well don't--do it--here. These are my rocks and my bones and don't go breaking everything!" she snapped. Then she frowned, and looked down at the lion cub's pebbles. "Look, there. Do you see that lump, it looks like a fang?"

Giggle sat down, irritated but willing, watching the cub once more.

________________

Roll the bones.