The tiny creature nodded and squawked once more before she fell into asking a bundle of more questions. "Does it hurt? What does it do? Will it be true-- craw!"
With her last squawk - although now it began sounding weaker - she hobbled a little forward to the bones, reaching out but not daring to touch them. This hyena was clearly proud of them, like they were her own children. If she did not try to eat the little crow before, she'd likely do it if she touched the hyena's babies.

Eve fluffed herself up, squeaking out a sigh. She nodded again.

Giggle eyed the fluffyblack with a faint sense of amusement, and a brief flash of almost maternal protective instinct--but this was fleeting, and gone before she could even take note of it.

"It is true. No, it does not hurt. Watch."

The hyena padded over to the bonepile, and eyed them all up and down. She noticed that the crow was curious, but not touching them. She glanced at her.

"Touch them if you want. Just don't move them once I start."

Then she looked back to the pile, blowing briefly through her teeth as she considered. At last, she picked her way through to the middle and lifted what looked like the skull of a raven, with some vertebrae still clinging to it like a broken, hanging cable.

She turned, padding back around the baby crow and to her boulder; she scaled this, then carefully aimed and tossed the skull down into the bones. It was small, so it didn't make all that much of an impact, but it seemed to be enough for the hyena.

Giggle watched the bones rattle and spin, clattering at the impact; she closely watched the way that they turned and landed and rocked as they came to rest. And she watched once they were still, eyes picking out patterns and meanings within the patterns. At length, she lowered herself to sit on her haunches, and--still eyeing over the bones--she spoke.

"There are patterns with missing pieces. Bits that need more. That is in your past: your now, since you are so young. It means that you are on a hard journey. You are tiny, young, and alone, so that isn't a surprise."

Giggle eyed over the rest, and her eyes locked on another bit of the pile. She nodded.

"In the middle, there is a pile that is tangled. One of them still rocks. Whatever you do now, little bird, now and in your future, it will come back to you threefold. Remember this. If you harm, you will be harmed; if you help, you will be helped. If you kill, you will be killed. Unless it's to eat," she added. "We all need to eat."

Giggle then fell silent one last time, dark eyes picking over the pile. Finally, she seemed to find what she was looking for. "Ahh... but it is your future that's most interesting, Eve. There are bones there--ribs, and fingers, and claws, in a circle facing out. Right around the skull, do you see them? ...They mean that you will, when you are older, maybe much older, face a great challenge. You need to prepare for this, be ready for it, because if you aren't..." The hyena shrugged a little, or as best a hyena can, and then turned and came back down, moving to lay down beside the crow.

"If you aren't, bad things might happen."

She's young. She'll never remember all of this.

"Just remember that if you do good things or bad, those things will happen back to you--and to be ready for a lot of trouble when you are older. ...You can sleep now, if you want. Let me know when you are hungry, again."

________________

Roll the bones.

The crow did not touch the bones. Too risky, she had decided, despite the hyena's words. She watched Giggle peer at her 'children,' grinding her beak a little. Horribly curious, was she, in how the cub could 'read bones,' as she had put it.

She almost immediately recoiled upon the sight of the skull. She recognized it from somewhere - though she couldn't remember where. She attempted to push these thoughts away as she moved to follow Giggle up the rock; though to no avail as her talons scratch against the rock. She squeaked in disappointment and moved back to the pile to fluff herself up and watch. She squawked every so often in a vague reply to Giggle's words, though as she goes on, she began looking concerned, alarmed.

She looked up at the hyena again and chirped, "tired." She no longer squawks horribly, perhaps too tired to do so. She seemed to have waited for Giggle to climb down the rock before she looked around for a place to sleep.

Giggle eyed the little bird, then sighed.

"Come. You can sleep here, with me. When you wake you may stay or go. Giggle will--I will feed you, if you want Food. But if you want to explore, the bones say you will not yet die. If, you are careful," she said quietly, the last sentence somewhat more stern.

She was already laying down beside the baby crow, but she edged closer, as if to offer a warm, safe place to rest.

"You can always rest safely here. This is the place where bones are, and the place where the Bone King lives, and nobody will hurt you here. I think. If you get lost, ask the way back to Canis. This is Canis."

With that, Giggle yawned and tucked her head down near her belly, ready to sleep. She wasn't really an inviting sleeping-spot, what with the huge jaws and the claws and fangs, and the gore- and mud-streaked coat dotted here and there with fungal spores--not to mention the pile of bones lying only a few feet away, motionless and silent testaments to the oh-so-temporary nature of life.

But then again, maybe that was exactly the sort of thing that would appeal to a shrieking, bone-stripping carrion crow.

________________

Roll the bones.

((ooc - exit Giggle))

"Canis," repeated the little crow. She waited until Giggle got herself comfortable before she went to scramble up onto her and dive in between her head and gut. She is horribly scrawny, obviously more fluff than living creature. Her beak grinds together quietly as she too gets comfortable.

It didn't take long at all for the crow to go still and fall asleep.

((exit eve))