After a long rest, Bones felt completely re-energized. It's a wonder what a nap will do for you after you've been in hibernation for fourteen cycles. With the femur bone in his maw, he lead the way from Eridanus to Polaris with a loping hyena by his side, still limping but moving considerably faster than a few hours prior.

Despite the nature of this spontaneous road trip between him and his adoptive mother-- which was to find out who killed his grandfather, the Bone King, and avenge his death --he felt happy. Blissful. At peace.

And why shouldn't he be? His legs weren't giving him any trouble for the first time since he was a pup (but only time would tell how long that would last) and he had been reunited with Giggle, who also seemed to be getting gradually better since being taken away from Canis by the Eyes.

At the entrance to Polaris, he paused at the opening and took a moment to sniff the outer edges of it. The last time he had been in this room, it had been filled with flames and he lost some of the fur on his back to the fire. He did not, however, smell burning or dragons-- not this time, at least.

As he edged into the illuminated room, he looked around before turning his head towards Giggle. "If we're looking for life, we should check by the spire," the painted dog suggested. "It's full of life and magic."

@Giggle @Eythan

Giggle glanced briefly up at the humming spire, and then started forward, quiet. Her son had led the way, and his easy pace was reassuring--he wasn't limping, so far as she could see, and she was genuinely happy for him, as any mother would be.

But she was less cheerful, now that they had entered Polaris. The Spire was a place crackling with magic, and she knew that this cave was where monumental and often terrifying things happened. World-changing things. And they were looking, too, for Azazel's son, to ask about the Bone King's fate. They might find nothing, and that thought worried her. Or they might find out something horrific about how he had died--and that worried her, too.

She shook the thoughts away, and moved into a steady lope, head held low and out as hyenas tended to do, her muscled body gliding easily over the rock.

"The Spire, then," she agreed hoarsely. Overhead her familiar circled, giving off its familiar haunting call, and Giggle glanced up briefly.

Stay wary, Sister-daughter, she thought to it, in emotion as well as word.

Yes, came the faint, acknowledging chirp to her mind, and this was wordless, though she understood it nonetheless. An affirmation: the bird would keep watch.

Giggle moved farther into Polaris, lifting her head at length and slowing to a halt.

"WE SEEK," she called at last, at the top of her lungs--and then paused to cough, for a moment, before continuing. "WE SEEK THE SON OF THE BONE KING."

________________

ROLL THE BONES

Yet again, he had run away. Run away like the coward he was, his predecessor—his previous stone-bearer—had been. Fragmented aquamarine joined jasper in the highest reaches of the core room; iron feathers and obsidian mottled fur joined the bones in the central mire of Canis. As far as he knew, the Marrowbound had disbanded, left without anyone to continue the false revival of a legacy. It, too, became bones. Rotting away in some dark corner, never to be touched again. Eythan hoped so, anyways, as he fluttered from his roost. He unwittingly imitated being a fugitive—there were no witnesses to his crime—with his daily routine, barely leaving safety ("From what?" He asked himself far too frequently) to only fulfill basic, primal needs.

The caves had nothing left for him. Nothing but the visitors calling out for one of the late King's sons just as he glided overhead. What were the odds.

One was definitely unfamiliar, their companion circling above and sending shivers through his spine as it called. He contemplated snatching it from the sky. But, the other gembound sparked a twinge of familiarity. Eythan had seen him around. That was the only motivation to swirl down, landing delicately on light feet, wings still spread in the case that this was retribution. "I am..." he hesitated, "... one of two." Falling onto the palms of his forelegs, he glanced up at the hallowed caller spiraling above. "What do you want with me?"

@Bones

Bones sat himself down before the Spire as he came up to it, placing the femur bone down by his paws. He wasn't entirely sure where to search from here, though he didn't have to think about it very long before Giggle was bellowing near his ear.

He turned his head, glancing over his mother with some concern as she started coughing. "Are you alright?" He asked quietly. "I can-" call for him. That clearly wasn't necessary because Giggle, the trooper she is, kept going.

The dog turned his head again to stare out across Polaris, waiting. He saw a flash of gold above, though he didn't move until the hybrid had landed down by himself and Giggle, dark eyes flicking over to watch him.

This is the brother, yes-- some sort of bird-cat hybrid, though he was more colourful than his murderous brother. He opened his mouth, thinking, though quickly shut it again. He was quiet for a time, one massive, round ear flicking.

"Your father," he eventually said, voice quiet. "Azazel, do you know what happened the day he died? Do you know where he's buried, where his bones are-- his gem?" The thought crossed his mind that, perhaps, if Eythan were trying to hide from it, he likely didn't want to talk about it for very long.

"We want to avenge him," the dog added. "Your twin-mate, too-- do you know where he is?"

With a short breath, Bones looked off towards Giggle, next, to see if she had anything to add.

@Giggle

Giggle regarded this one, as he landed, with a strange sense of surreal detachment. There was a faint stirring of loyalty--for whose son he was, for whose blood, in a sense, stood before them. There was also dislike, resentment--he was not his father, he was some half-finished mockery, an echo of a friend lost who could never be recovered.

She noticed his quiet calm, his tense regality. It was not unlike a king, she thought, in some regards--or, perhaps, a long-lost prince. He was beautiful to look at, but there was a quiet darkness to him, as if he already bore great burdens.

The hyena looked to Bones, as her son spoke, listening to him gravely. He said what had to be said, neatly and quietly. Well-spoken, she thought faintly to herself, with a distant and brief flicker of pride.

Dark eyes flicked back to Eythan, when Bones looked to her, and she abruptly spoke, considering her words only briefly. Her voice was still hoarse, still masculine--rough and low, though she spoke calmly, her words quiet.

"Azazel was my King. The Bone King. I was his bonecaster. His advisor. I am sorry I was not there to advise him, to... warn him, before it happened. I was not myself, not--well. I warned him of meetings he should not have, of peace he should not try to make, but I don't know what happened to him, in the end. I want to. I would like to find out who did it, and kill them," she added, well aware of Bones's suspicions about Eythan's twin. If it turned out his brother had killed Azazel, she wanted no rage later about them having gone for his family. She wanted it said plainly, here and now, laid out on the table. No manipulation, no cry later of foul play.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

/inhales               B O I

"Dad? Oh—" Eythan hesitated, ears flicking back uncertainly. These two hadn't seen him do that. His brother had known and perhaps Fortune did too, but the duiker had vanished back into the woodwork as soon as the rudimentary group was called together. As the two canines spoke, the hybrid listened, thinking, considering. Then, he sighed heavily: "nobody... could've prevented what happened."

Lead them astray, do it he encouraged internally as regret surged in him, throwing his heart into his throat. Just when he thought he had come to terms with this crime and downward spiral, the skeletons came tumbling out of the closet (metaphorically and literally). He swallowed, staring down to his paws. "It wasn't me—I swear it wasn't me, if that's what you think—it was Carni, my brother. Or I fuckin' thought he was. We went and found out that we weren't from birth but from fuckin' death. My stone belonged to Carcino, exile of the waterfall room, and his to Mau, the fallen Bone Princess. Knowing that did something to Carni—he got sick." He gulped, eyes managing to wander up from his paws, staring into the dark eyes of the hyena and then into the ruby upon her forehead. "It changed him. I think he just... he didn't want to miss this second chance. Dad wouldn't tell us how we died so Carni just must have drawn conclusions and feared losing his life again. I wanted to stop him—I wish I had—but I ran like a fuckin' coward." Well, that last bit wasn't all a lie. Carni was far more magically adept than he was.

"By the time I came back, it was too late. He was already tearing feathers out and destroying his body. He was sobbing and told me not to tell anyone about what he had done. So I didn't, and I ran away again with the King's stone—I still have it. It's up in the ceiling." Eythan tossed his head toward the direction of his roost, eyeing the hallowed caller before he continued. "When Carni wanted to take Dad's legacy, he was wearing him and... I think it was me. Carcino's pelt. I hated it. I begged him to burn it, bury it, something. It wasn't right—Dad never wore the remains of Gembound or anything. But Carni wasn't afraid that someone would be onto him. I tried to make him afraid and we got into a fight and he fuckin' broke my pelvis to make me stay quiet." For a moment, the hybrid wished he wasn't so good at skewing points and events. "I was at his mercy so I waited and healed and ran away again. He came after me and we fought again because he thought I was going to tell everyone what he did. So, I did what I had to." He rocked onto his haunches. "I tore his horn from his body and smashed it." Contrary to popular (as of now, hopefully) theories, Carni had threatened to tell everyone about what Eythan did, chasing him down and trying to rope him back into the struggling Marrowbound, to keep him grounded. He left his tiny cassowary son in charge while he left to pursue his brother.

Taking in a huge gulp of breath after his whole spiel of lying between his teeth (hopefully in a convincing manner), Eythan shifted his weight. "I already got revenge for Dad—I'm... assuming he was your father too—sorry for... robbing you of that opportunity." He really wasn't. "But, I don't know where Dad's bones are—gone, I think. I don't know what Carni did with them. I buried the feather-pelt cape in the mud in Canis. It's probably gone, too. I don't know how long it's been."

@Bones

Even after she stopped speaking, Bones watched Giggle for a long time before turning his head back towards Eythan, ears flicking as he listened to his words. He hadn't suspected the hybrid once, shaking his head quietly for a few moments.

He didn't know who Carcino and Mau were. His eyes flicked to Giggle, briefly, for any sign of recgonition on her face before looking back towards Eythan with a faint sigh. He was silent, but only for a few moments longer.

"That doesn't make you less of brothers," he said quietly, soon realising that this probably isn't what someone wanted to hear about their murderous sibling. He opened his mouth to speak again, though he shut his maw as his dark eyes flicked to Giggle.

His thoughts drifted to her children-- his younger siblings, if we were being technical. They all came from death stones and, from what he knew, Giggle didn't know how they died. What if one of them went onto a similarly murderous rampage? What if one of them snapped and tried to kill her?

The dog shuddered, the fur on his back standing on edge as he looked back to Eythan with a quiet frown. He took a breath.

The next details weren't something he had wanted to recount to Giggle. He briefly looked to the hybrid's roost, then back again, quiet for a moment as his ears flattened back against his skull. Azazel had worn the remains of gembounds-- a skull of a cat, which he didn't know the fate of either, but it wasn't quite wearing the skin of your live-giver.

"Why did he do it?" He asked quietly. "Why did he-- wear it?"

He half didn't want to know the answer. He spent a moment grooming the fur on his chest uncomfortably, eyes flicking between Eythan and Giggle. He was quiet for a moment, ears flicking, as he finished his story.

Bones was a little glad to hear that the stone had, at least, been destroyed. Perhaps there was some justice in his twin-mate being the one to kill him, but he found himself staring at Giggle with a frown.

"We were all family," he eventually said. "All of the Bonebound. I'm sorry you had to deal with it."

Bones was never particularly good at telling if someone were lying or not-- but he at least knew that, if they had suspicions, they could ask the bones. The bones knew everything, of course, and never lied.

He was proud to be named after them.

@Giggle

Giggle had no real reason to be suspicious--except that this thing was an ugly, skinny, cat. She hated cats, and cats were liars. But she had no reason to trust it, either. What was going through her mind was not a careful weighing of truth versus falsehood--it was a distraught, miserable pit-of-the-stomach realization that her king was truly dead.

That she had lost a friend.

The stare she levelled at Eythan was completely empty; her dark eyes were not watching him, but staring through him as she remembered. Remembered Azazel and his wry humor, remembered his softer streak, of sympathy. Remembered how badly he agonized over how best to keep his family safe. Over his own guilt, and fears. He had been a good person, a good leader, and a good friend--and now he was gone, forever.

"I would like to see his stone," she rasped, abruptly, hoarsely. She owed it to him, at least, this much--to see his final moments. She wasn't there for him then, but she would be there, if only in retrospect.

As for Cancer, and Mau--she'd known them. She gave no sign of it--too lost in her own thoughts--but she'd known them. At length, she spoke of this.

"Mau was a rude shit-cat," she stated bluntly, and distantly. "I did not know that she had died. Carcino? He worried over how others felt of him. Over the things that he had done. Perhaps they drove him into death, in the end--guilt? Fear? I do not know. He came to me for guidance. I did not know that he had died, either."

Indifferent. Distant. Their deaths were but a footnote, a faint acknowledgement in her mind, past the heavy drum that beat through her thoughts: "Azazel is dead. Azazel is dead. Azazel is dead."

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

Eythan couldn't find a reliable way to respond to the words of sympathy, likely from a place of attempting compassion. Instead, he shrugged and stared at his paws, shifting each individual digit uncomfortably among the pebbles and stone, thumb tracing a particular fault in the rock. "He thought it helped him carry the legacy. Like the old Kings would guide him." Then, he frowned, legitimately, tossing his head down. "It was a crock of shit. He was a crock of shit. They were gone. It was all his fault---" The hybrid paused, breath whistling through his beak. "Sorry." At the painted canine's final words, Eythan shook his head, talons scraping uncertainly against the rock. Flicking an ear, he cast his gaze to the side and guffawed weakly, "I wish I had dealt with it."

The hyena's stare was haunting him in his periphery, going through him and burning fervently into the beyond. In a spark of realization, she spoke, a gurgling sound against the static of magicka that made his hackles rise. Eythan jolted slightly, spreading his wings slightly in surprise. Instead of tucking them back at his sides, he nodded and stuttered, "o-oh. Of cou-course." Just as he went to take off towards the stone, he hesitated to listen. Learning about his past self. Carcino's parallels rang through him. Shakily, he murmured. "I'll get the st-one."

It was a quick jaunt towards the ceiling of Polaris, but he nearly hesitated, contemplating grabbing the stone and just fleeing, like the coward he was. Yet, he was cornered. That hallowed caller already had its multitude of eyes on him, and it would be swifter on its wings than him. It had the benefit of being much smaller and lighter, able to coast easily on the thermals. Even now, he found some difficulty in the action. It seemed these limbs were ungainly for swift flight, no matter what he did. Remedy wasn't the most helpful in teaching him, whenever she was actually around. He fumbled about uncertainly, jostling the red jasper from its place and grasping it tightly in his talons, oh-so-careful and tender in his grasp on it. Somehow, Eythan still felt a reverence for it, a fear from it.

He alighted gently, quietly, placing it before the hyena. His beak slipped open, words stumbling about in his mind. For lack of better words to offer, he closed it. It wasn't the time.

@Bones

Bones was silent for a time, ear flicking. He glanced between Eythan and Giggle, then back to Eythan, only giving him a short nod before he turned to take off. Once he was out of earshot, the dog turned his head to Giggle again.

Instinct told him to ask if she was okay, but he knew the answer already. At length, he leaned in and gently nudged at Giggle's shoulder with his forehead before turning back to look off in the direction that the hybrid went.

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" He asked quietly. "We could ask the bones if you're not sure-- we could find Azazel's bones and ask, maybe, but I don't think he's lying."

He opened his mouth to speak further, though he shut it as he caught sight of the hybrid beginning to return, slowly pushing himself up to stand. "Do you want to be alone with it?"

@Giggle