As Giggle disappeared, meandering off to her own den for rest, Eythan settled down. Tucking his limbs underneath him, the boy managed to position himself so that he was somewhat beak-to-beak with his father. A yawn forced its way out of his lungs, causing his jaw to crackle softly. "I h-have to s-sleep now but I will. I-I'll bring them for you." He never knew the significance of the amethyst or the glowing femur, but he'd bring them. When he was able to, strong enough. Perhaps when he awakened.

As he curled up at the cairn's side, he whispered, "sleep tight, Dad." An unspoken I'm sorry echoed through his expression, eyes softening as he closed them. His mind slid rather eagerly into sleep. It conjured up wistful childhood nostalgia for the first time in a while. The boys and their father going to Orion, pretending to name the constellations above, reveling in one another's tales about their origins. Weren't those memories so far away now?

@Giggle

The hyena limped her way home to her den in near-silence. Her paws whispered over the stone, her dragging gait making her exhaustion clear. Some distance away, against a stone wall near the carvings, there was a stagnant pool of water. Around this grew a few ferns and grasses; up against the wall were ledges. Some of these were natural rock, others unnaturally-placed strips of log-bark. Dirt lay thickly-packed, and flesh, and excrement, and bone; and here grew myriad fungus, each type carefully propogated on the substrate correct for its species. The "Bone Queen" knew much about their types and needs, after a great deal of experimenting, and many failures--and she tended to her garden carefully.

There were orange mushrooms that smelled of flesh, but tasted fouller than poison. There were glowing blue-green ones, to drive back the darkness when the lights went out. There were plain brown ones whose spores drove any who inhaled them into startling hallucinations, turning reality into a dream--or a nightmare.

And beneath it all lay her den--a small, cleared place in the dirt, tight-packed from her daily sleep. Nearby lay a small, motionless thing, black-feathered and draped in a few dead ferns, and Giggle paced over to this first.

Omen was still asleep--and did not waken at her approach. She sniffed the bird carefully over, but she could feel that her familiar was still alive. Rather than waken her, she simply lay down beside her, the spotted pelt lapsing onto the stone with a huff from the hyena. She looked around.

Azazel was still dead. But now she knew who his killer had been. His bones were retrieved. His stone--hidden nearby--was growing, filled with life, and safe. She would guard it. Protect it. Raise it. His son was in her care, and she would do her best to ensure that his path, henceforth, was a better one.

Giggle gazed off over the stagnant water, into the little cluster of ferns and out into Canis beyond, quiet. Exhaustion tugged at her, but it was still some time before she at last lay her head down to sleep, and even longer still before her dark eyes at last slipped shut. Her mind was buzzing with thoughts, with the hollowness of expressed, deep emotion.

Her final thought as she drifted off into sleep was a tired, dry, I have my work cut out for me.

Then her mind was away, falling into the peaceful respite of slumber; and before long, Giggle was snoring.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

Time goes on…

The griffin awoke rather peacefully, drowsy fog of the mind slipping away as his head lifted from the earth. Through sleep, the boy had unfurled from his fetal position and found himself sprawled onto his side, rather at peace. A quick glance around the cairn told him that Giggle hadn't waked before him. Experimentally spreading his wings, he felt — for the first time in cycles — truly well and good. Turning to his father, Eythan murmured, "I'll be back." Speaking without a perpetual knot in his throat felt pleasant, if unfamiliar. Briefly touching beaks with the bones, he limped silently out of the cairn.

Out in the open, his wings fluttered out to their full expanse, beating softly through the air as he rose. Scraping the low ceiling Eythan headed towards the Chambers first. They were closest. Most pleasant. Winding through age-old and familiar passages, the griffin swooped up towards the nest, talons prickling. The knot returned to his throat as he chanced looking down the dizzying cliffside. "N-no," he assured himself, forcing his gaze to return to the old, now-dusty nest. In it, as mysterious as ever, lay quite a few trinkets and treasures: a shimmering amethyst stone in the shape of a hooked claw; a glowing femur bone resting at the edge; two cat skulls, one cracked and one painted with red; various gemstone shards carefully set at the edges of the nest. Beneath the woven sticks and bones was a set of armor, unscathed and untouched. The wing guards were still just as shiny as when they were first forged, stamped underneath with some signature, two circles trailing one another in an endless loop.

It took a few trips, but he managed to bring down all that lay in Azazel's nest. Eythan had arranged them as delicately as he could, nestling the amethyst in the cracked skull's eye. The assorted shards — two most discernibly from his and Carni's chrysalides — found their places in the intact skull's eye. The two cat skulls lay at either side of the cairn, the femur and armor at its center. But, he wasn't done yet, however weary he was.

Straddling the ceiling once more, Eythan found his way to the Bone Fortresses. As he remembered it, the cape lay at the base of one of the collapsed towers. Scraping away suspiciously packed dirt, he began to dig away. The boy drew the cape as delicately as he could from its momentary grave. He was careful not to directly touch the dark pelt, preferring to grip it by the seams and his father's feathers. Shredding off Carcino's pelt, Eythan took the rusty-red feathers into his mouth, bound together still by leather and bone. At the center of Canis, he washed the feathers free of dirt to the best of his abilities, rubbing it gently on rocks to restore their sanguine shimmer.

The cairn seemed so much warmer with Azazel's wings returned to it, resting delicately over the wing bones. Eythan sighed softly as he plopped down next to the Bone King, looking down upon Canis itself. "Y-you'll always be here. Just as the rest of the bones have been — right?" Head swinging to face the bones, he nodded and smiled. "Yeah." Tucking his wings and shifting foot to foot, Eythan sat there for a moment. Abruptly standing, he moved to stand before his father.

"I need to go to Giggle," the griffin offered rather apologetically, walking out of the alcove once more to spread his wings. Swooping down to the hyena's den, careful to alight as quietly as he could, in case she was still asleep; Eythan wasn't entirely sure how long he had slept for, despite his rather decent state of being and the fact that life was looking up for him. He did not dare to touch the mushrooms, keeping a wide berth around them. Across the garden, he called softly, "Giggle? Are you awake yet?"

@Giggle

Giggle was on her own side, fast asleep and still as death beneath some overhanging ferns, cradled by dark soil. It was Omen who woke first, close behind her, to the sound of beating wings and the scratch of paws landing on rock.

Omen's single crimson eye, its pointed black beak below, popped up from beneath a dried fern "blanket" behind the hyena. It stared for but an instant at Eythan, and its immediate alarm screech--a haunting scream--rang piercing through the air.

Giggle rolled upright in a startled, tangled mess, her dark eyes springing wide and her neck rocking back and up as she looked sharply, but distinctly groggily, around. Omen's fear thrilled through her mind, and she bared her thick teeth for a moment, until finally her blinking, bleary gaze settled on--and identified--Eythan.

She grunted.

"Stop," she huffed sharply, half over her shoulder, at the Hallowed Caller. At the same time she dropped back from her half-risen position onto her chest, rolling a little to lie upright like a sphinx. Once she was certain that the now-silent Omen had calmed some, her mind reassuring the frightened, suspicious bird, she turned her attention to Eythan.

She looked tired, weary, but the gaze she fixed on the hybrid was appraising. "Still here. Good." Another grunt, and a little groan as she stretched, followed by a yawn. She tilted her neck, cracking it, all still without standing, then licked her jaws as she eyed Eythan again.

"So. How are you feeling today?" she asked. Her mind was still gathering itself from a deep sleep, and from few and fitful dreams which she could not quite recall. She realized slowly that with Eythan in her care, she should probably form a plan for him--but what could it be?

Best discuss that with him, Giggs, she told herself dryly.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

The hyena was, as it seemed, still asleep. Eythan jumped slightly, ears flicking back and unconsciously crouching so he appeared smaller to the bird. As Omen calmed down, he apologized softly, the word "sorry" becoming second nature at this point. Dipping his head, he shifted his weight foot-to-foot, trying to somehow settle down while standing. "Yeah," he breathed softly, "I-I went and found the cape and put Dad's feathers back where they belong. And stuff from his nest in the Chambers." Looking to the side and up towards the cairn, Eythan continued, "I thought he might like that."

Rocking carefully onto his haunches, the griffin settled. "I'm definitely feeling better," Eythan mused, ear flicking back again as he dipped his head once more. "Sorry for my, uh--- four hundred fuckin' breakdowns." So far, he had only chanced one emotional breakdown. Plus, the casual fucks had returned to his vocabulary. As odd as it was, that was a postive. "Sorry for waking you up so suddenly."

@Giggle

Giggle grunted softly, and pushed herself fully upright. She arched her back, yawned again, and stretched, before turning to look Eythan over a bit more.

His breakdowns, eh? He shoulda broken down more. He should be crying, forever. Bastard. Giggle shook her mane, her legs nearly going out from under her as she tried to walk at the same time, but she moved forward as if this were entirely normal, yawning yet again.

"Not a problem," she answered curtly, moving off to nuzzle Omen for a few moments. She paced to a corner, drawing out a bone with only a few scraps of meat left on it; this she examined for a few moments, and after dragging it to the Hallowed Caller (who began to carefully strip away what was left), she looked to Eythan. "It's probably a good thing you brought his stuff back to him. Maybe he won't have to wander around to find 'em now." Giggle stared, for a beat.

"So, two things. Practical side of things, we need to hunt. --You do eat meat, I assume? I need food, so do you. And second--and we can--" ...the hyena yawned. "...tackle this now, or after you have some warm food in your belly. We need a plan for you, Eythan."

The hyena dropped abruptly onto her round rump, hind leg lifting to scratch behind rounded ear, but her dark eyes never left Azazel's son. "There's things I can teach you. How to read bones. How to raise fungus. How to see into the past. How to fight, or hunt, if you need to know any of that," she added, though she refrained from echoing the dark thought of
though I've already seen you kill that stole through her mind.

"I can teach you what I know of the history of the caves--far before any of us arrived. I can tell you of the void and all its eyes. I can teach you any of this, or all of it; but what I want to know is, what do you want to learn? I want you capable," she added, and this word was sharp. "I want you confident, and I want you knowledgeable! I don't want you wandering lost, as he did, as you are. So tell me what I can help you learn, and do! Perhaps something we can learn together, if it is nothing I know. We can plan now. And then we can do. Or, we can hunt first, and you can think it over."

Her voice was sleep-thick, but her mind had gathered and arranged the thoughts fairly admirably nonetheless. Her tired gaze lingered on Eythan, but her eyes were intelligent and intense--though not without lingering, dark humor.

Humor at what was hard to tell--perhaps nothing, in particular, but it was there nonetheless.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

The griffin instinctively stepped aside for Giggle to pass. He quickly shifted back once he realized that she was, in fact, not leaving her den quite yet. Instead, she was strolling over to take care of her bird; which, as his thoughts oh-so-helpfully plugged, he had torn up the wing of. Subconsciously, he rolled his own wing forward, wincing at it. It was a minute little motion, completed in mere seconds before he tucked his wing back to his side. A nervous chuckle escaped him at the bonecaster's little deadpan joke. "T-that was a joke, right?"

Clearing his throat, shifty-eyed at his own question, he pressed on, whether he got an answer to that or not. "I can eat meat or choke down bones," Eythan said as he suddenly noted how hungry he was. "Bones take a fuckin' while, though." They just... sat there. For a bit. Digesting. Fun. Tail flicking rather curiously, he clicked his beak in thought before offering, "I could go catch something for you?" A gift of food might be a good start, a mutual thing to share and talk over.

Eythan listened intently to the offering of a plan, fully prepared to say some impulsive answer with a cracked beak. But with those dark eyes, the hybrid couldn't deny an actually thoughtful answer. Well, once he had one. Which, he didn't. "I'll think about it," he responded. There were a lot of fish swimming through the pond of his mind as of right now. He'd have to catch one himself, careful not to shred it up with his talons. His subconscious self lay in wait at the water's edge. "I need to... narrow shit down."

@Giggle

Giggle stared at Eythan as he asked if she was joking. About which part? she asked herself--before realizing that he'd meant the idea of Azazel wandering.

The hyena shrugged, as best a hyena could.

"You are asking if your father does not wander the caves? He might. I have never been dead," she continued dryly, "but I do not think our spirits fade completely! And if his lingers, and can roam, it is good not to have to go too far to find what is important to him. I believe the dead guide us, through the bones. I believe in a magic that touches all things--I believe that all is linked, alive and dead, visible and hidden, what is lit and what hides in the shadows. Except for that void-shit-cat Senka. She has chosen to live outside it all, sick and angry," Giggle added, and then--a touch of her own traumatic reaction showing through at the idea--she added, without explanation, "That is what happens when the shadows blackmail you with a dying sister!"

A short, coughing laugh, and the hyena sat down. Her head tilted some as she considered Eythan's offer. "We will hunt together," she decided. It would be a good time to talk, to work together, to bond a bit; to get to know him in a practical sense. She didn't realize he had been offering a gift--her mind was not quite so sentimental, nor was she always quite "there."

Giggle jerked her head left, toward the western wall that ran away off into the distance, down and toward the Lorekeeper's den. "I do not know how much of Canis you hunted before you left it," she added, her words precisely chosen. "But there are rats that roam around the boulders there. I suppose you know that this cave is not so full of life as others."

The hyena stood again and shook out her coat, glancing back to where the Hallowed Caller was still stripping the few last scraps of half-dessicated meat from the bone, and then looked to Eythan. "Take your time in your choices, Eythan. They will shape the course of your life. Not that there is any pressure on you," she added, with another coarse cackle.

She paced off down the trail toward the rat-boulders, as if expecting him to simply follow.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

Well. He supposed Giggle was just as unsure about her humor as he was. Noting the dryness in her voice, he didn't ask again if she was joking. She'd let him know if she was joking, apparently. A magic that touches all things sounded rather reasonable, considering the Spire's existence and all Gembound's connections to it, borrowing energy and power from it. "When he fell," he admitted softly without realizing it. Swallowing uneasily, he averted his gaze, looking side-to-side around Giggle. "— when I knocked him off and dove down," the griffin continued, swallowing again, "I felt something buzz through the cave, like magic."

He was all too eager to change the subject, however, and gloss over the subject of someone called Senka. Eythan would ask about it later, not willing to spur any other horrific consequence. The bonecaster seemed too distressed about it still yet. A little sting of betrayal hit the griffin as she decided specifically to hunt together, but perhaps his gifting idea hadn't been communicated too clearly. He'd been awake for a little longer than her, after all. "Okay," he chirped, following the toss of her head toward the western wall. Eythan squinted toward the boulders, nodding. Talking wasn't a requirement, but he replied nonetheless, "I hunted a little." When he was younger, he preferred to break bones and choke them down because it was easier to do when rats were just as big as he was. His time in Polaris had honed his skills some, although he ate very little there. The slight indent of ribs on his sides sure showed it. "The Bone Fortresses are a good place to hunt as well."

As he began to follow Giggle down the trail, he chuckled dryly. Yeah, no pressure at all. Time was a-tickin' and its father was presently dangling him over a pit of fire with just one hand. Eythan tilted his beak into the air, trying to sniff out the rats among the musky scent of age-old bones and death.

@Giggle

Giggle listened as she stalked along, one round ear rotating back as Eythan told her of the burst of energy he'd felt upon Azazel's death. Truth? she wondered. Coincidence? Is it possible..? Energy, or sentience, I wonder?

"The fortresses! I was born there. Haven't been hunting there in an age. Too many dry bones. I leave wet ones here," she added, by way of explanation. "Bloodied ones. Just draws more rats. They don't care whose bones they gnaw!" A short, dark laugh.

The hyena then went quiet, glancing back with a brief, intent stare at Eythan before slipping around behind the boulders. She nosed her way along, sniffing, searching for signs of rats; when she found the places where she knew there were some, and where the stench of rat urine was strongest, she shoved her way under the boulders with snapping jaws and loud, chittering cackles. She couldn't tell if the urine was quite fresh--but if so, perhaps she could scare a rat or two out toward Eythan.

Assuming, of course, that he hadn't circled to follow her.

There was nothing, though--no scurry of movement in the wake of her silence immediately after the snarls, no squeaking or scratching.

Somewhat abashed, the hyena stood upright, glancing to Eythan.

She cleared her throat. "...I was hoping to scare some out," she explained, the faintest hint of self-deprecating humor in her voice.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan