"Oh, that makes sense," Eythan genuinely chuckled, beak click-clack!ing as he did so. He'd file that hunting tactic for later, perhaps for when his — it felt strange to even think of it — brother came along.

He halted in his steps at Giggle's stare. Somehow managing to take it as a stay here, the griffin silently clambered up a miscellaneous rock. Eythan trusted the hyena's keen sense of smell far more than his own. Every bit of him was perched atop the rock, tail held above his own back, staying out of the eyeline of the (hopefully) coming cave rats. His wings were relaxed yet tense, ready to beat at a moment's notice and give him enough lift to deliver a quick, killing blow with. He hunched over in preparation as the snapping of teeth and cackles resounded through the cave.

But, there was nothing. Eythan nearly tumbled off of his chosen ambush spot, plodding over to the hyena and fully tempted to give her a pat on the back. Thinking better, he simply nodded. "Greedy fucks must've eaten through all of their bones and moved on. Dumb fucking bastards." His wings furled awkwardly against himself. He sniffed the air, dropping into his own sort of hunting crouch. The distinct small of rat piss and shit was most certainly strong right here. He clambered onto some other boulders, careful with every motion as he flicked his ears forth, waiting for some minute scuffling noise to set him into action.

There.

Suddenly, Eythan jabbed a clawed foot into the boulders and pulled up with all of the force in his body. With his talons came a writhing mass, nipping at his toes as it careened through the air in his grip. "Ah, fuck!" The griffin half-dropped half-threw it as hard as he could and the squealing bastard landed somewhat near Giggle.

@Giggle

The hyena turned at the swear, startled--she'd been ready to move on, and hadn't expected Eythan to find a rat where she had failed. Well I'll be d--

She turned, lunging, but as she did she caught sight of Eythan out of the corner of her eye.

Eythan, slightly uphill. Eythan, an intensity on his face that spoke of pain and death. A writhing body, hurtling toward her, twisting as it fell. Her dark eyes were locked on him rather than the rat, and for a moment her mind was elsewhere--elsewhen--watching something she had seen only in dreams. The small, furred body bouncing off her face brought her back to herself and she flinched, jerking back to stare down as it scurried beneath a new boulder.

She stared for a beat as its squealing stopped, as it bounded to safety--however temporary. Her lapse had only been an instant, but she'd thought I was past this sort of shit. She shook herself, irritably, and fired one glance up at Eythan he killed him before grunting and trotting after the rat.

In retrospect, perhaps asking to kill things with Eythan had been a bad decision.

Giggle tried to sharply turn aside any questioning with humor, but it fell a little flat. "I am not as quick as I used to be," she told Eythan, in a tone of amused accusation. Yet immediately her mind was shouting her down with other "jokes." If you wanted to kill me, you'll have to do better than throwing a rat. and It seems you aren't the efficient killer you used to be, either. Angered by her own mind, she thrust the thoughts away. These weren't fair to Eythan they're less than he deserves and they had a rat to catch.

Giggle trotted around the boulder beneath which the rat had disappeared, scratching behind the stone.

"What's your magic?" she called back to Eythan. Maybe they could drive the rats out en masse, somehow.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

Eythan watched as the rat sailed through the air, flailing and squeaking rather frightfully, tracing its imagined descent toward the hyena --- who was, by the way, staring directly at him. She looked lost and the griffin already began to trot her way as the rat simmered away. But with the shake of her head, she was back. He wouldn't mention it as he stole up to Giggle's side. "That's fine. I forgot rats had fuckin' teeth," he admitted with the quirk of a brow. Time to take up the title of local dumbass.

Not that of a local magic professional, though. Eythan frowned and shook his head. "What you saw in the, uh --- Core was it. A little shitty breeze and some weird magic I didn't know I had." It was an honest response. He hadn't been able to even get a sputter of it since the whole thing happened. "I'm way better with physical things. Like ---," the griffin paused, ambling toward the boulder, "what if made a really loud noise, somehow, like dropping a fuckin' ton of bones. Wouldn't that scare the shit out of them?"

@Giggle

Giggle blinked at the description of the spell, and the memory of its use.

"Your father's magic," she stated softly as she turned away again.

Giggle had, for the moment, forgotten that Eythan had more than one father. At least she continued, clarifying. "He was capable of making winds, I think--and very loud noises. Perhaps with time you can manage that, then, and we needn't throw bones merely to scare the rats!" A grin back at him, a cackle of good-natured amusement. "I can help you, if you ever want it. But let's try this your way."

The hyena began to pace about, picking up bones in her jaws--as many as would fit. At first it was a couple of what looked like slender rib and forelimb-bones; soon enough a thick femur had joined them, and a broad scapula. She left Eythan to collect and gather up his own.

After a few moments she was ambling awkwardly back, stumbling here and there as she tried to carry FAR too much in her jaws. Her intention had been to place them neatly near the boulder, where they could try to make some noise when ready; instead she managed to drop them all, the clattering roar quite unintended--and unexpected.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

"I guess." He sighed noncommittally, "I wish I could've picked up his skill with it." Eythan couldn't help but just shrug at the notion of him mastering that magic. He was a fan of the physical --- magic had a tendency to abandon you at your greatest need. But one's natural talons and teeth always remained. "Perhaps," he parroted back at the hyena, laughing softly. "Just like everything else, I'll think about it. Bones are easier."

Just as Giggle was, the griffin began to scuffle about, gathering bones in his beak and occasionally spilling them as he got greedy. As it turns out, they weren't great for properly holding the damn things, even with the teeth hidden in the back of them. If he even bit just a little too hard, they just disintegrated into a mess of splinters in his mouth. Which would promptly be sputtered out. Perhaps just like the Bonecaster was, dropping them with a cacophonous rattle. Eythan dropped his own collection, eagerly tensing himself up to catch that mangy rat.

But, nothing came.

Groaning in frustration, Eythan plopped down onto his haunches. "Fuckin' dumbass rat. This'll scare it for sure---" He drew a sturdy bone close to his chest, clutching it tightly in his claws. Rising up onto his hind legs, he absolutely whipped the bone as hard as he possibly could at the rock. It slammed rather eagerly into the rock, giving off a sickening crack as it clattered against stone. With a frantic, shrill squeak, the fat rat squished out of its hiding spot and off it ran. "Fuck yeah, thank you, bone!" Eythan crowed, already giving chase.

@Giggle

Giggle was pacing around one side of a boulder when Eythan swung the bone, when it shattered, when he shouted. She flinched at the sound, then saw the rat scurrying--bolting off out of cover. Her hindquarters gathered beneath her in a flash, and launched her after it in a scramble of her own.

Jaws snapped shut over haunches, blood-taste and bone-crunch, squeal, and razor-teeth whipping around to tear into her muzzle. She shook it, violently and stubbornly, until it stopped moving--then trotted to Eythan, ignoring the scratch over her nose as she dropped it near his feet.

"One," she said bluntly, and immediately moved to try and flush out more. Blood welling up in the cuts, she nosed her way at an easy lope along the path.

"No magic, then; what is it you wanted to do? Surely you weren't planning on hiding in Polaris forever? Or were you just living there," she added with grim amusement in her tone.

A flash of dark eyes as she glanced at the hybrid, and then focus on her face as she pressed herself back to the task of hunting.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

The rat was killed swiftly, mercilessly. Eythan looked off into the distance at the shaking motion, his own fresh wounds pulsing with phantom aches. There was a thump! and he looked down to find the rat plopped down at his feet. The hybrid shook his head, taking the rodent into his beak and trotting after Giggle. "You have it. You're the one who caught it," he offered, dropping it in front of her and turning it over with a claw, "I'll get one for myself."

The hybrid laughed a little at the mention of his plans for the future in the Core, shrugging. "I never really had a plan — other than to just hide and wait, I guess." There was no point in trying to make himself out to be this grand, conniving Gembound with a plan for everything. No, he was far from that. "I want to learn how to fight better. Every single time, I've been injured in some way—" he cut himself off, hestitating a little, "my brother and I got in a fight one time and I basically shattered my pelvis because I was too stubborn to let him go." It was one decision out of many possible ones. But that was enough for him. It was good enough.

"I can't do that if I'm going to be protecting a new King."

@Giggle

Giggle didn't make a fuss over the rat; she was neither ravenous nor stuffed, so she loped back over and snapped it up, eating it. As she crunched back through the bones (briefly satisfied that she was eating the thing that'd just ripped her nose, as unfair as the thought might have been) she listened to Eythan.

Learning to fight, because of a fight with his brother? His own brother? Fighting better would only have--"If you'd known how to fight better, you mighta just killed him," Giggle said. Her words had left her mouth before her thoughts had completed, and she realized a split second later what she'd said. He did kill him. Her gaze snapped sharply to Eythan, ears up, dark eyes widened in realization. She grimaced and spat the remains of the rat out. "That-... I did not mean to say that. It wasn't an insult. I'm sorry." She took a breath, the grimace still plastered on her face--if anything, widening--and continued.

"What I meant to say was-... Fighting is not always the best thing to be good at. But if it's one of the things you want to learn, I will help you where I can. Just know there will always be something bigger, and stronger. If you can get it to talk, you've a better chance at not dying." Or killing, she said grimly, mentally--but this time, did not say it aloud.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Eythan

Eythan was satisfied when the hyena crunched through the rat, continuing to speak with a companionable air. He was all too content to just distract himself from everything --- wait. At the slip of tongue, something cold and heavy gripped him and he suddenly couldn't breathe. Ears flickering back, he jumped to his feet (when had he sat down?) and backed away. "N-no," he croaked, head dipping low as he averted his gaze. "I---" the hybrid stumbled a little with a quiet oogh! and just barely continued, "I tried to. I r-really honestly fucking tried to." His voice died, weakening in his throat. His claws clicked impossibly loud on the stone as he continued to back away, not heeding Giggle's apology.

"I-If I'd been better at fighting I wouldn't have fuckin' immediately gone for the throat like I do every single damn time." Eythan felt his wings unfurl of their own volition and he stumbled again. He couldn't trust his own limbs. "I--I need to g-go." He wasn't sure where to, but he needed to go somewhere and run and hide like the fucking coward he was. Anywhere but here. Swiftly spinning on the spot, he took a running start toward the Chambers, wings flapping eagerly to get him in the air.

/exit Eythan unless @Giggle stops him.

Giggle listened, grim.

Some part of her felt bad for what she'd said. Some part. Another part growled that he deserved so, so much worse. She had no desire to grovel and offer pity and beg him to accept her apology. This thought--both the idea, and her own stubbornness--just annoyed her further, and for a brief moment she was conflicted as to how to respond. When he bolted, a short thought ran through her mind--You little shit-- but she didn't voice that, at least.

Instead, reacting instinctively (and her motherly side winning out in a heartbeat) she turned to follow.

"Eythan, wait--" she rasped hoarsely, but he was already taking wing, his body language miserable. "EYTHAN!" Her voice rang through the bones.

FUCK.

Her amble broke into a fast gallop, her heavy body lurching after the flying hybrid, but she quickly lost track of him through the fortresses and into the dark. "EYTHAN," she barked. But he was gone, leaving silence and the faint scent of familiar feathers in his wake.

"Damn it," she growled. "Well done, Giggle. You know just what to say." She was furious with herself, but there was nothing much, she knew, that she could do now. She'd have to let Eythan have his time alone, and cool off.

She just hoped he'd come back at all.

The hyena turned back bitterly, pacing back toward the half-eaten rat. At the very least, he'd helped her catch some food that she could offer Omen.

Maybe this is payback enough for the bird, Giggle thought angrily, before dismissing that thought. No; nothing could be payback enough.

Not for either bird. But for now she had her familiar to attend to, and Eythan would just have to take care of himself.

I can't believe I fucking said that.

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ROLL THE BONES

exit Giggle