Giggle seemed okay with the notion of inviting possible family, so Aure dismissed the subject quite easily. His wings shifted a little as he followed his mother down the path. Hopefully, the Bone King would not be lonely in their absence. The wyvern did not doubt how often Mother visited him. She had been close to him; far closer than Aure could comprehend quite yet. Feeling that friendship-family sort of hybrid wasn't in the young one's court quite yet: he did not have many friends, and even fewer of those that he was close with. As Mother spoke, he elected to make more friends. The Bonebound weren't just Aza'zel's blood-family.

"It seems smart to think of the future," he annotated, making his way up to the ledge with fluttering wings. Flight was convenient. Aure settled himself, overlooking the bone pit as the hyena moved through the bones, considering. Her teeth picked up a rounded, flattened piece of bone that he recognized as possibly from a shoulder, pelvis, or the center of ribs. The young prince's eyes glimmered as he looked at it, momentarily wondering whose it was. His thoughts found a voice in the form of a soft, reverent chirp: "is that Father's?" The cairn was missing a few of his bones, but perhaps that could have been the fault of rot and decay. It would make sense, though, that the King would join the pit.

Perhaps all of the Bonebound should, eventually. It was in their name, after all.

"I think I'm ready," he murmured, tucking his wings close and moving towards the edge. White face tilted downward, crimson-and-gold eyes staring at the keel once again. He should know how to listen to it, to Father's cairn, if it even spoke. "I want to watch and... can you teach me about reading the bones?" Was bone-reading even something that could be taught?

@Giggle

Giggle glanced to Aure, and after a beat, she nodded a little. She'd forgotten that Aure knew nothing of the keel, and so she began--carefully--to speak. "It's the piece, here, in his chest--" she explained, gently tapping toward Aure's breastbone. Whether his was keeled like a bird's, or flat, she didn't know. Hopefully, she'd not see it any time soon! "It's the part that guides the flight of birds, and so I thought it fitting that it should be the bone to join the pile--to guide us in our own future."

She paused solemnly, for a long moment. Then she looked down to the pile. "Aza'zel, Bone King of the past, your son Aure and your old friend Giggle stand atop the pit of bones. We ask your guidance--what do the spirits know?--of what the future holds, should we draw the Bonebound together once more... Old blood, and new." With this--and after another respectful pause--the hyena launched the bone spinning into the air, to clatter down into the pit.

"Now I watch," she told Aure, as the bone spun every which way. "The world all around us--flesh, bone and spirit--it is all interconnected. The future can speak to us through the patterns of the present; some read it in the bones, some in stone, some in other things. I watch how they move, and see what it reminds me of, what it makes me think of."

She nodded down at the scattering bones.

"You see how first it knocked those smaller bones away from the rest? It means standing apart. Being pushed apart. It might be that it will be hard to forge our Bonebound back together; that others might scatter, as the bones have scattered. It could also mean that the things we grasp for skitter just out of reach."

"And that, there," she continued, nodding toward a bone that broke upon landing--and her voice showed no signs of distress at these apparently ominous signs--"It's broken. Something lost, a death perhaps; but it's not a bad break, so it may be that there is a lesson to learn in our future. If we learn from it, we might be all right, but if we don't, then--crack!" She let out a short bark of chittering laughter, then watched. "They've all fallen quite still, and unexpectedly. They aren't moving. Neither will we," she decided, glancing to Aure.

And, without elaborating on this, she watched him closely and asked, quite simply--"What else would you ask of the bones? Fetch me that bone again, if you have more questions."

It was a test, of sorts, in her mind--but she didn't say as much. She wanted to see what Aure would do.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

@Aure

Oh, so it was his father's bone, the one that bound each of his ribs together. Well, most of them; a few hung alone. Aure peered down at his own chest, absently rubbing a wing-claw along it. "Yeah," he murmured, feeling a peculiar closeness to that particular bone. If he ever joined the pit, he wanted to through his own keel. Hopefully it wouldn't be soon. Mother had already lost one bird.

He grew quiet, eyes tracing the bone's path as it spun from Mother's jaws and descended into the pit. For a moment, he contemplated an afterlife and a lack thereof. Did spirits truly walk? Was it through the trails their magic left? Did each cast send a strand into the world, connecting to others like a spider's web? That was too much existentialism for one day. Aure shuffled further forwards, claws gripping the edge of the outlook. As Mother did, he watched.

The keel spun through the air, then landed in a scattering mass. "Forming a family is hard," he murmured softly in agreement. Another bone, sent up into the air by the landing, broke upon meeting its kin again. Perhaps it was symbolic of a bond broken. His and Eythan's perhaps? Aure was unsure of if these patterns predicted sequential events or not. "Once we are together, we will remain," he concluded upon noticing how quickly the boned stilled.

Then, he contemplated another question. Should he ask how his heart-to-heart with Eythan would go? Even though he already had asked the king's cairn for protection, and had Mother offer hers. Aure rose on quiet wings, descending towards the pit and carefully picking up the keel in his talons. Swinging back up to the ledge, he placed the bone before Mother.

Here came a somewhat selfish question. "I want to know if... they think I'll ever be as good a King as Aza'zel was."

@Giggle

Well, he hadn't asked the bones for alternative solutions. In fact, he seemed more worried about himself. Self-centered, but then, he was young and under a great deal of pressure. It was natural--and quite forgivable.

She spoke as she leaned down, using dark paws to pull in the keel that he'd returned.

"I will ask. But you know, you've never really learned what makes a good king, have you? I don't think it's a lesson I've given. A leader looks after their people, and makes decisions! They put others in charge of the things they're best at. A leader doesn't need to do everything themselves. What makes a king 'good' or 'bad' is really..." She paused. She wasn't as eloquent as some, and for a moment, she had to search for a suitable word. She was likely looking for "variable," but as they sometimes do, the word slipped her mind. "It changes, you know. Different Gembound will think differently about what makes a King good, so it might be hard for the bones to answer!"

She lifted the keel in her teeth, and focused on the question--and her warmth, and gratitude, centered on her thoughts of Aza'zel. It was as if she were trying to speak with him, in a sense--to send her care, her memories. As if communing with him directly. Then she flung the bone, watching, speaking as she did so. "We were threatened with war, once. Other groups form in the cave, and some of them are violent. There was a large, powerful group in--hell, what was it--Monoceros? The big room of wind and fire, if you know it. They wanted to attack us, though I've no idea why. Your father arranged an alliance with the Maji Walezi in Pisces--a strong group in their own right, and peaceful, though long-gone now. If the fools had fought us, they'd have had to contend with the Pisces lions and bears at their heels."

She watched the bones. The keel spun away, lying separate from the rest.

"I don't know what groups there are now, though I know your brother--half-brother, Serek, one of my sons--raised from the bones, in fact--he lives among a group in the swamps. They-..." But she trailed off.

Her interest sparked. ...Now these are powerful omens.

Others bones had scattered about behind the keel, and a couple large bones heading their way--heavier, slower--were deflected by it. The smaller bones ended in a neat near-circle around the keel.

Giggle stared, for a moment, and then looked up to Aure with new interest, dark eyes fixed on him and rounded ears pricked. She felt proud of him--pride of an action that he had yet to achieve, pride over hardships he had not even yet encountered. "These are strong omens," she began. "You will fall away from the rest--apart, alone. I do not know why, but it may be unpleasant. A failing, or a fight, a disagreement, I don't know. But then, the keel protects--there will be great success--a victory, or something that you manage to do to protect others maybe. Or something that you find. It shows, in the end, perfection and joy--you see that circle? And the keel as its keystone? You may wind up alone or you may not, but given your question I think you will wind up with the Bonebound, and you will find great happiness. I think it all means that there will be a time of hardship, perhaps even separation, but that through triumph you'll find great happiness--for yourself and for all of us. Yes, you will be a good king, though it may take awhile to get there," she summarized.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Aure

The question he had asked was nothing but selfish, rather uncalled for. Aure was well aware of this, and ashamed of it. He chanced denying it and rejecting it, but Mother was already speaking. "Black told me that there are many Gembound who call themselves Kings, instead of their, uhm..." — how should he put this? — "their followers doing so." Hopefully that would explain his reluctance and uncertainty about his future status. The wyvern knew he was young, still, and unfamiliar with the world. He was merely ankles-deep in the stream; it had not run red quite yet. A vulture's skeleton lay at the depths of the rapids, caught in the undertow. Aure did not want to sink.

At least there were many bones to give many opinions, and, perhaps a collective conclusion. It would be better than just one. Aure peered toward his mother, noting her mention of the other groups. Perhaps that could be his first task as leader of the Bonebound; meeting the other groups, that is. He had intended to venture to the swamp-room and the star-room, but homesickness won out. Diplomacy could wait. The wyvern did not even acknowledge the monsters that haunted one of the Core's many branches. There was no reasoning with them, as far as he knew. Perhaps he could meet Serek on the way.

The keel moved through the air with all the grace it could manage, and his gaze immediately snapped toward it. It made its rounds, crashing against other bones and finding itself alone. But, at the end, there was unity. The young one's head twisted up towards Giggle, bright eyes looking deep into the dark with insurmountable interest.

So, they thought he would be alone, for a time. It was unclear how or why. Aure's feathers pricked in anticipation, already considering the nigh-infinite circumstances. He swallowed, throat very clearly bobbing with the motion. "I'll try my best," he murmured — softly. Blinking once and twice, the wyvern rocked to his feet and moved towards the Bonecaster. With more confidence, he repeated, "I will do my best." His gaze drifted to the keel, resting at the heart of many other bones in the pit; Aure wanted to say something to Aza'zel, again, but the words escaped him. The best translation one could provide for the gaze given was 'I will keep your legacy safe.'

With that thought in mind, he looked back up at Mother. "I should talk to Eythan now, but… I'm tired." Lowering his head and ears flickering back, Aure shuffled forward to press his face against Giggle's neck. He murmured, "can we snuggle?" Aww. "I can try to teach you the blue light magic?"

@Giggle

Giggle gave a brief nod, pushing up and nudging Aure's head.

"Of course. And I don't know about what Black said. I remember something about a deer calling himself a king, once, but other than that I don't know. That was a prediction gone wrong," she added grimly.

She'd only heard about Hasira's madness long after the fact. Or Vazi, as she'd known him. "A stag, a red stag--he came to have his bones read. With him was a sheep. Or perhaps it was the sheep who'd come first--I don't remember, now--but I remember seeing that the stag would fail as a guardian, and then be bolstered into becoming a leader. Well, a carnivore killed the sheep--he considered him his little brother. I don't know who did it, but I know the stag went mad, called himself a king and indeed became a leader." Giggle walked, as she talked, heading down toward the den--a place they could rest, and where Aure could, perhaps, teach her some magic. "He gathered other herbivores that saw predators as the enemy, and waged war on them. I wasn't there for it. I don't know exactly what happened, but I know he died, in the end. The bones tell the truth--they're limited in how detailed they can be, I suppose--but that was not what I was thinking when I spoke of leadership." Her voice was dry, grimly humorous. She didn't believe that the bones had failed her, or even that her reading had gone wrong, no. Instead she saw it as exactly what Aure had said--and she explained as much. "So whatever Black meant, he's right in one thing: there's a lot of ways you can go just by calling yourself King!"

Reaching the den, she settled in, and turned toward her child. Now grown, or almost! How time flies. She wished, for one bittersweet moment, that he'd not been gone for the cycles of his growth. How she'd loved to have watched him grow--but now wasn't the time. He was a growing King, and she was glad of his independence, too. No boy reliant on his mother for everything could ever be a true leader.

"Now-... How about this light spell?" she asked, curling up in the dirt, dark eyes curiously on Aure.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Aure

Aure followed silently --- as it was so common for him to --- listening to the deer king. What had his name been? He couldn't remember if Black had told him what it was, or not. Regardless, it had been the pain and fury of losing his brother that drove the stag into becoming a tyrant and pushing for the genocide of carnivores. "Black said that he had been in pain from losing his brother," the wyvern noted, tail swaying slightly. "He told me that there wasn't really good or evil Gembound; only good deeds and bad deeds. And that maybe the deer king wasn't really evil, deep down. Just in pain and mourning." Behind Mother, Aure looked side to side, murmuring, "I don't want to end up like that." He was hopefully certain that he wouldn't end up like that. He had family and a strong mother. They would endure, together.

"I'm going to be kind and help others. The Caves don't need any more evil or darkness." Of course, Aure knew that light could not come without shadows, and shadows were formed of light and the lack thereof. There would never be a way to truly vanquish all darkness in the caves. The light, then, would be blinding and truly dangerous; just as darkness was in mass quantities.

Seeing the comforting shadows of the den, Aure scampered in behind Giggle. As soon as he was inside and Mother had settled down, the young prince inhaled deeply; it smelled of home, warm and earthy. Mushrooms still lined a deeper recess of it, carefully curated in a garden. He would borrow some of the spores, later. For now, he rocked onto his haunches and laid down with his flank pressed against Mother's.

Ah, the light spell. "Well, I don't think it's fire magic, since it doesn't burn or anything. It actually feels sort of cold. So, I just think of glowing mushrooms or spores and just..." the wyvern turned his mind to magic for a moment here, hopefully conjuring a series of will 'o wisps, "imagine them exploding into little flames. They follow where I want them to go, but disappear if I look away or blink too slowly. I'm not very good at keeping them around. My friend --- I told you her name was Wilder, right? --- couldn't keep them around for very long, either." Two little lights flickered into existence, dancing around in a perpetual loop before darting down and out of existence. "See?"

@Giggle

"That's good to hear," Giggle murmured, in response to the talk of light replacing darkness. "How much have I told you of the void?" Sometimes, she couldn't remember which knowledge she'd given Eythan, and what she'd told her other, newer son. Things were, at times, still jumbled in the hyena's mind, and it didn't help that they'd entered her life at about the same time, and that Aure had flown the coop so young.

She watched as he worked, and listened closely as he described his magic. Her eyes lingered on the flickering blue-green light, and she tilted her head for a moment, fascinated. She didn't know the name Wilder--perhaps she'd known it, and forgotten, as with many things. For now, her mind lingered on the lights.

The hyena let her dark eyes slip shut. She followed Aure's instructions: she imagined the glowing mushrooms, imagined them dancing around her in the air, and pictured them bursting into light.

She felt, to her surprise, a soft pop of magicka originating from herself--and opened her eyes to find a new wisp, another phosphorescent blue-green light, dancing in the air before them. It bobbed, a cool flame flickering before her, and she realized that Aure was right: with a little mental direction, it moved with her thoughts.

Joy rose in her, a faint thrill of triumph. It was another Light, another thing like Kera had had, another thing she could use against the void-black. Eyes shining she turned, and nuzzled Aure.

"Thank you," she murmured, genuinely grateful.

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ROLL THE BONES

@Aure

"It's dark and there's a lot of eyes," Aure murmured, rocking from his stomach onto his side, leaning into Mother's warmth. Her fur still hosted that ever-familiar stink of rot, decay, and mushrooms. To any other Gembound, that stench would be appalling and reason enough to stay away from Giggle; to Aure, it was home and it was warmth. Warmth unlike the cool blue flame dancing about in the air, like a familiar. Mother was strong and capable of a lot of magic. It was not a surprise that she was able to conjure up a wisp so quickly.

His beak rubbed against the hyena's muzzle, pleased that he was able to share something with his mother. A trilling sound rang from his throat, settling deeper against her spotted hide. "You're welcome!" he chirped gleefully. The young one dove back into his magic and knowledge of it, hoping to bring forth a warm glow to himself. "Watch this---" and with minimal effort, Aure began to glow softly. "I can glow, too!"

To conclude his little demonstration of magic (well, that which he felt safe using around his own Mother) sighed contentedly, resting his head against the cool stone floor. "I missed you, Mother," the wyvern half-purred.

@Giggle

Giggle watched him, contentedly proud. He could glow.

"Remember that light magic," she told him softly, approvingly, "it'll do you good if the darkness ever comes back."

And then, he proved that even the oldest son was still, with his mother, a child at heart. Despite his growth, his greater size--despite his surprising independence at such a young age--Aure was snuggling up to her, settling into the routine he'd surely have developed had he stayed. Warmth flooded her. "I missed you too. Rest, Aure. Rest, and I will look after you, for now."

She watched him, for a time. Warm. Soft. Like a mammal--like her--and with those ears. Yet the eyes, the feathers--he truly was Aza'zel, in a sense, the vulture's life and shape and color reborn. She felt pride, in a way. Pride that his stone had been retrieved, that she'd given to it some part of herself. That some part of Aza'zel, thanks to her, lived on. It wasn't an arrogant pride, though, but a joyful one. A triumph, of sorts.

Aza'zel rested among the bones, but in his children, he would never truly die.

Look after him, Omen, she thought absently to the bird--and the bird, echoing Giggle's warm contentment, warbled back, through her mind, its agreement.

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ROLL THE BONES

exit Giggle
@Aure