Giggle gave a curious glance and a nod of greeting to each of the arriving insects. They were... strange, but obviously sentient, though she hadn't a clue where they'd come from. Ahh-... but they were here.

Her dark eyes widened, as she slowly slumped, allowing herself some much-needed rest. She let Lorekeeper down gently, at least, and gave Eythan a short, grateful nod, before looking more closely around the room. Her ears pulled toward Lorekeeper, listening to every word, even as her gaze took their surroundings in.

Giggle should have known better--and she berated herself, a little, for waiting patiently and quietly until Lorekeeper had finished speaking. As she so often did after one of her stories, Lorekeeper simply fell asleep, so that Giggle's words--"I think none of us know these names, Lorekeeper. Who's Jupiter--and Tamulus?" was greeted only with a soft snore.

She groaned. "Oh, getting back's going to be interesting," she complained, bitterly but quietly, stretching her already-sore muscles.

Vargas was pacing around, and--picking up rocks?--and then, abruptly, he was leaving. Giggle opened her mouth to protest, eyes widening, about to bark after him and ask just where the hell he thought he was going. Memory then returned in a warning flash: a memory of her backed rapidly away as he snarled down at her, advancing on her.

...Maybe she'd yell at him later.

For now, she looked around with a frown.

"-What does she want us to move? This whole room?" she asked, confused. "Or did she just mean that--wall, with the color?"

She sighed and pushed back, lying back to back with the Lorekeeper, letting her weight prop the other and herself up at the same time. "I need a rest, but I think we can carry her back. We might have to make more than one trip... I think I can mark the path with fungus, at least, if we need to."

After a moment's rest, she forced herself to her feet. The painting had drawn her curiosity and very, very gently she first approached it, and then lifted one paw to lightly touch the stone alongside it. Her expression was one of intense focus.

"Any ideas are welcome. I just want to see who did this," she added, and hoped she'd get a useful moment in time.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

As Giggle's inner vision darkens, she hears the grinding of a mortar and pestle, then the rough scratching of bristle on bone. Gently, the hindsight image blooms in her mind: it is the centaur, Jupiter, busying herself with dye-making and painting.

It is unclear, but it appears as if she may be crying.

no dice on the description. damask glanced at her uncle and gave a small shake of her head, followed by a sigh; she greeted the insects' arrival with nothing more than a backward twitch of her ear. the journey passed in relative silence, broken only by lorekeeper's occasional suggestions. the accipiter made a note of every turn — their path twisted slowly through her mental map, and she pared away the rambles and detours, streamlining the route to optimum efficiency. in time, they arrived at a lightly-furnished room. jupiter's den? it's a little familiar. she drifted between curios a moment before spotting an alcove hidden in the corner. a sort of glow. oh? she came at once to lorekeeper's croon, entered the chamber, and — went still, open-mouthed.

what ... is all this?

the painting shimmered pale in her eyes; the story, her ears. the surface, she said? no ceiling, just ... sky? damask's wings ruffled at her sides in a pang of wonder and yearning. that one word seemed to settle somewhere in her heart. sky. she stood numb and motionless as lorekeeper fell into slumber.

dislodging the area ... that wall would clearly pose a challenge, but — damask hurried back to the main chamber, locating the vase and the clay cup. from the former, she took a stick in her teeth; the latter she grasped in her wing-claws. she stepped back into the alcove and towards the crackling feathers, then set to nudging them inside with the stick, careful to avoid both damage and direct contact. "i remember the way," came an absent call to giggle and the others. quills collected, damask cradled the cup — (gentle, now, they might be precious to her) — and pivoted back around.

she faced the larger of the mantids, balking slightly. wow, okay, so they're a lot larger. "right," damask began, acutely aware of the strain in both her uncle's and her grandmother's shoulders. "could you carry lorekeeper to her den, once we're ready? delicately, please." she shifted back to giggle. "i think the wall is most important to her. if there's any way we can move it ..." her gaze flickered its way — (wait, bone, it's painted on bone) — only to withdraw, sinking down to the cup of feathers in her claws. every vane sparked with electric energy. these will have to suffice, from me. a pause, and then she blinked and clutched it closer to her chest.

Eythan rolled his blessedly free shoulders once the Lorekeeper was settled, telling her tale; bright eyes staring curiously around the alcove. There were so many things here, squirreled away and never to be touched by their owner again. The gryphon had not the slightest clue who Jupiter was, but she was... apparently gone in the way that was final. Familiar or not, that was someone missing from Canis.

And... there was the rest of the story. It sounded as fantastical as could be, even about something as mundane as the sky. Something lay above all these caves, and there was... the sky, as someone (Pride, at the Olympics, right?) had attempted to tell a story about. It almost seemed like something to dismiss as a flight of fancy.

Just like that, though, she was asleep.

"Oh, getting back's going to be interesting." Eythan gazed at the hyena with a wry smirk, "I mean... she looks to be sleepin' pretty soundly right there." So, in a roundabout way, they had plenty of time to just... rest. Or - nose around now that the purple behemoth wasn't here to take up half the space with his tree-trunk arms. "Just about anythin' but - yeah, the wall."

It didn't seem... too embedded into the wall. "Hm," he went, and plodded up to it to carefully wedge a talon underneath its edge. Driving it in behind, he fit another and another until his paw was just about behind it. Bracing against the bone with a spotted shoulder, the gryphon eased it to the floor. "If I can get into the air with a good grip on it, I'm pretty sure I can carry that." ... once he didn't feel so wore-out. Bright eyes flickered to Damask nonetheless, "lead the way once we're done then, yeah?"

Magic pulsed in his core, and he followed it in confusion. It was something... dense. One of the more intact oilslick stones. Eythan plodded towards it, turning it over in a claw and furrowing his brow. A jolt of something foreboding lanced through him, and he stiffened, tail hiking higher in its curved state. I should take this — so no one else just... stumbles on it...

The gryphon eyed the bone-painting and hesitated, kicking the oily rock into an alcove between stone and crafting table. He'd come for it in a while, after trying to memorize this particular series of twists and turns.

Eythan trudged back over to the face-down painting, plopping down and ready to leave whenever the others did.

eythan's taking an intact oily rock (but like, later)
also: +1 corruption and +touched haha oops

Garnet-Epsilon

Epsilon had barely been able to keep up- it's magic fizzling as they all entered the Chambers, the hybrid staying a good deal behind and keeping it'd ears perked to track not only the group, but the supposed Batcat they'd all called for and who had... run away.

Rabbit- like ears caught almost everything, but key words were being lost to echoes, and others making no sense- like surface, or sky, but they were happy with their knowledge for now... a bit of history, and word of another painting... maybe it's like the ones out there... but.

They knew that if they were caught they'd be in trouble at best, and Ended at worst, but they just had to know- knowledge being its only usable weapon at times. So, they stay around the many corners, and listen, eventually leaving when they hear their Overseer speak- and the sound of large footsteps coming it's way.

The way out was simple to them, given the risk that came with being caught, but they choose to wait at the entrance of the Chambers- not hiding, but also not approaching the Overseer. Maybe they'd be told something- maybe not. Either way, those stones had some answers, and... well, what in the Caves is a sky?

;Exit Garnet - Epsilon

Giggle froze where she was, a deep sadness gripping her. There was something that resonated with her; she had lost a close friend, her closest, once upon a time, and seeing it in another--seeing them mourning--brought grief twisting up through her like a storm. She let the image fade, unwilling to break the link herself; and when it was gone she fell back quietly, settling her paws back on the stone. "I think the one known as Jupiter painted this. I see her... crying, as she creates it," she murmured. And then blinked, current events swirling back up around her, catching up to her mind.

Giggle turned, quizzically peering at the mantis Damask had addressed. She wouldn't have trusted a total stranger with the Lorekeeper, herself, and she also wasn't sure this thing was large enough to carry her.

"If you can manage? Please. Don't harm her," she added, and this last came with a lower, serious tone. It wasn't a threat, exactly, but it held warning. "She's fragile. I'm Giggle; this is Eythan, and Damask. We're of the Bonebound, it's nice to meet you." There was more solemnity, less brashness than before; the image of Jupiter lingered in her mind.

Quiet, for a moment, Giggle looked out over the gemstones, and looked for any that appeared as though they might have actually been important to the Master. Most looked discarded, used merely as tools; but if any looked like she'd valued them, the seer was already considering bringing them life again.

"Hm. Maybe it'd be better if the bug brings back the painting-? It'll be hard for me to carry--unwieldy. Eythan too, I'd imagine. But we can carry Lorekeeper, if you can carry this for us?" she asked, glancing up to the mantis.

She could make a fungal carpet the whole way back, something slimy, but it had been such a long trek that it would be a magically-exhausting journey of many hours, and she wasn't sure that was much easier than "let the bug carry it."

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Pip @Morpho

Morpho listened the best he could, though not much of the weird fluffy purple thing's story made much sense to him. Maybe Pip knew what they were talking about? Pip was much smarter than him, after all. He'd ask her about it later.

The others had already sprung into action, so not wanting to get in the way, he watched quietly off to the side, as unobtrusive as a large insect could be.

He looked down at the small feathered black-and-white creature as it spoke to him. His gaze quickly shifted to the fluffy purple creature who was now slumped against the floor. He looked at the golden-brown spotted creature as it addressed him. "I do no harm." He replied. He nodded at the list of names "My name is Morpho." He said, figuring he should offer his own.

His gaze moved to the painted bone. He nodded in agreement. "I'll carry the painting." He replied. The purple canine was clearly a friend of theirs- or at least important- and he didn't want to hurt them on accident. He walked over to where the painting lay face-down and carefully picked it up. He adjusted his grip on it until he held it somewhat comfortably, pinned between his foreclaws and his thorax. "Ready to go when you are." He said, waiting by the exit of the den.

tags: @Giggle @Damask

coding by wulf for template purposes

"lead the way once we're done, then, yeah?" damask's eyes met eythan's with a spark of real enthusiasm: i'd love to. they fell from there to the wall of bone, face-down beside him. she considered it, lightly impressed; he'd dislodged it without a problem. clever idea, to carry it by air — rest his shoulders that way, and i can help keep him aloft. that's got to be just about everything covered. except for ... the stones scattered at their feet. she hadn't missed them, nor the way the others noted and withdrew them; but something about that oilslick sheen made her ... shy away. a warning started and died in her throat as eythan inspected one. ah, leave it alone, kid. she ushered her attention elsewhere.

"morpho," the mantis was called. "i do no harm." he seemed benevolent enough, right? perfectly trustworthy for ... oh. giggle had something else in mind. damask shifted left and right in discomfort. she'd put careful thought into her idea. lorekeeper's skin-and-bones body was hardly less unwieldy than the painting, and she'd figured a single pair of arms might be gentler than two jostling sets of shoulders and hips. plus, eythan's already got the painting covered, he called it and everything — ... wait. what? did morpho just snatch it from him?

damask exchanged an affronted look with her uncle, brows knit, mouth ajar — then wiped it from her face and clicked her jaws shut. fine! it's fine. exasperated, undermined, outraged secondhand: all things she definitely was not, see? don't show it, and you won't feel it.

"another moment to rest?" she glanced from eythan to giggle, then awaited their answers, granting them all the time they needed to recover and arrange the frail storyteller on their backs. meanwhile, her gaze flitted back and forth between the group and the exit, talons drumming quietly. come on, come on. we've got to go. at length, the bird of prey broke her silence and drew herself upright, tidy and businesslike. "okay. follow me." she turned and stepped past the mantis, leaving the alcove. a map of the chambers came at once to her summons, and their path wound through in a straightened string. they'd reach lorekeeper's den far sooner than they had jupiter's.

the cup of feathers nestled softly and securely in her claws. tufted ears angled back, attentive to every footstep, ensuring the others kept pace. still, the story's echoes played on loop therein. the encounter had left her tired, ruffled, and ... yes, faintly overwhelmed — but once they'd put the lorekeeper to bed, it would all calm down, and she'd have the space to really think it through. even now, her headache was beginning to abate. damask liked it here. leading.

a lovely kind of loneliness at the front of the line.

travel offscreen; per cj, we can exit here or stick around for lorekeeper q&a at the den
i'm down for either one, whatever you guys want to do!

Eythan's ears pricked back at the hyena's... particularly sudden sadness, brows furrowing in time with a slight frown; he didn't move otherwise, though, not knowing how to comfort her. She moved on anyways, introducing them to and warning the new arrival. Then... instructing the mantis to take the painting.

The gryphon felt a niggling sense of annoyance crawl up his throat, and he grit his beak to keep himself from letting out his complaint: I don't want to carry the bony, spiny old woman again. It was an incredibly teenager of him to think, but that didn't make the mild ache in his back any less tangible. Morpho went ahead and grasped the painting from his side, and Eythan happened to catch Damask's gaze just in time to exchange a look - though his was far more plaintive and watery-eyed with repressed annoyance.

Whatever, he pounded into himself, it's not that big a deal. I'd whine if I had to carry that painting anyways. Perfectly reasonable conclusion, knowing himself.

He graciously took the chance to rest a while longer, rolling his shoulders in preparation for the inevitable and stretching out. If he had his way, Eythan would've taken his sweet time and rolled onto his back for a nap along with the Lorekeeper. Alas, they had to go at some point - sacred grounds and all that - and the gryphon was careful as could be trying to hoist sleeping dead-weight atop Giggle's shoulders and then worm beneath her to support the rest. One of them alone could manage the task, but... he wasn't about that.

Back through the Chambers they went, Damask leading dutifully with her little cup.

exit even if the lorekeeper ama occurs! dark, feel free to pp eythan just Sitting There or leaving or whatever works, if anything

Sharp

we can wander through the forest, and do so as we please

Sharp watched the scene around her with childish awe. First, the bat-cat came down, swooping through the air only to flee at the name of "Overseer". Still, they pressed on, travelling through the confusing paths by scent alone (though Sharp, with her poor sense of smell, didn't know). Soon they opened into a rather peculiar cavern- an organized room complete with an odd workset, various trinkets, and odd, refined tools. That odd mural was what caught her eye the most, and she took her time scampering about it, admiring every last detail as best as she could. She didn't really know about art before, and for a moment she expected the figure to move. Lorekeeper's story filled her ears, and while she didn't understand half the words, she still imagined the tale in dramatic detail. Though, her version was a lot more cheerful and silly than the canine had experienced.

It took Sharp by surprise when Lorekeeper drifted to sleep and she was brought back to reality. The hyena and the avians discussed, a whole bunch of new buddies showed up, and the big-scary "Overseer" just... left. Huh. While she wasn't even entirely sure about what old lady even said, the sungazer was still quite enthralled by her. In her entire life Sharp never really thought about anything past shiny stones and instinctual needs, but Lorekeeper was full of other stuff, stories and great tales and all sorts of fun things. She didn't exactly feel like leaving, at least without telling the canine how cool she was. So, somewhat following the lead of the others, she plopped down by the cave entrance, legs splayed awkwardly at either side, and waited.

thinking | "speaking"
Sharp is (probably) staying for the ama!