@Giggle
set just after splendor.

autopilot. that was how she flew, and that was how she felt.

crushing images loop-the-looped in damask's sights: a fungal burst of blood, her father's glassy gaze, a jasper chrysalis in his stead. her head hurt, her wings weighed heavy, and the closer she came to her final destination, the more her chest tightened with dread. "go tell grandma," he'd said. and it made sense — she would've done it, even without his instruction — but ... that didn't do much for her nerves. over the course of numerous meetings with her grandmother, damask had developed a conditioned routine. it went something like this. step one: get all the shaking out of the way first. step two, for when you get there: stand up straight, look her in the eye, and hold a normal conversation. stick to what's safe — magic, exploring, storytime. do not answer personal questions. step three: thank her; excuse yourself; and for the next several hours, enjoy the skeletomuscular consequences of hiding all that tension from her. very much a work in progress.

and this time — let's be real. you're in way worse shape than usual. but! at least the spotlight will be on someone other than you. she gave the air a halfhearted flap, angling into a gradual, flagging decline. den's coming up here. wait any longer to aim, and you'll fall asleep at the wheel.

the seer's familiar hollow began to pull up, stagnant pools reflecting the light in sluggish glimmers. the bird of prey touched down a ways back from the edge. a shake of her feathers, a critical look, a preening nibble here and there — a forcible push of calm, upright, not-at-all-checked-out energy into her posture — and damask stepped closer. try it? she hesitated. yeah, go ahead.

not a question, nor an exclamation, but a to-the-point statement: "giggle," she called, drawing on her stone for a little extra volume. her voice rang clear and true — not loud, exactly, but substantially more carrying than she could've managed otherwise. so long as the hyena wasn't far off, she would hear the summons. damask shuddered slightly at the sound. weird. the spell was new, and something had kept her from practicing it, except in secret. discomfort, excitement, she couldn't quite — ... tell. ah, she probably won't even notice.

without settling, damask waited. vigilant eyes flicked back and forth.

she would make this brief — if she could.

Giggle's head came up, dark eyes blinking. She pushed up, calling out, but to her surprise Damask was not immediately visible--not where she'd expected. Magical volume, then-?

Ahh, and Giggle. How she detested being called by her first name by someone who was family. It was always as though Damask hated family, to her; as though she wanted to distance herself even further. Giggle tried not to be prickled by that, to sigh at the cat-blooded-creature trying to elevate herself above the other Bonebound... in Giggle's mind, at least.

She doesn't see us as family, she told herself dismally, and not for the first time. Still, there was nothing then that indicated anything really wrong, bar Damask's volume.

Ahh--there she was. Down at Giggle's den, searching for her. Curiosity rose in the hyena, and she tilted her head a little, lurching into a slow lope in her approach.

"Damask," she called out, voice rough as ever, tone curious. "What is it?"

Her full attention was on the hybrid; this wasn't on schedule for one of Damask's stilted, tense visits, so what was it about?

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

@Damask

@Giggle

a few moments' passage, and then pattering footsteps: the telltale sound of giggle's rocking stride. one tufted ear swiveled and fluttered. there she is! right on time. you good? you ready? damask turned in a smooth arc as the hyena advanced, evenly regarding the blunt wedge of her grandmother’s face. despite appearances, the sight of her evoked a psychic wince. she's not going to take this very well, is she.

"damask. what is it?"

you didn't come at the usual time, or call her up the usual way. see, she knows something's up. a closer appraisal, searching, finding. but she doesn't have a clue. did he not ... ? ... ah. that meant lots of ground to cover, unless she’d misread. damask inhaled — all her aching and overwhelming exhaustion, buttoned up beneath still features and cool, quicksilver eyes. okay, hold off on the report for a sec. see what she's got and take it kinda slow. right. one thing at a time. "were you aware of my father's plans today? in polaris?" she spoke with careful, quiet measure, the tone of a detective on the doorstep — no question as to who was in the know. another approach, pointed towards the same intersection: "what has he told you about transcendence?"

a point on that word, a capital T. the accipiter watched her grandmother with cautious apprehension, unblinking, gauging the reaction to come.

Giggle peered, brow furrowing, some. There was an inherent "something went wrong" about all of this, and her heartbeat quickened, fear for her son flaring in her. She tried to steady herself, but there was a nightmarish wave of unreality, a sort of grey-black fog crowding in at the edges of her consciousness.

"I know there's some kind of rings that opened, and he wanted to go investigate," she heard her own voice saying, as if from outside herself and quite some distance off. The hyena blinked. She took a step toward Damask, worry roaring through her, over her nerves, through her veins. "-Why? Did something happen? Is he all right?"

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

@Damask

@Giggle

he really didn't tell her. rings? that's all she knows? it wasn't nothing — damask nodded, if conservatively — but ... not good. she'll have to deal with being left in the dark, on top of everything else. giggle took a step closer, nibbling away at the distance between them. with effort, the bird of prey held herself back from restoring it, though she did stiffen: hey, we've been over this. a reminder.

"— why? did something happen? is he all right?" oh, she's onto you now. handle with care.

the hyena's questions went unanswered, lingering like specters in the air. damask turned her muzzle slightly to the side, eyeing edgewise. "stop me if you need to." she hesitated, torn. cut to the chase. — no, she needs me with her now. her voice softened, echoing giggle's choice of words. "... all right?"

a beat — space for reply — and then she began.

"he wanted to prove himself." this was something of an elaboration, if not an outright correction. auré's intentions had gone beyond investigating. "it wasn't how he remembered it. no rings; just a hallway and a sort of proctor, emuh, who gave him a task. no explanation as to what it entailed or how he'd be rewarded. the chamber shifted, went dark. dead lessers, fungus everywhere, something — breathing. an animal. it ran him down, but he ... didn't want to kill it. wouldn't fight back until he had no other choice."

and the flashbacks returned. auré, staggering out of the hallway — auré, feathers slick with mucus and blood — auré, broken wing trailing at his side. damask's gaze darted low, narrowing against a fought-away cringe. a pause: she'd been rattling her way through the account, trimly and rapidly, but — here, she slowed down, a slight hush creeping in.

"he passed the test, but he was hurt. badly." silver eyes met their dark opponents. damask lowered her head and lifted her brows. "dad is —" wrong word. you're talking to her, not him. she caught herself and tried again, the slip-up easily missed. "my father is asleep. in his chrysalis. he promised me he would wake up; i promised him i would be there."

more, more, more — a faceless sculpture of raw, banded jasper, still warm with endothermic energy; her forehead pressed into its surface, sliding down against the grit of it, one two three thumps whose aftershocks ached even now; "good night," hers and his and hers again. a fog of emotion gathered in the corners of her vision, and she blinked it away, mustering up her last, loaded sentence without a quaver. "she'll take care of you," auré had said. "you." that part, she omitted.

"until then, the bonebound are yours."

Her mouth went dry. Fear crushed in on her, vision threatening to drop into darkness, at Damask's total avoidance of her question--but she said nothing, too afraid to. A brief, unexpected spike of pure, hot, red rage seared through her at the other's refusal to answer, as yet, but Giggle waited... knowing that, with no answer, the answer was already 'no.'

At the word 'chrysalis,' however, Giggle abruptly took a single deep, sharp breath--unaware that she hadn't been breathing in the moments leading up to it. She blinked, too, her mind clearing some, that dark lurking tunnel falling away.

"His CHRYSALIS!" she brayed, in that blunt way of hers, relief clear in her tone. "BONES, Damask, I thought you were gonna tell me he was dead!" Another sharp breath, another exhale, and she shook her head.

A pause as her forehead wrinkled, then; as she tried to quickly work back past the other things Damask had said, the things Giggle had half-missed in the roaring flood of is my son dead-? A trial--some beast, running him over, and a--proctor? What was that? She didn't know and she dismissed the thought, for now. What mattered was that her son had done something, apparently, fucking stupid; that he hadn't told her (and again, that lurking desire to just leave flashed through her mind, briefly). That he was in his stone.

She sighed, heavily, and it seemed more irritated than concerned. "Right. As far as I know, stones usually last about two weeks, then he'll be back out. Usually as good as new, sometimes with some... new features," she added, grimacing. Whatever'd happened, it had to have been bad, then. Violent. "There's nothing urgent that needs tending to right now, at least. Not with the Bonebound. He's been putting off a meeting for awhile," and she didn't add that she wasn't sure why, or that there really should have been one to introduce Damask to the rest.

A brief, wincing grimace curled her lips as she tried to push those thoughts away; and again she shook her head. "Thanks for telling me. Can you-..." show me where his stone is... but what if it's a trap? Giggle winced, again. Eythan-... No, stop. They're family. Cat or no cat, it isn't some kind of bait, Giggs. Get your shit together.

The hyena sighed. Again. "Can you show me where his stone is?" ...But it wouldn't hurt to be careful, either way.

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

@Damask

@Giggle

the hyena was totally still, totally silent — worryingly so — and then:

"BONES, damask, i thought you were gonna tell me he was dead!"

the accipiter flinched, ears pressing back against her nape, the aggression of the shout ringing between them. dead. the very idea of it sent her heart racing. she ground her teeth — partly at giggle's exasperation, the unfairness of it, the way she invoked her son's death and dismissed his ordeal when she hadn't even seen him — but more because ... yeah, no, you really should've led with that. and he's alive, isn't he? what else matters? it's no big deal, and not her fault you took it so hard. that's on you. embarrassing. go on, play nice. you screwed up and you're very sorry. she forced a thin smile. "i apologize for the misunderstanding."

the tension persisted, but at least giggle wasn't so frustrated as to — what? yell some more, beat you up, send you away? instead: information. damask nodded along fact-by-fact. two weeks, good as new. excellent. now, bonebound business. the meeting. she straightened. auré had mentioned it a few times, if only in passing. i've gotta ... talk to him, about that. when he wakes up. plenty of time to rehearse. get it down pat. but let's not think about it now.

what came next was inevitable. "can you show me where his stone is?"

exhaustion washed over her in a great, crashing wave, physical and mental and emotional alike. of course she wants me to show her. coming here had been draining enough; all she wanted was to get back to the chrysalis and sleep, fitful as she knew it'd be. but she has a right to see him. don't be selfish. her lips parted, about to reply — but something stopped her. winces, sighs, the quelling shake of the head she knew all too well. what's with giggle? she allowed her concern to seep into her features, a question conveyed in the cant of her skull and the knit of her brow: are you okay ... ? it lingered for a moment, left unspoken; and then she tidied it away, knowing not to expect an answer.

"yes," she said, sails at half-mast. by her estimation, neither of them would appreciate hours' travel together on foot. "meet me at the end of the tunnel into polaris. we can walk from there." after a long look at giggle, she broke away and turned southeast. "i'll see you soon."

a crouch, a spring, a heavy downstroke, and damask winged away. sliding airstreams eased her flight: a little more speed, a little less weight. she exhaled into the wind. it'll all be over soon.

exit to polaris; continued in it's just a shame, that's all

I apologize for the misunderstanding. Stiff, standoffish, cold? Or was it polite, meek and afraid? Giggle was inclined toward the former, given the hybrid's direct stare, the cold steel core she showed when she was, as Aure called it, "pushed."

Before she could really ask about it, Damask was talking: Polaris, then. Giggle opened her jaws to ask where the hell Polaris was, but the child was already winging her way away. Well, not really a child, but-...

The hyena shook her head, and mentally called out to Omen to follow; the black bird raced after. Polaris, Polaris, she thought to herself, meanwhile; Ahh, isn't that where Eythan ran to-? Bones, I hope this isn't a fucking trap. What if they've killed Aure? What if that's why she's always been like this--Eythan got to her first..? Omen, stay high and be careful, she warned, and spread out her senses ahead of her to sense for a trap.

She was, just vaguely, aware of how tragic it was to suspect family of such things. Aza'zel would not have approved. But what could she do..? Damask was 'troubled,' and that was putting it lightly; Giggle had hardly seen emotion from her. All she'd ever shown was an ice face, and lies. No real warmth, no care, and the hyena had never really delved deep, after that first meeting, into the hybrid's mind. There could be any number of things going on that she didn't know about, and she didn't like that.

They'd have to get to the ritual, then--and the sooner, the better.

Again, the distant lure of Monoceros tugged at her--and she tried, for now, to ignore it. She'd lived in Canis her whole life; she was the Bone Seer. She couldn't just abandoned the Bonebound because of one member making her uncomfortable.

But it wouldn't be abandonment, it'd be... a break. Somewhere brighter. Warmer. Aure's let the Bonebound turn to... mush. I wouldn't say Kalama was right, and he showed strength, then, but what are we if not even meeting up as family-? And this kid's in the middle of it now, a cold spike through what should be fucking warm, a broken bone in what was a strong leg, and she's driving us apart.

Giggle grimaced. If only they'd brought Damask to see her sooner. If only Aure had had the common sense to help her with that groundless fear, early on! Or the courage to confront her! Her words to him, again, rang in her mind: "you'll have to confront her, sooner or later, or she'll stay a mess her whole life." Or something like that. The hyena shook her head, and entered the cool dark of tunnel K...

...and paused.

There was something different, here.

Giggle lifted her head, sniffing, turning; the odor of several Gembound, though stale and old, led to one edge of the formerly-featureless tunnel. And within a crevice, she found a black hole: a mouth, yawning away into the ground.

What the fuck-? she breathed, and hastily backed away. After a moment's hesitation, standing quiet and breathing heavy steam into the air a few yards off the tunnel mouth, she again approached. Flashing memories of darkness and screaming filled her mind, and her heart began to pound; when she cast out her magic, like a net, it was hesitant and trembling. Weak. But what she saw was... terrifying.

Distant: but black. Some immensely powerful magic down there, but so far that she could barely touch it. Dark eyes widened. Was that Senka's doing-? This hadn't been here before, she was sure of it...

Giggle turned, turned tail and fled, all thoughts of Damask's fear forgotten as her own roared up inside her. This... she'd have to ask Aure about this, too, when he woke.

Shit.

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

exit Giggle