Takes place post olympics

Kalama did not like the collectors task. But the collector knew she was a hero. The collector had faith in her. She didn't know how he felt about her performance in the olympics. But Kalama had to do as he said. Kalama swallowed. She could do this. She paced over the bones, quiet. She'd come at night. The lights were dim. She didn't want the Bonebound to know she was here, again. Taken tunnel K back to Canis once the olympics ended.

Kalama'd left Kalaziel back at their base. Out of harm. She remembered where the Bonebound lived, of course. She'd been here before. Grown here as a chick. Lived here as an adult. And now she was back. As a murderer. The idea felt vile. But. The Bonebound were more so. Yeah. Her not liking murder was just a remnant of Eythan's training. He wasn't even her real dad.

She'd seen that Giggle around a couple of times. Out of all the bonesniffers, she was the worst. She had an entire pit dedicated to bones. And she was old. Not like anyone would miss someone so old. She was just...helping them move on! Yeah, a warband needed to be used to death. A tiny vertebrae scattered, jolting her to the present. Right. She was going to go to Giggles bone thingy.

She paid more attention to her path, then. Kalama'd seen Giggle go that way a few times when exiting meetings or gatherings. Kalama had followed Eythan there a few times as well when she was just a cycle or two old. She found an old path she'd used so many cycles ago, and traced a path, following it to Giggle's bone pit. And it was aglow. The entire path. Fungi of different shapes glittered or clung to surfaces. Kalama didn't think anything of them. She passed fungi, some tripwires, some not.

She knew none of this. She was too dense to. Kalama fluffed her feathers. She didn't want any of that weird, gooey stuff getting on her. By sheer luck, she managed to avoid setting off most tripwires. Her feet passed close over a couple of mushrooms built for that purpose. A hair away from having her location revealed, more times than one is able to count.

think "speak"

This thread is open to bonebound if gondor/giggle calls for aid! Also aure can just, like show up bc he spored kalama.

@Giggle

They weren't tripwires so much as remote-detonated grenades, but Kalama couldn't be blamed for not knowing that. Or knowing that even being around the bone pit was to be standing in amongst all of them. It was a necessity: too many Gembound had attacked Giggle here, some with no reason at all.

Like Rafael, that shit bird-deer that had tried to rip her eyes out with no reason.
Or Ghanyarah, who'd been setting everything in ice. For no reason.
Or Kerberos, now her beloved son, who'd been terrifying even as a puppy as he tried to decide whether murder was okay if the play was rough enough, and the play-er strong enough to get away with it.

She lay half-dozing atop the ledge that overhung the bone pit, and Omen--the black, single-red-eyed Hallowed Caller--was picking through bones some twenty yards farther back, looking for Bone Moths to eat.

The hyena, then, was plainly visible, clear to be seen, and fairly unaware of the would-be death-chicken's approach.

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

@Kalama

Kalama spotted her. Giggle. She was just laying there. Menacingly. Her head rocketed up, then back down. Sleek against her neck. Kalama couldn't see the crow. Or wasn't paying attention, atleast. Kalama's wings tightened against her flanks. Bouncing from foot to foot. Right. She could do this. Kalama breathed out a nervous breath. Okay. Now was the time. Kalama wasn't quite sure how to begin the attack, either. Go for the top of the neck? Yeah, the top of the neck. Was she supposed to bite it or slash at it? She didn't know how this worked on someone so...big. Whatever, she'd figure it out when she got to that step. The chicken forced herself to take a step forward. Then another. Then a third. And then she was in a full out sprint, wings slowly extending to full breadth.

She had nearly reached Giggle. Her plan had nearly worked. When her leg hit a mushroom. Not explosive, this one, at least. But it didn't help with the stealth aspect. Kalama tripped and rolled over herself, coming to a stop at one of Giggle's back leg. Close enough to touch. Her thoughts then could be summed up in one word. Shit.

think "speak"

Giggle was woken rather harshly from her half-sleep by the clatter of talons on rock far too close. Omen spiralled skyward, shrieking--deafening--and the hyena scrambled up, ears flattening out. Too often, when startled, her magicka reacted to explode her coat in inky caps, not unlike a pufferfish--and that happened now, slick black fungus erupting all over her as she skittered sideways. "Ahhh shit-"

She turned toward Kalama, blinking.

"Are you all right?" was her blurted greeting, assuming something so small had just... fallen from the sky. It had wings, after all. Once she'd (in a fraction of a second, really) worked out that it wasn't Damask or Aure or Eythan, her brain then fired through other possibilities.

"-Chicken?!" she asked, in disbelief, unable to remember Kalama's name on such short notice. "What are you doing here-?"

She had no real reason to assume it had been an intended attack--she was just... very, very confused.

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

@Kalama

Oh no. The plan was already awry. Giggle was up, noticing her. With weird, frilly fungi growing on her? That was weird. But she could salvage this. This was okay. The collector didn't see her doing this, she was good. "I'm fine." Kalama coughed out in reply to Giggle's question, almost reflexively.

Paused. Oh no. They couldn't know it was her here. She raised her voice pitch, until it was squeaky. "I am one of the Children of Rot! A chicken you don't know. A champion of incomparable skill. Not as good as other chickens I've heard of, but still pretty good." Kalama got to her feet, slowly, shaking the dirt from her sides. "I've come to end you, Giggle! Just-just sit still! It wont take long."

Kalama didn't know what those weird fungi were, growing on Giggle. But she did what she do best. Attack them. Kalama leapt, and her claws scraped at Giggle's sides. They got more mushroom than fur. And the substance stuck to her claws, thick and gummy. Made it hard to flex her talons. "Ew," She said, momentarily distracted, trying to wipe the substance off on the dirt. But then it was just dirt covered goo. "What is this stuff?"


think "speak"

Round: 1/5?
Attempt: Scratch flank good
Defense: none
Injuries: none so far

@Giggle

"I know who you are, I just don't remember your nRAOWCH!" her sentence was cut short by the slash of unnatural chicken talons, and she leapt a good two feet into the air and sideways with both surprise and pain. It wasn't... deadly, but it was painful and what the hell?!

DRAGON took this thing in!? she thought, surprised--and then, baffled, wondered briefly why the hell he'd want her dead. This was... bad.

Omen spun higher overhead, shrieking like the dying and the dead, and Giggle grimaced as she reached for magicka.

"STOP that! Why the hell would you want to 'end' me? I'm a fucking fortune-teller, bird," she spat, bewildered. "And that's FUNGUS. Unless you like getting eaten alive by it, you should back OFF."

Magicka lashed out, but for a moment, nothing happened--and Giggle had the creeping feeling that it had... gone wrong.

Maybe very wrong...

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

Round: 1/5 MAYBE
Attempt: Decay cast! (jk i'm rotting)
Defense:
Injuries: scratched flank!

@Kalama

Kalama winced when Giggle flew back. She was used to hurting people in fights. But hurting people in fights when she was trying to kill them was worse. And the shrieking of the bird above hurt Kalama's ears. Made it hard for her to concentrate.

"Shut up!" She yelled at the bird, any sense of stealth completely gone. "You don't know me, bir-hyena! And you're moving too much!" Before she could try to attack again, Giggle's words gave her pause. She hesitated. She had to keep going. She had to do it. She had to prove to the Collector that she could and would commit murder, any time he asked, just because he asked. She raised her claw, staring at the dark fungus on her leg, then glanced up at Giggle. Waiting for the pain to begin gnawing at her. But...nothing happened.


"Was that a bluff? Because I'm not scared of you, Giggle. I don't fear magic." Kalama lied. "And stop using this goo--that's cheating in a real fight!" She squawked, as if this wasn't an attempted murder. "And I'm doing it because, uh." Kalama didn't know. The Collector hadn't told her what to say to why. "Because I was told to! And because I'm a hardened murderer. I've killed one--three mouse before. Probably more. I'm not afraid to kill you and I know how!" Kalama didn't. How did you kill something so...large. She was people sized. Herself sized. She was the farthest thing from stealthy or an assassin.

This time, Kalama would switch tactics. Not use the foot that got the goo. She would use the OTHER foot. Much smarter. Kalama hobbled after the hyena, with one working foot and another caked in goo. Kalama launched herself at Giggle once again. Her free claw scratching at Giggle's mushrooms in a series of attacks.

And then her legs were fully stuck. She tried to land on her feet, but stuck together as they were, she fell on her chest, a plume of dust kicked up from the action. Her legs were stuck together like some sort of odd, chicken mermaid. She'd survived like this in the trial, she could kill someone like this as well. She tried to flex them, and found the limbs unwilling to move.

think "speak"

Round: 2/5??(whoops not 3/5)
Attempt: attack with other foot
Defense: lol
Injuries: TWO gooey foot

@Giggle ((I would like kalama to stop rolling good pls))

There was more yelling, more scratching--chicken talons and a thrashing piece of flint cutting through the fungus--and Giggle backed up, eyes shut and ears pinned at the abrupt assault.

Half of her wanted to just bite the chicken and be done with it; the other half didn't really want to crush a sentient creature to death. The inky fungus was being torn from her pelt, and would soon leave her without defenses, and Kalama's talons had struck through it, too.

Thinking fast, Giggle reached out to the fungus growing in rings around them, backing away as she pulled the spores forth with magicka. She hoped she'd done it right, this time--as it was, it'd take awhile to get that fucking flesh-eating crap out of her own body over the next few days. But this was a different sort of fungus: one she'd developed from her experiments with Mother. It wasn't Mother, but it was similar: a thing to snag the mind of a target... and, she hoped, to get it to chill out for two seconds and listen to reason.

"STOP," she barked, still flinching, still backing away, as she drew up her magicka. The rest of Kalama's speech was baffling--she didn't fear magic? Had she seen what magic could do-? And she had killed... mice?! This bird is ignorant, or insane, she realized, grimly. She was sure, now, that it was the same one who'd attacked Aure. But why-?

What grudge did this bird hold?

"I don't know what your problem is but I can kill you in a bite."

Not that she wanted to, but holy shit, what was she supposed to do?!

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

Round: 2/5 MAYBE
Attempt: Calm her ass down for a couple minutes with some Fungus™
Defense:
Injuries: scratched up, Decay backfire...

@Kalama

Kalama made to get up. Her wings were almost used to the way she had to force herself to crawl. But this time, her legs weren't broken. Just stuck together. She wobbled, forcing herself up with a grunt. She'd managed to get on her knees. There were strange spores drifting to her. Like motes of dust strung along by an unseen power. She didn't know what to make of it, and she couldn't simply stop inhaling. She tried to stand again. She was halfway there. And then Giggle's command came. A harsh 'STOP'. A command the chicken could not ignore. And, against her better judgement, she did. Her eyelids drooped, and she collapsed.

Every word Giggle spoke seemed magnified. Every second slowed. Almost...peaceful. As if Kalama could concentrate on Giggle's words for a lifetime. The threats magnified even more so. Kalama paused on an inhale, slow, frightful of the idea. She was downed. Her legs stuck together. If she died here, she wouldn't be able to train Kalaziel anymore. Maybe listening to Giggle was the better plan. But another fear was present. The one of the Collector finding out she had failed. She'd given in so easily. This plan was all awry. It was supposed to be a quick and easy kill.

But she should've known Giggle was a magic user. They made things so difficult. Cheaters. Kalama grunted. A wing twitched. Then a claw. Then the whole thing. Until she pulled herself forward. A small flop. "I got orders from people more powerful than you!" She said. "They'd--they'd come for you if you killed me! I got a kid too--real strong. They'd destroy you if you hurt me." It was a lie--she didn't know if the Collector would come for Giggle. Nor would Kalaziel ever, likely, know of Kalamas death, if she were to die here.

think "speak"

Round: 3/5??
Attempt: resist
Defense: Resisting? does that count?
Injuries: TWO gooey foot and resisting being calm

@Giggle

Giggle spared a brief glance at the trickles of blood seeping through the inky goop. It wasn't... good, and it burned, and stung, and had given her backfiring fungus an opening for infection.

Damn it.

Then she looked back to Kalama, annoyed.

"Listen, shit-bird, I don't intend to kill you so as long as you keep your distance now we're fine. If you come at me again I'll crush your skull like an egg."

A pause, as she tried to puzzle out Kalama's intentions, and came to a grim realization: someone had given the bird orders. 'Orders from people more powerful than you.' What the hell..?

A narrowing of her eyes, and she tried to cast her mind into Kalama's, to see just what was going on. Kalama herself was giving hints, but the details were... lacking, to say the least. If she could get information, she could either use it against the bird, or at least have it.

Her flank hurt. Distracting. Nothing came of her magic, and she huffed. "Who ordered you out here? If someone told you to kill me, they want you dead. Or they don't care if you die," she added, bluntly.

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

(i don't think this counts as a fight round)
@Kalama