Open to bonebound!

Pip was bouncy. Both figuratively, and literally. A pep still in her step from her earlier conversation. She had a bunch to look forward to. She'd made one friend, and was on her way to making another! The Collector was real nice too, he just wanted her to give a surprise gift in exchange for a friend! The mantis kept the gift, the small cloud of mold, clutched in a claw.

The tiny mantis had to stop multiple times to check her direction. She was careful not to drop it. Pip couldn't help but wonder what was so rare about it. Maybe it was really tasty! Or it did something cool! Like change colors! She was tempted to stay and watch after she left it. To see what it did. Or taste it right now. But no. No! She had to save it--it would be rude to eat someone else's gift. And the collector had told her it was a secret secret--so no peeking!

Pip crawled to the top of a rock. It was difficult to tell, but she was sure this was where she'd seen the Bonebound last. Did they come from here? Or just live here? Pip's head tilted. Pip's eyes were caught by a speck of orange. Was that a nest? It was a feather atleast! Pip was giddy. She was going to give a gift!

She hopped down from the boulder, scurrying towards the blip of orange she'd seen. Oh! But first! Her head swiveled around, checking the area was clear. Pip lowered herself to the ground, so that even her jaws scraped the ground. Secret! Sneaky. Her abdomen flicked with barely contained excitement. She wanted to share this moment! It was so fun! Pip pushed down the urge to yell 'Hey! Look at me! I'm sneaking!'

But once Pip got her friend, she wouldn't need to worry about that! She could just say it! The insect was practically vibrating with excitement. She began to crawl towards the nest. She'd have to figure out how to climb the walls like this, but she could figure that out within twenty seconds! It would, in all likelihood, probably take her twice as long to reach the nest like this.

Stealth wasn't something that came easily to the mantis, surprisingly. At least, not out in the open like this. In a room all browns and shades of ivory. Her body, crystalline and bright purple as it was, glittered with reflected light. She, however, was blissfully unaware. Still playing the role of a spy.

@Auré

Pip didn't notice how bright she was. How she was glittering, catching the light. Practically a purple disco ball within Canis. And, apparently, neither did anyone else. Or, at the very least, no one was there to intercept her. The mantis continued her sneak, abdomen wiggling with barely contained excitement. She, finally, had crossed the majority of the flat of bones. Pip reached an incline, the major climb before she made it to Aure's nest.

She placed a limb on the incline. And another on a femur, resting on the incline. And, it just so happened, that bone set off a rube goldberg machine of unfortunate events. Even with her small size, she shifted the weight of the bone. Just enough to send the bone tumbling down. She let out a loud yelp, scrambling further up the incline. But even Pip's yelp wasn't the end of the noise. The entire spectacle. As the bone fell off the incline, it rammed into a structure of bones. It shifted. There was a small creak.

She relaxed for one, hubris filled second. Thinking that'd be the end. The bones came crashing down. With loud snaps, cracks, thuds, and a tumble that could be heard for miles. Pip stood, dumbfounded. The fungi was clutched to her chest like a lifeline. She was torn between running, and hiding, and instead opted for standing still. A bright purple mantis, still sparkling. Glued to the incline.

@Aure

Truth be told, Aure'd been asking himself: what in the Caves is that?

It glistened from his rather disused nest, like a glittering purple star. Yet, he was on a sweeping patrol of Canis, and he surmised that the sparkling was a misplaced trinket or some gemstone gift someone had brought along. Damask had a penchant for dispensing gifts, but they were either delivered personally or left at his more usual haunts. Here? The young King hadn't slept more than three days of the past cycle in his nest—if one could even call it a nest.

Well, as it had once stood.

The hybrid pinwheeled sharply at the squeaking yelp and clattering of bones. Bright eyes squinted as hard as one could at the speck of amethyst now standing stock-still on the wreckage. His ears were set as far forward as they could go when he alighted on the far side of his nest, head tilting slightly with a furrowed brow, "are you alrig—" Aure glanced down. "H-HEY—!" His heart beat a million miles a second as he nearly toppled off the edge of the incline. Wings smashed against the air, and he took to it with great glee. "P-put that down and stay still. Um, s-stay there," cried his voice, already short and breathless.

Senses felt out, but they resonated only with the tangle of fuzzy white clutched in miniscule sickle claws. What is this? ran through his head half a million times over, some kind of—hiding? Aure drifted further away in the air, head snapping to and fro, as if to find reinforcements. "What're you doing with— th-that?"

@Pip

Since Aure'd circled back, Pip had been frozen. Normally she'd be going a mile a minute. But she had absolutely no clue what to say. She glanced down at the cloud of mold in her claws. Then, dumbly, stared at it. The seconds went by. Finally, a noise. A tiny squeak of fear. She scrambled to drop the mold, hiding the cloud of fluff beneath her. "Noo! You weren't supposed to see yet! Its not a surprise if you see!"

She gasped. She wasn't supposed to say that! Well, could you say a surprise was a surprise? She scuttled in place, humming nervously, looking desperately for somewhere to hide the clump. What was she supposed to do now? This was supposed to be a secret-secret! Not to mention, Aure didn't seem...all that happy.

Well, her cover was already blown. If she'd already been spotted, she could do what she'd wanted to! Her friend Collector could agree to that, she was sure. She thought. Well, it was still kind of a surprise if she had hid it under her! She kicked the clump out from beneath. "Surprise!" She said, waving her claws. Aure may not've been happy, she was sure he would be when he realized it was a surprise! His head was whipping about in the air. Was he expecting other surprises? "It's a...gift?" She said, mildy confused. Did Aure not like gifts? No, that was impossible! That couldn't be right, otherwise the Collector wouldn't have sent her!

@Aure

"A—a surprise?" he muttered (dumbly, too.) Bright eyes peered at the clump of white fuzz, its highlights vanishing out of his magical sense as time went on. Not a shred of it had clung to the mantis—which, by the way, was sentient. Not that Aure paid much mind to that; he'd seen his fair share of strange creatures.

The wyvern had to admit that Pip was endearing, but his head sang all sorts of songs about how that was a cover. Even when presented with the awareness that contact was a direct sentence to infestation, Aure couldn't shake that feeling of dread. His worry was on full display with a thin smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "A gift," he chirped after the insect, not at all convinced-sounding.

Against his apparent better judgement, the hybrid made himself land. Yes, he looked somewhat ridiculous clinging to the rock's very edge and focusing on the clump of mold, but what was he to do? Jumpstart the exposure to looking at this complete stranger. Ah. Aure laughed breathily, awkwardly faking enthusiasm and demonstrating all the nerves currently frying in his head, "I've never... um, met you, I don't—don't think."

Neatly, he reached for the mold with his magic. "... and, you're bringing me a... uh, gift? Of something that looks like—" Focus. It levitated up into the air, floating in the neat little chunk that it was. Aure compressed it down some with a squint, and set it on a nearby shelf of rock.

Then, let the awkward staring commence: "Th—thanks?"

@Pip

"Yep!" Pip said enthusiastically."I don't think you were supposed to see me, but I still surprised you right?" Her head tilted. Aure's mouth pressed into a thin smile. She was unaware that Aure's smile wasn't all that genuine. Forced. She had, to her credit, at least memorized that jiggly things smiling was good. "Gift! I was told you'd love it lots!"

"I remember you!" Pip said. "You were at that big circle on the wall! And then a big bird came out and started yelling at us! That was kind of weird. Oh! you did some magic and made stuff glow!" Pip remembered that pretty well. She got to watch a bunch of magic get done, and big things stand next to each other. Which, in the world of Pip, was top tier entertainment.

Pip's claws twitched, pulled close to her chest, as she watched Aure take the mold with his magic. She felt proud! She had brought Aure a clump of mold that looked like something! She was excited to tell her friend Collector about it.

She was quiet for all of two seconds, before blurting out: "Ooh! You do fungi stuff, right? Does it glow? Is it special? What'd you mean look like? It looks fluffy to me, does it not look flufyf to you? Does it taste good? Whats it do?" She tapped a claw against her face.

"I haven't eaten mold yet-- but I've eaten bugs and honey! And a weird crunchy thing." Then, upon realizing Aure'd said thanks, Pip blurted out a "Yes! Big friend said you'd love it!" The mantis wriggled with excitement. And then, quite literally vibrated with it. A quiet, but high pitched melody of joy exiting her. She'd done good! Pip had to head back to big friend to tell him about it. Tell him how excited Aure was! She turned, preparing to scuttle back to where she'd last seen the collector, when she paused.

"Oh! Should I bring a gift back to big friend from you?"

@Aure

"Um," surprised is one way to put it... "I'd say so." Aure gave another half-smile, and went back to rubbing at his breastbone with the edge of a wing. His weight shifted from either foot. Consider him lucky that they weren't familiar with one another at all. One of his kin would've seen through him in an instant. In any case, he hummed nervously, "it's very nice. I'll find a good place to, uh... put it, so it can keep growing."

Talons tapped out an idle rhythm, grounding him enough to realize that oh, they had seen one another before. His ears cupped forward, a little too eager to snap up the distraction from other things. "I put you on my head, didn't I?" Aure smiled again, a little more genuinely this time. "Or am I thinking of someone else..." He jerked his beak to the side in thought—not that it was absolutely imperative that they get this story straight.

It was an easy distraction to cling onto.

Pip went back to the other thing and... ah, it was good while it lasted.

"I, uh, do do fungi stuff. Mostly growing mushrooms—(Nice segue)—not... anything like that. It's fluffy, and... looks like some very bad stuff. You don't want to eat it." It was similar enough to use it as an example, right? Not that—"you... probably shouldn't be eating random mushrooms, anyways. Some're... erm, poisonous, or worse... ?" Oh, she's going?

"Should I bring a gift back to big friend from you?" Hm... Bright eyes blinked slowly and he peered down, "it depends on who your... big friend is?" His ears went back, "like, their name. I might know them and what they like?"

@Pip

"Yeah! That was me!" Pip said, her tiny voice rising in octaves. Excited simply to be mentioned. She'd been about to go an another tirade, but stopped short once Aure mentioned mushrooms.

Her attention had been grabbed a hundred percent, and she leaned forward as he talked. Her disappointment growing by the second. So you couldn't eat them? Disappointing. She deflated a bit, her abdomen drooping. And then Aure asked for her friend's name. Pip froze, her arms clutched close.

"Mmm he said not to say, though." Singsong, she swayed with her words. "You're not supposed to share secrets. Especially secret secrets. Though...I guess I already told you kinda, huh?"

Would telling be betraying her friend? Or was it just a joke? Was she supposed to say after? He'd said it was a secret secret. Long seconds passed. Finally, Pip spoke again.

"Ummm, okay! But, uh, you can't tell him I told you! I can trust you, right? Ok! He calls himself Collector! He likes it when I call him friend, though!" Pip regretted sharing his name the instant it left her mandibles. She couldn't shake the feeling she shouldn't have shared that. But Aure was her friend! They were both her friends! What has the worst that could happen?

@Aure

Pip seemed quite upset, but she was seemingly taking the advice against that to heart—and that was the best he could ask for. (He, of course, took her shift in posture and resulting silence as interest. What else was there to go off of? She was but a little mantis.) Still, Aure took the subject change in stride...

... only to find himself segueing into another reason to worry. He'd been about to say "you can keep it se—" when she jumped right to it: "He calls himself Collector!"

Goosebumps prickled across his skin, quills standing on end. Wing-claws rubbed the feathers of his chest down, but it was impossible to smooth away his whole cotton ball self. Tail flickering and swaying uneasily, the young King hummed softly. "O—oh," he murmured, by way of stalling for time, "I do know him."

Unfamiliar as the mantis was, Aure could already guess at the next question: "Are you best friends?" His head shook once. "I don't... um, know him too well. I've met him... erm, once or twice." (Did the second time count if he was eagerly hoping for Kalama and the Bone King to pummel each other in public?)

At this point, it'd be rude not to send a gift along, or the promise of one, but...

... well...

The blatant lie burned up his throat, silly as it was, as he spoke, "maybe I'll give him a present later, after I think about what it could be... ? I don't wanna hold you up with that." Because, of course, Pip was very busy and operating on limited time!

Aure shifted his weight from foot to foot, and very casually ran a wing over the full length of his crest and neck.

@Pip