Bayo looked up and frowned, and stared at the bone harder, trying to trigger something. But how did one use magic? He knew that his siblings could make mushrooms, but how did he do that?

"I dunno how," he said, pawing at the bone and watching it roll, "I've never used magic b'fore."

He sat down and pouted for a moment, the gears turning in his brain. He touched a paw to the bone and stared at it harder, trying to spark something, to make something happen. And sure enough... he did.

It had been a rabbit before his sibling had gotten to it. Brought by a winged creature (Damask, he realized, recognizing black feathers before she ultimately disappeared). It had been grazing, munching on grasses before claws had swept it up, clutching it tightly before it died, only a small snap of pain before nothingness.

Bayo gasped and jumped away, ears perked forward. Woah.

"Mama!", he said, whirling around and falling over, disoriented from his vision, "I-I saw it! I Saw mama!"

Bayo was so proud of himself in that moment, a great big grin spreading across his face as his tail started going, wagging so hard it looked like it was going to fall off.

"I did magic," he said with amazement.

@Giggle

She was up in an instant--back on her feet, padding over with bright interest and encouragement in her face and in her tone. "Did you?" she asked, in that perhaps overly-emphasized way parents sometimes use with children, the way that, as they grow older, might be seen as condescension. But for now it was for learning, for enthusiasm. And she was enthusiastic for him: was he doing magic already-?

Giggle came up alongside her son, peering at the bone, and then at him, eyes bright. "Well, Bayo, don't just stand there--tell me what you saw!" It was said with amused good nature, gently, not pushy. She was excited for him, and it was clear that she couldn't wait to hear what he had seen.

She did not yet try to cast magic--to sense his own--not after the failure of moments ago. But she watched, and waited, every line in her face one of attentive praise.

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@Bayo

Bayo instantly pressed into his mother's side, his tail thumping against the ground as his butt wiggled, "Yeah!!"

He cleared his throat and inhaled before launching into his retelling of what he'd seen, "It was a rabbit!! It was off eatin' some grass and WOOSH!! OUT OF NOWHERE!!"

Bayo bounded forward and slapped his paws down, "Dammy grabbed it! It was Dammy 'cause I saw her pretty feathers y'know? I love her feathers- ANYWAY!! She snatched it up and got it's neck and bam bam! Dead!"

He hopped onto his hind paws before falling backwards, giggling happily. He rolled over and pushed himself up, shaking dust out of his fur and giving himself a lick or two before galloping over to Giggle once again.

"I Saw it so good mama!", he said with a grin, cackling with glee as he pressed up against her chest, hopping up to bump the top of his head against her chin, more like a cat than anything.

@Giggle

Her laugh was a delighted one, half-interrupted at the head-bump, but she didn't mind that.

"Definitely sounds like it, kiddo," she answered good-naturedly, and proceeded to snuffle for his head-fur, in an attempt to do something rather like ruffling a child's hair. "Looks like you've got our magic, at least. The Bonebound magic. We've got some Seers, for sure," she added, proudly.

She didn't often think of the family as, well, family; ever since Damask's hatching she'd kept away from the core that had become--in her own mind--Damask, Eythan and Aure. She felt like she hardly talked to her son, anymore; but her child knowing the magic, their magic, somehow seemed to tie things back together. They were related; they were in this together.

It struck her, too, that Bayo--once he was a tad older--and Aure, in particular, might get along. They were both gentle and inquisitive souls, and she felt instinctively that Bayo's push for more might bring Aure out, a little. He'd always been so measured, that one; so quiet by comparison to some of them.

"We should show the Bone King," she suggested, that warmth still in her tone, this idea fresh in her mind. "Maybe next time he passes this way, you guys can practice, together." Half-brother bonding would always be a good thing.

Well. Most of the time, anyway.

"I've seen all sorts of stuff, in the stones, and in the bones. A warning, it isn't always nice," she added, remembering a vision of pulsing blood and meat--a creation, she'd thought, and a bizarre one. And she'd seen fear, and death, in the final moments of many a bone's last moments. "But death is a part of life, and the spirits that pass live on."

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@Bayo

Bayo wagged his little tail and cooed, "Bonebound magic! That's our family, right? Who else is a part of it?"

He knew his current family group- Giggle, Enoki, and Chitin- were of the Bonebound, and so was Dammy. But the Bone King was a name he hadn't heard before, and he very much enjoyed it. It was just so cool!

"That's the coolest name ever!", he said, having no brain-to-mouth filter, "I wanna meet him! Can I be like- the Skull Lord!!"

Bayo prowled forward and growled, before hopping on his back legs and jumping after a bone moth, batting at it and missing, "Bwaah!! That's right, moth!! Fear me and my powaaah!"

He looked to Giggle as she said her warning, plonking down on his butt to scratch his ear, his tongue flopping out of his mouth and sticking out the side when he closed it, giving him an even derpier appearance.

"If life went on and on and on, wouldn't that get boring?", he asked, "So... I guess death is just finally taking that nap after a really, really long day. An' I won't forget that it ain't always gonna be nice!!"

He ran forward and hugged Giggle suddenly, burying his face in her fur, "... But I don't want you to die. I don't like that, I don't wanna be without you."

Even at the concept, Bayo teared up, scared of a world without his dear mom in it.

@Giggle

She watched, having plonked down on her own rear. At his worry, she offered a barking laugh of her own.

"Don't you worry, kiddo, I've no plans to go anywhere just yet." But a memory rose at the back of her mind, bobbing there unpleasantly: a reading that had warned her of the children left alone. Of a childhood without her guidance.

What had it meant-?

She pushed the thought away, for now.

"As for a title, you'd have to ask Aure that. But you'd better make sure you've got something to show him, yeah?" This was given with friendly mischief, as if implying that Aure were somehow some hard-to-please and formidable master, as if Bayo would need to bring him the heads of their enemies, or something. But the tone was joking enough that (she hoped) it was clearly only humor.

"Anyway, we can practice a little more if you like, if you're not tired--don't push yourself too hard with magic. Or we can go back to the others. I don't want to leave them alone too long," she added, with a little nod. "We learned something today, though, huh? And it's something you can work on."

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@Bayo

Bayo nodded excitedly, tears drying as quickly as they came, "It'll be so cool! I'll bring him like... a deer! A whole deer, and I'll catch it myself, too!"

He jumped up and grinned, "And if he bone-see-thingys it, then he can see how awesome I was taking it down!"

He slapped his paws on the ground in his own little way of clapping with glee, giggling and cackling. He galloped forward and grinned back at his mama, cheeks chubby with his massive smile.

"I wanna practice more, mama," he said, "I'm gonna get so good at magic that I'll be as good as you, someday."

He looked off towards where they'd left his siblings, "I think they're asleep, anyway, and Omen can watch 'em, right? We're not too far if anythin' happens."

Bayo jumped up onto his hind legs to peer over the grass to try and see them, but assuming Omen was with them and hadn't alerted Giggle to danger, he was convinced everything was okay. So that meant they could practice for just a bit longer.

"What other spells are there? Like the uh... the mushroom one," he said, struggling to describe it before just going for it.

Bayo strained to make the spell, a little tiny mushroom sprouting between his paws before immediately wilting. His ears drooped and he pouted, disappointed.

"The uh... the mushroom wasn't 'sposed to die," he tried to explain, wincing.

@Giggle

Giggle laughed at Bayo's promise of downing an entire deer. It wasn't that she didn't think he could, once an adult--she had no idea how big he might become, or what his other parent might have been--but he was so small right now, and fluffy and adorable: the absolute opposite of a fierce hunter. So her laugh wasn't unkind--it was indulgent, amused, and she stepped over and leaned down for another nuzzle. "Well, one day you'll take down deer without a problem, I'm sure. Just remember the lessons--don't be cruel; we only kill because we have to, and they feel pain too. And fear. Kill fast. And if you need help, just ask!" she added, this last enthusiastic.

She paced over to see what he was doing. When it turned out to be "nothing" she peered at him, but his words quickly explained his attempt. "Fungus-... is a little more tricky than other magic," she said at last, after a long and thoughtful pause. Her tone was more serious now--less playful--and she paced away to press her snout to the mucky rock.

A moment's focus, almost reverential thought, and a slow flow of violet-capped fungus began to spring up slowly along the rock. This alone gave Giggle pause--it wasn't something she'd ever seen, or grown, before; it must have been spores latent on the ground, here. She stepped back, and sat down, regarding them with interest; then she turned to Bayo to continue her little lesson.

"Fungus is alive. Like the mouse, like deer, like plants. It grows, and reproduces, but it's very special. It doesn't grow just off dirt and water--not naturally. It'll grow on other things, dead things. Wood and roots underground. Bones and bodies. It consumes what once was alive, as we do. And it takes that into itself." She paused, thinking. These weren't concepts she'd ever really had to put into words, before, and now she had to think about how best to phrase it all, particularly for a little kid whose attention span, and interest, might not be all there. "It takes those things into itself--the life force, the memory, the energy the thing it ate held. So you're not just working with fungus. You're working with... a power, you see? I always try to treat it with respect--like it has a mind of its own."

Giggle gave the mushroom carpet a nod. "It's like any living thing. It wants to live, thrive, keep living. It wants you to give it stuff to grow off of. If you do that, it'll cooperate, I find. If you just try and force it to do your bidding, without any care for its own existence, it won't work with you. Try again... and think about what it wants. Try to tap into it," she explained, slowly. "And remember, as your magic, it's a part of you."

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@Bayo

Bayo stood on his hind legs to nuzzle Giggle back, his little tail going so hard his whole back end was wiggling, ”I know! I'll be super quick with it, and I won't make it suffer if I can help it.”

But he was confident he wouldn't need to ask for help. He had scavenger blood in his veins, but he knew that if he put the effort in, he could take down anything if he tried hard enough.

But for now, he sat down before Giggle, ears perked forward. His eyes widened and his tail stopped wagging, all his attention on his mother. He was awed by her speech, by the power he had.

”So I'm not like... controllin' it, I'm just bribin' it?”, he asked, eyes narrowed a bit in thought, ”Like when I gave Enoki a hug so I could have his leftovers.”

A weird example, but he sort of got it?

Bayo stood up and nudged the bone he'd Sighted previously, since Giggle had told him fungus liked dead things. Maybe it would help his spell a bit more. He licked his lips and prepared, trying to coax the fungus to grow.

'I got food, so... grow please?', he thought, hoping that his thoughts translated to casting.

The spell was slow to get going, but after a few moments, mushrooms began to sprout sluggishly, with brown caps and white stalks, the generic kind that were seen nearly everywhere. His jaw dropped and he looked up at Giggle, a huge grin spreading across his face.

”I-I did it!”, he said, tail wagging, ”Mama I made mushrooms!!”

@Giggle

Giggle offered Bayo a congratulatory nudge, and her pride in him was very real as she spoke. It wasn't the sort of tone a parent forces; no, she was impressed that he was taking so easily to his magic. Maybe he'd be a real prodigy, some day; and it wasn't vain hopes that made her pray for it, but the desire of an honest parent for their child to succeed, and have an easy, good life. Magic, in these caves, seemed to be a surefire route to such a life. "Great job, Bayo! Look at that, just like that," she encouraged, leaning down to peer at these. They looked a lot like her hallucinogenic mushrooms, so she hastened to add a warning. "Now, a lot of mushrooms are either poisonous to eat, or they'll make you see and hear things that aren't there. That's real dangerous, okay, so don't ever, uh--lick, sniff or eat mushrooms unless you know they're safe."

There. Dutiful warning given.

She went on, then, with the little lesson. "Once you have mushrooms you can do all sorts of things with them. You can use 'em to see into the past--you know that bit--or put specific smells out there, like the one mushroom that smells like food but tastes awful. Or you can grow these black, gooey mushrooms on yourself for protection. That one's a little harder to get right, but it's helpful if something's trying to bite you!" Giggle stood up. A moment's focus, and her own fur suddenly burst into a proliferation of inky black fungus, dripping with disgusting goop. "It takes awhile to clean off," she told her son, amused, "but your enemies'd have a hard time getting a grip on you. This is a good early mushroom to learn."

She sat back down, thinking. "There's mushrooms whose spores can influence the minds of others. That's gotta be used responsibly. It can make them see stuff that's not there--like eating the same ones--or it can make them see you as their friend, even if they're your enemy, for awhile. And there's this white, sticky fungus out there, like mold. They call that Mother, and you have to always stay away from that," she warned.

Shit, this wasn't a lesson she'd exactly planned on, but here went nothing. "It's its own type of fungus, with its own mind, from far away. I don't know where. But it goes into Gembound and links up their minds, and makes it do its own bidding. You and I, we can control fungus with our magic--guide it, influence it. This fungus has the magic to do the same thing to Gembound, in turn: to control us. So if someone comes to you, or you find a lesser, with weird white growths--use your magic to push the fungus and all its spores away. Okay?"

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@Bayo