Among the "to be adventured" items on Acheron's "adventure list" was a visit to Canis. She was enthusiastic about visiting most of the caves--exploring, learning, experiencing--but her father'd suggested she come here, and after he'd explained why, she'd bumped it up to the top of her list.

A "fortune teller" with an actual skill at seeing the future, after all, might warn her about some dangers in her other upcoming adventures. So here she was, twining her way down among the bones along a worn and dusty trail. It was... a little spooky, here. But exciting, too; the sense of danger and death all around held a creeping thrill. She couldn't claim bravery, though; once when a distant bird called she jumped, hooves smacking into a bone with a clack, and then bolted a few yards when that started a clattering cascade. She was on edge, but after she recovered she managed to keep her head.

Acheron's nose was to the wind. She sought the odors of other living things; she didn't know what a "hyena" was, but she figured she'd know it when she saw it.

Hopefully.

Maybe.

After a second scare--with a mouse rushing out across the trail--Acheron paused. She tried to gather up her magic, to form that "just in case" barrier her dad had taught her. This place was scary, and she would feel a little more protected with a protective cloak of sorts around her.

She felt the shimmer of kinetic magic settle into her body, and--feeling a little better--looked around her.

There didn't seem to be any sign of a hyena--or anything else, for that matter. Just stacks of bones and trails worn into the rock. Well... there is that one magic, she thought. Pride had shown her, though she hadn't tried it yet herself, a magic that'd let her split off a version of herself to search a little more easily. Maybe if she could use that, she could search faster? She didn't know how hard it was to make, though--or once made, how hard it'd be to control

But it was, she thought, worth a shot.

Acheron stood silent, concentrating, face scrunching up and legs stiff. For a few moments the dust drifted around her in silence, the pup-fawn looking distinctly alone in Canis's glare.

...Nothing happened. She relaxed, after a moment, with a huff; and then she tried to think about what she might've done wrong.

Maybe I didn't picture it hard enough? she thought.

Acheron focused a second time, again standing squinting and stiff-legged on the rock. She tried to picture her magic coiling through her body, creating a second version of her--one that'd simply step aside, as Pride's had done. He'd made it look so easy!

Again nothing came; she huffed and looked around.

Okay, new tactic, she decided.

She found a bone--just a random one; there was nothing really notable about it whatsoever, but she needed something to focus on. A few hoof-clicks later, she'd trotted over to it, and then she nudged it out onto the rock and stood alongside it.

Her thought process was: Maybe if I imagine the bone is me, I can make it more easily than just splitting myself? or something along those lines.

She could only hope that it would work.

She was determined now, deep in concentration, fear forgotten. She stood straight and glanced down at the bone, willing it to look like her. She'd mold a version of herself around it, and then move it from there.

...And nothing happened.

"Come oooon," she whined, in a quiet murmur. One hind hoof briefly kicked down, clacking against the stone.

She took a breath, trying to steady herself, but her irritation--and disappointment--were rising. She was stymied here, stuck, and she hadn't even found the fortune-teller yet-!

Acheron eyed the bone a moment, then gently pushed it with a shove of one hoof back to where she'd found it.

Then the fawn-pup continued on, a focused expression on a tight face, searching for something else to... to turn into her.

Acheron found a rock.

That'd do, right?

It was a largish rock, tan like the rest of Canis, nondescript and plain. Maybe that would help--it was just a template, a starting point, not something to look at on its own.

"Come on," she murmured again, stubbornness spiking higher. She braced down, grunting, and pushed her magicka outward, trying to thrust it for the rock in a flare.

Finally--finally--it took, a shimmering form beginning to take shape around the stone. Acheron was so startled she nearly lost the grip of the spell, and had to scramble to retake control, shaping it into a second her.

It stared off at nothing, and she stared at it, and then--tentative--she tried her hoof at controlling it.

It turned, gazing at her, its expression empty and placid; and it was eerie, staring into her own face like that. She noticed--to her surprise--that the little nubs of antlers had grown just a little bit. She hadn't realized it herself, and for a moment she inspected them--before realizing the double was slowly eating away her magic.

Oh, she thought--she hadn't realized it'd take energy to maintain. Hastily she tried to urge it forward, and it obeyed: the other-her took off at a slow trot. She sent it curving away up a hill, and after a moment's focusing on it (it was dizzying, seeing through its eyes and her own), she tentatively set off on her own.

It took a great deal of focus to control--and magic, too; it took her a moment to not stumble or lose the spell while trying to both move and move the double at once, through two sets of eyes.

Luckily, she didn't need to control it for long; she caught sight of a stranger up ahead, through the double, at the top of a curving trail. They were reddish, spotted, heavy; they seemed to be resting near a bed of clotted fungus. Is that a hyena-? she wondered, and turned, letting her double fade in favor of trotting up along the path it had taken.

It took Acheron a few minutes to find the way--she got lost, briefly, confused as to exactly which path she'd sent the doppleganger down. But she recognized a landmark or two, and made her way at last to Giggle's bone pit.

"Hello?" she called out as she approached; "I'm looking for a hyena? Uh, Giggle?"

Then she was in sight: Acheron crested a ridge of ancient rock to find the creature just ahead.

Giggle was far larger than she'd looked through the double, and very raggedy. Acheron was at once glad she'd put the shield in place, even if Pride had assured her that the fortune-teller was trustworthy enough. There was just something about her: the dark-colored, predatory face; the equally dark eyes, thick jaws; the scraggly fur and the scars. She looked like a predator, and she looked old, and Acheron found herself hesitating.

She was a little annoyed at her own fear, and tried to push past it with some bluster. "Hey. Are you Giggle?" she tried, focusing on keeping her voice steady.

And what if it isn't..? What if this isn't even a Greater? What if this thing's about to try and eat me?

The thought was not encouraging.

Giggle had been dozing--not asleep, not really awake--by her bone pit. She'd been... maybe the best word would be "stagnating," in recent days. Lying about, no visitors, no Bonebound, nothing. She'd hunted, eaten, slept, wandered a little, but only in Canis; sometimes she was bored, other times, her mind wandered.

The revelation of a living rebel king from the old days had startled her--but as with the Lorekeeper, she'd kept her lips tightly sealed. Had offered him a place, even, if he needed it--Masters be damned. But since then-? Nothing.

With a huff she began to stand--and just then, someone called her name. Her large, rounded ears pricked up, and she peered down the trail. Not a voice I know, she decided, and took a breath. Omen was asleep, perched up atop the pit, so it was up to her to try and identify this stranger.

She relaxed a little when she saw the visitor's size: a child, undoubtedly, ungainly and a little clumsy. A quick assessment didn't tell her much; she didn't know who this might be. The colors, abruptly, reminded her a little of someone she'd seen a very long time ago--a dog, headed into the Trials. Maybe he'd had a kid? Maybe he was still around somewhere, then. Or maybe it was unrelated.

Anyway, to business.

"That's me," she answered, her hoarse voice raspy by nature and moreso from disuse. And then, an educated guess: "Are you here for the bones?"

The hyena stood, and she really was big--tall, hefty, and oh no, she stinks. The odor of old fungus and faint, stale rot had reached her nostrils a moment after Giggle stood, and Acheron winced despite herself.

She hesitated, though--distracted at once--at Giggle's question.

The bones?

Was that what her father'd mentioned? She couldn't remember, so she answered honestly. "Uhh--for a fortune? My dad--Pride--sent me. I'm Acheron," she added, and then--still very uncertain--"Hi."

Pride? Giggle pulled back just a bit, looking Acheron up and down, re-appraising her. She could sort of see it, she supposed; hooves, antler nubs... but really, that's where the similarities ended. The face was distinctly a predator's--canine, and the colors were all wrong. The stone, too.

"Pride?" she said, at last, aloud. She hadn't seen him in cycles, but that wasn't really surprising; she rarely left Canis, and he rarely came here. Still, the idea he'd actively sent his own kid to see her was something. It implied... oh, some sort of trust, or something. At least he didn't think she was completely batshit, and that was nice.

"Well, come on then. I read the bones, for fortunes. Did he sent you to ask something specific?" she added, turning toward back toward the pit. Maybe he sent her to ask something else, she mused, with a curious glance back.

Up close, she could see that the hyena was... scarier, really.

The skull makeup, the bones painted over her and ending in streaks like blood, the smaller, far more real bones clasped to her in all sorts of leather thongs... It was a little unsettling.

Acheron had to concentrate on the question, and she stayed uncertainly a little far behind Giggle as she followed her up the path. "Oh, he-... He said you could see the future. That you could see what's in mine. My future," she clarified, her child's language still stumbling a bit at times.

She was left, for a beat, in awkward silence--which she at once attempted to fill. "So--can you? See the future, I mean? My future?" But her eyes kept drifting back to those bones.

They were... scary, but the more she looked at them, the more she thought they were kind of cool. "Why are you wearing bones?" she blurted at last, curiosity taking her over.