From Polaris they traveled, in silence, as she lead her husband to their friends' graves. Part of her wanted to run, run far away from what was about to happen. The last thing she wanted to do was see their gems again. It was like going to open up an old wound while dousing it with salt. Deep inside it was already starting to hurt but still she marched on with the bear in tow. Her head was low, eyes downcast. She'd walked this path many times in her past and there was no risk that she would forget where to go, unfortunately.

Before long they were outside the entrance of Canis and she lead them off the path, over to a more secluded spot where she stopped and without saying a thing flicked her tail at something. If the bear were to look down he would see bits and pieces of orange to red and blue. Both of these gems needed no explanations from her. Leon would recognize them as what they were, broken gems that should have been on their friends' heads. Cancer and Mau's.

She would remain silent before shaking her head, a visible show of trying to brush off what she was feeling inside. This was not their last stop, no. He wanted to see... She would show all. So, she walked into Canis, not stopping to see if he was following as she headed straight towards something she'd noticed a little while ago when going in an attempt to see her old friend, The Bone King.

There. She could see it in the distance before she picked up to a trot and stopped before it. On the ground was a few broken pieces of red part of, Aza'zel's stone. Lying scattered here and there were a few orange and brown feathers still stained with a bit of blood. His body had been removed, most likely by the Bonebound... or scavengers. Either way it was no longer there to showcase but there didn't need to be any more proof than this.

The lioness' eyes closed as she sat down heavily on her hindquarters, fighting back the emotions that swelled within her. After a few moments in a voice that started to crack she said,

"I told you... They're all dead."

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words| 384
tagged| Leon
ooc| ---
muse| 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

The whole time, his head was buzzing. He could barely comprehend everything that had happened while he was gone, everything that changed. All the death. The caves felt quieter, and he wondered if everyone really had gone away or it was an artifact of everything that Makyna told him. There were smells of gembounds he once knew, but they were stale; doubtless that in some way, it really was true. How could so much have happened, how could so many disappear and die within four cycles?

He was trying to imagine, too, what he would see. As they reached the entrance of the cavern, he recognized the dusty smell of the bones and that of the Bonebound that usually haunted this room. There were no lively voices, nor the familiar caw of his friend, or the common sound of bones as they shifted and slid across the rock in the midst of the Bonebounds' antics. The smell of Kerberos, once filling him with dread and anger, was nothing more than a vague memory that lined the stone walls. When Makyna stopped, he did too, trailing his gaze in the direction of her gesture.

Blue and orange gems littered the ground. At first, the sight of both of them made his stomach turn. He instantly recognized the orange gems - they once sat atop Cancer's head. The cat who he had hated, first for his pursuit of Makyna, and then for Amaria. They had reached an agreement. Amaria's happiness mattered the most, and Leon would swallow his pride and anger for her sake. The blue gem - the blue gem wasn't hers. It was too deep. For that, he felt a small relief, but something remained that unsettled him. It wasn't his childrens', either. Whose gem was it, nestled alongside an acquaintance like Cancer?

Makyna was quick to move on, and Leon hesitated in following. He couldn't rip his eyes away from what remained of the black leopard, but they had to. His stomach was already sinking at what he'd seen so far.

His paws dragged, relenting against going deeper into the belly of the death cave. When she stopped again, it was to reveal another scattering of gems - broken, deep red shards, nestled among a smear of dried blood and old feathers. Leon approached beside her and felt his throat close up. He wanted to ask her what had happened, but no sound could find its way from his lips. He wanted to know what tragedy had befallen the king of bones. What monster had taken away his friend?

What was worse was the wall of guilt that hit him as he sat there mourning the loss of Aza'zel. He'd still hated the bird when he'd been attacked with Ghanyarah. He'd still hated him when he awoke, and yet here he was, wishing that he could have seen Aza'zel one last time. In the wake of so much death, his defense of Kerberos' betrayal didn't even matter. How many things could he say to Aza'zel if the bird was still here? How many times would he apologize and try to understand?

It felt like he'd been staring at the carnage for years before Makyna's voice rang out.

They're all dead.

Leon drew in a long, slow breath, closing his eyes.

"But what about our children?"

She hadn't shown him. And maybe he didn't want to see. But he had to. He had to know before he could move on.

She knew that everything must be shocking to him with their dead friends and allies. The caves used to be so full of life but now... now everything was gone. Would it ever be back to the way it was before, even with Leon here? No. She sincerely doubted it. It was a bit better than before with him but still it would never be the same. Everything was shattered, dead and gone, even their innocence. Hers, at least. Leon was still relatively unchanged after exiting from the chrysalis but she had gone through cycles of pain and torture. No longer was she the carefree Makyna that had wandered the caves before.

As the large bear sat and absorbed the new information she could feel the pain and the guilt that raged inside of him. Perhaps she could have helped the bird but she hadn't even seen how he'd died, just stumbled upon the remains of whatever tragedy had taken place within the walls of the Bonebound. The late Bonebound... Makyna didn't even know if they were still around. It seemed as if this place was empty, far too empty for the once robust group. Perhaps even they had fallen just like their great king.

A question rang in the air between them. The children? Did he really even need to see? How could they even have survived if everyone else had perished? They were young and likely to have been swallowed up in the perilous tunnels. "I have not seen their bodies nor their stones but I know that they couldn't have survived here. I have been wandering for four cycles and seen hide nor hair of them." She turned her head away, mouth turned down into the frown that frequented her muzzle these days. "I know they are dead... or worse." What could be worse than death? Being trapped within the shadows of the tunnel, living like Lesser Gembounds with their bodies in tact but their minds unable to form coherent thoughts. Who wanted to live like that?

"I know you are hopeful but I've found that hope does more damage than good." It was a hard lesson that she'd learned and now she wished to be away from this graveyard. Perhaps she could take him back to Cetus and introduce him to the new gems she'd mothered. They were young and so far the caves hadn't swallowed them up... but she didn't know what would happen in the future. Perhaps he'd like to see them before something happened.

"Let's be away. This place saddens me now..." She rose to her paws, turning away and beginning the long trek to Cetus with head lowered and tail sweeping the ground.

_____________

words| 451
tagged| Leon @Quintus
ooc| I feel like it'd be a good spot to have him pop in o3o
muse| 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Since the very beginning that things started to fall apart before him, Quintus had decided that he would not dare give up, that he would continue to push on despite the obstacles before him and to an extend he upheld this little promise of his. To this day, he would continue looking for his loved ones, even faces he was vaguely familiar with would do but it seemed as if everyone had left him to go on to better things or worse, either way he was all alone and the longer the lion went like this, the more that vibrant energy inside of him diminished. It had gone on long enough for the lion to assume that his younger siblings might just have had the terrible fate of death befall them the same way it did Bevy, and despite how much he didn't want to believe it he could not for the fact that they was merely children troubled him.

He worried the most for his brother, Baroque, but all Quintus could do was hope that another individual was doing his job of protecting the timid bear for him. As for his parents, Quintus truly believed that the two we're still alive and looking for their children the same way he was looking for them. He had no idea as to why they left but it must have been for a good reason, right? Upon arriving to Canis, he couldn't help but feel even more down than he already was and hell, who could blame him? The room of Canis was a complete wasteland and the fact that the Bonebound had also pretty much all disappeared made the room even more depressing.

As he would traverse the room of bones, thoughts of his closest companion and his children would come to mind, cringe worthy thoughts that he would attempt to dismiss just as quickly as they had been put on his head. "Bartos..." Quintus felt as if he had to say the name of his old friend or he might just forget it, not even just the name of his old friend but the name of every individual he had ever met within Origin Cave. "Leon, Makyna," as soon as the two names would come out his mouth, the image of his mother and father would appear before his very eyes.

Such a cruel illusion, was the first thought that would come to mind until he finally realized that what he saw before him was reality, the two was even talking! "Mom? Dad?" Is it really you? despite how much he wanted to say the words, he would hold his tongue and wait till a reply was given.