Glory hadn't needed to follow Skeena's directions to the cave of bones, he was perfectly capable of flying to it himself. With Scorch on his back and the gem gripped in his claws, though, he opted to holding himself back a little bit and not flying at top speed. It was easier, that way, to keep track of the group. But he had grown impatient near the end of the journey and had flown ahead a little bit. He arrived into the room of bones first, angling himself down towards a small hill near the entrance. One thing he did not know, he had to admit, was who this bonekeeper was and where she could be found. Or even where to take the stone so that the runes would react.

He slowed himself in the air, his wing beats getting faster as he tried to maintain his position above the ground. As carefully as possible, he set down the gem, freeing his claws before he touched down next to it and leaned over so Scorch could get off. "Well, we're here. The room of bones." He eyed the gem and then the entrance and held his head a little higher. "I hope this thing does something and that the other get here soon."

©art by rettamkrad
@Scorch @Skeena @Thothaga @Felina

Felina arrived in the Room of Bones shortly after huge eagle did. Of course, she recognized her surroundings immediately. She *had* been living here at one time.

A lot of time had passed since the "kingdom" she lived in was more populated. So long, in fact, that she couldn't remember who "ruled" here anymore. She'd forgotten the friends she shared this place with, too.

All she saw now were...bones. She heard the eagle's comment. "I'm here, Sir Eagle. My name is Felina. I have been here before. It was my home for a little while. If someone else lives here now, maybe she's hiding in the bone piles. Hopefully, she'll show up soon."

((OOC: Felina never met Glory. She doesn't know his name yet.))

Scorch hopped off of Glory's back and turned in a full circle to get a better look at this new cave. The journey took much less time than it would have if he'd gone by himself, for which he was grateful. "This is a whole lot of bones!" the owlet exclaimed. "Where does it all come from?"

He reached out a talon and poked a bone experimentally. It felt very real, which made him feel nauseous. How many animals had died to give enough bones to fill this room? It was like a massive graveyard. Small plants emerged near Scorch's talons in an attempt to comfort himself.

Trying to distract himself, Scorch reached out and poked the gem (carefully, carefully) with a single claw. "I hope it does something too. I don't know where we'd find more bones than this."

Skeena skittered into Canis, taking a deep breath.

Oh, how she loved the musty smell of bones. It was home, it was safety. So she hurried to catch up to the two birds, scrambling up onto a pile of bones to be closer to eye-height with the others.

"Mother lives near a pit of bones, it's what she uses to read her bones." she offered.

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
Thothaga sprinted ahead to keep up with Glory. He was carrying something she found precious after all and she didn't want it to leave her sight. In short bursts, Thothaga was surprisingly swift, but Glory had endurance. It wasn't long before the spider became winded and was forced to slow down, and watch helplessly as the eagle flew far past her line of sight. Letting him carry it was a mistake. She thought ruefully as the others pasted her too.

Eventually, Thothaga caught up. Canis certainly lived up to its name, the cavern was filled with bones. The hairs on her legs picked up strange, dusty scents. The tingle of magicka waned here, she found it uncomfortably quiet, as if the air was just as dead as the bones. Thothaga crawled up to the group, and immediately raced to the gem once she saw that Glory had set it down. As far as she could tell the eagle had not scratched it. She sighed with relief, perhaps she had misjudged Glory.

Thothaga turned towards the owlet as he expressed his curoisty towards the origin of the bones. "I can ask them and find out." She said to him. Truthfully, Thothaga was just as curious as he was.

"We should to take it to the wall with the carvings." Thothaga reminded them. She racked her memory for details, but beyond the fragmented memory she received and the carvings, it was cloudy. Thothaga approached the gem once more. "Here, let me speak to it again, it might tell me more." but she did not wait for anyone to give her permission. Thothaga went to place her pedipalps on the stone's smooth surface once more, and asked it to show her more.

At the last second, she felt the magicka violently tear from her grasp and backfire. She was going to regret this.

(omfg GM tell me what the effects are)

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Glory @Felina @Skeena @Scorch // OOC:

As Thothaga touched the gemstone, as her magicka brushed its own, there was a sudden chaotic backlash of energies. A tangle of powerful emotions and images would fill the large spider's mind, foreign and yet difficult to differentiate from her own memories, for a moment--real and surreal all at once.

Terror, perhaps more powerful than an arachnid had any business experiencing. A fearful rolling of eyes. A gleeful malice, and a pair of glinting, crimson pinprick lights. The agony of life itself drained forcibly from a mortal coil, and the abrupt fading of a consciousness, laced with horror-filled finality. Dark digits closing around a shining golden ring. Savage triumph. Darkness. And then nothing.

@Thothaga @Glory

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
Suddenly the spider snapped from her trance and screamed in terror as she reared and scrambled away. The onslaught of emotions drowned out her own senses and for an agonizing moment, she felt as though her life was being drained. Then, as suddenly as it came, it faded away, and she found herself back in Canis, among the others, but a foreign, unpalatable wickedness left behind a bitter taste in the air. Cautiously, she came out of her frightened huddle, and stretched forth a leg, daring herself to touch it again, to see if was a fluke. "Death." She rasped. "There was death! Quick, get the Bone Reader!."


"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

One by one, the others began to arrive and Glory nodded with approval. He puffed out his chest importantly as he stood beside the glowing gem. The places where Scorch had dug into his skin were stinging a bit, but it was nothing to worry about. The wound would fix itself on its own or he could fix himself later. The important thing right now was solving this mystery. As the bobcat entered and spoke to him, he looked at them with surprise, not really knowing what to say. He couldn't describe how good it felt to be called "sir" but it also felt really strange. He chuckled awkwardly. "Oh, Glory's fine. The name's Glory. It's good to know that there's another here that knows of this place. I'm afraid my visit here was short and I don't know the way around."

As the others, especially the spider, arrived along with the bobcat, he watched the spider's interaction with the stone and almost jumped at their sudden scream. He widened his eyes and his wings spread a bit, ready for any kind of trouble that would come, but there was nothing. Perhaps it was just something the spider had seen. The stone, after all, seemed no different. He narrowed the eyes. If they had truly seen death, then they could waste no time. He turned towards the majority of Canis and sucked in a breath. However, his surprise seemed to affect his voice and what he wanted to be a screech was barely a yell as he called out into the room. "Bone reader! We require your assistance!"

Being fully possible that they couldn't hear him, he turned towards the rat-thing. "Okay, why don't you lead us to where she is? We can meet half-way."

©art by rettamkrad
@Scorch @Skeena @Felina @Thothaga @Giggle

Giggle was lying by her bone pile, fast asleep, when something woke her. Her head lifted from her paws, her dark eyes blinking blearily open. Rounded ears rotated as she peered around. Nothing came to her senses--but through her link with her familiar, which she tapped into tentatively (too sleepy, still, to be decisive), she sensed wary alert--and curiosity.

"What is it, Omen?" she asked aloud, voice husky and masculine. She pushed up from the ground, the question echoing as exactly that--mere wordless 'questioning'--along their shared link.

The bird's thoughts came likewise wordless, as they always did, though Giggle automatically, absently translated their meaning into words. She could see, too, a brief glimpse of the bird's flight in her own mind's eye: the bone cave slipping away below, a distant gathering of Gembound among the bones. Many were strangers to her, but she recognized one of her children among them.

Calls and strangers, Mother-Sister! Calls and strangers!

Bring them to me, Giggle thought to the bird, after a moment's consideration. Skeena could bring them here regardless, no doubt, but it would be good to greet them nonetheless.

________________

The black bird with its single crimson eye flew overhead, sweeping high above the gathered Gembounds with their glowing blue stone. Its cry echoed, haunting, among the bones.

"BRING! TO MOTHER BRING!" the bird called down--perhaps unhelpfully. It then began to fly back and forth, rapidly, between the gathering, and the direction of Giggle's bone pit.

If nothing else, at least it would confirm her current location to the visitors.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

The rodent watched as the giant cave-spider approached, and licked her paws, beginning to groom her muzzle.

It felt good to be back in Canis again, where she had been born. The air smelled of familiar bones, dust and must and other such things. To others, the smells might be disconcerting, and frightening, but to her it was home. The Voice seemed to quiet down here - although, to her relief, it had been rather quiet as of late.

Skeena twitched her ears, trying to figure out where she had seen such carvings before. It was on the tip of her tongue, but she could not say. She watched as the spider touched the gem, only to startle back when it began to scream, scrambling back. "Are you-?" before she could ask after its health, however, it was demanding that they get the bone reader - that they get her mother.

"of course," she responded to Glory, only to be cut off as she saw Mother's dearest familiar. "Omen!" she called, waving at the Hallowed Caller, only for it to call out to them and fly away.

She hurried after the Hallowed Caller, trusting the others to follow her. Her feet upon the rocks and stones and bones were sure and steady, easily finding hand-holds despite the shifting of the ground beneath her.

Mother came into sight, and she called "Mother! I've missed you!" she scurried up to the Hyena, butting her head against Mother's chest, before saying, "We need your help with this stone,"