((ooc -- for aza'zel))

She was where she always was, where she lived, where the point of the roof of Canis swept down to nearly touch the floor of the cave. Quite near here, with only about fifteen feet of roof clearance, there was a flat circular area where no plants grew. Instead, Giggle had found, and added to, and collected, a large pile of bones. Some were dry and white; others were yellow and smelled faintly of carrion. The small ferns that grew in Canis ringed the outer edges, as if they dared not cross into the bonepile's territory.

A tall, bluntly-pointed boulder swept out overhead, so that if one were to climb up the gentle slope at the back, they could stand at the tip and look down on the bones. If one were to look down now, they would see Giggle the spotted hyena--coat still fluffy-ragged with youth, and streaked here and there with gore, dirt and fungus--gently lifting stray bones in her powerful jaws and depositing them back in the circle.

It wasn't clear what she was doing, aside from "organizing bones into a pile," but she seemed almost reverently absorbed in her task, chortling softly now and again as if rather pleased with all of this.

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Roll the bones.

Azazel was picking through bones. What was surprising about that? Yep, picking through bones. Not ones to eat, though. He had fallen on his favorite skull helmet, cracking it. He didn't want that imperfection. He still yet kept it as a little nick-knack of course. It was currently tucked away safely among his horde of special bones in the Chambers of Canis. Of course they were hidden. The Bone King would be stupid if he did not shield it from view. The Ave was still quite paranoid over his nest from a few cycles back, where a thief had come and stolen from the caves. There would be no doubt that she had returned and had snatched bones right under his bone. With time, the skills of Gembound only got better, more refined. There was not a doubt in his mind that she was silent enough to evade his attention. Lammergeiers had a horrible sense of smell, so Azazel had refined his senses of sight, hearing, taste, and touch in lieu of such.

There was one stench that always reached the Bone King. Not that he thought it was rancid. Instead, it was comfortably familiar. The spotted hyena whose pelt was iconic for always being matted and gnarled with gore, and her fortune-telling abilities and skill with the bones. Even yet, the Ave had lived for longer, but he had yet to learn to understand the spirits that haunted the evidence of past life.

Anyways, he could smell that scent, and he was instantly curious. Azazel adapted his flight position so he gracefully glided down, catching the sight of the soothsayer. With a quiet click! click! of talons, he smiled and chirped, "Hello, Giggle!"

@Giggle

Giggle leapt back as the gentle rush of wings reached her ears, turning sharply to stare about with suspicious dark eyes. Her memories of Rafael taunting and attacking her here still brought a flood of frustrated rage, and fear, when she heard the beat of wings; but the gentle click of talons was far more quiet, made by something far lighter.

The hyena relaxed as she spotted Aza'zel, letting out a nervous string of loud cackling in her relief.

"Aza'zel," she greeted him, voice deep, raspy but warm as she stepped back into the light to approach him. She offered a brief and light lick on his head, a greeting that she gave in both friendliness and, well, teasing--just a little. He'd hated it, at first, but since then he'd accepted it with dry humor, or so she liked to think. Well, he'd accepted it once.

Beneath the harsh light of the orbs it was clear that what had seemed to be youthful fluff was just a new outcropping of rather spiky fungus; the hyena was probably trying out something new. Other than that she was the same clotted, rancid mess she always was, and as she plopped down on her haunches before her King and master, she was as familiar in appearance as in scent.

But what brings him here? He's usually so busy elsewhere.

With a tilt of her head, the spotted hyena addressed her concerns at once, her almost masculine voice still tinged with the hint of a giggle.

"Not to say you never visit, but you never visit. I'm not complaining, but is everything all right?" She tilted her head, a little, eyeing Aza'zel. She felt both warmed by his presence, and a little worried by what might have driven him to her. He seemed happy enough, but she wanted to be sure.

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Roll the bones.

@Azazel

As he landed upon the earthen floors of Canis, he waited until the hyena turned to face him. Outwardly, he displayed happiness... but he was caught within inner turmoil. After his greeting, he silently waited until Giggle turned to face him. "It's fine." Looking up, he smiled quietly as he heard her own salutations, but then averted his gaze to the floor. Why was he holding back? Why was he trying not to tell her. Azazel turned his rufous crown back up to his loyal friend, and he said with a serious tone, "Remember when you told my fortune? You said a time of strife was coming." Unfurling his wings for a moment to stretch them, Azazel mulled over his words.

He could not decide how to put it, mind racing through endless possibilities of how to place the words into speech. Cracking open his beak a little bit, he finally let lyrics spill from it. "That very time is nigh. I don't feel it... I know." Carmine eyes looked into that of Giggle's, and he quietly thought of how small she had been as a puppy when they first encountered one another. Smiling to himself, Azazel continued to ponder. "After that spy, Diamondfang came... I knew. They were preparing for war. I decided to prepare myself. I went on reconnaissance in Monoceros, their home. I didn't find them, but I did find a prisoner. A special prisoner that they were keeping... to keep a secret weapon."

For a moment, he laughed and then turned serious once again, facing Giggle with a frown. "They have a motherfucking dragon that they are keeping prisoner for this war."

@Giggle

Giggle listened, her smile and warmth vanishing, solemnity taking over.

This isn't a time for frivolity, then. It's a time for speech. For planning. A dragon? I know only one. Are there others?

Outwardly, though, though her mind was racing, the hyena seemed to be frozen in thought. She slowly tilted her head, still sitting quietly before Aza'zel. She asked only one question.

"Can you describe the dragon, please?"

She didn't sound afraid--if anything, she sounded slightly curious, and confident, the wheels in her head turning as if she were already trying to formulate a plan, to gather facts. If it were Baratheon--if it were the pink-and-white fuzzball, well, they were in trouble. She had to ask his size, if it was him--chances are, he had grown. But she already had an idea of precisely what to do, if it were him.

She remembered what she'd told him, once upon a time. That he'd find a family. That he would rise up, each time he fell, stronger than before. That he'd find someone, a light in his life, to guide him out of his mindless bloodlust.

If it were truly Baratheon that Aza'zel were referring to, then she had only one thought in mind--though she'd have to consult the bones, first, and of course she wished to know what her leader already had in mind. But she had an idea--the question is, was it a known evil, the cottony fluff dragon--or something else, altogether?

Cunning, dark eyes fixed on her King, she awaited his response, awaited the words that would set a war in motion.

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Roll the bones.

@Azazel

Furrowing his eyebrows, he pondered upon the appearance of the great beast. "Well... he was white and had fur all over him. Very fluffy. The only scales he had were pink and on his undersides. Pink mane all the way down his body. He had to have been able to reach the roof of this cave with the top of his wings, and was long like a giant snake. He called himself Beara-- er, Baratheon." From how the hyena had asked, it seemed she did know of a dragon? He continued quietly, looking at her once again, "He told me that he's the secret weapon that The Merrymen are going to use against us. And he won't be able to control himself."

Giggle shook her head at once, abruptly standing and padding toward her bone pile. Her responses came calculating and swift, her practical mind in overdrive. To compensate for her brisk fashion, she used the proper words, the fawning ones, the ones that told Aza'zel that she still knew that he was the boss.

"Bone King, he is right--he won't be able to stop himself. His name is Baratheon, and I know quite a bit about him, and why he'll be out of control. I've helped him work on it, and I have an idea. Maybe more than one. If you have a plan tell me, but I have information I need to give you, that may help. But first, I need you to tell me--please--how he is being held captive. And how big he is," she added, her voice a husky growl, deep in thought. She padded to the edge of her bones, brow furrowed around the faintly-visible gem there, and she began to kick bones into the pile in a seemingly haphazard fashion, awaiting Aza'zel's response as she watched how they clattered and fell.

Clearly, Aza'zel's advisor wasted no time in getting to the point of things.

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Roll the bones.

@Azazel

Azazel was surprised as Giggle began to move toward her bone pile, before she spoke once more, words that she commonly used about him. He was about to shake his head and deny his words, but he decided that was for another time. War was coming. They best not mess around in these times.

"He had to be at least eight feet tall and sixteen long." Then he pondered upon a plan whilst Giggle kicked bones randomly... or what seemed to be. Perhaps... "We could attempt to incapitate him. So he can't hurt anyone. I just know that we need to dispatch him as quickly as we can in the war." Much to the dismay of Kerberos, but Azazel could not risk anyone getting seriously injured as cause of their colossal battle. Patiently, The Bone King awaited Giggle's thoughts and response, then he wondered. "What were your ideas?"

"Eight feet tall..." Giggle murmured. He'd gotten huge, then... This might be difficult. And dangerous.

"When he smells blood, he loses all control. He turns completely maddened and ferocious, completely mindless to all else. It troubles him greatly," Giggle added, glancing at Aza'zel. Then she continued, looking back down at the bones.

"I can offer two possible options. First, if you can find out when they intend to provoke him, you can feed him in advance. Fully-fed he'll hardly go into a rage, if at all. He is lazy, half-asleep, instead. But it'd mean being able to sneak food to him, which might be dangerous." She took a breath, frowning down at the bones as best a hyena can, and then continued.

"I'd like to get him out, Aza'zel. Bone King. Safely. He's a good-hearted creature and I hate to think of him suffering. But... if it becomes necessary, you can take another option. Unless he's restrained somehow, you could bring something that smells of blood--a small, fresh kill--and drop it before him as he sleeps. It has to be as he sleeps," she warned solemnly, "because the instant he wakes up from the smell he will try to kill anything he can find. Anything. That includes his captors," she added softly, "and that might cost him whatever they're holding over his head to keep him passive."

Giggle turned to peer at Aza'zel, then.

"Bone King, the best war would be won before it is fought. Sabotage them, free their weapon before it begins, feed their weapon and get him on our side without their knowing. But I have to ask--why war? And why against us? The Bonebound only live in Canis, we do not go starting fights, I know this. Why do they want to attack us?"

She nodded to the bones. "Remember that the bones warned you not to take the first agreement offered you, Aza'zel. But now they speak of struggle, of conflict--and of our victory. We will find a light to guide us, a clear sight, good triumphing over wickedness--but what matters lies beyond that. Beyond it, I see new partnerships. New... alliances, perhaps. Now is the time to gather our friends, or to make new ones. Bone King."

Giggle looked back toward the pit's center, where the tangle of bones in the middle spoke of the paths of the Bonebound remaining linked with new friends, new comrades, in the future.

Perhaps a war, if so easily won and with such positive outcome--regardless of its reasons--wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing.

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Roll the bones.

@Azazel

So when the battle began, the Merrymen likely would not bring out the dragon. They would wait until some bloodshed... then release the beast into the arena. For a moment, Azazel pondered. What would there to be stopping Baratheon from turning on the group if he was in uncontrollable rage. Certainly, he should be infuriated with the clan for capturing him and Booker. But there was Booker. Was there some degree of control that he could grasp to keep himself from fighting his captors? It seemed that him and the numbat even had a mental connection. Could the small creature help control the beast when he was in bloody rage? Azazel could only ponder.

Finally, he mused over the first option. To drop a fresh kill in front of the dragon and let him use up all of his rage before the war. Sneaking food to him. Since his last little visit to the room of winds, Azazel had decided he wouldn't threaten the dragon or the mission to win this war and save him by returning. Finally, he shook his head, and he spoke, "I'm not going back to Monoceros, and Bonebound members are not going to go into that room until after this war. We do not need to cause trouble for Baratheon and Booker if we get caught. Plus, they'll know we did it. Canis smells of carrion, and the scent will be left behind."

Finally, he nodded. "I do, too. He seems to really care about his brother. Booker was absolutely crippled because of the sickness that fox gave him." Azazel never really liked Louie before, but now the mention of 'fox' or his name conjured a wave of hate. "It's that mongoose, Diamondfang. She's quite greedy and wishes to possibly raid our home... but she did seem much more hateful. I do not know the reason why she wages war on us." Certainly not because she was dumb and thought those of Canis had built insulting snowmen in their home. Azazel didn't know that, though.

Azazel wondered of a plan, and he clicked his beak quietly. "Haven't you been able to stop him before with your hallucinogen? Perhaps you could do that again, and incapacitate him as quickly as possible before he hurts anyone, and so he doesn't hurt himself. We need to make it work so that it looks like real strategy in the battle. But if Louie doesn't release them after the war is done and over with..." he trailed off and chuckled, "He's gonna get his ass kicked."

At the end of the tunnel, there would be light. The bones never lied. So he smiled, and he closed his eyes. "I am sure that, regardless of outcome, we will rise above this... to greater heights than we have before."