AN: SO this is where I am getting into a great deal of my own Worldbuilding and Alternate Universe content where pretty much anything goes. I have at least two more major species to bring into this, with far less estabilshed lore, so updates will likely be slow for the forseeable future. Thanks for taking the time to read.
Khilseith opted to teleport their rather large group this time from Sand to Bone, right next to Tibia's freighter Lobe, which rumbled a greeting as they appeared. Leon's ears went up immediately, eyes a bit wide as he trilled back. He received a response and looked dubiously at Pyrus, who shrugged, and motioned to Sternum and Femur, who was also wide-eyed, though Sternum was more concerned with what Leon would say to their ships showing sapience.
"Recently?" Was all Leon asked, to which the two Bonean brothers nodded. Tibia soon poked her head out of a viewport, wondering who Lobe had been talking with. She nearly fell from said viewport at the sight of the arranged leaders and the newcomer with them staring at her, made an effort to wave and heave herself back inside before appearing after a few moments in full gear from the ramp at its aft.
"Sorry, was not expecting company after all the events of today. Lobe nearly got some weird bladed void thing right through him." Tibia almost lovingly patted the side of her ship as she moved around its side, meeting the eyes of Leon and stiffening. She mouthed the word 'maker' and bowed, to which Leon grinned and Pyrus sighed, Sternum and Femur both exclaiming a question almost simultaneously that she knew more than she had told them.
"Not her place to explain the secrets of the Wyrms when they were merely attempting to keep to themselves and not be involved in the war." Leon interjected, holding a hand out to her, smiling. "I am Leonlocke, Leon is preferred. A pleasure to meet you Tibia."
"I... it's an honour to meet you, Leon. I've heard stories, devoured everything I could that the old files had on the Makers, but nothing could have prepared me for meeting you in person..." Tibia's fins were stiff and flat, and she almost visibly shook, though it was more from excitement than fear or anxiety. Leon chuckled, gingerly taking her hand as it was held out to grasp his, though she almost melted from relief when he reassured her privately in her head that the secrets were no longer necessary. Her fins soon relaxed, Sternum about ready to intervene as he thought Leon to be intimidating her or something else untoward. She soon chittered a question, though sounded excited about it, Leon laughing at the confusion from the rest.
"Yes, but you don't have to right this second, unless you wish to." Leon grinned, Tibia letting out a squeal of glee and quickly hugging him, to which Leon gladly returned the embrace, even lightly using his wings. "I see that, very rarely do you and the others come above ground to do so?"
"I honestly can't remember anytime we have been able to fly. Caverns and deepwells occassionally, but never open sky." Tibia said sadly, blushing and stepping back from Leon as she realised she had just hugged their maker without asking first. Leon simply waved it off.
"Well then, as we did for Cinder earlier, please, show our esteemed audience what Bone has been hiding." Leon grinned, stepping back and shook his head lightly at Lobe rumbling a question. Tibia responded to him, lightly patting him as she strode out a few meters from the group to a more clear area, and inhaled deeply. At first nothing happened that the others could see, then arcs of brilliant green energy danced across her form, soon obscuring it with a cloud of mist. Sternum clenched a fist and frowned, concerned, Femur wringing his hands lightly as the others shared concerning glances and raised brows, as the cloud expanded, slowly reaching them before a blast of air sent the cloud cover scattering and revealed a large reptilian form, not unlike Kemet had appeared.
As the group recovered, Tibia, now in her draconic form, raised her head high and flared her many cheek and throat fins, opened her leathery wings and lay on her scaled belly with her tail curling around to rest its tip near Lobe. Scales covered almost every inch of her, some less defined as they were much finer than the armour-like ones, two pairs of horns off the top of a very crocodilian head that happily bobbed as Leon chuckled up at her. She held her large taloned paws close to her, webbing ever so slightly visible between the digits, the tattoos and peircings she had in her bipedal form transferred to this one seamlessly, as her normal sets of fins were still present, just larger and more brilliantly coloured with a striped pattern that carried over all her fins and wings.
"Okay, that is awesome." Pyrus gaped, Sternum and Femur completely speechless and the others having varied similar reactions. Cinder they expected to have fire and such on his form, which he had, though they had not been able to get a good look at him, but to see a Bonean turn into a rather large crocodilian dragon, was not what anyone expected. Tibia beamed with pride, rumbling deeply in contentment as Leon moved to gently stroke her muzzle when she lowered it down, one of her many teeth almost as long as Zera stood tall.
"Impressive... Perhaps all those tales and hints of monsters in the deeper tunnels do have their truth." Sternum mused eventually, relaxing once he had let his initial shock of seeing Tibia shapeshift and simply letting his displeasure at such huge secrets being kept by someone so close to him dissipate. He gently tapped Femur with the side of his tail, Pelvus watching in silent amazement from the back of the group, overwhelmed and just a bit intimidated. Tibia gladly lowered her head to allow the others to get a good look at her, flaring her decorative fins and wiggling them lightly, rumbling purr resonating through the ground at her feet and transmitting to the others close to her. Leon looked her over more appraisingly than the others, who were curious and apprehensive, watching him just as much as they did her. The feline appearing Maker even gently hopped up on her shoulder to get a better look at her wings and back fins, appearing to bob his head and ask her questions in his chittering speech, Tibia giving simple answers in the form of deep grumbles or laugh-like chirps.
**Truth can often be stranger than Fiction.** Tibia mused, offering a large toothy grin and tilted her head aside slightly to focus a large crimson eye on Sternum directly.
**You and I both can attest to that.** Femur took that opportunity to laugh, shaking his head a bit.
"Well I have an idea on how we can make sure the old rule doesn't get its teeth back." Femur snickered, Tibia sighing lightly as Leon hopped down from her back and shook his head lightly at Femur.
"Sadly I cannot allow the shapeshifter bloodlines to be enforcers specifically for the monarchy. If they wish to act as such on their own, I will not intervene, however I will ask you refrain from openly using them as intimidation or leverage." Leon glared lightly at Femur, sighing lightly at Pyrus frowning at him. "I am certainly more inclined to help you instead learn how to shapeshift yourselves, though it will take some doing."
"Right, and you would be teaching us all at once? Or individually? Just the idea of adding extra logistics to our schedules..." Jade groaned, already dreading how much she and Graveheart would need to be shuffling in their timetables after these more recent battles with the Beast. Pyrus snickered lightly, Leon simply grinning.
"I could always just give you the knowledge, but it's more knowing what to expect and controlling your emotions once you can shapeshift successfully that will be a challenge. Besides, I'm not the only shapeshifter here." Leon smirked himself, glaring at Samateus who stuck her tongue out at him lightly.
"Our shapeshifting works differently, but is similar enough. Especially to the Firians. Elemental alignment and control are fairly easy for us to figure out, and learn, as we have our psionic connnections to each other, even across vast distances as you know. For all of you, it's more you're born with a unawakened affinity that has to be developed, like any other skill." Samateus elaborated further, Tibia nodding her large maw before almost knocking Leon over by shoving her muzzle against his feathers lightly and exhaling. Leon chuckled lightly at her, opening his wings for her to inspect, even making a show of curling the primary feathers lightly simply to show that he could, and even flexed the wrist joint, to reveal the hand-like talons there.
"Like a Firehawk, interesting." Blaze muttered, Pyrus chuckling.
"He pretty much made Firehawks to look like him, so more the other way around." The young prince smirked, lightly patting his General on the shoulder before looking more pointedly at Tibia. "Before we attract more of a crowd, care to take us where the others are, or..." He let his question hang, Tibia chuckling herself, the sound a low chortling rumble.
**No need. We don't hide like some of the other winged ones do, Now that you're here Maker, I'm sure we will hear wingbeats soon.** Tibia flared her fins again, everyone stiffening as a roar echoed over the clearing, an even larger, more elaborately finned but much darker skinned draconian Bonean hurried over and moved to pin Tibia, who moved to rise and turn toward the suddenly appearing other. The larger made move to slap her, talons of one paw extended, before it spotted Leon who was absolutely livid while watching the interaction.
**Stand down, she did so at my behest.** Leon's thought speech voice made those in attendance cringe from the rage and power within it, the larger Bonean dragon visibly recoiling and nearly tripping over itself as it quickly bowed, head nearly curled to touch its crocodilian forehead to the ground at its feet.
**Apologies Maker, it has been so long.** The dark-hided female -as denoted by her voice in their minds- begged, having acted on impulse at their secret suddenly being exposed so openly. Tibia then shifted back to her humanoid form, the other taking a moment to do the same, dressed in more elaborate garb than most had ever seen on a Bonean, Sternum, Femur and Pelvus all showing varying degrees of shock at who had just revealed herself to be related to Tibia.
"Priestess Ulna? I suppose that makes a great deal of sense..." Sternum breathed, clearing his throat after a moment, Pelvus taking a bit longer to recover than expected, but he quickly skittered over to the taller female Bonean.
"Priestess, surely this wasn't the secret you were protecting in that monastery this whole time?" Pelvus asked curiously, fins curling inward more with his interest. Tibia moved to gently wrap an arm around Ulna's shoulders, grinning toothily at the rest.
"Our secret, yes. And how it's used to help the lichen crops. Though, the berries are something we knew nothing about before their appearance." Ulna explained, appearing to pale and wish to shrink under Leon's gaze, the feline Maker remaining calmly observing from a distance as the others gathered a bit closer. Pelvus quickly wrote something into his data padd, using his sharp fingernail as though a quill point, grinning sheepishly at Femur who nudged him, however Pelvus expertly turned his padd to keep Femur from observing his private reports.
"I was wishing to explain this more in private, however now that we have been brought into the light rather, unceremoniously, I don't feel we need to chat in official capacity any longer. Though I would appreciate a chance to explain everything to our esteemed guests and leaders." Ulna blushed furiously, the red in her fins darkening like her hide. Leon padded over cautiously, moving to gently rest a hand on her closer shoulder, Ulna almost appearing ready to faint as he did so.
"I apologize, I did not intend to be so harsh. Tibia is a member of the leadership family, any perceived harm to her is harm to them, and by proxy, a slight against me. Tell me, I hope the one known as 'Phalange' is not one of yours." Leon reassured the taller and more slender, almost Icean appearing Bonean female, who relaxed visibly as he spoke, faint smile appearing before turning to a rather venomous frown and shake of her head, even her fins appearing to rattle akin to the ear spines of a Firian at the name mentioned.
"By the pit, thankfully no. However he has been seen a bit more often, likely trying to worm his way back into the good graces of the Emperors." Ulna groaned, looking first to Tibia, then to Pelvus, Femur and Sternum, who all nodded.
"Yes, we know. Xerxes, the Ahr'aht leader, had a chat with him one of the first days after they became our allies. Though since you mention him, we should go visit the Underground, I don't think any of you have actually seen it." Sternum mused, grinning lightly. Pyrus and Zera's heads turned and eyes lit up, Cryos, Graveheart and Jade raising brows. Blaze remained quietly watching the rest, despite being reassured earlier by Leon, he still felt as though his old friend was not quite out of danger, Khilseith moving to place a hand on his shoulder as a sign that he was not the only one worried, even now.
"Splendid, please, follow me." Ulna then made a show of leading the group to a stairwell that spiralled downward from a raised platform guarded by a group of Boneans with large blaster rifles. They bowed lightly to the procession before turning back to their directional postings, the group following the spiral stair down several meters before coming to a large cavern that led toward a set of heavy double doors. Each door appeared to have draconian Boneans carved into them, the foretalons of the two images interlocking at the center seam of the door. A loud clank, hissing of steam and grinding of metal on stone marked the moving of the massive door, sliding aside on a track in the floor that raised plates of metal to cover the inner workings when the door opened to hide the track seamlessly.
"Welcome to the Underground." Tibia announced happily, grinning as Zera and Pyrus both were awed by the cavern revealed beyond the doors, a veritable city built in floor to ceiling columns that appeared to be pieced together from anything one could think of, aside from the organic structures more commonly seen in Bonean architecture. Walking in and through one of the first available passages, the group watched as kids ran, swung and jumped between the upper suspension bridges and walkways on the second and even third level, some receiving angry hollers and returning it with laughter, or simply scattering from one more angry home or shop owner.
The first level, where they walked, held a marketplace with stalls of all forms of goods, ranging from textiles and crafts, to engine and blaster parts, or even child care items. Above, some obviously less visited shops had hanging signage and even symbols for their goods, one such being an alchemist, where Tibia mentioned to Leon in passing he might find another who would be interested in meeting him. Ulna led them to an area beyond the bustling marketplace, to a wall that led to deeper tunnels, guarded by another pair of Boneans, these two wearing light armour and robes with symbols matching the priestess stripe Ulna wore around her shoulders.
Before she could breathe a word, the two guards spotted Leon and motioned a reverence, bowing low as the group approached. Graveheart and Jade raised brows, before realising that it was Leon that prompted the motion, the feline appearing ancient padding forward casually to return the bow lightly.
"I'm glad to see that the images of my likeness have been protected, though I'm not really as all powerful as some make me out to be. I'd like to see the Oldwyrm, now that I've awakened, I am encouraging all the winged ones to make themselves known." Leon announced, the two appearing shocked but nodded and moved aside, one palming a large turquoise stone imbedded in the wall next to the door. Unlike the large door to the underground, this one irised open and disappeared with minimal sound, a short passageway opening out into a large and much lower chamber. Leon led the group down, Ulna appearing tense and Tibia simply smirking at her for being so overly worried.
**Who dares bring Outsiders into the sanctum!** A roar laid over the thought speech outrage had several of the group of leaders cringing and readying for a fight, Pyrus and Leon remaining still and simply glaring up at a perch to their right as they entered the cavern. Crystal clumps littered the cavern, casting pale blue and green light throughout, punctuating other electrical lights set up to brighten the darker corners, Bonean dragons stuck their heads out from ledges and caves that were lit from further inside, most were considerably smaller than Ulna or Tibia, with the exclusion of the one that spoke, who was much larger even than Ulna.
A long tongue that split at its tip to gently flick its ends near Leon was extended out to scent the air, the largest of the Bonean dragons' eyes going wide as it quickly withdrew, almost as though slapped. This great beast, mismatched teeth showing its age amid the frayed scale edges and tattered fins, rose with some visible effort, flesh sagging and hanging off its body as though it had recently lost a great deal of body fat and tone, even its talons appeared worn and split.
**Greatwyrm Cranius, it's been a long time. You were but a hatchling when I last stood here.** Leon boomed, eyes narrowing dangerously as he flexed his wings open and closed almost lazily. Pyrus met his gaze a moment before turning to the others and motioned for them to give the pair a moment, frowning lightly as he moved to stand closer to Leon. Femur and Graveheart shared a concerned glance, but Femur's visible shrug and the Rockian's sigh in response had the others concerned, but respected Leon and Pyrus as they addressed the grandiose ancient Bonean.
**Cranius? Nay, he was my grandsire. I am Greatwyrm Oculus. Apologies, Esteemed Maker, we were unaware that you had returned.** Announced the large male, who lightly wiggled his fins and puffed his throat, filling the large sac of air and spreading out the almost frog-like jowls as he uttered a low gutteral rumble. This sound reverberated through the cavern, the crystals within appearing to react to the sound and shimmer more pointedly, some sounding almost as though singing with a high fluttering chime. As though a signal, several dozen Bonean dragons flew from their perches and hiding spots, to land arrayed around the gathering of leaders, one with an almost blue-green hide pointedly landing behind and curling around and over them slightly, greeting Ulna and Tibia.
**Good to see that even you know me by scent, I assume then that the sanctum is safe?** Leon asked, Oculus tilting his head slightly to regard the one to his immediate right, who nodded simply. **Good. It is not needed as of yet, however I would like to thank you all for your continued service, and ask you continue as you have. I support the current rulers, their proposed changes are much more in line with how leadership was placed in the beginning. Is there anything you need or wish to report?**
Leon smirked at Sternum who stiffened when mentioned, if only in general, eyes a bit wide as he glanced at Leon, swore he turned to acknowledge him without actually doing so, before Sternum looked up at the Greatwyrm. Femur and Pelvus were both a bit overwhelmed and remained quiet, both thankful for the rest of their allies being arrayed around them almost protectively, Tibia taking a moment to put a hand on each of their shoulders reassuringly.
**No, we are thankful for your taking the time to speak with us in person. Is the young Prince your Bond then?** Oculus recoiled slightly as Leon let out a hiss.
**He is, though I had hoped to keep the formalities out of things for the most part. Yes, and in my absence you are able to speak with him on matters involving the Legacy item in the Sanctum. However, you should not need to.** Leon warned, ears flat back for a long moment, Samateus letting out a warning hiss of her own as the shadows on and around Leon were darkening suddenly.
**Understood. Are we then free to fly above? Many have been waiting since we left our home system, and some have never tested their wings, even in the deepwells.** Oculus himself sounded excited, his own rather tattered looking wings quivering atop his back. Leon looked to Sternum and Femur, who nodded after a moment. Leon motioned for the two to speak, Sternum stepping forward, as sheepishly as any had thus far seen him do, to address Leon and the accumulation of Boneans in Dragon form.
"Yes, I believe we and the other worlds are going to be giving you the freedom of the open sky once more. Just, mind the spaceports." The roars and cheers echoed in the cavern almost deafeningly, Leon turning to the rest with Pyrus who frowned a bit at Leon, Graveheart also showing a scowl. Leon visibly sighed, shaking his head.
**I'll explain more later. We need to get to Rock. It's the least defended by its Legacy clan because of my own complacency, and I've had a chance to think on a few things since we all met.** Leon's voice was stern and frighteningly cold, even Cyros and Zera shuddering from a sudden chill.