Suel awoke in the morning to the sounds of small, exhausted grunts. Xhe sealed xhir eyes and ears shut so as to ignore them and return to the blissful unawareness of sleep, but somehow xhe knew that the little grunts would continue regardless. Even without hearing them, or seeing the light break through, xhe could sense their push on the air around xhir. It grew worse the more xhe tried to drown it out as the air pulsed with the waves of daylight and little patters of sound that made up the morning; the time for sleep was over. Eyes and ears still sealed shut, Suel began to get up.
Xhe yawned, xhir jaw extending and growing larger as xhe opened wide xhir maw. Xhir tongue rolled upwards when it had reached its full extension and xhir teeth grew out a little, curving slightly and gaining more points as xhe worked xhir jaw back and forth the get the stiffness of night out of it. Xhe smacked xhir lips a couple times and pulled xhir mouth inwards, xhir jaws and teeth reforming into their usual shape as xhe did so, and lurched to xhir feet.
Xhe rolled xhir shoulders a couple of times to get the kinks out and then raised xhir rump high into the air while xhir head and chest went down to the ground so that xhir forelegs could stretch out. Once xhe felt all the strains of the night before get worked out, xhe leaned forward onto xhir forelegs and stretched out xhir hind legs to do the same for them. Xhe rolled xhir shoulders one more time and shook out each leg individually to loosen them up.
When xhe finally felt relaxed enough to face the day, Suel reformed xhir eyes and ears. Xhir eyes were easy enough. With them xhe's just pulled xhir eyes back into xhir head and closed the eyeholes with a layer of bone slab and skin. Therefore to recreate said eyes, xhe just opened the eyeholes back up and willed xhir eyes forward to fit into them.
The ears were the tough ones. When xhe'd closed them, xhe'd flattened the external parts of xhir ears against xhir skull until they merged with the rest of xhir skin and sealed up the entrance to xhir ear canal with a couple pieces of bone. Reversing the process proved more difficult than just undoing what xhe'd done. Opening up the ear canal was easy enough, to be sure, but the external part of ear proved to be rather important. He tried to just make the shape, a sort of wolf-like thing with the occasional wrinkle here and there, but it seemed that the sounds weren't quite what he was used to. They had an odd echo to them and the little sounds xhe'd heard before seemed to double when he heard them.
He reared up on xhir hind legs and stretched out a hand to grab one of the chattering bats from the roof of the cave. It fluttered about in xhir hand, chattering incessantly as he felt it's ears and changed xhir own to match. The sounds of the cave amplified and were almost deafening now, so Suel made a note to work out the ears so that the sound was less blazing while he placed the bat back where xhe'd plucked it from.
He retracted xhir leg and spent a couple minutes ensuring that it was a match for the other one before he set out towards the noise xhe'd heard before because it had taken xhir some time putting this body together. While he was still adapting to it, he intended to make it xhir primary body for the foreseeable future so he wanted to ensure that he could remember what it was.
Xhir peers tended to shed forms like mortal, mundane beasts shed fur for summer, but Suel knew that constant, regular forms, while dull, meant less energy expended. That in turn meant xhe didn't need to hunt as often as xhir flashier peers had to, so there was less risk to xhir starving in the long run. A three headed, fire breathing dragon was all well and good, but that fire had to come from somewhere and until Suel figured out a practical way to create that sort of thing it was more prudent to just appear vicious and nasty. Besides, a few shadows in the dark and a well placed roar worked just as well most of the time.
Suel shook the dirt out from xhir matted fur and ambled over to the entrance of the cave, where xhe found the youngling, much to xhir surprise, awake and alert. What's more, she seemed to be hard at work on a project with no male input. It was attempting to carry rocks the size of it's head into the cave. Xhe sat down next to a collection of stalagmites at the front of the cave that gave its entrance the appearance of a large, toothy beast and watched it work.
It stumbled every couple of steps as the stones it picked continued to be larger than was practical for it but the youngling never cried out. Even if it dropped one, it would just pick it back up with a grunt and continue to stagger towards the cave.
Suel grumbled and then surged towards the youngling, shifting xhir mouth and throat as xhe did before. "What doing?" xhe tried to ask in a calm, steady tone. What came out was "Wh'r d'ning?" in a low, raspy tone. Xhe clicked xhir teeth together a couple of times and frowned. Xhe wasn't sure how to make man sounds just yet and it seemed that the large teeth xhe was used too wouldn't do.
The youngling dropped the stone it was carrying, gave out a little shriek when it heard xhir and jumped back from where it was and prepared to run from the monstrous sound. When it realized who'd spoken, Suel saw it tense up and then relax again when it became apparent that xhe wasn't about to do anything to it.
"I'm burying my mother. The shaman said that dead people have to be buried in the ground so that they can join the Earth Mother, but I haven't been able to find the right things to dig a good pit, so I'm going to build a mound over her instead. I hope that's ok."
"H'w? St'l hrer." Suel asked with another frown. Xhe'd thought that xhir mouth would work this time, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Xhe prodded xhir tounge at xhir protruding fangs and began to reshape xhir mouth again. Xhe knew that xhe wouldn't need to speak like this often, but xhe figured that so long as xhe was speaking xhe would do it properly.
The youngling just shuffled its feet, hesitating before speaking. "I don't know, that's why I need to bury her."
Suel stared at her and looked over to the youngling's mother where she lay, now half covered with rocks of various sizes. The female's eyes had a bleak, glassy look to them and her skin was now pail and patchy where the decay had set in. Xhe heaved a heavy sigh and refocused xhir eyes, forcing xhir second sight into the fore and looked harder at her.
As before, the most prevalent emotions in the cave came from the youngling, filling the cave with a wash of apprehension, despair, longing and trace amounts of hope. There was a smattering of emotions emanating from the comatose body of the boisterous male, but nothing nearly as strong as what came from the youngling.
When xhe focused on the dead female, xhe didn't expect any emotions nor did xhe see them. What xhe was looking for now were the slivers of memories that were left behind in a dead body. Emotions surrounding a particularly powerful event curdled into memories. The more powerful a memory was, the higher the chances were that it would remain behind and sink into the well of other memories.
Xhir thoughts were that if anything was to be taken from a dead body, it would be those memories. They didn't have much sustenance in them, but if something was desperate enough, anything would help. It was dangerous though, as the memories would merge with whatever ate them, which is why Suel made a point of avoiding the dead. Still, it seemed that the memories hadn't been tampered with.
"Wh'n?" said Suel when xhe looked back at the youngling.
The youngling had picked up the rock that it had dropped and was now amblingly over to where it's mother was once again. "When what?" asked the youngling, not glancing over at xhir at all.
"Wh'n w'l E'rth M'th'r t'k? Mem'ries 'n spr't r'main," said Suel, snapping xhir mouth open and closed several times in anger at its refusal to make the right sounds. Xhe padded up to the youngling and once it set it's rock down on the pile xhe grabbed it, spun it around and reached up to examine it's mouth. Xhe clamped xhir fingers on it's checks and forced it open and took a look inside.
"Hey!" it cried out, more from surprise than any real fear of xhir, and jerked away from xhir, but it was enough.
Suel focused on xhir mouth and reshaped it to resemble the youngling's and tried to speak again. "When will Earth Mother take? Memories remain." This time it came out in the smooth, sweeping bass that xhe'd been aiming for and Suel grinned despite xhirself.
"Why did you do that?' asked the youngling as she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Needed mouth. Sounds not right," said Suel, leaning forward on xhir haunches as xhe waited for her to respond.
The youngling didn't say anything, instead feeling it's mouth and chomping it up and down as if to see if anything was missing from it now that xhe'd taken it's mouth. When xhe saw it prodding at its checks with its tongue, xhir shoulders drooped and xhe put xhir head down at the foolishness of the youngling.
"Did not steal. Borrowed. When will Earth Mother take?" asked Suel a second time. Xhe wasn't a naturally patient creature and tried to avoid younglings whenever possible, so this continued delay of a response from the youngling was frustrating.
The youngling didn't seem to hear xhir at first as it continued to prod at its mouth. Suel started to take in a large breath to give a good roar for its attention and had begun to reshape xhir throat so it would be as loud as possible when it spoke up. "I don't know, but I think it's when I bury her."
"Strange," mused Suel as xhe looked on at the dead female. It didn't make much sense to xhir for something to wait for the body to be buried to take her memories, as she would have been easier to just reap the memories while she was still fresh and out of the ground. Burying it would only accelerate the rotting of the very memories this Earth Mother might take.
Still, if appeasing this Earth Mother is what would put the youngling at ease, Suel decided that xhe would help it finish what it started. Xhe padded to outside the cave and reshaped xhir forepaws, merging the claws on each hand into massive blades them that xhe could use to hack out large chunks of earth and then set to work.
The first scrape was by far the hardest for xhir. It wasn't that it was impossible to get cleave free scraps of earth, since if xhe wanted to get a better scrape all xhe needed to do was sharpen xhir claws into sharper blades and the earth would flow out like butter. No, the main problem xhe was all of the stones and rocks in the soil. Xhe would start in on a good scrape and all of a sudden a stone would pop out and screw xhir up.
Nevertheless, xhe persevered. While the youngling might have been content to just bury its mother under a mound of rocks, Suel felt that if one were supposed to bury someone in the earth then they should be buried in earth, so Suel kept on digging and picking out the rocks xhe hit.
Xhe didn't intend to dig the youngling's mother a pit to bury her in as it wasn't xhir place to determine where she should be buried. Xhe just intended to create a large enough mound of earth for her that scavengers would think twice before they set to work at digging her mother out to eat any lingering memories or ravage her body, as scavengers were wont to do. Xhe didn't intend to do that until the youngling had at least covered up its mother with a respectable amount of rocks, though. No sense in overpowering it.
Near the end of their digging session Suel and the youngling worked out a pretty good system. Xhe would scrap away a few thin strips of dirt, enough to expose any rocks that may pop up and frustrate xhir, and then the youngling would go in and pluck out the rocks that xhir'd exposed and take them over to cover her mother. This way it didn't need to wear itself out going further and further out in her quest for rocks and Suel didn't need to worry about being frustrated by them.
As the day went on the pair of them got into the groove of things. Suel would make a few slight pulls of dirt and the youngling would scramble around to find the best rocks for its mother's mound. Often a previously good rock would be discarded in favor a newer rock only for it to be retrieved a moment later and placed somewhere else in the mound. It was slow going and the day was well past noon by the time that the youngling's mother had even a basic covering, but Suel didn't mind.
All too often xhe prowled around for food and slept for weeks before ambling out to do anything, so it felt good to stretch out and do some real constructive work while xhe was still buzzing with power. No need to stop, or rest, or hunt down some fleshy beast to supplement the meager needs xhir body demanded every once in blue moon, just the thrill of work at a job that needed to be done.
Xhe'd gotten so into their progress that when xhe looked up at the youngling to see how it faired, xhe was shocked and dismayed at what xhe saw. It looked to be near exhaustion, swaying where it stood and stumbling with the rock as it marched to put it with the others on top of its mother. Suel stopped what xhe was doing and in a few bounding leaps xhe was behind it to steady its walk. Once xhe placed xhir hand on its shoulder, though, it fell back into xhir arms in a veritable puddle of weariness.
"Rest now," said Suel as xhe pried the rock from the youngling's hands.
"No, I can go like you can," it murmured as it drifted into sleep in xhir arms.
Suel rolled xhir eyes, placed the rock on the pile and then went to gather up the earth that xhe'd dug out. It wasn't much in comparison to what xhe could have done if xhe'd pushed xhirself to dig out a mound worthy of an honored dead, but it would do for now. With the youngling in one arm and the earth in a sling made of xhir other arm, Suel reshaped xhir hind legs so that xhe was no longer a quadruped but rather a biped.
Xhe didn't have man-shaped legs, as xhe didn't need things like that. Rather, xhe shaped them to be like the great beasts of the past, massive creatures that dwarfed even Suel of which only bones remained. Xhir tail reshaped instinctively and acted as a balance for xhir new posture as xhe tromped towards the dead female's burial mound. Xhe draped the earth over it and patted it down, ensuring that the thing would be regarded as nothing more than a part of the cave wall.
Suel glanced down at the youngling, sighed and decided to wait until it awoke again before leaving the cave. It had a right to know where its mother was if it was too tired to remember now. Xhe realized that water dripped from it and mused that while xhe didn't water that much xhirself, this might not be the case for man-folk. Xhe glanced deeper into the cave and began to move towards the sound of rushing water.