The maw of mosses; it had changed very little since he had seen it last.

When was that? how long had it been. . .?

He could not remember much. the moments bled together when he was awake - and the last time he'd fallen asleep, there was no telling the length of his hibernation.

But, the creature was here now. Scrambling against the soft soil of the damp chamber, grasping at ferns with his thin fingers; clutching at them and pulling fronts clear of their root.

The beasts once-ruined wings had recovered too, at some point. he no longer looked at them with fear or loathing; he didn't really feel anything now but the pitiless and vapid loneliness of a person long forgotten. As he climbed, the creature came upon the twin eyes and as soon as he noticed his own reflection, paused to stare.

He got a glimpse of himself for all of two seconds prior to catching sight of a flash in the distance; the magicka that the entity behind him chose to conjure did not take root the way it was meant to, or so he suspected as the light dimmed and before Teyouma could turn around, there was a mess of sounds from the tree overhead. Those pupil-less eyes went wide and he turned sharply to face the oncoming danger (because what the hell else could've made such a ruckus?) when he noticed the crumpled body in the dirt.

It was instinct that drove the wildling to react next. Teyouma's skin flushed as he felt the emotional stirrings of surprise and annoyance, and as he felt the blood in his body pulse through him he was aware of a more virulent sensation - the activation of his magicka, a constriction to his chest. His gem had always been housed in the protective casing of his ribs, pumping blood and energy throughout his tiny figure. Now it pulsed with a different purpose.

Except, it had been a long while since Teyouma had actively utilized his abilities. As the energy flowed from him things went completely awry - and instead of sending a wave of nausea-inducing energy at the fallen stranger, it became focused within the contained vessel of his own body. All he could do was sway for a moment as the sickness took hold of him --- and then he stumbled back, and wretched a belly's worth of whatever-passes-for-food all over the ground.

After the majority of his stomach contents were splattered around his feet like savory confetti, he felt much better. The nausea being magicka-induced meant that it would last for a while yet so really, the feeling of goodness the creature experienced was psychosomatic at best; but he'd work with that. He'd worked with so much less the past few --- weeks, months, so many cycles he would've lost count if he could count in the first place. We're getting off-topic here.

The creature with the attempted-banana-gag was talking at him and Teyouma didn't like the sound of that voice, but like, he couldn't really stop it either; he didn't respond like someone being spoken to (hello, social ineptitude) but rather, stared at the air like the words were corporeal objects fluttering overhead like cave-bound birds.

Flash to Howl showing off his teeth; his graspy fingers; his long mongoosian tail; if Teyouma saw any similarities he didn't say so, and there was only the vague grogginess of his self-induced sickness. One would think his affinity for the plague-magicks would lessen the blow of his spell, but alas, for all of Teyoumas time spent in the caves he was not a well-learned magician.

He blinked and stared at the creature as he listened to that introduction, and then - with some measure of control and even social aptitude that did not typically see the light - opened his mouth to reply.

However, all that came out was a noxious smelling, "BBBbbUUURRrrrpppFFHhh."

His mouth opened wide, a grimaced yawn of jagged teeth, with a dense fog of (almost cartoon-ish) fumes emanating from deep within.

Putting aside the fact that his guts felt like they'd been programmed to tumble-dry inside of himself, and the fact he hadn't seen or spoken to another creature like himself in a vast amount of time, this was going pretty well. Teyouma was never the most companionable of gem-beasts to begin with; yet there was something keeping him from leaving outright, and even when the stranger began to make their own escape attempt the hybrid did not see fit to allow it.

He understood those words. Strange as they sounded with the slurring accent, and as foreign as speech had become to him, Teyouma did understand. Perhaps he was less intrigued by the opposite creature's shape than he ought to have been -- and perhaps this would've gone over better if he remembered he had a tongue and the capability to use it -- but alas, all he could do was follow after the retreating figure.

Whether the stranger tried to shake his pursuer or not, Teyouma managed to keep a good pace; his wings folded awkwardly against his sides (touching at the elbows of his other set of arms if he didn't reach wide enough) but he managed to follow a crescent-shaped path around the stranger during the escape attempt and cut them off.

Now face-to-face and probably too close (because what was personal space anyways), he looked over the stranger with a decidedly aggressive level of scrutiny. The two-toned eyes; the strange long body with its fur, not hair; the face that was almost like his face.

And then Teyouma was grimacing, possibly because he didn't like the look of this being - maybe he couldn't help but expose his innermost emotions, the uncertainty and focus that dominated his mind as he tried to recall how to use those vocal chords he had been born with. If this guy could do it, so should he -- right?

"Tey-oo-mah," he enunciated. "How-ah-kwick-law?" He said next, testing his tongue and finding that it tangled too easily on the words the other simian had used; he didn't know what they meant, and decided pretty swiftly that he did not like the clicking sensation of his own tongue when trying to enunciate those final syllables. The hybrid's blazing red eyes narrowed as he decided this - and with a deft movement of one arm, he reached out and grasped at Howl's face; pinching with his talon-tipped fingers, testing the skin of the other gem-beast's face as if to prove this meeting was real and not just a figment of his addled, lonely brain.