The beast sat within the shadow that seemed to follow him wherever he walked. His glowing eyes were staring out at the cave of bones, blinking slowly as he considered. Thought as far as his simple mind could think, tried to work through what he knew, what he didn't know, what he felt like he should know. The first thing he knew: he had to eat. He seemed to be constantly hungry, preying on anything that crossed his path, no matter what it was, what sounds it made, or what kind of creature it was. What he didn't know was the distinction between what he should and shouldn't eat. That was clear.

And that was what he thought he should know. How to tell the difference. How did everyone else tell the difference? He had not understood what the predator before had said, but it had made noises at him and acted not like any prey he'd chased and devoured before, nor any predator that he scared away from his meals. And the ungulate that he had been hunting, it had not run. No, it had turned to fight, even when running was still an option. He did not understand.

But this was not the time for this. He was too hungry to think. The beast abruptly stood from where he was and called the darkness to thicken around him. He did not notice, in his focus, that, instead of the darkness expanding, the glowing on his chest grew brighter and many of the shadows thinned. He breathed in as he searched for his prey. Something was close. A rat, perhaps, those smelled like that, did they not?

He leaned forward, dropping his bottom arms to the ground to aid in his stealth as the rat was revealed behind a pile of bones. Thinking he was shrouded in shadow, he did not attempt to hide himself. Naturally, the rat caught sight of him quite quickly and scurried away before he even had a chance to prepare his lunge. He growled with frustration and stood back up. Perhaps he shouldn't think. It was just getting in the way.

Something caught his eyes. Something moving, something purple. Purple things were not normal, he thought. Brown and black and gray were normal. Not...purple. He didn't move as he gazed at it, watched it kill the rat that had escaped him. The glow in his chest was dying down to normal levels now, but the shadows did not seem to thicken around him. This displeased him - he felt exposed in the light, but he was too busy to concern himself with that right now. The gears in his primitive head were twisting and turning trying to figure out this new puzzle. Was this prey? Or a predator? It looked young, but it was still tall, almost his size. Perhaps, then, a predator, but it looked weak. No claws, no wings, nothing that made it seem like it was, in any way, strong.

But it had killed that rat. And he hadn't. Predator, then.

He didn't want to deal with another predator. Not after the strange four-legs-two-wings creature that had fought him off. He would rather hunt easier prey to sate his hunger. But as the need to hunt crossed through his mind, the mental conundrum that he was trying to work through returned: what was prey and what was not? The sound it made, the way it sounded was so familiar to the sounds that the ungulate and the four-legs-two-wings made. Perhaps that meant that it was something other then simply a predator.

This revelation was absolutely groundbreaking to the beast. Never before had he even considered there to be more to the world then the split of the hunters and the hunted. He wasn't going to leave now.

He didn't answer the creature's question, more out of a lack of ability to say anything then disinterest in answering it. He walked forward, a little slowly, eyeing the creature strangely. As he got close, one of his hands came up in front of him, reaching closer and the eye in the center of his palm opening, curiously gazing over the creature's body, as if looking for some physical mark that made her different from the other predators he encountered.

His inspection of the creature seemed to garner little fear. Perhaps, then, he was correct - some creatures were different. They were beyond their instinctual pattern. This deeply disturbed Azrael - everything he'd known in the past few days of his life was completely turned on its head now. And also, the most important question - which was he? A simple predator? Or something more?

He lowered his palm, the eye within closing and he crouched down curiously, watching closely at what this purple thing was doing. Why was it tearing the skin off the rat? What was the purpose? Could it not digest it? Did it not like the texture? He watched a little sourly as it was simply discarded. He liked eating the skin.

The hands around it confused him further. He recognized the smoldering magic that he had used against the four-limbs-two-wings, but this thing was not attacking her. It was quite dead. He grew increasingly concerned as a strange smell wafted from the meat and the surface turned a dark color. Why was she doing this? Why not just eat it as it was?

As she handed over the first haunch to him, he reached out a clawed hand and watched as she placed his shares within them. Curiously, he lifted one of the pieces with his second right arm and sniffed it. It still smelled like rat, just...a little different. But it did not matter. It was food. His jaws opened wide and in a single bite ripped off half of the meat, crunching right through the bone, and the second, only seconds later, consumed the rest.

He did the same thing with the second haunch before licking his palms clean. Still hungry. That was not enough. He eyed the skin that Siren had dropped and one of his arms suddenly shot out and grabbed at it. He ripped it into chunks, devouring it in three separate pieces, licking off the excess tufts of fur from his lips once he was finished. This all happened in the span of about twenty seconds.

He stared down at Siren, as if nothing had just happened, wondering if there was a way to thank her for sharing her meal. He had not met predators before that willingly shared in such a way. He considered for a moment, trying to remember the sounds she had made, a rumbling in his chest beginning as he tried to replicate them. "Foooood," he grumbled. A pause filled with the same deep-toned humming. "Ser...end....ip...itee."

There were a lot of noises this time and the beast completely gave up on trying to follow them. Not that he had even really understood anything from before, only replicated what she was saying. Apparently, though, it worked, since she made even more noises. Trying to work through body language and how she was pointing to the rat carcass and how she repeated words, he attached the particular sounds to things - "Food" referring to the prey and "Serendipity, Siren, and Dip" referring to the creature herself. "Dip," he rumbled. She was right - that was easiest for him to say.

But she left most of the carcass untouched - only the meat had come off but there was still perfectly good bones and such. Both right arms came out and grabbed the remains, thinking that, perhaps, she could not eat them either. He stood as well, holding the bones in his hands and devouring them quickly, disregarding the loud crunching noises that eating bones made.

Once again, he ate fast and was done in less then 30 seconds for the whole thing. One last swallow, but still...he was hungry. He followed Dip, although his mind was telling him to "leave" and find his own food, food he didn't have to share. But at the same time, she had hunted for him - he wanted to return the favor.

However, the darkness seemed to be stubbornly clinging to its ideals of predator and prey - a predator was out for themselves, after all, and hunting for another predator went against that logic. And so, he stayed as he was - a monster, but a very visible one.

The demon watched with curious eyes, raising one of his hands to see with a third eye as well, as Dip snapped a rat's spine with what seemed like not effort at all. Not even a touch. Magic, perhaps, similar to the like of his darkness? Interesting, but he was still determined to pay her back for the food she offered.

As she offered the whole rat to him, concern crept over his expression. This was one-sided. It was not fair. She was hunting and giving to him and he was giving nothing back. That was not how it was supposed to be. But still, he was hungry so he reached forward and took the rat with both of his right arms and proceeded to bite of its head.

He made quick work of the whole thing - not a single piece was left uneaten and as he walked he licked the last of the blood off of his hands. It was time, now, to make up for this hunt, and the last one perhaps.

He made a low, gruff sound, almost like a chuff, and looked away from Dip. His nostrils flared as he breathed in, his chest glowing stronger for a moment before his whole body was suffused in shadow. Something caught his scent and he stalked away, walking on four limbs towards the source of the smell. Another rat, but this time he was going to catch it. He was silent as he approached, in enough shadow that the rat could not see him. And when he pounced and bit down on its neck, it had no idea he was even there.

He stood and returned to where he had left Dip, offering the rat over to her. Another thought came to him - she had been making strange expressions at him, baring her teeth but it wasn't in a hostile manner. The edges of his mouth twitched for a moment before he grinned, revealing rows of sharp teeth and long, long canines. It was a start.