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.

Howl was in quite the sour mood following his altercation with that dumbass pile of shit in Cetus. His face was contorted into a disappointed grimace, tail sticking high above his back and slashing through the air. 'What ah damn waste'ah time!' His eyebrows furrowed further, teeth barely visible through his lips. Fingers still ached to be around something, heart yearning for adrenaline --- the sort which could only come from thievery. The sneak-thief wished he had some sort of group to run around with --- perhaps some big bruisers to show up when things went sideways. An odd bit of emptiness sat in his heart, where that thought lay.

At this point, he had entirely forgotten about the Merrymen sans someone he called Auntie and his own dear mother, long-gone. Absently, he paused and fiddled with the pink diamond earring on his left ear. "Oh, mama," he murmured sadly, entirely out of his manic state now. Howl still wanted to take and take, but his heart wasn't exactly in it, now.

Footsteps sounded gently in the distance, sending the hybrid up into the trees. Long arms and fingers traversing each branch with practiced ease, he peered down below. 'What's tat?' Bicolored eyes scanned the jungle floor. Nothing. Ahead? Two shimmering, reflective pools. Before one of them was a silhouette. Against his better judgement, Howl approached. As high up in the tree as possible --- y'know, just in case --- he focused on some magic. Expectantly, he held out a hand. A banana was supposed to manifest in it, but instead he lost his balance and smashed his chin on the branch directly beneath him.

Stunned, Howl quickly and ever-so-gracefully made his way down from the canopy. He landed rather cartoonishly: sprawled completely out and dazed. In addition, facing away from the stranger.

@Teyouma II

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.

Shit on a stick of bad ideas, that hurt; not as bad as being burned alive, mind you, but still. Some semblance of stability returned to the hybrid, and Howl took his chances. Pushing up onto his hands, he peered over his shoulder --- just in time to watch some poor sap just puke all over the goddamn place. His tail drew back, apparently too close to the splash zone. Screwing up his face, the thief spun on the spot using one hand as an anchor. "Oi, bucko. Yah bettah be watchin' where you're spittin'---" oh shit, wait.

Dexterous fingers, smushed face, rounded muzzle. A creature of the simian persuasion was hunched before him. The wings were a bit odd and misplaced, but he was willing to overlook this. Howl rocked down onto his rear, curiously hunched and staring at the stranger. "You're lookin' jus' like me, yanno? Ah've nevah seen tat, Ah don' tink," he observed with a curious tilt of his head, pausing at bits to show off his own fingers, tail, and teeth. No translation needed: he was astounded.

In his first act of intentional altruism in a while, Howl flicked his tail and pursed his lips. "Y'alright buddy? Ah'm Howl Quickclaw, bes' sneak-tief in te business. Ya've prolly 'eard 'o me." he said smugly, awkwardly crossing his arms and smirking. "'nd 'owseabout ya, eh?"

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.

Well, now he was convinced that this was some dipshit Lesser that hadn't had the nerve to run away, yet. "Wow," Howl grimaced, leaning away from the foul burp that had been thrown his way. He wasn't at all interested in peering down into the dank caverns the other had presented to him. Coughing, he waved his hand and began to take his leave. "Ah can'tuh believe Ah was wastin' mah time talkin' ta you," he sneered, tail swishing, "not even wort anyting-er-time."

With that simple thesis delivered, the hybrid fell onto all fours. Methodically, he'd begin to shuffle backwards and away from this weird Gembound. Bye, Felicia. 'Fuckin' unbelievable, ho' shee-it.' If allowed enough distance, he'd turn tail and simply scamper off into the underbrush.

;exit Howl unless stopped

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.

It didn't take a genius to realize he was being followed; and Howl wasn't a genius by any means. His quick-thinking and sleight of hand was the best thing he had going for him. Otherwise, he suffered from a different sort of social ineptitude than this random Gembound did: apathy and a loose tongue. Not to say he was cocky, but he was. A little confidence never hurt anyone, but one would think that the sneak thief would learn after his first few encounters with death itself. Rather than learn some morals, Howl had just decided to be terrified of fire. Kleptomania was just like that.

The pitter-patter of feet behind him was getting on his nerves, now, and the hybrid paused. Tail hiking higher and higher across his back, Howl puffed out his chest and stood tall. Ooh, intimidating. "Listin up, ya insolent phucko---" he grumbled, whirling about on the spot, standing on two legs with his arms curled in a flexing manner, "wat?" Where had the lad gone? Intelligently, he looked beneath his armpits and nearly turned himself inside out from fright. "Phuck, dude!"

Jumping much like a cat does when spooked by a cucumber, he fell down onto all fours and shuffled away from the stranger's scrutiny. Then, by the Caves, it spoke! Teyooma? Teyouma? "Ho' shee-it, ah neem? Teyouma, isn't it?" Howl remained standing, glancing down just in time to see a taloned hand come at his face. "Oi, no! Don't do tat---" he hooted, lifting his own hand to lightly swat the offending limb away. "Didn' an'one tell ya not ta do sheet like dat?"