He ran and ran, abandoning the company of both strange bird-beasts, until his body had left the vicinity of Pisces behind; the tunnel reached out before him, welcoming him, but before long the wounded child was staggering. He left a trail of red streaks behind him with every step, lurched and connected to one of the nearby cave walls and painted it too with crimson. The trail was obvious, but the newborn - the reborn - was not thinking about his own safety. Those monsters would not follow him here; the small creature had been tearing itself apart (almost in mimicry of his own frenzied self-harm), while the other beast, the larger of the two, had slipped Teyouma's mind entirely. In his terrified exodus he had not cared where his path had led, only that it went away, seeking the darkness as if it were an old friend. By now he knew of pain and of fear, and as his body sank in to an awkward slouch next to a pile of rubble, Teyouma learned of exhaustion. He was dizzy from his blood loss, his heart pumping frantically even now as his body gave in to gravity, and he became one with the shadows for the time being.

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A trail of red lead out of where Kyrak had birthed into. He hadn't decided to figure out where it had came from, instead he was wondering where it was going - so he decided to follow it, hunched over with his beak close to the winding streaks, as if the redness itself here stumbling through the caves.

The tiny parrot barely had any down feathers - Pisces was too cold for him anway. He was more than happy to leave; that is until he realised that the tunnel the blood lead into was even colder than the place he just came out from. With a short chirp he looked up, glancing after the red trail that lead a little further into the tunnel.

"Sss..p-eee-kkrkk?" the parrot called out nervously.

There was quiet, and there was cold. The cold wasn't new to him - it was, it wasn't, the concept of a duality within Teyouma was getting old but there was no avoiding it. He relaxed in the dark, tasting the air and feeling the chill upon his tongue; it was relieving, since the sensation of blood upon his skin was so warm and strange. He was growing numb and that was making him content (or as content as a mutilated mutant monkey could be), content enough to lull him in to a sleepy, somber state.

The quiet was disturbed by a soft clicking. It wasn't something he sought out, but rather a sound that gradually caught his attention. It grew louder as it drifted closer, only to stop when he fully comprehended it. A voice sprang to life in the tunnel, and while he heard the questioning tone, Teyouma did not want to move. Sleep wanted to take him away from this awful place - but the sound, it kept him conscious.

A low, brooding sound came from him next; a voice that sounded like a wheezing old man, another which could be likened to a croon, both competing but carrying the same mimicked message: Sssspeeee-ak?

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Whatever was at the end of the blood trail answered - the same word, but something about it terrified the tiny parrot. Regardless, he continued on, wide-eyed and shaking, until the edges of what looked like a monkey came into sight.

The hatchling was silent for a long time. Slowly, he began to realise many things - it was hurt. It has wings-- no, it had wings. They were stumps now, caked in blood, but it wasn't just the stumps that were caked in blood - it was all over. His hands. His back. His chest and stomach-- why was there so much blood? Was it breathing?

"Dead?" was the only thing to leave the parrot's beak.

Dead? What did that mean? Was that what this was, what Teyouma was? Despite being considerably larger than the small bird, the black shape of his body trembled as the feathered creature came closer; his eyes, bright despite a lack of light, opened slowly. The vague outline of his ruined body might have been apparent at first, yet he shuffled back - pulling himself with those long fingers of his, catching the rock floor with his claws, and keeping himself just out of the bird's reach. But his eyes remained visible, piercing through the dark.

D...ead...? Teyouma spoke the word as if it were caustic to his tongue, tasting it and finding it unsavory. Dea-d, another taste, and the voices rose in unison, one sounding as if the word were being inhaled while the other was a hiss. The more he said it, the more familiar it seemed - and soon, Teyouma was rasping the word over and over, growing more frantic as the single syllable fell from his lips. Dead - dead - deAD DEAD,

The beast knew that word. He was dead, had been. Was once one thing, then had been unmade, died. Had this little green thing known that? Had it been there, when the dark came and swallowed him up? Teyouma felt anger stirring in the pit of his being, then. Had that little thing been there, had it watched? Had it -- no, the other one. Teyouma sucked in a breath when the image of Bevy flashed through his mind, and let out a sudden shriek, clutching at his head with his talons.

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It screamed. He screamed. It wasn't dead, but it was hurt- it was hurt bad. He had to help it, somehow. He felt something choking in his throat as he slowly got forward, shaking violently. "Herkk... hhkk-eeee-rkkpk," the parrot struggled once more.

He offered his tiny talon - it was the only thing he could do. He repeated, "Hhhkk-ee-kkrp," as much as Teyouma had with the word 'dead,' but he was sure to keep his voice quiet, to make sure that the injured creature knew that he was only here to help.

The hybrid was too busy screeching and screaming (not to mention holding his hands over his ears, sort of) to notice the little bird. After retreating from it the last time, Teyouma had collapsed against the soil and curled his limbs close, his tail around his feet, and rocked softly to and fro. But when the bird drew close enough, he saw it in his periphery, reacting before thinking.

His tail unwrapped from around his feet and whipped through the air, nearly smacking in to the bird and their outstretched foot; but Teyouma must have moved just enough out of the way, because his tail fell short of its mark, and re-wrapped itself around his body like a sulking snake. His bright eyes narrowed with suspicion and a clear level of hatred (although the hatred was not directed at this bird specifically, he could only identify the raw emotion because the bird was there at all, and his mind placed full blame on every bird to ever bird).

Teyouma bared his fangs, letting out a low screech as if to warn the little creature away. No more hurt, he thought, no more dead. No more, no more, he wouldn't let it happen again.

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The little bird had no clue what the hybird was trying to do, or that it was even trying to attack him. He thought, instead, it wanted something. The bird looked around and quickly scampered off with a soft clack-clack-clack-clack of his talons.

He was gone for some time - though no more than half an hour. Although time doesn't exist in the caves, it's entirely possible that exactly thirty minutes later the little parrot was hobbling back with a quiet clack-clack-clack, before he stopped near Teyouma.

His beak was filled with leaves. It wasn't very clear where he got them from, but here he was with them here anyway. He slowed down, approaching carefully - though he stopped once he got in tail-whipping range of the creature to place the leaves down and shove them forwards a little with his beak.

Promptly, the parrot hobbled back to watch the half-monkey quietly.

The warning seemed to have worked. No sooner had he begun the hissing, growling, layered sound of danger, that the bird scuttled away. Feeling pleased for the first time in his life (a brief feeling, but one he would pursue later), Teyouma quieted down and focused his full attention on quieting the strange thoughts in his head. The memory of pressure from every side - a shining yellow gem, three spikes of orange-red, the bird from earlier when he woke - and gradually his panic subsided. His mind was a tangle of old memories and new ones, fragmented throughout. Perhaps it would never make sense to him.

He pulled himself further along the tunnel floor, enough so that when the bird came clacking back towards him, Kyrak would need to follow some drag marks. Dust clung to some of the damp blood upon Teyouma's body now, making him look messier (if that were even possible). As soon as Teyouma noticed the sound of something approaching, he froze.

He froze, except for his eyes, which roamed the corridor - landing on the little green blob. Teyouma watched the bird for a moment longer, waiting and tense, until it stopped - and then he raised his head, looking down his blunted face with a mixture of disapproval and apprehension towards the pile of leaves that settled upon the floor. After a minute or two, Teyouma decided to investigate; or he feigned interest, but either way, he drew closer. With his eyes trained on Kyrak at first, the hybrid reached out towards the leaves as if to grab them, sniffing at the air and giving the pile swift little glances.

Then, when he deemed the pile to be of no use, Teyouma grabbed as much of the leaf litter as he could hold in his awful hands, and threw it all at Kyrak; a new shriek penetrated the air, and once more the money thing retreated to the adjacent shadows.

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For the first time in his oh so short life, Kyrak felt his world come apart as the leaves billowed around him. They didn't hurt, of course - they were leaves - but what did hurt was the agonizing pain in his gut. He couldn't help the creature or, rather, the creature simply didn't want to be helped.

So Kyrak sat down and began whimpering and croaking sadly to himself. He couldn't understand what he did wrong or why this hybrid seemed to hate him so, and rejected the food he found for him, but nothing he did so far seemed to change that.

Either way, Teyouma seems to have made a baby cry. Good job, Teyouma.