The Creature made a low clicking sound to itself as it wandered about the far reaches of the earthen furnace - on the hunt for prey, or kill, at the moment. The Teeth, it's own offspring was nestled back at camp with it's nest mate - but both itself and the Creature required a largely carnivorous diet - and in the foreign, alien mechanics of the Creature's body, it was forming something else, another of Its kind. Meat was needed - he only needed to find a source of it.

Crawling along after it, rapidly, was the chest mimic that had latched itself to the larger, 'safer' mimic. The Litany called it 'Snapper', for the quick snap of its jaws when the Creature dropped scraps, and it was as suitable as anything, if one sought to name such a beast.

Creature's nostrils flared, trying to catch a scent of anything edible over the thick wafts of smoke and soot. Nothing, nothing, nothing at all-

Blood.

It's head snapped to attention, and it altered it's shambling gait into something a bit smoother, a bit quieter, more like a prowling jungle predator than a 'courser'. The mimic chest too quieted it's movements, moving in Creature's shadow.

Blood. Where...?

It changed it's direction, pressing forward - light tendril red grass brushing over it's hooves and ankles, taller ferns covered in a thin layer of soot brushing over it's sides. A small squeak spoke of a smaller prey caught in it's tagalong's jaws, but never mind it. A larger quarry was nearby.

The courser that saw the gaunt, bone thin form of Creature emerge from the underbrush went for the heavy partial sword near it - then paused, staring at the Creature with some manner of fascination. A nasty gouge in their hind limb had a pool of fresh red under it. Ah. Not-it blood. Hunting such was not out of the question, now Creature was stronger, but it was messy - and it must be something that would plague it's own Not-Its.

"... Now what, my friend, are you?" Said Collapse, staring at the gangly shambling thing that had come out of the brush and was now wandering about his camp, inspecting things while a runty looking mimic chest followed it's every step.

The Creature glanced up from where it was sniffing at Collapse's packs, and clicked, softly, several times.

"... Can you form words, I wonder."

The Creature stared at him, it's expression and dull dead-gray eyes unreadable of intent. It shambled closer, and he saw the shine of intelligence in it's stare, like his own, reflected.

"... Mm-....Ma-....MEat. D-" A voice forced its way out of Creature's jaws, a horrid, layered thing, a merging of the last two voices it had heard this day - Litany, and this stranger's. It was struggling to make the sounds, in the same way an infant might struggle to keep balanced on it's hooves.

"... Do... Y..ou ... Meat? Here?" Came something resembling a sentence, it's voice a malformed whisper.

The not-it looked back at it, and there was no spark of terror in it's face, no quickening of it's blood or heart. The look that met Creature in return, as the not-it (Collapse) seemed to ponder what it was, was something more like Envy.

Creature didn't like that very much.

"... Meat." Collapse said to himself, and undid the buckle of a pack with his teeth, prying it open, and then pushing it towards the Creature with his nose.

The Creature leaned to inspect this - dragging a set of ribs dripping with recent Kill free. Meat. Satisfied, and with an urge to be away from the courser who looked back at it so, Creature collected this 'find', and shambled back the way it came.