The unease lingered beneath, though tightly bound and tucked out of sight. The body understood the dangerousness of vulnerability more than the mind ever could. It was tempted to re-evaluate the stranger through a different lens . He hardly struck it as a feeling creature, as many often are, and if it simply reached for the thinking parts it would find some of that context it was missing so dearly. But wouldn't that be cheating? Wouldn't that be ruining the fun?
The wolf flinched again, and the construct laughed lightly like a breeze. Silent, of course, but he would feel it. He would know. He began a slow circle - Vultures overhead. Sharks underneath. Shadows with mouths. Its body interjected again, in reaction to the brush of soft tissue on porous 'stone.' It did not like being smelled, but it did not react. It simply watched with patient kindness, carved permanently into the shape of its hollow eyes. Perhaps the stranger did not realise how easily his curiosity could be mistaken for hunger?
Its contemplation sounded like stone on stone. I am a Watcher. I am a Wait-er. I am becoming something new. The tendrils in its tail flexed and relaxed. You are a - a lover of the material. The calculable. I will offer you what I can. I was not born. I was not created. The mind came before the body - it was not a smooth transition. I am still left in fragments. I assume you are not the same. What are you?