Taharqi does not move or lift his gaze.

He takes a step towards the meat, slowly, still growling.

"It's okay. Focus on the food. You can understand me. I know you don't think I'm in your pack, but we are the closest thing you have to a pack right now. You gotta stick with us to survive."

The man makes a sound that sounds suspiciously like a yip when Taharqi starts talking but after a few words he calms down enough to stop growling altogether, and when Taharqi stops talking he whines a bit and takes an uncertain step towards Taharqi.

"I am going to take a step back, and I am going to place more food here," he announces slowly. "I will place food all the way over to where we are, but you can run away whenever you want. You shouldn't, though. I know you are confused, but we are not the ones you should be afraid of. You will be fine." And with that he starts taking some very soft, very slow, very small steps back, creating a trail of food.

The other man keeps watching warily. Once Taharqi is far enough, he crawls over to the first morsel of meat, takes it, and eats it, watching Taharqi intently all the while.

Taharqi still does not stand back up, or look at the man, and just waits patiently.

(Raziya is absolutely ignoring anything going on over there to focus on her food.)

"You're very good at this - talking-down - thing," Tintin says agreeably.

He doesn't turn to look over his shoulder at Valentin or acknowledge him verbally, but he does smile at the ground.

The man takes another step towards the next morsel of food, grabs it, sniffs it, and eats it. His brows furrow in concentration while he chews, and after he swallows he opens his mouth and says, "Ho... Ho........ Horan. Ho. Ran."

"Ho... ran," Taharqi repeats. "Is that your name? Horan?"

He still looks like he's having a lot of trouble concentrating, but he nods. "Ho... ran. Ee... Y..." He whines and shuts his eyes and then moans in a much more humanlike sounds. "Horan," he says one more time.

(Raziya looked up at them when Horan spoke, and is now watching, too.)

Tintin nods slowly. Does it hurt him to speak, or to think, he wonders.

"I am going to eat, now," says Taharqi, "but I will leave this food here for you. We have more. We have plenty for all of us. You can get your pieces of meat here, and take them with you, or you can join us. It is up to you."

Horan looks at the meat when Taharqi speaks, then back up at him.

He puts the rest of the meat on the ground, takes a few steps back, then sits and turns around so that his back is to Horan. He releases a breath, then turns up to look at Valentin and grin, now that his teeth are no longer visible to the Feral Friend.

Tintin smiles back, though since he's more visible to Horan he refrains from showing teeth. "Good show," he murmurs.

"Thank you," he murmurs back.

"Where'd you learn that?" Raziya asks with her mouth full.

"Here and there," he replies, vaguely enough. "He can understand us, the other thralls of the Dogs of the Desert can, too. But whatever they gave us... made us more like hyenas. Or, made him more like a hyena, it failed to work for us. I wonder why."

(Horan himself seems to be having trouble actually understanding the murmured conversation—too many words, too low a volume, too confusing—but he's making progress towards them and grabbing the meat trail Taharqi left for him.)

"I interrupted the ritual in the middle," Tintin mentions. "It's possible they had already injected him with something else, before I arrived, and were waiting on the two of you for... some reason."

"—a ritual. Right. The drug itself only opens us up, that's... the drug itself does not control us, it just keeps us pliant so that Jhebbal Sag can get in."