It doesn't insult Autharyx to be compared to an animal, and it only occurs to him that he might need to act like it does when Viltez starts to backtrack on his own words, and by then it's too late to pretend. 

"I think I would rather be likened to an animal than a kid,"  he says instead, a small smile on his face to show he's not being very serious. "Don't we all look at them and envy their abilities? The grace of the mountain lion, the flight of birds... Humans might be capable of many feats, but those are still beyond us." He hopes he is projecting and air of awe towards the natural world rather than disdain towards humans- which he was supposed to be a part of after all. He doesn't really [i]hate[/i] humans of course, otherwise he wouldn't chose to spend time amongst them. But while they are able to make many a beautiful thing, they are also the creatures that have caused him the most trouble over the ages.

He should probably try to hide how much he's observing the beastman, but as he's being watched in return it might be okay after all. It's still difficult for him to read the quick succession of emotions over Viltez' face as he glances at his own tail, but it is fascinating to look at the man regardless. In his true form he'd found humans hard to keep apart - their little faces had all looked much the same to him and they kept changing clothes to look different from day to day.

It is different with Viltez - or perhaps it's different now that he's the same size. Whatever the cause, Viltez is very interesting to look at. Not just his tail, the appeal of which could be explained by its novelty, but even his face. For someone who until recently was hard pressed to keep males and females apart on looks alone, he's spent an awful lot of time just looking at the shape of his eyes, the curve of his jaw and the colour of his lips. Even without spending much time as a human, he can guess that staring at people's faces might be considered rude, so he tries to be at least a lttle subtle about it.

Trying so hard, in fact, that he is caught off-guard when Viltex mentions he's free to ' return any time'. His face falls as he catches the implication - he's supposed to leave soon? - but it quickly morphs into relief when the his host mentions he's free to stay as well. A relieved smile is on his face by the time he catches up with his own emotions and his cheeks colour slightly as he realises how much of his emotions are on display. He's supposed to be a traveler, isn't he, not some kind of ... lonely soul who gets to attached too easily.  He can only hope Viltez will take it as a compliment that he doesn't want to leave, and not a reason to doubt his cover story.

"I would very much love to stay." he says without thinking, hiding a wince at the earnest warmth in his voice. " Er, that is to say, it would be kind of you to allow me to stay. I can... offer compensation for your troubles of course." It feels... wrong somehow to try and treat this thing as a transaction, but that is what humans did, right?  Autharyx much rather wants to... he doesn't actually know. It's novel enough for him to actually care about hte opinion of an individual mortal that he hasn't had time to figure out much beyond that. Best if he just follows Viltez' lead rather than try something and mess is up, though, Viltez-proper, that is, not Viltez' tail. The man seems disturbed anough by the appendages' tendencies that Autharyx is fairly certain it will not be well-recieved if he starts draping himself all over the beastman.