It's probably for the best that Gabriel doesn't attempt to eat Shrieky. Even at the best of times he was fairly annoying, but this was nothing compared to the volume and pitch that his voice could achieve when under serious stress.

The comment about needing a meal doesn't immediately strike Shrieky as particularly threatening, because really, who doesn't need to eat at some point? It doesn't seem unreasonable to him that food would be important to restoring damaged tissue, and he doesn't have any specific reason to assume that what this particular creature survives off is the flesh of the living.

"A meal? I could buy you something to eat, if that would help?" Even as he says this though, a problem is occurring to him, "but won't it... won't food just fall out of your cheeks when you try to chew it?"