The question seemed somewhat out of the blue for Quinn, because he hadn't realised how strange everything was himself until that moment. He thought at first that maybe the beast just was like a parrot, repeating the words that it had heard before. Or a message that was sent by another beast. In the past, he had seen beasts working together and even helping humans if the circumstance was right.
Whatever answer they ended up giving the creature, it just wouldn't reply, and if the owl had stayed longer or tried to attack the others, Quinn had decided he would just have to try to act in a way where the others were unable to see him. With his shadow powers, he could sneak outside, and, possibly with the gun, kill the demon tier beast with a few shots, where things wouldn't look so suspicious.