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Shukri resisted the urge to laugh at Takoda's confession, how could someone who faced everything a healer had to be afraid of bugs? Aside from the giant ones of course, it's was perfectly natural to fear that sort of thing what with the strange poison web and all that. Everyone feared different things, even Shukri was not brave in all situations it was just... hmm Takoda really was odd.

Wait! how could an all female race exist, Shukri was no silly youngling he knew how children were born. He didn't interrupt Takoda though and instead listened intently to what else the dark skinned shifter had to say about this strange tribe. "Hmmpf, well they can't have Sauti no matter what they might think," the wind tribe boy grumbled. This land was his home and he had no intention of just letting some strangers take it because they thought they could. Not that Shukri would be much use in a fight but he'd try. " I suppose I'll meet one soon enough," although his enthusiasm and curiosity was now a bit dampened by this new information.

Shukri nodded slowly taking in the information, they all sounded interesting in their own way, although he was prepared to dislike anyone who tried to take his home from him. He wondered why they all seemed to have different coloured stones in their skin, was it to do with the ground they lived on, but then why were the wind tribe's gems not purple like the mountains.

"Why are you called shifters?" That too was something Shukri had been pondering for the last few minutes. He knew what it meant to shift but he hadn't seen anything particularly noticeable change about Takoda while he'd been talking to him.

"I would like to see this shifting happen some time." Shukri imagined it would be an interesting process to behold and that Takoda would look quite well.. pretty he supposed with silver skin. Interesting and pretty were two things Shukri loved having combined.

Each tribe was so different in looks what they revered, Shukri had a feeling it was going to take quite some time to get used to all of them and their customs. Not that he objected to it, studying people could be interesting and he was doing it with a purpose after all. Besides of all of the strangers were as interesting and odd as Takoda shukri had a feeling there was plenty of amusement to be had during the learning process.

Though he was still curious about so many things Shukri supposed he'd best start upholding his end of the bargin. "Is there something here you would like me to show you, or that you want to know about?" His people had their secrets like he imagined all the tribes did but there was likely plenty of things he could use to sate the shifter's own curiosity.

Shukri nodded and gave a grin " I'll need to bring you home one evening, Faiza would never forgive me if I denied her the opportunity to see something as interesting as your skin changing." Plus the boy wasn't above the idea of showing off his new friend of sorts in general. He imagined Takoda might enjoy spending an evening with the band, they were a fun lot while camping and the elders could probably answer more questions than he about the history of the people and just how they'd survived in this harsh land.

In answering Takoda's first question Shukri twisted the truth just a little,"We are called the wind tribe for the way most of us roam the land as if blown across it by the wind."While not perhaps the primary reason for his tribes name it was one of the many explanations that had been added over the years. If he stuck around Sauti long enough Shukri imagined he would hear all the possible interpretations of the meaning of his tribes' name.

Laughter bubbled up and poured from the young man's lips at the question of if they worshiped the wind. "The wind tribe's loyalties belong to Bergchi, our icy goddess of the mountains. "While Sauti was not an overly cold place the higher up a mountain you went the more chilled the air got, the highest peaks even had snow and ice upon them making ascent and later descent that much more difficult.

Shukri could not comment on the various tribes having different stone adornments, he wasn't honestly sure what the point of them was to begin with nevermind why they might differ. They were simply something people had. like ears and toes and noses.

Shukri was equally incredulous about life in a permanent settlement though it was not wholly unheard of it Sauti. Still to live in just one place all your life, to see only a fraction of your homeland without having to go on ridiculously long journeys to do so. Every tribe it seemed was different but Shukri would never understand the allure of settled life, adventure and moving was bred into his blood as far as he was concerned. He wouldn't mind a world where there was more vegetation and creature to hunt in Sauti but even then Shukri would want to b nomadic.

"Most predators have good camouflage and you're not going to see them coming," Shukri pointed out, thinking about the creature in specific that might pose a threat to Takoda.the prentice chewed on his lower lip for a moment while continuing to ponder the question. "We have some big reptiles that move pretty fast, some of them have poison in their spit so you don't want to get bit. Normally those you can hear before you see them, they make a sort of heavy breathing noise like they've been running for a long time or something." With the way sounds echoed in Sauti it was easier to pick up these sorts of sounds than it might have been elsewhere in Tendaji. " There's a couple types of really big, scruffy looking birds that will gang up on you and peck at you if they get mad, and they don't give up easily either."

Shukri continued on for a few minutes explaining the most dangerous sorts of creatures found in Suati and how to recognize or avoid them. In a few cases he had advice on how to fight them although Takoda didn't look like he'd be much use in a battle unless he was making it so nothing could see by splashing water on it. Then again Shukri himself wasn't exactly a fighter, more of a hoarder of all the interesting things he could get his little hands on, so who was he to judge?

"Yes, I'm not quite sure how it all works, but for anything than can go wrong there is always an answer." The worst injuries were actually the ones you couldn't see. Falls from high places made people bleed internally in both body and head, sometimes the healers could fix it and sometimes there was no hope. It was part of why those of the wind tribe generally learned to climb at fairly young ages, the more practice you had, the less likely you were to take a fatal fall.

" It can be very nice here, sometimes everything is incredibly quiet and still and if you're high enough up you can see forever," A bright smile shone on Shukri's face as he spoke then, for all the troubles one could have living here there were moments of great tranquility and joy as well.

Almost as if Takoda had summoned trouble, the sky above them suddenly darkened and well over a dozen large, winged reptiles filled the sky. One smaller than the rest seemed to hang in the air a moment before plummeting directly down towards them, though it was clear this was not intentional as it gave a small distressed squawk.

The larger sail scales glided safely to the ledge opposite the one they had jumped from and disappeared from view as quickly as they had come. The smaller one continued to attempt to slow it's descent, all the while making it quite clear that this was not what it had planned!

Shukri was used to the way groups of the reptiles would just be there one moment and gone the next. He'd even seen a few of the smaller hatchlings like this one failing their first attempted flight. Shukri shook his head as he followed after Takoda who seemed intent on rescuing the poor creature. " Sail scales are pretty harmless to people and babies like this just hiss when they get angry." For the most part Sail scales didn't try and attack anything bigger than them unless it was after their young and even then they generally gave up if they were severely overpowered. Mostly they just flopped over and played dead when presented with things much larger than them.

It took everything within Shukri not to laugh at Takoda, the shifter was truly too tenderhearted for his own good. Then again the other man was unused to things like this happening and probably more more comfortable when he knew how to help or not help as the case may be. Some creatures in Sauti were fine with strangers lending their young a helping hand and others would abandon them outright if they picked up the scent of people on them. Sailscales didn't really mind outside intervention although the little hatching seemed quite content to hiss defensively at Takoda as if it making it quite clear that it was fine.

"Hmm, you could try picking it up and carrying it up there," he noted, answering his companion's question and pointing to the lavender ridge the rest of the group had flown over to. "It probbaly won't make things easy," Shukri warned. Wild creatures rarely seemed to understand when all you wanted to do was help and often struggled, making things more difficult than they needed to be. " If you just leave it be eventually one of the older ones will come rescue it.. well usually."

Sometimes the group just left hatchlings to climb their own way out of messes, Shukri wasn't sure why exactly they sometimes did that, some sort of test perhaps or maybe they sensed that some of their young would never survive anyways and thus didn't bother to help them.