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Sulu was, to say the least, frazzled from her trip to Soldul. It was nice to be back... home. Yes home. It had its dangers but it felt... right.
She shook herself out, the contents of her pack jingling with the movement, and was dismayed to see just how many feathers fell out. Had she been that stressed in Soldul that she was molting? Yes. the answer was yes.
Immediately, she set to preening, hoping that she would have enough feathers left over to actually fly. Preening was relaxing. The methodical straightening and picking out of feathers was soothing, and it helped to put her dread behind her.
It did, however, take a lot of focus, and she had no idea that an orderite was in earshot...

Suluksati jumped at the voice, right into a fighting stance, her heart racing, her crest raised. She closed her eyes briefly and forced herself to calm down. This was not a fight, this was not a fight, this was not a fight. She settled herself.
"Let us not talk about that place." she said, returning to her preening, keeping an eye on the orderite. Her nerves were frazzled and she did not want a fight if she did not have to, not now. There was no reason for her to fight when she was not in danger and there were no dragons to protect.
"I have just been there, and I have no desire to return any time soon."
Or ever
But that was an uncharitable thought. What of the poor dragons- diabi excluded mostly- who lived there? She could not deny them her quest just because of the land they called home. She would have to return, just not yet. Not yet...

Suluksati worked at a particularly difficult feather, then paused.
"I had my reasons." she said edgily before moving to a foreleg. She would get every last speck of that dark forest off of her claws.
"Unfortunately, I timed my visit for the Blood Moon." not her proudest of moments, "Not a good idea." but at least she admitted it.
She shook her foreclaw out, looking up at the orderite. "Either way, It was.... unpleasant. I prefer here."

Suluksati paused again, giving her a sympathetic look.
"Are you, yourself, a mage?" she asked curiously. She knew enough to know that Orderite mages drew from Seren and her own clan. It was something she could appreciate, though it was a shame that they killed her precious dragons anyway, even steeped as they were in the energies of justice and rightgeousness and... that stuff. "My clan is Aedaun, of Seren and Light..." she said. She figured that, stranger or no, it was a polite introduction to state clan. Especially since her lovely green markings had gotten her mistaken for a ysali. She had nothing against Ysali, drakein or dragon. In fact, she felt sorry for the poor little ysali dragons, always so hunted. But she wasn't a ysali.
"So... I really should have known better..." she admitted, "But I am thankful I didn't run into a blood mage myself. Just... a horrible, dark forest." And no diabi either... She really had to work on not having a deathwish. She didn't have one, really she didn't.
"And..." she fluffed out her feathers a bit, a vain and also somehow modest motion, "Thank you." she took a closer look at the orderite, trying to find a compliment to pay in return, as was only fair. But it was hard to see them as anything more than nest raiders and dragon killers. She just didnt find them that pretty. Not when they werent at the age when everything was cute.
"... I like your hair." she said finally. It was a fetching shade of magenta. "And your... cloth? At your back." she had no idea what it was, but she liked it. Like wings, but more billow-y in the breeze.
She went back to her preening, becoming suddenly aware of more soldul grit that was somehow still in her feathers. Would she never be rid of that dark land?!
"My name is Suluksati." she said between frustrated preening. She left out the whole 'Protector of Dragons' part for the time being.

Cape. That was what it was called, then. She would have to remember that for... when? The unlikely possibility of ever needing clothes?

"I can imagine it would be frustrating to fly in it..." she agreed, thinking. It would foul one's wings when open or in flight. She supposed it was a hassle, but it did have a nice look to it. An impressive one.

Still, she liked it.

"My feathers, too, are a pain." she said, "but that still doesn't change them being one of my better features." she said. She did, however, not want hair. It looked like it got everywhere, and twoleggers couldn't groom it like she could the feathers on her body. Their mouths couldn't reach it, and they couldn't see it. Like the crest on her head, actually. "I suspect it may be the same with your hair." Truthfully, Sulu didn't care one way or another about Xenosa's hair. She was, however, going to be polite about it to the very end.

"So, Xenosa. You are not a mage. What do you do?" asked Suluksati, abandoning her grooming (for the time being) to lie down, relaxed yet alertly sphinx like, looking politely at the orderite. She might as well find out more, right?

The image of the piece of cloth flapping everywhere was... well it was sort of funny. As well as tying it down. Suluksati's tail lashed, but she refrained from laughing. That was just rude.

Her crest began to rise at the word hunter, but it seemed that this was a different hunter than the sort she was used to. People. Things. Objects. Information... Suluksati was a bit puzzled.

"Why would people want you to find information for them?" she asked, perplexed, "Could they not find it themselves?" Most of what Suluksati did was on her own four claws or on her own two wings. Information, she asked for herself or saw for herself. Using an intermediary was an odd concept.

And... Suluksati couldn't help but wonder... what did Xenosa mean by a 'people hunter'?

Suluksati found the concept quite alien... but also intriguing. Knowledge as power. Information that one wouldn't want others to know they knew.
Unsavory information...

Laziness, though, that she could understand.

"Such a facinating world to live in..." she remarked, watching Xenosa intently, "Is it exciting? What you do?" she asked.

Then she sighed.
"As for me... no. My clan does not approve of what I do, nor does most of my kind. Its nothing... unsavory..." she said, unsure if her unsavory and Xenosa's unsavory meant the same thing, "But it is unpopular, and so I am alone in my quest."