“Huh.” That does put it in a whole other category, the way Loki says it. Not a trick or a tool but something that sounds more like a part of her. Something else to integrate with her mental model. Her gaze tracks sideways when Loki gestures up at the tree, audios tracking the little exchange, but she doesn’t look around. Ghost does, however, directing a little hello chirp and spin of his shell up at the two girls.

“Must come in handy, being able to shift around that way.” Blaze’s own background cultures – both the City and her origin - don’t much emphasise biological sex or gender one way or the other, so having some flexibility in that just sounds neat to her. Give her a little time to mull it over, though, and she’ll start to wonder more about the psychological side. Maybe, being a shapeshifter from so young, it’s easy for Loki to change his body drastically without side-effects? But there are more immediate things to discuss.

“It was an easy death.” She doesn’t sound bothered by it, either, but her hands flex and her weight shifts as she goes on. “Ghost’s the one who had to live through it. I’m more concerned with the fallout. Fallen on the threshold, the people we lost.”

Ghost pipes up quietly at the direct question. “We went there on our way to the border. The fungus creature didn’t come out again. But I think it’s still there. I took some scans of the tree… well, there’s not much tree left there.”

“Found some bones down among the roots,” Blaze notes. “Don't know if that thing could take on an average humanoid, but I wouldn’t let children close to it. Felt like something worse than a regular predator.”