[hunches his shoulders a little; it's a body habit he's starting to pick up, since he started being able to change into a shape with wings]

We can ask around, though...I'm not sure we'll get a lot of useful information. We might want to ask why there's only the one Palai city, too...shouldn't they have spread out further by now, especially if it's been a long time since the ocean rose and made so much more land available?