i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[carillons]

"What is yours?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't get sick much," shrugs Shura. "I guess it's okay, it's just not interesting."

[carillons]

"What one would you pick, if you could pick one?" wonders Helen. She nudges Kalavar off her book and opens it to the goddess chart.

[alicornucopia]

"Something cool. Like - like my great grandmother only has to sleep three hours a day, I like that one."

[carillons]

"That would be cool," Helen agrees.

[truthwright]

"It sure would," says Kas.

And it's not even a hex. A pentagon will do it.

(There's tricks, and then there's tricks. He's willing to risk this one.)

[alicornucopia]

"Oh well," sighs Shura theatrically. "I'm gonna go find grandma and we are going to the lake to feed ducks." (Nicoa becomes a duckling, illustratively.) "You can come probably."

[carillons]

"Okay!" says Helen, scooping up Kalavar onto her shoulder with a last glance at the book. "Let's go feed ducks!"

[alicornucopia]

They locate Shura's grandmother, and they go to the lake, where there are ducks.

[carillons]

"It would be more fun if you got to pick your birth blessing," says Helen, apparently out of the blue during duck-feeding. "I'd want grace as mine."

[truthwright]

(Kas is writing a postcard. He crushes it in his hand and stuffs it into his pocket.)

[alicornucopia]

"That would be a good one too," agrees Shura. "It'd be good for dagger fighting!"

[carillons]

Helen giggles.

[truthwright]

It's a pentagon.

[alicornucopia]

Shura flings corn kernels to the ducks and giggles when they quarrel over them.

[truthwright]

Well, that's adorable.

[carillons]

Kalavar becomes a duckling and squeaks and flaps her wings at Helen until Helen feeds her. This is a source of great amusement to both of them.

[alicornucopia]

"You're not a real duck," Nicoa scoffs at Kalavar.

[carillons]

"So?" says Kalavar, and she flaps her fuzzy wings some more.

[alicornucopia]

Nicoa, quite at random, becomes an anteater and sticks out his tongue at Kalavar.

Shura giggles and goes on feeding ducks.

"Even the ducks can tell the difference between themselves and daemons, whatever the daemon form," remarks Shura's grandmother.

[carillons]

"Why's that?" wonders Helen.

[alicornucopia]

"It's a little like magical sensitivity, except animals don't react in special ways to enchanted things," says Shura's grandmother, "they can only tell the difference between daemons and animals. In people, being able to tell that easily and quickly usually comes with being able to tell things about magic. The faster a mortal could tell that Kalavar isn't a duck, the more likely they'd be to notice my dagger's enchantments, or my birth blessing, or tell that I'm not a mortal even if I dressed up like one. Of course witches have higher magical sensitivity than mortals do."

[carillons]

"Oh," says Helen. She pets Kalavar's fuzzy head and throws a handful of corn kernels to the ducks. "Why's it different for animals and people that way?"

[alicornucopia]

Shura's grandmother starts explaining evolution. If animals couldn't tell that daemons were part of people, they could not act correctly afraid of them - which they must do. Daemons don't have to eat for themselves, and if they help their people hunt, they may attack animals that their current shapes would not disturb. Children's daemons are even more versatile; if the ducks were fooled by Kalavar, Helen could hide, Kalavar could go among them, and then she could turn into a fox right on top of a real duck and there would be dinner.

[carillons]

...Kalavar turns into a small blue dragon and looks speculatively at the ducks.