"That will take a long time," observes Shura solemnly.

"Not that long," says Kas. "Another ten years or so."

"In ten years I'll be... fifteen," says Helen, frowning arithmetically. "Is that grown up?"

"Mommy says I will be most of the way grown up when Nicoa picks something and we separate," says Shura. (Nicoa becomes a polecat and slithers from her head into her arms.) "And the rest of the way grown up when I like to eat vegetables - so -" She points at Kas. "Watch out!"

"You have to be a bird," opines Nicoa. "Mommy says." He illustratively turns into a tawny frogmouth.

"Only if I be something," says Kalavar, turning into a tiny dragon with gold-edged green scales and green-streaked gold wings.

"If you don't be anything how will you know when to separate?" asks Shura. (Nicoa becomes a crow, and a bluejay, and a chickadee.)

"I dunno!" says Kalavar. "Maybe we won't. Maybe we'll just never grow up." She giggles, curling around Helen's neck as a fuzzy little red panda.

"I guess then you won't eat your spinachdaddy," allows Shura.

"I wouldn't eat him anyway! He's nice," Helen asserts. She hugs her mommydaddyspinach.

"I'm going to be a scary bird," says Kalavar. She turns into a vulture.

Shura giggles.

Kalavar stands on Helen's head and flaps her wings. Helen squeaks.

"He's my mommydaddyspinach," giggles Helen, and she hugs Kas some more. Kalavar turns into a dragon again and lands on Petaal, who is being a white tiger at the moment.

Shura's mother plunks her child onto her cloud-pine; Nicoa turns into a bat and hangs from the branch, and off they fly.

Helen sits in Kas's lap and declares him her favourite spinach in the whole wide world.

Magic lessons start a bit later, and Helen has these with Shura, too - and also with Inkeri and Kaydi. They begin with simple verse spells, in non-English to discourage making up variations. This doesn't stop Shura from identifying a goddess's name in one spell, replacing it with another, and causing a small explosion and getting a time-out.

"What'd you do that for?" says Helen.

"I didn't know it'd explode!" says Shura, when she bounces out of time-out and bends over her book of introductory spells again. "I just wanted to try something."

"Your something exploded," says Helen. "What was it supposed to do if it didn't explode?"

"I dunno," says Shura. "We don't have to know to get stuff to happen, right? That's why we don't verse out of lessons?"

"Well, which one was it? Do it properly and let's see."