"In ten years I'll be... fifteen," says Helen, frowning arithmetically. "Is that grown up?"
Kalavar becomes a snake and coils around her shoulders. "I'm gonna be like Petaal and never ever settle," she announces.
"Only if I be something," says Kalavar, turning into a tiny dragon with gold-edged green scales and green-streaked gold wings.
"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.
"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.
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.