"You're suggesting I learn magic?"

"Yeah, that's a point, you'd probably turn me into a rabbit again or something."

"...You turned him into a rabbit?"

"By accident! When I was five!"

"Neither of which made me any less: a rabbit. I had to eat salad ingredients exclusively."

"For all of a day. Almost ten years ago."

"How did you end up a rabbit, exactly...?"

"There's a magic carpet in the treasure room that he wanted me to get off a shelf because he didn't like how it was looming precariously over something else, and when you touch the wrong side of it, rabbit."

"...How do you stop being a rabbit?"

"...you... go out under the new moon. Milo tried it later, actually, for a few hours."

"When is the next new moon?"

"...Are you just going to go be a rabbit?"

"Do I look like an astronomer to you? Less than a month off, that I do know."

"I want to know what it's like!"

"It's... like being a rabbit. Eyes on both sides of your head, nose-twitches that won't quit, hoppability. Lettuce. Heck, we're probably old enough now that you could ask permission, if you don't want to be caught rummaging in the treasure rooms."

"I wasn't planning to just go rummage in your treasure room without permission."

"I mean, permission from Uncle Ainar or Aunt Celyta, as opposed to, say, Milo, who has been known to claim that he as good as owns the place."

"Hey, it's my castle too!"

"There's probably a calendar around somewhere that says when the next new moon is, which you'd want to know in case you don't like being a rabbit very much."

"I don't see what's not to like."

"It makes it hard to do much of anything but chew on greens and be petted. And hop, I guess. Can't read, can't hold a sword, can't even open doors. I went outside and a hawk spooked me."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be one for an entire month, I don't think. But I wouldn't mind just a day or two. It would be interesting."