"Yes?"

Yip-yip!

... She tried to make that sound like 'talk more,' but it probably wasn't very communicative. Damn. Does she have to get up and go to her letters to say anything? She likes being a foxpuddle so much. Let's see if leaning up and bapping his mouth with her nose will communicate the thing.

...He giggles. "Really? All right, if you insist. Should today's lecture be on magical theory, the failures of the wizarding education system, or some new interesting subject I haven't discussed before?"

Hm! She considers this, then:

Single yip! That probably means the first thing.

"Hmmm, let's see, what magical theory shall I discuss... ooh, I know! Dragons! Dragons are a fascinating example of something everyone thought was true for a really long time and then fairly recently someone put together a sufficiently compelling case to overturn the consensus. First of all that's fascinating because hardly anyone ever manages that, and second of all it's fascinating because I have no idea if they were right or not. No one's found any evidence of them in the last hundred years, and in most cases if you can't dig up any conclusive signs that something exists, that in itself is a fairly conclusive sign that it doesn't, particularly when the thing in question is the size of a house and breathes fire. But eight or nine hundred years ago when everyone was pretty sure that dragons existed, all the accounts of what they were like were remarkably consistent - and included details implying alchemic correspondences that hadn't yet been discovered at the time! Poison is such a little-used element that its association with the Crown Star was only proven a couple of centuries ago, but green dragons are reliably depicted with poison breath. On the other hand, if dragons do exist, then where in the world have they all run off to?"

... Gosh. Yes, that's an interesting question. Just from Isfain's explanation, she's inclined to think they do exist, but something happened to them to cause them all to disappear. That seems like a sensible compromise that follows both sets of evidence. On the other hand, though, she hasn't personally read either case, and is hesitant to weigh in so soon. Hm.

She gives a little thoughtful whumpf, and noses Isfain affectionately. He is a good wizard, and she likes him.

He grins and pets her soft ears.

"For a while when I was fresh out of school I toyed with the idea of setting off on a quest to find the dragons, but then I decided there were plenty of interesting questions to answer a little closer to home, and I'm much more of a theorist than an adventurer."

She's certainly glad he didn't run off to find dragons, even if the answers would be fascinating. How would she have shown up on his doorstep to be defoxed? Clearly it would have been much more difficult, which sounds terrible. She would have been wandering in the woods as a fox even longer. Instead, she can giggle a little fox giggle, then nuzzle him affectionately, in this nice comfy bed with this nice wonderful wizard.

"Maybe someday, though. After I've run out of more convenient notions to pursue."

He gets a very wry look. Uh huh. Somehow she expects that will take a while.

... But then, he's a powerful wizard, he probably has a while. By the stories, he's got to be at least twice her age, if not more so. She tilts her head thoughtfully.

"Are you doubting that I could possibly have such a limited store of notions as that? You might be right."

She gives a little affirmative yip and nuzzles his hand affectionately. Ear scritches and Isfain lectures, yessssssss.

Pet pet pet. "You're so soft. I apologize, that wasn't about magical theory at all."

She giggles, then playfully nibbles his hand. Very gently.

—he cracks up.

Nibble, nibble... Boop! She has taken advantage of this distraction to boop his nose.

Gasp!!!! Surely this is the most unexpected of all events!!!!

(He giggles and attempts to pet her again but fails because he is laughing too hard.)

Awww! Well, if he's having trouble petting her, she can wiggle right into his hand and help!

Eeeeeeeeeeee soft fox!!!!!!!!

Snuggle, snuggle. Snuggle, snuggle.

... Okay he should talk again. She yips at him accordingly, ears perked up.

"Right. Magical theory. You've heard my opinions on dragons, and why everyone should learn alchemy... let's see, what else is there..."

She considers, then gives a little yip, nudged him affectionately with her nose, and hops down to her letters.

Healing magic? I'm a hedge witch, I've got some experience with it, but nothing formal.

"Sure. Healing magic."

He drums his fingers together consideringly.

"The thing about healing magic... well, there are several things. I've already had my little rant about how it's short-sighted for everyone to think life magic is better at healing than healing is just because gold is more glamorous than silver. That's the most infuriating thing about healing magic but it's not really the most interesting, it's not even really about healing magic, it's about wizards being idiots. The most interesting thing about healing magic, I think, is that it understands how a body is supposed to be shaped."

He pulls a bit of string out of thin air to fidget with as he talks, for no apparent reason other than that he wanted something to fidget with.

"Now, on the face of it, 'healing magic knows how to heal things' seems obvious and straightforward, right? You don't look at a fact like that and go 'what a surprise, my world is crumbling before my eyes'. But to a wizard trained in life magic healing it actually seems kind of insane! You mean I've been going around all this time learning anatomy painstakingly by staring at gruesome drawings of dissected dead bodies and occasionally at actual dead bodies, and meanwhile there's a kind of magic that just knows how many layers a person's skin is supposed to have and what order they go in? All right, that's not entirely fair, life magic is overall pretty good about skin, the real troubles start when you get to the fiddlier bits, but I've used healing magic to regrow a person's entire foot and not once did I have to consult a textbook about where all the bones should go. The magic just knew. On the other hand, I tried the same thing on someone born without a foot and it was useless, the poor man's leg just sat there with the stump glowing white, I had to wait until the next morning and get out my textbook and do it the stupid way with life. On the other other hand, once the foot was there, I asked him if I could test something and I tried the healing magic again and it didn't make the whole thing wither back away or anything of that nature—it even healed him normally when I poked him with a pin. I probably should not have asked if I could poke him with a pin."

That is very interesting!! She gives a little excited yip and everything! And also an affectionate nose at 'I probably should not have asked if I could poke him with a pin.'

Then she goes over to her letters, her tail swishing:

Following pattern? Life changes pattern itself? Poke me with a pin let's see!

...he giggles as he reads that last part. "I really should've expected this. All right, c'mere, let's learn things." A pin appears in his hand with a tidy little gesture.