The immediate vicinity contains nothing easily construed as dangerous or hostile. There are some trees, bushes, more grass, a few decoratively placed rocks, and a human child approaching from over thataway.

"Ihh... English. No," he apologizes. "Ihh... ma- ihh. Magik?"

"Hm," she says, contemplating these utterances.

"Magic..." the human child echoes thoughtfully. "I think you should come home with me." She makes a beckoning gesture and takes a few steps along the path.

...She ponders this request for a moment, and then she ponders whether she would like to fulfill this request since she's beginning to have a suspicion of what it is, and then she sighs and looks up at the cupboard above the fridge. It opens, and a bottle of brandy floats down to their level.

"How does that... work?" she asks, fascinated. "The magic. And how did you end up in the park, and where are you from?"

"Magic? It's like any other skill, you just need to know what you're doing. And I arrived through a portal, more specifically a portal to Yakkor, which is where I'm from. It's a cozy little hell dimension. What's that weird plant outside?"

"Which of the plants is the weird one?"

"Like... these little green feathers, coming out of the ground. They're not even sharp, just- soft."

"That's grass."

"Well, alright. You've still got sensible plants, though, right? It's not all just mushy green stuff?"

"What are sensible plants like?"

"Sharp, colorful, poisonous, that sort of thing. Pretty and deadly."

"Those sorts of plants are rarer than the green kinds," she says.

"Ridiculous. What kind of demons have you got running around?"

"...I don't think we have any."

"...Come again?"

"I don't think we have any demons."

"So it's just... what, humans? Not even any halfbloods?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Not really, no."

"I can do telekinesis. I can't do portals or translation spells, and I've never heard of anyone who can. I've never even heard of anyone else who can do telekinesis."

"Weeeeeird. Magic's s'posed to be all over the place or not there at all. Wanna try learning the translation pearl spell?"

"Sure."

Ari dashes out to acquire a rock, then dashes back in. He conscientiously wipes off the majority of the dirt, then begins shaping it into a sphere and bleaching it to a pearly white.

Matilda watches with intense curiosity. She would love to know how all this works.

"I think so, but what do you mean by focusing my energy into the stone?"

"Um. You know the feeling of telekinesis? Like that, but... instead of doing anything with it, just focusing. Like pretending to push up against an invisible wall."

"I'm not at all sure that the telekinesis I do is anything like any telekinesis you've ever heard of," says Matilda.

"...Fair, I guess. Well, try to just... focus on the stone? However you can? And recite the incantation. I can tell if it worked, if I focus."

"I'm not sure that's an answer."

"Well, if it's weird then maybe I don't have to put it in my mouth. Can you undo your translation again and try saying something?"

He shrugs and hocks up his pearl again. "My mother recently attempted to murder me," he says in apparent English. "Like, this morning recently. It sucked. But I met a cute girl, so whatever."

"Your mother tried to murder you?" she says, alarmed.

"Wow, it does work! That is freaky."

"Is it? What do you mean?"

"Fire!"

"I'd rather not experiment with fire inside my house," says Matilda. "Or near it. In case of explosions. What are some things magic can do that won't burn my house down if I do too much of them?"

"Have you heard of any of the not-blowing-up kinds, though?"

"It's how magic works for me," she says.

"But it's- healing is hard, you can't get it without some tradeoff- do you have, like, a headache, at least? Do you feel out of breath? Did you sacrifice a newborn lamb while I wasn't looking?"

"No," she says. "I don't have a headache, I'm not out of breath, and I certainly haven't sacrificed any lambs, newborn or otherwise."

"I have both those things. Jenny's at school right now, but the food is right here," and she gestures at several cupboards, which open.

"There are no locusts. Would you like to try some things?" Various foods emerge from their various storage and float within easy grabbing range of Ari - a small stack of crackers, an Oreo, an apple, a handful of walnuts.

"What was that?" wonders Matilda.

"Poison detection," he says offhandedly. "This is good! Where do you grow these?"

"We don't personally grow our food, and Oreos aren't grown anyway, they're made out of other things."

"Thanks. I'm glad you like our food, it would probably be hard to find you locusts."

"Aw. You don't have locusts?"

"Locusts exist but people don't usually eat them that I know of."

"Oh, good. More for me, then."

"If lots of people here ate locusts then we could get them at a grocery store, but since people don't, they'll be harder to find," Matilda explains.

"Thrill of the hunt!" Ari counters. "Or just dowsing. Dowsing works too."

"I don't actually know for sure if there are any locusts close enough to my house to find by walking around and looking for them. I've never tried."

"If you're that intent on your crickets, I'll see what I can do."

"Eh, at this point it's a matter of pride. But seriously, locusts are great, you've got to try some. I'll honey-fry a bushel or so once we've quested for them, your mom can share." He considers. "Unless she's evil? If your mom's evil we don't have to give her any locusts."

"Jenny isn't evil."

"Jenny's aunt was evil, but then she ran away and now she doesn't bother us anymore."

"She thinks Jenny's dad's ghost will murder her if she ever hurts Jenny again."

"Oh! I thought you'd just let her run away. Yes, yes, ghost threats are perfectly sensible if properly enforced."

"Jenny's dad's ghost isn't real," Matilda clarifies, "but the Trunchbull doesn't know that, and something will certainly happen to her if I ever hear of her hurting anyone."

"Oh, sure. I'm confident you could handle a pissed-off human, no matter how nasty. Unless she's got your cheaty magic too?"

"No one has my magic except for me."

"...Well, that seems like the kind of thing that changes fast. Have you checked? With your cheaty magic?"

"Until today my magic also didn't do anything except move things around," she says.

"Okay, so how about you try to teach it to look at itself, and then we trot off to a population center and make sure that nobody who isn't a happy friendly smart girl has the game-breaking magic? Just, you know, as a precaution. Or you could try remote-scrying for it, even, I don't know that it'd work with your magics but we've no reason to put limits on it."

"That's an interesting idea but I'm not sure exactly how it would work," she says thoughtfully.

"Would it help if I showed you how I'd do it with my own magic? Divination's easy, I could pull it off without that much prep."

"Sure."

"...Would you like me to heal that?" she inquires, on observing that his hand is still cut. The lens floats over so she can inspect it.

"Huh?" He glances at his hand. "Sure, if you want the practice."

It makes things glow a little bit! Ari in particular is quite glowy, in ways that may mean certain things if she looks hard enough. In a while. Not yet. Pretty colors!

"Oh dear," sighs Matilda.

"Does that sort of thing happen often?"