Darren tries not to think about how heavy an armored paladin would be. Answer - probably heavy. Poor griffin. He shifts fullform, and follows. He is now a winged stag. Kaja might find this a little freaky.

Kaja says, "Can all of your kind change the way you do?"

"Yes and no. I'm doing it by a magical medallion that lets me assume human form. That's the standard for mythical creatures, with exceptions for natural shapeshifters and certain species that don't have medallions. There's - another method for perytons specifically, but um. It's kind of terrible and I don't ever want to use it."

"By what measure are you mythical?" wonders Kaja.

"By - human standards. Perytons and griffins and the like are thought to be myths. So, mythical."

"But here you are," she says. "And none too reticent about your nature. How can they think it?"

"Uh. Well, it's - the medallion is there for a reason, the mythical creatures are all kind of - in hiding. It's very depressing, actually, I would like for it to stop."

"So why not show yourself?" she asks.

"Because I'm worried about how humans would react to another sentient species showing up. It's - not guaranteed to be good, and there's only one of me."

"You're not a dark thing - you said, and I believe you, I think - and you're a mage."

"I'm not a dark thing. We - don't have those at home. Humans at large think that the world is without magic entirely, and that they're the only sentient species on the planet. So learning that both magic and other sentients exist would be rather frightening for them and cause some upheavals, and while yes, I'm a 'mage,' I'm not - all powerful."

"An entire world clean of dark things? How?"

"I mean. We have - evil? There are bad people, still, I've met a few. But no zombies that I know of."

"Zombies aren't the only dark thing."

"Oh? Okay, then - what are the other dark things...?"

"There are other sorts of undead things, and woken shadows, and imps, and tainted beasts or sometimes people."

"I think there are - probably creatures that match some of those descriptions. We have demons for sure. So, I guess those would count as 'dark things.' But they don't show up very often and angels will tend to take care of them when they do."

"We have no angels. Just us paladins."

"Oh. Well. Um. You were doing a pretty good job from what I saw?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Iiii would probably just spend all of my time screaming in a higher pitch than I should be capable of, when facing down creatures of the dark."

"Well, the service isn't for everyone, certainly."

"My sister would probably be good at it."

"There is more to it than killing zombies," says Kaja, "but perhaps."