"Who serves, what?"

" 'They also serve who only stand and wait', old saying for those of us- well, we'll get into that."  She glances at Peg, who comes the rest of the way into the kitchen.

     "So, Fernando?  Why did I leave the room just now?"

"You needed to leave the room to test the effects of lunacy. And I just saw you heal from an injury that you showed me."

"All right, first test worked, we can do the fun one now.  No loud noises, don't worry, but you should come to the door probably, not quite enough room in the kitchen."

Fernando dutifully stands up and follows her.

Peg steps back down the hallway until she's well out of sight of the table, rolls her shoulders-

-and grows, twisting and stretching and sprouting fur until in the space of half a dozen heartbeats there's a wolf looking back at him.

An enormous wolf, its lambent yellow eyes level with his.  Those are some proportionately large teeth all right.

Fernando tenses, but mostly he reigns in his reaction.

"I don't think I've mentioned that we have giant sized varieties of many animals."

Peg pulls back into her bipedal shape and huffs out a breath.  "Huh, interesting- both giant and normal?  Or do you have lower gravity or something?"

"We have magic that allows one to augment beings, one of the most visible effects is making them larger."

"Guess that would solve the bones problem, if you're making them stronger or tougher or whatever and the size comes with?"  She starts back toward the kitchen.

"There are size limitations, but yeah, that helps." He follows.

"Okay, so good news, I think you three should be immune."  She settles back into her chair and picks up her cooling tea.  "I guess it's possible you're an extremely chill and together human, so no one's gonna be offended if you want to play it safe, either."

"Fernando is an unusually chill and together human, but we should play safe either way."

"I mean, we could repeat the test with the rest of us and even try on a volunteer if there is one available."

"Uh, if you want to be careful and you want to try again, I could do the little wolf?  Control brother'll only have to close his eyes while I'm shifting, and we won't have to go out in the hall again.  Not sure I follow what another volunteer would be for, though?"

"Ah, volunteer for getting our mental wards and then watch a werewolf turn."

"Oh, huh.  I bet some of the in-laws might be up for that?  Gran, what do you think?"

     "That might well be something to try in the future, but it would be unfortunate if it didn't work out.  Wait until you're sure it's worked for you three and we've had more of a chance to test for unexpected interactions."

"Well, I would like to stay awhile before potentially mucking up with someone's brain."

"It might be better to settle in and then figure out safe test conditions. Both for this and for werewolves using rituals."

"Yes, I expect so.  The Under has lasted three hundred years, we can risk another few days.  Speaking of settling in, what time was it back on your planet?  It's close to the end of first shift here."

"Mid afternoon when we started our exploration." He checks his smartphone. "It's 18:03 back there."

"We should only need four hours of sleep, that's accounting for the wakefulness spent casting our rituals too."

"Hm- sorcery ability, or something else?  We can certainly put you somewhere you won't wake anyone coming and going, and there's likely to be someone in the kitchen most hours of the day."

"Sorcery ability, plus some biological augmentation. We have more lifeforce and that means being healthier, longer-lived and sleeping less."