And Sadde offers the snow owl a finger. It nips shyly at it.

"Are you a he-owl or a she-owl?" It hoots once. "He-owl." It hoots again. "She-owl?" It doesn't hoot. "Okay. I'm gonna call you Richard." Low, happy hoot.

"That's a good name! You said you were bad at names!" 

"Scott, honey, we talked about this." 

She pays for the rat. 

The purchase is fairly easy!

He'll just take her money, and would she like to sign up for this newsletter, or his member's club?

No member's club, thanks muchly.

"It's because of Richard Feynman. I'd have named it Marie if it had been a girl owl."

Hoot.

"Who's he? That sounds like a good way to do names." 

The boy tags along behind Sadde.

His mother falls into step with Laura.

"Hey. Nice to meet you. Are you new, too?" 

"In a manner of speaking. I didn't know about—all this—until recently, no."

"He was a physicist! Marie Curie was one, too."

"Oh, okay. Jane Goodall, maybe. Wait, is it a boy or a girl rat? I should have asked the shopkeeper."

"I didn't know anything. My ex-husband didn't see fit to tell me the whole time we were married, and he left just in time for Scott to start...doing magic, I guess."

"My son was quite the active accidental mage. I knew about magic since he was one year old. But until recently, I didn't know of any other magic than his."

"You could ask," he suggests, petting his tiny owl with a finger through the cage.

He heads back towards the shopkeeper, and runs back.

"Boy. I don't know any men who studied animals. I should find a book on it." 

"That sounds young. As far as I can tell, Scott started pretty late. Seems like a pretty big range. Usually developmental stuff doesn't vary this much."

"Yes. My ex-husband was—quite surprised when Sadde first showed magic."

"We're going book shopping next, you could try to find a magical one? And I'd meant ask the rat, you could just look between its legs to figure it out but maybe it has different opinions about it."

Scott examines the rat.

"I think I should learn more about rats," he adds after a moment's pause.

"Do you mind if come with? I still have to get his books."

"Sure, we'd welcome the company."

"Why?" he asks Scott.

"I can guess by looking. Different animals are different, I should make sure. Or maybe there's a spell to tell. I can't actually ask."

"It's a magical rat! Richard told me when I asked."