"The one that only burns what I want it to is not that big. Caeruleus Inflamarae!" And now there's a tennis-ball sized blue flame floating in front of Sadde's stick. He motions with the stick for the flame to move over to where Xan is. "It's only hot above."

Xan puts his hand over it.

"Nothing," he says with some disappointment. "I can feel that it's hot, but it doesn't hurt."

"Huh." That flame goes out. "I have one that's a jet of flame and is hotter but that one will definitely set the barn on fire. There are other spells that are meant to hurt but I don't know them yet."

"I don't think a hotter flame would even help - that didn't feel like the kind of thing that could hurt me. It's fine."

"I'm sure I can figure out some spell to hurt you eventually. If you, er, want."

"I sure wouldn't say no. How do you get new spells, anyway?"

"Oh, I go to wiz—"

"—ard school. Which is not here. It's back home."

"Oh."

Xan thinks about it.

"Maybe we can get you back there."

"...well, if there was a way to come here there should be a way to get back, yeah? But hols end in a month and I don't have any of my books. ...also my mum is gonna be worried. And my friends."

"So we've got a deadline, and the sooner the better. I'll... think about what I can do to get you home, there's gotta be somebody who can do it."

He nods. "Well, um, anyway someone has to have invented spells for the first time, so even if you can't I'm sure I'll figure it out."

"I can and I will."

"Til then, should I introduce you to the Kents so you know who you'll be staying with?"

"Yeah sure. Why do you call them that?"

"They're not my parents. They feed me and stuff, and I live in their house, but I won't call them my parents."

"...yeah, I understand. My—father—was—anyway I live with just my mum now, have for a while. Oh! I didn't even show you the coolest stuff I can do."

"Tada."

"Cool! Does that, uh, get everything?"

"Yep. I can look like any humans that have existed or any humans I can think about and change anything like that."

"And also some animal parts but not completely," he says, reverting to boy and turning his nose into a short elephant trunk.

Xan: is having some thoughts! His body: is responding to those thoughts!

"That's a really cool power. I wouldn't give up flight for it but it'd be close."

Sadde: notices. "Oh you're straight? I guess most people are." His nose is back to normal. "Anyway I can get flight with a broomstick so." He will valiantly try to not look at the response after that.

"What's a straight? I was thinking about- other stuff."

"Boys who like girls and girls who like boys are straight. I'm—I don't think I'm anything yet, it sounds like such a hassle, but whenever I go through puberty I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like both, seems like it'd make sense with how I sometimes am a girl."