"Oh, cool. How finely controlled does 'any point' get? Like, could I draw extremely specific designs in lion fur on myself?"

"That one depends on you, it's a little tricky but if you want to do it I think if you practice a lot you can get it. I got enough fine control to get antlers and wings, but not the fur because I think I look silly as a human with fur. Or as a half-human half-deer-man with fur."

"I don't have any immediate application for drawing things on myself in fur, I was just curious if I could." She bites her lip and concentrates and manages to get the wings - and accompanying shirt adjustment - without changing anything else. "Can I fly like this? Can you? Or do you have to have the entire designed-for-wings body plan at the time for that to be advisable?"

"You can fly in midform, but the wings need to be fully in. It's a bit awkward, though. I got it because hooves and stairs do not make friends so if I'm flying indoors it's going to be like this."

"Makes sense. How did you find out about all this, then?"

"Well, our dad knew our birth-father and suspected he'd had some kids somewhere, so when he died he went investigating and found us. He had our birth-father's amulet, but wasn't sure what to do with it, so he was trying to think of a way to explain things when Savannah got curious about an amulet that supposedly belonged to our birth-father. Mind you we were like eleven, so, don't judge her too much, please. She went and investigated, ran off to the woods with it to inspect it because dad was not happy about her grabbing it, for obvious reasons. She turned, dropped it, came home freaking out as a peryton, dad explains what's going on and he and I go looking for it. And that was how I learned about this."

"Where'd you get yours?"

"We went and bought one in the Avalon nearby. Perytons are kind of commonish, so it wasn't too expensive. I wanted to fly, Savannah was having a lot of fun with it."

"...Avalon," prompts Bella.

"Right, sorry, uh - place where mystical creatures can mystical creature it up with no problem. The one I went to was in a really big warehouse complex thing, but some others aren't. People live there, have shops, hotels, so on."

"Where's the nearest one to here, then?"

"Seattle. But the one I went to was in Detroit, so I couldn't tell you what this one's like."

"She can answer the phone while flying? Where does her phone go?"

"She took off in fullform and switched to midform once we split up, so she could have thumbs and the phone."

"Makes sense. Is it hard to learn to fly?"

"No, but it takes some practice. More than walking or running, as a quadruped."

"I'm pretty terrible at walking even with the feet I'm used to. Although I guess having more feet is probably a help all else being equal? I didn't feel exactly catlike and acrobatic, though."

"You'd be able to at least glide, gliding's easy. Just keep your wings open and steady and bam, gliding. Having more feet usually helps, but not with stairs. Or at least my four delicate cloven hooves don't work with stairs, a lion's limbs might be different. They take practice, though."

"Practice. Right. At least there's lots of wilderness around. This would be harder if I were still living in Phoenix..."

"A bit. The wilderness was one of the reasons we came here. Along with general out-of-the-wayness and pretty scenery."

"It has all three, yes, the traits are related. What time is it? I don't know how long I spent unconscious."

Phone is checked! "Five thirty-four. I don't know when you fell unconscious, but I felt the - magic whatever it is that made me come looking about forty-five minutes ago."

"Okay. So this will have been a long-for-me but not ridiculous walk to take in the pleasant not-rain if I start back now. Don't want Charlie to worry."