"Couldn't for the life of me tell what gender it was. Could've been a man, could've been a woman. Might be neither, I don't know."

"And you didn't ask? I guess this might seem comparatively unimportant next to their species."

"He or she was a little busy at the time. Seemed kind of rude to go up to it and say, 'Are you a boy or a girl?' Professor Oak style."

"Yeah, fair. What was going on?"

"Exorcism, followed by closing a hell mouth. That was fun."

"Sounds like a heck of a way to kill a weekend, yeah. I need to know a lot of stuff, it'd seem. I'm glad Darren found me instead of - most anybody else."

"Yup," agrees Vernon. He pats Darren's back, in a fatherly sort of way.

"Happy to help."

Bella produces, swishes, and dismisses her tail. "I don't suppose there's informational pamphlets. 'So You're A Mythical Quadruped: What You Will Need To Know'."

"I wish. It would have made my life a ton easier. Along with a, 'So Your Kid Is A Mythical Quadruped: What To Do' pamphlet."

Charlie snorts. "What-all kinds are there? Of quadrupeds."

"I don't actually know if we're all quadrupedal, but there's the one and only known sphinx, yours truly, and apparently Darren and Savannah are perytons - bird-deer things."

"They're not actually all quadrupeds. Nixies, for example, are kinda like mermaids. Except not quite."

"Thank you for the glowing description, Bella," deadpans Darren. "I'm a magic deer with wings, essentially."

"Exactly. Bird-deer thing. Being a 'deer with wings' doesn't specify kind of wings, you could have bat wings if I just said that."

"Your father has seen my wings. I demonstrated while I was freaking out."

"...At what point in the process of freaking out did you attempt to explain the wings part?"

"Um. I told him on the phone because I didn't want him to freak out and proclaim witchery or something when he got here and I explained on the way here a bit."

"Cost me about a minute, I called your phone before coming to get you 'cause I figured it was a prank, but he answered your phone too."

"... Sorry," says Darren.

"...At least you didn't wind up with him convinced that you had harmed me? I guess? Because that would have been hazardous to your health?"

"Yeah, that's something. I probably could have handled it better, though."

Vernon claps him on the back. "Hey, kiddo. It happens. You did what you thought was right in a freaky situation where you didn't know what to do and it worked out okay. Calling that a good day."

"But really you probably should've just told him that I was in trouble and waited to mention the wings until they were provably there."

"Nobody teaches crisis management in schools," shrugs Charlie.