"Yeah," he agrees. He does look kind of guilty about it, though.

Bella stretches out a velvet paw and pats Darren on the knee with it.

He smiles, a bit. "Having fun with magic?"

"Yeah. Haven't managed to get the fur to come in stripewise, let alone anything more complicated, but I'm getting more of a sense of what I'm being and how to stay put or not on purpose."

"Good. You should also probably run around as a sphinx to get used to it, along with flying."

"... Don't jump off a cliff. Some gryphons I know like to get newbies to fly through that method, and other options are safer."

"I do not plan to jump off a cliff. I might run down a hill, if it turns out I can run better on four feet than two."

"Good. Making sure."

"When should I start magic lessons, Darren?"

"Probably after you get shifting down, I think. Because while magic's fantastic, that one's more important - school and not getting wings randomly, and all."

"Okay. After school Monday, maybe? I'll spend all weekend messing around with shifting."

"Sure," agrees Darren. "That's fine by me."

"Okay. I usually take the bus home, is it okay if I just go with you instead and stay until Dad can fetch me?" She manages to change the bend of her knees without sprouting fur or adding claws, and as a result keeps the jeans; it looks kind of weird.

Darren looks at his dad!

"Yeah, it's fine. I've got room in the car. I drive them. Don't sprout wings in it, there ain't room, but other than that you're golden."

"Sure," says Bella. She starts flickering her wings into and out of existence, rather quickly.

Vernon looks at Darren. "Well, go on. I know you're barely holding it in."

"He likes magic and no one will talk to him about it," explains Vernon dryly.

"Why won't they?"

"Cause I think it's playing with fire and Savannah's got no interest. I'll let him, but he's got to be careful and gets to warn me before he does anything hinky."

"...How dangerous is it actually?"

"Well I don't trust it, but I think if you two are careful you should be okay. But be very careful. Do not do anything to anything you don't understand, it will end badly."

"I don't mean, what general emotional tone about magic are you trying to communicate, I mean, how likely is it to fail, and how bad does it get when it does?"

"It's volatile, but not faulty. If you mess with something big and mess it up, if it fails it will fail spectacularly. If it's a little thing the backlash is minor, but try to avoid it then, too. I know some people that can't leave their Avalon because they can't fit in to normal society 'cause of magic tweaking them. Things that go wrong you will have trouble fixing. So don't get 'em wrong and if you're not completely sure about what you're doing, don't do it."