"- whoa. Uh... I think it's kind of like how you can make white flowers other colors by putting them in water with food coloring in it, except you did it with metal, and really fast. I'm not sure what the word you said meant since I haven't started Greek lessons yet." She tests a thorn on her finger. "Wow."

"Osmosis?" He nods approvingly. "It is a similar principle, and as you say, very fast. The secret of this spell, and the reason I chose to use it as a demonstration now, is that it is not one spell but two. One grows the brambles, using as its components the thorns and a mixture of bonemeal, sphagnum moss, and powdered gypsum; all potent fertilizers, but less... pungent than some. The other, using iron filings and bloodmeal, transforms them to iron spikes. The spells can be cast together, but one spell could not do both things. Any guess as to why?"

"Because... um... one's all, like, organic, and the other one isn't?"

"That is certainly part of it," he agrees. "Living things grow; dead things don't. More than that, iron is very nearly defined – for this specific purpose – by its immobility and its immovability. Such thematic inconsistencies would weaken the magic; if the iron grew like a vine, why would it not bend like a vine? Why should it protect you any better than a plant, if that is what it is?"

"Well, the result is sort of like barbed wire and that works fine I think?"

Chiron inclines his head. "As you say, it works fine for many purposes. But it will not hold off a feral boar, or a consumer-grade sedan. This will."

"...wow. I don't think a bramble patch would stop a car, either, is it doing something where - it's as stiff as wood but as strong as metal at the same time?"

"It is metal. And what magic makes is stronger than nature's creations, while it lasts."

She may notice that the iron is beginning to rust.

...she picks at a rust spot with her fingernail. "I'm going to have to carry around so much stuff to be able to do this as much as it sounds like I'm gonna need to."

Chiron grins. "Fortunately, a Hesperidean pouch is a project well-suited to an apprentice, and we may begin once you have woven a suitable bag. Until then, I will teach you the herbs of the forests and hills."

It turns out Chiron is really good at teaching botany. Almost as if he's been doing it for 3000+ years. His focus is on edibility, poison severity, and off-label medical uses, rather than phylogeny or anything like that, though he does get into families and names of plants. (Sometimes a name is pointed out particularly: "Aconite is not more poisonous to wolves than to anything else, but the centuries have put power into the name wolfsbane, and if you find yourself menaced by a Capitoline harrier, it may serve you well.")

Near the end of their lesson, as he's clearing away the sample table, he says "If we wish to see the plants in their natural habitat, it may be necessary to take a hike. I understand, however, that you may find yourself in unusual danger of a fall in that case. Thus, if it would put your mind at ease, you may ride on my back for such field trips."

"Thank you, that's really nice of you. I have equestrianism next but I guess I don't know if the horses are borrowable or suitable for trail rides." She adds a couple lines to her drawing of yarrow.

Nod. "You may bring your own steed, of course, but at least while you grow accustomed to the saddle, you are likely to be more secure where I can turn around and catch you if you slip."

"Thanks! See you tomorrow!"

And off to see how she is at sitting on a steed.

Stables! With horses, some winged.

Zanna! On horse, with longbow.

"New chick!" Longbow raised in salute, trotting over. "You ever ride a horse before?"

"No, but I bet it's easier than walking!"

"I'm going to tell you that you said that in twelve hours, and if your thighs still worked, you'd kick me in the face. You want a walker or a flier? You're not gonna get to fly today either way, but if you want to, you should get used to the wings early."

"Let's have a flier!"

Zanna clip-clops her over to a dappled grey beaſte. He bears a resemblance to a common or garden variety pony, but there are key differences. He's got the long, graceful legs of an Arabian in miniature, but the barrel of his chest looks too big for them. Most horses, the ridge of their spine is prominent; this one's back is softly sloped, no bones visible. His tail is less of a brush than a feathered fan, his ears are long and stiff, and his flanks are uncommonly broad.

Also, wings. He's preening his scapular feathers with those ears, when they approach, which gives them an excellent view of the structure; at five meters extent, his primary pinions would flirt with the treeline, if he wasn't in a field. The wings fold back as they come closer, still extending half again his length behind him, but before his body is fully concealed, Bella might notice a purple mark on his thigh shaped like a goat's head.

"Bella! Meet Amaltheos. Amaltheos, this is Bella. You're gonna be nice to her, right? You can pet him if you want, he's a gumdrop."

Bella is a twelve year old girl and that is a PEGASUS.

"Hi Amaltheos!!!" She strokes his nose and his wings and coos.

Zanna warns her off a couple of the classic blunders of wingpetting but is otherwise happy to observe.

His nose is big and snuffly. His wings are fluffy around the scapular and less so towards the tip but she's not allowed to touch there. His back, oddly, is cushiony soft, like how horses' backs aren't.

"He's squishy, I wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah, it's a fat pad over the hydrogen bladders. It insulates them while they're flying through clouds, it's an energy reserve for the long-haul flights, plus it makes bareback way less annoying. The designers knew what they were doing."

"Am I going to ride bareback? I guess it would be really hard to get a saddle on over the wings."

"We've got pegasaddles. It's just nice not to need one, if it comes to that."

✨pegasus✨

"How do you get on a pegasus? Or a horse for that matter."