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"Sometimes," A said quietly, determinedly not touching his throat, and turned his attention on Schrodinger and Wishbone scampering. "I warned you it was stronger," he called to Wishbone, his smile returning.

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Lookit lookit lookit! A bit shakily, since he was unused to balancing in a cat body, Wishbone jumped onto the railing. Yay, I did it!

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Rory mentally kicked himself again. "...yeah," he said, quietly. "Sometimes."

He gave Wishbone a thumbs-up sign as he balanced on the railing. "Nice one."

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Seeing Wishbone try to balance with cat-like grace while under the influence of strong catnip made A laugh, perhaps a little more than it might have merited if he'd only had the apricot-satsuma cookies.

"Be careful," he said fondly. "Do you need help keeping your balance?"

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Err... well, he was swaying a bit. I suddenly don't like this as much. Laps are sturdier.

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"Need a hand getting down?" Rory asked, shifting slightly to stand up if Wishbone said yes. He didn't think it was likely that a cat would get seriously hurt falling from that height, even a temporary cat, but better safe than sorry.

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A didn't bother waiting for a reply, walking to the railing and holding out his arms for Wishbone to clamber onto.

"Perhaps you should follow Einstein's example, and just relax. When Schrodinger has worn herself out, I'm sure she will join you, and you can nap together."

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Okay, Wishbone said, climbing into A's arms and nuzzling him. Mmmm, so soft.

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"You've got a theme going with the names, then," Rory commented, since he hadn't heard Einstein's till now.

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"Ryuuzaki named them," A told him, returning to his seat and scritching Wishbone behind his ears and under his chin. "He gave them to me, when I was new here and they were small kittens. I kept to tradition somewhat, though, when the mangosteen grove arrived. The flying squirrel I adopted is Bernoulli."

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Joe named me! Wishbone said as he settled into A's lap. It was cause he wished for a dog on a wishbone, and then I came!

The mun totally made that up.

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"It's a good name," Rory told him. "So you're a dog normally? I thought that might be it." ...He'd really just said the sentence 'so you're a dog normally', hadn't he? Yes, he had. Just go with it.

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Still scratching behind Wishbone's ears, A looked at Rory thoughtfully. "That's a good deduction," he said. "What made you think it?"

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Yessss... Wishbone said, eyes closed in bliss. I tried that spell that turns animals into other animals on myself.

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Rory shrugged. "I wasn't sure about it, I just thought Wishbone sounds like a dog name. With the 'bone' part."

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"That makes sense. I hadn't thought of it from that angle, but it's a reasonable line of conjecture."

That was when Schrodinger scampered over, mewing. She wanted some lap and petting action, too!

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My lap, Wishbone said, settling down to sleep. Find your own. He nuzzled against A's leg as he started to fall asleep.

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The other possibility had been a chicken with a rather cruel owner, but he didn't like to say that in front of Wishbone.

"You can have mine if you want," he told Schrodinger, reaching to pick her up if she'd let him. "So, there's a spell for turning into other animals? Is this one of those things where we've got to be careful about eating the food?" That had been bothering him, although so far nothing he'd eaten had had ill effects.

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A nodded. "That's one thing that could happen if you eat something bespelled," he told Rory. "Or it could make you younger, or female, or interfere with your thinking, so you'd do things you usually wouldn't."

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I turned human a couple of times. It was fun.

And Wishbone surrendered to the sleepy-rays.

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Rory pondered for a moment how Amy would react to him suddenly becoming female, and then decided he'd better think about that later. "What kind of things you normally wouldn't?" That had sounded vague and ominous. "And - I mean, is there any way to tell before you eat something?"

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"It could be almost anything," A said, knowing he wasn't being reassuring. "It's mostly not a good idea to eat something if it's not given to you directly. Some people leave things like that out just to cause trouble. But there are people who know it's risky, but eat it anyway. The affects usually aren't harmful in and of themselves, and don't last very long."

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"So, don't eat food that's just left out. That - sounds easy enough. And I'm tempting fate by saying that, aren't I."

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"Maybe." A realized he found that rather funny, tried not to laugh, and failed utterly. "It does take caution, being here. Most people are good, but some are very, very bad."

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