“They say she can turn herself into a fox. Or anything. A bird, even. Anything. That's how she always knows what's going on.”
They looked around cautiously. A scruffy crow was indeed watching them from a distant tree stump.
“They say there's a whole family over Crack Peak way that can turn themselves into wolves,” said Gulta, who wasn't one to leave a promising subject, "because one night someone shot a wolf and next day their auntie was limping with an arrow wound in her leg, and ....
“I don't think people can turn themselves into animals,” said Esk, slowly.
“Oh yes, Miss Clever?”
“Granny is quite big. If she turned herself into a fox what would happen to all the bits that wouldn't fit?”
“She'd just magic them away,” said Cern.
“I don't think magic works like that,” said Esk. “You can't just make things happen, there's a sort of - like a seesaw thing, if you push one end down, the other end goes up . . . .” Her voice trailed off.
They gave her a look.
“I can't see Granny on a seesaw,” said Gulta. Cern giggled.
“No, I mean every time something happens, something else has to happen too - I think,” said Esk uncertainly, picking her way around a deeper than usual snowdrift. “Only in the . . . opposite direction.”
“That's silly,” said Gulta, “because, look, you remember when that fair came last summer and there was a wizard with it and he made all those birds and things appear out of nothing? I mean it just happened, he just said these words and waved his hands, and it just happened. There weren't any seesaws.”
“And you didn't hit anything, Gul.”
“There was a swing,” said Cern.
Their conversation wandered away like a couple of puppies. Esk listened with half an ear. I know what I mean, she told herself. Magic's easy, you just find the place where everything is balanced and push. Anyone could do it. There's nothing magical about it. All the funny words and waving the hands is just . . . it's only for....
She stopped, surprised at herself. She knew what she meant. The idea was right up there in the front of her mind. But she didn't know how to say it in words, even to herself.
