"Must be a name for peevish people where you're from." He took this as another of Steph's little jokes that would take more work to have explained than the fun she'd had in telling it, so he didn't heckle her to get overly specific. But he was very glad she'd come across the angry bird before he had.

"They're fey, if you didn't know," he thought she might rather hear now before being confused or disappointed later. He showed his forearm, which the snake had begun exploring in a lazy coil. "Magic woodland friends. They'll go poof back into the air before too long."