It all happened so suddenly, so it takes a moment for my brain to catch up and to look over the general area. Leda came crashing down in panic, and in the process knocked over most of the nearby crowd. At least she didn’t actually crash into someone.

I sniff the air. Blood, but not much. There! I quickly hop over to the people who were hit by the remains of the falling tree branches and levitate them to the side. They look mostly unhurt, but I imagine they’ll get some bruises.

Well, except this person. They stir. “Hey, careful!” I say, holding them down and kneeling down to put a reassuring hand on their back. “You have a tree branch sticking out of your back, don’t move.”

The woman does not take it nicely, or perhaps pain finally caught up, but she starts crying her eyes out as I cut off the branch a few centimeters away from body. How can I treat this? No wait, I shouldn’t, she should get professional help.

It might have damaged some internal organs, and while I know I can heal pretty mean cuts, this is not the time to experiment. I can stifle the blood flow around the wound, at least.

“Laaars!” Leda shouts with faltering voice, as she runs up to me. She grabs my shoulder and yanks me backwards.

“Leda! Be careful, you injured people!” She freezes for a moment, then her eyes sweep over the people who are getting back up on their feet. They are, unsurprisingly, starting to make some noise in our direction. I quickly tell the wounded woman’s companions to call an ambulance and make sure she doesn’t move around, then turn to Leda.

Deep breath. Don’t be angry. Yet. She (probably) had a good reason for this. “Now.” No, not angry. Understanding! “What is it?”

“I killed Philip!”

“…” Oh, I wondered if her friend was sick or something since she was playin- “You WHAT?”

“You must fix him! I flew up and he stopped working!”

I turn and give an apologetic bow and “Sorry!” to the woman’s friends, then let Leda drag me over to her main body. Indeed, that’s her friend lying limply in the saddle.

I let go of Leda’s hand and hop up on the saddle. First: Check for pulse and breathing. I do so as I get him out of the saddle and carefully put him down on the ground, making sure to keep him back and neck supported. Fuuuuuck, is he really dead? No wait, he is breathing, just slowly.

I put an enhanced ear to his chest and let out a relieved sigh upon hearing a stable, repeated da-dump. “He’s alive, Leda. You didn’t kill him.” ｢{Relieved, worried}Now, share with me what you were doing. From before he ‘stopped working.’｣

She went out to fly with him, which he enjoyed, and then… “Didn’t I tell you that being too high up is bad for humans?” I say, kneeling to get to her eye level.

“But you went higher!”

Sigh. “Are all people exactly like each other?”

“No?”

“Do you think all people are as good as me with magic? That all people are as strong as me?”

“You, you’re suuuper strong! The strongest! And have the best magic!”

Leaving aside whether or not that is correct, “Uh-huh, so do you think other people could fly as high as me?”

Her averted gaze is all the answer I need, so I force her to look at me. “Okay, so once he wakes up you’ll need to apologize to Philip, and then I will make sure he gets to see a doctor, okay?”

She nods.

“But before that, I need you to come over here,” I say standing up and pulling her towards the closest group of people, including the wounded woman. Some have resumed whatever they were doing, but a lot remain and some are looking rather angrily in this direction. At least only people on this street were affected.

“Now Leda, when you came crashing down here, you didn’t hit anyone, that’s good. But you see that woman over there?”

She nods weakly.

“It’s your fault she’s wounded. And your… landing pushed down and hurt many other people. Which is probably why they are angry. What do you do when you hurt someone?”

“I say sorry…”

“Correct. So I’m going to lift you up, and you’re going to apologize to everyone for what you did.”

I give her no choice in the matter, nor do I give her time to react, so I lift her up and put her on my shoulder. “Say it.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers out.

“Louder. So that everyone hears. And you must say why you are sorry.”

I hear a growl from behind. Her main body. People have approached from that side too? Thought she didn’t hit anyone there… “Calm down.” Good. The nearby people have quieted a bit, hopefully seeing what I’m trying to do. “Now say it. Loudly!”

“I’b so sowwy! Phiwip wasn’t do-ib abyfing, *sob* ab I waaaah…”

“Shhhh,” I rub her thigh not being able to pat her head from down here. “Shhh. Calm down and say it properly.

“I’b- *sniff* I’m sorry!” She properly shouts. Through the mind bond I nudge her to say why.

“I’m sorry I hurt you. Especially you lady who is bleeding!” She says, drawing even more attention to the person in question and her friends.

I put Leda back on the ground. “Go watch over your friend. If anyone is angry, tell them to talk to me.”

Hoo boy, time to clean up the fallout. Well, as best I can. Quick todo: Call Philip’s mother and explain the circumstances, ask her what she wants us to do. Clean up my wares, this is not the time to sell. Placate angry people and answer curious people.

I should probably placate people first, so I properly explain her reason for doing this and what happened (leaving out everything they don’t need to know) while repeatedly apologizing for what she did. While doing that I gather up my stuff and put it in their respective bags.

As expected outcry start as soon as I finish talking , however, and I respond to it as best I can, quickly packing up the deployed mana barrier. With everything packed up I drop it over by Leda, who is apologizing profusely to her now awake friend.

Once the angriest people have said their part, I pull out my phone to call his mother, while stating as much to the now slightly less angry people. A policeman and a policewoman each riding a horse have arrived too, and after calming the almost-mob a bit, find their way to me.

The timing is pretty good, too, as I have just explained what’s going on to Philip’s mother. Predictably, she is not pleased, but I assured her that her son looks to be fine and offer to take him to a doctor. She refuses, saying that “we are already on the way.” I apologize one final time before she hangs up.

And then, the police. I repeat what just happened for the nth time, now with more details, then follow them as they go to speak to the ‘little perpetrator’. They seem slightly unnerved by Leda’s main body, despite (or probably because) I explain that the little girl and the big wyvern is in fact the same person.

The police ask Leda and Philip for their version of what happened. Philip doesn’t have much to say, but defends Leda, and I feel her happiness upon hearing that Philip does not, in fact, hate her now.

Leda’s tale is a lot more… well she seems to have copied my habit of explaining in perhaps too much depth, and I notify them when three ambulances appear, suggesting that maybe we should get them to take a look at Philip, just in case.

So I get to hang around my buddies, the cops, while the EMTs give Philip a basic check and come to the same conclusion I did - Looks fine but should probably see a doctor. They quickly check up on other people (scrapes and bruises at most), then take the wounded woman away.

It’s a bit uncomfortable to wait around with police flanking me, but seeing the woman get along with Leda is nice at least. In the meanwhile the policeman is handling curious onlookers better than me. The initial group of people has dispersed already, maybe except a few people who have nothing better to do.

Philip’s parents get here, talk to the officers, hear Leda’s apology and Philip’s defence of her, then insistently take him away. With that the waiting is done, and the police take us away. Well, sorta.

It’s not like they can move Leda’s main body if she doesn’t cooperate, and the police station is too far away for even Leda’s magic range. The grassy field next to it would be in range, however, so we fly ahead, instead meeting some other officers.

There are so many things she could’ve been charged with if she was legally adult, but she’s not. So the responsibility falls on me, which is… fun. Her person status went from provisional to full last week, so at least she has some legal protections, but as her guardian that’s a mixed blessing.

At least everyone involved agreed that she didn’t intend to cause harm. She did not realise flying so high might cause oxygen deprivation, and the only reason she panickedly flew to me was to save him. She should’ve planned for the landing, though.

It’s uncertain what punishment will be given, if any, but I suppose I will probably be slapped with a fine. And there might be restrictions on what Leda can do. On the other hand this incident should be a bit of a wakeup call when it comes to the potential danger of magic. This was done with no intent to harm and didn’t really affect that many people; what if she did want to cause harm? No wait, if someone else wanted to cause harm?

I just hope the added pressure on decision makers doesn’t lead to stupid or rushed decisions.

I get home far later than planned don’t feel like doing anything for the rest of the day. Turning on the computer, however, I find myself at the front page of a couple New World websites. Thankfully, discussions are rather reasonable with arguments in several directions, but they all lack the full picture.

Or so I thought until I click a link to a more mainstream news source which… yeah, no. The already magic/change positive communities are pretty reasonable. Sensationalist news, on the other hand…

And so I spend my no longer lazy evening making a vlog to get a bit more into the detail of what happened and the status of things, including addressing some of the common arguments at the end. I’m not quite sure if I should release it, but if it became a thing in a few hours I don’t want to wake up tomorrow being seen as a villain. Yes, publish.

Problem is, I haven’t gotten around to making that video introducing Leda. I had intended to release it before even mentioning her (again) in a video but the cat is out of the bag so to speak. Well, I have time to do that before meeting the aikido group.

“Hi internet!” I say to the camera. “I’m out here in the magical forest again, this time with some light rain, as you can see. That brings up the topic of my clothes, which several viewers have noticed aren’t exactly store bought. That is not today’s topic, but don’t worry, I’m working on it and it should come out during the next couple weeks.”

I lift myself up, taking a sitting position in the air. One of my sub-goals of these videos is to casually show of magic and in the process get some practice on things which might look cool but I otherwise don’t do much. “No, today’s topic is Leda.”

“It has been a long time coming, but I had to wait for a little something which finished just last week. Now, first off I will explain how I met her.” I explain our meeting with what I, after a lot of thinking, decided is just the right amount of information and detail.

From that I transition into her progress as she quickly sponged up the norwegian and english language, a consequence of my habit to switch between them fairly often, as well as a lot of other knowledge. I note that we have a magic which is essentially telepathy and that I hope something like that can be used to enhance learning in schools.

After getting a bit sidetracked I get back to my point and use language and math as examples of her intelligence and explain the research into non-human intelligences and my goal for her to become, legally, a person.

“More tests were had, including her standing before a panel of experts of various fields, in order to determine just how intelligent she is. And I’m happy to say, they determined that she -unquestionably- fulfill the criteria to be called a person.”

“With that, she got a provisional legal status as a person. Last week that was updated, and it is no longer provisional. And so, I present: Leda.”

I walk over to Leda’s main body, rotating the camera to point at her as I pass it.

“Am I in the video now?”

“Yep, say hello to the internet.”

“I’M ON THE INTERNET?”

Chuckling, I reply “Once I upload the video, yes.”

“Cool! Hello people on the internet! I’m Leda!”

“How about you show off your little form as well?”

“Uh, is this when I’m supposed to jump out?”

My palm meets my face. “We practiced this like… Yes, this is when you jump out.”

And on that (somewhat delayed) cue, her puppet jumps over her main body and makes a ‘tadaah!’ pose.

“Leda can do much of the same magic I can do-”

“But I have more mana!”

“Monstrously so, yes, -and the big wyvern is her main body. Channel regulars will know this, but for anyone else, it is possible to shapeshift, create new bodies, and shapeshift said bodies with [Aspect Magic]. As you might imagine, her raptor-like puppet form is a bit easier to use around people.”

“And the old people at the cafe gives me waffles.”

“And can be used to beg for food, yes.”

“Nuh-uh, sometimes they give it even when I don’t beg.”

“…meaning that most of the time, you do beg. What have I told you about that?”

She shrinks under my gaze. “Don’t do it?”

“I said not to abuse it, but that works too.” Hm, things like this will probably be seen as weird or -now that I’m getting semi-famous- ‘eccentric’, but it’s I don’t particularly feel like acting differently just because I’m filming, though I might edit it out. But maybe I became like this because I tried to be weird? Whatever, I can ponder the philosophy when I take a shower.

“Anyway, how about you introduce yourself a bit more.” ｢Like you did in the birthday party.｣

She mentions magic, making a few specific examples she demonstrates. “I can also count to twenty-nine-” That’s not only pretty specific, but just earlier today she counted to a hundred (well, ninety-nine and asked me what came next)

“-and do pretty good maths with pluses and minuses. I can even write my own name! It’s spelled ‘ell’, ‘eh’ uhh-” She looks at me, but will get no cheating from this side. “Ehm, ‘ell’, ‘eh’, ‘dah’! Leda!”

Oooh, I spy a dad joke opportunity! “Won’t that become ‘Leømleda?” //AN: ø is pronounced ‘uh’, so Le-uhm-le-da.//

She puffs her cheeks, which is very adorable and slightly disconcerting in that that they balloon a lot more than they would for even the most annoyed human kid ever. I just laugh at it. “How about you show the internet how good you are at flying?