Surprise locks her muscles, but not for long. She sags and loops her arms around him in turn, head against his shoulder, and breathes with the deliberate unnatural rhythm of someone who's been taught how to avert panic.

"He— he'd changed himself into a big lizard creature, I didn't even know it was him," she mumbles, when she feels steadied. "Dad just— he found us at the exact wrong time and I could never—"