"But it's- healing is hard, you can't get it without some tradeoff- do you have, like, a headache, at least? Do you feel out of breath? Did you sacrifice a newborn lamb while I wasn't looking?"

"No," she says. "I don't have a headache, I'm not out of breath, and I certainly haven't sacrificed any lambs, newborn or otherwise."

"I have both those things. Jenny's at school right now, but the food is right here," and she gestures at several cupboards, which open.

"There are no locusts. Would you like to try some things?" Various foods emerge from their various storage and float within easy grabbing range of Ari - a small stack of crackers, an Oreo, an apple, a handful of walnuts.

"What was that?" wonders Matilda.

"Poison detection," he says offhandedly. "This is good! Where do you grow these?"

"We don't personally grow our food, and Oreos aren't grown anyway, they're made out of other things."

"Thanks. I'm glad you like our food, it would probably be hard to find you locusts."

"Aw. You don't have locusts?"

"Locusts exist but people don't usually eat them that I know of."

"Oh, good. More for me, then."

"If lots of people here ate locusts then we could get them at a grocery store, but since people don't, they'll be harder to find," Matilda explains.

"Thrill of the hunt!" Ari counters. "Or just dowsing. Dowsing works too."

"I don't actually know for sure if there are any locusts close enough to my house to find by walking around and looking for them. I've never tried."

"If you're that intent on your crickets, I'll see what I can do."

"Eh, at this point it's a matter of pride. But seriously, locusts are great, you've got to try some. I'll honey-fry a bushel or so once we've quested for them, your mom can share." He considers. "Unless she's evil? If your mom's evil we don't have to give her any locusts."

"Jenny isn't evil."

"Jenny's aunt was evil, but then she ran away and now she doesn't bother us anymore."