"I cannot become her, no," he says, "but I can become another mountain cat when I put off my human form and take on that of an animal."

He looks from John to Tasha and back.

"The lir is how you know what animal a warrior can become. We take on a shape that mirrors that of our lir companions.

Niall, as I said, has a wolf with him, and when he is in lir-shape he is a white dog-wolf."