A small chat and a long walk

"Well, Tia, I suppose you've gotten your wish, I am the lightning, it announced my entrance into this world, and it makes a handy magic gimmick I suppose." DL said, creating a small ball of lightning that he tossed from hand to hand.

"Oooh that's pretty!" She said awed at his ability. She took a step forward and he let it dissipate before she could touch it.

"Hey, it's still lightning, you can't just touch it, okay? It can really hurt you." DL admonished. speaking of painful... he realized one arrow was still stuck through his wing into his shoulder. Carefully pulling it out so it would damage his wing anymore, he wiped it off and, seeing it looked fine, just slid it back into the larger human's quiver. "Well," he continued, "you two should probably get home before anything else stumbles across you in the middle of a forest. You know where your going to get home, right?"

Yes, but..." Tia mumbled looking desperately up at DL, "I cant carry her! she's too big!"

"Whaaat? no way, you look super strong! no way you cant pick her up, bet you could do it with one hand if you really tried!" he joked back.

"No silly, I'm really small! I can barely even carry a basket of fruit! She's WAY too big!" Tia laughed back.

"Well, I suppose I could carry her, ill you'll lead the way home for us." DL conceded, scooping up her older sister into his arms. "So, which way we headed?"

"well, we took kinda a long way to get here, but the quickest way home is..."After several moments remembering which direction they came from she finished, "This way!" Tia led DL off into the forest in a vaguely northeastern direction. DL kept up a steady stream of small talk as they walked to keep Tia at ease, telling her about his childhood and how cool it must have been to grow up with a sister, as he had never had one. And Tia responded by telling him about the village of Shorebreath (where they were heading now) and how sis was second in charge of the village guard, and liked to boss her around and that's why big sister's are barely any fun, but she was super interested in what it would be like to have a twin brother like DL did, that way no one would be older and therefore in charge. DL didn't have the heart to tell her that the 10 minutes between him and his twin had been just as significant to their childhood as the 20 or so years between Tia and her sister, who he had learned wen by the name Mallory. Their chat hopped from trading preferred nicknames (she gave him TT, from her dad; he gave her Des, which she immediately stretched out to Desy, much to his dismay), what they liked do in their spare time, and what Tia wanted to do when she grew up. Part of the way through the walk Des heard Mallory's breathing and heart rate change, indicating she had woken up, but since she didn't reacted to him carrying her he simply let her lay in his arms and listen to their walking chat. Several hours into their walk he almost bumped into Tia when she stopped dead in the middle of the path they had been following.

"Uhh, I think I found out why sis took the long way this morning..." Tia said, string at the branching path ahead. One path continued almost straight east towards the coast, and was fairly unremarkable, the other went north, and within 5 feet of the fork had an incredible build up of spiderwebs on and hanging off of the trees, even worse, DL could hear the heartbeats of several creatures just within the webbed area, but couldn't see anything, an obvious ambush spot just inside their domain. 'hey, how sure are you we can fight and hold a full grown person at the same time?' Theon asked. 'you know what we always say, never test new tech on the battlefield' DL quietly responded, and he could almost envision a nod in response.

"Hey, TT, just curious really, what way is the village? DL asked quietly, while he eyed the ground at his feet, debating how much Mallory might get hurt if he had to drop her at a moment's notice.

"Uhh... that way? what is that stuff?" she thankfully pointed towards the plainer route, before looking back at the ominous dark route.

"spiderwebs, little TT, thick enough that the spiders that made them wouldn't be worried about the size of your shoe, and I'm not interested in testing myself against them while protecting you and carrying your sister." DL answered. "Lets leave them to their home and head to yours, sound good?"

"Yea, okay." Tia responded, frozen in place. 'mmm not good, she locking up. you gotta get her thinking about something else, do the fake fear thing' Theon quips. DL stepped in front of her, breaking her view of the webs.

"Hey, that place is freaking me out, mind holding on tight while we walk?" DL said, offering her a small section of one of his tentacles, about 6 inches back from the bladed tip.

"oh, uhh... sure" she broke out of her freeze up and took hold of the offered limb, the tightness of her grip giving away her own fear. They started walking slowly, and in silence. after ten minutes they left all signs of the spider infestation behind, but the conversation never really recovered. About an hour later the forest thinned to nothing, and about 200 yards from the tree line DL saw the village of Shorebreath, from here it almost seemed to be one solid mass of wood and stone except one building on the north side that rose above the rest, the roof of which was designed in such a way that DL assumed it was a chapel or convent of some sort. just past the village was the Eastern sea, glistening in the evening sun.

"So, not exactly expecting a wholesome welcome if I just walk into town. Why don't you run in and find someone to help you carry your sister, and ill wait with her till your on your way back before I set here down and leave, that way she's not here alone, and you can just say she got exhausted and collapsed on your way back?"

"you don't think people will like you? Why not, I like you, your my friend!" Tia shot back.

"Its..." DL started, not knowing how to explain adult concepts to one so young. "Complicated. Us adults are weird like that, we don't trust as easy as we did when we were kids. Maybe one day ill be able to come in visit, but not today. Today ill settle for knowing you two got home safe." he kneeled down and carefully pulled her in for a side hug with one of his wings. "Hey, this isn't goodbye, okay? I never leave a friend alone. ill be out here, keeping an eye on things, I promise. You run to the village now, okay little owl?"

Tia's nose scrunched up. "Owl? What's that?" she asked as DL stood back up.

"An animal from where I come from. Physically small, But brave, resourceful and incredibly wise." DL responded with a small smile.

Tia Grew a ear to ear grin and nodded, taking off towards town.

After a moment to let her get out of earshot, DL spoke again. "So... You want down now, or...?" he looked down at Mallory as her eyes shot open in his arms.

"Now is fine." she mumbled under her breath. DL carefully set her on her feet, and she started backing away from him until she bumped up against a tree. "What do you want, monster?" 'suspicious much? if we were gonna eat her, doesn't she realize we could have by now?' Theon Joked.

"Please Mallory, just call me DL, or Des if you prefer. 'Monster' has never been one of my preferred nicknames. and I don't 'want' anything, except to fulfill my promise to get you and your sister home safe. on that note, would you rather I hang out till she's on her way back, or are you safe enough if I leave now?"

"The only thing keeping me from being safe right now is you, monster." She spat back. 'Nope guess she didn't realize anything' Theon sighed.

Any warmth that was in DL's voice drained away at the reapplication of the insult. as DL took a first step towards Mallory, snaking several tentacles through the grass and up the far side of the tree that she was leaning against. "Trust me human, if I was a danger to you, you would never have woken up, let alone set your eyes on your home ever again. Don't forget your the one that fainted from a slap on the wrist. Your the one that lost a fight and needed your baby sister to come save you." he noticed a wince at the idea of here sister needing to help her and dug further, "She do that a lot? save you from trouble? take credit for bad ideas to keep dad from getting too mad, give mom the puppy dog eyes to save you from extra chores, stuff like that? How proud you must be of yourself. All for you to lose, **** at my feet, and leave your baby sister at my mercy," he took another step forward, then started dragging the tips of the tentacles down the far side of the tree, gouging twin lines down next to Mallory's shoulders, breaking off chunks of bark and making her lurch forward a step to get away from the blades. "Is that what bravery and heroism looks like in this world? giving up after one hit and leaving a little girl that relies on you and looks up to you at the mercy of a.... what was it again you just called me?" one more step brought him into her personal space, exaggerating to almost 2 foot height difference as he slid one talon from her collarbone slowly up her neck to her chin, where he slowly increased the pressure he was pushing with until she looked up into his eyes. She maintained eye contact for only a second or two before lowering her eyes from his, the submissive act stirring other draconic instincts from his core. 'hey, hey, hey, bud, I like her just as much as you do, but we don't exactly have time for that right now, TT could be back any minute, and that's not really something I want her walking in on.' Theon warned. DL just huffed in response.

"Des." Mallory mumbled in a defeated tone.

"Yes, that's what I thought I heard." Des responded, turning and taking a couple steps away. "What's up with the path covered in spiderwebs?"

"Its a new dungeon, been spewing out spiders for a while now, but there aren't enough sword arms to take care of it, and we cant afford to pay any adventurers to come deal with it. So we just have to wait till it grows enough that the rewards within are worth it for them to travel this far. Why?" Mallory responded, confused by the change of topic.

"hmmm..." was all DL offered in response before he pulled his tentacles in tight, spread his wings out straight, and launched himself into the sky.