but not raw, right?.... RIGHT?!?!

'I dont know whats worse' Theon thought from the backseat. 'that your basically forcing me to eat raw wolf and its somehow disgustingly tasty, or the fact that you didnt even have the decency to let it die first.' DL had walked right up to the paralyzed Dire wolf, dropped to his knees, and started tearing ino its back legs. By now he had almost the entirety of one leg eaten down to the bone, and he was moving on to the other one, and yet they could still hear the wolf's pathetic whiny growl as it lay there waiting for the blood loss to set in.

'If it didnt want to be prey, it should have been faster. or ran when it had the chance.' DL thought back over another handful of wolf.

after letting DL fill their stomach Theon "spoke" up. 'bro, you good? ever since you took the wheel you've been very... dragon-y... unthinking savagery is not a great way to take over the world.' at the mention of their unspoken goal, they felt a communal shiver down their spine, giving them a warm feeling deep in heir gut.

DL's eyes went wide, as if he just realized where he was. 'oh shit, those dragon instincts are strong. Your right, gonna run into some problems if we dont work on those. although its nice they come with a set of raw meat loving tastebuds, or we'd be tasting that meat all over right now.' taking stock of himself for the first time since the fight DL looked around. Both of the wolf's back legs were shredded down to the bone, and its eyes had finally glossed over, it was gone. As he looked around the clearing, he felt something prick one of his tentacles, almost like a bee sting, but only lasting an instant. he was ready to dismiss it, he couldnt hear or smell anything around him, but then he felt it again, thin time in his shoulder. 'hmmmmmm insects?' he thought and he rose to his feet and give his wings a good flap to knock away any flying pests that might be hovering around his back. As he was folding his wings back up another sting hit his right shoulder, this time it was accompanied by a blinding pain in his wing, which was now pinned tight against his shoulder, the two points of pain lining up perfectly. "ah shit, what the hell?" his words came out normally this time, albeit as a low coarse rumble, and didnt quite drown out the gasp of surprise from the woods behind him, or the words that followed, "hide back here, its big but big sis can scare it off, then we'll get out of here"

DL turned towards the voice to find a woman emerging from the forest bushes with one last arrow nocked to her bow. she fired, but DL plucked it from the air with a tentacle. "I don't scare easily woman, do you have something more to offer than arrows? maybe a name, or why your attacking me for no reason?" DL growled. To her credit, the woman didnt hesitate, pulling a sword from her waist and charging at him. As she reached him and lunged out to stab, he simply stepped to one side, brought his left hand down on her wrist..... With a sharp crack the sword hit the ground and the girl yanked her hand back to her chest with a scream of pain, peering at DL with fear in her eyes. "well, i think that means i won, you gonna answer my questions now? no? nothing?" he took a step forward and her eyes promptly rolled and and she went limp, collapsing to the ground in a heap before bouncing backwards to sprawl **** on the ground in front of him. 'hey, why didnt you go all angry dragon on her' Theon asked curiously as DL visually inspected the woman from his standing position before continuing in a flat thought-voice. 'And why are you staring like that?'

'honestly? i dont know. maybe i didnt think she was a threat, maybe because i just ate. one more question we'll have to work on getting a answer for. and im staring because shes attractive. what?' DL chuckled to himself, and continued out loud "you were thinking the same thing, dont lie. my preferences come from you, you know." before Theon could come up with another retort, another human stpped out of the bushes from where the woman at his feet came from.

"sis?" the girl was maybe four or five, wearing an adorable miniature set of the same leather armor her 'sis' was, and had absolutely no business traipsing around the woods, with or without a sibling to watch over her.

"She's right here, all in one piece and breathing, though she kinda... Fainted. You can come check on her if you want, I promise to be nice." The little girl look back and forth from him to her sister, seemingly gauging her options.

"You promise to be nice? No hitting me like you did her?"

The instinct to defend himself from the accusations with claims of self-defense rose in his chest, but Theon calmed him with a thought ' hey, she's just a scared little kid. She's not worried about why, shes just worried about her sister.'

DL managed a smile, hoped it wasn't to grisly a sight on his new face and waved the girl forward and he took a step back and took a knee. "I promise to keep my hands to myself. She's all yours"

The little girl rushed to within a foot of her sister, glanced back up to DL's relaxed form and muttered. "Are you sure? Do you pinky promise?" It looks everything DL had not to snort laugh in Her face. 'that is just too stinking cute' theon thought from the backseat. Something never change, even across different realities.

DL extended his arm palm up and curled all his other fingers back except his pinky, offering it to the little kid "Tell you what, I'll give you your pinky promise if you give me something to call you other than 'little girl', how does that sound?"

She smiled a little smile and said "I'm Tia!" As she wrapped her own around DL'S much larger one.

"Nice to meet you Tia," DL continued as she started checking on her sister. "So what were you two doing way out here in the woods all alone?"

I wanted to see where the lightning struck, sometimes it strikes somewhere just right and makes mana crystals! But Daddy said no, so me and sis snuck out!"

'kids, amirite?' Theon thought.