"If you're sure."

"I mean, it's probably not going to take me very long to check?" he says. "Unless you mean the chance that I might eat someone, because yeah, I'd rather avoid that but it's probably gonna be worse if I wait."

"Yeah, that, also that the sun won't kill you in the time."

"Well, it didn't kill me when I was running from the desert to here but I guess that was just about dawn, so maybe higher sun would kill me, but… there should be trees to hide under if that's the case? And I can take my phone and hide under a jacket or something."

"Okay, and you can call me if you need. Or I could go with you? But you're presumably much faster."

"I could try bringing you with me? But it might slow me down, I dunno."

"Up to you, I'm already skipping school today."

"Okay," he says. "Well, I will try not to scratch you or whatever – I dunno what else this has done to me – but how would you like to be carried? Piggyback?" He laughs a bit. "Bridal?"

"I wouldn't complain about being carried bridal-style by you."

"Okay," he says. "If you're sure."

"Yup," he says, grinning, and walks up to Theo.

And Theo picks him up, bridal-style.

"You okay there?"

"Yyyep," he says, sounding only a little bit dreamy.

… Theo sorta hopes he imagined that, and then he goes out the backdoor and asks, "How do you feel about jumping?"

"Positively."

"Okay," he says, and so he hops over the fence at the end of his garden and lands quite smoothly, then runs across the grass, sidewalk, and road, and goes through a small alleyway and then they're out at the edge of town and into the forest.

Wheeeeeeeeeee.

And then Theo stops and puts Sadde down! "I'm gonna go looking for a squirrel now," he says. "Be back in a minute?"

"Okay," he says, a little bit breathless and more than a little bit horny.

Theo… continues to smile, though it's a bit altered and then he turns away and runs to go catch a squirrel.

He can probably use his new, enhanced senses to find one!

He will! And he does!

What does it smell like? At all tasty or not?

...eeeh, kinda like soy protein, for an analogy.

… But that's not too bad so he's going to go back to Sadde and relay the results and then eat it.

"See, that's promising!"