Nine. There were nine of the little fuckers, and he discovered very quickly they were practically trying to kill themselves. Any time he looked away for a minute they were fighting or just about toddling out of the nest or screaming so loud it drew predators, not to mention the smell. Like a cross between snake musk and rotten eggs. At least they blended in somewhat well, with a mix of splotchy bright colors like an easter egg and bits of dull browns and greys, emulating branches and the characteristic bright colors and erratic shape of these fae woods.

Tedrick discovered his Illusions were good for the task of protection. He had to practice for a while, but he found that they were pretty easy to produce. At least a rough approximation of the parents was. Of course it looked nothing like the actual creature, but the colors and shapes suggested it well enough that most animals stayed away. Sound was easy to make, too, just mimicking what he heard during their fight, albeit it was difficult to maintain both at the same time.

Taking this chance, he decided to try out this skill he apparently had. Making a little ring of rock around the branch as he ignored the squealing, hissing, screaming creatures, he followed the instructions he eventually found on using it. Albeit, he had to go four or five steps deep in to piece it all together. This system was unintuitive as shit.

It was more or less all about filling it with the energy in question, and holding it in place with a specialized energy formation like a net. This helped a lot, and would last for quite some time on its own, but usually accompanying an enchantment was a use of . Otherwise, the effect would wear off as soon as it ran out of energy.

This was a more complicated, expensive process. It had to be done carefully, too, or it could completely undo the enchantment.

And that shit took him nearly ten hours and thirty eight tries to piece together. He was not starting that over.

The extended process of involved taking the energy “net” and blending it into the natural energy of the object in question, and creating a natural flow of the internal energy, reducing the pressure on the net. Or at least, directing it in such a way that the net could be built to be able to handle it, since it acted more predictably.

This got far more complex the more difficult and complicated the enchantment. This crude little kindergarten drawing of a bird that waggled its “wings” with accompanying novice-at-best audio effects, sounding more like it was playing out of a cheap record player than the real thing wasn’t too difficult, but he couldn’t figure out the next best step. Not with the constant distractions. He had to trigger both manually with a little knock of telekinetic force, too.

He could see how incredibly potent this could be, but… what a start, he thought with a chuckle every time he looked at these embarrassing little bands of fake rock projecting the images and making the sounds.

Thankfully he was only tricking dumb animals, for the most part. A few of them saw through his trick and he had to scare them away with a attack suggesting that this ridiculous little thing was in fact a legitimate threat.

The bizarre qualities and unknown features of it actually helped in this regard; nature was brutal, and you didn’t fuck around with new things lightly. And this… sure wasn’t like anything they’d seen before.

Tedrick considered what to do now though; he’d appraised the babies in his hours of vigil, and they needed to eat meat. This meant he was stuck with the difficulty of caring for them and transporting them to someone more willing to kill a prospective parent to feed another dead parent’s kids.

He was too soft for this. Shit, back on Earth he was a vegan for that very reason. Couldn’t stomach the idea of innocent creatures dying for his convenience.

Pulling his hand away from the tiny flame he’d made to burn and heal himself at a rate lower than his Ki stamina regeneration, he considered. He was somewhat hindered by maintaining the illusion at the same time, but he was used to multi-tasking.

This situation isn’t sustainable. Something needed to be done. Turning his back on, he stood on the branch he’d been sitting on some distance away.

What to do with these little fuckers? This was simply not sustainable, for so many reasons, but he couldn’t just… bring himself to leave them here. Their parent only died because of a miscommunication. They thought he was hurting their babies. It’s not like these woods weren’t full of things that would do exactly that. He’d seen that first hand repeatedly since he’d been watching them. It seemed like he got off lucky with just the bird and snake; in the time he’d been on vigil, he’d seen camouflaged lizards with prehensile tails so long it could circle it several times whole and could produce and drop spikes, a teleporting cat creature with an eye separate from its whole body that floated around within fifteen feet of it, and a plant monster that seemed to move from tree to tree with hundreds of tentacles coming from a cup filled with teeth and acid. That last one actually spit a wad of acid right at him, and it melted half way through his leg over an hour or so. That was a bitch.

If he’d been a little more skilled at the time, maybe he could have just deterred the bird instead of being crushed, maybe he wouldn’t have…

Slapping both of his cheeks, he shook his head hard enough to be briefly dizzy.

No. No time for that. He could have done all kinds of things. But he did what he did. No going back. They needed him now. And he still didn’t know how to handle that… experience.

This was not the time to indulge his hobby of mopey contemplation.

He supposed the fae might be able to help, but he had no idea if they actually would. What he was doing was unnatural. These little birds should be dead as far as the natural order was concerned. His priorities didn’t match up, but he couldn’t assume the same about anyone else.

Unfortunately it seemed to boil down to something simple. The fae who found them might save them. If they stayed as is, something stronger than him would eventually come along and butcher them. Definite death versus potential death. For both himself and them.

Guess it really was simpler than he made it out to be.

The decision at least.

The actual TASK was a different matter. He could navigate his way to the village easily, but the problem was twofold; he needed to not be seen, and after seeing the bird know just where he was even with cover, he knew better than to assume that was plausible.

The second problem was making sure that they weren’t eaten on the way. He could make the things shut up with Hypnosis, he discovered that an hour in, but he couldn’t hide their smell. And boy did they fucking smell. He didn’t notice at the time of the fight because that bird was taking chunks out of him, but looking back, it fucking reeked. Probably some deterrent, but even all nine babies together weren’t even close to the same level, and they would’ve amped it up to drive him off if they could’ve by now. No, they were just smelly enough to draw everything from a mile off.

If he just sealed them up in something, they’d suffocate. If he made something big enough to support the air needs of nine living things, combined with their weight, he wouldn’t be able to move it from here, not with his telekinetic strength and definitely not his pitiful physical strength. Nevermind all the way to the village.

But, maybe he didn’t need to move it himself at all…