Le Lingyan was currently laying lifelessly in a pile of leaves on the forest floor, looking up at how tall the tree was in front of him. How did he get here, back to the bottom of the tree he had painstakingly climbed?

Ah yes. He tried to fly.

Why, you ask. What do you mean? 

Honestly, Le Lingyan was just as confused as anyone.

He was suddenly adopted as a baby bird by a random big dark bird, whose nest he invaded to get away from being a huge snake's dinner last night, who then thought he was a hatchling and thus, her child.

As a bird, wasn't it only right to fly?

So, the big bird… threw him down a colossal tree.

To make him learn how to fly.

"Caw." The mother bird bigger than Le Lingyan himself fluttered down next to him on the forest floor, using her beak to comb through his hair in concern.

She looked at Le Lingyan who was still lying spread-eagled in the pile of leaves, tilting her head. She used her clawed foot to lightly push his arms to the side of his body, nodding in satisfaction when she faced no resistance from the lethargic Le Lingyan, who was still disoriented after getting pushed off the huge tree just moments after he woke up the second time in this world.

She seemed to have expected the result that Le Lingyan could not fly, because Le Lingyan landed in a huge pile of leaves, feathers and squishy moss, the same material as the soft interior of the nest. That was how he managed to stay intact, not breaking any bones. Though, it definitely still hurt quite a bit... A lot. It hurt a lot, actually.

The mother bird then folded her wings neatly at her side, like she was also teaching him how a proper bird would do it after landing.

The mother bird was very concerned over her new child.

He had no feathers, only a thin hide covering some parts of him. He couldn't fly either. He had soft and thick black hair that stuck out from the top of his head, but it wasn't like the grey feathers on her head. He also didn't have claws like her and her other children, only soft, delicate flesh. How will he protect himself?

She decided. She had other children after all, perhaps they could offer him protection like they do to their other younger siblings?

"Caw, caw!" Raising her head to the treetops, she called out loudly, the sound echoing through the forest.

Le Lingyan finally slowly sat up, a few scattered leaves falling off his shoulders. He looked around the forest and then at the big mother bird next to him, who had turned back and continued rustling through his hair, like she had been doing constantly recently.

'This child is different, especially his feathers. Although they're black just like us, they're soft and stringy!

'But as a good mother, I have to give him confidence that he's a fine bird!'

Le Lingyan simply let her do as she wished, since it felt pretty comfortable anyway. At least she wasn't trying to eat him.

After a minute or two, a distant flapping could be heard. Le Lingyan looked towards the sound, listening carefully.

A wind howled sharply as leaves far above him were jostled roughly. Six black dots were approaching speedily from the air, weaving through the dense foliage above skillfully.

Eventually, six black crows - who were just six black blobs of different sizes to Le Lingyan - landed in a semicircle around him.

Although they were smaller than the mother crow, these crows were still way bigger than what was the norm of Earth. Even the smallest one was around the size of a fully grown condor, but black from beak to claws.

It was clear that these birds were not from Earth, as all of them had a grey crown of feathers sticking up from their heads when they flew or were communicating. Like now.

While the birds were having a serious discussion, Le Lingyan was currently very interested in the grey spots in his blurry vision that kept raising and disappearing everytime these birds crowed and called out at each other, evidently communicating.

"Caw!" 'This child is clearly not yours, mother! Who knows which competitor dropped him in your nest!' The largest black crow called out aggressively.

'Mother, are you going to foolishly raise the child of another creature?' The second crow even rustled his feathers frustratedly, agreeing to the oldest crow.

The mother bird however, replied assertively. 'Even if he isn't, look at how weak he is, he clearly doesn't pose a threat to us!'

'Jie¹, Ge², that's true… he doesn't even have claws.' The fourth largest crow called out, poking at his older siblings meekly with his beak.

The two crows immediately turned their anger towards him. 'You should listen to us, we're older and we've seen more than you! Our youngest two siblings haven't achieved spiritual intelligence, so you're still the youngest!' The oldest crow, a proud female, ruffled her feathers irritably.

The second oldest crow called out in rebuke. 'This thing looks like a human, I've seen their cruelty. Especially to spiritual beasts like us.'

'Is...' The mother crow hesitated. 'Is this child really not a bird?'

The oldest two crows immediately started explaining how cruel humans were to their inexperienced mother, trying their best to dissuade her.

However, the third oldest crow who had been silent all this time suddenly joined the discussion. 'He really does look harmless.' Pointing his beak at Le Lingyan, one older sister crow, one older brother crow and a younger brother crow all looked towards Le Lingyan on the leafy floor near the Mother bird.

The two youngest crows had yet to achieve spiritual intelligence, so they were still mostly clueless. However, their kind were famous for their sharp instincts even at a young stage, so they were notoriously elusive.

But at this moment, two famously fierce Grey-crowned crows… were snuggling up to Le Lingyan, letting him brush his defined fingers through their head feathers.

Before this moment, being unable to understand a single part of their conversation, Le Lingyan had long lost interest in their cawing. Seeing two very small crows (compared to the others) shyly approach him, Le Lingyan beckoned them over happily, finally finding something he could amuse himself with.

The two crows, though the youngest of the batch, were still big, as tall as the Le Lingyan who was sitting down. They stumbled over, not sensing any malice from Le Lingyan.

And so, Le Lingyan finally got his wish of touching those grey feathers that sometimes rose and fell on the crows' heads. Being young crows, their feathers were also extremely soft and immensely satisfying to the touch. 

The blinding scene of Le Lingyan hugging and petting the young crows filled the atmosphere with the joy and sunshine of a group of children playing together harmlessly.

Crow family: …

Mother crow puffed up her feathers proudly. 'I told you, my intuition is never wrong. It doesn't matter if he is a human or bird. Even your younger siblings can sense it.'

'He is a kind child.'

– ❀ –

[1] Jie: older sister

[2] Ge: older brother

~~

✉ Author's corner: ✉

Hehe, two chapters this week. I have no idea how polls work, so please help me out!

Don't worry, LLY will meet his ancient self very soon. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Also, I based this chapter and the bird family off crows, who are (in chinese knowledge?) most commonly known as the most faithful birds since they're the only known species who goes back to take care of their old parents even after they grow up, unlike other birds who just leave the nest and start their own family. Besides that, crows are cool too, I like crows. Heheh.

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