Keep them busy? Astrid looks up at the approaching Arcuila that could most assuredly eat her in one fell swoop if they wanted to. “Sure,” she says. She is not one bit sure. Her magic is acting weird, and she is not very fast. But what she can do is make a bunch more of herself to distract them!

Focusing every bit of energy Astrid has left in herself into her magic, Astrid creates three replicants who then each create three replicants. Suddenly, there’s a baker’s dozen of Astrids standing around. Huffing tiredly, Astrid motions for them to go and be a problem, and that’s exactly what they do. With a chorus of childish war cries, a dozen Astrids open their wings and leap into the air, flying straight toward the pair of angry Arcuilas.

The next few minutes are filled with a series of flashes from the sky of various magics “cast” by the replicants, none of which do any damage to them, but many of which actually slow the beasts down enough for Blue Raspberry to consume the nest. When they’re back to being a bird, Astrid scrambles onto their back with the egg and looks back to see the last of the replicants get poofed by the striking Arcuilas.

“Okay, let’s move! While yer big!”

---

Many replicants with many bat wings

Once the final tree branch was finished being slurped up, Blue let out a quick belch. Welp, one whole Arcuila nest could be added to the long list of strange things the ooze had in their stomach, though hopefully it wouldn't be staying in there for very long if everything went to plan. They just needed to find somewhere else to put it now, farther away from the ash cloud and any travelers.

Blue transformed back into a bird, the smooth, gooey surface shifting into feathers. The snake-like tail put the egg down carefully before flattening out back into giant tailfeathers. With their size still stretched to its limits, the bird they transformed into this time was far larger than previously.

Astrid's duplicates had done a great job holding the two Arcuila back while Blue consumed the nest, but they couldn't last forever. As they were poofed away one after the other by the giant avians' attacks, the two birds looked furious at the disappearance of their entire nest and the stealing of their egg.

With Astrid and the egg on their back, Blue took off as fast as they could away from them. With a bit of magical  speed-boosting assistance from Astrid, they were able to keep far enough ahead of the birds to not be within range of their lightning. Astrid didn't seem like she could handle much more of that. Something was off about her ever since she took a big blast of that red lightning. Blue also felt a bit different, but they didn't have the time to think about it right now with two very angry parents chasing their child's kidnappers.

After flying for some distance, as soon as they spotted a new place that looked like a good enough home for the two Arcuila to relocate to, Blue landed and started barfing up all of the nesting materials they'd consumed as fast as possible. It wasn't exactly a perfect rebuilding of their nest, but it'd have to do. With the finishing touch of one big egg gently placed in the middle, Blue took off again, just hoping the Arcuila would stop their chase, and their attacks on any more travelers.

They could already feel the sensation of being stretched too far that let them know they couldn't stay this large much longer. It'd be much more difficult to consume the nest again without being this large, and they would be able to grow again for a while. They'd never maintained that size for so long before and the effort finally got to them.

The giant blue bird shrank back down again mid-flight and started to fall toward the ground, exhausted.

This day has not gone to plan at all. Astrid knew from the start that taking on a couple of Arcuila would be a huge challenge, but she didn’t expect that it would involve getting shocked so badly her connection to lightning magic would break, and she also didn’t expect that they would be stealing a whole entire nest for two massive birds to relocate.

Their lives are pretty ridiculous.

It’s an exhausted scramble for both Astrid and Blue to get the nest placed back and in order, roosted in the great tree that overlooks the fields of Dragon’s Cradle far away from the ash clouds of Mount Drakolt. They dive away from the newly placed nest with only seconds to spare and no time to appreciate the view from the enormous tree’s canopy. It takes all the strength Astrid has just to make sure she doesn’t fall off of Blue, but the ooze is exhausted too, and Astrid knows they won’t keep this up for much longer.

Then they don’t. Blue loses their size and falls out from under Astrid. “Ah! Blue!” Her fingers reach out to try to grasp at them again, only grazing against their sticky feathers. Without enough energy to manifest her own wings, Astrid pulls the very last of her magic to release Arcus from the special pet dimension. The pegasus emerges with a mighty whinny and collects himself midair. Astrid whistles for him, and the steed swoops around to catch both Astrid and Blue. It’s a rough landing, but they’re at least on his back. With no time to strap into the saddle, Astrid kicks Arcus into gear, flying away from the tree as fast as they can.

She finally dares to look back and spots the giant, sparking red birds hovering over their rebuilt nest and checking on their egg. A safe home is especially important to Astrid. She gets it. Maybe that’ll be a better place for them.

It takes a long time for them to get back to Sky Peak. Even Arcus is fully exhausted by the time they stumble into the yard outside the manor. None of them even have the energy to get up out of the manicured grass. It’s soft grass, perfect for a nap, and the weather isn’t too bad. Astrid lies there, sprawled out and exhausted.

“Good job, Blue,” she huffs tiredly, letting her eyes close. “The grass is soft… Just a little rest. We deserve it.” It’s only for a short time, she tells herself. But it’s not. Eventually Charles spots them in the yard and brings them in. For a clumsy bot, he is still meant for carrying things, so he’s quite adept at lifting heavy loads. Still, stairs are a challenge for him, so he just leaves the two of them to nap in the living room.

If their solution doesn’t go well, they’ll probably be hearing about it soon.