"Isn't this a bit much? It might drown."
"I am not raising this...this thing!"
"Why us? We've never even touched anything unholy, let alone fraternised with a demon."
"Keep your voice down! And it could have been our parents or their parents or whatever. Point is, we're getting rid of it."
The couple walked quietly as they conspired together, making sure to take every step with great care. The moon was a crescent shape, high in the dark, navy sky. It was a cold night. The clouds were covering the stars and slowly floating over the moon, blanketing it, then uncovering it every few minutes. Eventually, the two came to a stop, reaching a river that was flowing smoothly and reflecting the moonlight beautifully in stark contrast to the inky darkness of the water in the night.
"Okay, pass me the basket."
The one holding the basket obeyed. The other person took it and dropped it in the river like it was going to bite. The current swept the basket along in no time at all. Sounds of infant crying came from inside as the basket bobbed and was pushed around the water.
"Even though it was a monster, that felt wrong."
"I know. But we can't have a thing like that in our house.
"Absolutely."
"Come on, let's go home. We can always try again."
As the pair crept away from the scene of their guilt, the basket was carried along the river, knocking into rocks, getting caught on low-hanging branches before getting swept up once again, almost completely toppling over.
~~~
"Just gonna go grab some water! Be right back!"
A Brownie skipped towards the nearby river, near the outskirts of a large village located within the Feywild. The Brownie's red hair flowed behind her while she skipped, her bright blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and finally, she reached the riverbank. As the Brownie began to lower her bucket into the river, she suddenly heard crying. She put her bucket, which was now full of water, on the riverbank before hurrying towards the crying until she eventually noticed a basket stuck between two large rocks. It looked like it was going to be pulled away by the water at any moment, so she hurried towards it and managed to clamber over the rocks to tug it back onto the land.
Then, she opened the lid. Inside the basket was a baby. It was unbelievably distressed, The poor thing's face was red from how long it had been crying. If a baby being in a basket in a river wasn't strange enough, the child had two pairs of horns on its head, the pair on the inside being slightly longer than the outer pair, as well as a little arrowhead tail.
But the Brownie didn't care about its appearance. Only that there was a poor baby all by itself and in a horrible state. She quickly carried the baby in her arms, grabbing the bucket on her way past and managing to carry both to her house. She put her water bucket on the counter then began to tend to the baby, grabbing a bottle of milk and poking a hole in the lid before tilting it upside down and putting it to the baby's mouth.
After several exhausting hours of feeding, rocking, shushing, cleaning, changing, and dressing the baby, it finally calmed down and even went to sleep. The friends that this Brownie was with before she went to get the water, varying different faerie folk, had all come to the house to help out after realising she'd been gone for too long and going to her place to look for her.
"I've heard of these. He's a tiefling. Either he was turned into one with magic, or there's demon blood in his bloodline." One of her friends said quietly.
