An Owl's Rise

If it were to be true, she would be able to gain a safe place to live and would likely be able to learn all manner of knowledge that she was unable to pick up from just the books Mason had left to her.

'They may have even developed some spells that I can use. That way I will be able to do more than just creating basic magical phenomenon.'

With the pros outweighing the cons, Evelyn leapt out of the tree she had been sleeping in and took off towards where the gathering of owls was supposed to be.

Though this time she was less brazen about flying around and moved stealthy from tree to tree.

She did not want to get ambushed by anymore eagles or other beasts for that matter. So, even while she moved much slower, it was worth it not to risk her life.

Along the way she did actually spot another group of eagles that were in the middle of fighting it out with a high tier fiend beast ranked owl.

Unfortunately, this owl stood little chance of winning in a three on one fight, and it would not be long until it was killed.

And unlike the owl that had intervened in her battle, Evelyn had no such acts of heroics in her.

Her life was the most important thing for her, and she was not going to get into any battles that did not gain her something, especially one as risky as this.

'Sorry, it is every owl for themselves as far as I am concerned.'

Continuing on, she did not stay to watch the fate of this other owl, though she figured it was likely to not be pretty.

Still, it did give her more evidence that the snowy owl had been telling the truth about what was happening.

Continuing deeper into the jungle she began to spot other owls more frequently, and some of them spotted her.

A couple even came over and tried to attack her but found that while her power may have seemed lower than them, she was more dangerous than they imagined.

Even a peak fiend beast felt some fear from her when it got to close and suddenly felt nearly four times heavier.

Entering a field of gravity that was that much stronger was uncomfortable for pretty much any creature, so it quickly backed off when it realized that Evelyn was a threat.

This happened a number of times as she continued forward, now having entered into an area that was dense with owls heading to the same place.

The stronger owls most of which were at the peak of the fiend beast rank, would bully the weaker owls until they gave up and left, or in many cases were killed.

However, there was risk involved with this, as some antagonistic owls got the tables turned on them an ended up horribly injured or dead instead.

Even though they were all owls this was still the wilds, and the rule of strength was absolute.

Only those with the power to make it to the meeting place of the owls had a chance to enter what Evelyn did not know right now, was quite the powerful society.

They had no need for the weak, so only the strong could enter the ranks of the Owls Roost.

Soon she came to an area of the jungle that was covered by a thick blanket of dense fog that she could barely see ten feet into even with her amazing vision as an owl.

Though while she stopped and floated at the edge of his barrier of fog, a number of owls plunged in without any hesitation.

'That one was an awakened beast.'

Looking at the other owls heading into the fog Evelyn caught sight of one of them that gave off a much more powerful presence, and there was no doubt it had evolved past the fiend beast rank.

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and took the plunge into the fog.

Once inside she felt the magical energy flowing through this fog, and there was no doubt it was not a natural phenomenon.

Still, as she advanced, she wondered what kind of magic would be powerful enough to create something like this.

Deeper and deeper into the fog she went, flying very slowly to avoid smashing headfirst into a tree.

To make matters worse this area had become much denser with foliage, and the trees had sharp branches jutting out of them.

At one point Evelyn even saw an owl that had pierced one of its wings on these sharp branches, and it was likely to die from this, or at the least have to give up on joining the Owls Roost.

Stopping and starting while repositioning herself, many times she ran into an impassible wall of trees and vines and had to change directions.

This place was like a maze, and the fact that she could only see around ten feet in front of her did not help.

Hours went by as she was lost in the fog and had been turned around so many times, she was not really sure which direction she was going anymore.

She had tired using her wind magic to blow the fog away, but it resisted her, and at best she gained herself a few more feet of visibility temporarily until the fog quickly rolled back in.

Going around like this she felt panic beginning to set in as she started to fear she would be trapped in this fog for the rest of her life.

'No, I am not going out in such a stupid way. I can do this. There must be a correct path somewhere or none of the other owls would continue with this farce. This is simply a test and I need to find the answer.'

Calming down and no longer flying around aimlessly, Evelyn emptied her mind and felt out her surroundings.

When she did, she sensed it. There was actually a path created in the fog where there were areas with denser magical energy.

It was faint and would not be easily detected, but as she focused, she could feel that there was definitely a difference.

Following this path, she wound her way around the natural barriers that the thick jungle had provided and flew deeper and deeper into the fog.

Eventually as she followed this path, the fog started to become less dense, and soon she was able to see much further around her and came out into an opening in the jungle.

In this opening she could see that there was a circle of trees surrounding a much larger one that sat in the middle.

On each of these surrounding trees were a number of owls that were perched and staring towards the one in the center.

Finding a place among these trees Evelyn perched onto a large branch and looked out towards the central tree that had everyone else's attention.

That was when she spotted the three entities within this central tree, two of which were powerful owls that she could tell were stronger than any she had ever seen.

Yet the third one was something that made her begin to feel extreme fear, as she stared at the humanoid figure sitting within the tree.