An Owl's Rise

However, her elation was short lived, as the rock she was currently in began to rumble not long after she placed the gem into her storage cuff.

Cracks began forming in the tunnel she had created, and her body was suddenly thrown against the top of the area she had carved out.

For a few seconds she was stunned and could do nothing as the felt a pressure bearing down on her.

It did not take too long though for her to regain her composure and realize what was going on.

The giant rock that surrounded the deposit of float stone and the gem at the center was only able to defy gravity due to the properties of the float stone.

But now that Evelyn had mined out the purest pieces as well as taking the gem in the center, the massive rock could no longer stay in the air.

It's weight that had been held up by magical properties of the float stone deposit within it was now bearing down and threatening to crush Evelyn into the ground.

'I have to get out of here.' Evelyn thought in a panic.

Swiftly she turned around and began waddling her way through the tunnel she had made. Which had cracks forming all through it at an alarming rate.

'I am not going to make it! Evelyn thought as she watched chunks of rock fall down around her.

She could see the exit, but her path was quickly being blocked off, and the impending sense of crashing made it seem like time was moving torturously slow.

Yet as she felt hopelessness closing in along with the collapsing walls, she came up with an idea.

Reaching in deep and focusing on the Aethersphere, Evelyn pushed it to her limits and beyond, and created a gravity field larger than she ever had.

If the giant rock was falling and breaking because she had taken its ability to change defy gravity, then she need only do it herself.

In an instant the tunnel ceased collapsing, and while the rock was still falling it was much slower now.

She had spread out her gravity field over the entire thing and lowered its weight to be four times less.

With this she was able to push her way through the cramped tunnel and jump out just before the rock crashed into the ground with a loud bang.

Chunks of stone went flying in several directions as the several dozen tons rock impacted against the top of the mountain it had been floating over.

Having just escaped her impending doom Evelyn let out a sigh of relief.

She had been very closed to be crushed to death and for a moment did not think she was going to make it.

'Note to self. Make sure to make the tunnel big enough so that I can fly out of it if I ever have to do this again.' Evelyn thought, remembering the cramped confines of the tunnel that prevented her from moving fast enough.

Her business here now concluded, Evelyn turned back towards where Katrina was looking after Anneli and prepared to head on over to them.

Expect something else caught her eye first and she turned around to look at the wreckage of the rock that had just fallen.

Among the broken apart pieces were chunks of float stone that were now rising up unabated by the heavy rock they had been held within

This created what looked like a bunch of floating lights ascending into the sky. And for a few moments Evelyn could not help but hover and stare at this amazing sight.

'As harsh as this world is, it does have some very beautiful things to witness.' Evelyn thought with a smile on her face that she could not suppress.

Once she had her fill of watching the float stones ascend into the sky, she took off towards Anneli and Katrina.

When she arrived, she was happy to find that Anneli had woken up. Though her wings were still bent out of shape and scars dotted her body.

"Anneli I am truly happy to see that you are awake. For a minute I thought you might not make it, and I am not sure how I would forgive myself if you died."

"No need to worry, Evelyn. I am tougher than you can imagine. This is not even close to enough to keep me down." Anneli said while making a show of standing up.

Of course, this was just a façade. She was actually in immeasurable pain and could barely move at all.

Still, she wanted to alleviate a bit of Evelyn's worry.

"Yes, she is too hardheaded to go down easily." Katrina said with a smile. "However, enough of the pleasantries. Did you get what you needed?"

Nodding her head, Evelyn told them she got more than enough high-quality float stone to act as a catalyst for her evolution.

"Good, then it is time we leave. We have already been here longer than I wanted and at any moment more foxes or other curious beast might show up."

After saying this, Katrina despite her own wounds moved to help Anneli up and prepared to take off.

"Wait! What about the foxes and their possessions? I do not see them around so did you already collect them?"

Looking around Evelyn could no longer find the corpses of the foxes. With all that was left to prove there was a battle here was numerous scorch marks and warped stone from fire magic.

"No, I did not. I cremated the foxes' bodies and both me and Anneli consumed their cores. As for their storage items I tossed them out into the forest in random direction. There are many different types of magics in this world and it would be a huge risk to keep anything from those foxes on us. It is possible that they could be used to track us down." Katrina explained.

Hearing her reasoning, Evelyn thought that it was sound and accepted it easily. She was a bit interested in whatever the foxes may have had on them, but she had accomplished her primary goal and there was no need to let greed lead them to ruin.

With everything now settled the three of them set off back into owl territory. With Katrina carrying Anneli on her back and Evelyn taking up the rear and keeping an eye out for any beast hat might ambush them.

Unfortunately, along the way it became clear the burden of keeping Anneli aloft was too much for Katrina. It looked like at any moment she might fall to the ground.

To help them out, Evelyn flew up beside them and pulled out one of the large chunks of float stone she had acquired and offered it up.

"Here, use this. If you place it under Anneli it should relieve some of the burden."

Smiling and taking the piece of float stone, Anneli and Katrina did as she advised.

Then with the help of the float stone they were both able to keep flying for longer. Until they reached a safe area that they had already been planning on stopping at.