An Owl's Rise

Now that they had freed Osten of the control of the parasitic vine and his wounds had been healed by the potion Melisandre had given to Evelyn, it was time for them to return.

Right now, they were all physically and mentally exhausted, and there was no way they would be able to continue exploring the area in their conditions.

"Let us head back. This continent has already shown us that it has dangers we are unaware of, and it would be best that we return back t rest and report our findings." Adolophine said, taking charge.

However, Evelyn could see that she was stiffing a grimace on her face, and it was all too obvious why.

During the incident with the parasitic vine, she had not been able to do much of anything, and honestly it was Evelyn who had taken charge and resolved the situation.

Now Adolophine's pride as a leader was in tatters.

Still, Evelyn could honestly care less about this, and as long as now knew not to fight her on making decisions it would all be fine.

"So how are we going to carry him? He is pretty heavy." Rehni said as she tried to lift up Osten.

Out of all of them he was by far the biggest and strongest owl, so carrying him was going to be an ordeal.

"I will do it. I am probably the only one that can do it by myself, and we will be slowed down tremendously if more than one of us has to carry him." Evelyn said nearly immediately.

The others looked a bit shocked at Evelyn's declaration, since by all accounts she was only around two-thirds of his size and did not look strong enough to do so.

Not to mention that she had pretty much exhausted herself on the front lines of the battle and had used nearly all she had.

But when she hiked his large body up onto her back and managed to lift off the ground by flapping her wings rapidly while also supporting herself with wind magic. There was not any argument the others could give.

'Thank God I can use gravity magic. If I was not making him four times lighter no way I could carry his large body.' Evelyn thought while getting the feel of supporting herself.

Soon enough they were on their way again and began retracing their steps and flying back towards their base camp.

When they arrived, they certainly received a number of looks, as dozens of owls that had stayed behind turned their heads towards them.

'Okay that is a bit creepy.' Evelyn thought as she watched this.

While she had gotten used to the ability to swivel her head around all the way, watching multiple owls do it at once was a bit unsettling.

Nevertheless, their gazes soon receded, and they made their way over to where the commander was.

Currently he had a wooden desk out with a number of documents lined up in neat stacks.

It was almost comical for Evelyn to see this, as it looked like an owl doing office work.

'I guess that I am not fully accustomed tot his new world yet.' Evelyn thought while holding in a chuckle.

When they landed, though, the atmosphere changed immediately, and the commanding expression that Deshal normal had was replaced by one of exhaustion.

"I imagine you have something to report to me as well. And judging by the situation I doubt it is good news." Deshal said as she looked from Adolophine to Osten who was passed out and strung over Evelyn's back.

"Yes, we encountered an unusual plant while searching the jungle. It- it had the power to enter beasts' bodies and take them over." Adolophine said with a hint of fear still in her tone.

Hearing this Deshal sighed, but it did not seem that he was all that surprised by this news.

"Your squad as well huh. Two other squads reported that they also encountered a being such as the one you have described. But each of their squads suffered casualties. One lost two of their members and another lost four." Deshal said with a shadow over his face.

He was in charge of their unit and these losses on the first day were a really big blow.

Their group of seventy-two owls had apparently now been cut down to sixty-six within such a short amount of time.

"I see that your squad managed to get through without anyone dying and only one member being incapacitated. Would you please tell me what happened?"

Nodding her head, Adolophine described their encounter with the platypus type beast and how they managed to defeat it.

However, when Osten their largest and strongest member went to pick it up, the parasite took him over as a new host.

After that she detailed their daring rescue mission. Though she did try to make it seem like she did more than she really did, and that she had full command over the situation.

At the very least she still gave Evelyn her due credit in being the one to take the vanguard position in the battle and risk herself to save Osten by acting as bait.

"I see. You managed to save your comrade even after he was already taken over." Deshal said with a conflicted expression his face.

He then sighed, before turning a far fierier gaze than he had been showing towards Evelyn.

"It seems that I misjudged you. I consider myself an earnest owl, and I did not take kindly to members being assigned to my team without having to prove themselves like the others, or even any consideration on my part. But I will take Adolophine's words at face value and want to apologize for how I treated your earlier. Also thank you for pushing yourself to save a member of your squad when there would have been no risk to you had you not. As the leader of this expedition, you have earned my respect." Deshal said with a far more compassionate look then Evelyn had seen him give.

'I guess he is not as much of a hardass as I thought.'

Seeing him take a complete one eighty on how he was treating her, Evelyn now understood the commander of the expedition a bit better now.

He did not really have it out for her, he was just upset about those above him making decisions without his consent and possibly sending him dead weight.

With their report wrapped up, Adolophine led her squad away and they began preparing to rest.

All of them were both mentally and physically exhausted and could use a could rest.

'Today was a lot more dangerous than I thought it would be. This continent may have less magical energy overall, but it is still dangerous. I need to be… more… careful.'

With these last thoughts Evelyn slipped into unconsciousness and slept like a log.

Upon the coming of the next day, it was decided that the members of the lower ranking expedition team that had encountered the parasitic vine tangles would be meeting with those in the higher-ranking expedition in order to compare notes on what had happened.

"So, you also encountered far more magical plants with wills than normal as well." Commander Evander said, once Deshal had told him what they had found.

Apparently, this continent had a number of magical plants that could move around and preyed on beasts, which was not normal for the continent the Roost was connected to.

Of course, there were moving magical plants like the Rakus Flower that Evelyn had hunted in the Glowing Woods, but that was the only one she had ever come across or knew about before coming to this continent.

Yet while they were supposed to uncommon, between the two expedition units they had already discovered nine unique species of moving plants that were not know to the Roost in a single day.

"This I certainly disconcerting. Between our two groups we have lost nine owls and we have only just gotten started." Deshal said with a despondent expression.

"Yes, it is an unfortunate loss, but we have learned much in this single day. From this point onward I recommend that we err on the side of caution. We should try to keep squads closer together while exploring the areas. That way they can offer aid in case of emergencies. I know this will slow us down, but now that we know that this place is more dangerous than initially expected I believe it would be the best option. To that end, I think it would also be in our best interest to have our inscriptionists work on more signal flare talismans, and have the alchemist create some herbicides." Evander said, taking control of the situation.

Swiftly new plans were put into motion by the leadership of the expedition and the squads that had lost members were reorganized.

They had certainly taken a huge blow on their first day, but the expedition teams had gained new knowledge and insights and were now going to be able to work together to move forward on their goal of exploring this new continent.