An Owl's Rise

'I can finally get some real rest.' Evelyn thought after she finished her last day watch.

Her punishment for disappearing for over a day and abandoning her squad had been to take an extra day watch shift every day for a week.

This had been coupled with her usual duties of heading out with her squad, and on one day taking both the first and second shifts of the day watch. Which had been terribly exhausting for her.

Not to mention that she was still not in peak shape from pushing her body to the brink multiple times while fighting against the foxes.

Using magical items to push past her limits had really taken a toll on her, and even now she felt at only around eighty percent.

Nevertheless, now that her extra work was done, she would be able to sleep through the entire day like normal.

'I suppose it was worth it since I at least got to stay.' Evelyn thought with a slight frown on her face.

Just as they had suspected, Anneli and Katrina were sent home via a scheduled warp gate opening with the Roost.

Both of them had crippling injuries that needed to be treated back at home, but more importantly they had abandoned their duties.

For Evelyn since she had presumably been alone, she was able to get by with the excuse she had gotten lost in the heat of a chase of a rare beast. But since Anneli and Katrina were together, it was pretty clear that they intentionally left their squads to go about on their own.

Of course, they did not tell the truth of what had happened. They had instead said that they found a valuable magical plant while scouting and did not report it so that they could obtain it on their own.

Their story then got fairly similar to Evelyn's in that they had gotten into a hard-fought battle against numerous awakened rank beasts that had injured them heavily.

'At least that is all that has happened. It does not seem that any investigation the foxes are doing has led them to us as of yet.'

So far, no sort of news of their attack had reached the expedition unit Evelyn was a part of. Though this made sense for a number of reasons.

One being that her unit was composed of fiend beasts and low tier awaken beasts other than their leader.

In no way would it ever be assumed that any member of their group could have successfully led and assault on the foxes Evelyn, Katrina, and Anneli killed.

The second reason was likely that the foxes did not want to give away any information to the Roost or their other allies on the continent, the crows.

On this continent they were likely the biggest threats to each other, and it was possible that either one of their allies could have organized an attack that was sanctioned by their organization.

Though that was naturally not the case, and Evelyn had gone through with the attack without informing anyone else.

'I suppose all we can do is wait and hope that we covered our traces well enough.'

With this last thought. Evelyn having entered the hollow in a nearby tree, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep for the few hours she had before her squad would go back out.

…

Many more weeks went by as her expeditionary unit went around cataloging the magical plants and beasts that inhabited the areas they had been assigned.

Already they had found many new species not seen on the home continent of the Roost. Some of which had proved valuable in a number of fields.

For Evelyn specifically the numerous moving magical plants had provided rare ingredients that could be used to enhance or change the properties of already established brews. Not to mention the entirely new entangling tar she had developed.

One such plant even allowed for healing pills to be taken in advance and have a slow release function so that they could continue to be effective mid battle.

This way should she ever know she was going into a fight; she could take a couple beforehand and have increased healing capabilities during battle. It was too bad this magical plant's properties had not been discovered before her battle with the foxes.

Along with the gains in magical plants and beasts, there was another benefit to exploring this new continent that had never been taking over by an organized force. There were numerous amazing sights to see.

Much like with how fantastical the float stone deposits hanging over a set of mountains, there were many natural wonders to witness on this content.

In one of the forests there were trees that actually hummed different tunes depending on the weather, and during the night Evelyn had come across them they were humming quite the beautiful melody.

Following that they had discovered a large plateau which at the top had a basin that was surprisingly filled with salt water.

They were many miles inland at this point, so it was quite fascinating to find a body of water like this.

It remined Evelyn of the rare salt lakes that existed back on Earth that were considered to be attraction of certain areas.

However, they soon discovered that this lake located in the basin a top a plateau was not just salty, but actually somehow connected to the ocean.

They were able to identify numerous rare plants that did not grow anywhere else, along with beasts that were only known to live in the ocean.

This was quite the boon since harvesting from the ocean was normally fraught with innumerable dangers, as powerful beasts could appear at any moment without warning. Yet in this basin none of the largest and most dangerous beasts could get in. Making it relatively safe for how dangerous the ocean was.

After that came a large canyon in the middle of a dessert area which was composed of strange beasts and different types of cacti.

In fact, there was one type of cactus that formed itself into what looked like a caterpillar and roamed the dessert in searched of food.

At one point Evelyn had even witnessed one of these cactuses wrapped around a camel like beasts and draining the blood out of it.

And this was only just what was around the canyon. Inside it was all manner of elemental lizards of different types.

Each one had specific body shapes and lustrous scales that showed what type of affinities they had.

This area had been a big boon to locate as these lizards were useful in alchemy, inscriptions, and according to a couple owl, artwork.

Along with the lizards there were also elemental gems that were in high supply within a large number of caves that dotted the canyon.

Finally, and what Evelyn thought to be the best, was a series of underground rivers that were in large tunnels in an area were the ground was unstable and broken apart in many places.

Along the bottom of these rivers were a type of algae that produces light similar to the moss in the Glowing Woods. This illuminated the water, and depending on the area the algae had different colors ranging from a light green to a vibrant red.

The area had also been relatively safe as it had a low overall amount of magical energy in the atmosphere. But it was so beautiful and fun to fly through the tunnels that Evelyn did not care much about the lack of useful resources.

Sadly, their unit had left the area fairly quickly once they had scouted out most of the underground river system and continued heading up north.

Now they were in a Boreal Forest at the base of a tall an imposing mountain range far from the tropical jungle they had started in.

This was the last area with which they were going to be exploring, and after that the expedition would be over.

'I do not think I have ever been anywhere this cold.' Evelyn thought while keeping a floating fire in front of her.

With her heavenly flame she was able to mitigate the cold and within around thirty feet of her all the snow had melted.

This caused her squad and a lot of other owls to gather around her as it was the warmest area.

However, there was one owl that was around that was not there for the warmth.

The snowy owl naturally felt completely at home even in the temperatures that dropped well below freezing, and instead just wanted to be close to Evelyn.

His one-sided infatuation had yet to be reciprocated in anyway, and even though he was on the expedition with Evelyn, they had few chances to interact. At least so far.

Now that they were at the end of the expedition and going to be exploring a dangerous mountain range, the squads had been doubled up and mixed together. Allowing him to be ablet to go on the last leg of the journey with Evelyn.

'This time for sure I will show her how reliable I can be.' He thought while staring intently at Evelyn.

Nevertheless, she did not even look his way, and instead averted her gaze wanting nothing to do with him.

By nature, Evelyn did not want to form any close bonds, and currently the only ones that had really wormed their way into her heart were Anneli, Katrina, and Melisandre.

'I just have to get through a few more days and we will go our separate ways. After that I will not have to interact with him anymore.'

Though at this point she did not know how important the snowy owl would become to her in the future, and what terrible dangers awaited them in the mountains they thought to be safe enough to explore.