An Owl's Rise

"That is just because they are at a higher rank than us. Plus, Evelyn has an even greater advantage. She has a incredible divine item fused with her. That is where she is drawing all of her power from." Verrader said, a bitter and envious tone in his voice.

Hearing him undercut their sister made Aralee feel a bit unsettled, but she did not want to ruffle any feathers and did not overtly defend Evelyn despite wanting to.

"You mentioned that before. You said that it was this item that killed our parents, though Evelyn managed to accept it and survive. But how do you know it is making her stronger? Evelyn seems to simply have much better control over her wind magic than I do and is able to use it in ways I had never considered."

"Yeah, it looks impressive, sure. However, that is just because she has more magical energy than us. Once we get to the same level it will be just as easy for us" Verrader responded, unwilling to accept Evelyn\'s skill.

For him he was certain that her impressive magic and battle prowess were all just due to the enhancement she received from the divine item.

And while this was true to some extent, Evelyn had worked hard to hone her abilities through rigorous training. Her talent was certainly high, but she had put in the effort to properly utilize it rather than believing she was simply above others.

Realizing that this conversation as not going to go anywhere, Aralee, instead tried turning their discussion to Bylur and Rehni.

"Yes, those two I have to say are impressive. Unlike Evelyn, they do not have an item from a realm far greater than ours giving her a power boost. Still, I will be able to overtake them soon enough." Verrader said, an ambitious look in his eyes.

After that the two of them hovered in silence as they watched Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni slowly decimate the Ramil Ants.

Eventually rather than continue facing the enemies that they could not defeat and were losing to, the remaining Ramil Ants retreated.

Instead of fighting out on the open desert, they chose to retreat into their nest where it was safe.

If their enemies wanted to try and pursue them, they would have to give up on their greatest advantage and fight in a cramped and enclosed space.

Naturally, none of them were stupid enough to force their way into the ants\' nest. Evelyn, Bylur, and Rehni knew that without the ability to use hit and run tactics that they could not beat so many enemies.

"You two collect the bodies of the ants we killed. I will take Aralee and Verrader to gather the magical plants." Evelyn, instructed.

She then ascended to where her siblings were waiting and led her to the magical plants growing on the edge of the cliff.

"Be very careful here. You need to make sure to extract the roots without damaging them while being wary of being pieced by the thorns. They have a potent paralytic poison on them."

Thankfully with Evelyn\'s instructions neither Verrader of Aralee ended up injuring themselves and only ruined the first couple of plants they tried to harvest.

"That should do it. We do not want to take anymore or they will not grow back in the future." Evelyn said, directing her siblings to stop.

Having completed their objective Evelyn brought her siblings back down to where Bylur and Rehni were just finishing gathering the corpses of the Ramil Ants they had killed.

"Evelyn, our storage items cannot hold anymore. Do you mind taking the rest?" Rehni said, directing Evelyn to the pile they had made.

Nodding her head, she flew up to the Ramil Ants and quickly stored their bides into her storage cuff.

"Now, that was a good start. Let\'s go see what else we can find." Evelyn said, genuinely happy expression on her face.

For the rest of the night, Evelyn\'s group continued hunting in the desert and gathered the materials from numerous beasts and magical plants.

However, when the sun started to rise that marked the end of their gathering.

As owls they were best at operating at night, and in the desert with very limited cover the harsh light from the sun would be difficult to deal with. And for everyone but Evelyn, the intense heat was also a problem.

Luckily Evelyn knew a few good places to hold up for the day and escape from the sun.

"We will be able to get some rest in here. It goes fairly far underground so it will stay cool even during the height of the day." Evelyn said to her siblings, who were looking a bit unsure about entering the burrow she had led them to. Neither of them had ever stayed underground to rest before and were instinctually inclined to find somewhere high to sleep.

Of course, this was not the home of the burrowing owls, but actually the temporary base they had made after being thrown out by the ospreys.

Currently it was empty, and Evelyn figured it would make a good place to stay since she did not intend to introduce her siblings to her desert dwelling allies on this trip.

It took a couple of minutes to convince Aralee and Verrader to head into the burrow, but with the sun creeping higher into the sky and no other suitable terrain to rest in, they shuffled underground.

"What will we do if we are attacked? There is no way to escape except for the single entrance. We will be trapped down here without being able to fly away." Verrader said, his normally haughty attitude gone.

In fact, he was looking around frantically and was taking short and quick breaths like he was going to hyperventilate.

From seeing this it was easy enough to conclude that he had a fear of being underground, but only Evelyn knew exactly where this fear came from.

When they had been captured, the facility they were housed in was underground, and at one-point Verrader was buried under some rubble and had to struggle to escape.

Thinking about it, Evelyn wondered why she had not also developed a fear of being underground with how many bad things had happened to her in such places.

As a human she was killed in a basement, and she had been trapped in the underground facility, same as Verrader.

\'I suppose I was dealing with far too much to care about where I was rather than what was happening. Anyway, I have had some positive experiences underground as well.\' Evelyn thought.

She recalled finding the gifts Mason had left for her, being saved by Lucia and recovering in her home, and obviously meeting the burrowing owls and using their magic spring.

Still seeing that Verrader had lingering trauma he was dealing with from their time as captives made Evelyn feel a bit of a connection to him. Up to this point they had not really talked about the experience. For obvious reasons.

"I understand your worries Verrader, but if we do get attacked there should not be many beasts in this desert we can not beat. In the worst case scenario there is a hidden emergency exit in the back. It is covered by a thin layer of rock and is easy enough to blow out of the way. This place is one of the safest for us to rest throughout the hole desert." Evelyn said to reassure her brother.

And while he normally would have said some snide comment about not needing Evelyn to comfort him, but in this situation, he accepted her words and calmed down a bit.

"If you would not mind, Evelyn, could you show me exactly where this breakable rock wall is?"

"Sure, that is no problem. Just leave it to your big sister." Evelyn said joyfully, feeling like she was finally connecting to Verrader a little.