An Owl's Rise

Once Evelyn felt that her sister had calmed down, she unwrapped her wings and took a step back so that they could continue conversing.

"I suppose before we go any further would you mind telling me how you ended up here in the Roost?" Evelyn asked her sister.

"Yes, though it is not really that interesting of a tale."

To start Evelyn's sister had eventually realized that her family was not coming back and that she would have to survive on her own.

Her time after was spent simply wandering around and surviving while growing stronger.

In many ways it was simar to Evelyn's own journey after she had escaped the research facility. Albeit without the worry of human pursuers or having a divine item embedded within her.

As time went on her sister reached the fiend beast rank and moved farther and farther away from their home that was in an area practically devoid of resources.

Of course moving out of the Deadlands brought her into an area that was far more dangerous than she had been in before.

"There were several times that I nearly lost my life, but I was fortunate enough to survive by thinking fast and being lucky. You always seemed so smart sister even when we were just kids and I always tried to emulate you."

With everyday Evelyn's sister had managed to get a bit stronger until she stumbled across a truly fortuitous situation.

In front of a large tree that was bearing delicious looking azure fruits she found two of the apex beasts of the forest she was in dead.

It was quite obvious they had been battling over the tree and killed each other in the process.

With their rampaging having scared ever other beast in the vicinity away, Evelyn's sister had managed to take the fruit along with the cores of the two slain beasts.

"The resources I gathered that day allowed me to reach the peak of the fined beast rank and attract the attention of one of the Roost's recruiters." Evelyn's siter said proudly.

Hearing this Evelyn was baffled for a moment because she actually had no clue about the Roost's recruiters and had simply stumbled across the place.

'Wait, I think Bylur mentioned something about an owl that belonged to the Roost telling him about the trials. Perhaps that is one of these recruiters.' Evelyn thought.

And while she almost asked her sister more about a position within the Roost she probably should have already known about, Evelyn held her tongue. She did not want to seem like an incompetent big sister after just meeting up with her little sister again, and figured she could ask Katrina or Anneli later.

Continuing on, Evelyn's sister told her about the trials she underwent to gain access to the Roost just as Evelyn had.

"Oh I suppose I know the name you chose since I watched your match, but you do not know mine yet. I decided to go with Aralee after looking through a registry of past names. What do you think?"

"It is a great name. Allow me to formally introduce myself as well. You already know but I have taken the name Evelyn. I am glad we found each other again Aralee."

"Yes, it truly is a pleasant miracle that we came together again. Now, would you mind telling me how you got to the Roost and what you have been up to. I imagine that your adventures have been far grander than mine." Aralee said with wide expectant eyes.

However, Evelyn froze up when she thought about where she needed to start.

While Aralee had not explicitly asked about it yet, Evelyn did need to tell her what happened to the rest of their family.

"Aralee, before we get into anything else, I need to tell you about the day we all went missing. I am sure you can imagine that things did not go well, but it is likely much worse than you think." Evelyn said, bracing her sister for the horror that was the fate of their family.

Except her sister just shook her head and looked at Evelyn with exceptionally kind eyes.

"You don't need to force yourself to retell what happened for my sake. I already know what happened."

Evelyn's tense expression vanished in an instant after hearing this and turned to one of bewilderment.

She had no clue how Aralee could possibly know what happened unless she had some rare type of magic that allowed her to peer into he past or something in a similar vein.

"I have been waiting for an opportunity to bring this up for a while now but did not want to overwhelm you, but our brother is here as well and he told me about what happened to you and our parents. I met him during the trials to reach the Roost. Though he was already at the awakened rank like you are and got through without having to endure any of the challenges like I did. He is actually here in the Ranking Hall with me today. He said since we were knew here it would be a good idea for us to watch some of the matches and see how higher ranking owls fight so we can learn from them. We spilt up to view different matches, and when I was watching yours I recognized you. I know this is a lot, but I am certain that our brother would want to see you again as well. If it is not too much for you to deal with, I am supposed to meet up with him and you can come with me." Aralee said, a hopeful look in her eyes.

She was hoping that they could put their family back together now that the three of them had met once again. Their parents might have been gone but the three of them had survived, and could forge the bonds of being siblings once again.