An Owl's Rise

'What is taking Rehni so long?' Evelyn thought impatiently.

She was waiting at the Warp Hall with Bylur and her siblings, but Rehni had yet to show up.

Evelyn had given everyone fours hours to get ready and while she knew it was unlikely that everyone would truly be ready that quickly, Rehni had now been gone for nearly six hours.

Thankfully right before Evelyn was going to send her a message to hurry up a frazzled looking Rehni flew into the hall and began searching around for her companions.

After a quick scan of the area she spotted Evelyn and the others sitting in a waiting area and descend towards them.

"I am sorry I am late. It took me longer to read up on the places we are going than I thought it would." Rehni said, lowering her head in apology.

Using her photographic memory, she had combed through several resources about the areas that Evelyn planed to stop by in order to learn as much as she could in the short time frame she had been given.

Of course, Evelyn had done her own research beforehand which was why she chose these places, but Rehni always felt that it was her job to fill in any gaps in knowledge that their team had.

"It is fine. We understand that you wanted to be thoroughly prepared. I figured that it would take more than four hours for everyone to be ready. Though I do feel a bit bad about leaving Otis to wait so long. The three days I told him would be the maximum amount of time we would be away has almost gone by. If we do not hurry, he is likely to start to get pretty worried." Evelyn said, picking herself up and marching over to one of the counters in the Warp Hall.

Quickly the five of them all bought the necessary tickets to head to the Velinis Desert along with return tickets that would allow them to come back to the Roost.

With each of them clutching their tickets in their feet they headed over to warp pad that was connected to the warp point in the Velinis Desert.

As usual the area was deserted expected for the single owl working the controls for the warp pad. The Velinis Desert's harsh environment and sparse resources made it unappealing for most owls to travel to it. Though the desert did have its jewels like the magic spring.

Standing on the warp pad after handing over their tickets, Evelyn and her companions were enveloped by a bright light and felt themselves being warped away.

Once they arrived in the desert, all of them were disoriented for a few moments. Their eyes filled with spinning lights.

'Ugh, I have gotten more used to it, but those warp portals are still intense.' Evelyn thought, shaking her head and throwing off the last bit of nausea se was feeling from the warp portal.

She then craned her head around to get a view of the area.

Unfortunately, all around them was simply and endless expanse of sand as far as the eye could see.

"I figured that this would be the case, but the warp point has changed." Evelyn said while sighing.

Now she and her companions were going to need to search for Otis who could be several kilometers away.

'Hopefully he can see this from wherever he is.' Evelyn thought, shooting a ball of her heavenly flame into the air.

With a loud boom, the ball of fire exploded like a firework and lit up the dark night sky.

This was the signal that Evelyn had prepared in advance for Otis to find them.

Though by doing this she was alerting every living creature within the area of her location.

'Otis should be the fastest being in the desert since he is at the tyrant rank. He should get here first before anything else.'

For several minutes Evelyn and her companions hovered in the sky, waiting for Otis to show up.

Soon Aralee who was keeping watch from the northern direction spotted something moving towards them on the horizon and altered everyone else.

Focusing her eyes Evelyn used her superior vison to examine the outline of the approaching entity, and once they got a bit closer a faint smile appeared on her face.

"Looks like we are in luck. Otis is on his way." Evelyn said, recognizing Otis' small form.

It as not long until he arrived at their location. Having seen farther off simply because he was so tiny in comparison to most beasts.

"I was beginning to think that something had come up, but you all came back before the three days ended, so I guess it must have all worked out." Otis said cheerfully.

However, when eh looked around he noticed that a presence he had been expecting was not here.

Evelyn had told him that her master, who was at the peak of the calamity rank, would be coming by to allow him into the Roost. But only Evelyn and her companions were here.

When he finally looked at their faces and saw the disheartened expressions on everyone's faces, he knew that something must have gone wrong.

"I am sorry Otis, but some things happened and get you into the Roost right now is not going to work out." Evelyn said, before explaining the entire situation to Otis.

At first Otis had seemed devastated that he would have to wait several months before being able to enter the same place as everyone else. However, once Evelyn mentioned that instead they would all go on a journey together across the continent, he perked up.

He honestly did not care where he was or what he was doing, so long as he could be helpful to Evelyn.

"It might be a bit difficult at first for all of us to travel together since you are at a higher rank than the rest of us, but I am sure we will be able to work through it. Our first goal should be to raise Verrader and Aralee's ranks so that they are more in line with the rest of us." Evelyn said.

"I will do whatever it is I can to be of use to you. I owe you and my clan's lives after all." Otis said, the look in his eyes showing that he still held the same if not even more respect for Evelyn than when he was still at the awakened rank.

With Otis in agreement, Evelyn pulled out the map she had bought at the Records Hall and began tracing out the route they would be taking with one of her talons.

Otis looked at the map intrigued; this was his first time seeing something like it depicting the continent he had lived on his entire life.

"Wow, I really have been stuck in my on tiny world." Otis said seeing that the desert that was all he knew made up maybe one percent of the entire continent.

"It certainly is a big world out there, but this will our chance to explore and see what it has to offer. Still, we will need to get out of the desert first." Evelyn said pointing at their next destination.

Initially she had thought about going to the Elmont Gorge, but decided it was to dangerous. It was an area that was teaming with beasts that were at the tyrant rank and she was afraid that Otis' presence would end up having them targeted. Though more importantly, it was where she had last encountered the humans that were after her and it was possible that they had agents still in the area. It was one thing to stop by at the edge of the gorge to see Lucia, but another to go exploring it.

"We will make our way northeast along the edge of the desert until the environment starts to change and becomes a thickly wooded area. The area is apparently called the Forest of Giants since the trees shoot at least four kilometers into the sky and several species of beast that live there are really big. Still, it is only an area that is filled mostly with high tier and peak awakened rank ebasts and the occasional low tier tyrant rank from what I read. It should be the perfect place for us to start out with and grow stronger." Evelyn said enthusiastically.

And it seemed that her excitement was spreading to the others who looked just as ready as her to go off and explore a new land.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going." Bylur said, wanting to catch up to Otis as soon as possible.

He began leading the way despite not knowing exactly where they were going. Simply turning towards the northeast and flying through the sky.

"I suppose we should catch up to him. If we leave Bylur in this state alone, he is going to get himself into trouble." Rehni said, letting out a slight chuckle.

With their wings spread Evelyn, Rehni, Otis, Verrader, and Aralee, took off after Bylur who was eagerly leading the way.