An Owl's Rise

Exhausted and beaten half to death, Evelyn was beginning to understand how harsh the world outside the forest was.

The power and number of the surrounding beasts had gone up drastically, and it seemed that they all wanted to kill her.

Nevertheless, at least they were not trying to throw her in a cage and run experiments on her, so she considered it better then when she had been captured by the humans.

Still, the night was already beginning to get late, and she was no closer to finding a place to rest.

All of the trees she had visited were inhabited by some type of acid spitting wolverine, possum combo, and when she tired flying high for a better vantage point she was immediately attacks.

'Some owls live in burrows, right? I guess for the first time I may need to spend the night on the ground.'

Dragging her injured body away from the sight of her final confrontation with the winged lizards, she headed for a rock she had spotted in the distance.

Luckily when she found it there was no other occupants around and using what little strength she had left, she began digging out the ground.

Forty minutes later she had created a small burrow she could barely fit in. but was too exhausted to do anymore.

Then activating her gravity magic she lowered the surrounding area's gravity as much as she could and move the rock she had borrowed under slightly so that it closed off the hole.

The second she was secured, she fell right over and went to sleep, even though at this time she would normally still be out and about.

Right now her schedule was all over the place, and while normally she might be active from early evening to early morning, currently she simply could not stay awake.

Unfortunately, while she did sleep it was not soundly as she had terrible nightmares all night, as some of her worst memories played out in her dreams again.

'NO!'

Waking up with a start, Evelyn was reaching her wing out as if trying to grab ahold of someone.

Immediately she remembered the last dream she had been having, and a cold shiver went down her entire body and tears trickled down her eyes.

She had just had to relive watching her brother die back on Earth.

'Damn it. Why does all of this have to happen to me?' Evelyn thought as she wiped the tears out of her eyes.

Her situation right now sort of reminded her of when she and Mason had been on the run after she killed their father.

Only this time she was alone and with significantly more trauma than even then.

Still, she was resolved to survive for now, and hopefully there might be some amount of happiness waiting for her in this world.

Raising her body up, she felt sore from the battle she had yesterday and the cramped quarters she had slept in.

But she knew she could not just stay here and waste away. So, she gathered her strength and once again moved the rock she used to block off her temporary burrow.

Today was the day she was resolved to find a place to call her own for at least a little while, in order to really get her bearings.

Exiting the burrow, she headed back over to where she had her battle the day before and found that the corpses of the winged Lizards she had left were gone.

It looked like some type of scavenger had come by and taken them in the night, and she was now especially grateful she had not given into her desire to just collapse on the ground here.

Having satisfied her curiosity, she took back into the air and continued flying in the direction that the moon rises.

Naturally she had now learned not to fly too high after yesterday's experience, and only kept herself around fifteen feet away from the ground.

She did not want to attract unnecessary attention again in this open grass land.

With her luck, next time something spotted her it would be a massive beast she had no chance of escaping from.

…

'What is that?'

After flying for hours over the grassland, Evelyn spotted something in the distance that stood up from the ground.

However, she could tell that it was not trees since they only sparsely dotted this biome, and it was too isolated to be another forest.

Yet as she got closer, she recognized what it was that she was seeing.

'It is a town!'

Understanding that this was a human settlement, Evelyn turned in another direction to give it a wide berth, wanting nothing to do with people.

She had mostly bad experiences with the worst of humanity in both of her lives, and she had no intention of having anything to do with people ever again if she could help it.

Continuing to fly along, she soon passed over the remains of a long disused road.

Seeing this Evelyn wondered why it was so overgrown, when she realized what this likely meant.

'That town is probably no longer inhabited.' Evelyn though as she turned her gaze back towards it.

Right now she was looking for a good place to stay, and while every good area she had found so far was occupied. an abandoned settlement might just be what she needed.

She figured that it was less likely that other beasts would make their homes there, and as a former human she might find something useful.

'Maybe I can even get lucky and find some picture books with labels in them and try to figure out the langue.' She thought, hoping for some good fortune.

Turning towards the town, she began flying for it, hoping that it might just be a good base for herself.

Hours quickly went by as she approached the area, and her anticipation grew greater and greater as she got closer.

The road had become even worse and more damaged as she advanced, and now she could see the outline of a wall that had cracks through it.

Soon she was close enough to see into what used to be a small town, and there was no doubt no one lived there anymore.

The clay buildings inside the wall were beginning to crumble, and there was overgrown grass all over what used to be walkways.

Flying over the place Evelyn did a thorough scan from the air, but as far as she could tell not a single person lived here anymore, and only a few small beasts had entered the place.

'Yes, I think this place will do nicely.' Evelyn though as she swooped down and grabbed some sort of rodent that had been crawling through the grass.

This place had an abundance of easy food and would be able to provide shelter from the elements.

Not to mention that while the wall was falling apart, it had no large gaps in it that bigger beasts that might be a threat could get through.

Once she had finished eating her quick snack, Evelyn lifted off and began searching the buildings. Looking for anything useful that might have been left behind.