An Owl's Rise

With her body aching all over and a large hole in her left-wing gushing blood, Evelyn wanted to pass out and free herself from the pain.

Unfortunately, doing so would guarantee that she would fail the current trial, and likely have her end up the meal of another denizen of this part of the jungle.

She had gotten through her last battle against the snake inhabiting the pool of water by the skin of her teeth and was now facing the consequences of her carelessness.

Even as strong as she had gotten, all it took was one successful sneak attack for her to nearly end up dead.

'I need to be more careful from now on. As soon as I saw the pool of water I should have just given up and tired my luck elsewhere.' Evelyn though as she forced herself up.

It took all of her strength and effort to pull her body up and lean it against the tree she had slammed into. With the action having caused her excruciating pain.

Still if there was one thing she was good at, it was taking pain, and so she fought through it as she had numerous times before.

Once she was upright, she sent what little of her magical energy back into the storage amulet she had been accessing and took out the best healing potions her brother had left her.

She had been hoping not to need to use something so valuable, as she was far from being able to replicate it herself, but nothing else she currently had was going to get her out of the situation.

If she used any lower quality items, it was just going to take her too long to recover and she would certainly run out of time.

'Come on open up.'

Trying to uncork the bottle with her beak was proving quite difficult as her current injures made it impossible for her body to move as she wanted.

Eventually though she managed to get the top off and she guzzled down the potion as quickly as she could.

Its effects happened almost immediately, and her body began to glow faintly green as the magic brewed into the potion permitted through her body.

She immediately felt a pleasantly warm sensation and the pain she had been enduring practically disappeared all at once.

SNAP!

Suddenly her back shot up straight as her broken bones moved back into place and knitted themselves back together.

Next, she looked towards the hole in her wing and watched it healing over at an incredible rate.

It was like she was watching a time lapse of a wound healing and it was a surreal sight to witness.

She even caught a glimpse of the veins putting themselves back together before being covered with muscle and flesh.

Soon her wing had fully recovered, and her body was back in peak shape even after all that it had been put through.

'Wow magic really is impressive. This just goes go to show how far I still have to go. If I can one day make items as good as this one, I will be able to recover myself from even life-threatening injuries.' Evelyn thought, incredibly impressed by the potion she had just consumed.

Unfortunately, while it had healed all of her wounds, the area around her wing that had been pierced through no longer had its feathers and it looked quite unnatural.

'I guess they will grow back eventually. Hopefully this does not impact my ability to fly too much.'

Evelyn then flapped her wings around a few dozen times to make sure they were good to go and get a feel for her wing that was now missing a portion of feathers.

When she finally felt comfortable to fly again, she jumped into the air and began flying over towards the pool of water where the snake's body was.

As she did though she noticed that the lack of feathers made quite the difference, and she had to supplement her lack of feathers on her left wing with slight gusts of wind.

Still, she could fly okay for now, but she was not going to be able to maneuver or go as fast as she had before until these feathers grew back.

Passing over the water she peered down at the snake to make sure it was dead, and as she looked at it there was no doubt it had passed on.

She had been aiming to take its head off, but her attack was off a little, and she had instead hit its body a couple of feet below its head.

Nevertheless, she had blasted a hole through it that had actually seared its neck shut and caused it to be unable to breath.

'Well, I went through all that trouble fighting it, so I might as well claim my spoils as the victor.'

Flying down over the water after she made double sure that the area was safe, she sunk her claws into the snakes body and pulled it to shore.

Once there she pulled out its beast core and stored it within her bag, before ripping away at its flesh and making a meal out of it.

Only now did she realize how hungry she was, and as she thought about it, she understood why.

It had actually been a while since she had last eaten, and during these trials she had expended a large amount of energy, both magical and physical.

She absolutely needed to take some time and replenish her body now as this might be the only chance she would get.

After fixing her meal she pulled out another bottle from one of her storage amulets.

Though unlike the previous bottle that held a viscous green liquid inside it, this one was filled with slightly glowing blue pills.

Taking one out, she threw it into her mouth and swallowed it down.

Within around a minute she felt a surge of magical energy flow through her body as the pill was broken down and replenished her drained beast and magic cores with magical energy.

'Ah that feels a lot better. I have to hand it to Mason for leaving me such useful items.' Evelyn thought as she looked at the bottle.

A moment of sorrow passed over he as she thought about her brother who she had missed in this world, but quickly shook it off and resolved herself to keep going.

'Now do I try and get that plant out of the water, or just leave it there?'

Looking down into the depths of the pool that was around thirty feet deep, she stared at the magical plant resting at the bottom.

If she were to go down there and grab it, she would have to get her entire body wet, and if something attacked her while submerged, she could be in a whole lot of trouble.

Still this plant would count as one of the necessary ten resources she needed to gather, and after being injured and taking several minutes to recover she had lost a good amount of time.

'I will just need to be quick. I do not think anything else is living in this pool so it should hopefully be safe.'

Resolving herself Evelyn tentatively moved into the pool of water while keeping her guard up.

She refused to be caught unaware again and did everything in her ability to be aware of her surroundings and any danger within them.

Luckily everything seemed clear, and so she plunged into the water while holding her breath.

As soon as she was submerged, she could feel that this water was rich in magical energy, quite a bit more in fact than the air above it.

'This must be why that snake had not consumed the plant producing this water.' Evelyn observed.

Such a rich source of magical energy was something she had not encountered within an environment before, so this place truly was special and ideal for any aquatic or semi-aquatic animal.

On the way down when she was about halfway to the bottom, she saw a large hole in the side of the pool's wall and assumed this was where the snake had been living.

She took a quick check inside but found that other than the remains of some dead animals and some shredded scales it was completely devoid of anything.

Exiting the snake's home and continuing her way to the bottom, Evelyn felt a sudden shift in pressure which caught her off guard.

Of course, she knew this would happen once she passed a certain depth, but it was still strange to feel for the first time.

Soon she made it to the bottom of the pool where the faintly glowing plant was, and she quickly began digging it out of the ground.

She was careful to leave its roots intact in case she might get to keep it after the trial and could create her own pond with it.

Once it had been successfully removed from the ground, it stopped producing water and the pool seemed to become still, as if the life in it had been drained away.

'Well, I guess this pool will probably eventually dry up, but that is not my problem.'

With her treasure secured, Evelyn made her way back up towards the surface of the pool.

Though while she wanted to get back up to where there was ample air, she moved slow, still being careful after her earlier blunder had almost cost her dearly.

When she was near the surface, she scanned around for anything around, and spotted some movement in the trees not far away.

This time she resolved to not be caught off guard and prepared to unleash her magic as soon as she surfaced.

When she did the creature that was in the trees nearby spotted her and she saw another owl staring back at her in surprise.