An Owl's Rise

Once Evelyn was certain that she had burned away all of the poison within the brass jackals' former den, she flew out and gathered the others who had been waiting outside.

When she arrived the six brass jackals that had been standing guard outside and had not been affected by the blight mushroom poison were already broken down into their usable parts.

"Lady Evelyn, here are their cores." Po said to her as if it were natural that she receive them.

Of course, Evelyn felt that she should have no real claim of them due to the fact that she had barely participated in the fight.

"I have no need of those cores. Distribute them among yourselves based on who has the best achievements. I will leave this up to you." Evelyn said in order to make it seem that she was handing out a reward rather than that she simply did not really care.

When she had finished giving the burrowing owls some instructions to secure the magic crystal deposit Evelyn approached Bylur and Rehni to give them more thorough instructions.

"We need to begin mining this place as soon as possible. To that end, Bylur, can I entrust you with gathering the supplies we need from the Roost?"

"Of course! I will be happy to go back and get all that we need." Bylur said, excitedly agreeing immediately.

He was always happy when Evelyn relied on him and wanted to show just how useful he was to her.

Yet a couple moments after he agreed, his ecstatic expression turned ghastly.

He just realized that by leaving for the Roost by himself, he would no longer be by her side and Otis would be able to worm his way closer to her while he was gone without any interference.

This made him nearly request that Rehni go to the Roost instead, but he did not want to seem unreliable by suddenly turning down the request that he already accepted.

'I just need to be fast. If I go at full speed and avoid doing anything else, even skipping meals, I should be able to do it all in three, no two days.' Bylur thought, calculating how long he would need to be gone for

While Bylur was deep in thought, which was unusual for him, Evelyn turned to Rehni and addressed her.

"For you Rehni, I need you to stay here and secure the magic crystal deposit with Po and his squad of Burrowing owls. We need to make sure that no other beasts within the desert try to take over the place while we are still consolidating our forces. You are the only one that I can trust with this job while I go and report everything to Otis at the burrowing owls' base." Evelyn said.

"Understood, I will make sure the treasure we just won will not be taken from us after all the effort we went through to obtain it." Rehni said resolutely.

With everything she needed to do settled, Evelyn turned towards where the burrowing owls' home was and took off. While at the same time Bylur began his trek back to the Roost. Flying as fast as he could and pushing himself to the limit.

Within just a couple of hours Evelyn reached the burrowing owls' home and was promptly led inside.

Waiting for her with a slightly nervous expression was Otis who was expecting an update on the situation from her.

"I am glad to see that you are unharmed Lady Evelyn. Now would you mind telling me what has happened with the attack on the brass jackals?"

Nodding her head, Evelyn told Otis everything that had happened and how the operation had gone smoothly and without any casualties.

"Only a few of the burrowing owls you lent me were injured and I used positions to heal them, so they are back up to full strength already. I would say that it was a resounding victory for us." Evelyn said with a proud smile on her face.

Hearing this, Otis visibly relaxed because he honestly had been fearing that many of his people would die in the battle.

However, the poison that Evelyn had used was potent enough to kill even a sovereign beast like Melisandre over enough time if they did not receive proper treatment.

A group of awakened beasts never had any chance of surviving out in the wild once they were exposed to it. Their fate had been sealed the moment that Evelyn decided to use the poison on them.

"Now I believe we need to discuss how we are going to secure our new asset. Obviously, my team and I cannot be here all the time and the defense of the magic crystal deposit will fall mainly on your people. Naturally we will stick around for the next month to make sure that it stays safe and that you reach the peak of the awakened rank before we leave."

"I thank you for that. I believe that if we leave around half of our forces at the magic crystal deposit, we should be able to hold it without too much trouble once I have reached the peak of the awakened rank." Otis said, a slight bit of worry in his eyes telling the contrary.

Evelyn could tell that this would be stretching the burrowing owls thin, and it seemed that Otis wanted to make a request of her but was too nervous to say it out loud.

"Go ahead and voice your opinion, Otis. This is your home, and you know it better than I do." Evelyn said with a sharp glint in her eyes.

"My apologies Lady Evelyn, but I was hoping that you might be able to prepare some of those alchemical items as you call them for us. We have seen how helpful they are, and it would make me feel much more secure to have them to use in case we do come under attack while you are not here." Otis said with his head bowed.

He did not like making such a demand from Evelyn who was his people's savoir and benefactor, but he was not confident in keeping either the magic spring or magic crystal deposit safe after splitting his forces.

"Sure that is no problem. I can prepare a number of items that you and the other burrowing owls can use in an emergency. That should be enough to give you an edge in case another power tries to attack." Evelyn said, easily agreeing.

Otis let out a sigh of relif and began profusely thanking Evelyn for her generosity.

"Think nothing of it. I would not be able to hold the magic crystal deposit without your help. Providing a bit of extra security is the least I can do. Now we should talk about our response in case of an attack. Just because your forces will be split over two areas does not lower our overall combat ability."

Swiftly Evelyn went over a few ideas she had to create some new secret escape routes in the jackals' den and to establish regular communications between the two areas.

If at any point either the burrowing owls' home or the magic crystal deposit came under attack, they could always call for reinforcements from the one that was still safe.

"I see that is indeed a smart move that I had not even thought of. It is true that it could take a few hours for refinements to arrive, but the two locations are not so far away that obtaining support is impossible in case we are facing a powerful opponent." Otis said, glad to have received Evelyn wisdom on tactics again.

Though Evelyn made sure to warn Otis that this plan would leave them vulnerable to being attacked on two fronts, it was unlikely that any single group of beasts in the desert would be smart enough to organize such a strategy.

"We will make sure to keep that in mind. Your thoughts have always been off great help to us in the past."

After they had finished discussing the logistics of personnel and responses that they would take in case of attack, Evelyn decided it was time to head back to the magic crystal deposit.

Right now, it was at its most vulnerable, with only Rehni and ten burrowing owls there to secure it. She needed to be there to protect her newly obtained asset just in case it came under attack.

"Please send over a few more burrowing owls when you can. I will make sure that the deposit is protected and at the same time prepare some items to leave behind to help you and your people defend yourselves." Evelyn said to Otis.

"Again, I thank you for your help. You have not only allowed us to regain our previously lost home but have now secured us another one of the desert's treasures."

With her report finished, Evelyn said her farewell to the burrowing owls and took off towards the magic crystal deposit.