An Owl's Rise

It had now been two days since Evelyn had given the catalysts Otis needed for his evolution, and the magic spring had begun glowing once again. Showing that that is was being filled with magical energy.

However, this time was special and something that had not happened for the burrowing owls since they lost there last leader, Otis' father.

Whenever the leader of their flock was ready to ascend to the tyrant rank, the entire use of the spring was reserved for them and a grand festival was put on.

Normally this was a once in several decades occurrence, but Evelyn had sped things up immensely by supplying the items Otis needed. At great cost to her resources.

Nevertheless, once Otis evolved, she was going to take him back to the Roost, and having a tyrant rank as her ally was going to be a great boon. Unlike Anneli and Katrina who were in many ways her seniors, Otis was someone who was willing to take orders from her due to how much her respected her.

'With him on our side we will all be able to advance much more quickly. His power as a tyrant rank will give us the ability to take on greater risk and personally obtain rare items that would be more difficult to gather on our own. Otis will probably not make much progress himself for a while so that we can all catch up, but I do not see that being a problem for him.' Evelyn thought, imagining the new places they could go to gather with Otis in tow.

For nearly the next hour the spring continued to fill up with more and more magical energy until it let out a great flash indicating it had reached capacity and was ready for use.

With his four catalysts tied up in some cloth behind him, Otis stepped into the spring and swam out to the middle.

He then released the four items in the bag into the water around him.

To start he took the evolution potion and drank it while allowing the other items to sit in the water.

The human magic core and reddish-brown crystal began to sink while Otis drank the potion, but abruptly stopped when strands of magical energy connected the remaining three items to Otis.

Each one of these items began to slowly break down and their power was absorbed into Otis.

Once this process started, Otis' evolution had begun and could no longer be stopped without causing him irreparable damage.

All of the burrowing owls that had been alive when the last leader of their flock attempted to undergo his evolution tensed up and alertly looked around.

It was during this part of the process that the ospreys had attacked them and killed their defenseless leader along with the other highest ranking members of their flock.

Of course, this time they had more guards posted outside and Evelyn was watching over things to make sure that nothing happened. And luckily no other rival faction decided to make their appearance this time.

'It looks like it is time for the final stage.' Evelyn thought when she watched the last of the items lose all of its power.

The piece of fossilized wood and reddish-brown crystal had lost all of their luster, and the human magic core had been absorbed directly into Otis.

A minute later the entire magic spring shook, and the magical energy within it rushed towards Otis like he was the center of a vortex.

Normally one would need to take a long time to amass the necessary magical energy needed for evolution, but in this case the magical spring was allowing them to skip this step by acting as an external source that Otis could tap into for all of the magical energy he would need.

Soon a large cocoon of magical energy had surrounded Otis and his body was completely obscured.

The immense amount of magical energy as well as the properties of the magical items he had absorbed were reforming his body into something much stronger than before.

'It certainly does take a lot of magical energy to evolve. My body could not handle that much magical energy even with both of my cores. I would have to use the Aethersphere to contain the excess, or it would kill me.' Evelyn thought, watching Otis suck up more and more of the magical energy from the magic spring.

Eventually there was nothing left that had not coalesced around Otis and the spring was completely devoid of magical energy.

For several hours Otis remained within the cocoon of magical energy as he underwent his evolution.

Going from a awakened rank to a tyrant rank was not a short process and it could take several days depending on multiple factors.

Luckily Otis completely his evolution in less than a day. Twenty-one hours after he stepped into the magic spring, the cocoon of magical energy broke away and revealed what he had become.

'He doesn't really look all that different. Maybe about ten percent bigger and his feathers look more lustrous.' Evelyn thought, seeing Otis drop down into the water and create a small splash.

For most beasts they grew quite a bit when they evolved and could become incredibly huge. But some species like the burrowing owls stayed small no matter how far they went up the ranks.

This meant that they were not as physically strong, but also that they did not have to deal with the downsides of being gigantic.

"Is he okay?" Rehni asked.

Like everyone else she was staring at Otis who had remained unmoving for nearly a minute. Luckily he had landed with his face above the water so he was not in danger of drowning since his small frame was easily floating on the surface of the water.

"I suppose that I should go get him." Evelyn said seeing that none of the burrowing owls were willing to approach Otis.

Naturally he was their leader, and now that he had evolved none of them felt that they could so easily approach less they offend him.

Evelyn though was not going to treat him any differently now. She was used to speaking with Anneli and Katrina as equals and had even had an audience with the Roost's leader. Otis now being a tyrant rank did not change anything for her.

When she flew up and hovered right above him, she could tell that he was still breathing and just seemed to be unconscious.

The evolution process was difficult on the body and it was normal to fall unconscious not long after in order to recuperate.

Reaching down with her feet Evelyn carefully scooped Otis up and lifted him out of the water.

As she did, his eyes lazily opened up and he looked directly at her.

"Lady Evelyn." Otis said in a dreamy fashion.

Clearly, he was still a bit out of it, but his tone startled Evelyn enough that she dropped him back into the water.

This time when Otis splashed into the water his entire body submerged and he flailed around wildly for a moment.

Realizing she had just messed up, Evelyn moved to pluck Otis back out of the water, but stopped when something completely unexpected happened.

In his panic, still confused and exhausted from his evolution, Otis suddenly transformed.

He rapidly changed from his normal owl form to taking on a humanoid form.

Evelyn knew about this ability and had specially made sure to include a human's magic core among Otis' catalysts. But she was caught completely off-guard by his sudden transformation.

Unlike when she had seen others transform, Otis did not have any magical clothing that would cover him up.

All of a sudden, the tiny owl before her had become a cooper skinned man with medium length black hair.

Coming out of his back to show that he was not human were two brown feathered wings, and his eyes were a deep orange.

Seeing Otis in the form of a man Evelyn let out a loud distressed chirp and turned her head away.

She had never felt bashful seeing other owls before, since her mind was still in many ways human. But now that Otis had taken on a more humanoid form, she felt embarrassed to be looking at him completely naked.

Soon enough Otis managed to get his bearing on his own and created a platform of magical energy to stand on.

"Phew, that was unexpected." Otis said, curiously looking at his body.

Evelyn had told him that he would gain this power when he evolved, but it still felt weird from him to actually be in a humanoid form.

"Please hurry up and change back already!" Evelyn eventually yelled at Otis.

He did not understand why she was reacting this way, but did as she asked.

It was an instinctual and easy process for him to seamlessly change back, and in an instant Otis looked like a small owl once again.