An Owl's Rise

Seeing the meal that was laid out for her, and even understanding what these people wanted of her, Evelyn still dug in.

She did not care that this was what they wanted, since she knew that this would make her stronger.

'I will play along for now, until I am strong enough to break free and kill them all.' Evelyn thought, as she ate the magic stones and plants that were brimming with magical energy.

As she ate them a warm sensation permeated through her body, and she could feel herself getting stronger.

'I may not know how the magic in this world works, but as long as I continue to get stronger, I should figure it out eventually.'

Chowing down soon Evelyn consumed all that had been offered to her and a drowsiness swiftly started to overcome her.

Having just eaten more than she ever had, her body was slow to process the overflowing energy within her.

Still, before she fell asleep, she flew back up into the tree, and kicked the nest over to be spiteful. Before nestling herself as high up as she could.

"I am surprised at how cooperative it is being." The small assistant to the researcher said as he viewed down upon Evelyn.

"Yes, you are right. I was expecting her to throw the plater over and refuse to eat. Well, it works out well this way for us anyway. Now I am going to sleep, so make sure to monitor our new subject while I am away."

The researcher then left to return to his room to get some sleep so that he would be ready for future experiments.

Hours quickly went by as Evelyn slept, and a staggering change happened to her body during his time.

She began growing at an exponential rate as the excess energy she had consumed was channeled through her body and made it stronger.

When she awoke, she felt that something was off and that she was a bit sore.

However, she soon realized why, as she noticed that she had easily grown two inches taller and was a bit more muscular than she had been before.

'That is definitely not normal. But I guess that explains my parents' large size. Eating those stones from other beasts and those plants that are enriched with magical energy, I can grow bigger and stronger.'

With this realization, Evelyn strived to make sure that she ate what was provided for her and to get strong enough to turn the tables on her captors.

…

Once her first day in her knew encloser ended, the next came, then the next, and the days blended into weeks, and the weeks into months.

During this time, Evelyn had pretended to act the model test subject.

She made no attempts to escape, ate all of the food that was provided to her, and did not struggle when she was subject to tests. Many of which were painful.

There were times when obvious escape options were even left open for her in what she presumed were test, but she never took the bait.

It was certain that they did not trust her not to flee at the first chance she got, but she proved them wrong time and time again.

Of course, this was all just a part of Evelyn's plan to lull them into a false sense of security as she got stronger.

She was now a little over four feet tall, and her muscles and bones were far stronger than they had been before. As her body used the magical energy she ate every day to enhance itself.

Yet that was not all, recently she had even start to get the hang of using magic.

It was far from skilled, but she was able to move the wind around her like her parents had, even if it was far from what they had been able to do.

At the very least she had been able to keep this under wraps by only creating small phenomenon that had no visible signs.

Though she had still not been able to get the power of the object within her to activate again, even after all she had tired.

Nevertheless, she was put through experiments nearly every other day to see if they could get the object to once again show its power.

They would poke and prod her, electrocute her, and even opened up her chest and tired fiddling around with the thing that had rooted itself inside her.

Nothing seemed to work though, and it was like the thing was in sleep mode and would not come back online.

Still, the researcher and his assistants had seen the power of this item, and knew that it was something beyond the capabilities of their world. Something that had come from a higher realm.

"Chief we have not been getting anywhere with our recent tests. The divine item has simply gone dormant. I think that it is time that we switch over our subjects and try again. It was rash of us to assume that a wild beast would be strong enough to activate it even if they are compatible."

Sighing, the researcher looked at his assistants who had come to convince him to try a new subject.

"No, we are lucky that we were able to get it to successfully bind to any beast. Anyway, none of the other subjects we have right now are even close to being compatible. Our data shows that a strong soul is the most necessary aspect to be a suitable host for this item, and even the fiend beasts we have are far from good enough. We just need to wait a bit longer. We have already managed to advance it to the upper realms of a wild beast, and in a month or two we will be able to evolve it into a fiend beast."

The researcher then turned his gaze back towards Evelyn who was sitting up in her tree unmoving.

He was already heavily invested in her and wanted to see the experiment through even if it would take a longer time than anticipated.

But his assistants were simply not as patient as their master, and tried to plead with him to reconsider.

"Sir I am sure that if we requisitioned with the leaders of the sect to supply us with some awakened beasts, they would be willing to oblige. There is no need for us to continue working with the scrapes we find out here in the deadlands."

Groaning, the researcher looked at his assistants like they were being morons, and said, "You know very well the there are many reasons we have not been using awakened beasts in our experiments so far. First, they are not easy to procure, and we cannot afford to be killing them off. Second our facility is not equipped to hold beasts of that level so it would need to be upgraded. Third and most important, we are here to stay under the radar. We were lucky to get our hands on this item when it fell from the divine realm a year ago, but do not think that every other power on the continent is not looking for it. If we started bringing awakened beasts and more personnel here, we might as well broadcast that something important is happening here. No, for now we wait and see how our current subject does."

Nodding their heads, the three remaining assistants stopped their push to move onto a better test subject.

Or at least, they did on the surface. But ultimately, they had decided that it was time to advance their experiments even if their master did not.

"We shall just have to have Elder Uriah contact the sect leadership for us and say that the chief needs some awakened beasts. We have already collected all of the data we need from wild and fiend beasts, and it will take at least a decade to raise that owl to a suitable level even if we give it the best resources." The short assistant said.

"Yes, you are right. Once we have the awakened beasts delivered, he will realize we were right and give in." Another assistant said agreeing.

"Now let us lay the groundwork so that we can receive our superior subjects that will allow us to advance out understand of this divine object." The last assistant said.

After that, the three of them began working behind the researcher's back to procure higher level subjects.

However, if only they had listened to the wisdom of their master, what was to happen in the near future never would have transpired.