An Owl's Rise

A month quickly went by as Evelyn stayed with the burrowing owls to make sure that no other interested parties tried to take the magic spring again.

Luckily, while a few other beasts wandered in and tried to take out the burrowing owls, they were not much of a threat.

No large, organized force like the ospreys came by in the time Evelyn was there and she had not even needed to intervene in any of the few battles.

Naturally she did not spend the entire time cooped up in the burrows and made time to collect more resources from the desert while she was there.

This saw her supplies of items found their shooting up and she would be very well stocked for quite some time.

However, on the last day she planned to stay with the burrowing owls she did not leave and watched the magic spring intently.

Last time she had been asleep when it started to fill with magical energy from the depths of the world and she had no intention of missing it this time.

For hours she simply watched the spring until finally she saw bubbles of magical energy begin to pour into the magic spring.

It was quite a beautiful sight and Evelyn made sure to ingrain it into her mind.

'I suppose that I can consider this undisputable proof that this magic spring is stable. But that begs the question, where is the magical energy coming from, and why at such consistent intervals?' Evelyn thought while watching what was going on.

Unfortunately, unless she wanted to start excavating the area and find where the water was coming from, she would likely never find the answer. And if she were to do this, she would very likely ruin the spring.

In the end, all she could do was speculate and forget learning the truth.

The usefulness of the spring was simply too great to risk damaging or destroying just to find out why it was stable.

Once the spring was filled and began glowing brightly, Evelyn along with a number of the burrowing owls got in.

Unlike last time she was not being given the privilege of having the spring to herself, but she was fine with it this time.

She needed the burrowing owls to get stronger so that she could feel safe in leaving them here to guard the place for her.

To accomplish this the burrowing owls were focusing on their peak fiend beast rank members who were ready to evolve to the awakened rank.

Thankfully they already knew the item they needed to act as a catalyst and thirteen of the burrowing owls would be advancing to the awakened rank today.

'There really is a significantly lower amount of energy for me to absorb with so many others but monopolizing it for myself now would likely hurt me long term.' Evelyn thought as she soaked in the magical energy.

While doing so she also headed over to the Chryseos Vines and plucked off four more fruits.

This brought her up to ten and was the amount that the burrowing owls had been comfortable parting with.

Of course, Evelyn could have gotten more if she pushed harder as the burrowing owls were heavily indebted to her, but she did not want to sour relations in any way.

She was certain that she would frequent the spring at least once every few months and did not want the burrowing owls' gratitude to turn to contempt if she took too much from them.

Until she reached the tyrant rank, this place was likely going to be the best resource she had access to.

Within the hour the magical energy from the spring had been exhausted and Evelyn got out along with a number of the burrowing owls.

For now, many of their ranks were going up to the next tier or even evolving.

It was amazing to see. as one would not normally witness so many beasts advancing all at once.

This was simply how potent the magic spring was.

'As soon as the last one is finished, I will head out. I have been gone for quite some time and I do not need Melisandre getting worried about me.' Evelyn thought as she watched on.

By the end of the day all of the burrowing owls that were evolving had finished and a new set of awakened ranks were now among their flock.

This brought them up to almost thirty and would be more than enough to fight back against most other beasts in the desert.

"Lady Evelyn, should you ever need anything from us or wish to use the spring again, please feel free to drop by. We are eternally grateful to you and will make sure to pay you back no matter how long it takes." Otis said to Evelyn as she stood at the burrow's exit.

He along with a number of the burrowing owls had come to see her off and were expressing their gratitude for her help.

They never would have reclaimed their home without her, and their flock would have lost the prominence it had held for centuries.

"I plan to take you up on that offer. I will probably be back sometime within the next three or four months to use the spring again. Make sure to protect it and not lose it again."

After saying this Evelyn turned around and took to the sky without looking back.

When she made it high into the air, she pulled out the return ticket she had to use the Roost's warp portals and followed it to where the entrance was.

With how long she had been gone there was no doubt that the portal's location had changed many times and without the ticket's guidance she would never find the entrance.

Within a few hours she made it to an inconspicuous spot in the desert and the ticket reacted. Showing that she was in range of a warp portal.

'It is finally time to go back. I will have failed a number of the missions by taking too long, but securing the magic spring was more important.' Evelyn thought as she activated the warp portal and was taken back to the Roost.