An Owl's Rise

After hearing Evelyn's request that one of them stay behind, Bylur and Rehni looked at each other, neither willing to budge.

Both of them wanted to go with Evelyn to burrowing owls' home.

For Rehni she really wanted to see what the evolution of a peak wakened beast to a tyrant rank beast was like. But for Bylur he had other less academic reasons.

Normally he would have agreed to Evelyn's request on the spot, but he did not want to allow her to go and see Otis without being nearby.

'I have no clue what that bastard might try when I am not there. Once he become a tyrant rank beast, he might be planning to make a move on Evelyn. I cannot allow that to happen.' Bylur thought.

As of right now he and Otis were at a simar level of strength and rank and since he was closer to Evelyn he figured he had the edge.

However, once Otis evolved, he would surely be stronger for quite some time until Bylur could reach the tyrant rank as well, and it was easy for him to imagine Evelyn relying on him and developing feelings for him. Of course, this was all just a wild fantasy of Bylur's.

"Rehni, I think you should stay. You have a keener eye and can act faster in an emergency than I can. Plus, just in case Evelyn gets hurt, my life magic would be extremely useful." Bylur said, making his case to go with Evelyn.

Rehni though was not going to back down so easily, and listed off several reasons why she would be suited to go with Evelyn.

Watching them quarrel for several minutes, Evelyn eventually gave up and letting them make the decision amongst themselves.

"Okay this is not working." Evelyn said, stopping her friend's bickering.

She then picked up a small stone which she used her wind magic to carve into a disk and etched the letters B and R onto each side.

"I am going to slip this into the air and if it lands on B, Bylur will come with me, and if it lands on R, Rehni will come with me." Evelyn said, her stern tone offering no objection.

Using her wind magic, she launched the stone into the air where it spun around rapidly until hitting the ground.

When it came to a stop, the letter R was prominently showing and Rehni could not help but smile and smirk at Bylur.

Bylur, though looked devastated. Now he would not be able to go with Evelyn and prevent Otis from trying to court Evelyn.

Unfortunately, there was no way he could overturn Evelyn's decision, and could only sullenly accept his task. Basically being a babysitter for Evelyn's siblings.

"Good, now that we have that decided, Rehni and I will head out to see the burrowing owls. I will leave giving the explanation we prepared in advance to you Bylur." Evelyn said.

Before leaving they had come up with a cover story for why they needed to spilt up for a couple of days.

Their original plan was for all three of them to go while leaving Verrader and Aralee in a safe place, but Evelyn now felt it was prudent to leave someone to watch over Verrader.

"Got it, I will tell them you went out to scout a location we came across before but have not explored yet." Bylur said, almost no energy in his voice.

After that he moved away with lumbered steps. Clearly feeling depressed that he could not go with Evelyn.

"I suppose that we should go then." Evelyn said to Rehni.

Exiting their temporary shelter, the two of them turned towards the burrowing owls' home and shot off.

It did not take them long to arrive and the guards outside that recognized them came to greet them.

"Lady Evelyn and Lady Rehni, you have returned. But where is sir Bylur?" One of the guards asked.

Other than the first time Evelyn had helped the burrowing owls reclaim their home, she had always arrived with her two companions in tow.

"Bylur could not make it this time. Only Rehni and I will be needing accommodations. And send someone to tell Otis that we have good news for him."

Nodding his head, the lead guard on duty sent one of the others to inform the entire flock that Evelyn had arrived and to bring Otis.

A few minutes later, Otis along with Po who was his closest aide arrived to greet Evelyn and Rehni.

"It is an immense pleasure to see you again lady Evelyn." Otis said bowing his head, which with his tiny stature in comparison to Evelyn looked quite amusing.

"I am glad to see you in good health as well Otis. Now if you would not mind taking us to a private room, we have something very important to discuss pertaining to you." Evelyn said, allowing a faint smile to creep onto her face.

Seeing this, Otis could not help but be stunned. He knew that Evelyn  had said she would try to obtain the items he needed as catalysts to evolve, but he never thought that she would be able to gather them so soon.

Still, he tried not to get his hopes up and calmed down a bit. While he could not think of something else that Evelyn would want to speak to him about, he figured there was just no way she could have procured the necessary items already.

Yet when they were finally alone in a private room, Evelyn revealed that she did indeed have the catalysts that Otis would need.

"I truly thought I could no longer be astounded by your abilities and resourcefulness Lady Evelyn, but once again you have exceed my expectations." Otis said, after Evelyn revealed the news to him.

"Well before you get too excited, let me confirm that the items are correct. I only had the Roost's information to go off of when I gathered them, but you should be able to instinctually tell if they are usable items to trigger your evolution to the tyrant rank."

Holding up her storage cuff Evelyn carefully took out each of the items she had procured.

One was piece of dark black bark that was fossilized, another was jagged reddish-brown crystal that was glowing brightly and emitting a strong magical energy, the next was a perfectly smooth green sphere, and the final was one of the evolution potions Evelyn had created.

"Please test each of these to make sure that they are usable." Evelyn said, motioning for Otis to closely inspect them.

His face filled with anticipation he flew over and landed in front of the items.

To start he channeled a bit of his magical energy into the fossilized bark, and his body trembled a moment later.

"Yes, this is an item that I can use as a catalyst." Otis said, a bright smile on his face.

Moving over to the reddish-brown crystal that was actually larger than him Otis tested it as well and confirmed that it was a usable item.

But when he stopped in front of the green sphere that contained a powerful magical energy, he froze up.

"Lady Evelyn, this is a human's magic core. One that has the same elements as me and was at the equivalent rank. How ever did you procure something like this and is it really something I can use.?" Otis asked, shock and confusion on his face.

He had never before heard of using a human's magic core as a catalyst for evolution. But that made sense with his life having been isolated in the Velinis Desert.

"Yes you are correct, that is what it is. As for how I obtained it, I have told you about the place I come from, where owls of all types gather. There is place where items can be traded for and I used a number of my resources to obtain that core and the other items here. And as for whether it can be used as a catalyst for your evolution, the answer is yes. Certainly, unlike the other three I have presented you with it is not a necessity, but you will come out much stronger if you use it." Evelyn explained.

Nodding his head, Otis accepted her words and thanked her profusely for using her own resources to aid in his evolution.

"It was no problem. We recently came into possession of plenty of the resources needed to trade in the Roost. Having you as our ally will more than make up for the cost and effort." Evelyn said.

Feeling quite happy for everything Evelyn had done for him, Otis channeled his magical energy into the magic core and filled it up with his magical energy.

Unlike the other catalysts, he did not feel an instinctual reaction to this one, but he trusted Evelyn.

Finally, the last item was the evolution potion, and as a universal catalyst it gave Otis a reaction, but one that was less pronounced as the first two.

"Good, looks like you have finished dyeing them with your magical energy. Now all we need to do is wait until the magic spring activates next and you can ascend to the tyrant rank." Evelyn said with a pleased smile.