An Owl's Rise



Frantically Evelyn flew towards Melisandre's estate with her companions behind her.

Over some sort of emergency broadcast system, it had been announced that the Roost was under attack.

This caused several thousands of owls to fly around frantically, and the entire separate dimension was thrown into chaos. Not since the Roost was founded well over a millennia ago had it been attacked by an outside force.

'It will be fine. The Roost is a stronghold of all the most powerful owls in the world. With individuals like Melisandre and Minerva around, surely one of them will do something. There are owls here that are incredibly powerful and capable of feats beyond imagination. Surely, they can repel whatever is attacking.' Evelyn thought, attempting to stay positive.

Unfortunately, no amount of positive thinking was going to help with the reality of the situation. Soon the Roost began to shake even more violently, and Evelyn watched as the outer edges of the domain began to break apart and crack like glass.

In what seemed like an eternity but also only an instant the separate domain that the Roost was built within completely shattered and everything within was shunted back into the real world.

The dark skies over a perpetual dusk that always existed within the Roost were replaced by an endless blue sky and a bright sun.

Below was a large volcanic region with bubbling magma pouring out of several tall mountains. Creating intense heat throughout the region and making it inhospitable for most life.

The massive trees that made up the Roost began falling all around the area causing te land to quake and break apart, and the volcanos to become more active and spew large amounts of lava into the air.

Many owls that had been within the trees of the Roost frantically flew out as their homes went up in flames and were consumed by the hostile environment.

However, the sudden change in terrain was the least of Evelyn's and her companions' worries. All around them were tens of thousands of figures that were floating in the air and surrounding the area the Roost had appeared in.

The attack happened almost immediately after the Roost had been forced out of its separate domain. Humans began capturing and killing the owls that were flying around in chaos. 

This scene was beyond any horror that Evelyn had ever imagined. Not once did she think that the very Roost itself would be destroyed.

'No, not again!' Evelyn thought, looking out at the scene in front of her in terror.

The times she had previously lost everything flashed before her eyes and her heart grew heavy as once again her home was being destroyed.

Yet, before she could fall completely into despair several massive explosions rocked the area and many of the advancing humans were killed or pushed back.

Then a voice that resonated across the entire area and gave hope to all of the panicking owls. 

"Fight! Fight with all you have to survive. We are the owls of the Roost! Do not falter here! We will repulse our attackers and show these stupid humans that we are not to be trifled with! The Roost does not end here, your leaders still stand strong with you!"

After this announcement, Minerva, the leader of the Roost unleashed a massive golden blaze that surrounded every owl and began pushing back against their human attackers.

For a moment it seemed that with this one massive attack she would incinerate every last one of the people attacking the Roost, but her flames were abruptly stopped.

It looked like the golden flames had suddenly hit an inviable wall, before being completely smothered.

The huge blaze quickly receded, and four people stood at the forefront of the human army.

Two men and two women each wearing incredibly elaborate robes and decked out in powerful magic items were looking directly at Minerva with little more than annoyance in their eyes. 

"Whew, that was pretty hot. I suppose that is what you should expect from a heavenly flame wielded by a phoenix." One of the men at the forefront said while waving his hand in front of his face in an exaggerated fanning manner.

"Take this more seriously, Nar! That is a high tier calamity rank beast we are dealing with. One wrong step and anyone of us might get killed." The woman next to him said.

"Nar, Chika, would you two stop arguing already. This is why I hate working with children." The other man, who had long gray beard and bald head said with an exasperated expression on his face.

"Who are you calling a child! I am over six hundred years old! Just because I am not a fossil like you Cyrus doesn't make me a child! You may be a tier higher than me, but I can crush you any day stagnate old man!" Chika shouted at the old man named Cyrus.

Of course, while these three people were quarreling amongst each other, Minerva had not been sitting idly by an unleashed another attack towards them.

This time her blast of flame was far more concentrated and held an intensity to it that was similar to a solar flare.

However, the other woman who had not been getting involved with the bickering of the other three stepped forwards and conjured a massive hand of mud that reached out and smothered Minerva's attack.

"Pay more attention you three. Next time I am not blocking that beast's attacks for all of you. We came here with an objective to complete. We need to hold back that phoenix if we do not want the others to all be killed." 

"For you, Keesirne. I suppose that I can get a bit serious." Nar said, a playful smile on his face.

"Fine, but I want its talons. They look super sharp, and I bet I can make an amazing weapon out of them." Chika said, staring intently at Minerva's claws.

Cyrus just nodded his head without saying anything.

After that the four of them seemed to vanish from most people's eyes, and Minerva flew off after them like a rocket that had just launched. 

If the five of them fought anywhere within the vicinity of the others, everyone would die in the ensuring battle.

Nevertheless, this took out the greatest defender for the Roost and the humans that had been forced back by her display of power felt emboldened again now that their leaders were dealing with the greatest threat.

The Roost did have other leaders though, and the Hall Masters began taking charge and organizing the frantic owls into a force that could fight together.

"Evelyn, what do we do?" Aralee asked, looking towards her elder sister for direction.

The others in her group were similarly staring at her and waiting for her orders, and the pressure of their gazes nearly made Evelyn crumble.

'What do they think I can do? This is way beyond me. I don't have any experience dealing with something like this. Why is this even happening? What did I do to deserve this. Am I going to lose everything again?'

Evelyn's mind was quickly becoming more unstable as her past traumas from surfacing, and she imagined that those she cared about were going to be ripped away from her.

But as she continued to feel the gazes on her from her siblings and friends, she realized that she had not truly lost anything yet.

Sure, the Roost was the location that they all resided, but as long as they managed to survive this, all that would be lost was a place.

'This is not like the last times. I have power now. I can fight to protect them all and get through this.'

Feeling her strength coming back to her, Evelyn was determined not to let things end up as they had in the past. She would fight for her and her companion's survival and get through this ordeal no matter what.

"The first thing we need to do is find Melisandre. Being as close to her as possible will increase our chances of surviving this. We are not going to meekly sit by and be captured or killed. If we fight with everyone else we can get through this." 

Thanks to Evelyn stepping up as their leader, Rehni, Bylur, Verrader, Aralee, and Otis were able to regain their own calm and nodded their heads. So long as they followed Evelyn, they felt like they would be able to do anything.

Of course, none of them knew where Melisandre was, but Evelyn thought quickly for a way to find her.

She took out her magic message pad and sent a quick message that they could follow to Melisandre's location. Tank fully the message began flying off in a northwestern direction, proving that Melisandre was still alive. Had she been dead, the message would not have been able to lock onto her magical energy signature.

"Let's go. Keep your eyes on that message and stick together." Evelyn said, before taking off towards Melisandre.