An Owl's Rise

'Got you!'

Swooping down from high above the trees Evelyn nailed her prey that had thought itself hidden among the branches.

Sinking her claws in, the poor chameleon like creature let out a pain screech as Evelyn finished it off.

Smiling, she felt a sense of happiness now being able to dispatch a creature of the same species as the one that nearly killed her,

Though this one that she had just gotten was a juvenile itself, and quite a bit smaller than the other one that was still a slightly bigger than Evelyn was now.

Still for her first solo kill, it brought her great joy that she was able to take out one of these chameleons.

'To think just three weeks after my first flight I would be out hunting like this. I truly feel like an owl now.' Evelyn thought while bobbing her head happily.

In the last few weeks, she had gotten much better at flying and could do it almost expertly.

Now it was close to as easy for her to fly as breathing. Much as how it was for humans with walking after they reached a certain age.

Of course, even though she and her siblings were off hunting on their own, that did not mean that they were not under the watchful eyes of their parents.

Currently Evelyn's mother was perched high up in the trees watching down at her and her siblings who were all hunting in the same area.

With her prey clutched in her talons Evelyn flew up towards her mother, wanting to show off what she had done.

She still longed for her parents' approval that was sorely lacking in her past life, but now her new owl parents heaped on plenty of praise when she did something well.

Showing off her first kill Evelyn held her head up proudly, and as she wanted her mother nodded her head towards Evelyn acknowledging her talents and efforts.

This made Evelyn happy, and she squawked and hooted joyfully, and her mother joined along.

At this point she had gotten pretty good at understanding what the noises her parents made meant and could hold a sort of conversation with them.

Certainly, it was far from the level of what humans could express with words, but they were still able to convey feelings and emotions.

Yet as Evelyn took up her mother's attention her brother had wandered off, tracking his prey further than the area they were supposed to operate in.

Unfortunately, it took their mother around ten minutes to finally notice this as she had been distracted further by Evelyn's sister who had also caught her first prey.

However, once she noticed that her son had strayed off, she took Evelyn and her sister back to the nest and told them to stay there while she searched for their brother.

After that, Evelyn's mother swiftly flew out of the nest and began searching the area for her lost son.

Sighing, Evelyn looked at her prize and began tearing it apart. Eating the chameleon she had worked hard to catch.

When she had finished eating what she could and digging the core within its body out, neither of her parents had returned.

At this point it had been quite some time and she was beginning to get worried.

'Maybe I should go out and join the search.' She thought while looking out of the hollow in the tree their nest was in.

She could fly now and had become a lot more confident in her abilities as of late.

And while she still had not figured out how the magic in this world worked, she had not seen anything other than her parents wield it to begin with.

Eventually she began to feel restless, and the waiting around was getting to her.

She was torn between staying home where she knew it was safe or going out to search for her new owl brother who had gotten lost.

'I know that my adventurism got me in trouble before, but this time is different.'

Hopping up to the exit of the nest, Evelyn jumped up onto the edge of the tree hollow and looked out.

She scanned the forest around her and then off into the horizon to see if she could see any of her family members returning.

Sadly, none of them were in view and she made the decision to head out herself and join the search.

While she was not close in anyway to her new siblings, she did not want to lose any of the members of her new family.

She was afraid that if one of them were to die it would ruin the happiness that she currently had, just as had happened back on Earth when she lost her mom Elise.

Taking off into the forest, Evelyn remembered the direction that her mother had flown off into and went the opposite way.

This way they would cover more ground, and hopefully come across her idiot owl brother who had gotten caught up in tracking his fast-moving prey.

Flying around she searched in a grid pattern. Checking a certain area in a cube before moving onto the next.

She counited doing this for what felt like a couple hours, and she made sure to keep track of where she was in relation to the nest so as to not get lost herself.

Though as she was beginning to get tired and ready to give up, she heard the sounds of distress.

Listening closely, she recognized the sound and understood that it was her brother calling out for their parents.

Unfortunately, neither of them were anywhere nearby right now, but Evelyn was.

'Well at least he is still alive. Now what kind of trouble has he gotten himself into.'

Turning towards the noise, Evelyn flew her way around a number of dense trees before coming out into a small clearing in the middle of the forest.

But as she stared into the middle of the clearing where her brother was, she stopped flying for a moment in shock.

There before her eyes in a metal trap was her brother.

It was a type of spring-loaded cage, but much bigger than any she had ever seen and camouflaged fairly well to blend in.

Seeing this there was no doubt in her mind that this was a human contraption, and the first sign she had seen of living humans.

Of course, she had found the finger bone before, but that only confirmed that there were humans.

However, this showed her that they were indeed humans operating in this forest.

Regaining her composure after a bit, Evelyn slowly descended down towards the ground, keeping a sharp eye out for any dangers or other traps that might have been laid nearby

When she was fairly certain that it was safe to land, she descended down towards the cage where her owl brother had been captured in a trap.

Though as she touched down and he noticed her, he began screeching even louder, begging her to free him.

Still, Evelyn had a sharp mind and she planned to use it to examine the situation.

Going around and looking at the inside of the cage she noticed that there were a number of fruits, nuts, and grasses.

She wondered why her brother had been attracted to these items when owls very rarely ate anything other than meat.

Yet as she bent in closer while looking for the mechanism to open the cage, she smelt the scent coming from these items.

Immediately she felt and urge to consume them, similar to the weird stones that were found in beasts.

'Hm is it some type of bait they have coated them in, or are these maybe from special plants that hold some type of magical properties.'

As Evelyn examined the bait that had enticed her stupid brother into what she perceived as an obvious trap, he continued to make a racket wondering why his sister had not already freed him.

'Yes, I hear you. Just give me a minute.' Evelyn thought, as her brother continued to frantically make distressed noises.

Hopping around the cage, she began searching for the mechanism to get it open.

Unfortunately, while it would be very simple to open the cage normally, that only went for the humans that had created.

In order to open it Evelyn found that she needed to pull up on two levers on opposite sides at the same time, but there was no way she could do so with her current physique.

Racking her brain, she thought long and hard about how to help her owl brother out of his cage, and soon came up with an idea.

Taking off back into the air, she began looking around intently trying to find something specific.

'Ah, there it is.'

Spotting the vines she was looking for, Evelyn flew over to them and began tugging on them to find the strongest one.

Then when she had, she slowly used her talons to cut through it until she had what would make the best rope she could hope to find in the middle of a forest.

With the tool she needed now in her claws, she flew back to her brother who had only gotten louder thinking that she had abandoned him.

Still, Evelyn worked through the noise, and began tying the strong vine to one of the levers before moving onto the next.

Though this was easier said than done as she was now lacking any apposable thumbs.

Eventually after many painstaking attempts, she finally got the vine tied around the levers, and hoped up on top of the cage.

Pulling with all her might on the vine, she slowly began to bring the levers up, and with one great yank of her neck, got them to release.

As soon as this happened the door to the cage opened, and her brother quickly jumped out of it, and began chirping happily at Evelyn for saving him.

However, unbeknownst to them, someone had been watching quietly as Evelyn worked hard to open the cage.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Hearing three resounding claps above her, Evelyn felt a sudden sense of fear greater than she had since becoming an owl.

Turning her head around there she saw it, a living, breathing person, who had hidden himself among the brush and had come out while clapping his hands slowly.