An Owl's Rise

Evelyn, after managing to brush over what had just happened, was currently listening to Melisandre\'s explanation on why it would be difficult for her to obtain the other two items she would need to evolve to the awakened rank.

"First, the float stone. It is not something that us owls ever really bother with as we can fly naturally. But there is one species that uses it in many things, and that is humans. If you are going to need a piece of the size and quality you described, most likely you will have to steal it from them." Melisandre said with a grave look in her eyes.

Hearing this Evelyn\'s heart rate started to spike as all the horrors she had ever been subjected to by people began to rise up in her mind.

Truthfully, she wished to never deal with humans ever again, but it seemed that it would not be so easy when even on this world they were still considered the dominant species.

\'I have already resolved myself to do whatever is necessary. I just have to do this, or I will never get past my current point.\'

Nodding her head, Evelyn let Melisandre know she was prepared to do whatever it took.

"I see, then when the time comes, I will help you gather the knowledge and tools you might need, but do not expect me to be directly involved. I cannot fight your battles for you, and it would only make things worse for you if I were to help explicitly."

Sighing, Evelyn had hoped that Melisandre might assist her here, but it was a longshot from the start, so she accepted it.

\'She already said that she would not coddle me. All she is providing for the most part is knowledge, tools, and a place to live. For everything else I am on my own.\'

"I understand that you will not assist me in the actual acquisition of the float stone, but from the way you have been speaking, I assume you know of how to would go about it?"

Pausing for a moment Melisandre contemplated for a few bit whether she should go ahead and tell Evelyn now. Before eventually deciding that it should be fine.

"Let me preference this with that you are far from ready to attempt any of the three methods I am about to suggest, and that you should learn to control your magical energy before attempting any of them." Melisandre said with an intense stare that would allow for no argument.

Taking a step back Evelyn felt the weight behind Melisandre\'s look and frantically nodded her head in agreement.

"Good. Now as for the first method it would be to raid from one of the human\'s mines. I am certain with enough digging you could fine the locations of plenty of them. Of course, knowing the location is only the first step. Afterwards you would have to infiltrate it somehow, locate the necessary stone, and excavate it. All while staying hidden. You could also try killing everyone at the mine, but I doubt that even Anneli or Katrina could do that by themselves."

Unfortunately, most of what Melisandre had just said did not help Evelyn in anyway, and basically was telling her flat out that it would be impossible.

If Anneli or Katrina who were peak awakened beasts and talented themselves could not do it, then what chance did Evelyn having being a whole rank behind them.

"Melisandre I may be sort of stealthy, but I doubt I could just sneak into a mine like that if it is that well-guarded." Evelyn said with a despondent expression.

"Yes, I imagine that it would be difficult since the humans do guard their resources well to prevent others of their kind, or crafty beasts like us from stealing from them. But with the correct preparations almost anything is possible, so do not completely give up on it yet." Melisandre said encouraging Evelyn.

"Now for the next method you would also be stealing from humans, but in this way, stealth would honestly be pretty much impossible. One of the main purposes that the humans use high-quality float stones for is to create vehicles that can fly through the skies. Therefore, if you were able to successfully bring one down in an attack, you could steal the float stone from a skyship. But to do this you would need to pick your target carefully and bring the required forces to take it down. In many cases, this is likely to be even harder than even storming one of their mines."

With the next suggestion seemingly at least, but more likely more difficult than the first, Evelyn was wondering if Melisandre was just trying to crush her spirits.

So far all she could apparently do was sneak into a mine and hope not to be caught or attack a flying ship that would have numerous defenses onboard.

"Is there not anything else I can do?" Evelyn asked with a sorrowful look in her eyes.

In response, Melisandre smiled, and said, "Yes there is. You simply need to scour the world for an undisturbed deposit of float stones and dig it out. I am sure that given a few decades you might even be successful."

Feeling all of her hopes dashed Evelyn sunk down and allowed her head to fall against the floor.

Everything Melisandre just said made it sound like she had an impossible task in front of her.

\'So, my best bet is to aimlessly look around until I come across a deposit. If I am lucky, it could take only a few months. But from what Melisandre said it is more likely to take several dozen years.\'

Lamenting her situation Evelyn almost felt like crying with how hopeless Melisandre had made it out to be.

"I see that you are still in the wrong mentality. Did I not say that all of this would be difficult on your own. It was only a couple of days ago that we discussed the importance of credits. With enough of them you can even hire an army of other owls to help you out. There is no reason to force yourself to do something that is impossible alone when you can simply hire the help you need."

Hearing this, Evelyn quickly perked up and realized that Melisandre was completely right.

If she were to try and attack a human mine or skyship she could hire out the services or other owls to help her in an attack.

Or in case of the mine, she could hire just a few to act as decoys and lure the mine\'s guards away while she slips in and takes what she needs.

Being able to hire help opened up so many other possibilities that Evelyn began pushing her mind to think about the best approach.

"Whoa there. No need to contemplate this too hard right now. You still have along way to go before even considering taking on a bunch of humans." Melisandre said, seeing how seriously Evelyn was thinking.

This did break her train of thought and she remembered that Melisandre made her promise to get her magical energy under control before she pursued this path.

"Anyway, you have another item to worry about obtaining that is equally difficult but in different ways." Melisandre reminded Evelyn.

Perking back up, she looked attentively at Melisandre and waited for her to explain.

"I only know of one place that you can get a hellfire rose, and that is in the inferno field. A place that is constantly at temperatures over two hundred degrees, where ash perpetually rains down from the sky, and fires can flare up at any moments. And those are its pleasant qualities."

Stunned by this Evelyn could hardly imagine that such a place could even support life like flower, but its name including hellfire must have been very apt.

"In the inferno field you will find beasts and magical plants that are highly in tune with the element of fire, but they are the least of your worries. There are far more dangerous beings called elementals that have come through a rift in dimensions that created the inferno field to begin with. They are beings that attack anything other than their own kind on sight and are often very powerful. I once ventured into the place in search of a specific item when I was a peak awakened beast and was nearly killed. Going there is not something that should be done lightly." Melisandre said, with a rare tinge of fear in her eyes.

Yet, while Evelyn was taking her warning to heart a number of other things had piqued her interests.

"Melisandre, what is an elemental? And what about this rift you are talking about? I have never heard of anything like this. I thought that there were only beasts, humans, and plants that inhabited this world."

A look of shock on her face Melisandre was surprised to hear that Evelyn did not know. But then remembered that she had been living carefreely in the wilds before coming to the Roost.

"Yes, I suppose you would not know. Let me see. If I remember correctly around four hundred years ago, rifts in this dimension began to appear and the beings that have been classified as elementals since their bodies are made up entirely of such things as fire or water began pouring into this world. It is unknown to us at the Roost at least why this happened, but it is safe to say that some force greater than what any of us can understand caused it."