บท 18: Chapter 18 Aftermath

Having escaped from the underground facility that had been her prison and managing to enact revenge against her chief tormentor, Evelyn flew as fast as she could away.

She had no desire to stay anywhere near that place even if these woods were her home.

Her parents had already died, and while she did not know the state of her siblings, she figured it was likely they were dead as well.

So, she flew and flew for hours, until the sun had already risen high in the sky.

At this point she had travelled a great distance and what stamina she had begun to wane.

Looking around she found a decent tree that would give her some cover and landed within its branches.

'I just need a few hours of sleep and then I can continue. I am still in this damn forest, and I need to get out of here.' Evelyn thought as she fell into unconsciousness.

…

A few hours earlier after Evelyn had made her escape, a number of men wearing white military uniforms walked around the remains of the underground facility she had been kept in.

They were looking intently for a certain object, which unbeknownst to them had flown off during their raid.

"Have you not found it yet?" A man with golden hair and piercing blues eye said to one of the other men.

It was quite obvious that he was in charge due to his demeanor and the number of badges all over his uniform.

"We are sorry captain we have not found it yet. We have looked through their main lab and the body of their lead researcher, but the item is nowhere to be seen."

Sighing, he looked over at one of the trees where three men had been tied up and said, "Fine, I suppose that I will just need to find some answers elsewhere."

After that, all of the other men who were part of the unit that had attacked this facility looked away, and screams soon resound throughout the forest.

"I see so you successfully implanted it into a beast, an owl to be precise. That was most useful information." The blonde-haired man said.

He then cast one last look at the man who had used to be one of the researcher's assistants who was now bloody all over after a long round of torture.

Quickly the leader relayed the information he had heard to his subordinates and had them search for an owl.

Soon one of his men brought him a small cage, and inside was a small, frightened owl that looked malnourished and disheveled.

"What do you mean this is not the one?" He said to the man he had previously interrogated as he showed him the owl his men had found.

Dropping the cage that held Evelyn's brother in it, the blonde-haired man told everyone to search again and tear the place upside down if they had to.

Eventually though, after many hours of searching. It was apparent that the beast that had fused with the item they were searching for was nowhere to be found.

"Capitan, we did however find traces of it. There was a large enclosure deep unground where we found feathers, and on a more important note, we found one of the people form the facility with talon marks all over their body."

Getting this report from his men, it became quite clear that the subject they were after had escaped in the chaos of their battle.

"This does not bode well. The general told me that the order to secure this item from here came directly from the empress. If we do not obtain it, there is chance of all of receiving punitive action." The blonde-haired leader said.

Still, he had not lost hope yet.

"Spread out in groups of two and search the forest for any owls that you can find. Simply kill them and check to see if the item is imbedded inside them. Now go and hope we can accomplish our mission."

With their captain's orders relayed, all of the other soldiers set off into the forest in search of their quarry.

…

Just a few minutes after multiple squads of people began fanning out through the forest to find her, Evelyn woke up from her sleep.

Looking around, she was able to see that it was already dusk, and the sun was setting on the horizon.

'I slept for longer than I thought I would, but I guess this is fine since it is the perfect time to secure my next meal.'

As she thought this, her stomach rumbled a bit as she had not eaten for quite some time and had burned a lot of her energy in her escape.

Hopping out of the thick branches where she was perched, she began scanning the area for anything to eat.

Unfortunately, where she currently was nothing suitable showed up in her vision as she only spotted the occasional small insect flying around.

'I suppose I will have to put in a little more effort.' Evelyn thought as she flapped her wings and lifted off from the tree.

Flying around the area, while looking towards the trees and ground she searched out for the first prey she would be hunting in a very long time.

'There! Something moving over on that tree.'

Spotting some sort of creature rustling in the branches of a tree, Evelyn flew up above the area and looked straight down.

There she spotted some sort of rodent like animal she had never seen before.

To her it looked like a cross between a racoon, squirrel, and porcupine.

It had the face and feet of a racoon the slender body of a squirrel, and a bushy tail with quills sticking out of it.

Naturally these quills had her a bit worried since they could spell disaster for her if she got hit.

Luckily, she had other moves that a normal owl did not.

Swooping down towards this beast, she headed right for it. Coming from the left side, and right as it noticed her, she abruptly shot her wings forward and sent out the strongest gust of wind she could with her magic energy.

Being hit by this wind, the beast that resembled a raccoon, squirrel, and porcupine was ripped from the tree as its claws carved through the bark as it tried to keep ahold.

Falling from a height of around seventy feet, the poor thing had no recourse to its current situation and soon hit the floor of the forest with a loud thud.

Flying down Evelyn found the beast still alive, but unable to move as it had broken several bones and had blood pouring out of its mouth.

Quickly she ended the poor thing's suffering with her talons, before carrying it back up into a tree to eat her prize.

She was practically starving at this point and ripped into, far from the human sensibilities she once had.

'Ah it has been a long time since I had meat. All they fed me were those magically enriched plants and the stones that come out of beasts.' Evelyn thought as she tore into her meal.

Soon she had eaten the entire creature expect for its core which she saved for last.

With one gulp she swallowed the core and felt the familiar sense of magical energy permeating throughout her body.

'I feel much better now that I have eaten. Time to get out of this forest and away from the hell I was trapped in for so long.'