An Owl's Rise

Looking out in horror, Evelyn watched as her mother and father were quickly and overwhelmingly beaten down by this new human that had arrived.

They had fought together and with everything they had and were still crushed in less than a minute without having inflicted a single injury on their opponent.

Seeing this, tears rolled down Evelyn's eyes when she realized that all hope was lost.

Her parents were unconscious, and she was out of commission as the paralytic drug had completely immobilized her body, but still left her awake to watch whatever cruel fate awaited.

For a moment she even thought about trying to pray for a miracle, but she knew those did not exist. Since never once had her prayer for one been answered in this or her last life.

*"Okay you two, the fight is over so you can stop cowering. Now get over here and tie them up while I contact the base to send us help to transport these beasts."* Uriah called out to Vorigos and Karsyn.

Tentatively the two of them moved out from behind the tree they were hiding behind, and once they saw that the two large owls that were stronger than them were truly down. They ran up to Uriah who had just shed his rock form.

The two of them then pulled out some ropes from their bags and began tying up Evelyn's parents, while Uriah pulled out a fancy looking notebook.

Writing within this notebook, Uriah asked for some more men to help him bring back the prizes he had just acquired.

Once he had finished writing this message, he watched the text disappear as it was transmitted to his compatriot who had a similar magical tool for long range communication.

After that was done, he moved over to one of the nearby trees and leaned against it.

He was currently feeling pretty sore, which happened every time he used his rock form spell.

Still, it was the strongest magic he had, and without it the fight was likely to have prolonged which he did not want.

A little over half an hour later, a dozen more people showed up at Uriah's location and saw Evelyn's parents.

Of course, most of them were surprised because they were definitely the strongest beasts any of them had seen since being assigned to this area.

*"Now that all of you are here, split into to groups of six and carry the two larger owls back to base. Vorigos and Karsyn you two grab the children and try not to mess up this time."* Uriah said, taking command.

Quickly the new men that arrived had picked Evelyn's parents up, while Vorigos grabbed Evelyn's brother and Karsyn took ahold of Evelyn who was as still as a statue.

*"Elder Uriah, are you sure we need these two beasts when we have the other two. This one here really gave me the run around, and nearly got us killed by leading its parents to us. I would be really grateful if I could take out my frustration on it."* Karsyn said as he held up Evelyn.

Rolling his eyes, Uriah looked at Karsyn like he was the epitome of stupid, and said, *"Sure, you can kill it but then I will kill you. Right now, the researcher is looking for quantity and wants every beast we capture to run his tests. So, killing a beast we caught no matter how weak is the same as destroying his property."*

Lowering his head, Karsyn grumbled under his breath and did as he was ordered. He dragged Evelyn along, holding her up by her injured wing to make the trip as unpleasant for her as possible.

During this time, Evelyn had given up and lost all hope, coming to accept that her lot in life was to suffer.

All she could wish for now was that whatever was about to happen to her would be over quickly and as painlessly as possible.

'Maybe when I die again, I will get a better third life. Or this could be the hell I have to suffer for eternity. I will get to start out with a happy and hopeful life, all for it to be ripped away by circumstance I cannot control.'

Being taken along, all Evelyn could do was watch, not even able to close her eyes due to the paralytic drug in her system.

It felt like a horribly long journey as the humans that had taken her trekked through the woods, and she was in constant pain from the rough hold on her injured wing.

They had not even bothered to take the bolt out, and it sent waves of pain through her every time the man carrying her took a step.

Eventually though, they finally came to a stop in what seemed a completely unremarkable part of the forest.

Yet it was not long after they stopped, that Evelyn saw a large hatch opening up in the ground and revealing a set of stairs.

The men then all began shuffling down, taking Evelyn's parents who barely fit in first.

Finally, Karsyn was the last one to enter with Evelyn in his hands, and she looked up towards the sky, thinking that this would be the last time she would see sunlight in this life as the hatch closed behind them.

Looking around she tried to occupy her mind by analyzing the building she had been brought to, but it was incredibly sterile.

So far all she had seen were stone walls that were periodically lined with some sort of dim lights.

Occasionally they did pass by some doors, but they never stopped at any of them as they dragged Evelyn and her family down this long corridor.

Soon, they came too the end of the corridor and in front of them was a large set of double doors that had an ominous feel to them.

Evelyn even seemed to get a sense of dreadful déjà vu.

She felt that this place had a similar feel to the cellar the psycho who killed her in her past life.

It was place where painful tortures waited for her.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Knocking on the door, Uriah waited for an answer, and soon a short man who was wearing a long black robe opened the door.

*"Ah I see you have brought the new special specimens with you Elder Uriah. The master will be most pleased to have them. Oh, and he is currently conducting his experiments so please try not to make a racket. Now come, we have prepared the necessary containment areas for those two. As for the others, just throw them in the cages along with the rest of the wild beasts we have."*

After this new little man appeared, Evelyn was watched intently as she was brought into the room.

She wanted to see what awaited her, and what she saw was certainly terrifying.

Rows and rows of cages lined the walls and in most of them was some manner of beast.

They ranged from smaller animals like rats, up to six-foot-long boars with huge tusks.

However, while she was still trying to look around and figure out what exactly was going on here, the man carrying her suddenly stopped.

He then, opened up one of the cages that was empty, and unceremoniously threw Evelyn in with much more force than necessary.

This was the last thing she remembered, before feeling an incredible pain as her head hit the back of the cage and she slipped into unconsciousness.