An Owl's Rise

Upon returning to the Inferno Field Rangers' fortress, Evelyn immediately headed for the room that had been lent to her and collapsed. She was incredibly exhausted after the difficult fight against the grand fire elemental and felt like she wanted to sleep for several days straight.

'No, I can't fall asleep just yet.' She thought, forcing herself back up.

While she did trust the Rangers to a certain degree and had figured that most of them were pretty good natured, she was not going to let her guard down. In the back of her mind the worst-case scenario was always a possibility.

Yulbok could have been hiding his true intentions incredibly well, or perhaps some higher up from the Great Shell would hear about her and decide to capture her to find out more about the alchemical items she had created to combat the fire elementals.

Evelyn had been beaten, tortured, and experimented on too many times to ever feel completely safe around strangers that she did not unquestionably know. Because of this paranoia she set up several magical defenses within her room that would alert her if anyone tried to enter while she slept.

Once she had finished activating her protections, Evelyn finally felt comfortable going to sleep in her room within the fortress.

Thankfully, her rest went by uninterrupted, and she woke up around twelve hours later feeling refreshed.

After quickly loosening up her body, she deactivated the magical items she had set up and headed directly towards the fortress' mess hall. Now that she had slept, she was feeling fairly hungry.

However, as she passed through the halls of the fortress, she was surprised when every tortoise she passed stopped and greeted her in a friendly manner. The indifferent demeanor most of them had just the day before was entirely gone. It seemed that her actions in the battle had really won over most of the Rangers here.

When she reached the mess hall things were exactly the same and she was practically mobbed by individuals that wanted to express their gratitude.

For Evelyn, this honestly put her on edge. She was surrounded by several powerful beasts, but not a single one of them was displaying a hint of hostility towards her. Still, she could not drop her wariness and was constantly thinking that one of them might use this opportunity to attack here.

"Come on everyone, clearly, she is uncomfortable with you all crowding around her. Give her some space." Lizlul said, coming to Evelyn's rescue.

Seeing a path open up around the group that had encircled her, Evelyn hastily moved towards Lizlul and used her like a shield. Evelyn had little experience with crowds, especially friendly ones she could not just blast her way out of.

Seeing that Evelyn was feeling uneasy, the group of grateful Rangers dispersed and kept their distance. They just wanted to thank Evelyn for helping them and causing her any distress was far from their intentions.

"I'll bet you must be hungry after how hard you fought yesterday. Follow me and I will make sure that the cook gives you the best food we have available."

Taking Lizlul up on her offer, Evelyn went with Lizlul and received a giant platter of delicious food.

Once she had finished eating, Evelyn felt satisfied and asked Lizlul if now would be a good time to visit Yulbok.

"Well, I am sure that he is busy, but I imagine he will make time for you. After all your efforts yesterday let us win a battle that normally would have seen several casualties. We weren't the only fortress that was attacked, and many Rangers lost their lives in battle yesterday. We are the only one that got away with zero deaths." Lizlul said, a grateful expression on her face.

"There is no reason to show me any gratitude. I did what I did only for my own gain." Evelyn said dismissively.

"Sure, but you still fought hard and protected myself and my comrades. Everyone does things for themselves. That doesn't mean that others won't be appreciative of what you did."

"Fine, then you're welcome." Evelyn said bashfully.

Lizlul could not help but smiling at Evelyn's timidness in the face of appreciation. On the battlefield she had been confident and gallant, but she was completely different when it came to receiving praise.

Leaving the mess hall, Lizlul brought Evelyn to Yulbok's office and waited for him to let them in. Unlike last time though, he did not have them wait for even a second and had the door open the moment they walked in front of it.

Just like the last time she was here, the office was bustling with busy Rangers, and Yulbok had a large stack of papers on his desk and several flying messages were constantly landing in front of him. Being the head authority of a fortress was evidently a busy job.

"I was wondering when you were going to stop by. Do you the list of items you want as a reward for your efforts during the battle yesterday?"

"Yes, here is the list. If at all possible, I want one of the two at the bottom if nothing else." Evelyn said, passing a sheet of paper to Yulbok.

Taking it, he quickly looked it over and found no problems with what Evelyn wanted until he looked at the final two items on the list.

Everything else had been alchemical ingredients and equipment that while valuable were not particularly uncommon. However, what Evelyn had already stated she wanted the most was one of two incredibly rare items on par with the rarity of a grand fire elemental's heart.

"A Sylphid's Tear or a Roc's foot. You certainly have a taste for difficult to acquire items. These are definitely both on the same tier as a grand fire elemental's heart, but I am not sure that anyone within the Great Shell will have one.

At least with grand fire elementals they come to us, but A Sylphid's Tear of a Roc's foot are not things one comes by easily or often." Yulbok said, a grimace on his face.

Seeing his reaction Evelyn figured that she had no shot at getting one of the two final items she would need to evolve. Still, she had figured that it was worth a try.

Yet, as she was about to assure Yulbok that it was fine if he could not get her either a Sylphid's tear or a Roc's foot, he spoke up with a look of determination in his eyes.

"I can't make any promises, but I'll use my connections to try and fine one of these items for you. It might take a few days, but you are more than welcome to stay here for the time being. As for the alchemical supplies you want, those should be easy enough to acquire. I'll have Bazo take from the fortress' surplus stocks and anything we are lacking I will requisition from the Great Shell."

A look of shock on her face, Evelyn could not believe what she had just heard. Yulbok had just assured her that he would do everything he could to get her everything that she wanted. It was almost too good to be true.