An Owl's Rise

'Ugh, my head hurts. What happened?'

As Evelyn started coming to consciousness after her less than gentle toss into a cage, she suddenly opened her eyes wide in realization.

The events that had happened leading up to her capture and current confinement all came rushing back to her, and along with it a sense of helplessness.

She was currently stuck in a cage in some sort of underground facility she did not know the purpose of.

At first, she thought maybe it was some sort of beast selling operation. But that went out the window quickly, as she saw the mangled corpse of wolf being dragged out of another room that lay beyond a set of doors she hoped never to cross through.

Now her options had plummeted, and she figured that it was probably one of two very unideal situations.

Either this was some sort of lab where they were doing experiments, or these people got their jollies off of torturing animals.

Though it really did not matter which situation it was, because as she continued to observe for hours that not a single beast that went into the room came out alive, or even in one piece for that matter.

However, as Evelyn watched these horrors, she realized that eventually it was going to be her turn.

'No, not again.' She thought a renewed sparking igniting in her.

She remembered the torture and the pain she had suffered and would do anything she could to not die practically the same way twice.

Feeling sorry for herself was not going to help, and now that she was not in constant crushing pain or under the effects of the paralytic drug her head had cleared a bit.

Her human mind was her greatest asset, and she was going to need it if she was to escape.

First, she went over and checked the mechanism that kept the cage closed but found that whatever it was could not be seen or felt from within the cage.

She then tired ramming her body against the cage hoping to maybe get it to topple over, but that was a failure as well.

The cage was bolted into the wall and her efforts to move it only caused her already sore body to hurt even more.

"Hoot. Hoot."

Crying out from the cage she hoped that maybe her parents were nearby, but the only response she got was from her owl brother who she was now blaming for this mess.

If he had not gotten caught in that trap to begin with, none of this would have happened and she could have continued her happy and carefree life as an owl.

Letting out a sigh, she had been wishing that her parents would have been close by, but it appeared that they were being held elsewhere, or maybe had already been subjected to whatever horrors lied beyond this room.

'Damn, what am I supposed to do now?' Evelyn thought, trying to figure some way out of her predicament.

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She had found it impossible to open the cage or move it, and the bars were far too sturdy for her to break through.

This left her only escape option to be having someone else open the cage.

Unfortunately, she had watched what went on over the last few hours, and whenever a cage was opened the beast inside was quickly grabbled by a pole with a rope on the end of it to prevent any chance of escape.

Of course, getting out of her cage would still only be the first step, and after that she would pretty much need a miracle to escape back outside.

Still, it was a possibility, and she was going to take her chance.

Anyway, what was the worst they could do to her if she was caught escaping. It appeared that whatever future she had here was already going to end in a terrible, painful death. So, she might as well try to escape.

'At the very least I should be able to open the doors. All I have to do is push the handles and the doors seemed to slide back with ease.'

With a basic plan forming in her mind, Evelyn began focusing on the first matter at hand which was getting out of her cage.

Luckily, she eventually came up with what she thought would be her best chance.

Every few hours or so, someone would come by and check on the cages and give the trapped beasts some water.

When that happened next, Evelyn was going to make her move.

But first she had to steel herself and prepare for some more pain.

Bending her head down towards her feet, she stretched her body to the limit and got her claws close enough to touch her tongue.

It was an uncomfortable position to hold, but she needed to do it in order to enact the first part of her plan.

Taking one of her talons she sliced her own tongue which hurt quite a bit, but was still nothing compared to what she had experienced before.

'Okay, now I have the blood that I need, so I just have to wait.' Evelyn thought as she allowed the blood to pool in her mouth and released a bit around her neck.

Soon the man that checked on the cages came by, and Evelyn made her move.

She threw herself down heavily onto the floor of the cage and spit up the mouthful of blood she had been saving.

For added effect she even made terrible screeching sounds that certainly sounded like a dying bird.

Then as the man hurried over to check out what was wrong, she went completely still and played dead.

Seeing this, the guy said what Evelyn could only guess were curses as he opened the cage to pull her out and see what was wrong.

Luckily for Evelyn these people seemed to want any and all of the beasts they had captured alive. So, by pretending to die she had managed to get this guy flustered enough to forget protocol and tie her down before opening the cage.

The second the man opened the cage, she dropped her act and lashed out at him claws first.

Racking across his eyes she succeeded in catching the man completely off guard and blinded him.

It was a brutal attack, but at this point, Evelyn really did not care what she had to do to escape so long as she did.

'It was lucky that this guy seems to be a pretty much normal person, since I am not sure what I would have done if he was another monster that could use magic.' Evelyn thought as she jumped out of the cage, while the man she had just maimed rolled around on the ground clutching his eyes.

With her freedom from the cage achieved, she made her way right over to the door and pushed with all her might on the handle.

Fortunately, it required only a light force to unseal the door, and once it could be opened, she wedged her body in the crack and slowly pushed open the sliding door.

Free of the room where beasts where held captive, Evelyn took one last look behind her, thinking about trying to rescue her family.

Yet after just a second, she shook her head and flew off down the corridor towards the underground facility's exit.

She knew that going to search for her parents was a suicide mission and would only make her already low chances of escape plummet to zero.

Certainly, she had grown attached to her parents that had loved her unconditionally, but she had really only known them for a few months. Therefore, choosing between getting out alive or sacrificing herself to try and save them, the answer was obvious to Evelyn.

'It won't do me any good to die here with them. I just need to escape and not let their sacrifices be in vain.'

Flying down the corridor she moved as fast as she could towards the exit praying that she would not run into anyone.

And by some miracle she avoided detection down the entire corridor, as no one was traversing down it or had exited any of the doors that periodically lined the walls.

Soon, she made it to the cellar door that would lead her outside and began searching for a latch or lever to open it.

However, unlike the doors within the facility that opened easily with a push handle, this one seemed to have no way to operate it from here.

Unfortunately, this door could only be opened by magic, which Evelyn could not use and did not know to use.

She had made it to the goal, but there seemed to be no salvation at the end of the tunnel.

It was only a matter of time until she was discovered and recaptured at this rate.

'Do I search the entire place for some sort of button or switch that opens this hatch? Or maybe try and find another way out?' Evelyn thought, weighing her options.

Except, her option became limited even further as she heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

At the very least, as she listened, they did not sound hasty, so she doubted it was someone looking for her.

'Maybe they are leaving? I need somewhere to hide.'

Thinking on her feet, Evelyn searched for some place to conceal herself, and soon found the darkest corner on the ceiling.

Flying up there she wedged herself in this corner. Just barely managing to get enough purchase to hold herself up.

Soon the man's who foot falls she had heard came down the corridor and up to the cellar door.

He was a man she had not seen yet, had graying hair, and wore a black robe similar but higher quality to the little man she had seen when she was first brought into the room full of caged beasts.

But as she looked at him closely, it was his eyes that stood out to her, because she recognized them. They were the same eyes that her killer had. Eyes that showed no remorse and reveled in the pain of others.

Placing his hand on the door the man's arm began to glow ever so slightly blue, as he channeled in a bit of his magical energy and opened the lock on the door.

Seeing the door opening and what appeared to be a bit of moonlight flooding in, Evelyn wanted to leap out from her hiding spot and fly out into the forest.

Still, she restrained herself and waited.

She needed to let this man go first and follow behind him to minimize her chances of being seen.

So long as she was careful, it was likely she would not be spotted or heard due to her stealthy nature as an owl.

'Now!'

Six seconds after the man had left, Evelyn jumped out from her hiding spot and flew towards the door that had just begun closing.

Just barely threading through, she managed to escape the building right before the door closed and was once again out in the open air.

She had managed to do it; she had escaped this awful facility and could now try and live her normal life in this world as an owl.

'The guy has not seen me and has his back to me. Time to fly in the opposite direction an get out of this forest and away from these guys.'

Turning in the opposite direction the man was walking, Evelyne flew towards the woods making her final escape.

There was no turning back now, and while she did really regret abandoning her family, she simply could not face down another torturous end.

However, as so very often had happened to Evelyn, the greatest cruelties of life seemed to find her.

Right before she passed into the depths of the forest, she felt something tugging on one of her legs, and she suddenly reeled back as if she was connected to some type of cord.

Regaining her bearing as she started falling, she turned around and saw with horror in her eyes that what looked like a thin blue thread was attached to her left leg.

Then there was another hard yank as she was pulled out of the sky.

Yet she did not hit the ground instead, being caught in the arms of someone.

Though this gave her no sense of comfort, as she realized who had just grabbed ahold of her.

Looking up, she saw the man who had just exited the facility allowing for her escape. Smiling down at her with a grin that made her heart stop for a moment out of fear.