An Owl's Rise

Evelyn carefully watched the posture of the giant tortoise to gauge its intentions.

If it had just been a normal beast living out in the wild, she would have simply ignored it and been on her way, but she knew that this tortoise was like her.

Melisandre had told her that there was a society of tortoises similar to the Roost that watched over the Inferno Field.

It was easy enough for Evelyn to spot some sort of identification item that clung to the base of its neck like a choker.

'Seeing as it is part of the tortoise society that governs this place, I should be able to gather some information.' Evelyn thought. 

Havign decided to converse with this tortoise Evelyn landed on the ground around thirty meters from it and made sure not to show any signs of hostility.

She then extended a thin strand of magical energy towards the tortoise in order to convey her wish to speak.

The tortoise looked surprised to see this gesture, but it would rather not fight Evelyn and was more than happy to accept her invitation.

"Hello, it is nice to meet you. My name is Evelyn, and I am a member of the Roost here to gather certain items. I hope that it was not impertinent of me to have assisted you with those elementals?"

After Evelyn's introduction the tortoise looked surprised, and then suspicious as it looked over Evelyn.

She clearly did not have an identification cuff like all members of the Roost wore and it had heard some recent rumors that the Roost had been completely destroyed.

"You say you are a member of the Roost, yet you carry no item to identify yourself. Also, from what I have heard the Roost was attacked by humans over a year and a half ago and has not been heard from since. It has been surmised that they were wiped out." The tortoise said accusatorily.

Clearly it did not believe Evelyn and thought she was just some stray owl trying to use the name of the Roost to get into his good graces.

While the Tortoises and the Roost had never been close allies, neither had they been enemies.

"Perhaps this will just sound like I am covering for myself, but my identification cuff was destroyed in that battle you mentioned. The Tyrannis Union certainly did try to wipe the Roost out, but they failed. Most of us owls got away, but unfortunately, I was separated in the chaos. I have likewise not heard anything from the Roost, but I can guarantee that they survived. Whether you believe me or not does not really matter though. I have come here to obtain an item I need for my evolution and do not plan to leave until I obtain it. Now if you want, we can try and have an amicable relationship and exchange information, or I will be on my way. Even if I have to go through you to continue."

The giant tortoise gulped when it heard the last thing Evelyn said and saw the dangerous gleam in her eyes. While they both might have been at the peak of the awakened rank, this tortoise felt that there was something incredibly dangerous about Evelyn and that he should not fight her at any cost.

"Sorry, I should not have been so suspicious of you. I do not want there to be any hostilities between us. You just helped me out of a bind, and it does not really matter if you are part of the Roost or not. This place is not a restricted area or anything. Though it is dangerous enough that few come here to seek the resources within it. I would actually recommend that you not venture any farther in, at least for now. There was a recent surge of fire elementals that pushed through the rift and are causing chaos all over the place. Right now, it is pretty risky even for peak awakened beasts to be here." The tortoise said, showing some concern for Evelyn.

However, after coming this far, Evelyn had no intention of turning back. Not to mention that an increase in fire elemental activity meant that she was more likely to find her quarry.

"Thank you for your concern, but I am actually after the heart of a certain type of fire elemental. I came fully prepared to fight them and take them down. Perhaps I can even be of some assistance in quelling their numbers. Of course, I would like some information in exchange for my help. This is my first time here and I only have the records from the Roost to go off of." 

The giant tortoise nearly rejected Evelyn's proposal on reflex, but stopped just before he did.

He had caught glimpses of how Evelyn had handled those lesser fire elementals and was honestly very surprised by her abilities. He had no idea how she was able to come out unscathed from being engulfed by fire, and some of her magic was utterly incomprehensible.

'I've already had enough trouble patrolling my section. I only just joined the Inferno Field Rangers and don't want to get kicked out for a bad performance during this crisis. She seems trustworthy enough. If she wanted to, she could just use force to get me to tell her what she wants. I am sure she is confident that she could beat me. But with her assistance I am sure that it will be easy enough to deal with the lower ranking fire elementals that slip past my seniors patrolling the depths. A bit of information is a small price to pay.' The Tortoise thought, coming to believe that he could use Evelyn to his advantage.

Once he had finished weighing his options the Tortoise agreed to tell Evelyn everything it knew about the Inferno Field in return for her assisting him with hunting the fire elementals in the area for three days.