An Owl's Rise

Chapter 25 25 Exploring The Ruins

?Having discovered the ruins of a long-gone human civilization, Evelyn decided to make it her new base.

It was as far as she could tell the perfect place for her to be right now.

Not only was it an enclosed and protected area, but there was the possibility that it might hold some valuable information or items within it.

Certainly, Evelyn figured most beasts would fine anything humans had made to be useless. But to her as a former human, she was certain she could use what she might find to her advantage.

'Come on let there be something good in here.' Evelyn thought as she flew into the first house.

Quickly she began searching the area, but it was pretty bare.

There were signs of things like a kitchen, but anything useful was either gone or degraded.

'This is all that is left?'

Finding a single large clay pot that was at one time filled with something organic but now all that was left was the dried-out bits of dying mold, her disappoint was immeasurable.

The pot also had cracks in it and would not hold much of anything anymore. Making it completely useless.

'Well. This house is a bust. Onto the next one.'

Searching the next building Evelyn once again came up with squat.

Though this pretty much confirmed to her that this place was simply abandoned rather than some sort of accident or mass killing.

In those situations, she would expect to find more signs of things being left, not to mention human remains.

With the arid environment here, it would be likely that there would still be at least some pieces of skeletons should the people have met their end here.

'Ugh this is both good and bad. Good because if it was abandoned, it appears to have been for quite some time and I doubt anyone is going to come back. Bad because that means they probably took all of their good stuff with them.'

Sighing Evelyn had really been hoping to find something that would give her a better insight to the people of this world, but that seemed unlikely now.

Not to mention that this place was so long abandoned that the treated wood in the houses had all but rotted away.

Still, Evelyn decided to check out all of the buildings since it was possible something useful might have been left behind by those that used to live here left.

Though it also served two other purposes.

This way she could scope out the best place for her to set up her temporary home and make absolute sure that nothing dangerous was skulking around.

Slowly but surely, she made her way through all of the buildings.

Starting with those on the outskirts and making her way towards the ones in the middle that were larger and more likely to hold something valuable.

Unfortunately, as she searched, she found very little that would be useful.

All that she came across in the entirety of her search were a few glass bottles that had managed to not break, and a single wood burning stove that seemed in good enough condition to be used.

'This is the last place. All my hopes ride on this building. I saved the best for last, but after everything else, I am not holding my breath.'

Entering inside the largest and most central building, Evelyn found that it was not any different from the rest of the buildings.

It was pretty much picked clean with only large items being left behind.

Unfortunately, most things had degraded over what must have been a long period of time.

Though when she made it to a certain room, she was surprised to see that it seemed to be in decent condition.

'Woah a bathtub. That is the first time I have seen one of those in any of these buildings.'

Jumping up into the tub Evelyn began looking around and found why this room still seemed to be intact more so than any other.

There was some sort of circle with runes carved into it on the floor of the bathtub, and it appeared that this place had been enchanted somehow.

'I wonder?'

Placing one of her wings over the circle, she began trying to send out her magical energy. and to her surprise it worked.

From out of the circle her magical energy began being converted into water, and the tub started filling up.

Sadly, the drain plug was long gone, so the water just went out to wherever it was going, but Evelyn was still ecstatic.

She was covered in blood, dirt, and dust, and this was the perfect opportunity for her to get clean.

Splashing around in the water she began having herself a little bird bath and watched as all the grim that had built up on her began to wash away.

'Ah it feels so good to be clean again. I have not washed myself off since those bastards captured me.'

Playing around in the water Evelyn enjoyed her time in the magical bath. Though after around an hour her magical energy began to be depleted and she had to stop.

'This has definitely been worth it. Just this magical water creating circle was worth the entire trip here as far as I am concerned.'

Very happy with her newfound discovery, Evelyn thought that maybe her luck was looking up.

'I still have the rest of the place to search now. Maybe I can find something else like this.'

Yet as Evelyn made her way to leave, she thought about something else she wanted to do.

Quickly she used what remained of her magical energy to fill up the tub a bit and sat on the drain to slow down the loss of water.

Then she looked down at the water and at her own reflection.

She had not seen what she looks like in this life, and now was the perfect chance.

'Hm, I look similar to my parents, but I have a different feather pattern.'

Looking at herself in the water's reflection, Evelyn saw that she resembled a great horned owl, but she had colored feathers on her body just like her parents.

Like both her mother and father she had spots of green, but along with those she had purple feathers which she found strange.

Once all the water had drained again and she had gotten her fill of looking at her reflection, Evelyn shook the lingering water off of her body, and began searching the remainder of the final building.

'Oh, what do we have here.'

Finding something of interest, she pulled away into an odd room that unlike the rest was tiled.

Certainly, it normally would not have caught her or anyone's eye, but one area of the tiles seemed to be loose.

Flying down towards this area, she removed the tiles and found a pair of metal doors that led down into a cellar.

'Come on, you can open. Do not let the rust stop you now.'

Pulling up with all her strength Evelyn tried to pry open the metal doors that had rusted shut.

Then with one big yank, she wrenched them open, and a cloud of dust spread out over the room.

With one swish of her wings, she blew the dust away and looked down into the dark cellar.

Luckily as an owl her night vision was impeccable, and she could see all the way down to the bottom of the dirt floor.

Of course, the stairs had long since deteriorated, but that meant nothing to her as she glided down into the cellar.

'Score.'

Looking through the cellar. Evelyn saw that a number of glass container were still intact, and their contents still inside.

Going up to one she pulled the sealed top off and an amber liquid began spilling out.

Immediately the smell of alcohol hit Evelyn's nose and she figured out exactly what it was that had been stored here.

Feeling a sense of anger rising up inside of her, Evelyn had a burning hate for alcohol.

Her human father had become and alcoholic after her mother's death and it had destroyed her life.

In a rage she quickly went around breaking all of the bottles, not caring that they might be useful.

She wanted nothing to do with any alcohol ever, and wanted it gone.

Soon she stood in front of the last bottle, and with one swipe of her claws shattered it. Letting the long-lasting liquor that had survived all these years spill out onto the floor of the cellar.

Yet as she looked down at the last of the alcohol spilling out, she felt a tug in her chest as the Aethersphere pointed her downwards.