Chapter 4 Ulula

The hawk suddenly made a disturbance sound, leading the beauty to turn around and look behind her. The bird was going to attack her when another hawk emerged out of nowhere and whisked her away.

As she regained consciousness. She discovered herself dangling from the claw of a bird. She was also overwhelmed by the height of her current position. Despite her fear of heights, she forced herself to free herself from its claws.

The bird, who had been glancing at her while flying, said, "Food."

She was terrified when she looked at it. The maiden couldn't believe it could speak.

"You're just mine!" it exclaimed, making a loud bird noise.

She screamed in terror when suddenly another hawk attack the predatory bird, causing it to release her and fall, but then a beak caught Arabelle. The woman thought she was already safe on the verge of death, but she was suddenly tossed up as if she were a seal thrown by an orca, while the bird's beak was open, waiting for her to fall directly into its mouth.

She screamed. The beauty kept falling into the dead hungry bird's beak. But before she could be eaten by the bird another hawk took her again.

She appeared to be scrambled and passed around like a ball. Her predicament had already made her dizzy. To free herself from those creatures, she stretched for a tree branch and gave herself such high hopes through it. Arabelle refused to release the grip of the branch, despite the hawk's tremendous tug. Blood was also streaming from her arm, which had been buried beneath her skin by its claws. The woman was already in pain, but she remained unfazed and refused to release her grip on the branch.

Unfortunately, all of her efforts were for naught since the branch abruptly snapped. The hawk mocked her.

"Do you think you'll be able to get away from me?" the creature boasts. "I'm the strongest in our cast, even if you keep on raging you still can't escape," he added.

Arabelle became silent as the hawk spoke, she admitted she was really weak. And so she abruptly stopped fighting back, making the hawk overjoyed.

"That's right," it stated.

"I'm not as strong as you," she murmured to herself.

The hawk didn't hear it clearly due to the sound of air, "What?" the creature inquired.

"Yes, you are stronger..." she paused herself, and the bird seemed pleased with what she said.

"However," Arabelle spoke before hanging up, the bird frowned as it flew.

"You're the most stupid among your cast!" she exclaimed as she planted the broken piece of branch she had hidden at one of its feet. The bird let out a loud and agonizing squawk. She was released and continued to fall. The maiden falls directly into the trees.

Arabelle groaned in agonizing pain as she dropped through the branches. The woman clung to every tree branch she came into contact with before collapsing to the ground. Her entire body was riddled with wounds. Despite being weak and fatigued, she attempted to strengthen herself. Arabelle's pants and sleeveless top were ripped and bloodstained.

She was also hesitant to walk and she just wanted to take a rest. She heard the hawks arrive again, the beauty merely knelt in despair and closed her eyes as tears flowed down her face.

"Please... Someone help me," she pleaded. And kept her eyes closed, even though she wanted to run she didn't have the strength to do that.

"Over here!" a sudden voice said.

Arabelle blinked open her eyes, looking for the source of the voice.

"Hurry! They're coming!" the unknown voice proclaimed.

She tracked down the source of the voice, which came from a hole beneath a tree. Such was her surprise when she discovered a pair of wide eyes inside the hole, the size of a frying pan.

"Are you expecting to stay up all night? What are you waiting for? They've already here!" the mystery creature shouted.

When the maiden switched her gaze to the skies, one of the hawks swooped down, intending to snare her again.

Arabelle stepped up and jumped inside the hole, despite her doubts. Fortunately, the hawk did not track her down. The maiden, on the other hand, never stops falling into a dark abyss. She only came to a halt when she collided with the back of a feathered creature. She took a step back, scared.

"Don't be afraid," the creature whispered quietly before turning to face her and lighting a torch with the lighter in its beak. "This is the torch," it said as it handed the torch to her. "You'll need it, especially since we have a long way to go in this dark tunnel."

The creature in front of her stunned the beauty. The bird simply extended her hand and handed the torch across. It has already begun its journey down the tunnel. So Arabelle decides to follow it, but still looking at the bird's features. It has a huge flat-topped head with no ear tufts, long legs, a compact feathered body, and a short tail. It has sulfur-yellow sparkling wide eyes with white eyebrows, giving the bird a frowning look. The upper feathers are white with brown speckles, whereas the lower feathers are white with brown streaks. It's around 4 feet tall and has a greyish-green bill.

Arabelle was calmly following the creature as it murmured incomprehensible words to her. They'd been traveling for a while, so she just gazed around at everything to get rid of the nagging feeling; all she could see were tree roots and small insects.

"Where are we going?" Arabelle suddenly asks.

She came into halt when the creature stopped and collided with her.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself," the creature admitted and faced her.

"My name is Ulula, and as you can see I'm a little owl," she said as she walked away from her. Arabelle frowned since it did not answer her question.

"Don't worry, I'll take you to the place where I know you'll be safe," Ulula stated, as she stopped and removed the vines that were blocking on their path.

"Here we are!" Ulula exclaimed cheerfully.

"Welcome to Asio Flammeus' kingdom, Priestess." And ushered Arabelle out of the tunnel.

"Priestess?" was her only response, after seeing the kingdom's overall appearance.