Going deeper into Grudlen, the land dips down to form a shallow basin with a ring of ancient twisted trees, something else had been making its home there long before Brill ever set foot in Grudlen.
It was the Crowbear nest; The structure was raised above the ground in a broad dome, large branches jammed into each other without any obvious reason to hold there but for whatever force held them; it was supported by packed earth, strips of leather, and bones jammed into the structure to act as anchors.
It was decorated throughout with dark feathers, some still plump, some thin with age and dullness and catching the limited light from the canopy.
And in the center of it all, sat the Crowbear.
Seven feet tall on occasion, but most of the time this didn't apply as it had no reason to stand, it possessed the bulk of a bear and yet the body itself stretched in some way that made it longer, lankier, and capable of shifting to one pose or the other as needed; either an anchored, earth-bound stance or an upraised more humanoid pose.
The fur wasn't really fur at all; it shed out into layers of feathers on the back of its shoulders and on down its body, a large collection and overlap of each feather being edged in a dark gloss to give it a sheen of diluted oil. Its head was close to that of a crow, stretched with a long head, its hook beak jutting downward at an angle. Its eyes sat more deep, set than a bird's; darker and so intensely aware they never really left its opponent.
Only the smallest speck of reflection in the eye itself showed a sign of movement without telling a soul what it was thinking.
Along the spine of its back, longer quills stuck out, some broke, others held whole, some were thick enough to push through flesh without any apparent problem. Its tail rested on the ground, dragging a bundle of stiff feathers that it wielded when it felt like it.
Four cubs of a smaller nature sat around the nest, not much smaller as they were each bigger than any dog, but there were smaller than their parent as the bear-bird wasn't yet done with their growth and there were still parts where fluff showed where feathers hadn't yet formed a complete covering. They were too much to ignore; the cubs played with each other and bumped shoulders, small rasping caws, more like broken words were let out between them.
Near the edge of the nest several things lay in various states of decay.
People, or what was left of them.
Bones that had been cleaned picked dry and discarded where they had fallen, flesh clinging to them not yet fully deteriorated, their clothes tattered and ripped and scattered. There was no reason for any explanation they told their story without it needing to be spoken by another body.
Of course those brutish Crowbears got to them.
The Crowbear moved its head down, lowering its beak to one of the fresher ones and tore out a portion of meat before raising it and letting out a low grating sound from its throat.
The cubs instantly crowded around and just waited; the Crowbear chewed it once or twice before leaning down, it pushed the meat into the waiting mouth of the closest cub and the creature gulped down the mess and backed away, then the Crowbear then did the same for the next.
She fed each cub; they took turns feeding without fighting or even struggling for a second of each piece. Everything happened the same, everything was repeated perfectly, they ollowed the instructions of the Crowbear and its ways.
The Crowbears had a nature of teaching, the lingering fragments of their meals traveled within them and at first they seemed small enough to ignore, soon they became more defined within the body that was theirs and the other body it belonged to, perhaps language too. Whatever they ate, they gained some of their food's knowledge.
"Ha…ha…" Heavy breathing came about. Brill stumbled into the clearing. His body was streaked with blood in patches and trails, both dried and fresh, he was short of breath and stopped just beyond the reach of the nest, and the sound of the destruction of the Divine Beast had faded far enough behind him that it no longer pressed against his thoughts.
He had lost the body but he had kept the blade, still bloody and still his. He stood straight on legs that would not stand straight and forced himself to lift the weapon a few inches more. He was more tired from carrying that big bandit bastard for an hour straight.
"Crowbear...I have come to hunt you!"
The bird-like beast turned its head, its beak turning until one eye clearly regarded Brill. Its body turned a little after the head; it turned on its hips and with little effort swept the cubs back toward the nest without looking with her tail.
The feathers on its shoulders ruffled a little, settling in a way that made its size seem more pronounced than before.
Then, a menacing and threatening growl, deeper than any, let out of it.
"Foolish...human boy... A fragment of food that I sense fear from...Why do you seek your death so soon?" The Mother Crowbear said, the words licked and spat into human tongue.
Brill's legs did not listen, they trembled as he held the blade higher and shoved his shoulders in even more than they wanted to.
He was scared, but he had to do this. Had to…right?
"People always keep their distance from me and they never come to me. Everyone runs away from me because I was born with these things on my face! The world wants me to become somebody and I can do it if I just be worthy of it! S-So I'm here to kill you and I will drag your head back to town so everyone will see me! Then maybe a Divine Beast from the Divinity Gate will choose me! I'm special!" Brill exclaimed.
The Crowbear continued to stare without reacting until he finished. It tilted its head a bit further as the familiar grind came from within its throat, its heavy weight sinking into the ground.
"You are a good choice for my cubs..." the mother said. "Others stumble through by chance, and they die. But those who are too brave, are the tasty ones. The knowledge we will gain from eating the corpse of a young human sapling…my cubs will be as fearsome as me!"
It began with surprising speed, its massive body shot forward, with its beak aimed right toward Brill's body.
Brill pushed off with his legs at the same time as the Crowbear, screaming as he rushed toward it, blade up.
'I'll hunt it! I'll beat it! I'm special!'
Brill dashed forward, kicking up dirt, as he brought his blade down at a direction toward the Crowbear's side with as much force as he could muster; aimed high to draw blood fast and chase away the fear he could feel building again in the pit of his stomach.
It wasn't claws or beak that met the blade but an immediate ducking in under it, closing the distance until Brill's spacing was completely broken. The Crowbear smashed into him, body first, with the force of a falling wall.
Brill was flung backward, his back hitting a large, smooth rock just behind him, the air blasted from his lungs, his head whipping forward to smash against his own chest.
"AGHH!"
Blood was on his mouth before he could realize he'd bitten his tongue, his vision a blurry tilting mess that only focused in time to see the Crowbear charging forward with beak poised for his chest.
He grit his teeth, his body automatically folded and then sprang, catapulting him upward, dodging the attack by mere inches and twisting through the air before landing on the back of the creature and burying his blade between its feathered plating.
And it sank far enough to elicit a rough grinding growl from the beast as it twisted under him.
The Crowbear roared, saying, "ACK!" And the beast flung itself sideways.
Brill was instantly thrown sideways as it hit a tree, the solid crunch of bark against feather momentarily trapping him before he tore himself free, ripping the blade free and nearly dropping it as he staggered backward onto unstable feet.
The Crowbear spun faster than a creature of that size should have been able to, its tail sweeping through the dirt and lashing against his legs, lifting his feet off the ground as Brill flipped through the air once before crashing hard into the ground. The impact sent another jolt of pain through his ribs, and Brill rolled away from the lunge of the Crowbear's claws which ripped through the ground where he had been only a moment before.
Brill pushed himself to his feet, swaying just a bit, and darted around the front of it to attack its flank, the blade flashing toward the joint of its leg and tearing through feather and flesh, dark blood spilling out as it staggered back, giving him enough space to slide past its reach.
"I'm gonna win! And they're all gonna be impressed!" Brill yelled.
The cubs had ceased all movement; huddled close together at the very edge of the nest, their small bodies still as they followed every one of his moves with nervous eyes.
The Crowbear adjusted its body, lowering itself a bit on its hindquarters, its wings expanding to alter its balance, then blasted forward, its beak driving toward Brill's head at a terrifying speed.
He ducked low under it, sliding across a blood puddle on one knee as the beak swept through the air above him, then Brill kicked off the ground, driving his shoulder into its side to try and throw off its balance.
The attempt did not go as planned, the Crowbear twisted against the impact and a wicked claw sank into Brill's shoulder, raking him across the ground until it launched him forward with a great amount of force.
He hit, rolled twice, and pushed himself to his feet again, breathing raggedly, his arm bleeding from where the claw had torn through both fabric and skin, but he continued moving, darting back in, stepping onto a low root, launching himself upward yet again, and bringing his blade down with a clean slash into the Crowbear's neck, and it connected.
The Crowbear let out another groan and staggered back half a step, and It retaliated with everything it had. "I won't lose in front of my cubs, knowing how our kin is close to extinction, I must set an example!"
Its tail whipped out, catching Brill on the side and sending him spinning across the clearing, his body tumbling across the dirt and broken branches before he was able to stop himself on his hands. He pushed himself back to his feet again, moving more slowly now, his legs trembling, but moving nonetheless.
The Crowbear charged ahead with its claws tearing through the ground, its beak chomping at Brill again.
Brill sidestepped just enough to avoid the main brute force of the attack, his blade darting forward to stab into its chest as it rushed past, the blade catching against the Crowbear's bone before slipping inside, and then he ripped the blade free, pivoting and slashing across its flank.
Then, he ducked under a sweeping wing that would have crushed him if it connected. Brill continued to press the attack, stepping in close where the smaller man could get under the Crowbear's defenses to land another quick slice along its underbelly, but a strong kick from the Crowbear's rear leg caught him squarely in the ribs, sending him flying into the air once again before he smashed hard into the ground.
He coughed up blood again, the grip on his blade loosening for a moment before he held it tighter again.
Moving slowly, legs shaking, face and body covered in blood, but he was on his feet. The Crowbear was bleeding now, dark spots appearing on its feathers where Brill's blade had found purchase.
Its breathing was heavier now, its stance not quite as solid, but it was still very far from defeated. It advanced, each thud of its feet shaking the ground beneath them, forcing Brill to give ground.
Brill circled it, searching desperately for an opening, a pattern, a mistake, anything!
It came fast, the Crowbear's claw sweeping through the space where his head was as Brill dropped and zipped forward under it, driving his blade into its side, twisting the blade and tearing it free before it caught him on the tail and sent him spinning across the clearing again, skidding along the dirt until his body hit another rock and came to an abrupt halt with a painful crash.
He forced himself to his feet one last time, and his entire body ached.
But he kept moving. The Crowbear stumbled toward him, slower now, blood running from its wounds, its eyes fixed on Brill with mere rage.
"Why….why do you keep getting up?! Why are you so reckless?!" The Crowbear exclaimed.
Then they moved toward each other at the same time.
Brill stepped in at a weird angle, not at the beast itself like one would expect, dipping his body just enough to evade the direct aim of the Crowbear's lunge as its beak descended towards him. Brill slipped past the thrust and brought his blade up at a slant that did not follow a clean path, the blade punching into the side of the Crowbear head just behind the beak, where the bone was thinner to the touch.
Brill didn't stop there either, dragging the blade along that line, tearing through, splitting the skull as the Crowbear roared with a sound that seemed to shake the very clearing, blood splattering all over the ground, all over the cubs, and even Brill.
The Crowbear roared and struck him at the same moment. A massive claw blasted across his body, catching him fully this time and flinging him through the air several yards where he landed in a heap, and Brill crashed through multiple trees.
The Crowbear staggered, blood streaming down the side of its head. Its strength seemed to seep away from it, its massive form turning toward its cubs. It pulled them close under its tail and began to walk away, but it was more like speed walking, each step slower than the last, but steady enough to carry them out of the clearing.
Brill could barely move where he lay, his fingers still clamped around his blade.