After hours of searching for the trio that had gone missing, by trying to track any hoof prints with the help of the experienced hunters from the nearby village. A search party was finally able to find the site of the bear attack.
It was sunset by the time they did so; therefore they marked it on a map and returned to the camp to inform lord Ulric of their discovery.
Back at the hunting camp.
Lord Ulric had just returned and was feeling very worried about William's whereabouts when the party that had found the site of the attack barged into his tent, led by Neil the acting captain of the guards on this hunting expedition, as well as the hunter who was there at the time of the discovery.
"Grave news my lord, we have found the guards that were sent with the young lord." Neil saluted as he declared.
This news made the marquess feel a very foreboding feeling, 'found' and 'grave news' as well as not mentioning William were very telling signs.
"Explain yourself" lord Ulric commanded Neil.
" We found the remains of the young lord's guards, one had his leg trapped under his dead horse, with him and his mounts heads missing, the other seemed to have had time to resist, as his sword was drawn, but we only found a few limbs and a half-eaten torso."
Neil proceeded to describe what they had found, being very careful as to keep the description good enough to give a clear picture, but without describing too much of the gruesome sight they had beheld, which frankly gave him the urge to throw up.
As the marquess heard the gruesome fate of the guards, his legs almost gave out. Not of fear of whatever had done it, but for fear that William may have suffered the same fate.
"What about William, have you….. Found him." Lord Ulric asked, barely able to utter his son's name for fear of the answer.
"No my lord, all we found were the remains of a horse and the two guards" answered Neil.
Lord Ulric felt a bit relieved, William was still in danger, but at least he did not die right then and there.
"What had done this?" lord Ulric asked, he was now getting furious at the culprit, whatever or whoever it may be.
Neil hesitated a bit, he was not sure what had it been exactly that had done this to two well-trained guards.
At this very moment the hunter, who the lord almost forgot about finally spoke.
"A colossal bear my lord."
Neil immediately proceeded with the introduction.
"This is Brian, an experienced hunter we had hired for the hunt, he had been a great help in tracking the horses' path through the forest, leading to us finding out the sight of the attack."
The marquess nodded towards the hunter to continue his explanation after Neil's introduction.
"From the sight of the attack and the destruction wrought by the beast upon the surroundings, as well as the paw's size and depth. I am afraid that there is nothing in the forest that can do this other than a colossal bear." Brian explained
"Why have I never heard of this 'colossal bear'? I have hunted many times in these forests and I have never encountered it before, what are we dealing with and why is it here so close to the forest's extremities?" the marquess asked in frustration and anger.
"My lord, the colossal bear is practically a legend that is rarely observed, seen only in the deepest parts of the forest by those desperate enough to seek the rare and precious herbs that can be found there. Very rarely has it been encountered throughout the years and very few that did, have ever been able to come back and tell the tale."
The hunter paused to allow the lord to absorb the information that had just been delivered to him before he continued.
" the colossal bear, as the name implies is big, it is too fast and too strong for even the most prepared and experienced hunters to deal with, which explains the fate of your guards, as for why it has appeared so close to the forest's exit, that I do not know." He concluded.
"What about my son, where is he?" Ulric asked in an urgent and almost desperate tone, only his years of experience as a marquess and his control over his facial expression help him keep his emotions in check.
"I may have some good news, my lord, though it was almost sunset and there was not much light left, I am pretty certain that your son had been able to escape the bear at the time of the attack, there were tracks of human and a bear leading deeper into the forest, as well as horse hooves leading to the same direction."
"Can you track them?" lord William held the hunter by his shoulders and drew him closer as he asked.
The hunter was surprised by the marquess's sudden physical contact but he nonetheless answered.
"I believe so my lord, come morning and with daylight, I would be able to.."
" MORNING? Morning? My son is stranded in that forest at night, with a roaming beast that was able to rip two of my personal guards to pieces and you speak of the morning!!" The marquess turned to Neil.
"Prepare the guards, lit up torches and equip yourselves for battle, we move NOW." The marquess cut Brian off, almost screaming at his face.
"But my lord, going into the forest while the beast is still roaming it at night is suic.."
" I SAID NOW!!!" The marquess cut the hunter off once more, looking him in the eye with a piercing glare that did not give room for compromise.
Neil grabbed the hunter and left the tent to go and prepare for the long and probably dangerous night ahead of them, leaving the marquess alone in his tent.
"If anything happens to my son, I swear on my name that I will skin you alive and drive your kin from the forest, you wretched beast." Lord Ulric swore that night to himself as he left his tent as well to join his men in the search.
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Deep in the forest, in the middle of the night.
William was woken up in the middle of the night by a growl, as he opened his eyes and looked around him from the top of the tree he was on, he saw a giant bear moving along the stream and sniffing the ground from time to time.
William froze immediately as he cursed in his head. "shit, shit, shit. my plan did not work and this roided up fur ball has followed me all the way here. Why couldn't you be just a useless panda? I could have given you bamboo and let you eat and shit as much as you want. BUT NOOOOO, you had to be a living, breathing killing machine."
The bear slowly walked to the stream to drink water and as it did so, William noticed that it was limping, that one of its front paws was injured and bleeding.
it did help quite a bit that there were fewer trees near the stream, as well as few clouds making the visibility adequate for his eyes, though nowhere near what the bear could probably see with those predatory eyes of his.
"Yes!!! Finally some luck, the gods have not forsaken me yet. Maybe I can run away now that it has pretty much lost a leg, right?"