Bella barely noticed the beauty and complexity of the tree, too focused on her mission. She had never really been one for nature anyway. She did nearly drop her dagger, however, at the sight of the huge nest. She tensed at seeing the bird, ready to fight until she realized the bird seemed to be preoccupied. Either way, she couldn't see the pony that had been snatched.

She lingered for a moment, deciding how to approach the situation. Perhaps the bird was intelligent, and could tell Bella where the pony was. It was worth a shot, particularly if a pony's life depended on it. She sheathed her knife and let out a sharp, "HEY!", trying to get the bird's attention.

They outpace the ground-shaking approach, and before too long Orchid's question is...sort of answered. They reach the base of the tree with the nest, arriving in time to hear a familiar voice shouting at the bird.

The bird perks up instantly at the shout, peering up at the bat pony. It turns toward her inquisitively, then hops to pivot the rest of its large body, dropping what it was working with, a foil cape and hat. It hops to the edge of the nest and spreads its wings threateningly, letting out a loud piercing cry at the intruder.

"Well, I can climb a tr--," Sadowi began and stopped once his vision went blue.
"Wheeeee!" he finished as he left the ground and floated towards the nest.

Asher's magic took him in a circle around the bird and placed him behind it, safely out of its immediate line of sight, and once the powdery cloud left him and allowed him to move again he quickly lodged his spare sword securely in a gap between two branches near the edge and tossed its attached rope down in case Asher wanted to climb up. He then waved at the batpony and brought the front hoof to his lips, asking her to keep his presence quiet while he decided on what to do next.

Drawn from its shabby scabbard, his other sword appeared but a mere needle compared to the massive size of the bird. He could try cutting something or even hop and cling onto its back with the blade and his teeth should it take flight, perhaps bleed it out some or poison it; he was a tangled mass of rotted flesh; or; if he could make it out that far on its wing; even pinion it for an inglorious drop down to the dirt. A stupid idea but he did best with stupid, and a killing would ensure nothing or no one else would be taken.

Palmed along with the hilt he held a fragment of coral, and more he carried on his girth amongst a tiny pouch of pearls. After quick glance around the place he assumed the beast had a soft spot for things that glimmer.  A nonviolent approach to lure the mattressback away and allow Orchid, Asher, and Arabella ample time to search for Clair bored Sadowi, but he knew it might have been the best idea.

Within the Everfree, before the group of pursuing ponies had entered after the kidnapping avian, there had been a mare, settled down under one of the few spots where some light managed to shine down through the canopy. There she’d spent the last few minutes studying her compass to try and get her bearings and decide on where to go next, though the compass was doing little to actually assist her. Jury rigged out of a spinner salvaged from a propeller hat then glued to the back of an empty tin intended for mints, this small device was in no way of use when determining which way was north and only ever spun when manually urged by the mare herself. This mattered little to her as whatever direction it landed on would serve well enough as north and north she would go, forever and on until she got to wherever she was going. For now it fell on what was actually west till it tilted more towards southwest and eventually settled on south entirely.

“North,” Brio declared, looking up at the sky with a small smile to check on the time of day. She’d be out of here in no time, or so she believed, readying herself to take back into the air by popping her “compass” back into her bag and giving her wings a stretch. She sighed, satisfied with the feeling, but was cut short when the sunlight she’d been enjoying was eclipsed for but an instant when the bird that had been causing such a ruckus passed by overhead. She’d seen it for just a second, but that second was enough to determine that it was flying North, which was actually South (or was it East?) but Brio cared not for such petty details. This was a sign, obviously, as no other explanation could possibly be tolerated.

“Bird!” She’d shouted just before darting into the air after it, clearing the canopy in time to see what she guessed to be a bat pony speeding off ahead of her after the large creature. They hadn’t noticed her and she had little chance of catching up when going from a dead start, but they dropped down soon after with Brio hazarding an accurate enough guess as to where. She was once again distracted however by the sounds of what she imagined to be fighting. Her dipping back under the treetops allowing her a view of the timber wolf conflict from a safe enough distance to not be involved. She’d witnessed the encounter and upon its resolution had been caught up in glancing around for the source of the rumbling before abandoning the investigation in favor of catching up with this group of timber wolf slaying strangers. She found them again at the base of the tree they were after, her seeing the two ponies being levitated and then gliding her way closer. She soared around the trunk then plopped down onto the ground in a sitting position near the lone pony still at the base.

“That was neat what you guys just did,” she began, as if having just casually sat next to someone on a park bench, “how you guys took on, like, an entire pack of timber wolves like that. You were all like BAM and blasted it with magic - I think it was magic - and were summoning barriers and stuff and that one mare made that spooky shadow lookin thing while that weird looking guy had his swords and was going all SCHWING SWHOO!! Are you guys monster slayers or something? That would be so cool!” She was very animated, her going from sitting to enthusiastically miming what she’d seen albeit with playful exaggeration and added sound effects. She finished with a quick recount of what she’d seen just moments before but added a science fictiony “woo”ing sound to spice up the levitation magic while lightly rolling in the air and settling back on the ground, only now calming down enough to allow her to register anything that wasn’t her own words. She felt something drop down onto her head, not terribly heavy but enough to give her a bop, and after a shake of her head found the culprit to have been a rope that had fallen from the treetop above.

“Huh…” Brio sounded, entering a hover and eyeing the tree curiously.

When the loud intruder fails to vacate the premises, the bird nearly takes a leap into the sky to further deter i-

Shiny.
From the side it sees Sadowi's offering of small glittering valuables. Intrigued, it turns with a hop, cocking its head at the shinies. It hops forward without shaking the nest, and is about to go to snatch it when something whizzes past it, directly towards its newest acquisition.

THIEF! THIEF THIEF BANDIT!!

The bird screeches and flares its wings when the empty tin foil cape and hat are taken. It runs past the shiny baubles offered by Sadowi as distraction in pursuit of the bat-winged miscreant as she clears the edge of the nest, before another threat makes itself known.

CATCATCATCATCATCATCAT
Riled up as it was, the bird's fight or flight response opts for both. It flaps its powerful wings, sending downdrafts and climbing into the air, then dives at the cat perched on the nest, roaring out a challenging shriek while it...goes straight through the illusory cat.
BRAAAAAAAKE

Having expected to meet resistance, the bird's talons clip the edge of the nest, shaking it, and it crashes into some of the nearby branches, splintering several as it cries in pain, reorienting itself.


Arabella may have found the aluminum foil bereft of its owner, but going over the side of the nest would reveal Clair under the edge not too far from where the bird had set the shiny foil, lying motionless on a large spider web. The host spider of the web is nowhere to be seen at this moment.

Out the corner of his eye, Sadowi watched Orchid, whom he promptly assumed to be an illusionist, wondrously lure the giant bird away from them with a giant cat, and he busied himself in picking up the scattered sea-gems he dropped, chasing after them as they skidded along with the quivering of the nest as the feathers tripped on its edges. His quick gathering journey brought him back to where he first stuck his other sword with a rope attached, and face to face with Asher. Or rather, his open mouth and spittle as his horn glowed and he yelled, and the zombie covered his face and folded back his ears while tying the cord around a foreleg.

Sadowi looked over the rim of the platform they all stood on, searching in vain for the large webbing. "Where? I ca--,?"

His surroundings flashed with a wave of blue, and he stared at the shadow he cast for a heartbeat then spun around to nothing. Asher had gone without a trace, and the enormous and quite furious looking bird took his place in his field of view.

"Ash!" he bellowed. "ASH! Where--, damn it. Hey, uh, Orchid and, um, you! Clair the small grey unicorn is under the edge of this nest on a spider's web! Ahh, I'll, um, I want the bird, please and thank you kindly!"

His gaze switched between the drop over the rim, the yellow unicorn, the bat pony, and the bird. There might be something mad and hairy with many legs lurking beneath and guarding their prize, but Sadowi chose the bird. Rising onto his hind legs, he quickly retied off his mane in a messy knot, sheathed his weapons, and charged at the raptor with teeth bared. He'll have to search for Asher another day, hopefully.

The bird hit Orchid's illusion so hard that she felt some of it and winced. That certainly wasn't close to working.

"Yikes yikes yikes." Orchid responded looking at the web. She tried her best to angle around to see it, but seeing just the sticky web made her shiver. "Please just tell me there is no spider. I can barely handle a web." Thankfully, another pony seems to have flew over. She didn't have to go on the web.
"We should quickly get that pony off the web in case something incredibly unpleasant arrives!"

The sudden burst of wind battered his hollow head, instantly halting his advance and tossing back his mane and ears and thus drowning out Brio Dreamer's shouts, and Sadowi dropped onto all fours to keep from being blown away. He watched the bird's approach with talons outstretched; a hiss gasped its way free from and a knowing smile replaced itself upon his tattered lips. Wordlessly and dodging to one side, he drew his hook and held out the length of metal to be snatched, and with the unmistakable harsh tug on his fore leg he leapt onto its leg, quickly tying a knot around it and his girth with the bit of rope to secure himself to the wings in mid flight. A swift pull he gave the coiling to test the strength, he dug the spikes on the undersides of his shoes into its feathery flesh and began scaling the bird.