[Lo-W6] Bearhedge

"Who's that Pokemon Grifix?"
"It's...."
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I originally didn't even want to make an entry for the monsters, but here we are :D

Appearance:

Bearhedges are tall creatures and have the rough body of a bear (a polar bear, to be exact). The head is more that of a hedgehog's and the ears are at the position where the headgehog's ears would be, but look more like a bear's ear. They also have a stubby, long, but thin tail. It's kinda tiny though, like just half of a Trifix's forearm (+ paw). A Bearhedge in itself is about 1.5 times taller than a Trifix.
Their fur is like a hedgehog's and also structured the way of a hedgehog's, especially with the most prominent thing about the Bearhedges - their quills. Unlike the hedgehog's quills, a Bearhedge's quill is slightly spiked. There are usually two spikes on a quill, but these grow very irregularly. There may also be much more or none at all on a quill. The quills also have a somewhat branch-esque aesthetic, but are most likely made out of keratin during winter. They at least don't feel like a branch which is why Trifix assume they are made out of keratin.
The quills of a Bearhedge change with the seasons.
In spring, they have flowers growing on their quills. Those flowers can literally be any type of flower and do not have to be the same on all of the quills. In fact, each quill could have its own type of flower.
In summer, those flowers turn into berries. All flowers turn into berries, regardless of what flower they were. The berries look like tiny apples and also have a similar texture.
In fall, the entire quill turns into a giant leaf. They also seem to become actual leaves. They start out as green leaves, but turn colors in accordance with the trees surrounding them.
There is also no visible difference between a male and a female Bearhedge.

Colors:

Bearhedges come in colors that help them camouflage in the Everfree Forest. That means, they usually display very dark colors, from dark browns to black, from dark greens to dark yellows. Some even have speckles on them, mimicking sunlight falling through the trees.
The quills are usually striped in dark brown and beige.
The berries are colored like apples, meaning they can be in any combination of red, yellow, and green. Trifix have observed that the colors of the flowers do seem to influence the berry's colors. Flowers with a lot of red in them will turn into red apples and so on.
The leaves are usually a deep green, taking on similar colors as the leaves around them. They will turn red, orange, and yellow just like any other leaf, though that is timed and not really based on nutrition. They will also eventually turn brown and then fall off.

Habitat:

These creatures live in the Everfree Forest (and equally dark places). They prefer thick forests and are thus more found around the Trifix settlement than anywhere else. They live in caves or burrows they dig themselves.

DieT:

Bearhedges are omnivorous, but lean towards meat. Their diet ranges from seeds over berries to small animals. Any seeds and berries are to their liking, although they do not eat their own berries. When it comes to meat, they eat any small critters to the size of a bunny, but can also attack creatures much larger than that. The largest they have ever attacked was a cockatrice. Their diet usually changes over throughout the year, from sprouts in spring over berries and seeds in summer to meat in fall as they hibernate during winter.
They avoid eating their own berries (or the berries of another Bearhedge), but it is not harmful to them when they do accidentally eat one.

Hunting:

During spring and summer, they go foraging for sprouts, seeds, and berries, but they will never say No to a quick meat meal.
During fall, when a herbivorous diet isn't as easily doable anymore, they actively start adding meat to their agenda and have a unique waysof preying on animals which include their quills. Much like a hedgehog, Bearhedges can roll into a ball. They usually make themselves as small as they can and with their lifted quills, they look like a bush. Usually, a few quills keep the berries, luring in herbivorous animals who want to feed on the berries. Once they are close enough, they will either lash out with a paw (if the animal is small enough) or suddenly start rolling over the animal. Their quills are sharp and in combination with their weight, the prey is dead if the Bearhedge rolled over them. Adult Trifix are usually not fooled by such a bush, but cubs may easily be lured in with the berries.

Miscellanea:

• they have over 15,000 quills on their back
• their full name is "Seasonal Bearhedge"
• they are named "Bearhedge" due to how they are preying on other animals in fall
• Bearhedges shed their quills annually! It doesn't happen from one day to another, but occurs over the entirety of a year, usually from early spring to late fall, sometimes even in winter if it had been a mild winter. They start growing new ones within the span of like seven days. (Also, fun fact, this means that a Bearhedge loses 41 quills on a daily basis.)
• Bearhedges are not affected by a cockatrice's pretrification. It remained unclear for why that was the case to Trifix for a long time, but they eventually learned that Bearhedges actually have a really bad eye sight and are literally not able to see a cockatrice.
• they can store pollen in their quills and use that to make the flowers grow on their quills. That's why they can have so many different flowers growing on them
• they also do not have a flower that's native to them. They used to, but it proved to be unhelpful, so evolution erased that. (It could still occur as a mutation though.)

reproduction and aging:

Bearhedges reproduce sexually and can mate during late spring to early fall, but they are the most active during spring. Males usually make sure to collect as many different pollen as possible to have an especially colorful and crazy "flower coat" that they use to impress the females. All Bearhedges have both types of genitalia, male and female, but only one type inside their body, meaning they can either create egg cells or sperm. They excrete a specific smell during mating season that marks them as male or female (males smell more flower-y). But sometimes, this creates confusion when a female has so many flowers that the actual flower-y smell mixes into the mating smell, causing females to get attracted to them while males turn away from them. Thanks to evolution, however, there is something that helps two females to still give birth: if a female eats their own berries, she can temporarily change the inner sex to male. They cannot do that for an unlimited time though, the berries will make them infertile after about three times of consuming the berries.
Bearhedges are usually promiscous (changing their mating partner very frequently, you're welcome lol), but two females who made use of the berries usually stick together until the very end.

Young Bearhedges usually stay for 12 to 15 months with their mothers after birth to learn everything about foraging and hunting, before they wander off on their own. They are able to reproduce sexually at the age of 5-7. They are loners and tend to avoid other Bearhedges.
These creatures can live up to 30 years, although most only make it until the age of 18, before they are usually killed by Trifix or Timberwolves. The oldest Bearhedge, however, managed to be 64 years old.
As they become older, their quills start to become weaker and finding food to prepare for hibernation becomes harder. Some start to stay awake until mid-winter in order to get all the fat they need and either manage to fall asleep or die eventually.

History:

Trifix are certain that Bearhedges have always lived in the Everfree Forest. They used to be a predator for Trifix when they just settled into the Everfree, but Oracle (and the other first Trifix) fought them off rather brutally and they have left the Trifix alone ever since.
Since Bearhedges enjoy the darkness, they are very, very rarely spotted in the lighter part of the Everfree Forest.
Grifix have not spotted them, only if they accidentally wandered too far into the forest, and they usually didn't return then.

What Trifix Use Them For:

Trifix hunt Bearhedges only rarely and then, usually in fall, preying on them when they are preying on other prey. They sneak up from behind and then jump against them, making the Bearhedge fall over, before they strike. Their meat is quite delicious and their quills (if they actually have quills) are either used as decoration or as toys for Trifix cubs. Quills have different amount of beige stripes on them and the cubs created a game where you throw a stack of quills on the ground and then try to grab as many as you can without any other quill moving. The more stripes a quill has, the more points you got and the cub with the most points wins.
Since Bearhedges shed their quills regularly, Trifix also collect them regularly. They only pick up those that still have flowers or berries still attached to them because they are a neat way to get additional ingredients for remedies and such as the flowers on the quills have the exact same properties as the "wild" counterparts. And the berries that form from those flowers also have those effects, although in a much weaker way. They also like to collect the leaf-quills, as they make a great wrapping material.

Grifix only sometimes find quills laying around. They actually haven't understood where they are coming from yet. They also make use of the flowers, but are rather hesitant to pick those quills up. The general consensus is to not eat the berries.

Legends and Rumors:

Trifix might have fabricated a legend about the 64-year-old Bearhedge, but otherwise nothing else.

Grifix, however, have started spinning a tale about the "quill creature", a ginormous, yet invisible creature, living somewhere deep in the Forest that sheds those quills, waiting for the Grifix to find them... Many Grifix too curious have set out to find that creature, but none of them have ever returned. When Grifix set out to find traces of them, they also disappeared... They never found a single remain of even one of those Grifixes, and their presumably deaths were added to the tale. Those who seek out the Quill Creature may never return...