Self-Destructive Habits [OPEN]

[Ravager]

Time and Date:: February 12th - Midday
Weather:: Bitter cold, sun slightly peaking through the clouds.
Previous Threads?:: A Yak and a Hard Place

With prey animals becoming fewer and fewer, and the Scentipede keeping away from the humans village, hunting was almost completely out of the question. Winter was always rough, but he had always made it through. Always prepared with a backup. This winter however, his backup was out of the question. And unfortunately he wasn't good enough to have a backup for his backup plan. His movement through the forest was slow, almost lethargic, as it took most of his energy to keep alive enough to try and find shelter. If he couldn't hunt his way through the winter, he would have to sleep through it. This wasn't his favourite idea, as unlike many dragons he did not have an internal flame to keep him going in the cold. There was a high chance he might freeze, and an even higher chance he would no thaw from said freezing. And there was no way he was becoming food for some carrion eater.

Air puffed from his nostrils, everything smelt cold. Not a warm heartbeat for miles. He was pretty sure that some of his hind feet were already frozen, his tail dragging along the ground behind. 'Perhaps I can eat them and give myself longer before I succumb to this madness.' He licked his lips at the thought, seeming to be actually considering it. Atleast until the scent of blood struck his nose. No heartbeat, perhaps something recently killed? The thought of food brought his pace up as he made his way to the smell. But when he arrived, there was no food, no corpse, nothing. But his hunger drove him to lick at the snow where the blood at been. The cold was unpleasent, but the taste of a freshly killed beast was so satisfying. But it also gave him anger that he hadn't been the one to kill it. But he could follow the scent, it was strong as if the creature had still been alive. But the fact that all he could smell was the blood bothered him. What had taken the prey beast away?

[Naviera]

'That darn goat!' Navi fussed within the confines of her mind. After weeks of trying she'd finally put a scratch on some prey using only her claws, jaws, and natural stealth. Even still the goat managed to escape her. She jumped the goat from above in a tree she was hiding in, but the stupid goat managed to only get scraped by the claws of her feet and run off. The only reason she didn't immediately grab it before it could take off too far was her injured wing protested from the hard landing. To make matters worse her wing still hadn't healed enough for her to fly again, she already shot off one of her lighting bolts a couple days ago, and she didn't sense a storm coming any time soon. At least the cold didn't bother her. Of all the dragons Skrill were the most comfortable in such frigid times. If she really needed to there was always fish back at the human village. Navi was too proud for that though. She ate them that one time but never again. If she was going to eat it was going to be food she caught herself. It enraged her to think being the most superior race of dragon; she'd need help getting food.

Tracking the goat down Navi found it lying on its side in a small clearing in the forest. The purple dragon was about to chow down when she spotted a Scentipede approaching. Navi took a aggressive attack stance and growled in warning to the challenger. Food was especially hard to find in these times and any dragon that didn't eat seafood was having a pretty rough time. A Scentipede is probably the worse dragon she could have run into. They were just as aggressive as Navi and a force to be reckoned with on the ground. Normally such a dragon would pose the Skrill no threat, but this Skrill was grounded and the Scentipede was probably hungry. Navi was fully prepared to strike it dead if it tried to take her kill. The armor probably served it great against tooth, claw, and fire. The armor conducted electricity though just as well as any other part of its body. She really didn't want to have to use up more of her reserves but she would if she had to and against this dragon she would have to.

"This is my meal. Come after it and I guarantee you your chance of survival will drop to 0" Navi said in warning while attempting to hide her injured wing with the human constructed brace keeping it in place. Then the strangest idea hit her. What if she tried doing what that one human did and actually offer something for nothing in return. Be kind would be another way to put it. It was the strangest though one that would normally never even remotely occur to her. It was all that stupid humans fault. Still though she wondered what would happen. Perhaps the dragon would be so shocked by the strangeness it would leave or it would think her insane or both. Navi continued to muse over it. 

[Ravager]

The dragon felt his nostrils twitching, something was near. But what? There was a static in the air that set him on high alert. Either a storm was comic, and since the other scents didn't match up that was unlikely, or a Skrill. A hiss escaped him as he got closer, scents more obvious and most certainly draconic in origin.

He had never smelt a Skrill before, but the electricty in the air and the dragon scent. There was nothing else it could be. And sure enough there came a warning. A snarl rumbled in his throat in response. «I wouldn't dream of stealing your kill.» He curled in such a way that hopefully his back half was not visible to the dragon. He couldn't show his weakness. Weakness in a dragon fight could literally be the death of the weakened party. Though, something about the dragon smelt off. And not just, they just killed and ate something off either. «You smell of humans.» He dared to get closer, wings spreading out a bit. «In fact, you stink of them.» He tilted his head, trying to get the scent better. There was something on her, there had to be, something human. 

But the smell of the prey beast was so enticing, and the rumbling in his throat persisted. «Surrender your prey to me.» His jaws parted as the snarling grew louder, wings spread wide. In a challenge of the sky, he was no match for this aerial ace. But on the ground this was his domain. Even with some of his legs gone numb, he had more than enough to take care of this. He needed this food, and if she wouldn't give it to him, he was fully prepared to take it for his own.