[CC] Grand Display: Senka & Butterfly

The fog drifted through the trunks of the ancient forest, a stealthy intruder that further blanketed the dark canopy until only the faint outlines of trees could be seen; Butterly moved with ease through the grove, wings tucked tight; though he had more than enough room to flare them if he needed to. He glanced at his companions, a mere shift of iridescence in the darkness, she seemed far better now than she had in the desert. That trial had been tough for them both, but Senka seemed to have had it worse, though she'd picked back up once in the relative 'coolness of the shadows. A sound ahead had him slowing, lowering his body further to the flora that clung to the forest floor. In front of them, hazily obscured by the fog and darkness, a herd of deer. Prey.

Senka longed to be back in the bayou; after her trek in the desert, if she never saw a speck of sand again it would be too soon, but for now, the darkness of the forest was enough, especially for her to complete the final part of this trial. She could see perfectly well in the gloomy darkness, easily slipping past the immense trunks as they moved closer and closer to their prey. She halted when Butterffly did, staring at the massive crown of antlers one of the stags bore; it was him that was awake, standing guard as the others rested. She looked at Butterfly and the other dragon nodded. Senka slipped further into the darkness, several of the deer looked around warily as she neared them, some instinct warning them that danger was nearby, but the fog which helped hide them also hid the dragon that flitted between the darkest shadows. She kept away from the mighty stag, instead, she focusing on an elderly beast. And then she struck, hard and fast in the darkness, the herd starting to stir as the darkness coiled around the pale pelt of her prey.

Butterfly waited only until he spotted the shadows move as Senka took down her prey, before charging into the herd with powerful snaps of his jaws; like Senka he gave the lead stag a wide berth, knowing fine well that those antlers could inflict damage; instead, he drove the herd into a frenzy using the fog in a game of hide and seek and he snapped and pushed against several to get them to move. The stag bellowed, but even he couldn't control a panicking herd, several of them bounding into the fog to escape the two predators. Butterfly lunged, taking down a young stag, his antlers a mere shadow of the older stag, who finally, like the rest bounded into the dark night.

Both Senka and Butterfly continued to hunt the scattered herd, going in different directions as they chased individuals down; never a doe and her young, but more the older beasts or younger stags; enough to be a 'feast', but not too many as to truly damage the herd that it wouldn't recover. Finally, though the last hoofbeats faded into the forest, eventually the herd would reform and settle.

Very faint embers of light started to filter through the vast canopy above, the fog finally receding, though the shadows continued to cling to the trees around them. Below, the two dragons slowly dragged their haul together; Senka had managed to hunt 3 deer, while Butterfly had taken 4. "You did well." Butterfly said to Senka and she smiled shyly at him. "Thank you, and so did you; though its a shame that stag hadn't of been older, i might of been tempted to take him." She replied, Butterfly nodded and for a few moments the two dragons simply rested, their final trial complete at last.