That... is a problem. The two white dragons separating was not something I expected to happen. I used some CE to make it their instinct to leave an area when they are about to destroy the ecosystem, similar to migration. But I did NOT expect this new instinct to lead them down a different path.
Indeed. It is a problem.
If they don't get to reproduce, there will be no dragons on the old night side, wasting the 149 CE I used to create them. "Hmm..." For now, I will let them be. If I see they don't reunite to mate before they reach the end of their reproductive circle, I will use CE to force them to do it.
While the White dragons sleep, we should go over the Great Divider mountain range and to the Platinum dragons. They both stood at the entrance of their den, which is a massive naturally formed cave in a mountain, watching in silence as the sun slowly rose from behind a mountain.
"Are you ready for this?" The male dragon asked, his eyes not leaving the sunrise.
"Of course. I wouldn't have chosen this challenge if I hadn't been sure I would win." She confidently replied, glancing at her companion. "You do know you will lose, right?"
"Don't be too sure about that." He chuckled, leaning forward. "My hunting style is superior, and we will find out today."
"Remember, we catch as many beasts as we can, bring them back to the cave, and then, by sundown, we see who has the biggest hoard." She turned her attention back to the sun. "Getting hurt would make you lose points, even if it is just a scratch in your scales, so don't get hurt. I would hate to win because you got hurt."
"We shall see." The male dragon grinned.
They both became silent and watched as the sun rose from behind the mountain. Once the bottom of the sun touched the mountain's peak, the two dragons simultaneously leaped into the air, opening their wings and taking flight.
They flew in opposite directions to each other, entering hunting mode. Their long, slim ears perked up to pick up any sound in their surroundings. They could even hear the tiniest insect digging through the ground kilometers away with astonishing clarity.
They filtered through the sounds, listening to the beast's heartbeat and the noise they made. If they belong to a big animal, the dragons will focus on those sounds, silencing the other sounds that belong to smaller animals. After all, in this hunt, the bigger, the better.
The male dragon was like a peregrine falcon, hunting by flying very high, then stooping in spectacular dives to strike the prey, while the female dragon was like a hawk, following her target and capturing them in her talons.
Their prey included Dire Wolves and even dinosaurs like Allosaurus. No big animals within miles of their den were safe from their wrath. Even while hunting, they were playing it safe, staying within their well-known hunting grounds and going after big animals that were easy to hunt, quick to catch, and once they knew best. They were confident in their abilities as the top predators in this area, but playing carelessly might get them injured.
Swooping down from the sky, the female dragon picked up a mountain goat she had dropped to its death with her forelegs and flew back to her den. Entering the cave, she quickly dropped the mountain goat in her large hoard of more than 100 animals and turned to leave. That's when she noticed it.
Placed at the top of her companion's pile, like a trophy of some kind, was an animal she had never seen before. It was a beast resembling brown bears but larger, being 4 meters long, with bony brow ridges, long fur, extra-long claws, and a more primitive and feral appearance.
"I was waiting for you." She heard her companion speak as he dramatically walked out of the cave's shadow, smiling at her. "See that thing?" He asked, looking at the dire bear. "I hunted that."
"So?" She asked, inspecting the new beast. "It is still smaller than the beasts I have been hunting." She added, pointing at an Allosaurus she had brought back to the cave a few moments ago.
"Yes, you are right." He nodded in agreement, inspecting the Allosaurus. It was one of the rare animals on their hunting ground, so he was a bit surprised she found one. 'Well, she was always adept at finding the finest beasts.' He thought before saying. "But what fun is it when we fly around hunting animals we know how to kill all too well? It doesn't get your blood boiling. I know you feel it too. How bland the hunting game had become."
He was right. After a few hours of hunting the same animals, repeating the same actions, it had lost most of the pleasure it once gave and became more of a chore.
"So now you want us to be risky and hunt animals we never hunted before?" The female dragon asked, staring at her companion from her flying position close to the cave's roof. "To, as you say, get your blood boiling?"
"Yes." He replied, walking to the cave entrance. "It would lose all its repetitiveness because you are hunting new and probably dangerous beasts."
The female dragon was silent for a while before asking. "So you are saying you want the rare beast to increase the worth of your pile more than the larger beast?"
"Not exactly. But yes, they give a lot of points." The male dragon said, stopping at the cave entrance and looking back at his female companion. "Anyone who hunts the largest and rarest beast wins since it will prove you have a better hunting style, combat, and tracking ability."
"So this isn't just about who has the better hunting style anymore?" The female dragon asked, squinting at him. "This is to see who is superior to both of us."
"If that's how you see this, then it is." With that statement, he spread his wings and took off into the sky, heading to continue hunting.
"Ohohoh." The female dragon roared, finally feeling what her companion was saying he felt when he dived. Her blood was boiling from this new competition. She didn't know why, but she wanted to win and prove her superiority. "You will lose!" She roared, hot smoke escaping from her mouth as she flew out of the cave.
Now out of her den, she opened her wings to their full glory and performed a strong flap, shooting forward. This sent out a sonic boom that expanded outwards as she broke the speed of sound. She followed the river that flows through the valley, their hunting ground, and headed to the end of the river, a place she and her companion had never been.
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She was planning to go beyond their territory and bring back a massive beast they had never seen. She was determined to win this battle.
After a while of flying, she noticed a dot ahead of her, slowly getting larger as she got closer to it. Soon there were a few kilometers between her and the thing, and she recognized what it was. The object was her male companion, who was also following the river to its end.
'So he had the same idea.' She thought, grinning. Of course, he would. If he didn't realize that leaving the hunting ground would increase the chance of finding a rearer beast, he would be as stupid as all their other prey. 'He may have started before me, but I am faster.'
She increased her speed to the limit, shooting past the male dragon with a grin, who could only fly a bit below the speed of sound. She continued at this speed for almost 15 minutes, the distance between her and the male dragon increasing every second, before she could finally see the end of the river.
After a few more seconds of flying, she reached the river's end, noticing it flowed over a cliff into a waterfall, surging and plunging down the steep cliff into a beautiful pond at the bottom.
The pond then flowed into a stream that flowed into a spectacular U-shaped valley tens of kilometers long, surrounded by high granite summits, monoliths, and hills.
The flat floor of this valley holds forests densely packed with pines and large open meadows, which have views of the surrounding streams running downhills and waterfalls. These streams and waterfalls combine into a river that flows into a large lake, and another river flows out of this lake and out into the distance.
The female dragon stared at the senary with wide eyes, stunned by the view. Compared to their hunting ground, which is only a rocky valley filled with hills, mountainsides, and grasslands, with only one river flowing through it, this was much more beautiful.
She reduced her speed, now flying just above 150 km/h. This was not only to have a better view of this new place but because she was tired after traveling for so long while moving at 1,800 km/h.
She saw animals moving around on the valley's floor that she had never seen before. With her sharp eyes, she noticed a Carcharodontosaurus feasting on a dead Triceratop. She saw the beast her companion had brought back to their den, a Dire Bear, fighting two Dilophosaurus and winning.
Turning her head to the side, she noticed two Mapusaurus standing at a stream bank with a dead Allosaurus beside them, staring at her as she flew by. There were even a group of beasts larger than she was, Astrodon, feasting on the leaves of a tall pine tree.
"This place is a treasure trove filled with new animals." She smiled, floating many kilometers above a forest and watching multiple eagles eating a dead dire bear. "I am faster, so I can make multiple rounds back to the cave with multiple of them..." She paused, "But he is stronger and bigger, so he can carry more than me in one round. So, I need to hunt the rarest and most fascinating first." She mumbled, scanning the area for an animal that fit her needs.
While deep in thought, she noticed that something was flying towards her from the side of her eyes. Thinking it was her companion, she turned to it with a smile that faded when she saw what it was.
It appeared to be a beast with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. Its forelegs have eagle-like talons, horse-like ears, and a tufted tail. Its eagle head and neck are covered in brown feathers, fading into the tawny fur of a lion that covers its body. It was large, about 2 meters tall, 3 meters long, and with a wing span of 8 meters.
"Oh?" She inspected the beast, squinting her eyes. The beast had an aura she had never felt from any other animal, something she couldn't describe. Its eyes were bright and filled with intelligence. And most importantly of all, its heart.
Normally, when animals see her, they immediately feel fear. Some don't show or act upon such fear, but she can detect it by listening to their heartbeats. However, this one heartbeat was like her companion's, calm and fearless.
She couldn't help but be intrigued by this. Did it not feel intimidated by her size? Did it believe it could defeat her in battle? She asked herself, looking around at all the animals running away. Even the Dire Bear, about to start eating the two Dilophosaurus it had killed, started walking away.
The reaction of the animals fascinated her. They were acting similarly to how the animals back in their hunting ground acted when she and her companion flew by. 'So, it is a strong bea---'
SCREEEEEEECH!
The beast suddenly opened its mouth and emitted a screech of high amplitude. This caused her to twist her head to the side and clench her eyes shut, quickly silencing the unexpected sound from entering her ears. But the damage was already done. Ruby-red blood, which seemed to have a slight glow to it, spilled down her ears and onto her scales as a result of the loud screech.
The last time she bled was when she was still very young and small, and it was caused by a larger beast, much more powerful than the ones in front of her. Back then, she managed to escape with her life, but now, the species of that beast has become her primary prey. So, how could a smaller, weaker beast make her bleed!?
She reopened her eyes, an angry growl escaping her throat, as she turned back to the flying beast. However, she found there were now more than 30 of them, all of them flying toward her. "Does it think it can kill me with numbers?!" She roared, shooting toward the flock like a bullet.
The opposing forces met in the middle, and all hell broke loose. The female dragon attacked like a ferocious beast, each attack moving fast and with extreme power behind it. Her tail slashed through the air like a whip, completely crushing all the beast in its path. Her claws ripped through all beasts it touched, treating them apart and causing their insides to spill out. She instantly killed all caught within her jaws before hurling their bodies at their companion.
But these beasts weren't just lambs in a slaughterhouse. They flew around the massive Platinum dragon with extraordinary physical speed, dodging her instant death attacks by bending and twisting their bodies and attacking her with their powerful talons and claws.
But even with their strength and high numbers, it was clear who was winning this battle. Each second, one or two of those beasts fell from the sky, dead. However, their attacks left her only light scratches on her scales and little deep ones on her underside.
Any longer, and they were all sure to die.
Suddenly, a beast flew from the back of the attacking beasts, heading straight for the female dragon's head. This one was notably larger than the rest, possessing the entire body of a male lion with shaggy reddish-brown manes, a large, majestic eagle wing, and a black scorpion-like stinger at the end of its tail.
Noticing this different beast, the female dragon flung the dead beast she held in her mouth at him, but he swiftly dodged it and kept flying toward her. She noticed his eyes, noticing the confidence in them. This caused her anger to grow. However, as she was about to launch an attack on the male beast, he opened his mouth and let out a terrifying, deafening roar that could be heard miles away.
And the roar held a terrifying effect. The sound caused the nervous system of all those in close proximity to the beast to seize, including its companions and the female dragon, their bodies stiffening like a stuck cog machine as they all fell off the air.
'What is this?!' She shouted in her mind, managing to regain control of her body less than a second after it froze. The male beast, however, had already appeared in front of her face, confidently staring straight at her. "I will kill---"
Before she could finish her sentence, he swung his tail at her right eye with lightning-fast speed, striking her eyes with the barbed end of its tail, injecting his venom into her eyes.
The venom quickly spread through her body like a bolt of lightning, ripping her apart from the inside. The pain was so intense, so all-consuming, that she lost control of her body and fell into the sky. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. As if all her insides were being sliced and pierced by white-hot knives.
Suddenly, a scorching sensation rushed out of her heart and quickly spread through her body, instantly washing away the pain. The female dragon regained control of her body and opened her wings, stopping her fall to the valley floor. A savage growl escaped her throat with hot smoke coming from her mouth as she looked up at the scorpion-tailed beast and his companion with bloodshot eyes.
She felt another hot sensation rise from her heart and into her throat. Smoke escaped her nose as she opened her mouth, letting out a thunderous roar followed by a devastating continuous stream of intense orange flames, blue at the point closer to her mouth, that shot towards the beasts in a cone shape.
Before most of these flying beasts could react, they were instantly incinerated by the flames, leaving no ashes. The ones that weren't in the flame path still felt the intense heat as they all quickly started flying away.
But the dragon wouldn't let that happen. She moved her head to follow them, causing the stream of flame to quickly chase after the beasts in the sky and incinerate them like the rest that crossed its path. As all the flying beasts fighting her died.
Eventually, the dragon's fire breath dissipated, leaving only the powerful stench of roasted turkey in the air. The scorching sensation rushing through her body disappeared as the pain from the venom returned. Although it was not as intense as before, it was still enough to stop her from controlling her wings as she plummeted to the valley floor.
Before she could hit the ground, the male shot through the sky and appeared above her, using his forelegs to grab hold of her shoulder. Although he couldn't lift her due to her size, he carried her as he glided to the ground.
He lightly dropped her on the ground beside a flowing stream, landing heavily beside her. "What's wrong?" He asked in a low voice, and before he could inspect her body for any wounds, she curled up into a ball, wrapping herself in her wings.
The male dragon just sat beside his companion, watching her in silence. When he was flying over, he heard a roar, which he assumed was the cry of an animal fighting his female companion. But then he felt something rising through him, giving him a terrible feeling.
He increased his flying speed to its maximum, ignoring the fugitive feeling he had from being airborne for so long. That's when he saw his companion breathing a cone of fire up at a group of flying beasts, incinerating them all, before falling from the sky. He didn't know what had happened to her, but looking at her shivering body and the pained grunts and growls, he knew whatever it had been was more painful than when he almost killed himself by crashing into the ground.
He couldn't do anything to help her. He didn't even know what kind of injury she had suffered. All he could do was wait for her regeneration to remove whatever was causing her this pain. So he sat silently beside her, watching for any beasts that might want to harm her.