@tomahawk-swing
Dravite liked the dark. And she liked the quiet. The dark was self-explanatory - what kind of burrowing cave drake would she be if she couldn’t see well in it? Even the inkiest, moonless nights were a cakewalk for her, the world sprawling before her unhindered by the lack of light, if reflected in her gem-colored eyes in shades of silver and black. She liked it much better that way to hunt, anyways. Her scales were hardly good camouflage outside of her burrows, not with being colored in orange, rust and sand, with the occasionnal black speck thrown in the mix.
And the quiet was easy, too - she had good ears, especially for a dragon. Not a very stealthy type, no, no, but hearing something before it hears you? Definitely a good thing when she sometimes had to keep a metaphorical ear perked for the low thudding steps of bears that called her small patch of woodland home. It wasn’t a big place, hugging the side of a sheer cliff pockmarked with natural caves, far from most civillization, but it was hers. Hers, and hers alone.
But, that night, it appeared that Dravite would neither have the dark, not the quiet. And it had been such a nice hunting trip too - she’d managed to catch herself a whole badger, two hares, and a partridge! So, needless to say, the small drake had been trotting through the darkened woodlands in quite the high spirits, tail wagging slightly and content snorts escaping her nostrils every few rolling paces. But, and that was where there had to be an issue, she’d eventually stalled in her happy tracks, pupils narrowing sharply as she’d caught sight of a small, flickering light through the dense trees.
A rattling growl had escaped the donkey-sized drake, head held low to the ground as she’d dropped to a stalk, waiting in silent thought before slowly approaching, carefully sneaking towards the source. Light in the forest at that hour often meant one things, and one thing alone : intruders on her turf! Dravite’s lips curled back, exposing sharp rows of teeth with a sneer. Humans, she thought dejectedly. Somehow, no matter how many trees she marked with her claws, no matter how many times she muddied the path with branches and sticks, they ALWAYS managed to come back to take a shortcut through her hunting grounds.
Well, those ones were about to learn one didn’t mess with a dragon’s turf, no matter how diminutive one might be! She gave herself a convinced snort once again, and continued her approach. Making her steps as light as possible wasn’t exactly easy, but the dense underbush, as much as it rustled and rattled against her sides, hid her from the piercing light of the campfire. She crept forward, closer and closer - as close as she’d dare, until she was sitting in a dense bush, in somewhat comfortable view of the campfire. And there she stalled, crouched in wait as she surveyed the situation. If it was just some peasants, she could afford to jump in and snap at their heels, but if it was something else...
Caution was mother of safety and all that.












