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With a laugh, Articuno smiled as the pan'lun accepted his challenge. He hadn't had a good race in awhile, so he was glad to have run into Zephyiote for this opportunity, as well as to be able to help her out in general. After giving her another glance, he focused on the tree in the distance and worked on optimizing his speed.

For a moment or so, he flapped his wings down hard to bring himself higher above the ground. As he did so, he pressed his arms against the length of his body and kept his legs back to try and make himself as streamline as possible. He had to do this, especially since working to ascend was slowing him down slightly.

It may have slowed him down now but he had a plan.

When he felt that he was high enough, the hybrid quickly tucked his wings back and began to dive down towards the tree. He had doubts he would be able to dive all the way to their local destination, especially considering he couldn't go too steep or he wouldn't really go anywhere, but it should give him a nice lead if everything went as planned.

So down and towards the tree he went, with his feathered crest and tail flailing wildly as he cut through the air.

As he sped down towards the earth and the tree in particular, Articuno could slowly see Zephyiote coming up from behind out of the corner of his eye. The dive was a rush, and he tried to push himself to go even faster. Faintly, he could feel Pagos clinging to his foot feebly, trying to not be blown off with the blasts of air that were rushing on by.

Feeling his heart pounding hard in his chest, he watched as the tree drew closer and closer. If he wasn't careful, he'd end up crashing into it or into the earth. Chances were that it was the same case for his current rival. Still, he didn't want to give up a whole lot of speed, so as he neared the 'checkpoint', he twisted his body to bank off to the right, spinning through the air as he did so. Because of this, he couldn't tell who actually won, as his back was to the tree when he flew past.

Quickly, he righted himself and shot upwards to slowly decrease his speed once more.

Sometime ago, Pagos did lose his grip. Thankfully, Frio was doing her best to keep up with the two crazy speeding dragons and managed to catch the salamander. At a much slower pace, she came down to the grassy ground to drop off the lizard safely.

Having heard a loud collision, Articuno spun about in the air to see what had happened. To his surprise, he didn't see the tree standing any more, but instead a pile of wood and leaves. Quickly, he came down to land to see if Zephyiote was alright. He soon found this to be the case as she emerged from the rubble looking quite in tact. How she managed to get away unscathed, he couldn't be sure, but it was still a relief nonetheless.

Laughing at this, he shook his head and sat down on his haunches, taking a moment to catch his breath.

"Hehe, I believe you've won this one my friend."

Shakily, Pagos, crawled towards Articuno before flopping down at his feet. The Salamander has had several moments like that before, and he never enjoyed them much.

<>

For a moment, the hybrid glanced down and pet the lizard in apology, but the scent of prey also hit him. Quickly, a smile returned to him, bringing him back to his feet.

"As do I! We better get hunting then right?"

Looking at the felled tree, Articuno laughed again before looking down at Pagos. The flames were a bit deceptive in the case of the fiery little creature, but he was certain that salamanders would be able to burn others if they really wished to. He would imagine that doing so would exert quite a bit of energy however. It actually surprised him some that Pagos didn't eat a whole lot, considering it had to be quite costly to have a constant flame going on.

"He's a little hot, but it's not so much that it hurts to keep contact with him. I guess if you make him angry enough, he can burn you though."

After patting the lizard a little more, he let Pagos crawl up his arm to go back to his spot on his back. Once that was done, he took in a deep breath, smelling the same prey that Zephyiote had picked up on. It smelled quite delicious in his opinion, and he couldn't wait to be able to sink his teeth into some nice meat.

"Hm... walking would do for now. It might be a little hard to swoop down on some prey with all the trees around," he said while staring at the treeline not too far away, "Should we go after two? Or do you think that would one be enough for the both of us?"

"Haha, so be it!"

With a grin, he began to head towards the woods with a fairly fast gait. From behind, Frio darted ahead, in search of possible fruits or berries that she preferred over meat. Pagos remained on Articuno's backside, deciding it would be best to mooch off of the dragon's meal. He didn't really need a whole lot of food anyway, having the metabolism of a normal reptile more or less.

Nodding to Zephyiote, Articuno glanced towards the sky before tucking his wings back and rushing into the forest. Though, as he went in, he slowed his pace down. He would need to be quiet if he were to try and catch the deer off guard.

So as he moved through the trees, he kept his senses sharp, headed towards the scent trail that seemed to be strongest. He couldn't hear much in terms of what sounded like a deer walking around, so scent and possibly his eyes would have to be his primary senses to rely on now. It took him a little while, but over all, it wasn't too long before he spotted a splash of a tannish hue amongst the woods.

A closer look told him it was a stag, standing not too far away. Licking his chops, he ducked down and slowly crept forward. Articuno knew that his bright blue body was horrible for camouflage, so he most likely wouldn't be able to sneak up on it completely. So before long, he broke off into a run to give chase to the beast.

The two rushed on through the trees and brush as quickly as they could through such terrain. To those standing by they might have just seen a blur of brown flowed by a larger blue blur zipping on past. And slowly, as the chase went on, Articuno inched closer and closer to his target with each turn or weave they made. This wasn't his normal method of hunting, but it would do given his environment.

As he came up from behind, he pressed his legs to push his body forth more. And when the time was right, he kicked the earth powerfully with his hind legs to launch him towards the deer's behind. His claws, outstretched, grabbed onto the stag's rump and effectively dragged it down. Without wasting another moment, he snapped down onto the deer's throat, hoping to either slice through its jugular or break its neck. Whichever happened first.

The prey beast struggled, but it was to no avail. Before much longer its body went still as the earth itself. This hunt was a success.

Happy with his catch, Articuno grabbed a firm hold of the stag and took flight. It was a bit difficult to fly well enough with the extra weight, but he wasn't going far anyway. As he took in several deep breaths, he scanned the ground for any sight of Zephyiote as he moved just above the tree tops.

Before much longer, he found her a little ways and began to decend towards her to join the pan'lun for their meal. Grinning, he touched down and dropped the carcass, noting that his companion had been quite successful as well.

"Glad to see you got a nice catch yourself, Zephyiote" he said before promptly beginning to dig into the meat.

Pagos took the moment to scamper down from Articuno's backside so that he may get a few bites of the tasty flesh himself. For now, Frio had yet to return, but she most likely was eating whatever food she came across at the location she found them.

While he ate, Articuno remained silent, not wanting to waste much time on words when he could be filling his belly. But before long, he heard Zephyiote speak up. However, when he looked, the deer she had caught had miraculously disappeared!

Blinking a bit in disbelief, he glanced down at his own meal. The dragon had only gotten about a fourth of it eaten at this point. And he thought he was eating quick.

"Wow... You really wolfed that down fast," he said with a light chuckle.

It took him a little longer, but eventually there was nothing left of his own meal. Feeling quite satisfied, he stretched out and let a belch escape him.

"Ah excuse me," he said apologetically before sitting back and starting to preen his feathers. Between the race and hunting, his wings and tail feathers especially were getting slightly tattered and whatnot. It was a bit tedious, but at this point it was almost an unconscious instinct of his to fix up his feathers if they need to when he's free.