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Cloudy, it was very cloudy. He liked it when it was cloudy and he could hunt in the shadows, only his red pigmented feathers giving him away in the lushness of the forests. Head low and feathers folded to not make a sound, the male Gryph stepped carefully through the bushes. His wings gave a flick to his sides as his ears pivoted forwards. Something became of interest!

Those bloody colored eyes stared forward, the sounds came from a thicket not too far a head. The soft cry of a young animal had perked up this predator's hunting instincts. He needed whatever was making that sound! Beak clicking together as he moved, talons gouged holes in the soft earth beneath them. He had to think of a way to spook whatever it was within the thicket, get it out into the open! His mind was a race with idea, he took the most straight out one.

CHARGE!

Hind hooves pound at the ground as talons raked through the thicket to drive a young doe and her fawn into the open. The fawn still wet and wobbly on its legs. Easy prey! Bursting into the open the predator took to the air in a flurry of feathers, those hungry eyes watching the two dart, the mother faster then her own fawn. With his wings pulled in close to his body, he dove knocking the fawn off its own hooves.

Talons gouging into the fawns tender side, Checkmate lowered his head to feast on the warm carcass. Not thinking that he might have company this evening, he was too preoccupied by gorging on the fawn, thinking the mother might just be next..

He gorged on the small deer carcass as his ears flicked as something cried in the distance and the sounds of wings in the air. Clicking his beak together blood coating it from eating. Those bloody red eyes searched the skies for whatever it was that had made the sound. With the darkness and clouds it was hard to see anything. Placing a taloned foot on what was left of his meal, Checkmate searched. Something was near, he could feel it in his tail feathers and they were sticking out just about straight behind him.

His hears laid back when something laid out against the blackness, it was dark, but those colorful markings started to stand out. The creature was high, perhaps too high to make out what it was, but Checkmate was unsettled. He could say it was his predatory instinct that was setting off the little alarms in the back of his head. Others would say it was something else, he wasn't sure why he felt this way, had something actually come to steal his meal? He could only stand there watching whatever flew over head, talons digging into whatever laid beneath them, he was ready for anything. Well, perhaps not what was to come..