Hunting, typically, meant stealth, waiting, and take a careful shot. Hunting for dragons usually went along the lines of fly high up and struck when you're prey was not paying attention. Or the other option was to wait in the right spot and attack when the prey was close, flying was the better option.

The problem with those methods was that they only really worked if you were just catching food for yourself or in a small, well coordinated, group. At the current point, however, that method just would not bring in the amount of food needed.

Claw had made that plainly clear while he was trying not to show hostility to Cynder back at the cave. It kind of aggravated Marshal. At the same time, it amused him how much restraint the Fox's Leader and his escort had to not only use, but also try and not show, for to break would have meant they try and attack the black dragoness, only to promptly get obliterated by the combined might of Spyro, Cynder, and Marshal.

While Marshal was amused at the restraint, finding out the condition and why it was a thing was no light hearted manner. The fact was that everyone in the cave, Dragon, and Fox, was starting to starve due to a drastically low food supply. The Foxes had a small farm system, not much mostly Mushrooms and herbs with a few berries mixed in. The Foxes, like Dragons, relied primarily on meat. Some of that was due to genetics, both species are omnivores, the biggest problem was the living area. Living in a forest with trees the size of a skyscraper did not help one farm very much, as such hunting and foraging were the best bet. And it worked, right up until more creatures starting showing up.

That was the other shock, Marshal had known Dreadwings, and their riders were in the area, but he had not known that was because they were a part of a rather large army that was in the area. It was this army that made getting more food even harder, the best hunting grounds were being used up. There was still food around, a lot actually, the problem was getting it. Foxes were limited in what they could get.

Marshal's solution, get a group of dragons together and hunt until they could not carry anything else, then return. Claws reaction was almost priceless when Marshal proposed that, apparently no one had really thought of that. To give them all credit that was mostly because so few knew how to fight, those that did not know where unsure about going into danger.

With the current state of things, it was not all that hard to get volunteers though, having four experienced and powerful dragons to defend them if needed also helped. And that is precisely what Marshal did, he asked for anyone willing to do something so that they could survive. He specifically asked for those that had at least tried to use their magic but also asked for those willing to learn on the fly, so to speak.

He was able to get a group of twenty without too much of a problem, not including himself, Spyro and Cynder. Cypha was also going, but he was guiding them towards something they could hunt. Marshal did not even really have time to explore and see who was there in the cave before he got those twenty and they were headed right back out, hoping to get food before sundown since it was so badly needed.

And all of that lead them here at the edge of a large clearing near the edge of the Giant's Forest, full of a herd of Giant Deer.

Marshal could not help but stare at the deer that were the size of a small pickup truck, these things were the size most of the young dragons he brought with him! He could probably count on one hand the number of dragons he had that were bigger, if he still had a five-fingered hand and not a three-toed paw anyways.

Spyro moved up next to him and had to restrain from whistling, in a whisper, "And I thought Dreadwings got big."

Marshal had to respond at the same tone level, "You're telling me, I could have sworn I saw one the size of a fully grown dragon in there...A small fully grown dragon, but still."

The voice of Cypha coming from a soft whisper next to him almost made him jump out of his scales, "You saw right. He Leader."

Before Marshal could get another look at Cypha he had already vanished, that dragon was scary good at moving through the forest unseen when he wanted to.

Realizing Cypha was gone, Marshal turned his head back to the heard they were about to try and hunt. "This...Is going to be interesting. Can you see Cynder on the other side?"

The overall plan, surround the clearing. Then have someone come from above to take out one of the deer, then when the herd scatters use their positions at the edge of the clearing to take down any heading their way. Hopefully, they could close the circle as they went through the deer so as to catch more. They wanted to try and wipe out this herd, they needed the meat that badly. Thankfully, since the deer were as big as they were, if they were able to wipe it out, they would be alright on meat for quite some time.

For this to work though, they needed to have the clearing surrounded. So Cynder volunteered to go around the clearing to make sure, as well as help out the far side where meaning would probably be lightest. The problem, was that that they could not easily see the other end of the clearing.

The work around for that, Cynder and Spyro knew each other well. Not just personally, but their magic and fighting style. So when things were ready on the other side of the clearing, Cynder would signal Spyro and things would get real interesting quick.

Spyro looked to Marshal, "Past that many giant deer? Not a chance. She should be ready shortly though."

Marshal nodded, "Good. The sooner we get this done, the better. It's a bit weird having this many dragons relying on me, I need this to go well, or things will be getting...strange."

Spyro chuckled lightly, "The Joys of leadership." His head suddenly snaps up then he looks back to Marshal. "They're ready."

Marshal takes a deep breath before he responds, "Alright then. Let's go get us some food." And without any further delay, he charges through the last bit of foliage between them and the clearing charging straight at the giant deer.

As soon as he moves, those that had been surrounding a little over three-fourths of the clearing also charged, the only side that did not was the side that Cynder was on.

Not all of the charging dragons were on the ground, the faster fliers amongst them had been flying overhead and seeing the charge they too got into the action. They did so by dive bombing the giant deer.

The giant deer, meanwhile, were at first curious what was making all the racket. Then seeing that charging dragons were about the same size of them, they were thinking more along the lines of "Why are these lizards attacking the kings of the forest?" And given that giant deer were more or less the largest animals in the Giant's Forest, even the common predators had to be extremely careful when hunting them that line of thought was well deserved. Yet, here were about twenty dragons charging straight at them figuring they would react like any other prey they encountered. They did not.

The first sign that something was about to go from busy to "well...s***" was when the males of the herd, about 39% of the overall herd, lowered their heads and charged antlers first right back at the dragons. And directly behind them was a stampede of females in closed ranks ready to bulldoze anything in their way by sheer size.

The giant deer charging right back at them almost made the dragons stop and run. They were saved by sight of Cynder and her flank charging in from the only direction the giant deer were not heading, roaring.

The new noises caused the deer to slow down to figure out what was going on. They were now out of position with their rear exposed, almost literally. Several of the males did completely stop, confused on what to do, these became the first targets for the divers. Those that did not stop tried to redirect, but with no real communication or intelligence levels for combat it became a jumbled mess of giant deer as each one tried to figure who they should be going after and in which direction.

This allowed the dragons get in close and finish their charge, some went straight to the nearest deer and did their best to claw, bite or slash something vital to kill their target. Marshal and several others, however, jumped up and over the males at the front and attacked the target saturated cluster of females behind them.

From there the "battle" dissolved into the dragon's trying not to get trampled while whittling down the number of giant deer. The deer were easier to kill or injure, and the dragons were more mobile and deadlier. That did not mean the deer was not fighting back. The antlers of the males were extremely dangerous, able to puncture and draw blood from those dragons that had been able to avoid fighting in the past, their scales not callus and thus softer. And both genders were robust enough to knock around the unwary dragon. The deciding factor was turning out to be that the dragons were able to kill the deer, but the deer could only injure the dragons.

That did not stop the deer from trying, as Marshal found out.

He was near the center of the battle and moving to take out another nearby deer which was running around wild, really confused on what it was doing. The only warning he got that something was not right with the world, was when he found himself hurled through the air without the use of his wings.

Marshal was thankfully able to regain balance and land on his feet, but when he turned to see what had thrown him he found himself face to face with the antlers of the herd leader, a giant deer that lived up to its species name, and given that it was the size of a fully grown dragon, it was actually larger than Marshal.

It was only luck that Marshal was able to move fast enough to grab the antlers trying to gouge out his insides. Though, holding on was not able to save Marshal. Grabbing them did prevent him from being losing blood, but the leader was so strong he was able to push Marshal backwards despite Marshal digging his feet into the ground. Their tussle was creating a nice shallow ditch in the dirt as the leader continued to power through like he was only pushing an oversized rock, the effects were about the same, kicking up dirt and scraping up Marshal's rear paws and claws.

Marshal probably would have been pushed all the way to the edge of the clearing up against a tree if it was not for the aid of another dragon. The third party was deadly quick with her tail blade, able to cut off the head of the offending deer with one swift motion after coming up from the shadows beneath them.

Marshal, once he realizes he was holding a decapitated head and dropped it, looked to his saver. She was a black dragon with a slightly lighter shade of black for her chest. Her twelve horns, four on top with the rest coming out the side all leaning back, all of them Sharpe cones. And her tale had the look of a broadsword. She had long dagger like fins. And her wings were a pure black. She was almost the same height as Harild was.

She gave Marshal a nod before she went back into the fight. Marshal blinked a few times, the resolved to talk to that dragoness later, she was certainly cable, and if he could get her to help out in the future, it might help smooth over a few things. The fact that she both creep him out and looked beautifully graceful did not factor in one bit, no not at all.

AN: Originally, I was planning on having this chapter longer. But that ending, I loved it too much. I also could not figure out how to wrap it up and since the wording was at 2k, I decided it was alright. 2k words is about what I'll allow for a lower limit of words, I would like it to be higher but sometimes things line up just right.

We're getting to more major story portion of the story so hopefully, I'll be able to get into a groove here in a few chapters and start moving through these faster, we'll see.

The idea of this chapter was a bit of dealing with the problem of refugees...supplies. Thankfully the Foxes are able to cover most things, but the food isn't as easy. I do hope you like the little "battle." It's but a hint of what is to come. It's also a way to wet the teeth of these young dragons so to speak, Learn by fire.

No new characters here...well not true but the only one described is one of mine. You'll get an introduction in a chapter or two.

For those who are only following the story and myself personally, I would like to point out I posted the retool I was talking about. The prolog and first chapter of Warriors of the Fallen are now up if you would like to read it.

Well, that's all, So until we meet again, Happy Reading.