Annoying Hunting Dragons

“This is a good enough spot.”

Nico stopped in the center of the camping spot, placing his hands on his hips as he surveyed the place. It reminded him a bit of home, the warm desert sands that tickled at his feet. This was a desert, but not one he was used to. During the day’s journey, he had seen dried over lakes where the mud had started to crack in places. Tulio had fun digging at the cracks when they paused for Nico to look over the map. There was also a lot more plant life and dried grass was more likely to tickle at his feet than trickling sand.

Still, it was nice.

Their resting spot was mostly devoid of anything, only grass and a few spare rocks. Those rocks Tulio could easily move, if he decided to. Likely not. Tulio liked to laze around once they stopped to rest for the night. Though, maybe not. The sun was only starting to lower below the horizon, leaving the surrounding area in purples and oranges. Still enough time to do some gathering or hunting.Tulio was looking around in curiosity, his back more raised than their previous rest stop. 

Hmm, he might be hungry.

“Hungry?” Nico asked as he unbuckled his camping pack from Tulio. He caught it before it could fall to the ground and settled it down. “You know… you don’t have to wait for me to finish.”

Tulio snorted at that, giving a small roll of his eyes. He clearly knew that but still, he only stood next to Nico. Nico gave his own roll of eyes and started unpacking to set up camp. Once he went through the motions, he could hear Tulio starting to walk off to properly explore. Good. Now he won’t just stand there and simply watch him.

Nico quickly set up his little camp. He didn’t carry much on him, and didn’t want to. He found packing light was better than packing too much at all. All he really needed was a bedroll, a tent in case of harsh weather, and a small kitchen kit. It was a little grill his parents had given him before he set off on his own with a kettle, bowl, and simple eating utensils to finish off the kit.

He would not have to use the grill tonight. He had some food left over from lunch earlier in the day. As he started to unwrap the meal, he could feel the rumblings of earth underneath him. And Tulio was very excited over something.

Great. 

Nico stopped his unwrapping and raised his head. A couple of a ways was a dust cloud and it was getting closer with every passing moment. Checking through their bond, he had to groan at realizing it was Tulio’s doing. He certainly did go off exploring if he was that far away… but he knew Tulio would think it didn’t matter since he was now heading right back to him.

With a grumble, Nico raised up and was prepared to start moving his bedding if Tulio decided to run whoever he was chasing through the camp. Placing a hand on his hip, the other hand holding up his wrapped bowl, he watched with zero amusement as the dust cloud got closer and closer. Close enough now that he could clearly see the green mass that was his bond and whatever poor creature he was chasing. Which happened to be an antelope that unfortunately caught his dragon’s eye.

“Not through here!” Nico shouted, waving his hand at Tulio and trying to direct him away. He could hear Tulio’s snort from here, but he at least obeyed.

His sudden switching made the antelope bleat in alarm. It was too slow in trying to turn away from Tulio’s gaping jaws. With a quick chomp!, the antelope was caught inside Tulio’s mouth. Tulio, thankfully, made quick work of killing the antelope. Proudly, he raised his head and started to trot back over to Nico.

Nico gritted his teeth and made an annoyed tsking sound, one of disapproval. Tulio stopped before him, still carrying the dead antelope. He tilted his head, tail giving a small wag as he looked at Nico. Nodding his head towards him, offering up his own meal.

“No, I don’t want it. Not after your mouth was on it.”

Tulio gave a shrug as if saying it was his loss before turning around to drop the antelope and eat his meal. Nico sighed and moved to settle back down to try to finish his own meal.