Chapter 2(extended)

He raced into the burrow following the sound of further cracking. As he entered the hole, what greeted him was not a hatchling breaking out of its shell. Instead, another hatchling was breaking into one and dragging a now very dead one out of its egg. It dropped its prey to give a cry of excitement before feasting upon its new meal.

He studied the hatchling in front of him while it was distracted with its food. It was a bit shorter then he was standing at about two feet tall, not including the small spikes that jutted from the crown of its head and trailed down its spine. Two wings sprouted from its shoulder blades and were pressed against its sides. Its claws were curved and tapered off a couple of inches from its paws into deadly sharp points. From the back end, its tail wrapped around its right side to lay alongside it.

Predominantly it was orange in color, which blended it in with the glow given from the lava of the cavern. However, the throat was the color of gold, continued on down to the underbelly and tail. The limbs of its wings were still orange; however, the wings themselves were red, just as red as the blood that pours from its meal.

SNAP!

It snaps its jaw shut to swallow a piece of flesh that it ripped off the corpse.

As he watches the hatchling gulp down a scrap of meat, he is reminded of his own hunger. He must move sooner rather than later if he is to snatch the food away from his new rival before nothing remains.

He moves forward ever so slowly, gently setting his claws into the dirt to not scatter the pebbles around.

As soon as he drew close enough, he threw himself on the back of the hatchling latching onto its left wings as his claws dug into its sides. The hatchling squealed in pain as it tried to turn and buck its newfound passenger off of itself.

Holding on for all he was worth, he decided on his next course of action. He clamped harder on the joint of the wing, right above where it connected with the shoulder. He shoved off the hatchling with all of his strength while still pulling on the wing.

There was a loud crack followed by the tearing of muscle and tissue as the wing was torn off the hatchling's shoulder. Blood poured from the new wound on its back, quickly covering the broken bone that was protruding. Holes were punctured all along its left side from the claws during his pounce and push-off.

He threw the wing off to the side and charged full speed while the hatchling was screaming in pain. When he drew closer, he hunched his shoulders and lowered his head. As he entered within striking distance, he launched up to secure a hold on its neck. He sunk his teeth as deep as he could into the hatchling neck as it used its claws to rake his underbelly and shoulders. He threw himself forward, stumbling the hatchling, and with this stumble, he secured his claws into the belly of the hatchling.

With his holds on the neck and belly secure, he picked up the dragon with his claws while throwing his head back. As he pulled his head back, he tore the throat out of the hatching and blood sprayed everywhere. Covered in the hot blood gushing out of the hatchling throat, he swallowed the flesh already in his jaws. He threw the dying corpse of the hatchling to the side to steady himself.

After taking a moment to compose and steady himself after killing his prey, he checked his surroundings for any other hatchlings. He knew that if he could sneak up and kill one, then it was only possible another could do the same. If that were the case, he would be the one with a torn out throat instead of his new food.

Thankfully there were no signs of other threats, but at the same time, that meant there wasn't going to be any extra food to go along with the two dead hatchlings.

Deciding that waiting any longer wasn't going to bring him new food, he dug into the mutilated corpse he'd just killed. Two hatchlings and the remains of the broken egg led to a very pleased and content little dragon as he burped a small bit of smoke. He crawled back out of the cave to drink some lava to wash it all down.

As he exited the burrow, he could hear cries all around as other hatchlings killed and feasted on each other in a glorious free for all. It didn't take long for him to decide he had eaten enough, and pressing his luck further would only lead to disaster.

Turning back to the lair he had just left, he contemplated how to proceed from here. Walking further into the burrow, an idea struck him that he could close the den and wait till most of the chaos had subsided, leaving him with fewer adversaries in the long run.

With this idea running through his mind, he put himself to work. He started digging into the roof of the cavern to cause a build-up of rock and soil to block the entrance. Minutes passed by as he continued to dig and fortify the entryway. Once the entryway was close to being sealed off with the sheer volume of rocks and debris, he took a short rest to catch his breath.

Resting for a few minutes, he started to realize just how tired he was. His body was groaning from the sheer amount of food he had just eaten, and he desperately needed to rest. However, he pushed on; he couldn't rest until he had secured his new home. He crawled back to the entrance and continued to shore up the new barrier.

Several minutes later, the entrance was sealed entirely outside of a couple of holes to allow air to enter inside. Crawling back to where he had finished eating earlier, he curled up, resting his head on his tail.

He didn't know how long he would sleep but only that he needed to and that it might take a while until he woke up again.