(Thanks)
A mated pair of sharpteeth, the same kind as Chomper's, rested just outside of the valley.
The first to wake was Rutilus, a large male with red eyes, a green hide with a pale yellow underside, and a very strong jaw, even by his kind's standards.
Rutilus got up and sniffed the air, hoping to find some traces of food. He found none. He looked next to him and saw his mate, Whiteclaw. She was still asleep.
Whiteclaw was colored a light shade of red, and had a pale white underbelly. Her claws were unusually whitish, hence her name. She was with eggs, and had been so for over two months. Normally, she had average patience, for a sharptooth, but the lack of food and her changing hormones made her rather... insistent.
Not wanting to announce a lack of food again, Rutilus let her sleep on... but could not help but to nuzzle her once, lightly. This slowly woke her up, though... she would not be happy to hear that there was no food... again. She needed more food now, and her disappointment at not finding any was more due to the risks posed to the children then to herself.
"Morning, Whiteclaw" Rutilus said. "I wish I could say that I found-"
"No food again?" Whiteclaw said. "That's the third day now..." Whiteclaw slowly rose to her feet, feeling the parched earth beneath her white soles. "This land is dry... no leafeaters would want to move here..."
"We should keep looking" Rutilus said to his mate. "There's a valley up ahead, and it might have-"
"MIGHT! Rutilus, we are starving! I am suffering more because I need more food for our children! Or did you forget that you got me-"
"I KNOW!" Rutilus roared. "You think I don't care?! When we found that juvenile threehorn a week back, who did I give it to? I gave it all to you, even though it was I who killed it!"
"Only because you said you would 'make it up to me' after leading us into a desert!" Whiteclaw snapped back. "Giving me a snack hardly compensates for that!"
"It was your idea to head north in the first place!" Rutilus replied.
"Yes, to follow the river!" Whiteclaw snapped.
"The river which turned foul when we followed it north? Oh yes, the one with the infected water!" Rutilus said.
Whiteclaw wanted to slap him with her tail, like she had done when he pressured her to mate with him some times... but knew better than to do that when Rutilus was mad. He could be violent when angered, as most sharpteeth were... he would probably not attack the female who had his offspring with her, but it was not worth taking that chance.
"Let's just... continue" Whitclaw said. Clearly, she was not going to win. Sometimes, she wanted to just leave and hope to find food on her own... but a gravid female is hardly a fit individual in a harsh world, particularly when she was alone. Like it or not, she needed Rutilius to help protect her and the children, when they were hatched. It really stank; when she had wanted to mate all those many times, they had no eggs, but when Rutilus had successfully pressured her into mating with his words... she got gravid... this was the first time that she was with eggs... and it was not when she wanted it. She did not intend to lay eggs until she and her mate were in prey-rich territory... but neither she nor Rutilus waited that long before doing 'it'...
She loved Rutilus, but sometimes, she wished that he would not pressure her for mating so much...
