Duel for the dominance

A cold September morning. Humid fog enveloped low over the meadow adjacent to the forest. The sun had just woked up. Its rays didn't reach beyond the trees yet. In the near distance, I heard the roaring of a stag. It was a gregarious male that guarded a small group of hinds. From time to time he indicated his dominance with a loud voice that both the area and the hinds were under his control. The next few minutes passed slowly. Suddenly, another male roared at the edge of the forest.

It seemed that the stags had just started a vocal duel. There were approximately around 200 meters between them. After some time, everything stopped and silence felt all over the place.

And just when it seemed like the end of the show had come, a dull thud shattered the silence. Then another one and another one.

The fight had begun.

The bulls clashed with their full power again and again, trying to push the opponent away with all their might. The fight resembled a duel between two arm-wrestling athletes.

Neither took the upper hand and pushed the opponent away, forcing him to admit defeat and flee. The stags were so busy fighting that they did not care about anything else. All that mattered was defeating the opponent.

After several minutes, the duel moved to the forest. Leaves were flying around. The air was filled with the testosterone.

It was slowly getting brighter, but only the vigorously swinging branches of bushes and young trees revealed the current location where the two athletes were still wrestling. Suddenly bulls reappeared at the edge of the meadow. In such a close fight, the key factor might be which of the males had the greater reserve of strength.

Suddenly the duel was over. One of the bulls released the pressure on his antlers, quickly turned back, and flew into the depths of the forest, pursued by the winner announcing his triumph to the whole world.