ORIGIN

Home sweet Monoceros. It'd been a while since she came here. Well, probably not more than a day, but given what she was supposed to do, it was long. A dry wind buffeted Sharp's face as she painstakingly dragged a rickety bone "cart" behind her. Little flakes of dried mud peeled off her scales and flitted away in the growing breeze. The cavelights were getting dim-- weren't they bright when she last came? Gosh, Dread must be waiting for her! Well, good thing his hoard was just outside the entrance!

Sharp steered her carriage slowly, towards the ever looming pile of gold and... other things. Honestly, she wasn't even sure what half of that stuff was. Oh well. The lizard spat her steering bar onto the floor and started waddling over. Was the dragon-friend here? She couldn't exactly tell from her low angle. She mentally went over her notes. Tell him it's from Aure, don't talk about collecty-friend or anything. She still didn't know who this "Aure" dude was, but she wasn't going to break a promise.

Here she goes. "HI! Scary-friend-with-wings!" Sharp screeched as loud as she could. "I got gold! Gold! And... not gold!" the strange band Collecty-friend gave her was way too large to carry up, so she hoped he could get it himself. "It's REALLY super big! Really cool!" her voice was hoarse from the shouting, so she just leaned on a nearby rock and waited for the dragon's response.

The faint flapping of wings came closer and closer. Sharp had to practically brace herself against the rocks as the dragon came closer. He waddled over, investigating the band, and she held her breath in anticipation...

Scary friend liked it! Scary friend liked her gift! So the Collector was helpful! Sharp puffed out her chest proudly as the wyvern expressed approval. "It's from Aure! Aure-gift!" she added excitedly, and cringed slightly. That was a lie, but the Collector told her to say it. She paused. "Oh, and I got a little gold too, not a lot... but Aure-gift!" She scuttered under the shadow of the kaiju to pick up her gold nuggets in her mouth, dropping them on the dirt.

What she wanted? Sharp almost completely forgot about that! Her crystal tail tapped against the floor thoughtfully. "Pretty gems! Pretty, pretty shinies! How many can I get for this?" she asked excitedly.

Hopefully a lot, of course but as long as scary-friend was impressed, she'd be content with any amount.

The dragon was impressed. The whole hassle with her cart had been worth it! Sharp greedily scampered forward as the kaiju spilled out a massive hoard of gemstones. 'So... so... many!' shiny ones! Dull ones! Ones that had funny shapes! The mud-soaked sungazer waddled forward and greedily started nosing through the pile. She picked out a pretty green one, and a purple one, and a pointy yellow one, and... well, lost track. They all looked so good!

Sharp turned around as Dread spoke, giving her permission to choose what she wanted. "Yay! 's fair, very fair!" she continued searching, too enchanted to see if he'd taken the artifact yet. A particularly shiny quartz stood out to her, so she rolled it away with her front paws and deposited it in her cart. The lizard did this another nine times, until the entire cart was filled with miscellaneous gemstones. Ten whole shinies! Today was certainly a good day.

Well, her business was done here. She had so many shinies! Waddling back to the front of the chariot, Sharp began dragging her trade behind her back towards her den. "Thanksie scary-friend! Good trade! Bye-bye!" Without another moment to waste, the little merchant left him behind, the rickety rattling of bones fading from the adit.