ORIGIN

So...

Word was in Pegasus that a war was drawing near.

Sharp heard herself from that cool horse who lived across the river. Jame or something. The one she helped build the house of, y'know? She wasn't slipped too many details, but in the rippling golden fields she heard phrases like "Ursa" and "Mother" and "Vargas" (that was the funny purple dude right?) and "Need all the help we can get."

And oh, what an opportunity to promote her business she saw.

You see, Sharp frankly could care less about whatever this "hive" nonsense was. For all her hyper, friendly smiles and gentle counseling, she won't bother a moment to worry about anything that didn't directly affect her, her children and her real estate. Mind controlling fungi a cave over? Well, do they wanna buy or not?

But selling weapons? And armor? Possibly gaining future customers along the way? That she could get behind.

And so the little lizard left her hut, chirped at Aerie that she was gonna be busy for a bit, and got to work. She had plenty of materials stored haphazardly around-- a bit more securely after the thief incident-- so she wouldn't have to go searching for materials. It was all a matter of putting it together.

First off: how can a militia fight if they're hungry? And thirsty? What they needed was a nice place to store their yummy food and water. Some hollowed watermelon tree gourds should do the trick!

... Or not, apparently. After a lot of tinkering about all she ended up with were some smashed watermelons. At least the rinds are tasty.

Maybe she could try another time. She's Sharp, the best craftslizard of all cave time, obviously!

The sungazer sat down with a huff on the mulch, looking at the ruined canteens before her. After a moment of deliberation (and slurping up a tasty bug she saw) she moved onto some new gourds, this time with more care and intent in her blunt claws.

Several minutes, a few caroller songs and one more bug later...

dun dun duuunn...

One canteen!

She admired the green capsule with her electric eyes, shifting it from arm to arm. Not her best work, but not shabby either-- anything put inside wouldn't leak or freeze, anyway. She nudged it to the side with her nose and began the next project.

What's next, you ask? What's next? Defences, of course!

Now, Sharp wasn't aware of the size and species of these particular army gems, beside some basic facts like Vargas is very huge. But a few shields couldn't hurt, can it? All she'd need is generic wood for this one, maybe a few pebbles here and there for the decorative element, and a strap securely added with her signature mud-cement-thingy for better grasp. Attached near the top, of course, so her fellow non-opposable friends didn't have their vision blocked by a sheet of wood.

Whittle, whittle the workday away. Run to the river to goop up some mud in your mouth, run back and continue smacking away at your little armors. Finally, look down and see-- two beautiful (and strong) shields, made of dark Pegasus wood-- perfect for several smaller gembounds or a single big one to use. Perfect!

Now for some actual weaponry. She had not doubt the larger gembounds had strong claws and teeth of their own, but for the little guys like her...

Metal claws.

Huh?

Metal. Claws.

Well, alright then.

Problem: Sharp didn't have any metal. She wasn't even aware metal was a thing, actually. But she'll try her best to sort of replicate that.

The lizard headed back into her hut for a moment, tearfully hugging her gemstones like a departed mother before grabbing a few of the stronger, less flashy ones to make into gauntlets. She sat down and tried to arrange them together into a way that could fit easily over paws, but after a lot of rearranging and confusion she sighed and returned them to their vault. The shinies live another day, folks.

Perhaps something a little less... up-close.

Like a spear!

Now, those were easy. She even saw a couple of them in action from the occasional humanoid or weapons-savvy gembound that went hunting through the prairie. Tie a sharp point to a branch and let it go fwiing! That's easy to build, right?

She rummaged around the bushes until she brought out a stack of old branches she stored away. Another quick scurry, and a couple flint shards were revealed as well. She didn't pause for a moment putting the pieces together, tying them together with twine, and testing their strength on a nearby boulder.

Two spears: done!

One last tool, and she can (probably) call it a day. A sling, to be precise. The design materialized in her head as "basically throwing a stone, but now with more force." Now, this one was a bit tricky, especially because she couldn't test it out herself. She simply didn't have the muscle mass or joint mobility to do so. But slings let you throw shinies really far away! And that's useful in bonking people!

She grabbed one end of her corded twine and began arduously twisting the rope over until it formed a nice, flexible base. Then came a strip of pine bark, and far too much time spent fitting it precisely over the string-- god, these things were more difficult than she thought! She got it right eventually though-- which was quite a big accomplishment for someone who as far as she knew literally invented this on the spot-- and carefully inserted a pebble prematurely before moving onto the next one. Twist, insert, fiddle, bang. Two nicely done sling-things. Woo!

As a final touch, she went around and scratched a crude portrait of herself onto each of their surfaces. Marketing, you could call it.

Okay, now she needed a break. All this inventing of paleolithic technology really takes a toll on your energy. Now, where did James say this battle was?