Dread considered, staring. At Howl's brief offering of a hand he eyed it warily.

He didn't trust him, he didn't trust magic; he'd been attacked by strange magics before. Some had rended his mind with fear and visions and sounds, and though he'd learned to use that, himself, he wanted no part of being its target.

Howl withdrew, though (and Dread still wasn't sure what he'd meant by 'shake on it'), so he thought about this for a moment. The greatest Shiny-finder, on his side? -That was good.

"Gold," he breathed, abruptly, a drawn-out exhale of growling greed. "I want gold." He shifted in place, a little. "All shinies--all treasure--is good, though; yes. And if you are my hunter!-if you bring me things. Then yes. If you are not stealing, and you are attacked, I will eat them! Whoever attacks you."

It sounded vaguely like "friendship," to him, but he neither liked nor trusted Howl enough to call him that, and so he skipped it for now. "It seems... fair," he said, instead.

For a moment, the dragon simply studied Howl; and then he asked, with seemingly no rush to depart (though Howl might have other ideas)--"What are you? And how are you not dead?"

Dread listened dutifully, struggling to understand the little creature past his strange accent. But when "sneak-thief" was mentioned, he shook himself as if about to sneeze, and then blinked and bellowed. "I SAID, DO NOT STEAL!" he reiterated. Loudly. And for once, the dragon then explained himself, if grumblingly. "I want my things. Not others' things. Not things they will come looking for. It is not good to find your things GONE!" His tail briefly curled upward as he spoke, then slammed down heavily on the rock behind him--cracking a vast gap in the stone behind him, one that would swallow down anyone drawing close. The loud thump and crack as he spoke emphasized his words: his memory of coming home to find his favorite shiny gone still stuck with him. He hadn't liked that, and what little empathy the dragon had had now bound him to not do that to others. Ironic--had he realized, which of course he didn't--that the Collector had taught him a moral lesson, quite unintentionally.

"Bring me NEW gold," he explained--whatever the hell that meant--and then eyed Howl over. "I HAD A BIRD GO INTO A STONE! I WAS TRYING TO EAT IT. IT WAS TRYING TO ATTACK ME BUT WHEN I BIT DOWN IT TURNED TO ROCK." Mild annoyance laced his tone. And then, the rather alarming: "I KEPT THE STONE. WILL IT WAKE UP?"

Dread considered, for a long moment, and then huffed, twin threads of smoke again rising from his nostrils. It seemed more a thoughtful thing, or maybe just how he breathed, than any anger. "Good. I will not eat it," he added, after a moment. At least, he hoped he wouldn't have to. Dread wasn't a very kind and friendly dragon, but nor was he particularly vengeful or sadistic. Animalistic, more like; but he held no hatred for the chicken.

And he forgot, already, that he'd feared its potential magic. He couldn't really remember why he'd wanted to eat it. Hell, some part of him was already threading some strange parental instinct: put it in his den, keep it warm, and hatch it out. Why, he couldn't have said.

He'd sort of already forgotten Kalama's behavior.

As for Howl-... The dragon turned his gaze back on the monkey hybrid. "GOOD. We are done?" he added, turning a critical eye on Howl. He saw nothing more to say, really.

Dread shook himself, rapidly blinking, at all the monkey-whooping and hooting. That was loud, and unpleasant, and he didn't like it, but bar curling one half-rigid lip to expose fangs, he did little.

The dragon turned, looking back toward his shinies. He felt, now, an itching of his own: a need to ensure that Howl hadn't stolen anything while his back was turned.

Dread shoved up, wings spreading and beating heavily until they caught the air; almost laboriously he settled into the 'sky,' gliding back off toward his ledge and the collection of treasure he'd left there.

He didn't really think about Howl. If the monkey had stolen his stuff, he'd go after him, but he didn't really feel like that was likely. It was more the greedy insecurity of the miser that drove him. And once Howl was out of sight, he'd be sure to be out of mind, unless and until he truly did turn up in Monoceros again.