While Dread dozed, Glory worked. For a few hours, without any breaks, through the heat and the sound and everything. He was determined to get this done soon. This had turned into a little more then just an order - it was a test of his endurance and his speed. Could he really pull off an order like this in not only a single day but a single sitting? And not only that, make the final product as good of quality as the rest of his stuff?

He didn't think about it as he worked. He was focused intently, so intently, that he didn't notice the time passing, nor the hunger in his stomach or the thirst in his throat. When the second ring was finished, he didn't wake up his friend, but simply continued on, pressing both into the mold. With this new mind magic he had discovered, he lifted the second mold, almost losing his grip in his rising fatigue, but he steeled himself and forced himself to continue. Carefully, gently, he placed the mold directly on top of the first, pressing it down on top of the two rings. He pressed it in hard before lifting it off again and pulling the metal rings from the bottom half.

With the indent made, he took one of his claws and gently, ever so carefully, pressed it into the form of one of the rings on the top mold, creating a small hole in which he could pour the gold into. He did the same for the inner ring. He took a few steps back again and willed the mold to raise once more. He was panting now and the mold wobbled a bit as it rose, but it held its shape and he still managed to set it down on top of the bottom half, aligned just as it was a moment ago.

He staggered forward as the magic cut off, breathing heavily. Exhaustion was finally taking hold, hours upon hours of continuous work finally catching up with him. As he planned out his final move a thought struck him - was he going to be able to finish this?

He was about to step over to the smelter when he heard the voice of Dread. He glanced over but didn't make an effort to hide his fatigue. Perhaps another time he would have, but he had come to the quite painful realization that he could not finish the job in his state. "Ah, Dread...perfect timing. I am almost done but I'm afraid that I'm not sure I have the strength left for the last bit."

Equipping his talon-glove once again, he opened the door to the smelter and, using an odd pair of tongs, pulled out, with every inch of his effort, the crucible he had stuffed the gold into earlier. It was unrecognizable now - a perfect, shimmering liquid, devoid of all the imperfections it had had as a solid piece. Glory carefully moved it away from the smelter and looked up at Dread. "I just need you to pour the cold into the molds. I've created two small holes for them to pour into. If your mouth is resistant to flame, you can pick it up easily, otherwise, this handle will do," here he touched the odd pair of tongs. "It's quite simple, you'll just have to be careful. It is okay if a bit of it misses, but you don't want to dump the whole thing on the top of the sand. Into the holes and when it overflows a bit, you stop and go to the next one."

Glory hopped away as Dread leaned down to take the crucible in his jaws. The eagle watched with rapt attention as the dragon carefully, ever so gently, or, at least, as best a dragon could do, poured the molten gold into the molds. He skittered back as a droplet splashed a little too close but continued to watch fearfully.

But, as fortune allowed, the dragon had managed to fill the molds. A little messily, but Glory didn't mind. Once it hardened it would be easy to clean up. He fluttered up and above the molds, looking down and sure enough, both were filled to the brim. "Yes, that was good, thank you!" He landed back on the ground and quickly moved the crucible back where he had found that. "Ah, I'm sorry about that. The cave below has water, if you want to dunk your head in it." He turned his head to look at the mold. "Now, we just have to wait for it to harden. It will take a bit of time but then I can pull them out and engrave one for you. For now, though....we just....wait..." his words grew slower and slurred and the last one was broken by a yawn.

All of a sudden, Glory just collapsed onto his stomach, eyes closed and breath coming easy and peacefully. He seemed to be asleep.

By the time Dread returned, Glory had begun rousing from his slumber. The cave rat dropping next to him finished the journey back to consciousness. He flinched and immediately scrambled back to his feet. Within a couple of seconds he was fully awake and feeling quite embarrassed to have just collapsed like that. "Ahem, uh, okay, uh, ah! Thank you Dread. I appreciate it." He wasn't arrogant enough to turn away the gift and hunt his own food, especially knowing that he still needed time to recover, but he still felt ashamed to be needing care. Still, he dipped his head and began tearing ravenously at the rat with his beak, eating as if it were his last meal in the caves.

Once the rat had been reduced to a pile of bones, Glory stepped back and took a deep breath, leaning his head down and beginning to preen his feathers. He spent a few minutes on this, straightening and cleaning his feathers before he stopped, shook himself out, and turned back to the molds. "They should be cool by now!" He stepped up and focused, willing the molds to move but his magic slipped - instead of the entire mold lifting, it instead raised just a small pile of the sand and throwing it all over him.

Glory stood there for a second, his entire body covered with sand, mostly out of shock which quickly turned to anger. He furiously shook out as much of the sand as he could, muttering to himself about being "too tired for this shit". He hopped on top of the mold and, instead, began digging into the sand, not caring that he was throwing it all over his cave now. He would pick it up later. Finally, he reached in and, with all his strength (but being careful not to damage it), lifted out one of the rings. A second pull and out came the other.

One - the larger one - was rounded while the other was simpler and flat. Glory frowned a bit at them - they were certainly shiny, but he'd have to do a little bit of work to make them perfect. "Alright, almost done then! I'll engrave one of them for you and buff them up so they gleam!"

Glory set the rings down and dug back in his pile, emerging with a sheet of some kind of cloth, which was covered with the same kind of stones as the rocks he'd used before, but they were finer then sand. He set it down before dragging the larger ring to the open spot in the cave. He shook his head. "No, it won't be as loud. And thank you, I appreciate the meal."

He laid the larger ring so that it was flat on the ground and stepped back, taking a moment to observe the surface, glancing occasionally to the streaks on Dread's body. Once he had a plan, he picked up a thin piece of charcoal and began mapping it out in small steaks and dots. Once he was satisfied, he lifted one of his talons and waited for a moment. His gem began to glow a bit as magic collected in this one claw. He cringed a bit at the heat, but he could bear it as long as he was fast.

But that wouldn't stop him from still being precise. His strokes were even and measured - he'd spent enough time balancing on one leg that he could hold himself steady. It didn't even take too long, mainly on the account that he could not bear the heat in his talon for a very long time. Each time he pressed and cut, a thin line of gold melted at his touch.

When he was done, he dipped the cloth in the trough and began rubbing the surface of the rings. It created a noise, but it wasn't very loud, as if her were actually rubbing sand over the metal. He did this for about ten minutes before stepping away. The imperfections created by the engraving had been rubbed away, as had all the others, leaving the ring gleaming and shiny. He did this to the other as well, finally stepping back to revel in his work.

"And there you go! They are done! Thank you for your patience, Dread!" He pushed each ring closer to the dragon and then paused. "Would you like me to put them on your horns?"

Glory fluttered back at the sound that Dread let loose as he presented the rings to him. He'd never in his life heard that kind of sound before, but he recognized, at least, the happiness, which brough a smile to his eyes. There really wasn't anything like the satisfaction of a customer upon the completion of work. "That's quite alright," he quickly responded. He didn't really need any more gemstones. After all, he could make them himself and he enjoyed his work enough for that to be his motivator.

When Dread lowered his head, Glory willed the larger of the rings to lift. It was too bulky for him to get onto the horn himself, but the magic picked it up easily and slid it down the length of his horn. The other ring, he picked up with his talons and pushed it on himself, sliding it down until the horn was too thick for it to go further. He fluttered away, admiring the handiwork in front of him. The largest, the engraved one, sat near the thickest part of Dread's horn and the other one about halfway down, squeezed around the hard surface tight enough that it wouldn't come off easily. "There you go! They look magnificent!"