Glory was sleeping, totally exhausted from the day before. It had been crazy - meeting Dread, searching for shinies in the cave, and now this new revelation - of his new kind of earth magic and his talent for crafting! It was excellent and the excitement woke him up. He was refreshed now from a long night's rest. Thankfully, his half finished piece still sat next to him. He was not ready to attach the pieces yet, no, he still needed to finish making his gems! He decided quickly that five gems would not be enough for a glorious piece like this! No, this piece needed diamonds.

He still had two more two do, so, as soon as he was awake and shaking his feathers, he touched his claws to the ground and willed a beautiful diamond to create, compressing as much as he could until he got a thin but beautifully sparkling strip of pale yellow diamond. He held it against the plate and was thrilled at how it looked. It would look even better with three more strips of course!

Glory pressed his talon down yet again and held the strip against the ground, trying to form one that was the same length. It wouldn't look very good if it was any longer or shorter. Fortunately, the one that he managed to compress and create was almost exactly the same shape. He took a few steps back after laying them both on the ground to observe them from afar and nodded. Yes, they looked good enough that the slight imperfections were invisible unless they were known.

Glory, excited for how his very first piece was going to turn out, set them next to each other and prepared for his next spell.

Glory had to take a deep breath and a step back. He had been really going at it with magic in the past few days and was starting to feel a little dizzy. But he had to finish it! Just a few more spells and he would be done! He pushed himself to continue, pressing his claw on the ground to create another gem.

The pale yellow diamond was a little roughed this time, but at least the same shape. The cuts were not perfect, but it was the best he could do for now. Putting it next to the others, he wasn't nearly as satisfied, but he doubted that Dread would really care once it was part of his hoard.

That was when Glory realized that he grew sour at the idea that this piece that he had been working so hard on would only become part of the dragon's hoard of treasure. That it would belong a creature that already jealously guarded enough stuff on his own. No, Glory was going to keep this. This would be his special piece.

Glory leaned down and pressed his beak against the ground this time, his talons starting to tingle and feel sore from all the magic going through them. But no gem rose to the surface this time as he tried to compress rock. He barely got anywhere before he released the magic, hoping to start again and have a little more success. He shook his head a little bit to try and clear his hazing mind. He needed to focus! He needed to finish this! He was almost there!

All he needed was one more gem - a single pale yellow diamond and a small spell to attach them all to the plate and then his very first piece was finished. A decorative plate of metal. A simple thing, but something he would be proud of.

Glory tried again, but it seemed that his magic ability was escaping him, as if his body was crying out for him to stop. With a deep, strangled breath, he staggered away and collapsed against the wall, his rest seeming to have been nothing at this point. He needed a short rest before he continued. He had never done so much crafting so quickly. At first, he resisted the need to rest as the excitement and anticipation of seeing his final product was almost too much, but he eventually gave up and leaned back and let his body go limp.

His eyes fluttered shut and his breathing went even as he went off into a dreamless, peaceful sleep.

When Glory sat up, he thought that he was going to feel better. That he was going to be able to finally get the last gem that he needed. It was just one more, one more gem.

He stepped back over to the area that he was leaving his stones and put his talons against the ground once again. He closed his eyes and focused, trying to compress the stones beneath his feet. Trying to shape them, cut them up, into a brand new shining gem. He suddenly felt an incredible pain in his foot and he immediately released the spell, opening up his eyes and looking down. Had he been trying to compress and crush his own foot?

Finally, as Glory touched the ground for the last time, the final gem that he needed for his plate was compressed and cut and perfected. It looked like the first two he had made, so there was only one outlier. That was okay, at least he had all the pieces he needed.

He laid the plate on the ground and arranged all of his pieces. The ruby in the middle, the four moonstones in the four cardinal directions and the thin strips of diamond surrounding those. It was beautiful. Very basic, but beautiful to him. Perfect. He then swiped all of the gems off and stood back, preparing for the part that he was most nervous about - welding them all onto the surface.

He took a deep breath to steady his racing heartbeat. Now was the time, now he had to do it. The last part of this magnificent piece. He slowly began to stream magic from his gem into his mouth as he warmed his saliva. He didn't want to completely melt the metal, but just make it soft enough so that he could stick the gems on. After a moment, his beak was getting very hot and he knew it was ready.

Carefully, he leaned over and dropped small bits of hot drool into the nine places where he would set the gems. He hoped that the plate was even with the ground or else it would go everywhere.

Fortunately, Glory was lucky. The spit didn't roll off or spread too much. He picked up the ruby and, after letting the heated saliva sit there for a moment, he pressed the ruby into the center, quickly following with the rest of the gems. They were all set in place and all they needed now was to cool.

When Glory woke up again, he immediately jumped up and ran over to see how the piece had come out. As he approached, his heart stopped.

It was beautiful. Nine wonderfully shaped gems fixed perfectly onto a metal sheet. It was an arbitrary thing, a useless decoration, but to him it was the most perfect thing in the world. His very first craft, his own trinket. No, this would not go in Dread's hoard. This would be his to keep. To remind himself of what he could do.

He had to take this somewhere. He had to find his own place so that he wasn't flying it straight to Dread. No, he would find his own ledge. He would collect all kinds of metals and gems too so that he could continue to craft without having to fly between his nest and the tunnel all the time.

He picked up the plate in his talons and headed towards Monoceros, taking flight. Yes, he would find a place for him. He would forge more things, get better and more efficient! He was going to be a blacksmith!

*exit