Polaris had almost become a head-clearing space for Asimona - the open, cool, illuminated cave made for a good energizer and she felt more alive when she was flying through it. And now was a good a time as any for a good head clearing. Reseda's dark memories still lingered in her thoughts and a mindless, soaring flight was just the thing she really needed to give it a good mull-about. She didn't have to focus on anything besides avoiding stalactites and some of the larger flying lessers when they chose not to remove themselves from her path.

She was so wrapped up in her head that she almost missed the dark shadow of an old friend perched near the Spire.

She caught herself just in time and flared her wings forward to slow her gliding, beating them quickly to hold her place in the air. She looked down, blinking them out to make sure that it really was Dread perched there, before slowing her wingbeats to slowly descend down towards him, stinger-ended tail hanging beneath her

She hadn't seen him in a while, not since she'd visited him in Monoceros - and speaking of the cave, she hadn't seen him out of it since they were children, save for a few brief visions of him in Reseda's memories. "Dread," she called down to him, but he probably would have heard her wingbeats long before her voice. "You're far from home."

Asimona glanced down at the stone as Dread turned to face her. There was another, smaller ledge, just big enough to accommodate her and she reached forward with her hind legs. As they touched down, she allowed her front legs to fall forward and grab at the stone while her wings gave one last flap before they folded in against her body. Her head arched up to look her friend in the eye, eyes glancing over the golden rings over his horns.

And, of course, the first question he asked was exactly the kind of thing she expected and she smiled. "Of course I do! It's at my nest, along with the other gifts you gave me. My home is in Pisces - that's the cave with the waterfall. So don't worry, you're not taking anything from me." She snorted softly. "I doubt anybody would live this close to the Spire, so I think you're good."

Her head turned and she glanced along the ground that Dread had been observing moments before. She could guess what he was here for - looking for new things to add to his hoard. She'd never felt the same jealous desire for hoarding that Dread displayed, but she still had a collection of trinkets back at her den. "Were you looking for something?"

Asimona had to think for a second to remember Fornax - it had been a while since she'd been there, but the memory that stuck in her head wasn't going away - playing with Dread as children, but leaving because it was way too hot. No wonder he liked going there. It made her wonder if he would at all enjoy the damp, close-to-freezing atmosphere that she called home, since his borderline hot, dry, and airy cave of Monoceros wasn't really to her tastes.

Her brow lowered with confusion. "Why would someone attack you? Did you make them mad?" She offered him a small snort and a smile, however. "Of course you one, I doubt anyone could take you down, Dread." It was casual flattery, bordering on teasing, but she meant it and watched the dragon with barely disguised admiration. Wish I was that confident, huh. But, then again, it seemed that a lot of Dread's confidence was born out of ignorance. Unfortunately, Asimona did not have that luxury.

"Do you want some help finding some? I'll give you what I find, I don't really need a lot of shinies. And you can come see my den whenever you want! I'm sorry that people try to steal from you, that's a very mean thing to do."

Asimona rolled her eyes. She knew a number of gembounds that would run up to attack a dragon, unfortunately, and peered down at the flint Dread held out to her. She'd honestly thought for a moment that it was Blackberry, since she'd had a very similar experience with that insane goose, but the flint was smaller then her, and she was pretty sure she was locked up in Eridanus, last she'd heard. "I wouldn't recommend eating Gembound that can talk, Dread, unless they're actually a threat on your life. I don't see how a bird that small could pose a threat to you without magic."

She grinned to herself when Dread puffed up happily. He was easy to please and it was funny seeing him so flattered by only a simple compliment. But her smile dropped quickly when he mentioned something "purple with green eyes all over it". She knew....she knew who that was. She'd glimpsed him across the sands, behind the gembounds struggling through the desert. She didn't know his name, or if he was even a Master or if he just worked for them, but something was up if he was just attacking random gembounds around the caves.

She noted it for later - she'd have to do something about this, maybe investigate it further down the line. For now, she focused back on Dread, displaying his magic proudly. She glanced back at the crack he'd made on the ledge, wings flinching in case the stone gave way, but nothing happened and Asimona sighed. "Oh, I'm sure! I can see that being really really impressive, especially if you have a lot of space to work with."

At least she had a task, now, to distract her from a sudden torrent of troubled thoughts. She lifted her wings as well as Dread took off. "Deal!" She jumped from the ledge, soaring down to the floor of Polaris, a little ways from Dread, and began searching through the rocks for something to give him. After a few seconds of searching, she pulled out a light-colored, rough piece of sapphire from the rubble, but it wasn't exactly something that she'd call "shiny". She glanced over at Dread, doubting that he'd find any real value in it. So she set it to the side to keep searching.

Asimona continue to dig around the pile of rocks she was currently searching through when she heard Dread coming over, awkwardly, with something clutched in his leg. Oh shit, she needed to find something for him! She wasn't sure if he'd like the sapphire she'd found so she continued to search through the pile of rubble until something glittered...gold.

Quickly, she reached it and grabbed it with her claws, pulling the stone out of its little nook. But at second glance, it wasn't actually gold - it was pyrite, but it was certainly shiny. She turned towards Dread as he bellowed and presented his prize. She set down the pyrite to look closer at the pearl he was holding out. It was certainly something beautiful and she could see why Dread was so eager for her to see it. IT was surprisingly similar to the color of her hide, just with a bit of a green tint.

"Wow, that's beautiful," she responded happily, pulling her head back up. "I wish I could have find something as nice, but I found a couple of things." She held out the sapphire and pyrite for Dread to inspect. "It's not real gold but it certainly looks a bit like gold."