The bone-riddled floors were empty. The sky, slightly dimming with the slow onset of dusk, was quiet. Nothing moved but the soft dripping of water and the occasional scurry of rats.

Well, almost. Teetering out of the shadows came Sharp, caked in drying mud but oddly smiling. The loud Clitter-Clatter of a bone cart came right after her, which was steered by a bar she clenched in her mouth. The lizard spent the last who-knows-how-long building this strange contraption-- or, as she'd started calling it, the "Super-awesome-mega-thing"-- for the Collector, and now she was finally ready to start the second half of her quest.

Now, time to actually get Collecty-friend over. Sharp briefly wondered if he ever slept, or ate, or if he just always appeared whenever someone called for him. Who knew? Certainly not her. Dropping her stick gently to the ground, Sharp scampered from underneath and onto a tall skeleton. "Collecty-friend? Collectooorr? I made a method!" she cried, smacking her tail with a thunk for extra emphasis. She hoped he heard-- it would be quite the hassle if he wasn't around.

Collecty-friend was here! Sharp's signature smile shone through her mud-caked face. "Hi friend!" she called to the figure, swishing her tail happily. Had he been watching her this whole time...? Probably better not to think about that. "This is my super-awesome-mega thing! It's really really really awesome!" the lizard added excitedly.

Oh? Did the Collector want to know how she did it? Well, she shall provide! "Oh! Oh! Yeah! Took a lot of work! You see, I was feeling all sad because I didn't know how to make a method-thing. So I kicked this bone, and it rolled! And it moved! And I was like 'wow, I can make other things move with this!'" Sharp imitated rolling something under her paw for extra effect. "So I made this thingy with bone on both sides, you see? And then I thought 'oh, I could put something on this!' So I put a bunch'a bones on top but it fell apart, but then I thought about mud! And mud was sticky! So I put a lotta mud on top until it stuck together!"

That was quite the ramble. Sharp took in a huge gasp to cover for all that breathless babbling. "There you go!" the pride was evident in her voice. She did such a good job! But of course, she was only halfway done. "Do I go meet Rather-Likes-Dread now?" she asked, adding a little "I hope they think my super-awesome's cool,"at the end.

Sharp watched eagerly as the Collector sat a large golden band ('so much gold! Scary-friend will be so impressed!') on top of her little cart. The bones creaked slightly with the extra weight, and she scurried back to make sure it wasn't going to collapse. Luckily, all that mud was keeping it together. Collecty-friend kept talking-- apparently, all she had to do was bring this back to Dread. How easy! Well, putting together a new form of transportation wasn't exactly easy, but at least this last part was!

Sharp leaned forward eagerly when he asked her to listen. So, tell scary-friend it was from someone else-- Aure? What's an Aure? The lizard felt tempted to ask, but she was more of an ask-questions-later sort of kid. Maybe the dragon'll know. Oh, and don't tell anyone! She could do that part just fine!

With a grin and a small tail wave of understanding, she waddled back into position to pull her package. "O-kay!" Sharp cheered. She figured it was time to leave now; the figure had given her her gift, and all she had to do was lug it back to Monoceros. "Won't tell anyone! Bye-bye!" she gave a tug on it and stopped short. Caves, this thing was heavy. Far heavier than her. Well, good thing she added wheels! It took some of the burden off of her, but the lizard still found herself straining to lug it past the Collector. In a bit, though, she got herself onto a clearer trail, the heavy cart slowly bumping along. Many minutes later, as she neared the doorway, Sharp remembered her old golden pieces with a start and went to retrieve them. She set them down right in the carriage of her vehicle, and continued on, the soft rattling of bones following her.

This was going to be a long trip home.