Well, this looked promising. After rolling away some stiffness in her shoulders, Miriam fished out a sample of her recent discovery from the newest shallow hole she'd dug. They were a cluster of pebbles, almost black and lightly speckled. She moved them around in her palm and used her other hand to pluck one for better examination. Near instantly her mildly annoyed expression shifted, mouth twisting into irrepressible disgust.

Rocks did not squish between claws. Neither did they possess the stench that was beginning to saturate her paw and waft into her nostrils. If her scales could change color, they would've affected a distinctive greenish tinge. In quick response to rapidly ramping repulsion, the awful collection of droppings were flung toward the farthest cave wall.

Body trembling, Miriam shook out her paws and nearly doubled over. Her tongue strained while air rasped past it. Calm eventually settled in and put this bout of dry-heaving to an end. She then straightened up, one thought foremost in her mind: regardless of the time wasted by the trip, she needed to wash her paws in the closest stream, preferably until scales threatened to peel away.

Awful. Truly horrible. This was why she needed others; poking around in muck was dirty work of the highest, most humiliating degree and very much not meant for a being of her stature and poise.

After a quick excursion, she returned to the drudgery of mundane labor, her paws clean. Water still trickled down claws from their recent wash, but this didn't interfere much with the resumed digging, other than wet clumps of dirt clinging to scales as she bore once more into the earth. Miriam's eyes glared daggers into the spot she excavated, each thrust of her paw akin to a stab.

Any insight to her mind would've revealed an angry haze of whispers: How outrageous was it to waste so much time on burrowing around like some overgrown rabbit. Scrounging in shit wasn't a job suited for her, so why couldn't she impress someone else into this filth-infested service. Above all, why was this taking so long? Why were ordinary rocks, a far from rare resource, so difficult to find in this tunnel of all places?

Eventually a brain boiling with impatience was given a small relief for its pain, and Miriam rose from her hunched position, a dismissive huff gusting past her lips. Cradled in her paws was a collection of rocks of varying shades ranging from pitch black to light gray. While most were pebbles, the largest was a sizeable chunk that fit into a quarter of her palm.

That would be enough humiliation for today. Onward to a more satisfying use of her energy: mixing up the dyes and applying them to her sad little attempt at a statuette.

Despite Miriam's dainty affectations, she possessed no illusions that her paws were too fragile to attempt crushing and grinding stone into usable powder. Being one of the larger creatures encountered in the caves, she'd often displayed her strength well on hunts, carrying limp prey away to a secluded spot to devour after casually snapping their necks. For all her prowess, however, she suspected it'd take longer to reduce these pebbles into a dye-ready state if she relied solely on this. Although like stones could scratch each other into eventual oblivion, use of a gem's hard edges would likely expedite the process some and save hours of her already limited patience. Fortunately for such a small figurine as the one she'd carved into existence, the recent trove of supplies she just uncovered could be considered a surplus, and a segment could be sacrificed in pursuit of this easier method.

A claw sorted through the gathered pebbles and sectioned off the smallest in one paw while shifting the rest to the other. Carefully separating the cradle she'd previously made, Miriam made a tight fist around these rejected stones and concentrated, tension building in her jaws from the effort. Heat erupted against scales, fingers loosened, and with her emitting an undignified yelp, uncontained pressure blew apart her grip. The stones, broken into even tinier pieces, scattered onto the ground.

After examining her palm for any abrasions, a scowl emerged onto her face. It appeared she'd underestimated the power required to complete such a feat. Having received her lesson, she wouldn't dare repeat this spectacular incompetence. An idiot might be willing to endure many failures of the same degree with a cheerful grin and never progress further, but she intended to learn. Suffering more humiliation over simple tasks wasn't an option allowed.