Dread watched--at first attentive, curious. He fidged and stared at the finished steel version of the ring quite a lot, utterly impatient to have it finished, and tempted many times to ask why it was not yet gold. In the end, the dragon managed to avoid making demands of the eagle; he instead stretched his head out so that his snout could reach the first band. He nudged it, and sniffed it, and eventually he closed his eyes.

Throughout the work on the second ring, Dread slept--his jaw touching the first ring, his eyes shut, and smoke occasionally curling up from his nostrils. His massive wings slowly raised and lowered as he breathed.

Several hours later--perhaps a bit before Glory would finish--he woke again. He looked around, seemed to remember where he was, and yawned--enormously.

"Will it be done soon?" he asked, hopefully. He wasn't sure just how long he'd slept, or how far Glory had gotten with his work.

@Glory

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."

@Dread

Dread was excited by Glory's words. He'd get to help..? This work would be a little his, as well as Glory's? (Granted, not really, but in his mind this must surely count.)

For a long moment, snaking his massive head into the hollow, he studied what Glory meant. He spotted the holes in the mold, and he looked--falling into a rapt trance, for a moment--at the shimmering liquid gold. Greed and hunger glimmered in his eyes, and only after a real effort of will did he pull himself from its spellbinding beauty.

Right. He could do this. Excitement still thrilled in him.

Carefully, he leaned in and clasped jaws around the crucible's handle. It burned--it didn't cause damage, not right away, but the terrible heat pressing against his teeth was quite painful. The dragon let out a keening snort, then lifted the crucible--and paused.

Holding it as he was, he couldn't see under his own head--which was large. He'd have to guess, based on where he'd seen the holes.

This would not be easy.

Carefully, he began to tilt the crucible over where he imagined the hole had been. But he was very large, and not built for tiny increments of precision--though the gold did get where it was meant to be, there were plenty of slops, spills and little droplets all over the place. When at last it was done he set the crucible back down in a hurry, raking the tips of his wings at his jaws with eyes squeezed shut in pain.

"It hurts the teeth," he explained, and briefly let out a complaining moan that sounded half-twinned with a growl. Then his eyes opened, and he peered down at the molds. "Did it work?"

@Glory

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.

@Dread

Dread stared, nonplussed.

"Are you dead-?" he demanded, at first.

For a moment he tried all manner of tests--or rather, the three he could think of; he sniffed at Glory (still smelled like a bird, and like metal) and he listened, but he couldn't hear whether the bird was breathing. He peered, but Glory was so comparatively small that he couldn't see whether the eagle's chest rose and fell.

Dread reared his head back, shaking himself in puzzlement, as if to clear his thoughts. What about magic? His magic--twinned with his predator's senses--rose up with a powerful flicker. Glory seemed to almost glow with life and health, pulsing within him; no, he was quite alive.

Tired, Dread thought.

He turned, looking around--he could see myriad other heartbeats throughout the room, and it reminded him that he hadn't eaten in some time. With a glance at Glory, he decided that he had time--the metal, if he remembered the blacksmith's words right, had to have time to cool and harden, anyway.

Dread pushed away, plodding on wings and feet until he was a decent distance away, and then took flight.

He was gone for some time--and when he returned, he had fed. He carried in his jaws, too, a large cave rat; hopefully enough of a meal for his friend, and perhaps a bit more of a thank you. This rat he dropped--like a cat leaving a gift--just beside Glory's head. Dread did this with a sense of satisfaction; in his mind, it was a worthy gift, and Glory would certainly be thrilled to wake to it.

@Glory

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!"

@Dread

Dread watched.

He was not exactly certain as to why Glory threw sand all over the place, but the eagle seemed to have his methods--of which Dread understood little--and so he didn't comment. Glory was muttering, too, and it sounded annoyed, so perhaps it had been an accident.

The dragon waited, instead, eventually making minor small-talk while Glory dug out the rings.

"I thought you died. But you had not; so I brought food." It was not particularly eloquent small talk.

When at last the rings had been retrieved, and the next step was clear, Dread settled down again to wait. He edged, closer, first, though; he wanted to see how Glory engraved the rings--and how he polished them. Although...

"Will it be loud, again?" he asked warily.

@Glory

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?"

@Dread

The dragon twisted closer to watch the engraving. He had no sense of how long might be left in the work, but the sight, at last, of gleaming gold held him rapt. Though he winced as Glory began to polish again, he quickly realized that the sound was this time quite tolerable, and so he slipped closer.

It occurred to Dread that the scattering of gemstones that he had brought--though fairly numerous, in his mind--weren't quite enough for all this work. He huffed and rumbled.

"I will bring more gems," he decided aloud, although with little explanation. The dragon's ideas of equivalent exchange were often rather lopsided, but in this case, a handful of shinies didn't feel worth hours of work for pure and shining gold. Hell, he'd have given those away just for the gold rings, let alone the work required to make them.

Dread watched the engraving with close interest. The eagle worked fast, but his precision in marking the malleable metal was impressive--the sweeping lines in the ring fascinating. When at last Glory finished, and presented him with the finished golden rings, he let out a delighted sound--a sound not likely to be expected, from a dragon. It was part short, excited roar, part almost-shriek--perhaps most exactly defined as a dragon's version of a 'squeal.' He pushed forward, inspecting them closely before lowering his head.

"Yes!" he answered simply--but the joy the dragon felt was clear in his tone.

To him, there was simply nothing better than gold: new gold, created just for him, and by a friend, to boot. This was the ultimate happiness, in life.

@Glory

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!"

@Dread