Dread soared, pride in every wing-flap. Every tremble of muscle balancing against wind, every slight billow in the wing-leather from the warm thermal beneath--all of it came with arched neck and self-satisfied gaze. The last time Glory had seen him, he hadn't been so resplendent (or silly, depending on perspective, but for Dread he was definitely resplendent) with the curved and pointed sweeping lines across his body. It was dye, yes, but magically-affixed, and glittered as if fire within him were shining through in mysterious, esoteric runes. Or, perhaps, random scratchings.

And he was here to add to that, today--or, at least, he hoped that he was.

Clutched in the talons of both his feet were a number of things. First, there was gold--pure gold, a gift scratched from the nearby tunnels' armor by someone who had owed him. There wasn't a lot of it, but it should be more than enough for his purposes, if battered, dented, and dusty with age. Hopefully, Glory'd be able to clean and to utilize it properly.

Second was the payment, or at least he hoped it was payment enough. For once, Dread had shown some measure of intellect. He knew that the eagle made armor and the like, and at first, he'd picked up massive chunks of gemstone--a couple of them--in payment, from his den. But then he'd reconsidered.

Surely smaller, brighter stones, used to fix into the things that he made, would be better? And so the dragon, if reluctantly (though more excited about the prospect of wearing gold), had carefully sorted and sifted and picked through his pile before plucking out a handful of the brightest, smallest, shiniest gemstones. They were pure and glittering, and he had no idea (nor would he have thought to check) whether they had life in them or not. But for decoration they would surely be beautiful: red ones, blue and green, even a few topaz-yellow (though less of these, for the dragon valued gold color above all else). There were a few jet black stones, even, and all of them he'd wrapped in an old scrap of leather--or, rather, the still hair-speckled, slightly-charred hide of some prey animal or other.

He came in with bass flaps of large wings, landing with the crunch of sand underfoot just outside Glory's smithy. He'd wait here, if the eagle wasn't present--but he called out, nonetheless, unable to quite see into the niche from here.

"GLORY?" he bellowed, rocking forward to land on his wing-tips. There he crouched, arching his neck to peer at his own feet, so that he could see what he was doing.

Carefully--unaware, if Glory was present or approaching, or anyone else for that matter--he unwrapped the leather, letting it fall open and dragging it through the dust so that it was out in front of him.

All of the glittering gems lay within, along with the gold he wanted to use--and this, he carefully nudged aside, into a separate pile. Alongside the gems lay a few twisted scraps of armor. They were nothing shiny but, he knew, the eagle might wish to make use of their metal.

That being said, Dread had no idea what sort of metal it was, nor if it were any good. But it was part of his payment, nonetheless.

@Glory

It wasn't hard to catch Glory while he was in his cave - most of his time these days was spent hammering away at his anvil or tanning leather or something else that he could do within his cave. He had everything he needed, after all and the only reason he ever needed to leave was to collect more material. So it was that the blacksmith was resting from his latest work, roosting in his nest in the corner, among the many piles of junk that took up half the space. One eye opened at the sound of wingbeats and both of them opened when Dread's voice roared through his cave.

Immediately he jumped to his feet and leaped into the air, soaring over to the cave entrance where the dragon was waiting for him. He landed and stepped out, opening his wings in greeting. "Hello, Dread! Wonderful to see you!" He opened his beak to say something else, but his eyes caught sight of the glowing runes that adorned the dragon's sides. They were marvelous and Glory puffed his feathers out happily. "You look fantastic! Love what you've done with your scales! It looks like fire!" Of course, he doubted that it was any kind of fire, and he was certain is was a type of magic, but Glory had never seen anything like this before and was more then intrigued. Perhaps he should find whoever had done is and get his own as well.

He forced his eyes away from the tattoos and back to Dread's face. "Anyways, what can I do for you?" His eyes drifted to the pile of gifts that Dread and laid out on the stone. "Do you wish me to make you something?"

@Dread

Ahh, there was the eagle--he'd been nesting, and at his movement, Dread spotted him at last. He listened to Glory's words with swelling pride, then drew himself up and shook himself proudly, the spines along his neck and throat clattering.

"THANK YOU," he remembered to bellow, turning his head and neck this way and that, for a moment, to show off. At Glory's question, he got down to business at once.

"I WANT GOLD RINGS," he began, and then bowed his head, nudging at the ground with the longest horn on the right side of his head. "For this horn! One--two rings?" and now he sounded uncertain. "BANDS, to go around the horns!" He used his beaked snout to shove the few gold chunks just a few inches toward Glory, indicating them, and then he nudged the other armor scraps and all the gems.

"ARE THOSE ENOUGH PAYMENT? I know you use gems. I was going to bring big but they were TOO big," he explained, shifting himself a little as he peered closely down at the stones.

Ember eyes flicked back up to peer at Glory, hopefully. ...He loved gold, and he really wanted to put some... on himself. Hopefully, the eagle was capable of this.

@Glory

Glory hopped over to inspect the gold that Dread had gotten him, tapping at it experimentally with his claw and observing the horn that Dread showed him. "Yes, I can do that!" It seemed like a good, simple project to take on after the complicated commission that Elyon had given him before. He fluttered back to look at the payment that Dread gave for him and he had to admit that it seemed like a little much. But it was a sign of Dread's affection and appreciation, he guessed, that the dragon would even consider giving him anything from his hoard.

He picked through the gems and randomly grabbed one of them. "I don't need much for payment! I usually ask one gem for one piece. And if you're wanting two..." He touching his claw to the scraps of armor as well. "This should be enough for me! A gem and good material!"

Assuming that this sealed the deal, then, Glory set the gemstone a little ways away from the rest and fluttered into his cave, emerging a moment later with a strip of leather, with a number of indents along its length. "Here, let me measure your horn." If Dread would lower his horn for Glory to reach, he would wrap the leather strap around the horn and make an indent where the two ends met. "For the rings, do you want them simple or do you want them fancy? I can engrave or do extra gemstones for you or just simple golden rings."

@Dread

The dragon obediently lowered his head, which was quite large on its own compared to the eagle. He was, however, docile enough as Glory set about measuring the horn, only grunting a little when he felt the light pressure of the leather strip upon it.

The eagle's offer was at once fascinating. Engraved? He wasn't sure what that meant but it didn't mean gemstones, apparently, since that was something else. Uncertain, he hesitated, trying to imagine all sorts of golden bands around the horn. Purely from context, he decided that "engraved" must mean carved, but he wasn't sure with what.

Dread went through a few different pictures in his mind, and then came to a decision. For once, rather than petulant or noisy, he seemed happy--content, even, to simply settle there and watch Glory at work as he spoke, his voice not even all that loud.

"One large, and plain," he decided--"just a big gold--ring. And one smaller--thinner! And... engraved?" he asked, hesitantly. He hoped that he was getting this right.

If it was what he imagined, it sounded good, at least.

Dread made no effort to take back any of the smaller gemstones, however. Perhaps the math of one plus one was hard for him, or maybe he just had meant these all for Glory, and meant to keep it that way. Whatever the case, he pushed the leather with all the glittering rocks closer to the bird, making it clear that they were for the eagle.

@Glory

Glory made sure to measure two different parts of Dread's horns to get the measurement for both rings and, one he had, he pulled back the leather and stepped a little away from the dragon, observing the horn so he could get a visual on what he was going to do.

"Yes, okay! I can do that. For the smaller ring I will engrave it to look like your markings, if that is good with you!" He wasn't quite sure how to respond to Dread handing him all of the gemstones so he just shrugged and pulled them closer. "Thank you," he responded, simply. "I will get to work immediately, unless there's anything other details you have in mind?"

@Dread

Dread shook his big head, settling in. He had no idea how long it'd take, and he just sort of... assumed he'd stay, and wait. It didn't even occur to him that he ought to come back later.

"No. Are you always here?" he then asked, abruptly and bluntly. And then--perhaps explaining the basis of his question, and a little more... normally, he went on. "Or have you been... Other places? What have you been doing?" It was nearly a demand, but it was probably as social a version of "how have you been, and what have you been up to" as the dragon could manage with his stunted command of conversation.

He turned, the sand crunching under him as he shuffled around to coil up, not unlike a big serpent, though the batlike wings curved up and over his back. When he turned the entire way around he seemed settled, his ember eyes fixing on Glory.

Dread watched, then--curious and attentive--as if wondering just how the process worked. He'd seen the eagle at work at his forge only once or twice, but he'd never really seen the details. He found himself curious--how did one take old, battered gold, and make it into something new and shining?

@Glory

Once Dread had refused any other details, Glory nodded and pulled the scraps with the gemstones inside of his cave, setting them into a corner to be sorted later before he hoped back out and pushed the gold inside as well. Thankfully, Dread had brought him pure gold - much easier to work with then an ore.

He quickly donned his thick talon gloves before setting to work. He lifted the gold pieces and stuffed as many as he could into a rather large crucible sitting on the ground in the corner of the room, right in front of a small hollowed out cave. The cave glowed orange and let out a great amount of heat. He carefully poked the crucible until he couldn't handle the heat anymore before finishing pushing it into the wall with the help of some tongs.

Glory glanced back at Dread, realizing that he was a little late in responding to the dragon's question. "I'm usually around here! I've been busy lately - someone ordered a very complex piece from me a while back. I've been spending much of my time working on it. What about you? What have you been up to?"

@Dread

Dread watched the process with rapt interest, eyes flicking to the gold, the crucible, and the orange glow in turn. At Glory's voice he tore himself away, shifting his gaze with some effort back to his eagle friend.

"I am in my den," he decided, after considering the question. "Mostly. Sometimes I go other places, and others give me shinies for doing things."

Nostrils flared, and he leaned in a little, sniffing at the crucible. "What--piece?" he asked, at last, his great horned head tilting. His ember eyes blinked, and for once he seemed to be paying attention, real attention to Glory and his conversation. "Can I see it?"

And he was interested. Theoretically, of course, he knew what it was that Glory did--but in practice, he'd rarely seen the eagle's finished work. What was it that was so complex? Dread was interested in its appearance, and in the... process? Is that the right word? he mused.

He could see a little of how the eagle went about melting the gold, at least, but where did he go from there? What was it that he made--and how?

@Glory

Glory nodded, eyes sparkling with humor. Of course, the only thing that would get Dread out of his cave, and out of Monoceros to boot, was for treasure and rewards. "Well, good for you! I'm sure your hoard has had many fine things added to it. You'll have to show off to me your favorite shinies some day." As he spoke he moved to the large junk pile and pulled out a few large sheets of metal he had lying around. They had obviously come from the tunnel, just banged flat - they were old, dented, and battered.

He paused as he pushed them towards the forge. "Ah, yes, of course!" He gestured over to his display table, where the completed spear and shield he had created for Elyon was sitting. The spear had two sharp prongs, one with a sword-like attachments and the shield had what appeared to be a pair of claws extending to the bottom, which was planted firmly in a pile of soft sand.

Letting Dread take a look at it, he grunted as he hoisted a couple of the sheets of metal onto the edge of his forge, sticking a good chunk of them right into the fire. "I'm going to make a mold for the rings," he explained, both to himself and to Dread. "I don't have anything big enough the mold, however, so I'll have to make a new one from scratch."

As soon as the metal was heated up, he pulled them back and laid them flat over his anvil, quickly and carefully shifting them around so that the hot edges were layered on top of each other. Picking up one of his largest hammers, he quickly began to strike right where the two met, sending a metallic ringing through the cave.

@Dread