In the clearing beneath the monarch's sweeping cap, a figure sat hunched. Her palms - cracked and calloused - glanced over the assortment of glass bottles before herself, graciously gifted to her by the Blacksmith in his teachings, however brief. Each one was filled about halfway with water fetched from the creeks running through Eridanus. One seemed to suit her fancy, bulbous at its base and covered with a cork. She swept it away from the others, and stuffed those into a rudimentary woven-basket.

Elspet turned slightly on the spot, towards a stone bowl she'd chipped out with flint and a pestle. The bulbous bottle sat at its side, and she hummed as if in quiet thought. Electric eyes surveyed the ensemble for a moment. She raised a lanky arm to scratch at her other, static glancing off the quartz affixed to her skin.

Giving a brief hoot - an idea reached - the gorilla hoisted herself up slightly, stretching out one of her feet to hold onto the bottle oh-so-carefully as she clasped her palms about a stray pebble. Magicka buzzed at the base of her skull, coalescing into an electrifying glow from her crystalline horns. Feeling its flow, Elspet crushed harder. Beneath her fingers and sheer force, the stone gave way and way until it started to resist. Once it prodded back at her skin, the great ape ceased and unfurled her fingers to give it a thorough inspection.

Sure enough: it was a gemstone.

Elspet regarded it with a warm smile, gave it a gentle kiss, and placed it into the mortar. She set right to crushing it into as fine a powder as possible, bowl in one hand (resting on her right thigh) and pestle in the other.

Rough chunk of Spessartite Garnet formed!

for @Attikias but anyone's welcome!

It was time for Attikias to return Dread's figure, but he'd give it some time. There were still some things he wanted to sit and wait on- there was no telling if something'd look off after a few days.

He left it at home as he went on a walk. It was about time for him to take off the drying pelt from its rack, but now he just wanted to think. He had the deer to carve-

Had someone to murder. His face scrunched up unpleasantly. The dagger was left at home for now, and his carving kit hung at his waist as it often did when he went on these walks.

He paused when he saw an unfamiliar figure, doing a near double-take at it. At first, he thought she was just a lesser- but the spiraling horns said different. She wasn't like anything he'd seen.

Other than, maybe, himself. What had that bird said- something about him being an ape? His face screwed up in thought. It didn't connect to him that this was an ape. Instead he, simply approached with a level of wide-eyed apprehension, worried about interrupting the figure in front of him.

It had something in its hands- hands? His eyebrows flew up in shock and he jogged the rest of the way, stammering for words while his own hands grabbed onto his bag strap. "Hi- uh- sorry, I saw you- no, um- what're you doing? If-if I can ask? Can I watch?"

The words came out fast and flustered, and he could nearly be seen as rude as he dropped to his knees in a kneeling position, intently staring down her working hands without invitation.

@Elspet

Elspet was just barely fracturing parts of the garnet - perhaps a softer stone would've been better, like the ones that looked like sand - when a figure barreled towards her. A hm? rumbled unbidden from her throat as it - he made his approach and revealed a set of fairly interesting characteristics; the first thing she noticed, of course, was the flat sort of face and forward-facing eyes. They were keen, if furrowed with a brief worry of intruding. The gorilla's own brow raised, sharp gaze softened in an almost motherly way.

She worked her jaw gently, tusk-like bottom teeth worrying her lip before she gave a hearty laugh: "'course you can watch, kiddo! That's what eyes are for!" Once the stranger looked like he had gotten himself settled and comfortable underneath the Monarch, Elspet set back to work with an eager grin plastered across her face. The gemstone crunched within the mortar as she did, and she didn't so much as falter while she spoke, "I'm just messin' around 'n makin' dyes. Sorta like paint and stuff you can put on yourself and other... uh, stuff!"

The great ape paused, holding out the arm that was working so tirelessly at the gemstone. She twisted it so the geometric quartz patterns down her forearms were visible, glimmering in the light. "Did 'em myself," Elspet boasted before working with even more vigor than before.

Grinding the spessartite into a fine orange powder, she set the pestle down in the grass. Carefully uncorking the round bottle with her teeth, she continued to hold it in one foot. Cupping a hand around its mouth like a funnel, she poured in the gem-dust. Elspet then recorked it and shook it vigorously in her right hand.

Out of the blue, she called to the stranger: "Ya got any bugs or feathers? Or berries! Anythin'll work, I'm thinkin'. I wanna try somethin' out."

@Attikias

The elf certainly used his eyes to their fullest extent, that was clear, as he leaned in with his palms over his knees. "Ah- thanks," he laughed out, amazed by the simple act of grinding.

Dyes? He cocked his head like a dog, eyes growing ever wider as her arm came out. "Woah." His hands hovered up, but he kept them to himself in an act of restrained politeness. "And it just stays? What about wood? Maybe- can you uh-" He fetched for the word she just used. "How long did it take you to paint that?"

His mind was running a mile a minute, but he stopped dead in his tracks as he realized one crucial thing. "Sorry- uh, I'm Attikias."

He watched on as she poured in the now fine dust to the bottle. He hadn't seen a complete one before- at least, he hadn't gone looking for them. There were quite a few that'd broken in the tunnels that he took home.

At the question, he sat up straighter. "Oh, yeah-" he flipped around his bag. "I've got, uh... A feather.. Some sticks? I dunno if they'd be good, but um.. Oh!" He reached in and retrieved the orange tourmaline he traded away some figures for. "I bought this a while back." He placed it to the side and rummaged around some more, pushing aside noisy tools to grab at a long, thin and white feather broken near the end. He made a face at it. Was it from that asshole he'd met before? Wordlessly, he sat it next to the gem before scraping at the bottom of the bag and returning with his hand covered in tiny glimmering specks of mirroring scales.

"I found a dead fish a while back and tried to get its scales, but it ended up being really tiny and I still haven't been able to clean my bag out since. If you can use them, you can have 'em." He laughed and tried to shake them back into it. Really- it'd begun to get on his tools, but the majority of it he had to scrape out with his nails.

"What're you gonna do with this stuff?"

@Elspet
( translucent Orange Tourmaline + large white feather + Orion's Scale scales)

Elspet gave a hearty laugh at the hesitance, scooting (a bit doglike on her ass) closer to the man so he could touch the tattooed patterns, "c'mon kid. It's just right on there. You won't be smudgin' it anytime soon." Her teeth, tusk-like bared in a broad grin, proud and eager. "With just the right magic, it'll stick to just about anything forever. I'm not thinkin' wood's an exception to that," the ape chirped; she'd really only practiced with her dyes on the cave walls, since it was the most readily available surface. Bark would be just as conducive as the stone or a dragon's rugged hide. "It took a little while to get it nice 'n pretty. I'm thinkin -" Elspet gestured up to her horns, "about colorin' these big lugs, too."

The great ape paused at the mention of a name, and hooted softly, "aw, hell - I should be apologizin'! I haven't really talked to anyone but m'wife. Elspet at ya service." Her hands fumbled for the offerings, curiously rifling between the additional orange stone, broken feather, and palmful of shimmering scales. The scales were mirror-like and most certainly glittery, so of course the gorilla went straight for them. She took whatever was in the elf's hands and scraped it into the bottle. Another shake, and the bottle was full of glittering orange.

"Well, I'm thinkin'," as she did often, "y'ever seen tree sap? It gets all sticky at first but then it dries on real hard and gets pretty 'n orange? I was wonderin' if I could do the same, and them scales might be just the right final touch." Elspet clasped one hand around the bottle, sending an almost precise lilt of magicka through it so it crystallized minorly, forming a strangely thick dye within.

She held it up to the light, marveling at it with another wide grin, before turning it to Attikias, "any ideas where to test it out, hmm? Or do you wanna try your hand at your own? I've got plenty-a bottles for it."

Amber Crystal dye created! It has glittering Orion's Scale scales in it...

@Attikias

Attikias's bare palm ran over Elspet's hair as he marveled at it. The texture didn't seem different, he noted- and it was safe for skin. He was like a child in this moment.

But, with confirmation that wood might work, the gears started turning in his mind. With his hand still on her arm, he looked to the horns. "What're you thinking of for 'em?" They were a nice color already, but would something like dye interact well with magic objects?

His hand shot back in surprise when she spoke again, jumpy as ever. First thought- what's a wife? Second, he seemed to enjoy her accent, smiling even wider the more she spoke. The scales taken, his hand tried to shake off a few stubborn ones still clinging to him, unsuccessful. A frown was given down at them, but he turned his attention back to her as he watched her work. "It looks nice with them in there. Like... Like a fire, but with the dots in Orion in it." Of course he had to mention fire.

His head ducked down to look at it in the light alongside her. It was amazing- sure, he could create things, but this color was fantastic. "I dunno," he started, grabbing at it to inspect it on his own. "I wonder if it's fireproof. If it's made of rocks, it should be, right?"

That earned a hum, himself. He grumbled under his breath to himself, "Maybe I could use it for the carving I've been doing for Dread, but.. Hrm." He'd need black- or something clear? Orange for the tattoos... Gold for the horns. This dye was a bit too yellowish for the fire colors, but too orange for gold.

"Do you have any clear gems, maybe? I have a sort of idea I wanna test out." Or- would the glass work? He eyed the bottle for a second. Then again, he could dye other things, or cover it with one single color. He had the orange gem, and shouldn't he get Dread's opinion first?

@Elspet