Shadesplinter

"Really, now," Shadesplinter sat back on his haunches and examined his foretalons with carefully manufactured ease. His tone was friendly enough with just the strayest hint of derision, "there's no need for all this. I'm just making my way through."

"Oh? Just making your way through? A lone, mysterious Ridgeback carrying nothing but rare jewels and metals? Lumbering *very quickly* away from the forgery stock house?" The Pearlcatcher droned, voice dripping with sarcasm, observations listed off nasally as the forge guards flanked her on either side. A Mirror in soot-smeared armour was picking their way through Shadesplinter's sling, examining the minerals and metals within. "Just making your way through. Of course."

"Of course!" Shadesplinter smiled broadly, meeting her fiery squint with an understanding expression. He was doing his best to be as open and friendly as possible, eager to hide the vile irritation rising in his chest like heartburn. "These are mine. I dug them up myself."

A lie they wouldn't be able to detect. He was far too good at this for anyone to suspect anything different. In reality, he had borrowed them from this forge's stock just as they suspected he had-- though they liked to use big useless words like 'steal' and 'thief!'. There were grand banks of metal in the ground all around them, oodles and oodles of it. Enough to plate the Earthshaker in platinum and gold filigree ten times over. Dragons could be so protective!

The Mirror examining his belongings picked up a big chunk of shining yellow ore, big and heavy enough they had to hold it in two paws. They squinted at him with all four eyes. "Even this?"

"Of course," Shadesplinter picked a chunk of crumbling igneous rock from his talon sheaths and flicked it away, "there's a vein not far from here. I'd show you but I'm running short of time."

"And this?" The Mirror next grabbed a rough blood-red gemstone and squinted at him even harder. The Pearlcatcher shook her mane and turned to him expectantly with a smug look on her face. Shadesplinter merely shrugged and smiled, exuding an aura of ease and confidence.

"Of course. You can find garnets near gold deposits with ease. Pyrope garnets like that one are found alongside diamonds, too. I'm sure the diamond was the one you were going to ask about next, correct?"

The Mirror hissed at him before they returned his loot to the bag.

"Right..." The Pearlcatcher's whiskers twitched in irritation as she passed her pearl back and forth between her paws, tail thumping the ground every few seconds. Next tactic, Shadesplinter thought before he rolled his shoulders and flexed his spines slightly, as if sore or stiff from having to be stopped for so long.

"I do understand why you stopped me. These days the forges always seem to be at eachother's throats, and it's unfortunate that things are so bad that you require such stringent security. However, I must say, I don't so much appreciate being targeted. I hope it was just because you want to be careful with every dragon passing through your land, not just the Ridgebacks."

Shadesplinter watched with glee as the Pearlcatcher's eyes suddenly widened and her tail went still. She opened her mouth to say something, so of course he leapt back in right away to really rub it in-- to make it so uncomfortable that they would just want him to go away without so much of a second thought.

"It really would be a shame if dragons felt they were being unfairly examined. We do so much hard work for Our Lady and all the Guilds across the Ashfall Waste, hauling big loads and doing hard, burly work no other dragon can. It would be ever so unfortunate if little things like this complication began to add up, and make us feel like... oh, I don't know..." He tapped a talon against his scaled jaw as the forge guards looked between themselves with quick almost panicked glances.

Go in for the kill, he thought. Do it. Pull out the big guns.

"... made us feel like we had to go on strike."

"That wouldn't be necessary!" The Pearlcatcher blurted suddenly, eyes huge with alarm and huge ears pressed flat against her head. She braced her pearl against the ground as she bounced to her feet, "No, of course not. All the giant breeds do so much good work for the Guilds-- you're right. We're sorry to have interrupted you, sir." She grabbed the straps of the sack and hastily returned it to Shadesplinter, tail coiling around itself in embarrassment.

"It's no problem." He smiled as he hoisted the sack of stolen metal and gemstones back over his neck, careful not to catch any spines on its way down. He bowed his head to the guards as he lumbered past them, trying ever so hard not to laugh to himself. "Have a blessed day in the Flamecaller's hearth."

"You too!" Called the Mirror and finally Shadesplinter allowed himself a deliciously venomous snicker once firmly out of earshot.

Fools.