Path followed Dainin to a shop run by an elven woman. She immediately seemed to warm up to Dainin on seeing someone a bit more like her than the humans that mostly populated the city. “Hello,” she said, taking off some sort of glass contraption she was wearing on her face. “What can I help you with today?”

“We were referred to you by the tailor on main street, as a jeweler that might like to show us a little about your craft? My name is Dainin Suris, I am a knight for Mysteera. This is my companion, Path.”

The elf stood shaking Dainin’s hand across a counter, and then she looked at Path. Path watched her eyes go to her bare feet. I guess it must be pretty unusual for most humans to go without shoes?

She felt uncertain, some of the pirates had bare feet on the beach, she remembered. Path uncertainly shook the woman’s hand as she offered it.

“I am a dragon,” Path said into Dainin’s silence, “but I am spending time as a human, and Dainin thinks it would be good for me to learn more about how human things are made.”

The elf looked surprised. She tucked black and white hair behind her ear, revealing some spots behind the stripes on her cheeks. “I see. That is… rather unusual, but I am guessing you like jewelry?”

Path nodded, surprised that there was not more of a reaction. The sewing person asked us about who I was, but this seems to be the first this elf is hearing about me, but she is handling it like it is only a little surprising to hear.

“Yes, I can certainly show a few things. I happen to working on some simple orders now.” She looked around and got some chairs for them, and would pull one closer to her for Path, one a little further back for Dainin, who she seemed to regard as Path’s chaperone.

I wonder if it is just because it is hard to recognize me as a dragon like this. I am a lot bigger than this, so perhaps I am more intimidating? She found herself fascinated a little with the different reactions.

The elven jewel maker would start showing her tools for her trade for heating metal, twisting wires, insetting jewels, and carving.

“I like this look,” Path said, pointing to a piece dangling from a small stand that had several twisting wires set with small jewels.

“That is done with just twisting wires mostly and a little of a process soldering. This pendant will need some, so watch this,” and she showed how she twisted the rose gold wires carefully around a bright blue gem that was cut so that the facets were catching a lot of light. She showed how it was a combination of braiding and twisting. “Then, see, these pieces at the end? We don’t want them loose, they would be… prickly against skin, right.”

She showed Path an enchanted gem she had that emanated sweltering heat, and with thick gloves and a tool, melted wires together.

When the pendant was cooled, it was sooty, but Path still found she liked the shape of it, but what made the piece truly pretty was after the jeweler spent a bunch of time polishing it, until the rose gold showed brightly once more.

“What do you think, Path? Was the gem and wire prettier by themselves or after they had been incorporated together?”

“Together,” Path said with a slight frown at him, why was he asking her an obvious question.

“Do you have room for a commission?” Dainin asked the jeweler. “We can provide the gems, but we would need to pay for materials. I’d prefer if we went with a metal that was the least soft, since some of our travels have been taking us through… rough situations.”

“I always have room for commison,” the elven jeweler smiled at Dainin, and Path felt something about her face was a little… too friendly? She felt a weird sense of possessiveness come over her as she looked at it.

“What do you think, Path? Would you like to wear the gems from your hoard?”

There it is, Path realized. She wrinkled her nose and stared at him. I told you no, but you knew… She looked back at the metal twisted around the sapphire. She huffed, “What would I wear them as?”

The elf smiled, “Depending on their size, you could wear them as a necklace, bracelet, tiara, anklet, earrings, arm cuff, really I can do anything you like with them, Lady Dragon.”

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Path sighed as she saw Dainin hide a smile. You are really the most provoking thing alive, she thought at him, but he, of course, did not respond.

She reached beneath her skirt, prompting both Dainin and the elf to look away from her and she undid the tie around her hip and offered the small bag of gems. “I know exactly how many are here,” she warned, “But, I would like it if you would turn them into things I can wear while traveling, according to what you think the gem is going to look best in.”

The elf nodded her head politely, “I am honored, and I know that I can make something that will make sense to your needs and tastes.”

Dainin grinned, “Well! Shall we go and have some lunch?”

Path realized very suddenly that she was very hungry. “Yes, please.”

Dainin would take her arm, thank the jeweler, and take them outside. “I am thinking I want to introduce you to sea food kabobs.” He gave her a side-eye kind of look, as if he was waiting for her to say something. “I know you will like it.”

“I…” and then she pouted. “I will try it,” she said with a huff at him.

“Very good,” he said with a grin.

“You need not be so smug about it.”

Dainin still laughed at her. This time, when she bit him on the shoulder, he did not escape.

“I am not sorry; I am quite glad that you are opening up a bit.”

“Well, I do not like being a human. Everything hurts more. It takes more time to go places. I am still having to get used to how people interact with me, and I do not have clear access to my magic. There is a lot of this I hate.”

Dainin waited.

She felt aggravated, but also a little compelled to admit, “But, I am learning a lot, and there are things I like. I have never thought about how gems become jewelry. I suppose I knew that it was made by people, but I had never thought about the amount of effort put into it, or how many techniques it involves.”

“After lunch, I want to take you to the beach to look at some things there, preferably without giant crab monsters, then we can come back to the hot springs.”

“I know I do not want to do that again, do we really have to?” she asked again.

“Yes.”

She sighed.

He was right about the kabobs, they were wooden skewers of meat, vegetables, mushrooms, and fruit that made every bite just a little bit different. Best yet, she could eat them with her fingers, and not have to struggle with learning a new utensil.

“What did you think?” he asked.

She stared at him, “I know, I know. I liked it.”

He smiled. “Let’s go down to the beach.”

When they got to the edge of the city, and the ground got a little rough, he just picked her up and carried her to the sand. “Did you ever spend much time in areas like this?”

“No, I didn’t like how the sand would get in my scales.”

“When I was really little, my mother would collect sea shells with me at the beach, and she would make them into jewelry also.”

Once they were on sand, he put her down. It was pretty warm on her feet, but not quite intolerably so. She would see that she was having a little easier time moving with her bare feet than he was with his shoes. When the reached the spot that the waves washed and whispered gently against the sand, he would bend and pick up a ruffled shell that resembled a fan. It was white with a cream-colored area. “We used to paint these.”

She held it, turning it over. It felt delicate even to her human fingers. She had never paid attention to these things as a dragon. “You collected these with your mother?”

“Yes, my elven mother, before she took me to live with my father.”

“But you had a different woman as your mother with your father, that found you frustrating because you were competition for her son?”

He nodded, “Yes, that is right.”

“Where did your real mother go?”

“I don’t know. I never saw her again.”

Path tilted her head. He seems… sad? “Have you tried to find her?”

He shook his head, but there was no smile. Definitely sad. She looked out at the water. “So, what if we collect shells and pretty things we find by the water and figure out something we can do with them? Maybe… I can learn about different things to put in my hoard.”

“Other than me and some jewelry.”

She felt sassed. “I do not really know if I meant that. I just, I cannot imagine doing things without you right now. I do not think dragons normally hoard living things.”

Dainin smiled this time, but it was a cold sort of smile, “That is exactly what they do in Myraduil.”

“I am not a Myraduilian dragon. This is the country of Eirenn, in case you forgot, Dainin of Tellren,” she complained as she felt quite irritated by the comparison.

Dainin’s smile became warmer. “Indeed. So, let’s find out what else you can put in a hoard and how we can carry it with us in a clever fashion.”

She stared at him for a moment, and then she nodded. She moved down the beach from him. She understood why he became moody, but she did not like it.