Jayfeather4evers
Aloe hung the pendant from one claw, dangling it in her customer's view. "Genuine sapphire, with the symbol of eternity carved into the setting," she pointed out, allowing the gem to sparkle in the lantern light.

The dragon standing in front of her tent was a golden brown SandWing. He wore several bracelets with jewels embedded in them, and an earring with a foreign tooth. He pondered the offer, tilting his head and peering at the jewel. The SandWing reached into his pack and hooked a pendant and a bangle onto his claw, placing them on the counter.

Aloe inspected the items. The pendant had small piece of topaz and some stones, and the bangle was golden and adorned with turquoise chunks.

"I'll need a little more," Aloe stated. The SandWing snarled a little, so to appease him, she added, "I'll throw in this," and plucked a ring out of a drawer. "But only if you give me something else."

The SandWing thought for a moment, then rasped, "You drive a hard bargain," and pulled out a silver earring. Impressive, though not as good as Aloe's own. "Satisfied?"

"Deal," Aloe agreed, sweeping the payment into a drawer and pushing her own metals forward. The SandWing customer placed them into his bag and walked away.

The crowd was dwindling as the sun neared the horizon. Aloe traded most of her small treasures to traveling merchants, who left when the day was coolest, at dusk. She watched as stands closed and tents were tied shut, and turned to her father. "Should we close up?" she asked.

"Sure. You tie up the front," Saguaro instructed, looping a knot in a knapsack and packing away some supplies. Aloe walked over to the tent entrance and began shutting the flaps.

Suddenly, something caught her eye. A glimmer of light was shining from a dragon's bag as they shuffled by. Aloe was even more surprised when another dragon, probably a MudWing, jumped out from around the corner. The first snarled, swiping a talon at the second dragon's snout, but he was appeared older and slower. Aloe quickly crept inside the tent, gazing out from the tarp as the two faced off.

"What's going on?" Aloe looked over at Saguaro, who was frowning as he peeked out beside her. He sighed. "Always fighting. Injured customers don't buy as much." He went back to storing the inventory.

Aloe continued watching, seeing if she would be able to scavenge anything. Street duels sometimes wielded impressive spoils. Eventually, the older dragon was backed into a wall, and dropped his bag and ran.

The second dragon grinned, giddily searching through the pack. He selected some shiny items that Aloe was too far away to identify. Any hope that some trinkets would be left behind for her to forage through was lost as she realized that the foreign dragon was taking absolutely everything from the bag. His expression turned annoyed, then frustrated, then enraged, and he stomped away angrily. Once the MudWing departed, all that was left were some flat folds of fabric.

Aloe darted in, glancing through the bag and finding nothing but some thread. As she turned to go back to the tent, she was again halted by a strange shine. A little reflected golden light was surging out from the side of the street. The dragon stalked over to see what was creating such a sparkle. Could it be topaz? Gold? An old hunk of metal?

Parting the cloth revealed a brilliant glow of an egg. It was mainly a light bronze color, with shades of amber and brown. The accenting hues seemed to be fusing into each other. The egg shone with such great luminescence that Aloe had to quickly shroud it in the tarp over the hollow where it had fallen. She had never seen such an egg. Of course, she hadn't seen many, but the scrolls had sometimes described them, though not vividly enough.

Aloe curved her dull point of a tail around the egg, careful not to touch her small barb to it. Thankfully, no other dragons were around to witness the glare of the egg. She wrapped her wings and the fallen sack around the opalescent treasure, sprinting across the dusty street and ducking into her tent to shove it behind her nest. The fronds and fabric hid it nicely. Aloe swooped over and shut the tent completely before returning to her sleeping area.

Aloe curled up beside the now waned glow, shutting her eyes. She would explain it all to Saguaro in the morning before her performance, as his heart was too soft not to take in an abandoned egg. For now, her sole focus was the jewel beside her.

"Aloe, why haven't you finished cleaning up? We can't open tomorrow like this!"

Well, maybe there was room for a tiny secondary focus.

Weeee! That was fun! I've never written in dragon before, so I can cross WoF off my writing bucket list. This kinda came out meh, but it's okay.

Aloe is an OC that I've been meaning to introduce! I've wanted to draw her and then talk about her that way, as I'm not going to be writing a full WoF story any time soon, but newsflash: DRAGONS ARE HARD TO DRAW! Seriously impossible! XD

Anyway, if you want, I'll talk about her in a future part. In fact, I might do so regardless of opinion, but I want your preference as well! :3