Hunting for Geodes

Tioga moved through the rocks, his claws scraping and kicking up small puffs of dust. He would look into small crevices now and then, reaching in and pulling out the rounded rocks that he could see. Laying them out in a row, and stepping on them one by one, Tioga would poke through the rubble before growling and moving on. None of them were what he was looking for. He wanted the geodes…the rocks that really looked no different from the others save that they were hollow in the middle and filled with crystals. He couldn’t really say why he wanted some, just that he did.

As he made his way to a different area, he came across a dark wyvern that had their head in a hole, their horns stretching out back behind them. Were they looking for the same things?

Walking up behind them, Tioga snorted, trying to get the other’s attention without startling them too much. Running into a wyvern that was willing to fight was something he wanted to avoid at the moment. Luckily, though, the other wyvern simply pulled their head back quickly, a round rock in their mouth. Turning, it looked at Tioga and tilted its head, dropping the rock. It shattered upon impact, crystals bouncing in every direction. A good-sized chunk landed in front of Tioga.

Lowering his head, he sniffed at the purple crystals. They were exactly what he was looking for, however, he was not the one who had originally found the geode. Using his nose, he pushed the geode back towards the other wyvern, their golden markings almost mimicking the sparkle in the geode.

The dark wyvern nodded their head in thanks and took a step or two away from the hole they had found. They motioned towards it, indicating that more of the same type of stones were down there. Tioga hesitated for a moment, not knowing if the wyvern could be trusted. He looked at the hole, before returning his gaze to the wyvern again. He hadn’t attacked when he had approached, but that didn’t mean the other wyvern wouldn’t either. As if understanding what Tioga was thinking, the other wyvern backed up even further, watching.

Walking up the hole, Tioga looked down and saw that there were several of the rounded stones. Some were darker than the others, and some lighter. The hole was just big enough that his horns wouldn’t get stuck. Reaching in, he grabbed the first stone he could reach, but it felt too heavy in his mouth to be hollow. Spitting it out, he inched in a little further and pushed some of the stones around. Hearing more of a dull thud, he grabbed the rock and backed out. The horns scraped against the sides of the rock a little, but he made sure not to panic. The other wyvern was still there, standing up a little straighter and watching with interest.

Standing tall, Tioga dropped the rock and watched it break with a crack. Green crystals glittered in the light, the pieces of the stone rolling on the ground. Looking over at the other wyvern, its eyes glittered with the crystals, a look of want in their depths. Tioga gathered the shards in front of him and glared at the other wyvern, snarling a little and showing off his sharp teeth.

As if realizing what they were doing, the other wyvern got a sheepish look on their face and shook their head, backing away. Pushing one of their own shards over, one of the larger pieces with deep purple crystals on it, they motioned towards one of the green. They wanted to trade a geode for a geode.

Relaxing, Tioga nodded and exchanged geodes with the other dragon. They continued through the day in much the same fashion, to the point that at the end, as the sun was beginning to set, each had a variety of different colored geodes. Neither asked what the other wanted with the geodes, nor did they question each other as to how they got there or where they came from. They simply enjoyed their time together hunting for geodes in silence. Tioga was just fine with that, as he wasn’t big on the whole socializing thing anyway, and from what he could guess of the other wyvern, they weren’t either. Still, they each benefited from the other’s presence, making the day a successful one. Neither knew if they would meet again, but if they did, it would be on good terms.

Scooping up their geodes into packs, each wyvern went off in their own direction towards home. One going north, the other west. Tioga thought about the other wyvern and how they would keep an eye out for them again. Though he wasn’t a social individual, he still enjoyed good company now and then.