Her carving lessons were getting lazier and lazier. Not that her teacher wasn't trying to keep her busy, it's just now that she's gotten more used to the craft, it's become a way to just spend time and unwind. Especially when magic classes were starting to take a toll on her mentally.

Celestine was still working on the pendant for Mother. This is the fourth attempt at carving the pendant and this one was showing the most promise. She carved the bone down to size, etched out the design of the bear paw she could remember from the dreamworld, and even made the raised claw marks. It was about what you would expect someone to make. A paw pad with the five individual 'finger' pads above it with some claw lines above those. She did a good job of recreating it if I do say so myself.

"Hmm, I never asked you before, Celestine, but why a wolf paw?" Duc'kaal asked, while watching her do her work. He had started to make something himself while Celestine was working. It's human-shaped, so it is probably the carving he promised Mother in the shop the other day.

"It's not a wolf. It's the paw of something I saw in a dream." She answered.

"Oh? What was that then?"

Celestine pretty much just parroted what I said to Duc'kaal while she was carving.

"Did you read about this creature or something? I can't say I've ever heard of it."

"Y-yes." Celestine said simply.

"Hmm. I might have to ask someone else about these things when I get the chance. I would like to see if we can hunt one. Sounds like something different to try if they live nearby."

Do bears even exist in this world? We have seen plenty of animals in the city that weren't from Earth here, but there are wolves from what Celestine has read in some of her books. That's how she knew the word when Duc'kaal asked. Looking at the bear paw, if you didn't know what a bear was you might think it a wolf paw. No, wait, wolves have smaller pads and only four claws. Or are there varieties in this world with paws like this?

"Uhm, Duc'kaal, could you tell me what all you've hunted before? I've only been in the city so I don't know much about the outside." Celestine asked. Yes, good job! We'll get a geography lesson out of this hopefully!

"Hum, when did carving become story time? Hah, well since you shared this creature with me I suppose it would be rude of me not to teach you a little more something." He put his carving down and held his hand to his chin to think. "Let's see, the first thing I hunted when I was still young was a desert antelope. They're basically fodder here in the desert. They run fast, reproduce often, and live on roots they can scrounge up under the sand and soil. They run on all fours and grow long horns. Ahh, I think I have one of their horns here, actually." He sifted through the assorted bones in the bone crate and brought out a bright white horn that curled a bit. I would say it was about a foot and a half long roughly?

"Then there are %^#*&^%(*%. Nasty giant snakes that burrow in the sands and attack with bony mandibles. Make good makeshift weapons if you managed to find a dead one. Otherwise they are difficult to kill without a large hunting party. Don't have any of their bones with me, I think." He leaned forward to sift through the crate. "There are some bones of wild desert %$#%$#s in here. Those are good sport, but they have a lot of fragile bones that don't make for good carving."

His train of thought escaped him and he turned to Celestine, "Say, what was it you wanted to learn bone carving for again? This old man's memory isn't what it used to be."

"But Duc'kaal, you don't look old!" Celestine said, taking her attention off the pendant to look up at the red-skinned snake man.

He really didn't show the signs of age. He had no wrinkles, the scales on his head that looked like hair weren't turning white. He had the appearance of a thirty Earth years old human. He opened his mouth, full of pointed teeth, and sighed, "My species doesn't age quite like you humans. Trust me, I can feel my age in my bones full well."

"What exactly are you, Duc'kaal?"

"Oh, no one told you about us? We are !^#@[email protected]%." for future reference I will just call them naga. The name he used had little meaning for us Earthlings speaking English if I were to write it literally as spoken. So just know all future uses of naga are in reference to Duc'kaal and his people. "We are the most dominant people in this area of Izaibis, which is the name of the land. Ahh, this turned into a geography lesson. Maybe I should just become a school teacher after I finish teaching you carving. Anyway, Izaibis is a long stretch of land that connects briefly to Saddath and spans all the way south to lands where I heard the air is so cold you will die in short order if you aren't bundled up in furs. I've never been south of the desert. This city is Arture and it is a protectorate city of my people. We handle all of the security from the outside while your father supplies my brother with %#&%#%&%$."

He paused, smacked his mouth open and closed a bit, before continuing. "Ah, probably said too much about that. Back to your question. According to our lore keepers, we are a kind of... progression of a lizard-like creature. Huge scaly body, four limbs, horns, breathes fire. The stories are fanatical. Much like how you humans are apes, we are dragons." He didn't use the word dragon, but it fit with his description. "I say progression, but losing the ability to use our legs and being dependent on our tails for movement is more like a regression. We have more in common with snakes at this point. We are split into three main tribes that act independently for the most part unless in times of war with the bestial species to the south. There's one tribe to the south called Indentured Lamentation that believe we are the result of our ancestors being cursed by a god to lose our legs and wander the desert. I'm from a tribe to the west near the coast called Black Scale. Our founders weren't as colorful with our name as Indentured Lamentation."

"What other species are there to the south that you fight?" Celestine asked, completely stopping her carving to listen.

"There's a wolf-like group that sometimes attack our minor villages to the south we need to fight back frequently. They look like monsters more than anything though. Like someone took a wolf and meshed its bones together to look somewhat elf-like. It walks on two legs, has a hideous wolf head, and huge arms with claws at the end of each finger." So... werewolves? "Then there are plant-looking species that attack on the coasts in the rainy seasons. They aren't too difficult to take care of. Luckily we have a truce with the beast species up north. We don't bother them, they don't bother us. They are a sort of cat-people. Inexperienced human merchants that visit seem to take an interest in having them as slaves, but they are merciless if one of their kind is forced to leave home against their will. They really don't like that Arture is here. So most trade is done by avoiding their territory with the seaways. Anyway, that about covers the elfenoid species nearby. Everything else is animals and monsters."

"Humm..." Celestine said, thinking about what he said.

"Anyway, back to what I originally asked, girl." He knocked on Celestine's head with his knuckles. "And don't stop your work. What did you want to learn carving for?"

Celestine quickly went back to work and started to sharpen the crease between the bear paw and the rest of the pendant that would act like a backdrop to it. A sharper crease would let the paw pop out more in the whiteness of the bone. Overall, the goal is a shape that you might get if you poured plaster into a footprint. "I wanted to make a game for my brother's birthday."

"Oh yeah, that's right. We'll move to that after you finish that pendant. Don't let this old man forget now. I still have to teach you how to file and smooth out the bones. So what kind of game you wanting to make that requires learning bone carving?" He picked up the carving he was working on and started working on it again, using a graver to pick out small details in a long skirt.

"It's a strategy game called chess." Celestine said while still working on the pendant, full focus on the item in her fingers.

"Is this something else you read about or something you made up?"

"It's... something I made up." She paused for a bit to think about what to say before answering him with a lie. Hopefully he wouldn't pick that part up.

"Oh, so what part of the game needs carved?"

"The game pieces. There are thirty-two pieces I need to carve up."

"You put some thought into this did you? Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with there."

They made small talk the rest of the day while they continued working, but nothing significant was said. The next day, Celestine still couldn't figure out Warran's magic instructions and Celestine just kept working on finishing the pendant. She was at the point where she was filing the sharper edges and using a cloth covered in some powdery substance to work as a sanding agent. I didn't understand what the powder was when he explained it to her. It might be a substance on Earth or it might not be. It had the consistency of flour. The pendant was strung by the end of the day and looked acceptable. Celestine decided to hold onto it and wait for a good time to give it to Mother.