Baneck quietly stood over the coals.

He felt the stillness of the night around him, and it added to his satisfaction, as he smiled at the luster of the red-glowing piece of silvery metal.  Then he contentedly went to bed for a good night’s sleep.

He was up early the next morning, and nearly skipped into Morgy’s tavern, and up to the bar.

Honee was there, lounging back and munching on freshly-shelled nuts.

“You stopped watching me last night,” he said to her.

“I only had to wait for you to come and talk to Morgy,” she replied.  “You’re very easy to predict.”

“Well, you didn’t predict this, I’ll wager.”  He held up a silver-colored ingot that caught the light, and set it down with a ‘thunk’ on the bar.

From behind the bar, Morgy stepped up closer, her eyes focusing attentively on the thing.

“See what you think of this,” he said, and then turned and strode out.

Honee stayed behind and looked on, as Morgy examined the rectangular mass of metal.

She palpated its surface with interest, slowly tracing one finger along its edge.

“It has strong magic in it,” she said, voicing her draconic sensitivities to  magical emanations.

She scrutinized it for a few minutes, before twiddling her fingers over it, forming the gestures of a spell.

She mumbled some strange words, but held her mouth open as she spoke.

The entrance to Morgy’s open mouth started to glow with a soft, white light, and a radiant, gentle white mist softly rolled out of it, as if she was breathing out a small fog bank.

Then she slowly licked the metal, with the broad surface of her tongue.

Her eyes snapped open, and her head jerked back like she had taken a punch to the jaw.  Her arms flew out wide, and she fell back, coughing and sputtering.

The wooden shelves behind her broke and whiskey spilled, as her arms flailed with uncontrolled dragon-strength, and she collapsed to the floor.

Her hair and dress wet with drink, she fought to regain her wits, and looked up to see several faces staring down at her.

She blinked several times, dumbly staring at the people coming behind the bar and kneeling over her, so taken aback they were by the spectacle of her indomitable self falling down.

But her own eyes quickly locked onto Honee, who sat cross-legged on the bar, looking down at her patiently, holding the ingot, and still popping nuts into her mouth.