The midday had past into the afternoon, with Spike and Sharp working together to break rocks, trying to find gems. They tried different methods, using small rocks to break big rocks, dropping rocks on other rocks, clawing at the rocks. Spike began to understand the difficulty of harvesting gems this way, as most of the rocks were empty. Despite two dragons working at breaking rocks, they were still short a few gems by the afternoon rolled around.  
Spike decided to move to another area of the quarry, hoping to change his luck. He moved around some boulders to find Magma lounging on a couple of boulders. He knelt down to start hacking away at a boulder, and also to start up a conversation.  
“Sowhy arent you still breaking rocks like us? Thought you needed to keep your stash full or something? Spike asked.  
“I already got the days worth of gems this morning, and while I normally would be breaking rocks in the afternoon, Ive got two helpers to do that for me, thought Id take the chance for a bit of R&R.” Magma answered,  
“It must be tough living on your own like this, always working to survive, especially at your size.” Spike continued, no help, unsure food supply, it must be lonely.  
“Pfft, lonely? Im not lonely. Magma answered, Im independent, I dont have to answer to no one but me. I dont have to share any of my hard work with any freeloaders, get taken advantage of, or be in debt to no one. Besides Im gonna be getting big eventually, what wrong with starting a bit early living on my own?  
“Is that why you helped Sharp out? Because you could get something out of it? Spike asked.  
“Hey, it was just a fair trade,” Magma smirked, “I give him some boulders to smash, he gives me some of the gems he would have found. Not my fault hes a liar and cant keep his end of the deal.  
“I think you have the wrong idea about Sharp, hes not a liar.” Spike spoke up, Hes just scared, and rightfully so especially about the disappearance of the dragons.  
“Yeah I remember that story, something about the dragons mysteriously disappearing,” Magma sarcastically said, “He wanted me to join him in getting out of the ridge, like I was going to abandon this quarry to go running off with some dragon I just met. Thats when he took off.  
“Arent you worried though?” Spike asked.
 
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