[Gift] Red Clay

Red earth broke away from itself in chunks, and Kaleo tossed it into his bag. Most likely by the time he got home it would be dust. Easier to work with that way, but it was Messy.

It would be worth the trek, even so. The red clay of the Bayan Plateau created a brilliant pigment that blended well with almost any other pigment he could throw at it, and didn't fade within the decade.

It wasn't even particularly hard to find, if you knew where to look. But it was Work. His shoulders burned as he shoved his claws into the soil and tore more of it back into his bag.
The soil, he'd learned, was from Tor Aule's blood after Raids. (Shiranui's explanation of how god blood would affect where it hit the earth had made his brain go numb, but he held fast to the information because it was Helpful.) It seeped into the dry earth and made mud, and by the next dry season it had formed into one of his favorite paints.

There was an added bonus, too: tucked into the clay were layers of silver-black ore. Mithril that resisted sharp claws and breakage.
Mithril, which could be held onto for any number of uses… or sold for a pretty penny so someone Else didn't have to dig for it. (Shiranui had once said that Mithril was raw congealed god blood. Kaleo still wasn't certain he believed the glowy jerk.) The ore clung to itself and the clay, so Kaleo had to twist himself to dig Sideways into the spaces around it. The mithril seemed to have formed an awkward lattice or maybe a web through the earth, mostly a flat shape, but it spread.
Kaleo wondered for a moment if he should stop and paint it. Or photograph it and then paint it when he got home. The break would be good for his back, but Tor Aule had opinions on people digging up mithril, and would likely make his way towards Kaleo at any moment.

…He'd take the photo.

He dug into one of the saddlebags he'd brought along and found his phone. With a pop and flash of light, human fingers maneuvered the device into the right angle. A Click, the phone disappeared back into the bag, and another flash returned Kaleo to his natural shape. He stretched, arching his spine and yawning, before reaching back in to excavate his prizes. More clay, more exposed mithril, his claws scraping through the dirt as he grunted with effort.

The earth thumped, and he froze, ears straining.

Another thump, and he felt it in his hind paws.

He lifted his head and swiveled hit this way and that, scanning the distant horizon. Between the sparse trees and over the tall grasses. There. A glint of gold.

Tor Aule's mountainous back inched across the horizon.
It was time to go. Kaleo focused on himself, took a breath… and the earth cracked around the mithril. He grabbed the lattice chunks and tossed them into his bag, and slung that across his back. Another flex of his magic and he sprinted north; away from the Domain Guardian. It was time to get back home. He had enough pigment to make paint for the year.