S(t)and and deliver

Given the darkness of the early morning and that the sun was not yet up, Tal hadn't seen the tent or smithy below. At least, not as anything recognizable beyond shadowy lumps on the ground that he'd taken for more bones. It was just as well; he'd have flown well past and on to some place emptier if he'd realized there was someone at his landing site. After all the trouble he'd had with land sharks in this area he wasn't keen on someone else drawing the uncanny underground predators to him on his task.

It wasn't until he was trotting past the odd lumps in the pre-dawn shadows that he realized they weren't the usual collection of behemoth bones and sandstone boulders he was used to in the area. He adjusted his goggles, scowling as his magically-enhanced sight picked out the details of the tent and forge before settling on the woman. He wasn't sure if she could even see him in the dim light of false morning, but he dropped a hand to his dagger defensively anyways. "You're not a mirage crab, are ya?" he asked warily. As far as he knew the crabs' illusions only extended to visual traps and not auditory ones.

His dragon had paused atop a large pelvic bone jutting from the sand, looking down at the stranger curiously as she gleamed like a ghost in the last light of the fading stars.