"HA!" Crunch cried out in triumph as he looked at the first signs of the new vein of iron. He wiped some dirt and sweat from his brow. His pick ax resting over his shoulder, and a exhausted by satisfied look on his face he admired his fine. Took a fair amount of digging, but his hunch that he could strike a a nice rich deposited of iron ore if he started a new tunnel from the core mining shaft had paid off. He looked back at Em with a smile and asked "What do you think? Good find right?"

The large green dragon was barely small enough to fit in this still fairly narrow tunnel. Luckily the dragon was well suited for maneuvering through such confined spaces. It had been laying down, deciding to let it's human to do the bulk of the work after helping him carve out the initial new tunnel. It's eyes, just a bright green as it's scales, looked from her human to the semi-metallic red ore coloring the walls. It snorted and laid it's head back down. Clearly unimpressed.

Crunch rolled his eyes and walked over to the lazing mountain dragon, giving it a poke with the butt of his mining tool. "Oh come now, don't give me that. You know we have to worry about work before pleasure. We'll mine you up some Emeralds soon. Though if you had more patients and didn't munch on them so quickly you would be able to maintain a better horde." Em snorted once again, this time a puff of smoke accompanying the dragons sign of displeasure. 

A restrained smirk on his features Crunch added "Plus, I think you're getting a little weighty. We'll have to start digging the tunnels wider if you don't control your appetite."

Em let out a rumble and 'gently' stretched out a wing, batting the young lad down onto his ass with an grunt. The dragon then rumbled again, though this one was less threatening and more amused. Crunch grinned, lifting himself up "Your right Em. I'm sorry, it is rude to talk about a ladies waist...even if it is getting bigger." The dragon rumbled once more, this time a little more playfully and began to rise up, it's long tail swaying behind it. The pair were just about to start their normal playing about before a call echoed to him. It was one of his cousins who had be working the other side of the mines today. "CRUNCH! LIGHTS ABOUT OUT, TIME TO GO HOME." 

Crunch looked up, the dragon let out a breath that seemed to indicate that it was about time, it wrapped it's tail about the boy's waist and lifted him onto her back and began making its way to the main tunnel to leave the mines. Crunch called back "GUESS WHO FOUND SOME MORE IRON! YOU REMEMBER THE BET! GUESS YOU'LL BE GETTING EM AND I SOME EMERALDS FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS." He patted Em on a patch so scales just behind her horn and smiled to her "Gives you and I some free time."

 A loud grown ( his cousin ) and a chorus of laughter ( Other family members working the mines today ) echoed back to him. Soon the group was all together heading towards the entrance, Em with Crunch on her back leading the way. Small talk and general roundness was ensuing from the exhausted miners. The days they took to digging for useful and precious were tiring but him and much of his family were quite used to it. 

Before long he had returned home and cleaned the day's work off of him. The large family collected beneath on large roof began sharing the meal and before he knew it it was night time and he was sleeping soundly. It had been his shift in the mines this past month, but that was up now, and with his cousin doing the emerald hunting for him and Em for the next while he could finally get a chance to go into town and do something besides digging in the earth. After all, not even Gem Horns spent all their time underground.