The Ground
Dragonbone is the bone of the Dragons, and the bone is the ground the masterwork is worked on. It is hard past Iron and past Mithril — the bone does not take the hammer the way metal takes the hammer, the bone takes the file, and the file takes the season — and it is the one ground in the world that does not drink: the bone does not take rust, the bone does not take rot, the bone does not take the rain. Hard past iron, and it holds a word the way the bone of the dead holds a word, only longer. The word in the bone of the dead is kept until the rain; the word in the dragonbone is kept until the word is done, and the word is not done.
The Making
The bone is chosen from the rib, or from the shoulder, or from the jaw where the work needs the curve — the jaw for the blade's back, the rib for the shield's face, the shoulder for the ground that stands. The maker works the bone while it still remembers the fight it was, because the working follows the memory, and the memory is the grain. The finished work is dressed in Hide or ringed with Iron, and the iron is the border of what the fighter can carry, because the bone wants to be the size of the fight it was, and the fighter is not that size yet.
In Stories
The Dragonbone Shield is the one the story remembers, and the story remembers it because it is the one that has never been the one who is hit.
"The dead hold a word until the rain. The dragon holds a word until the word is done. That is the whole of the difference, and the difference is the story." — Wreckreate