“Glass is really easy to claim, and it's transparent unless you add something to it, and it makes really tough things with a bit of reinforcement, so it's useful for a lot of things. Metal is easy too but expensive, and you use it when you need it, like that electric circuit. Really, any time you need more than a particular shape, you might need something other than glass.”
The bird-bodies take off in other directions.
He points at the thing over their head. “Silver for the mirror, aluminum and glass in the engine.”
“And I have some plastic, which is good for small flexible things. But since you included my body in that list, I assume you meant to ask about my entire kortarem, not just stuff that's suitable to be reshaped. I also have food and water, and my computer and radio, of course. Soap. Odds and ends.”
“Sorry, I don't know what you mean. My food is in whatever size that kind of food comes in. I could split it into bite-size pieces, but there's no particular reason to and that might make some of it spoil faster.”
“No, but usually I claim everything I carry with me on trips like this so I can keep it from getting damaged if I get adventurous, and find where it is if I were somehow to lose it, and so on.”
The bowl over their heads stops providing shade. Now it's turned sideways, and the mirrored concave side is concentrating a lot of sunlight on a patch of clean sand well away from both of them.
“All right. You could claim the sand and then reshape it into glass, but that would take longer because instead of just glass, you have sand grains with air and dirt between them.”
The mirror is moving its focus along the sand, gradually adding on to the edges of a disk of fused sand. It's not exactly window glass, but at least it's melted smooth on the top.
“Yes, but you don't need to touch it with your hand, just touch it with the glass you already have, and once you are able to reshape it, you can cool it down quickly.”
“Take your glass and just poke the mess somewhere. Claim all the fused part, don't worry about anything that isn't easy; it'll break off.”
“Now that you have all of that glass, split the stick before where it gets hot and take back your original glass. You'll use that for an anchor point, so hang onto it or wrap it around you or stand on it.”
He gestures suggesting a semicircular arc over their heads.
“By the time it reaches the ground on the other side, it should have been cooled enough by the air that you can touch it.”