The wind caressed Frost as she flew higher and higher, reveling in the lowering temperatures as she broke through the clouds. She was free. Finally free.
Her powerful body thrummed with strength as the beating of her wings carried her further and further away from the forest. She felt invincible. Like she could do anything.
In her head she already began to make plans. The whole world would need to know about her, to bow down to her superiority. She'd be a model example of a dragon, the kind mortals told stories of to their children to scare them. And that began with finding a place to live. She needed a proper lair before she could do anything.
And thus she flew, without hardly a pause, her wings carrying her far away from the place of her birth. She stopped briefly on the way to catch and eat a dire wolf, joyfully gobbling down the enormous prey she wouldn't have had a chance to fell in a previous life, but which now crumbled under her strength like paper.
After two days of flying, the peaks of the Icespine Mountains loomed before her. Perfect. Unforgiving and cold terrain, perfect for an ice dragon to settle down. She shivered as the temperatures dropped in the snowcapped mountains, finally feeling like she was in her element. She began to circle the various peaks, trying to find a suitable cave to occupy.
That's when alarm bells caught her attention. She glanced around, and near the peak of one of the taller mountains stood a fortress. Not the largest one, but well camouflaged within the peak. Had they not sounded the alarm she most likely wouldn't have seen it. The banners they were flying told her this was probably a military outpost belonging to some human faction. Not that it mattered. As a dragon, she was well above such insignificant beings.
She smirked. Still, they were occupying her mountains, which would not do at all. She changed course and targeted the outpost.
It was exhilarating. She barreled towards the defenders like a battering ram, shaking off their arrows. Pitiful. Did they really think her iron hide could be pierced by such primitive means?
She opened her mouth and let loose an immensely cold breath attack, freezing the archers solid. She landed onto the battlements with a mighty THUD, shattering the frozen corpses as she spread her ice carnage upon the panicking human defenders. In her heart she was laughing, cackling at her overwhelming power.
"Yes, squirm for me, worms! Recognize my strength!" she cackled as the humans desperate attempted to flee the dragoness that was tearing their base apart. There was no compassion in her draconic heart. Fiona was well and truly gone.
An hour later, she was watching the aftermath. The base was in ruins. She had trampled every building, hacked apart the remains and covered the remainders with her icy breath. Hundreds of bodies lay at her feet as she walked with graceful steps, taking in her surroundings. She was mildly aware that a few had escaped with sleds placed near the cliffs. No matter. Let them go. They would tell tales of their defeat and spread her legacy.
Walking around, she noticed a humongous door she had missed amidst the destruction. Her curiosity peaked, and she pushed the construct open. Her eyes almost bulged out of her head.
Gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, a huge pile of fineries decorated an artificial cave dug out into the mountainside, all arranged neatly in hundreds of shelves. It wasn't a military outpost. It was a treasure vault.
Her instincts awakened as she descended upon the riches, smashing their containers and gathering them into a large pile, freezing them, then covering the pile with more gold and freezing that too. This process was repeated a few times until she had a pile of gold about half her height. It wasn't much, but it was a start. A true ice dragon's hoard, safely encased in rime.
She curled up on top of her hoard, and smiled. Seemed she had found her lair. Now her reign could truly begin.