The next few weeks were busy for Frost, as she got settled in to her new home.
She soon expanded her hoard by hitting remote villages and other fortresses located on the mountains, mercilessly wrecking everything she could and reveling as the humans stared at her in awe and fear before scrambling away.
There were of course attempts to stop her. Some fortresses had catapults and other emplaced weapons to fight back, but she swiftly dodged the projectiles before reducing the weapons to rubble. When she landed, heavily armored troops rushed her in an attempt to wound her legs with axes and greatswords. She only smirked as the weapons bounced off her scales before encasing the troops in her ice.
As her hoard grew, she made the mountain feel more like home, covering the ruins of the fortress and soon the entire mountain with her ice breath, creating complex tunnels for her to crawl through. She also attempted to dig through the rock to expand her cavern, but couldn't quite make efficient progress against the hard stone, so she let go of the idea for now, instead focusing on expanding her ice labyrinth.
Occasionally, adventurers scaled her mountain, only to meet a grim end as she toyed with them, playing with reflections in her ice cavern and got them utterly lost before gobbling them up and adding their shiny gear into her hoard that was now reaching her own size.
All in all, life was good for the ice dragon. Humans were moving out of the region, and her dominion would soon be fully complete.
That's why she was overjoyed when one day, as she was flying further out to chart out new land, she saw three other ice dragons resting on top of a mountain, lazily curled upon the snow banks.
"Finally! Proper subjects!" she rejoiced. Those three would be the start of her dragon empire once she made them submit to her. Chest full of excitement, she glided down to meet the dragons.
They saw her approach and lifted a wing in greeting. Three males, she noted as she got closer... all quite a bit larger than her. She didn't let that intimidate her. She was far more vicious and powerful, as they would soon see.
"Hello there! Are you new over here? Please, lay down!" one of the males greeted her. His voice was powerful and bellowing, but he seemed friendly and jovial. The others also barked out greetings and welcomed her to the fold.
"Hear this, loyal subjects! You are in the presence of your new queen, the legendary Frost. Bow down and become my vassals!" she announced.
The other dragons were confused. This young dragoness, maybe a third smaller than them, had just rocked up and announced herself royalty.
"Well... um, I'm Whitefang. This one's Flurry, and the big dude over there is Blizzard. We have been hearing rumors about someone occupying the outpost up north." the same dragon continued. "Good going, Frost, especially for someone so young. Now, if you want to join the community, we can bring you to-"
"I expect only absolute servitude from my subjects! All of you shall answer directly to me, and bring your tribute to my lair. Am I understood?" Frost interrupted him.
Whitefang shared looks with others. Blizzard only shrugged. Flurry let out a sigh.
"Look, kid, we know what it's like to be young and feel like you're on top of the world. Everyone wants to be a king or a queen at some point. But that's just not how the world works." he said.
"We have no rulers, only independent communities. We help each other out, but no one can order someone to do their bidding. Surely your mother taught you this?"
A stab of grief hit Frost in the chest as the face of a deceased human woman popped to her mind, but she shook it off.
"You fools! I have not required my birth mother, for I was born to be a queen! I shall expect you to make your official appearance at my lair by next week!" she announced, and lifted her wings as she flew off, leaving only the three dragons behind.
"She's... and orphan, isn't she?" Whitefang asked.
"Seems so." Blizzard grumbled. "Maybe we should pay her a visit. Try to guide her to the right path.
And thus life went on, with Frost growing only more and more entitled and prideful as the three dragons went to occasionally meet her, attempting to teach the youth in dragon manners and society, but only receiving orders and berating in turn. She saw them as her new servants, and treated them as such. Occasionally the humored her, and brought her a deer or something in an attempt to calm her down. This turned out to be a mistake, as she took the tribute as a sign of submission and began to boss the dragons around even more. Soon enough they stopped visiting, hoping that life would at some point teach the dragoness a lesson in humility.
And soon enough it did.