At first, Joan struggled to adjust to this rough life in the wild.
She had grown up alone, strong and independent, but living in the wilderness was nothing like living in a city. Cities had convenient, plentiful supplies, with goods from all over displayed on shelves and spread across rugs.
Out here, Joan had to find everything herself. There were no shelves stocked with oil lamps, no freshly baked Bread from an oven, no firewood cut to a useful size.
Fortunately, Joan was no real Imperial Princess. She soon adapted to fending for herself.
At least, with a Dragon lying beside her, Joan no longer had to worry about her safety as she once had.
Illymoyas did not sleep all the time. Sometimes she went out late at night and returned clutching a few Gnolls or Kobolds—usually alive.
Illymoyas was doing her part for their little household, too.
The dead Gnolls and Kobolds did not go to waste, either. The living ones boiled or roasted them and ate them. Joan figured that if they could eat the meat, so could she, and took a piece of breast meat with no recognizable features.
Gnoll meat was terribly tough, while Kobold meat tasted remarkably like dog... and was sour.
As for the depleted Gold Mine in the Broken Mountains... that was no problem for Illymoyas. Dragons had an innate ability to sense treasure, and she could clearly "see" which veins still held undiscovered gold.
Wanderers had a similar ability—they knew a terrifying presence had arrived on one of the mountains, and they all steered clear of it.
That left Joan free to wander the mountain and gather supplies without worrying about being surrounded by Wanderers.
In the mornings, once the thin mist had lifted, she would head down to the foot of