The Terrin Mountains: To humans, they were supposedly an impassable mountain range.
But for a dragon, they were far from.
The rich deposits of rare ores were a treasure that any smart gem merchant (like Ain, of course) would be a fool to pass up. Besides, it certainly wasn't the first time she'd come here.
She alighted down in a small clearing, pine tree branches and evergreen boughs scratching at her tail tip and wings, glimmering like golden ore under the early afternoon rays of sunlight. Her long claws sent rocks scattering down the mountainside, and a great yawn escaped her jaws. A day of flying here from Adela often made her a bit sleepy, but she wasn't about to take any kind of nap--certainly not here.
Despite her size and prowess as a dragon, even someone like her wasn't safe here; the mountains in this country held all kinds of unforeseen horrors for anyone--magical beast or mortal man alike. Trolls, giants, wild animals, werecreatures, hunters... Mountains hid them well. The last thing Ain could afford right now was to let down her guard.
And so she set about her business, transforming to and from her human form, entering caves and gathering what she could to stuff inside of her bag. It wasn't until early evening that she was finished, changing for (what she thought) to be the last time to her dragon form for the day to grab a quick snack before heading back to Adela.
It was as she was sinking her teeth into a ram that she heard it; a lumbering giant's blood-curdling yell, and eerily close by. It sent shivers down her spine and she immediately snapped her head up from her dinner, listening closely before determining that it was too close by for her tastes. She decided that flying was likely too dangerous, as was changing into a human--if she was going to encounter a giant, she best do it as a dragon, and even that held its risks. A particularly large one could still bring her down.
Abandoning her meal, she slithered through the trees, trying to stick to the shadows and for once wishing that she didn't take such good care of her scales--they caught every hint of light and glistened like gems, it didn't exactly make for the best kind of camouflage. Thankfully, the distant she had to travel wasn't far; as her head broke through the edge of the treeline, she saw it, some several hundred yards away--a giant black dragon, unlike any she'd ever seen before, eating a dead giant.
Her jaw only dropped a little bit. Just a little.
Quickly, before she was spotted she retreated into the shadows of the trees, licking and swiping the blood of the ram from her mouth. She'd definitely heard of dragons getting that big before, she just... Didn't think they were still alive right now. And she'd certainly heard of draconian cannibalism before. And yet... Her curiosity sill seemed to overcome her fear by a great amount. She took another glance over at the great dragon, eyes narrowed as she looked them over.
She had a feeling that this one was a female; usually girls were far easier to deal with. And despite this dragon being at LEAST two times her own size... A flare of confidence ignited in her chest, enough so to push her from the trees, taking flight and landing on a large outcropping of rock above the giant's corpse. If the dragoness lifted her head, they would at least be seeing mostly eye-to-eye. If things went south... She could always run. Ain was fast, and this dragon couldn't possibly be with such a massive build.
She put on her best smirk, making sure that sunlight reflected off her scales in just a way that it made her seem extra pretty and sparkly--usually dragons didn't want to destroy things that were pretty and sparkly, they wanted to keep them. Alive, keep them alive. Usually. Probably.
"Well now, I've always said that I like girl who can take down a giant all on her own; you have no idea how rare it is to find pretty things like you, though." She said, curling her tail around her feet, sitting up straight out of respect for someone who could easily kill her if she made one wrong move.