After a brief period where all women involved clean themselves up, some more slowly than the others, Svinna made a point to set up some stools made of cut timber around the fire pit. She bid her new slave to sit, and the woman did so happily. The plump woman move out of fear. 

Freydis loomed not too far out of reach, wary for anything untoward, especially after the debaucherous display she put on watching her own daughter fuck the brains out of the poor woman. 

"So," Svinna started, folding her hands atop her great axe and resting her chin on her hands. "This looks to be a logging camp. To where was the timber to be delivered." 

Eira, eager to please her new master opened her mouth, but it was snapped shut with a glare from Svinna. 

"Not you." The Conqueror hissed. "You will tell me everything I need to hear, but I want her to tell me." Svinna said, pointing the blade of her axe at the elder woman. 

Hilgrun paled, realizing that she was dealing with a beast of a woman. The easy answer was sitting happily beside her but the bandit wanted her to give her the answers. She was the sort to relish the emotional distress of others. 

"I-"

CRACK!

Pain filled Hilgrun's mind as Svinna backhanded her across the mouth, causing her head to jerk to the side and a tooth to fly off onto the grass. 

"Here is how this is going to work. You speak only when I speak to you. You say only what is relevant to what I ask. If you lie to me, if you speak out of turn, I will cut your limbs off and let every man, woman, horse, dog, and pig fuck you until you're a useless log of meat. Nod if you understand me."

Hilgrun nodded, panicked. 

Svinna grinned, a sweet smile that betrayed the cruelty of what she'd just said. "Good. Now. Where was the timber going?"

"Kjatkesstead. A days walk east of here." 

"Any defenders in this steading?" 

"You killed the strongest already, but there's only two more. My husband, and Eira's father, the owner of the steading." 

"Anything of note around the area?" 

"There supposedly is a dragons hoard that has been unguarded for many years in the caves, a half days sprint to the north." 

Arbitrary measurements of distance aside, this sparked a bit of curiosity from Svinna. A dragons hoard, unguarded? This is easily a trap made by some bandits to fool would be adventurers into seeking their fortune and fame to their doom. Or, worse yet, a trap by the dragon itself to increase its hoard. 

Call it stupidity. 

Call it arrogance. 

Svinna wants that treasure. 

She wants that experience. 

She wants the manpower. 

She.

Wants.

That.

Dragon.

"It's settled. The hoard will do well to serve my purposes. Guardians or not, I stand to gain everything," Svinna declared with a resolute tone. She had no intention of passing up the chance to acquire such riches.

Turning to her mother, she continued, "Mother! We're going to be moving." Svinna was determined to make the journey to the homesteading settlement and explore the rumored dragon's hoard. It was an ambitious plan, but the potential rewards were too enticing to ignore.

Freydis, who had grown accustomed to her daughter's newfound determination and ambition, nodded in agreement. "Very well, my dear. We shall prepare for the journey to the settlement and the exploration of the dragon's hoard."

With their decision made, the four of them started to march north, making their way toward the progressively colder ice fields until they saw a series of caves carved in the ice. The ice fields, according to the original Svinna's memories, are all part of the frozen ocean, with the "mountain" being nothing more than an iceberg that washed ashore. 

Supposedly, the dragon had carved its home in this glacier and settled in it. There was only one hole big enough for something the size of what's supposed to be an adult dragon to go in and out of. 

And it's covered in torches and pyres.

"So, bandits. Good."