Ves’ra took most of a day to find a suitably powerful stream. Once she did she started immediately - drawing water from the stream and freezing it. She dug down half a kobold first, creating walls and floor of ice. Once done she built the walls of ice over the ground, making sure to include plenty of sticks, leaves and dirt into her ice, camouflaging it from sight. Once the basic hut was done she had to secure it from melting down - that wasn't really hard, she just set up an enchantment that would regulate the temperature in her entire hut.

While the enchantment was relatively complex to cast - drawing the heat entering the ice into the spell, heating the hatching chamber and all interior rooms and expelling all excess heat - it was quite easy to maintain. She would only had to refill it with energy once a day.

The hut was quite extravagant by kobold standards - she had three rooms all for herself. Of course one was used as an incubation chamber. She used the second room to cool the food she hunted. Last winter she noticed how food stored in the cold took longer to decay, so she made use of that. The last room was entrance and sleeping chamber at once.

She added another part to her enchantment once she settled down - she didn't have any way to roast her meat - so she created a flat plane of ice and had the enchantment expel intense heat at her command. It worked even better than planned, if she cut the meat in thin strips they were both easy to roast and store.

---

Ves’ra hut stood for eight days when the wyvern finally hatched. She had just returned from checking the traps she spread out in her surroundings and was preparing to roast a rabbit when she heard an unmistakable sound from an adjacent room.

Finally!

She couldn't wait to meet beings she could speak with again, though she held very little hope for the wyvern.

She rushed in the small room to her right, excitement propelling her forwards. The shell had just been cracked, the beast would still take some time to break out. Ves’ra accessed her enchantment, returning the room to normal temperature - and sat down.

She had nothing to do for the moment and had always wanted to see how something hatching looked like.

Ves'ra understood why her village handled hatchlings like they did. She never wanted to see that process again!

The egg had been about five handspans tall, but she couldn't believe that the wyvern managed to fit into its egg. It was actually a quite beautiful creature if it didn't want to kill you. Unlike her siblings and herself the wyvern was already colored at birth, clad in all shades of green. It stood on the raised perch she had kept its egg at, supporting its two legs with its wings.

She decided to name him Arvog, he would get a second name if he managed to hatch again.

The wings and tail were actually smaller than those of the an adult wyvern, so she was sure it would only be able to glide. The spikes at its tail still looked quite weak, incapable of piercing anything. The wyvern looked at her expectedly, obviously waiting for food.

Ves’ra approached carefully, she didn't know if it would be aggressive and its teeth looked quite painful.

The hatchling didn't make any aggressive moves, it seemed more interested in the strips of rabbit in her claws. She didn't know what wyverns ate as hatchlings normally, but hers seemed perfectly fine with rabbit.

The wyvern astonished her - it nearly ate the whole rabbit before rolling into a ball and falling asleep. She really hoped it was fine with roasted meat or she would need to hunt for most of the day in the next few months and that wasn't something she wanted to do.

At least it would be able to accompany her - it was still small enough to perch on her shoulders.

---

The wyvern was fine with roasted meat, though she made sure to only feed it fresh meat for the first week of its life. Watching the hatchling grow was really fascinating, the spikes on its tail hardened within days and it took two weeks for it to have the same proportions of its parents.

Ves’ra took that as a clue to start educating her future familiar. Now whenever it wanted food it had to leave its perch - or return to it. She didn't give him any food if he attacked her or got too pushy.

Overall she really liked the little bugger - he was her only company so she would talk to him for days without end, only leaving to hunt for more food or sleep. Soon enough she only left for food - the moment she let him leave his room for the first time he would only sleep with her, sharing their warmth.

---

Today was a special day, she deemed Arvog mature enough to hunt with her. He was able to reliably glide through the hut - and even fly if she raised the temperature high enough - he could look out for himself. She managed to teach him a few commands, to ensure he would obey her while in the forest.

Ves’ra needn't have worried, Arvog was perfectly fine staying curled up around her neck, his small head darting around, taking in all new smells, sights and sounds as well as the different currents of air. They were on their way to a nearby clearing, the hut may be good to learn the basics of flight, but she had no way to simulate the outside world.

She killed a squirrel on the way, causing Arvog to move for the first time, but he was quite smart for a beast and knew he would get more food if he wasn't greedy. He managed to hold out - only sniffing at the squirrel slung over her shoulder once - so she rewarded him with the whole thing once they reached their destination a little while later.

Next she had him climb one of the smaller trees - she noticed he was quite the good climber - and glide down to her. He had less problems than she thought, he seemed to instinctually be able to adopt to the different currents of air.

He even managed to land in her arms, so she gave him a pat on the head. They played for the remainder of the day, Arvog even managed to freeze a squirrel with his cry, killing it all by himself.

Ves’ra and Arvog went hunting together every day after that - the wyvern was still small enough it had no problems climbing trees with its sharp clawed wings. Very few animals actually expected to be attacked from above while under the protection of the trees so he was surprisingly effective. They would have to move on soon though, there was only so much vermin they could hunt in their immediate vicinity and their prey was becoming sparse.

Originally she’d wanted to wait for the bond she could feel building to complete, but that wasn't going to happen before they would have to search for bigger prey.

---

“It’s time we move on Arvog.” The wyvern tilted his head, showing her did didn't understand what she said. “Let's go.” She went into her storage and fetched everything she wanted to take with her, a bag made from the skin of a boar - filled with the scales of a wyvern, a large waterskin enchanted to extract water out of the air and store it inside, her wooden spear - now used as a walking stick, an new pair of furs to cover herself, lots of rope she made in her free time and finally a comfy deer bedroll, modified to allow her to sleep in trees without worry of falling.

She left her hut once everything was secured - the thing would melt down in a few days anyways - and set out in the direction she hoped to find humans. Arvog was bounding along in excitement, the wyvern loved being outside and would always beg her for more time.