As soon as lunch was cleared away, King Leon declared the summit over. All the entertainment to follow up was optional.

Most of the beast lords returned to their accommodations, others remained behind to enjoy wine and karaoke. Meanwhile, the eagle delegation was summoned by the king to his cottage for a private word.

Elias and Sienna followed, as instructed by the king. Tensions continued to grow, as if they were being summoned from another world. The royal couple sat on a swing set that had been set up on the patio. Everyday, at Sienna’s behest, Geo came by to redecorate the flowers that were hung or attached to it.

Despite the beauty of the swing set and freshness of the air, the royal couple did not have a smile. They were not relaxed either. King Leon looked like he was ready to snap necks while the queen looked like she wanted to rip them off with her teeth.

"Can you explain to me why you attempted to poison me?" The King asked the eagle lord.

The eagle lord’s eyes widened, before flashing to Sienna in anger. That bitch tattled! he thought. But then he thought of how petty Elias could be and he turned the angry eyes on the fox lord. "You have no honor."

Elias responded coldly. "But I wouldn’t try to kill my King. At least, I know when not to go so far. You have pushed the desire to win beyond the acceptable range. I would have understood harmless pranks, but food poisoning is not a game."

"An I agree with that." King Leon declared. "If you had kept your scheming to others, I would have laughed it off because I was having a good time. But you stretched your beaks to me...how dare you? Was it your goal to kill me? Do you want to rebel?" The question was soft, but the roar that accompanied it was scary.

The eagle lord started to sweat, as if he was sitting beneath a steaming boiler. "Your highness, the eagle tribe would never...."

"Don’t bring the tribe into this." The queen barked. "Whatever you did, it involved you and these morons standing behind you. Right now, I am wondering which one to rip apart first."

The eagle beast men behind the eagle lord trembled.

"Your highness, it was not a deadly poison." The eagle lord cried out. "I swear on the ancient god of eagles, I would never dream of rebelling. I just....."

King Leon waved his paw. Sienna did not see a hit landing, all she felt was this hot blast of air and then she saw all of the eagle beast men flying back and falling to the ground. "Woah!"

Elias tightened his hands on her shoulders, pulling her out of the line of fire. "If you can’t watch, close your eyes."

She opened them wider, jaw dropping when the king’s shirt was ripped off and he leaped over the porch in one swing. Without ceremony, Leon seized the eagle lord by the throat and lifted his high. With a single swing, he slammed him on the ground. The crack echoed like thunder.

"You almost poisoned my queen." the king snarled. His voice was a snarl. "There were cubs at the summit. Did it cross your mind that starting a fight between bees and wasps would endanger them? One sting and a cub dies from bee poison! My sister Venita brought her toddler you idiot. Was it your goal to see a member of the royal family dead?"

The strategist eagle beast man tried to protest, but the king’s fist silenced him. One blow sent his sprawling, feathers scattering like broken arrows. The king did not stop, he pounced, pinning the strategist beneath his massive frame. His claws raked across the man’s chest. "It was you, right. You are Pocolette, the one that supplied your lord with all these bad ideas. It is one thing to mess with fireworks so that they display an eagle instead of a fox. But when you poison me, my family and the other lords, you cross a line."

Sienna watched in silence, hands. She had no even known that they attempted to sabotage the fireworks. The king was right, that kind of prank was tolerable. Even the discord they tried to sow was tolerable. But, touching the food was not.

A third eagle beast man attempted to escape, wings flaring, but the king’s roar froze his mid-flight. In a blur, the lion beast man leapt to a height Sienna thought was impossible. He caught the eagle, slammed him down and drove his knee into the man’s back. The crack and shriek of agony which followed made Sienna shiver.

The courtyard trembled with each strike. Guards, courtiers, attendants dared not intervene. The king’s fury was justified, his punishment a spectacle. Already, a good number of beast lords had come to watch from a distance. The lesson the king was teaching the eagle delegation was meant for all of them.

Elias leaned closer, murmuring to Sienna, "This is what happens when one insults the lion’s pride. Whether the poison was meant to harm, or simply cause a slight humiliation, the king did not find it funny. Watch carefully, Sienna. This is power."

The king dragged all six eagle beast men together, tossing them before the porch, before his wife, the queen. His claws dripped with eagle blood, though he had not killed them. This was a simple lesson he wanted them to remember. "You thought yourselves clever. You thought it was funny. But, did you not stop to ask any of the other lords if they were willing to accompany you in eating poisoned food? If it was harmless, they why didn’t you eat it when it was served to you?"

Voices or rage rose. Indeed, the eagles had not eaten lunch. Most of the lords started to recall this. Those who had been closest also remembered that the eagles had been served with buffalo stew, not chicken and meatballs. The tiger lord recalled it clearly because he had tried to ask for a bite but Elias stopped him.

So it was because the stew was poisoned! He roared in rage too. "You damn eagles, you actually poisoned our food!" He leaped forward to join the king in delivering the beating.

He seized one eagle by the wing and twisted until bone snapped. "I almost ate that stew."

A lion beast guard pulled him away. The lesson was being taught by the king. Nobody else needed to intervene. Right then, the king struck Alec, the eagle across the face, jaw shattering under the force.

Sienna’s heart pounded. She had seen the fox lord’s cruelty but it was nothing compared to that of the king. This was raw, unrestrained dominance. The king was not calculating like her husband. His wrath was incarnate.