Finally, the king stood over the broken eagle beast men, chest heaving. To all, he thundered, "Let this be a lesson. No one poisons my queen, my family or myself. No one poisons my lords or endangers the lives of cubs on my watch. You can compete to be the tribe that held the best summit, but know your limits. If you cannot limit yourselves, I will limit you."

The eagles whimpered, battered beyond recognition. Their wings limp, their bodies bruised and bloodied Their egos were hurting even more than their bodies.

Elias stepped forward, bowing slightly, "My apologies your highness, this was not how we wished to end the summit. The eagle lord and his men shall be escorted back to their ship immediately."

The king snarled, then nodded. He returned to the porch, and put his arm around his queen’s back. His other hand fussed over her chest, patting it gently. It was like she had suffered a great scare.

Sienna’s eyes trailed over the royal couple one last time, and then she followed her husband. This incident was a reminder to her that there were reasons to fear beast man. That kind of strength, it was brutal! It was super strength, the kind that should not exist naturally. With her pan alone, she would never survive a fight against a beast man as strong as the king.

While Elias escorted the eagles away, she started walking home, slowly and quietly. The need to level up her mental strength was suddenly great within her. In fact, she wanted to bind another pet, one with physical strength. "System, can I bind the king as my pet?"

[No.]

There was no explanation given.

"Penny for your thoughts." Geo’s voice suddenly pushed through her thoughts.

She turned her head and raised it to look briefly at the masked wolf beast man before looking at the sand. "Did you watch the fight?" Sienna laughed. "No, to call it a fight would mean the other party attempted to defend themselves. This was a one sided domination and beating. The king just ripped into them, claws and everything. I thought he would he would give them a warning and make them pay a fine."

"The beating is the warning." Geo said slowly. "And don’t doubt it, they are going to pay the fine. Every beast lord will be clamoring to receive payment for almost being poisoned. If they don’t threaten to sue the eagles, they will threaten to sue the foxes."

Sienna snorted. "We are not paying a dime. We found out about the poisoning in time and we stopped it." She shook her head. "I can’t get the sounds of those wings being broken out of my mind."

Geo raised his hand, placing it on her back. "It can be a difficult thing for humans to witness." He paused, and dropped his hand. "The brutality of beast men. It changes the way they see us. That is why the former king made sure that humans had their own cities. Places where they could feel safe. Are you scared?"

Sienna laughed. "Me...scared! Never."

Despite her words, Geo detected a nervousness beneath. And he heard the lie in her voice. She was scared, just unwilling to admit it to herself. There had been cases of human women abandoning their beast cubs because they were frightened of them. Surely, Sienna would not do such a thing!

She loved her children, whether they were in human or beast form. He had witnessed this for himself. However, he felt the need to put in a good word for his kind. "You should not be frightened. We are not in rage mode all the time, the king’s actions were understandable.

I would be angry too if I found out that my family had almost been poisoned. Not to forget myself. The royal family cannot have people thinking they can poison them.

At first, it may start out as a joke but later, someone with bad intentions can take advantage of this to actually kill them. So, the message has to be sent loud and clear. The king will tolerate many things in the spirit of competition, but not this."

Sienna thought about the display of the eagles beast men when they arrived for the summit, and their unscheduled shameful exit. She wondered if they would be plotting revenge against her and Elias or the king.

They probably wouldn’t dare to do anything to the lions. She narrowed her eyes. The beast king was strong. Too strong. She thought. That leap into the air she had witnessed, had been mind blowing. It was easy to see why the strongest lion ruled the land. On earth, in air and probably the sea, he was dominant.

The other lions were probably just as strong. Her mind wandered to Sting, and she thought of the day when she hit him with the pan. Had he been indulging her? If he had half of the strength of his uncle, her pan would not have been enough to bring him down and make him beg for mercy.

"Now you know why alliances matter." Geo said.

Sienna looked at him, brushing strand of her hair away from her face.

"The eagles have offended too many beast tribes. That is why nobody stood up to plead for them." He sighed. "I don’t know what they were thinking with that poison idea."

Sienna’s jaw tightened. "They were probably thinking that we would be the ones to be screwed over."

Geo sneered. "They forget the king is always watching. He has eyes and ears everywhere. He chose to ignore the first poison attempt on day one, giving them a chance to end things there. And at the time, they were targeting rabbits, sheep, non meat eaters. But they took things a step too far with the bees and stew. The summit is an important event and it cannot be ruined by antics like those. Eagles are cunning. But they forget that in the face of strength, cunning does not matter.

Now, they have landed in the bad graces of the royal family. It is not a place I would wish to be. I am willing to bet that before a month is up, the eagles will have a new lord, from another noble family. When the tribe finds out what had happened, they will choose to save the their future over paying for the sins of an ignorant lord.

Don’t be shocked if his family is expelled from the tribe altogether. Him, and all the people involved in the poisoning incident.

For the royals, this was a good thing. The current eagle lord has been a thorn in their side for a few years. They have probably been looking for a reason to get rid of him. And now, you have handed them one."

Sienna wondered if this was why the queen had stopped her from confronting the eagles. Was this why she had been hanging out in the kitchen all the time, like she was just an ordinary friend?