Kessa’s brother had long brown hair that fell past his shoulders in uneven strands, and red eyes that moved over Kane with cold precision, measuring distance, angles, the exact place a blade or claw would open the largest artery.
He was easily taller than Kane, broad enough that the difference felt deliberate.
Kane had grown used to being the tallest human in any room. Standing in front of Shenron made that fact suddenly irrelevant.
Kane didn’t back down. He met the red stare without shifting his weight or tightening his grip on Mjoldr.
Kessa stepped between them with an easy smile, striped tail swaying once.
"This is Shenron. My brother."
Not a single muscle twitched on either man’s face.
"Hello," Kane said.
Shenron didn’t answer. His red eyes stayed locked on the barbarian for another full breath before they slid to his sister.
"Kessa. Would you like to tell why you brought a barbarian to our entrance?"
He didn’t so much as glance at Griselda.
The fallen angel might as well have been part of the scenery.
"I will. I will," Kessa said, still smiling.
"But first let’s go into the tent. We have been travelling since morning."
Around them the other beastmen had begun to close in.
A ring of striped and scarred bodies formed a loose circle.
Several licked their mouths openly. More than one pair of eyes fixed on Griselda with open, drooling interest: wings, pale skin, the scent of something that did not belong in their forest.
Kane didn’t react. Provocation was their nature. Griselda could kill most of them before they finished the first lunge, and they seemed to sense it enough to keep the circle from tightening further.
Shenron’s voice cut through the low growls.
"Stay back."
The order carried absolute weight. The circle loosened at once. Shenron turned and walked toward the largest timber structure without checking whether they followed.
Kane fell in behind him. Kessa stayed at his side. Griselda took the rear, yellow eyes tracking every beast that still watched them too closely.
Inside the tent, the air was thick with smoke, cooked meat, and the musk of too many bodies in one space.
Beastmen worked at open fires, turning spits, hauling timber, arguing over cuts of meat.
A pair near the far wall had already started a half-serious scuffle, claws out, while several women looked on with the same flat interest they might give a weather change.
No one stopped when the three newcomers entered, but conversations lowered, and heads turned.
Shenron dropped onto a heavy seat carved from a single stump.
Kane sat opposite him without waiting for permission. The lack of invitation registered. Shenron’s red eyes narrowed a fraction, then smoothed again.
Kessa remained standing between them for a moment, then settled onto a nearby crate.
Shenron looked at his sister.
"You were gone for long. How was the tournament?"
"I lost."
"Was it the prince?"
"Ah, no. It’s him." Kessa jerked her chin toward Kane. "Kane beat me."
There was no explosion of temper. Shenron simply nodded once, slow and considering.
"Who won the tournament?"
"Kane did."
The words landed harder than the previous ones. For a second, the entire tent seemed to pause; fires still crackled, but the low conversations died.
The Elven Celestial Tournament was the largest formal event most of them had ever heard of.
A barbarian, from a race long banned from those grounds, walking away with the victory was not something the outer settlements had prepared for.
Shenron’s red eyes returned to Kane and stayed there.
Kessa cleared her throat.
"So, brother—"
"Before you begin," Shenron cut in, voice flat.
"Why do you smell like him?"
The question hung in the smoky air.
Several of the nearer beastmen stopped pretending to work and simply watched. Kessa’s ears flicked once, but her expression didn’t change.
"Because I claimed him," she said. "Or he claimed me. Depends how you want to count it. We’ve been together since the tournament circuit. He feeds me, fights beside me, and when I’m in heat he handles it. That’s the smell."
Shenron’s gaze didn’t leave Kane.
"You let a barbarian mount, my sister."
Kane rested his forearms on his knees, posture open, Mjoldr still across his back but within reach.
"She wasn’t complaining."
Kessa snorted.
"I still don’t. He’s better than the last three who tried."
A low rumble moved through the watching beastmen. Shenron lifted one hand, and the sound died.
"And the winged one?"
"Griselda," Kane said.
"She’s under my protection. Same as Kessa."
Shenron finally looked at the fallen angel.
Griselda met the red stare without blinking. Whatever he saw there made him decide not to press the point.
"You walked into our outer settlement with my sister’s scent all over you and a claim on a creature most packs would try to keep in a cage," Shenron said.
"That takes either stupidity or confidence. Which is it?"
"I’m here to speak with Grathak."
The name changed the air in the tent more sharply than the tournament news. Several beastmen straightened.
One of the women near the fire spat into the flames.
Shenron leaned back against the carved stump.
"Grathak doesn’t speak with humans. He collects them. Or breaks them. Sometimes both."
"I’m aware."
"And you still came."
"I have business that requires it."
Kessa shifted on her crate.
"He’s not here to raid or steal breeding stock. He already has more women than he knows what to do with. He’s trying to pull the larger pieces together before the sky breaks."
Shenron’s eyes narrowed.
"The devils."
"You know?"
"Yes."
For the first time, something like genuine interest flickered behind the red. Shenron studied Kane again, longer this time, as if reassessing the threat level.
"You expect Grathak to listen to a barbarian about the end of the world?"
"I expect him to listen to the only person who has already cleared the path once and knows what’s coming. Whether he does it because he believes me or because he wants to test me first is his choice."
Shenron was silent for several breaths.
Around them, the tent had gone almost completely still. Even the scuffling pair had stopped.
Finally the older tiger-striped male spoke again.
"You will stay the night inside the palisade. No one will touch you or the winged woman while you are under my roof. In the morning I will decide whether I walk you deeper or turn you back toward the human roads. That is the only hospitality you get for now."
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