The morning air in the canyon was crisp, and Kaya was standing near a basin of freshly boiled water, aggressively brushing her teeth with a frayed willow twig and some crushed mint. It wasn’t a modern toothbrush by any stretch of the imagination, but it was keeping her modern hygiene standards somewhat intact.
Suddenly, a massive, terrifying shadow blotted out the morning sun.
Kaya barely had time to look up before a gigantic vulture—easily twice the size of any bird in Veer’s flock—plummeted from the sky like a dark meteor. Its razor-sharp, steel-like talons were extended, aimed directly at her neck.
Kaya was completely, utterly frozen in fear. Her brain screamed at her to move, to dodge, to draw her knife, but her limbs were locked in place. All she could do was stare into the pure, unadulterated rage burning in the giant bird’s eyes as death hurled toward her.
At the absolute last millisecond, the vulture violently snapped its wings open, halting its dive just inches from her face.
The bird didn’t touch her, but it didn’t need to. The sheer concussive force of the air displaced by those massive wings hit Kaya like a solid brick wall. The gale instantly lifted her off her feet, throwing her violently backward through the air.
She was a split second away from cracking her skull against the hard obsidian floor of the courtyard. But just as she braced for the bone-shattering impact, her survival instincts overrode her panic. That strange, weightless flying power flared to life in her veins. She twisted mid-air, defying gravity just enough to arrest her backward momentum. She hovered for a fraction of a second before dropping lightly onto her boots, skidding backward several feet before finally coming to a halt.
Kaya gasped, clutching her chest. It felt like all the oxygen had been violently sucked from her lungs. She took massive, shuddering breaths, inhaling and exhaling as if her body had suddenly forgotten how to breathe and was frantically relearning the concept on the spot. Her heart was hammering against her ribs so hard she thought it might break through.
She looked up, her hands trembling as she reached for her hunting knife.
The giant vulture wasn’t attacking again. Instead, it was looking down at her with an expression of profound, unmistakable disgust. The bird slowly turned its head, and in a fluid, shifting blur of dark feathers, the massive creature transformed.
Standing in its place was a tall, imposing, fiercely intimidating man. He bore a striking, terrifying resemblance to Veer, from the sharp, aristocratic jawline to the predatory gleam in his eyes. But this man was older, his features weathered and hardened by decades of brutal tribal warfare.
It was Veer’s father.
Unlike Veer, who usually folded his wings away into his heavy coat after a flight, the older man kept his massive, obsidian-black wings fully extended. They stretched out on either side of him, casting a long, dark, suffocating shadow over the courtyard.
Kaya’s grip tightened on her knife. Veer had taught her the body language of his tribe. When a Vulture kept their wings out in their humanoid form, it wasn’t for balance or display. It was an overt, highly aggressive threat. It meant they were ready to kill.
Veer’s father glared down at her, his eyes burning with an absolute, unfiltered hatred that made Lord Siss’s malice look like child’s play.
"How dare you?" the older Vulture snarled, his voice a lethal, grating rumble that seemed to physically vibrate the stones beneath Kaya’s feet.
The sheer, suffocating pressure radiating from the elder Vulture was unlike anything Kaya had ever experienced. It was completely different from Lord Siss’s cold, reptilian malice. This was the raw, unbridled fury of a storm—violent, chaotic, and aggressively hot.
Kaya stood her ground, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the hilt of her hunting knife. Her heart was beating a frantic rhythm against her ribs, but she forced her chin up, refusing to break eye contact with the towering beastman. She had just overthrown a three-hundred-year-old tyrant. She absolutely refused to be intimidated by an angry bird, even if that bird happened to be her supposed father-in-law.
The older Vulture’s eyes darted down to the small steel blade in her hand. A harsh, grating sound ripped from his throat—a laugh entirely devoid of humor.
"You draw a twig against a hurricane, little ape," the elder snarled, his massive black wings twitching, sending fresh gusts of wind whipping across the obsidian courtyard. "You should be on your knees, thanking the heavens that my talons did not sever your fragile neck a moment ago. I could snap you in half with two fingers."
"You could try," Kaya shot back, her voice remarkably steady despite the absolute chaos raging in her nervous system. "But considering I’m currently the acting Lord of this fortress, attacking me would technically be an act of war against the Free Clan. And I don’t think you flew all the way here just to start a war you can’t win."
The elder Vulture’s eyes narrowed, flashing with a dangerous mix of shock and pure, unadulterated outrage. Clearly, no human—and certainly no prey—had ever dared to speak to him with such blatant disrespect.
"You boast of holding a fortress?" he stepped forward, his wings flaring wider, the shadow swallowing her entirely. "You are a parasite! You seduced my son, twisted his mind, and dragged the entire Vulture Tribe into a suicidal conflict with the West! You used his strength to slay the Snake Lord, and now you parade around this canyon claiming his victory as your own. You are a fragile, manipulative little creature, and I will not allow you to drag my bloodline down into the mud!"
"First of all," Kaya snapped, her modern temper finally flaring, completely overriding her survival instincts. "I didn’t seduce anyone. If anything, your son is the one with the severe boundary issues. Second of all, I didn’t drag him into anything. He followed me. And third? I didn’t use his strength to kill Lord Siss. I slit the snake’s stomach open myself. So before you come crashing into my courtyard making wild accusations, I suggest you get your facts straight."
The elder Vulture raised a massive, calloused hand, his fingernails elongating into jagged, deadly talons. The air around him seemed to literally vibrate with killing intent. "I have heard enough from this arrogant livestock—"
"Father. Lower your wings. Now."
The voice sliced through the tense courtyard like a physical blade. It was not loud, nor was it particularly angry, but it carried an absolute, freezing authority that made the temperature in the air instantly drop.
Kaya didn’t take her eyes off the elder, but she saw the shadow shift as Veer stepped out from one of the grand archways of the inner sanctum. The younger Vulture chief was dressed in his signature dark leather coat, his twin curved blades strapped securely to his back. But his demeanor was completely unrecognizable. Gone was the flirtatious, playful companion Kaya had grown accustomed to. This was the apex predator who had slaughtered his way through the treasury.
Veer walked slowly across the obsidian floor, deliberately placing himself directly between Kaya and his father. He didn’t draw his weapons, but the sheer, overwhelming spiritual pressure he released was staggering. It clashed violently against his father’s aura, creating a palpable, physical friction in the air.
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