A three-striped king in a tribe that lived or died by strength. His white-gray rat ears stood high, alert and tense, and his long tail moved only once behind him in a slow controlled sweep that said far more than any shout would have. Beside him stood several other males, all of them powerful, all of them carrying the sa tense authority.
As Lin Huahua looked more carefully, she recognized them too through the placeholder’s mories.
They were her mother’s other males.
Not all of them, but enough that the picture beca clear at once. In this world, a female could have multiple males, and her mother, as the king’s mate and a high female in the tribe, naturally did.
One of the males at the Rat King’s side was a heavy-shouldered bear beastman with a scar crossing one collarbone and a face that looked severe until he turned his head and checked the crowd for females first.
Another was a hawk beastman with a calm face, bronze skin, and eyes so sharp they seed to count every movent in the tribe at once.
A third, the one standing closest after the king, was another three-striped male, a black panther beastman whose body looked leaner than the bear’s but no less dangerous. Their presence on the platform made the whole thing feel even more serious.
Lin Huahua blinked and realized sothing else.
Since coming into this world, she had not actually gone to see her mother.
That thought poked her conscience imdiately.
Aiyo.
She really had been too busy nearly dying from embarrassnt, accidental romance, public punishnt, evil peacocks, and terrifying mories to rember the very important detail that she actually had a mother here too.
She would go later.
Definitely later.
The thought had barely settled when one of her males touched her.
Mu Qingyi’s hand rested lightly between her shoulders for one mont, not pushing, just grounding. When she glanced back, his warm brown eyes were already on her face, checking whether the gathering, the crowd, and the tension were making her uneasy.
Hu Baiyu had moved closer on her other side too, close enough that if anyone pushed through the crowd too suddenly, they would et lion muscle before they reached her.
Feng Yiren, though he looked looser than the other two, had his fox ears angled sharply and his tail moving in short irritated sweeps that made it very clear he was more alert than he wanted anyone to know.
The tribe quieted fully when the Rat King lifted one hand.
Even the cubs stopped fidgeting.
When he spoke, his voice carried across the open ground with the weight of soone used to being obeyed.
"It has been confird that a four-striped snake beastman has entered the forest boundary near our hunting lands." Lin Weishan said
That one sentence landed like a rock dropped into still water.
The shock rippled outward at once.
Several females gasped.
A child whimpered and was imdiately scooped into his father’s arms.
More than one male straightened so fast his beast ears shot up at once.
Even those who had already heard part of the rumor looked worse now, because hearing there is a snake beastman nearby was one thing.
Hearing four-striped from the king’s own mouth was another.
Lin Huahua felt her own little heart drop.
Four-striped.
She had only just fully understood the stripe system, and now that understanding was not helping at all.
In this world, a beast’s natural species mattered, yes, but stripes mattered too, and a four-striped snake beastman was not just dangerous.
He was the kind of danger people told stories about after dark. Even another four-striped beastman would not treat such an enemy lightly, and their tribe did not even have one.
That made the whole gathering ground feel smaller sohow.
Lin Weishan’s eyes moved over the crowd slowly, and he did not raise his voice, because he did not need to.
"You already know what snake beastn are. You know what kind of males they are when they live without tribe law, without bond, without boundaries. I will not have panic in my tribe, but I will not have foolishness either. From this mont until the forest edges and river paths are checked and secured, no female is to leave the protected areas of the tribe alone."
That started a low stir at once, because although the females were frightened, no one liked being told they were now on tighter watch.
Lin Weishan continued before anyone could build montum.
"Every female will have a male near her. If a female has no bonded male, her father, brother, uncle, or assigned tribe guard will remain with her when she leaves her shelter. Mothers with cubs will not wander near the outer grounds. Young unmated females will not gather herbs outside the cleared paths. No one goes toward the forest edge alone. No one follows strange calls. No one approaches the riverbanks without warriors already there."
A boar beastman in the crowd lifted one hand and called out, "My female gathers reed roots every morning near the lower bank. What about that?"
Lin Weishan turned his gaze to him. "Then you gather them for her. Or you take three other males with you and do it under guard."
Another voice rose, this ti from an older female with goat ears. "What if we need bark leaves from the western trail for dicine?"
The hawk beastman beside the king answered that one before the king could. "Send word to the healers. We will assign gathering parties. No female is going there until the path is checked."
Then a younger male shouted from deeper in the crowd, "What if he cos into the tribe itself?"
That question made the atmosphere tighten all over again.
The black panther beastman beside the king stepped forward and spoke in a colder voice. "Then he dies here."
That was all.
No flourish.
No dramatics.
Just that.
And sohow it made a few people breathe easier.
Not because they believed this would be easy, but because hearing a hard answer always steadied a frightened crowd.
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