Kaya noticed their looks and met them head-on. Then she narrowed her eyes and said, simply, "What?"
Her tone was flat. Dangerous.
That was enough.
No one spoke another word. They straightened and continued walking in silence.
It was only about a two-minute walk from there to the Tortoise Tribe's settlement. The path itself was plain, almost deceptively so. But what stopped Kaya in her tracks were the houses.
A wall surrounded the settlement—not stone, not metal—but thick, carefully fitted wood. It wasn't meant to intimidate. It was meant to declare presence.
People live here.
Inside, the houses were simple wooden structures, the kind one might see in old times. Every building stood at a single level, as if the concept of a second floor had never occurred to them—or perhaps was unnecessary.
They stopped before the main door.
Kaya knocked.
Two beastmen answered.
