Author's Note:

*Name *
Aron- is Achara's fake male name.In Ace tribe Achara fake her identity as a male beastmen.

*Character*
Rui: The stalker from chapter 6 / an adopted prince. ( The rest information: continue reading to find out more 🤪)

Cal- the chief of the tribe where the chief meeting was held and the host of the chief meeting.

Kalazk- Chief/Tribe leader of Ace tribe where Achara stay.

Sam-  one of the beastmen who lived at Ace tribe and Kalazk's subordinate.

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"It is getting colder and colder lately", Kalazk hugged himself from the shivering cold wind.
"It seems that winter will come faster this year", Sam, his subordinates who followed with him on this journey to the chief meeting answered.
Suddenly, they felt the presence of ferals.
"Ferals!", they were alert. The ferals looked like beaten rats and were running like pigs and dogs to their direction. Kalazk was alert and even made a fighting position. But the ferals did even not look at them. They ran pass them.
"Huh?"
A few seconds later, they saw a man with dark  hair and sharp golden eyes, sprinting to their direction. It seem that the ferals were running away  from the black hair guy.

Kalazk glanced at his armband that had an imperial logo on it. "Someone from the imperial city?".
After some while, two other beastmen came running the path that the feral passed . Their arm band had the same imperial logo. One of them cannot help but caught his breathe. "We don't have time to rest, we must quickly catch up with the prince",the other beastman with him reminded.
 
Kalazk looked at the direction that they went. "Prince", Kalazk repeated what he heard.
Rui who was following the ferals  catched them up with his fast speed. Seeing that Rui was alone, the ferals turned back to fight him. It was one verses five.
"Don't worry guys. Before, there were more than one person on his side, so we suffered. Now, he is alone. I am confident we will beat him black and blue and make him call his mommy for help" the ferals with the brown hair who seem to be the most authorized person among the group assured his companions.
After a while, "Mommy! Ahhh! Help!". Unfortunately for them, they were the one who got to call their mom. Rui knocked  the leader of the group and pressed his face to the ground.

Rui twisted his left hands. The sound of bone cracking could be heard,"ahhhhh, stop,please," the feral screamed.

"Where is your base?",Rui asked.Seeing that the ferals did not answered, Rui used more force on the feral ,"Ahhh,ha, I will tell,please stop",the ferals cried.
The ferals opened his mouth slowly in pain and spoke,"It's near ...",before the feral could continue, smoke suddenly covered this area and blurred Rui's eyes.
Taking this opportunity, the feral who was pressed down by him, broke free from his restrictions. All the ferals disappeared together with the smoke.
"A mysterious smoke, something is fishy",Rui remembered this place in his mind and went back to meet up with his subordinates.

Meanwhile, at the chief meeting, Cal who was the host chief started the conversation.

There were altogether 16 tribes in the  Western Land. Cal waited for the chiefs and also Rui to arrived .Out of the 16 tribe, chiefs from five tribes did not attended the meeting. He still wanted to wait for Rui but seeing that the time was late, he did not delayed the meeting anymore. He  announced to start the discussion.

The meeting continued with the chief sharing information on what they knew about the ferals. Half way through the meeting, someone asked Cal.
"By the way I heard that an important guest will be coming".

That moment, a young man with black hair and sharp golden eyes entered the meeting. The moment Kalazk saw Rui, he realized that Rui was the one who chased the feral from before.

Cal who was the host of the meeting stepped forward and greeted him. "Greeting warrior".
Rui politely apologized for his late attendance.
"Everyone this is Sir Rui from the imperial city ".
"The important guest that you mention?",someone asked.
"Yes".
"He is here to handle the ferals case".
One by One, the chiefs at the meeting introduced themselves to Rui. Kalazk was no exceptions too. Rui explained about his experience and knowledge of the feral since he had fought with them. The meeting discussed about counter measures, ways to strengthen their defense and improve their attack.
While discussing, Rui asked a necessary requirement for him and his army. "I also have a request. We will need a shelter for my army to stay." I am afraid that this case will not end shortly, so we will have to stay as long as the ferals are not defeated. Even if it is winter".

"That," silence filled the atmosphere.
It was going to be winter soon. This winter was predicted to be harsher than before.  Winter was the season when it was the most difficult to find food. It was a challenge to survived in winter where food was scarce and the weather was harsh enough to left you freezing. One more beast man meant one more competitor to shared the prey within their area.
Beside we were talking about a whole army.
There's a large possibilities that the tribe would be starve to death first.

"Since my tribe is too small, I am afraid, we might not have enough space for your army to settle".

"My tribe mostly consist of meat eater, and heavily rely on prey nearby as our food resources. Every year, we struggle to hunt and there are even males who fight each other for the prey. If there are many beastmen, I am afraid both my tribe members and the army won't have enough food and suffer starvation."

"My tribe does not have a good prey environment in the first place and suffer starvation every year. I am sorry but our tribe really cannot shelter this amount of beastmen".

"I can at most shelter half of the army, but cannot effort to shelter all of them as it is going to be  winter".

One by one, the chiefs gave reasons to deny this request. While the others were denying, Kalazk was in his own though. "A whole army, hmm,even if it is a tribe with better prey environment, it will be hard to support the whole army. But thanks to Aron, our tribe does not have to worry about food for the winter anymore. Wait a minute, if so wouldn't it be better for our tribe to shelter them? Since our tribe is very far from the other tribe, back up will takes some time to arrive. Besides, although the tribe is large, there aren't many population and we might not be able to defend if the ferals attack our tribe."

Although Rui did not say it, Kalazk heard his follower mentioned him prince back then. "He must want to hide his identity. Such a big shot come to the western land." Kalazk though.

It was always good to carry favor with an imperial prince such as him". Thinking like that Kalazk volunteered to let the army shelter in his tribe.
" Excuse me, how about considering to stay at my tribe? I am glad to take the army who will help us fight against the ferals", Kalazk suggested.
Beside my tribe is large and does not have a lot of population."
Many chief  rejected Rui's request but there were two other tribe who agreed to shelter the army. One of them was Cal's tribe.

The two other tribes agreed because of the fear of their tribe attacked by the ferals and didn't want to offend people from imperial city. Rui did not directly agreed to their offer. He got to check which place suit the best for his army to stay. But he was glad that there were still tribes who agreed. After the agreement to visit the three tribe that offered his army a place to shelter, the meeting end.

While Achara was at her stall to sell food and medicine, Kalazk came to her. "Oh chief, you are back from the meeting?", she was delighted. 
"I come here to talk to you about something", Kalazk answered.

"Aron, two days from now on, an important guest and his subordinates  from the imperial city will visit our tribe. They are here to handle the ferals case. I want to ask you to prepare lunch for them." Kalazk told her.

It was well known fact that she was the best cook in this tribe. "Aron, these guest are very important. We must service them with our almost care and make them stay so they don't choose other tribes. It is related to our tribe's safety." Kalazk wanted Rui and his army to stay in Ace tribe for shelter.
Kalazk touched Achara shoulder,"
Aron the safety of the tribe depend on you".
Although she did not exactly know why these  guest should stay, she was more than happy to help. It was after all, concerned with the safety of this tribe."Rest assured, I will make delicious food for them so that they cannot help but want to stay here".