This was bad.
No, scratch that.
This was very bad.
Hei Yan stood at the edge of Snake territory, his purple eyes fixed on the small, trembling cub being held by a very smug-looking snake beastman.
The cub, little Xiao Hu, was crying quietly. The kind of crying that meant he was trying to be brave but failing miserably.
Hei Yan's claws itched.
"Let him go," he said. Again. For the tenth time maybe. Who was counting?
The snake beastmen just stared at him with their creepy and unblinking eyes. Green. Silver. Black. All of them coiled around trees and half-submerged in the murky water.
Waiting.
For what?
Hei Yan had been here for hours. Hours of standing. Staring. Negotiating with creatures who clearly didn't want to negotiate.
His body ached. His head pounded. His beast was screaming at him to just attack, grab the cub, and run.
But he couldn't just do that. Because there were too many of them. And one wrong move meant the cub would get hurt.
Or worse.
