By the time they reached the city gate, the visitors were already waiting.
There were quite a lot of them.
Several beast people in their beast form stood nearby, along with males and females dressed better than most village people would dare. They had brought gifts too, baskets of food, pelts, herbs, crafted tools, and even a few polished stones that were clearly meant to look valuable.
Valuable to them, perhaps.
To Isabella, it was another matter.
She only needed one glance to know that what they brought was nowhere near what she already had inside her territory.
And they knew that too.
That was why their smiles were so polite.
That was why their posture was so careful.
That was why even while greeting her, some of the males behind them could not help sweeping their eyes toward the watchtowers, the walls, the gates, the guards, the movement of the villagers, and even the storage buildings in the distance.
They were inspecting everything.
