Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

Chapter 496 --496

Then Kaya spoke, voicing the thought that had been nagging at her. "Vayu’s information about the human women being brought here every twenty years or so—do you think it’s true?"Veer considered. "Vayu’s a scholar. He has no reason to lie, especially when it would be so easy to disprove. And it explains... a lot. The coordinated hunts, the value different tribes place on you, the prophecies and legends.""It’s horrible," Cutie said quietly. "Bringing people here just to... to breed them like animals."

"Yes," Kaya agreed. "But it also means I’m not the first to face this. Other women have been in my position. Some survived. Some even thrived." She paused. "That woman Vayu mentioned—Aria. She built her own power base, led her own tribe. If she could do it two hundred years ago, with no knowledge of what she was facing..."

"You think you can do better," Veer finished.

"I ’know’ I can do better," Kaya corrected. "I have advantages she didn’t. I have weapons from my world. I have combat training. I have you three backing me." She looked at them both in the darkness. "And I know what I’m up against now. No more fighting blind."

"So what’s the actual plan?" Veer asked. "We can’t hide in the mountains forever."

Kaya had been thinking about this during their climb. "Short term: we get deep enough into the mountains that the eagles can’t easily follow. We find a defensible position, somewhere we can actually rest and plan properly. We survive the immediate threat."

"And long term?"

"Long term, we do exactly what I said before. We build our own power base. Not by hiding, but by becoming strong enough that the major tribes have to respect us rather than hunt us." She paused. "But first, we need to understand the power structure better. Vayu gave us the basics, but we need details. Who are the real players? What do they want? What are their weaknesses?"

"That’s going to require allies," Veer said. "People willing to share information, to help us."

"I know." Kaya shifted position, trying to find a more comfortable way to sit in the cramped alcove. "That’s part of why I wanted to avoid Nikala territory. If we’d gone there, we’d have been asking for protection, for charity. We’d have owed them, been dependent on them." Her voice hardened. "I don’t want to be dependent on anyone. I want to be the one others come to. The one with something to offer."

"That’s ambitious," Cutie said, a hint of admiration in his voice. "Starting from nothing, building something strong enough to stand against entire tribes..."

"Every empire starts from nothing," Kaya said. "Every leader begins as just one person with an idea and the determination to see it through." She looked at them both. "I’m not saying it’ll be easy. I’m not even saying we’ll succeed. But I’m done being prey. Done running. It’s time to start building something."

Veer was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "You sound like a revolutionary."

"Maybe I am," Kaya agreed. "This system—pulling humans here to be breeding stock, fighting over them like property—it’s broken. Someone needs to break it further, then rebuild it into something better."

"That’s dangerous thinking," Veer warned. "The major tribes won’t take kindly to someone trying to upset the established order."

"The major tribes are already trying to kill me," Kaya pointed out. "How much worse can it get?"

"You’d be surprised," Veer muttered, but there was something like respect in his voice.

---

## The Morning After

They rested for about an hour before continuing their climb. The canyon eventually opened into a series of high valleys, their floors covered in tough grass and scattered boulders, their walls still rising steeply on all sides.

As dawn broke, painting the eastern sky in shades of pink and gold, they finally allowed themselves to stop for more than a few minutes.

Kaya found a flat rock and sat, pulling out a piece of dried meat from their supplies and chewing mechanically. Her body was exhausted, but her mind was still racing.

Veer transformed briefly, stretching his wings, testing his injured shoulder. It seemed to be healing well—the flight and climb hadn’t reopened the wound.

Cutie, in rabbit form, was nervously sniffing the air, his ears constantly twitching, alert for any danger.

"We need water," Kaya said, looking around. "And we need to find a more permanent shelter. Somewhere we can actually sleep properly without worrying about exposure."

"There are caves higher up," Veer said, landing and transforming back to human form. "I can see them from the air. Some look large enough to be useful."

"Then that’s where we head next," Kaya decided. "After we rest for a bit and scout the immediate area."

They spent the next few hours carefully exploring the valley they’d reached. It was isolated, difficult to access from the air due to strong updrafts between the canyon walls, and showed no signs of recent occupation by any beast tribes.

Perfect.

Cutie, in his rabbit form, discovered a small spring feeding into a clear pool at the far end of the valley. Fresh water, cold and clean.

Veer, using his ability to fly short distances, scouted the caves he’d spotted earlier. Most were too small or too exposed, but one—about halfway up the eastern wall of the valley—was large, deep, and had a narrow entrance that could be easily defended.

"It’s not comfortable," Veer reported when he returned. "Cold, damp in places, probably home to bats or other small creatures. But it’s defensible, it’s hidden from aerial view, and it’s dry enough that we could actually make camp there."

"Then that’s our base," Kaya said. "For now, at least."

They spent the rest of the day moving into the cave, making it minimally habitable. Kaya used her knife to clear away debris, while Cutie gathered dry grass and moss for bedding. Veer flew down to the valley floor and back several times, carrying up rocks to create a fire pit and a barrier near the entrance.

By nightfall, they had something that could generously be called shelter.

It wasn’t much. But it was theirs. And more importantly, it was somewhere the eagles couldn’t easily reach.

---

## The War Council

On their second night in the mountain cave, after they’d eaten a meager dinner of dried meat and the last of the berries from their supplies, Kaya called what she mentally termed a "war council."

"Alright," she said, pulling out a piece of charcoal from the fire and a flat rock that could serve as a crude writing surface. "Let’s go over what we actually know, what we think we know, and what we desperately need to find out."

She began sketching a rough map from memory, based on what Vayu had shown them. "Major powers in this region: Eagles to the west, in the high mountains. Snakes to the south, in the warm lowlands. Nikala tribe—mixed species, neutral—to the east. Wolves scattered throughout, mostly mercenary bands. Bears in the northern mountains, where we are now."

She looked up at Veer and Cutie. "What am I missing?"

"Fox clans to the southeast," Veer added. "They’re traders mostly, not warriors, but they control a lot of the commerce routes."