Although Helen was unhappy with how Mark had approached the subject and how he ordered her silence through their bond, she was incredibly interested in the story of the rabbit and so, quickly headed towards the mess hall.

Even though three months had passed, due to Mark's injuries and other pressing matters the pair had paid little attention to their latest acquisition, merely making sure that she was not causing any trouble or becoming a burden.

Descending a flight of stairs and moving out of the officer's zone, Helen finally reached mess hall and took a deep breath to prepare herself mentally. As a fox-beast, she disliked large crowds and usually stuck by Mark's side.

While, from the reports, she knew that the rabbit would not be here, Helen wanted to get as much info as possible before approaching her target. As the day had ended, the recruits would be changing shift, and nearly everyone would be present in the mess hall. This would save her lots of time as the camp was quite vast and enable her to complete her mission most efficiently and retreat to her master's side.

Retracting her fox ears, making her appear mostly human, Helen entered through the double doors and quickly started mingling with the bustling horde.

While she wasn't ashamed by her beast traits, leaving the ears visible for Mark because, as a young boy, he mentioned they were cute, most of the humans were extremely prejudiced to humanoid creatures. As most knew that she could maintain an almost perfect human appearance, some would see her act as flaunting her non-human heritage and would look for a reason to find offence.

Bound beasts, especially in the Western Kingdoms, had learnt to appease humans, at least on the surface. There were a few, like Mark, who was a kind master and treated Helen with complete respect and put her needs first, but they were rare.

Most, even after Godsfall, an event in which humanity cast their shackles aside and rose up in rebellion, still maintained their superior air.

To the sentient creatures, this was bizarre because the gods had managed to wipe out vast chunks of knowledge and nearly all human technology, sending them back to their humble beginnings yet they couldn't deny, with the human's numbers and nature, they quickly rose from the ashes and asserted their dominance once again.

Their current state was a far cry from their past glory, but the longer-lived beasts all believed that it wouldn't be long until they reached it again and, without the gods blocking their way, surpassing their former selves.

Helen looked around the hall, which was unofficially divided into three areas. One for the humans, one for their bound beasts that were combat orientated and the last for the servants, mostly weak creatures that could barely hold a humanoid appearance and we mass bound to one of the many caretakers of the camp.

There were a few that broke the mould, a human who was enthralled with her bonded being the most obvious example but they were rare cases, even for those that would be fighting with each other in dangerous environments.

Helen frowned at the female human, knowing that her peers would ridicule her at best, have what human's called honour tainted at worst, but said nothing as she walked into the room, only a few taking noticing the newcomer.

A wolf whistle pierced through the humming noise, drawing Helen's, and a few others attention.

"Look what the cat dragged in," chuckled a tough looking, black haired man. Beside him, sat four others, all similar shape and built. "The divine fox, a beast that stands above us mear creatures, decides to grace us with her presence. What an honour. I thought you were tied to your master's side. What's the matter, has he finally grown bored with you?"

"Fuck off Riley," spat Helen, quickly moving away and rapidly engaging with a few of the beasts that she knew so she wouldn't have to interact with the wolf-beast.

Instead of getting offended, Riley smiled menacingly; his brothers grins almost matching his own as they leered at the retreating fox-beast.

"We will have her yet, Brother." said the one to his right as the others nodded, their predatory gaze not moving from her body.

Riley nodded in agreement and leaned back, placing his hands on his head as he adopted a dominant position. "Our pack lacks high-quality females, and although she doesn't have our noble bloodline, just like one-eye, if we can integrate them into the pack, the pups should be able to hold their own and increase our presence. With that, our master's position will only elevate, raising us to new heights."

"You wolves always have eyes bigger than your bellies," chuckled a wide-eyed, unnaturally so, man, his head twisting around to face them at what would be an impossible angle for a human. "One-eye's strength is already top-tier, and I don't think even you guys are foolish enough to tangle with Helen's fox-fire. Hell, most of us suspect she caused the burns on one-eye, and if Helen can subdue that manic, you guys don't have a chance."

"Women love strength," responded one of the pack. "And strength lies with the pack. They will realise what is good for them and join us willingly. It's just nature."

"And if they don't," responded the owl-like man, shaking his head at the man who had just spoken. While beasts were a lot more sexist than their human counterparts, it often was in the opposite direction. Even for the wolves, their alpha was female and ruled them with an iron fist. The fact that the wolf-beast was saying such nonsense was a testament to the warped mentality of the pack.

The pack smiled as one, creating a haunting scene that could intimidate even the most staunch of men. "Then we do what we have to do. Those two will either run with the pack or be run to ground by it."

While their conversation wasn't loud, it was drowned out by the noise made by the couple of hundred people chatting and, as it was beasts that were saying these things, no one paid it any attention.

Unlike the human side, which pretended to be friendly and righteous upfront while scheming and stabbing each other in the back behind the scenes, beasts tended to wear their hearts and motivations on their sleeves.

This didn't make them any less cunning or manipulative, but they didn't bother to hide it as much. Most had grown up in the wild, where survival of the fittest was the only rule.

The fact that their bonds stopped them from overtly killing or harming each other, as long as they were considered on the same side by their master, meant that most, even those who were natural enemies, dropped their hostilities and focused that energy on working towards their agendas. Most of the time, this revolved around prime living space, food and reproduction but some, like the wolves, had developed a taste for power and influence.

As such, they actively promoted their master's agenda, thinking of him as their alpha's mate instead of a human.

After an hour or so, Helen had spoken to most of her contacts and those neutral to her and Mark and was already heading for the exit that leads to the training grounds.

While she initially felt that they hadn't ignored the rabbit too much in the previous three months, it was clear that they had not been attentive and missed a great deal.

The rabbit was bonded to Mark with the standard servant-master contract and was thus his responsibility. When the order to halt their search came through, her use was limited, and so he enrolled her with the recruits with the excuse that she needed to gain strength to keep her out the way.

Little did they know that she would take what he said gravely.

As a weaker beast, the rabbit species more suited to servants than combatants, the rabbit had been discriminated against on all sides, yet she continually broke what was considered common sense and overcame all challenges with ruthless determination.

Helen sighed as she stepped outside, knowing that her mission was going to be far more difficult than she originally anticipated.