The group walked single file into the castle, with Spencer at the front, Samantha and Bub in the middle, and Benjamin bringing up the rear. The first floor of the grand building looked to have been constructed as a single room, but pillars had been put in to strategically and decoratively divide it into sections for security, entertaining, and, Samantha inferred, for holding court. In the middle of the room were two cleverly constructed chairs, or rather, thrones. One was obviously meant for Scott based solely on its size, but the other was so much smaller that Samantha wondered if she or Bub could use it. They were trimmed with dark blue-gray furs that matched Scott's preferred color scheme; his coat was made of layers of these same furs that were piled high enough to nearly cover his head from the back. Gold accents embellished both the throne room and King Scott himself, which impressed Samantha as she had incorrectly assumed the beastmen had no way to work with metal if they had even discovered how to extract it. The color that King Scott had chosen to offset his favorite dark and muted blue was white, and white animal skins and furs adorned the throne room in a tasteful but still royal manner. Scott had even liked the material enough to make full white leather pants to wear regularly, going so far as to decorate them with the gold he apparently couldn't do without.

"I just realized," Spencer spoke up, "I never properly introduced any of you. Scott, this is Samantha, along with her guardian beast, Benjamin, and a lost bear cub we've been caring for since we set out for the city. Everyone, this is King Scott, the Wolverine King of the Wolves." Samantha dropped into as low a curtsy as she could, given the tightness of her skirt, and was thankful for the practice she'd had in her previous life as she raised herself back up with more grace than she'd had in years. "It's a pleasure to meet you, King Scott," she said, bowing her head again. Bub followed suit, lowering his head to meet his front paws in front of the wolf king. Benjamin, though he looked at the others disdainfully, also bowed his head before the beastman to show his respect. King Scott scanned the group from the bottom up and smiled, "It's nice to finally meet all of ya, I've been wondering when Spence was gonna bring ya 'round." He wrapped one of his jacked-up arms around Spencer's neck and asked, "So is this her? Your female? I gotta say, she's easy on the eyes and she seems, well, I dunno, different, I guess. But in a good way. No match for my Eira, of course, but nobody could be!" Spencer blushed, mumbling, "She isn't my mate yet, Scott. Hopefully soon, but these things are so much more complicated than I thought they would be."

"You're not kidding there!" Scott boomed, before taking a more confidential tone. "Eira and I aren't mated yet, either," he confessed, "but she's my female nevertheless. Even if she never looks at me again, there's no female in any world or anywhere that could take her place in my heart. Oh, look, there she is now! Let me introduce her to your friends, at least, while you're here!" he pleaded. "Eira!" Scott called, "You remember Spencer, right? He's brought some friends to the city, come and meet 'em! He's even brought a female, I remember you saying you wanted to know more females so now's yer chance!" A beet-red blush hid the natural earthy skin tone that covered the rest of the female Pallas cat beastman's body. Scott's face lit up as she approached, the scar on his cheek distorting with the huge grin he gave her. Her waist-length light gray hair swayed as she approached, as did her banded, fluffy tail that reached just to the middle of her thigh. Compared to Scott, she was almost impossibly petite, but neither of them seemed to mind it one bit. Her clothing was more delicate than Scott's, and like Samantha's pajamas, it seemed like it didn't belong to this world. She wore a white cape trimmed in gold; in fact, it seemed like she and Scott shared a favorite color combination there, as all her clothing was made of white cloths and ribbons of varying textures and was decorated and trimmed with gold, save for two ribbons extending from the back of her cape that were the same dark blue as Scott's furs.

Eira, still blushing, found herself pulled onto one of Scott's thick, leather-encased thighs to sit, as their guests had taken the rest of the available seating in a section of the room meant for private entertaining. Bub, unknowingly doing his part to help Scott by taking up an entire bench on his own, stared obliviously at the female whose body was much more exposed with her robe pulled behind her. The triangle-style bikini top and short shorts with leg cuffs that Eira wore reminded Samantha of Earth fashions, if they could be so intricately made and with such amazing quality. Stretching up from an actual pair of high heels with gold soles was one gauzy, thigh-high stocking, which covered a leg wrapped in white ribbon when Eira crossed her legs. In her hand was a scepter with a large stone colored like an opal at its center, framed with gold wire that put it at the center of a metal star. It pulsed with light like it was able to perform some act of magic, but Samantha was too impressed and intimidated by the other female to ask about it. She held it in hands covered with translucent gloves that matched her stocking, which furthered the theory that it held some sort of power. Gold stars studded their way up Eira's forearms, which she propped herself on as she leaned in to talk with Samantha.

"You aren't from here either, are you?" Eira inquired straightforwardly. How the two royals got along so well was obvious, Samantha thought to herself. They'd never have to hide anything the way Spencer had done with her. "Hey, are you okay?" Eira asked again, noticing that Samantha was taking a while to respond. "Oh, no- yeah, I mean, yes, I'm okay, but no, you're right, I'm not from here at all. I don't think I'm from the same place as you, though," she finished in an awed whisper. "Oh," Eira replied nonchalantly, "I got pulled here from the Heavenly realm. I was cultivating, if you couldn't tell, when Scott summoned me with his ritual. I'm not sure how to get back, honestly, but," she paused, her blush deepening even further, "I guess it isn't so bad here once you get used to it." Samantha's mouth fell open. "The Heavenly realm?" she gasped. Eira nodded, a proud smile on her face. "What ritual brought you all the way here?" Samantha asked, still stunned by the beautiful Pallas cat. "You don't know?" Eira asked, her face full of confusion. "No, how would I know about something like that?" Samantha said, Eira's confusion having spread to Samantha herself. "Well, it's Spencer's ritual, and you're his mate, aren't you? Isn't that how you got here?" Eira asked her, trying to make sense of the matter. "No, I-" Samantha began, before cutting herself off to look at the fox beastman, who was trying desperately not to make eye contact with anyone. "Spencer," she asked slowly, "How did I get here? Is there anything you'd like to tell me before I ask Eira any more questions?" With nervousness and fear in his eyes, the aforementioned beastman finally met Samantha's piercing gaze and gulped audibly. "I think this might be a conversation we should have one-on-one," he said, his voice full of guilt. Trying to keep his legs from shaking as he stood up, his fox tail popped out from underneath his animal skin skirt out of sheer panic. When his ears did the same, he did his best to flatten them as if he could hide his distress by doing so. He held out one of his slender arms to her, offering her his hand but clearly afraid she wouldn't take it. Sighing from disappointment and feeling defeated, Samantha placed her hand in his and allowed him to escort her to the far corner of the enormous castle floor.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry that this update took me such a long time. I won't lie, I've been extremely depressed lately and it's been hard to write through that. I'm still extremely motivated to continue this story, and it's nowhere near finished, so I hope you all won't give up on me, either! My output might be a bit slower for a while, but I promise to keep doing my best to update and to give you the best work I'm capable of putting out there. Thank you again for your support! Until next time!

Edit: I messed up Eira's hair color, sorry!