It All Started With Magnets

.7.

Gal'rug

I was surprised that the Supreme Council did not join in on the meeting to discuss first contact. I had assumed they would have wanted to know about the newest species that had been welcomed by the Council of Torin. I figured that they would hear about it and then complain later that we hadn't tried harder to get in contact with them. I snorted in distaste at the thought of it.

Us grog were not really built for bureaucracy. We liked to fight and fighting was sometimes the best way to work out grievances. I took the position as Ambassador of the Grog on the Council because it was deemed I was the most suited for it and could handle the work and annoyances that came with it. I understood why, I was less likely to scoff and ignore meeting requirements but that didn't mean I liked it. In fact there were days I wanted to hunker down in an arena and face off against a winged horror for ten minutes rather than go through another meeting to discuss a meeting that wouldn't take place in half a winter's time.

This new species, this little pink female named Rox'ie, was the most exciting thing about being on the Council in all my years of being on it. Her species was small and looked more like a prey animal than a predator, all softness and squish. True the genetic testing showed that they had miraculous healing abilities and resiliency for such a small and almost delicate looking species, but they just looked so small. I had been surprised to hear that Rox'ie had descended from creatures who would hunt their prey to exhaustion to kill it. Us grog hunted by ambush, hiding in bogs and underneath well travelled pathways. We had evolved from there to traps and ambushing from thick forests, at least those of Bat'lar did.

Still those of the close clans looked like we were built for that style of predation, big enough to build our contraptions and to catch prey that was as big or bigger than us, and green to blend in with the foliage. Even those of other provinces matched yheir enviroments. Rox'ie did not. Still I had to admire the smaller species for their resiliency... and their creation and drinking of ethanol products... and their love of battle. I wondered if they had any modern equivalents for glad-ee-a-tors. It would be nice to have another species in our arenas. As much as the grog loved having other species around, because our species was rather lonely before the ilthi and others showed up, it was rather lonely not having any other species want to partake in our arena battles.

"Would your species enjoy joining in arena battles?" I asked it as I looked down at Rox'ie's dark head and she looked up at me with that toothy grin of hers. I wondered if all humans did that same gesture that spoke of friendliness. I knew in some of the other species, like the ilthi, those particular toothy smiles were disconcerting but the grog had similar facial expressions so I was unbothered. Now if it was an antwyn who did it, I might have shuddered a little bit. Then again the small species was nearly carnivorous and mainly ate meat. I had seen Lorilyee-ei's family pick a rack of ribs off a dal'trat clean in under five minutes. That was something to be wary of. Most grog were a little wary of them, it was natural when a pack of them could pick you clean in under ten minutes if they were so inclined.

"I wouldn't but honestly there will be humans that want to." She moved her shoulders in a gesture I was seeming to understand as a non-verbal saying of 'Well' and 'I don't know' depending on the context in which she used it. "If you get them really going, you might actually have some wanting to do monster truck rallies for you guys." The words made no sense and I stared at her leaning towards her slightly to try and see if I was missing something.

"Context?" Mairaede asked it, her ilithari swirling around slightly, as if trying to gather more information from the human. I knew they read pheromones and what not but I never paid much attention to them outside of the rule to not touch. I wasn't going to lie, I needed that rule because every so often I wanted to reach out and grab one just to yank to see what would happen. I knew nothing good but the temptation was still there.