“Why are we still watching that rana Aloris? Laroth asked curiously

Aloris did not have a good answer to that question, he didn't really know why he was watching the Rana.

“It is interesting to watch” Aloris answered hesitantly back

Aloris did not know what to make of the name Rana, the name Laroth came up to identify the frogmen.

He was no scholar and as such he thought that he was in no position to give a fair and proper judgement to the naming of the creature.

Usually this task fell to the scholars of the elven society, but because he was in no position to ask them, he just let it go for now and accepted the name.

To the toadmen Laroth gave the name Toak.

The similarities between toak and toad and the dissimilarities between frog and rana was a bit confusing for Aloris in the beginning.

But he did not object because in some way it was still him that named them that way and he had not figured out an better alternative to them.

He did want to ask Eruvian for an opinion but it seemed Eruvian was so disinterested in the matter that he did not bother to ask him.

So in the end he decided that the names would stay.

“Well, he is quite resourceful compared to the others..” Laroth responded back

Aloris did not know if it he was mocking it or praising it, after all they were speaking about people that looked like frogs and toads.

While it was impressive to see them work together in harmony and peace in such dire condition when they first arrived, they were quite dull.

The Toaks and Ranas lacked both finesse and elegance to solve their problems, and to Aloris who respected and valued the intellectual prowess of the elves, he was bothered by it.

He remembers the frustration watching the Toaks and Ranas in the first year, to the point of almost being mad at them.

He had high hopes when they first arrived but after seeing them for a few months that hope was gone.

While the toaks and ranas were not stupid, as they could create basic equipment, they were too passive to Aloris taste.

The biggest effort intellectually and physically was the building and construction of their artificial ponds.

In the beginning they were camping at the shores until their scouts found a good location for them to settle down.

The heavy dense jungle made it difficult for them to navigate through, Aloris noticed very quickly that they were not adapted to this hostile environment.

Many died to hostile elements, such as predators and so on, but eventually they found a lake not far from their people and reported it back.

The area they settled down was a few miles away from the shore they landed on and built their ponds in close proximity to the lake.

They dug up areas around lake and planted strange seeds at the bottoms and then filled them with water from the lake.

When the holes were filled then they waited for the seeds to sprout and grow.

The seeds seemed to have an interesting characteristic to them as they grew too fast and created enormous lily pads that somehow could withstand the weight of several Toaks and Ranas.

After that, they spent most of their time in their ponds and rarely ventured out.

They are a primitive race and he should not expect much, but when Kobolds have weapons and they don't, he felt his patience with them running out.

Aloris was a warrior in both spirit and body, until the event took him, and so he was quite a prideful man when it was about warfare.

But the tactics from the Ranas and Toaks baffled him and made him angry.

Whenever a predator attacked someone, they would flock together and try to throw stuff at it hoping it would give up, but if that did not work they would all flee in every direction possible.

After several similar events like that he noticed that Eruvian was not heard of again, maybe too frustrated and angry at them to even come out.

So when Aloris noticed the same Rana venture out several times and do weird stuff he was intrigued and started following it to see what it did.

This Rana was different from the others, so much he had concluded, but still stupid.

-”What is he doing?” Laroth asked

The peculiar rana was smashing a fruit with a stone, but he seemed not been able to crack it open.

Everytime he failed, he seemed to look at his rock and then throw it away, then pick another one like it, seemingly thinking that the previous rock itself was the problem.

Even though this was a bit unexpected he was hoping the rana would do something else then this.

-”If this continues they will be extinct” Eruvian interceded

Eruvian, of all of them interceded for these two weird races, a bit of disbelief came over Aloris.

-”How so?” Aloris asked

“They lack any means to properly defend themselves and they are too passive to even defend their territory from hostile predators. If they keep using the same tactics as they have been doing the predators will begin to attack more frequently until none of them exists.”

Aloris thought about it for a while.

He knew he was right.

The attacks are beginning to become more frequent and if it continues they risked to be extinct.

At first it was the crocodiles that attacked and killed some,but then Aloris noticed that tigers and snakes began to attack them. They seemed to be a delicate snack.

The Ranas and Toaks seemed oblivious to the problem, almost like they ignored it willingly.

But so what? Aloris thought

Nature is cruel and The Balance is there for this reason, to weed out the weak ones from the strong ones.

But it tasted wrong somehow for Aloris, somehow he had come to like them even with all their faults.

He noticed a desire to help them for some reason, even if it is forbidden by elven law.

He remembered that he used to watch ants when he was a child and had fun playing “God” to them.

Even if they were pesky little insects they still had some charm to them, the idea to observe and guide those insects was an exhilarating thought.

“Maybe it was always inside of me, this desire...” Aloris thought

-”Lets help them” Laroth interceded

Help them? How? Aloris thought.

Even if they could, it was prohibited by the elven society to uplift any creature or help them in any way, and why would they help them for that matter.

-”While the elven law forbids any elf to uplift any sentient creature, we are by definition not elfs, we have no body remember?” Eruvian responded

Aloris knew it was true but he still felt he was an elf somehow, so the definition comes down to if being an elf is something physical or mentally.

And by reason alone, it must be physical Aloris thought. He remembered cases where elves had adopted humans but were still not included in the elven society.

-”I suggest we try to speak to their minds like we tried with the animals, if they are able to understand us to some degree we could influence them to come to the tower and open the gate, this could be our way out” Eruvian responded

It was true that they could not see inside the tower itself and the gate was sealed shut, blocked by some strange magic that Aloris did not know about, but to use these frogs to open it was a bit ludicrous for him.

They tried to speak to animals in the beginning following the advice of Eruvian but it seemed to have no effect at all, the animals just stopped for a moment and then continued doing whatever they were doing.

-”We tried to use magic and but that did not work, then we tried to “speak” to the creatures but that did not work either” Aloris responded

“Lets try again, but this time with these ones, maybe they need to be sentient to understand” Eruvian responded back

Aloris did not know what to say after that. Maybe Eruvian was right that it could work on these ones, and it would not hurt to try either.

-”They need our help, and we need theirs” Laroth said

“Well we could at least try..” Aloris thought

-”Ok it's decided, we are doing it, so what's the plan” he said

-“Let's do two tests, first we speak to a “willing” subject when it is awake then if it does not work we try to speak to one when it is asleep” Eruvian said

“This could work, hopefully it would” Aloris thought.

He knew why Eruvian had suggested to test it when they were asleep, he heard stories of mages using mind control magic on sleeping subjects, something about been more vulnerable to suggestions and manipulation.

Then the question of the willing subject was left.

The rana in front of Aloris was still trying to crack open the fruit.