Friends not so friends

On the road, Theodore and Kalishar stayed on the driver's side with the zerbarix girl already recovered from her intoxication, on the other hand, Fenrir was crying in the fetal position still feeling disgusted by his unexpected closeness to a monster. He repeated many times that he should have listened to his younger brother's advice about his tongue when they were together.

"I don't understand anything, he doesn't seem to be intoxicated or hurt, but he's worse off than me in there."

"It's easy to understand him, he just flirted with a monster, it's like saying. Dating the ugly one at the dance, but a thousand times worse.", he whispers the last.

"I still don't understand. What does that mean, flirting?"

"You don't know what flirting is?!"

"No! What does it mean? What do you do with it? And if it's so harmful why do you do it?!"

"Ah, how can I tell you, flirting is a way of meeting people and well you know... dating and being a couple. Secondly flirting is only done with people you are sentimentally attracted to and it's not that this is harmful, it's usually something that invites happy feelings. At least most of the time." He watches Fenrir squirm. "Though come to think of it, sometimes it doesn't take a monster to suffer through a flirtation."

"I still don't understand. From what I see, I think they only flirt if it suits them."

"Some may see it that way, but others see romance as valuable to their lives. Besides, out of flirting comes many wonderful things like marriage and having a family, beautiful and happy children to care for and watch grow up."

"You're talking about having offspring."

"Exactly! Often a flirtation is just the beginning of an even greater act, the creation of families, and that includes having children as well."

"And it's necessary for there to be two?"

"Yes, I mean, for many species, it is necessary to have a partner of the opposite sex to give birth to new life. Didn't you know that? I don't think you're naive enough to believe that a taural brings babies from the sun."

Theodore notices the silence and neutral expression that the girl did not yet understand those things so basic to many when they reach adolescence. He recalled Fenrir's explanation that he had met Kalishar in a zerbarix nest and that she did not know much of their common sense. The girl looked sideways at Fenrir and thought about how flirting can generate new life and people like him cried out in pain, so maybe flirting was a curse for the other species to maintain the survival of the species. Since she and her zerbarix sisters were always releasing eggs without the need for a mate, she never needed to evaluate flirting.

Theodore merely continued on his way, much to her surprise. Kalishar asked in more detail some things with him, perhaps because of the way he spoke or because, unlike Fenrir, the cartographer seemed more willing to answer her questions without asking for anything in return to bother her. The girl would take advantage of this man to learn even more about the life of a human being to remain unnoticed by the threats of the world.

"And tell me if we talk about a human like us being able to flirt with a pathetic scorpion spider to guarantee mutual life. There's a chance the same could happen with a zerbarix."

"You're a bigger idiot than the idiot who flirted with a scorpion spider. While today, as absurd as it was possible, it was only possible because Fenrir touched a creature that thought and reasoned on our level. In contrast, the zerbarix are mindless, mindless creatures with no intelligence beyond following orders from their insatiable stomachs."

"Hypothetically speaking, (unhappy bastard), if there was one who could even learn your culture and was willing to negotiate. Would you flirt with it to guarantee the lives of both species?"

"And end up like Fenrir. No thanks, I prefer his idea of exterminating them all, no zerbarix even if they manage to reason like us deserve forgiveness. They are plague and only know how to hurt us all just because of their selfish hunger."

"Hmmm..."