Swamped

"When you say danger..."

"I mean an army with orders to wipe out every grebling they could find. After the first few colonies were attacked, the rest banded together. Old feuds were forgotten, too much was at stake. Warriors who had once been at each other's throats trained together, hoping to chase the humans off the next time."

He pauses.

"It didn't work. Back then, most greblings fought with their claws alone. Good enough for disputes between ourselves, but not against the humans' armor. And so the rest of us, those who had no means to fight back, we had no recourse but to pray to all the gods we knew."

He glances at the statue at the back, which you hadn't actually given much notice to before.

"Then the booming voice of Reth herself echoed on the winds. She condemned the humans for their cruelty, and warned them to leave the greblings alone. The humans started to argue amongst themselves, and another voice from the heavens told them to press forward, despite all Reth had said. In the end, half gave up and half tried to press the attack."

He stands up and looks straight at you.

"And moments later, all those humans who remained were turned, in an instant, into piles of sand. Even the ones who retreated became very sick later. After that, every grebling who survived became a devoted follower of Reth."

Well. Now this just feels awkward.

"Does it bother you having humans around?"

"Not really. Things have improved a lot since then, even if it's still not enough. Besides, if it did come down to a fight for some reason, well, we can handle ourselves much better than we could in those days. But I think we have more to fear from other greblings than from humans right now."

He doesn't seem particularly inclined to elaborate. While you mull that over, you ask the other question that's been on your mind.

"So... what's Reth like, as a deity?"

"Slow to anger, but ferocious when she does. All creatures are precious in her eyes, but she doesn't intervene often, for what she wants most is for us to have our own will. It's one thing to kill one another for food, even for territory, hells, even for ideology. But she will never forgive killing for pure hatred of another creature's existence."

You think you almost saw passion in his eyes there, a passion he's been lacking for the rest of your conversation. You don't know what to make of it.

Still, there's no sign of Rider yet, or of anyone else for that matter. So it seems you've still got time to ask him some more questions if you'd like.