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The arrival of the black metal-clad being so close to them took Rorig by surprise. He could not understand the words it and Kyonos were using, but he could read their body language well enough. They distrusted one another. They were ready to leap at each other like a pair of pounce panthers fighting over the same kill. He found this curious. His experience in the Dolwoods had not taught him such behavior. If there was no food or mates to fight over and if one was not the predator of the other, why act thus? He listened for a moment at the ringing of the battle nearby, then looked at Kyonos, and then the black figure. Its forepaws were oddly shaped. One being long and thin, the other more wide with odd protrusions on it that reminded Rorig of some bone deformities he had seen in badgers. Its face was much like that of a crayfish; a shell-like carapace with holes. He wondered if here were eyestalks inside those holes.
He leapt down from his perch and, setting his hammer aside, approached the odd creature. He had seen just about every living thing in the Dolwoods, but nothing like this. He cocked his head to one side as he approached, sizing up the thing. As he got closer, he saw the stringy wisp that connected the tips of the bone protrusions to the forepaw and wondered if that was some kind of decoration. Not understanding concepts like personal space, the dwarf walked right up to within a few feet of the thing and thought, ‘Must be a beetle.’
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