I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 196: Intelligence juices

"Afraid of who?" The seperate elder questioned, intentionally playing dumb.

"All the elder women of your tribe." Osira pointed out what these geezers were all evading.

Furthermore, she felt ready enough to add. "Who are you to decide if they should waste time with governing, or not?"

"We're their husbands and brothers." One from the crowd answered. It was fairly ill-phrased but was understandable.

Timothy had not taken her friend for the type who gets mad over stuff like this. But regardless, he wasn't going to allow these egotistic elders to eventually attain an upper hand of this conversation.

But he also realised that there were many ways these elders could reap the situation to their advantage, for a higher position. So he didn't portray solitude with the grouper-lady, but asked a question instead.

"Okay now calm down. Which of you think that women should be in the governing team?" His tone was flat, so it became difficult to filter out which side he preferred.

But considering the gender of which the king had, most assumed that he too didn't want any women in such an important team. A lot of them began shouting their agreement to the cause, but it was difficult to figure things out.

Using his entire noggin to manage the situation, the stingray spoke. "We will divide you all in two groups."

After flinging his tail, lightly towards the left, he stated. "All of you who think that women should not be in the governing team, please go to this side."

Within a few moments, a bundle of commotion had erupted between them. And most of these elder men had crawled to the left. While on the other side, there were only 6 shrimps.

The biggest side of these elders, were giving harsh gazes towards the other portion. While the smaller group, were feeling uncomfortable but still maintained a firm front.

Confidence had risen through the bigger group of shrimp. And they were happy that the road to a good position became just a tad easier. For once, they were all eager to hear the new king speak.

A wish, of which Timmy obliged. "I have made a decision."

After such a statement, the atmosphere had been stricken dead silent. And anticipation grew as these shrimps were awaiting the prime demand.

Osira was as unaware as anyone regarding what her friend truly thought. Worry was growing through her heart, because the chances of this boy joining the bandwagon of indirect sexists, didn't seem small.

That's when the young boy spoke out, "Everyone who thinks that women should not join the governing team, have lost the race. None of you have the chance to be anything important in this community."

"What? Outrageous!" An old man from the bigger group shouted, and the rest followed up with shared anger.

The hassle to force a change in the king's mind, lasted for a while. But eventually they calmed down, and heard the young man speak. "You're free to go now, you'll figure out who will be a president and stuff like that."

Some were still having it difficult to believe, so they took a few moments before leaving. But the king didn't care about that, and instead gave a glance towards his female friend. She seemed evidently happy, so her smile was contagious enough to spread on the boy.

Once they went away, the hero approached the 6 shrimp who welcomed the idea of having women governors. And with a greeting smile, he cited. "I need you to get every other elder here, who is a woman."

These old men seemed as agreeing as ever, but this situation had to be thought out a bit more. Because a few statements that the other team of men had made earlier, sounded like a problem right now. So a new sudden rule had to be imprinted.

Likewise, the hero added. "If their 'brothers and husbands' don't allow it, tell them that the king will use those brave geezers for food."

Such a rule seemed brutal, and most definitely had a tease in between it. But in situations like this, brute force seemed to be the only way to inspire change.

This small group of elders, began charging in all directions for the sake of finding the old ladies. So it gave the couple of friends a bit of privacy once more.

The blacktipped grouper was the first to speak. Joy was easy to spot in her tone, although what slipped through her jaws was an evident tease. "I remembered you a bit dumber. When did you learn to make smart decisions like this?"

It still was a terrible deed to let anyone know more about the system in his head, so a quick excuse had to be made.

Unsurprisingly, he salted it with self praise and a failed attempt to sound smarter. "Surely a king such as I, had the intelligence juices somewhere."

Although grateful to have such a friend, she had an urge to be equally sassy. Therefore answering, "Of course you did. Were the juices hidden in someone else's ass? Because I saw you bite a few of them."

"Well ha-ha-ha!" He answered in an exaggerated matter, although amused by that wordplay.

...

It took a good hour to bring all the ladies here. Which was oddly long, because there seemed to be only 30 of them here. After thinking it through just a little bit, it was easy to figure out a few reasons for such a result.

Thankfully, these elders were able to speak the stingray language, so it was easy to communicate. But it was difficult to pick apart a question to ask, so silence had stretched for a few moments.

At least until the young man spoke out a query, "What happened? I thought that there would be more women."

"There should be." An elder man answered, crawling away from the crowd. This was one of the same men who had welcomed the idea of women being in the governing team.

Afterwards, another unsurprising portion was explained. "Some refused to come here, my guess is their husbands had something to do with it."

"Typical." Osira spoke from the background.

Right after, the same elder recited. "There were also some who were ready to guard their old women with their lives. We didn't want to cause a ruckus."