"Thank you." Tarentek said with noticeable enthusiasm as soon as Onyx placed the soup in front of him. He wasted no time in starting on his anxiously-awaited meal, which he found rather appetizing. In truth, he probably would have found almost anything to be appetizing at that moment, but he felt the soup was legitimately well-made. His focused shifted to the food almost to the point that he forgot to respond to her question, though he did manage to remember after a few moments.

"Oh, yes...I mean, no. No, my people are not born directly from their mothers as some other races are. Our females lay eggs, which hatch just over three months afterwards. In the meantime, they must be protected so the child can develop within. I have not personally had the responsibility of taking care of an egg, but I had friends who had children. They described the experience as stressful, but rewarding." He said before giving a chuckle. "Although, that description probably fits having children in general, regardless of the race. In any event, some of Tel Aviv's people were angry with us, but the positive effects of our trade ended up outweighing the offense, so no war or fighting came as a result. Overall, we had few reasons to go to war other than defense. Some settlements fight based on their religions, but our gods do not usually call us to war. Indeed, our worship is quite different from many other cultures I have seen. We do not have temples, or rituals as other might think of them. I believe I mentioned this before, but knowledge is our worship. If one wishes to show homage to Jhala, they must seek to improve their mind. The closest thing to a temple in our city were our centers of learning, our schools. I mentioned several instances of our people taking influences from other cultures, but this is one case in which others learned from us. Jerusalem created a university after learning of ours. Well, I do suppose my people were originally influenced by writings from the Humans, but ours was the first city in this area with a university. So as long as they are able to fulfill their normal duties, anyone in our city can attend free of charge, even visitors. Well, if space is limiting, citizens are granted entrance before visitors, but no one is charged. Our university represents one of our government's largest single expenses."