Big Boss Balaka sat firmly on his leather couch, staring out at the rest of the conference room. His face was plastered with a look of immense disappointment – deep frown, glaring eyes – as the rest of the management team spun around excitedly in their swivel chairs.
The meeting had been due to start twenty minutes ago, but Big Boss Balaka’s right-hand kobold – who was supposed to be running the big presentation on quarterly sales – had called in to say he would be late with car troubles.
“How many times have I told you all to keep up on your car services?” shouted Big Boss Balaka across the room once he hung up the phone. “This is what happens when you don’t take your car to a Ringwood mechanic for a car service every once in a while!”
Most of the kobolds in the conference room hadn’t listened to the Big Boss’s rant, far too enthralled by the new chairs that spun around so fast they’d get dizzy in no time. Big Boss Balaka regularly faced these sorts of problems – thus was the challenge of running a business with entirely kobold employees. He’d have much preferred to employ humans or even some goblins, but the government had only given him the grant to start Kobold Enterprises if he made it his mission to help reduce kobold unemployment rates.
Big Boss Balaka rubbed his temples, wondering why the other kobolds were so much more scatterbrained than he was. No matter how many times he warned that car troubles would inevitably rise if their company vehicles didn’t get a regular service, none of them seemed to get it. And it wasn’t like he didn’t practice what he preached, either. Big Boss Balaka had just taken the time to book brake repair with a Ringwood mechanic that morning.
Eventually, Karu would arrive after taking his car to the mechanic for emergency repairs, but the damage was already done. Big Boss Balaka knew his employees only had the mental energy for a big meeting early in the day.
“You know what?” said Big Boss Balaka, accepting defeat. “Just get back to work. We’ve got waffle irons to sell.”