Existence; Who is to decide?

Jen paused, not wishing to escalate this into a full-blown fight. Giving Eldrian some time to cool down, she asked, "And when can you say someone is aware? Aren't animals aware too?"

"Whe-" Eldrian stopped, finding that he was incapable of answering this. The question was one similar to the one about souls. It was something unquantifiable. Something one could not measure. At least not with known tools. 

His measure was them being able to communicate. But some animals could communicate too, just not with humans. Many of the beasts and monsters could however surpass the limits of normal animals. Realizing this made Eldrian truly tongue-tied. Asking at what point would they turned from monsters, beasts, to conscious beings. 

This was not the main point he had argued, but it was as much an important question. He related to the human-like species far easier. Only needing to argue that they were real, even if they were in a different plane. A virtual one.