01-14-2015, 12:37 PM
Despite the stone of her exterior, Tehya was surprisingly maternal. Aria had not shared anything of Aurora's past, but Tehya could at least understand the unique difficulties of growing up in an Atharim family. And the inherent dangers. Their kind did not often live to old age, and the lives they did lead were often not strangers to loss. She did not know Aurora well enough to know whether comfort would be accepted or rebuffed, and erred on the side of caution, despite the tear that tracked its way down the girl's cheek.
"Fiery-eyed, black dogs. That much is agreed upon."
A few gestures honed the surrounding screens to their new topic, and Tehya spent a few moments shuffling through the journals on the desk - painstaking copies of long dead Atharim. "Almost every piece of evidence suggests a ruthless determination once the hellhound has selected someone - even killing one rarely saves the victim, only delays the inevitable, for another takes its place. Though there has never been any evidence to suggest they roam in packs. I've never seen an autopsy report, either."
"But there are anomalies. Those who report to have glimpsed such creatures, and lived to tell of it."
She turned to the written journals for that. Such tales were few and far between, thus didn't make it into the official profile taught to new Atharim. Most attributed it to hoax, or a confusion with some other type of creature. In any case, the only way to find such snippets was to physically search for them, and only the most esoteric usually had time or motivation for that. "In such cases, the dogs are spoken of as guardians. That they aid the lost back on track. Another creature entirely? Possibly, though the description is often the same. A distortion of the original myth perhaps. There's much we don't know."
And no-one is finding out.
She was carefully aware of Aurora as she spoke; she did not intend to suggest that Aurora's mother might have been saved - there was nothing to support that once a stalking had begun, a person could avoid their fate. Rather she was pointing out that the Atharim did not always take into account everything when profiling the creatures they hunted, nor explored behaviour that did not fit already established understanding - even to rule it out.
"Fiery-eyed, black dogs. That much is agreed upon."
A few gestures honed the surrounding screens to their new topic, and Tehya spent a few moments shuffling through the journals on the desk - painstaking copies of long dead Atharim. "Almost every piece of evidence suggests a ruthless determination once the hellhound has selected someone - even killing one rarely saves the victim, only delays the inevitable, for another takes its place. Though there has never been any evidence to suggest they roam in packs. I've never seen an autopsy report, either."
"But there are anomalies. Those who report to have glimpsed such creatures, and lived to tell of it."
She turned to the written journals for that. Such tales were few and far between, thus didn't make it into the official profile taught to new Atharim. Most attributed it to hoax, or a confusion with some other type of creature. In any case, the only way to find such snippets was to physically search for them, and only the most esoteric usually had time or motivation for that. "In such cases, the dogs are spoken of as guardians. That they aid the lost back on track. Another creature entirely? Possibly, though the description is often the same. A distortion of the original myth perhaps. There's much we don't know."
And no-one is finding out.
She was carefully aware of Aurora as she spoke; she did not intend to suggest that Aurora's mother might have been saved - there was nothing to support that once a stalking had begun, a person could avoid their fate. Rather she was pointing out that the Atharim did not always take into account everything when profiling the creatures they hunted, nor explored behaviour that did not fit already established understanding - even to rule it out.