04-09-2020, 12:30 PM
“Have eyes. Did notice.” Tenzin frowned, but the venom had gone now. She shifted to sit cross-legged, abandoning the cleaning utensils. This topic was not one she was sure it was wise to dig too deeply into, at least not too quickly. Questioning the concept of monsters was not quite the same as discovering you were sitting opposite one, and Jacinda’s emotions still smelled too fragile to risk adding a sense of betrayal to them.
“How, yes. Who, yes. Not perfect. Make mistake. But happy soul, mostly. And matters,” she corrected. Because they would need to come back to the girl. “Don’t hunt children. Never have.”
She watched the other woman watching her. “In Leh? Yes. Not for whole India. Follow Buddah, like said. All life deserves chance. Peace and balance important, not just hunt everything different. Naga spook village for searching food? Why die for that, Jacinda? Naga give no harm. So mediate village instead. Keep peace.” As examples went, it was an innocuous one; purposefully so. Jacinda was correct that it was all shades of grey, and sometimes there were no right or wrong answers, just bad choices and worse ones. Wading through that kind of philosophical swamp was not something Tenzin usually distracted herself with, though. She was far more the creature of instinct, in part thanks to her kin.
“Wasn’t choice, actually. Taught from cradle. Many are. Solitary ones, yes? Ah, no family I mean. In small villages rākṣasa hatyārā collect children not wanted. Strange ones. Crops die. Bad omens. And sometimes true, but mostly just too many mouth and need gone.” She shrugged, for such was life, and she had no complaint with her own childhood. She’d mentioned as much before, in passing, but never seemed sentimental at her own past. In truth the origins of her blood mattered little; the flesh and blood mother and father she had never known, or the question of why they had given her up. Tenzin had never really wondered about it, beyond acknowledging that if they had not she would probably be dead by now.
“Oh, lamas would probably say poor student. Despair for me to be teacher now.” Her sudden grin was nothing if not wolfish in aspect. The calling had changed her beyond recognition from the studious child she had been, and she knew the lama had struggled with her new nature. But the wolves had an intrinsic understanding of good and evil, and it certainly affected her outlook in the ways Jacinda was asking. It was also a question she wouldn’t answer in any definable way.
They had touched on this before, the night they had met. “We protect good. Man is both. Spirit-touched is both. And others. Make task difficult? Oh, sure. But not impossible. Sometimes protect is not death, like naga. Just easy option. So have question now. Did Nox Durante hurt you? He is spirit-touched, yes? But… good hunter? Did you feel reason here-” a finger prodded her own chest “-or because rule of dead regus?”
“How, yes. Who, yes. Not perfect. Make mistake. But happy soul, mostly. And matters,” she corrected. Because they would need to come back to the girl. “Don’t hunt children. Never have.”
She watched the other woman watching her. “In Leh? Yes. Not for whole India. Follow Buddah, like said. All life deserves chance. Peace and balance important, not just hunt everything different. Naga spook village for searching food? Why die for that, Jacinda? Naga give no harm. So mediate village instead. Keep peace.” As examples went, it was an innocuous one; purposefully so. Jacinda was correct that it was all shades of grey, and sometimes there were no right or wrong answers, just bad choices and worse ones. Wading through that kind of philosophical swamp was not something Tenzin usually distracted herself with, though. She was far more the creature of instinct, in part thanks to her kin.
“Wasn’t choice, actually. Taught from cradle. Many are. Solitary ones, yes? Ah, no family I mean. In small villages rākṣasa hatyārā collect children not wanted. Strange ones. Crops die. Bad omens. And sometimes true, but mostly just too many mouth and need gone.” She shrugged, for such was life, and she had no complaint with her own childhood. She’d mentioned as much before, in passing, but never seemed sentimental at her own past. In truth the origins of her blood mattered little; the flesh and blood mother and father she had never known, or the question of why they had given her up. Tenzin had never really wondered about it, beyond acknowledging that if they had not she would probably be dead by now.
“Oh, lamas would probably say poor student. Despair for me to be teacher now.” Her sudden grin was nothing if not wolfish in aspect. The calling had changed her beyond recognition from the studious child she had been, and she knew the lama had struggled with her new nature. But the wolves had an intrinsic understanding of good and evil, and it certainly affected her outlook in the ways Jacinda was asking. It was also a question she wouldn’t answer in any definable way.
They had touched on this before, the night they had met. “We protect good. Man is both. Spirit-touched is both. And others. Make task difficult? Oh, sure. But not impossible. Sometimes protect is not death, like naga. Just easy option. So have question now. Did Nox Durante hurt you? He is spirit-touched, yes? But… good hunter? Did you feel reason here-” a finger prodded her own chest “-or because rule of dead regus?”