38th of Spring, 522 A.V. ~ Evening
Continued From: A Monstrous Education Pt I
“So, you said there were other creatures.” Tazrae said, dipping her quill in its ink to be able to write more. “What did you mean by that?” She continued to question, certain that the two men knew more than they were letting on.
Mathias nodded. “We ran into the first kind when we settled here. We slaughtered all we could find and it was the Svefra that told us what they were later. Evidently, the Myrians keep them as pets in Taloba… guardians of their children. They are called Riamm and they look like small balls of brightly colored fur. They are able to bond closely with people – namely children – and develop a close and very personal relationships. In Taloba, the children wear them around on their heads. They only bond to one child and the Myrians consider them playful, friendly, and cuddly. However, they are far from it. And if strangers even dare to threaten the child a Riamm is bonded too, they turn fierce.” The founder explained.
“They come in all colors, some very bright. They were discovered and written about only after the Valterrian. It was said they arose from a pool of wild magic. The Myrian’s captured them, restrained them to observe them, and then eventually brought them back for their kids.” He added.
Taz kept writing, copying what he said down on paper, making sure she understood what Mathias was saying.
“It was said Myra herself approved of them and deemed them ruthless enough to be a Myrian pet. They have, as far as we can tell, waterproof fur… which is why the children like wearing them as hats. And they have a mouth full of sharp teeth. They live between five and seven years, and will eat just about anything organic. We did note while studying them though that the brighter the food they got the brighter their fur became. I think we’ve seen them as red, blue, green, yellow, and orange… and reportedly purple. So, like we said bright primary colors. We got them to eat fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, insects, crustations, and they’d gnaw on their captors if they weren’t fed fast enough.” He added.
“They vocalize by a series of cute noises, things like chittering, cooing, and purring. They seem affectionate to those they decide to like and extremely loyal to those they love. They are extremely aggressive to those that threaten the ones they are bonded to.” Xander added.
Tazrae asked them both a question. “What about reproduction? How do you tell a male and female apart, etc.?” She asked, curious. So far no one had described eyes on the creature or any discernable feature besides a mouth.
Mathias answered this one. “There’s virtually no sexual dimorphism between the two sexes. Females are usually discovered to be female when they have a litter. The Myrians might know better, but we couldn’t tell. They have babies between two and four years old and maybe have two or three ‘pups’ per litter. I think they only have a couple of liters during their lifetime.” He added, shaking his head.