When Hades found the dog, he'd figured out what it was almost immediately. Dogs, from Hades' understanding, were a sort of animal that could be a pet. Dogs could be trained. They barked. They were sort of like wolves, but different. Wolves lived in packs and were much more wild. This animal barked. Hades could train it. It was wild, but not wolf wild. It was all by itself, and it looked sort of like it was related to a wolf, but it also had three heads and was much much larger. Three heads and larger was definitely different. Hades had been positive that this was a dog. At least he had been, until Philotes questioned it. Suddenly, Hades wasn't nearly as sure.
He opened his mouth to defend the classification, but didn't get the chance. If Hades ever learned how to read thoughts, the ability would be completely wasted on Philotes. She seemed to vocalize her ideas as they arose rather than after. Hades had never met anyone who did that. He listened, and stopped himself every time he wanted to interrupt.
Hades was glad that she had thrown out the little girl idea. He didn't understand what yippy meant, but it sounded annoying and he wasn't sure he wanted to, so he was fine when she moved on with that to. But then she kept talking. And everything she said got progressively worse. The more she spoke, the more flustered Hades became. It was all so wrong. Then suddenly Philotes was taking the dog, and his eyes widened. She didn't even know what to do with it. She didn't even believe it was a dog. It should at least go to someone who thought it was a dog.
“No..You..can't” Hades sputtered. He said it much louder, and quicker than he meant to. Then he paused while he tried to think of a reason why she couldn't. He couldn't “I mean...” Hades said, “that's a thoughtful offer. But it won't be necessary.” He couldn't think of why it wouldn't be necessary either. “I think it's fine right now,” Hades said after a breath. “It's been on its own for awhile. It can wait. A place to keep it and what to do with it might come up.”
He paused. “Why is three sets out of the ordinary?” Hades could understand if the dog was bigger than they were supposed to be. It was pretty big for a young animal, now that she mentioned it. But the teeth thing made no sense. “How many sets of teeth do dogs usually have? One? Two? Doesn't that make the other heads resent the toothed ones?” Having three heads was hard enough without one having a definite advantage on the other two. Either the toothed head would bully the others, or the toothless would gang up on the toothed one, and the entire dog would be done for.
“Why would people attack it just because it has extra teeth? Who in their right mind goes 'This dog is huge and has more teeth than any other dog. Let's attack it.'? Great idea. Right up there with throwing rocks into a bear den or diving face first into the Pyriphlegethon.” If they wanted to attack his dog, fine. His dog was smart. It picked up on things very quickly. It was also very strong, its extra teeth were all very sharp and it could see and smell in every single direction. It would eat them all. Three at a time. Then Hades would take their souls in. Because that was what he did now. That was the lot he got. He got to go back to a disorganized crowded dark place and deal with people who attacked innocents for things beyond their control. Hades was good with that. Thinking about forever didn't make him feel sick.