2024-06-21 - Beyond the Stars

PORTORO liked its companions. But it was very easy to notice their absences, and even easier to miss them.

It could not know that they flitted between asleep and awake, that growing within their shells was demanding work. It just knew when the sparks stilled and when the sparks danced and it knew now not to shout when the others were quiet.

It could not move; that immense strain of the attempt only could result in a flutter. And sometimes it would flutter even when it did not want to, but none of that could reach beyond the shell, anyway. Perhaps moving was overrated.

So it learned to sit and listen, flinging its mind and reach further and further still for other minds that were awake, straining for new stars with love and warmth and insatiable curiosity.

It liked listening to SHE when it did this.

There were Portoro's companions...and SHE seemed to have some as well.

SHE, this Gwillanth, had another - a Shayled. The Shayled was nice. The Shayled was other things, too. The Shayled wove in and out of the presence that was SHE, so comforting and present that Portoro was a little startled that it did not notice the Shayled, before. When feelings that were unpleasant drifted among fine weave of the Gwillanth and the Shayled, the other threads would rise to meet it. When Shayled was upset, Gwillanth would listen and comfort.

Portoro would feel glee, then. It KNEW that SHE was good.

It wondered about having a Shayled. Perhaps it did and simply did not notice yet? But how could one not notice something so present as Shayled?

But there was something unique with another mind, more 'like' SHE than Shayled, and one that made SHE's mind feel bubbly. Portoro liked those bubbles; they were different and they were good, too. Portoro reached for that mind, often.

Portoro wanted Pertemarth to come back.