2024-07-07 - Animal Mind

Neath is still resting a lot, but it's settled back into a more normal routine. It is finding it easier to reach the minds around it again, and those beyond the tent are slowly but surely coming back into reach. That doesn't mean it keeps an active eye on them most of the time - that's still beyond it, but it can't say it minds. It's nice to poke around and withdraw as it sees fit, to spend the rest of its time idly taking in the murmurings and stirrings of its siblings and its Mother.

There's something different today, though. Little sparks come tumbling into the tent the eggs are kept in, different to the minds it's grown used to but no less bright. It turns its attention to them immediately, fascinated, as they gambol and stumble around and over the eggs. Neath pays little attention to the exchange between the owner of these creatures and Mother's bonded. No, it remains fixated on the puppies, on their distinct little minds and the way they move and think. They speak and don't at the same time. What are they? Why are they here? It wants to reach out to them, but they cannot be reached.

Their warmth against its shell as they settle down is pleasant, too. Why does nobody else ever touch them, it wonders? It has been touched by other dragons - Mother and the green that had carried it here - but never by a man, and never by this interesting third category either. Mother is allowing it now - why not other times?

Much to think on. It continues to try and probe into the puppies' minds as it turns these ideas over. Maybe once it hatches it will be able to reach everyone. That, it thinks, would be ideal.