2024-07-08 - A Foreign Mind, A Contemplation

Tasted Fire didn’t sleep well at night–or what it took as nighttime nowadays. Not that it was scared, but rather because at night, the world was different. Quieter, colder. The heat of the day tried to smother its own Heat, and it did not like it. It wasn’t strange that it preferred the darkness more, was it? It basked in the darkness, lavishing in the idea that the stars it could not see could see it, though it held some understanding that there was a tent over its head, so they could not.

It had heard about whers.

The wher stirred it out of its nighttime reverie, and it dragged its attention to the green. She was so much unlike its mother, and yet a mother in her own right. Idly, it wondered why green whers could lay eggs, but not green dragons. It found this slightly upsetting, and yet understood that there was nothing it could do about it.

The wher spoke to them, and Tasted Fire listened. It needed no reason to listen other than it loved hearing the wher speak. Often, Gwillanth would speak to them, but something was different with the wher. It wasn’t that Gwillanth wasn’t attentive to them, but after watching them for so long, she had become a stale presence in the egg’s mind.

Tasted Fire drank Bisk’s information up like it hadn’t drank in ages. Yes! The night was something it yearned to know! For it could not compete with the sun and the day, so it could shine at night! And yes, solemnly, it understood that lies were something that were not good. It had overheard dragons and humans alike lying to each other, and it knew it would strive not to do that itself.

What seemed hard for it, though, was Bisk’s last piece of advice, and though it had been open to everything before, now the egg balked. Heart open? It had listened to far too many dragons and humans whose hearts had been closed. It understood why it’s heart should remain open, but it didn’t quite understand why the others didn’t heed it.

It chuffed inside its egg, turning over and over in thought. It would have to think on this much further in the coming days. But not tonight. Tonight it turned its thoughts back to the sky.