2024-07-15 - a meeting of minds

The touching was something Tasted Fire was looking forward to the most. It was also something Tasted fire looked forward to the least. It did not have any range of motion outside of wiggles and shakes of its egg, and it shook now, eager for new minds. It loved Shayled and the other riders. It was okay with the Harper who came and sang ballads. It was enthralled with the wher handler and the wher whose mind was both the same and different than its. But there were very few whose minds it could connect with, intrinsically. How was it supposed to know who to look for when none of the minds it was supposed to look for presented themselves?

The morning of the touching wasn’t anything incredible. The eggs still sat under the tent, so the candidates seemed to be separated. Tasted Fire could feel the minds of those coming closer, but also of a few hanging back. It wanted to reach out to all of them, to usher them in. Look how much it’s grown in the last few weeks! It would more than match any one of them strength for strength.

And yet… as the humans entered the tent and touched its shell, Tasted Fire gave pause. It wanted friends, yes. But some of the minds that touched it weren’t necessarily ones it would choose. After the great debate it had overheard a week ago, though, Tasted Fire knew it would make whatever bond it got to work. It would not go between, that was for sure.

So, the day began with the magician; the egg sent out great drafts of warmth from the fire of its mind, inviting her inward and realizing that it can read more of her mind than Shayled’s and the other’s. After a moment of perusing, it sees great promise in magician, but something not quite sinister bubbles underneath all the naive yearning, which Tasted Fire pulls away from. Its flames lick her mind, You will Impress; you certainly want it as badly as I want friends. But it pulls away, lingering no longer than it needs to.

Soon after the first candidate disappeared into the space that wasn’t Tasted Fire, another stepped forward. The high priestess was something that surprised the dragon inside the golden shell. Its fire sputtered for a second before flaring back to life, perhaps hotter than before. ‘Aren’t you interesting? What would you show them if you rode upon my back? Would we be terrors, or would we lead with passion?’ The egg asked the woman, Heating to match what her heart desired before promptly pulling away. The question would linger, echoing inside the shell until the woman removed her hand.

The youth, the emperor came next, and Tasted Fire licked his mind with an intense flash of heat. He reminded it of its father, and thought it tried to find something it could like in the boy, there was nothing. It did not even talk to him, only stared at him from its shell, unspeaking as a soldier must when looked upon by a leader… even one such as he who had nothing but ill tidings spat at him from the hot shell.

Not long after, the hierophant arrived, pressing their hand upon Tasted Fire’s shell and the dragon inside squirmed with excitement. There was nothing particularly interesting about what the person thought or was going to do, but the fact that the person thought of themselves as neither male nor female, and that, in and of itself, was interesting. Tasted Fire’s heat sputtered in and out, cracking twigs and smokey air, as it considered this for itself, shutting the candidate out from its mind as quickly as they’d touched its shell. No, the hierophant would not be for it, but it had opened up the idea of gender in its brain once more.

It mulled over the thoughts of gender and whatnot as the fool raced through the tent. His fingers barely brush Tasted Fire’s shell, but that is enough for the dragon inside to reach up and meet his unfailing optimism with optimism of its own. ‘Be my friend!’ It cries from its shell, but the fool has already moved on. Tasted Fire doesn’t remember much from the youth’s touch, only that happiness, only the way he didn’t see broken eggs, but bright futures. The egg wanted to be his friend… but it didn’t know if that was enough.

The two that touched its shell next were at first confusing. The lovers were two but one, and thought Tasted Fire recognized that, it also recognized a fear within itself. It needed friends, but it needed some*one* more than some*two*, and it did not like the unsettled feeling it had when it realized that if it chose one of the two, it would not choose the other. It welcomed them by its fire, asked them a few questions, but in the end, it turned them away. Uncertainty still roiled in its chest.

Then there was the hermit. As she arrived, Tasted Fire gave pause, and then welcomed the woman with open arms. ‘Come, sit with me and stay a while,’ the dragonling cooed into the woman’s mind. It sought to warm her, push aside the dark cobwebs, and invite her into its embraces. If she could stand its heat, she could sit with Tasted Fire for as long as she wanted. ‘Please search for me come hatching, I can be your friend.’ It said before she left, and then it was alone again.

Not for long, for when the hanged man came to its shell, it was a shock. Then it straighted itself up and shook itself off and spoke clearly into the man’s mind. ‘That right, soldier? Can you take the heat? Will you rise up with me to fight Thread or will you falter when you see its first fall? No one knows who they truly are until they’re against the enemy.’ It pushes him tit for tat, and it relishes in the fact that he has a fire inside him that matches Tasted Fire’s. But… Tasted Fire is a soldier, but it doesn’t think it’s reckless. It wonders, if it Impresses to this man, would it be able to temper him, or would it go out, like he wanted, in a blaze of glory?

It was still thinking about blazes and fiery deaths when the devil strode up and put her hand upon its shell. It barely paid her heed; hers was a mind that could, eventually, meld with Tasted Fire’s and they could become unstoppable, but it wasn’t Tasted Fire’s first choice. It was not one for gowns and finery. It was more campfires, roughing it out in the wilderness, and, as much as it didn’t necessarily want to admit it, a soldier who’d fight as fast as hard as any other.

After the young girl came another youth, another who sparked Tasted Fire’s curiosity gender-wise. But the wheel was nebulous, and even though Tasted Fire asked them to sit with it for a while, it offered nothing else. Its mind was focused on other things and it barely noticed them leave.

When the sun arrives, Tasted Fire paused in its internal thoughts and pushed her a ray of intense but happy heat. ‘Yes, we are happy and we are alive!’ It cried, but something deeper worked through the woman’s psyche, and Tasted Fire was fearful to touch it, lest it burst open. ‘Don’t worry about then, focus on us! We are alive, we are happy!’ It said, excitement heating the campfire of its minds. But all too soon, the woman’s sun left. Tasted Fire realized it didn’t miss her touch as much as it missed others.

Leaving the gentler touch of the moon, who came without warning, though Tasted Fire realized it was not surprised. It was as if he was always meant to be there, and yet Tasted Fire could feel that he hid something, though it couldn’t tell what. Tasted Fire tried to welcome him to its fire, to sit, and speak peaceably, but he was gone soon after, and with him his secrets. Tasted Fire did not mourn his leaving.

The star arrived very shortly afterward, and Tasted Fire recoiled from the boy’s mental voice. It very carefully offered him a seat by its fire, but pulled away almost immediately. It was too fragile for Tasted Fire, and Tasted Fire did not want him to burst.

When the previous boy left, another soon took his place. The world was too worried about the future, but Tasted Fire knew that fires burned brightest when cultivated in the moment. It tried to tell him to think about the now, and not of the what-could-be. But it didn’t think he listened, and he slipped away into the void-that-was-not-the-egg.

Shortly afterward came death which, like only a few others, startled Tasted Fire. Tasted Fire knew only of repetition from outside sources, but the entirety of it felt exhausting. It tempered its fire and ushered death into its warm embrace. ‘This isn’t a sham! Please, sit here for as long as you like. Tasted Fire will look for you when it hatches, and hopefully, hopefully this time will be different!’ It tried for optimism, but somehow it didn’t think it quite hit.

Similar to the one before, Tasted Fire offers the tower its warmth to stay and rest for a while. But something about the girl’s pessimism, no matter how she phrases the word, dampers Tasted Fire’s spirit. Slowly, Tasted Fire’s fire banks until the girl is left stranded in an emptiness. The egg has moved on.

And yet, Tasted Fire was still there, albeit faltering at the end of a long day of minds touching it. As judgement stepped forward and set his hand upon Tasted Fire’s shell, the egg scoffed. There was no doubt that the dragons would hatch and that they would find theirs in these minds! No doubt at all. And what if he was left standing? Others had been before him, and others would after. The act of Impression should never be considered a ‘killing blow,’ and Tasted Fire cracked fire in the man’s thoughts before sending him off. No words were said, only the intense feeling of knowing, not doubting.

Then came justice, and Tasted Fire understood her plight. It likened the earthquake to something outside its control, as she did. And as it ushered her into its embrace around its campfire, the steady crackling a measure of its thoughts, it suggested that she think of Thread in much the same way. If she were to become a rider, she would also have to think of each Threadscore and each life lost as cruelty which was also causeless, because wasn’t Thread unthinking? Perhaps it was still naive, and perhaps it didn’t quite understand all justice’s* plight, but it left her with that thought as it pulled away.

Perhaps in another life, temperance would have been the ideal candidate for Tasted Fire. But this was not another life, and Thread still fell, and earthquakes still happened, and though optimism was to be had, Tasted Fire did not necessarily need to draw meaning from it. It simply was, it simply had been, and if another quake happened it simply would be. It wasn’t like dragons could fight the ground as well as the sky. It did not offer temperance a seat around its fire, it simply gave him something to think about and sent him on his way.

The bandaged hand that strength set upon Tasted Fire’s shell was surprising, but at the end of the hatching, very little actually surprised Tasted Fire any longer. What caught Tasted Fire was strength himself. He knew what he had to do, and he knew that if he wasn’t chosen, there would be a next time. ‘That’s right, soldier.’ Tasted Fire said as it corralled him to sit next to its fire, ‘Be strong for those that can’t. I like this. You will be a strong rider, even if it’s not me who chooses you. Perhaps you can also be a stronger friend?’

The last mind that touched Tasted Fire’s was chariot, and Tasted Fire, tired from the day of the touching, shuttered its mind against the ‘indomitable force’ of chariot’s. It did not care any more for those who thought they could lead by force. It had seen too much from its time already ‘alive.’ It was not force that Pern needed, not in the way this boy sought to give it. It was something else entirely, and Tasted Fire would find it in someone else.

Finally, as the touching wound down, Tasted Fire mulled over the minds that had come into contact with it. Its fire dampened as it thought, and it knew it was lucky that it would have time to think. Impression was a big deal, and it knew that even if it didn’t get the one it wanted the most, Tasted Fire would make sure its life with the one it chose was worthwhile. But which would it choose? Whose mind did it love the most? It would chew on its experiences in the Touching for days to come… and it wouldn’t even really choose until Impression. Just as with its name, its human was a daunting task that it would have to think a lot about.