2024-07-22 - Heat-Treated

How heroic! How brave and bold! They had all returned!

Jjezreth hadn't realized there was a chance that they wouldn't all return until it felt the waves of relief that everyone had.

It would rejoice, it told Mother. And it would do so loudly! With great enthusiasm!

There was an odd sort of tightening in Jjezreth's throat and down into its chest as muscle and tendon shifted, imitating the motions needed to produce physical noise. Jjezreth was still silent as there was no lungful of air for it to force out into a bugle of its own, so it broadcast its emotions out in a wide net instead.

Ancient desire to flame Thread hummed under Patchwork's shell. It had seen a lot of thoughts on thread in the humans that had availed themselves, some that had alarmed and some that had frustrated Jjezreth in turn – and it knew there was no objective truth to how any of them ought to feel. But it was only now that the desire and duty to Fight and Flame clicked into place for Jjezreth itself.

It was getting a bit cramped for the kind of enthusiastic squirming Jjezreth wanted to do, but Jjezreth was understanding more and more that this wasn't where it should be.

Out there! Up there! That was where Jjezreth wanted to be! Where it would be, soon enough. Jjezreth wriggled in place with a little more force, feeling out the space around it before Mother's mind fell over it and bid Jjezreth stay put. Jjezreth wasn't ready yet to escape and it would hurt itself if it kept trying, Mother told it. And it had to wait for its siblings to be ready, too.

All of that would come in time. As much as it didn't want to, Jjezreth still needed to mind its patience.