Episode 5: The Mind People (Terren)

Shoulders back, chin up, good posture.

Signs of confidence could carry anyone. His dad did those things and no one questioned him even though he wasn’t always sure of how he felt. It was the way you carried yourself that got you out of challenges.

His body could convey a feeling, but the minds trying to infiltrate the privacy of his own thoughts saw past it. A few dozen minds brushed against his in a heavy sensation. He pushed back as he approached the chief. He had never felt someone invade his mind before.

“You found someone?” a voice in the crowd, one of the worriers, asked.

“I thought you said no one was here,” another voice accused.

The words were silent – pushed between the minds of the group in mental harmony with each other.

He pushed feelings that he wouldn’t hurt them. It was laden in desperation.

He had developed that ability the instant he saw the girl; he had bonded. He was seventeen and it wasn’t his first bond.

He embraced the new ability and the feeling of attachment.

He liked the girl with her thick brown hair woven into a large bundle at the base of her neck and her tanned skin. He knew it was the bond, but she looked like she was glowing in the forest. Like her footsteps should leave glowing marks behind them, but they didn’t.

As soon as the thought left his mind, she created the illusion for him. He couldn’t help but smile.

“There’s only this boy,” the girl’s mom said to the person in the crowd.

“He’s my age,” he heard the girl whisper to her mom.

Dorsa, her name flickered through his mind again.

“I said, we’ll see,” her mom insisted.

He could feel the girl’s mind was made up, and he relaxed. They wouldn’t hurt him. She was important enough that her mom was letting her voice a strong opinion that impacted an entire group.

“Where are you from?” asked a man with hair braided in fuzzy brown clumps across his scalp. It hung down past his shoulders and he looked wild and exciting. If Terren survived, he had encountered something worth risk. It was cool to see some newcomers in the Upper Dell.

“Far away,” Terren replied. “I flew here.”

A few hundred miles was far.

“He has something he thinks can protect him,” the mom stated.

Well, there went the dragon secret. He sent her thoughts about fluffy annoying sheep in a crowd to cloud her mind for a moment.

“It’s a dragon,” Terren said, whittling the truth to reveal as little as possible.

“A real dragon?” the girl asked, her voice uncertain. Her eyes glowed light brown and gold in the moonlight, full of question.

Terren called Raqqa to take a dip. Raqqa flew down through the trees. His wings spread with each clearing, and tightened his form to fly between trees. He felt the collective minds’ fear and awe at the display.

“He can’t stay here,” the dad stated. 

He had scared them. He wasn’t going to hurt them, he just wanted to do something cool and to be near Dorsa for a little longer. If he left, he would have to break the bond and he would be left with a lingering desire for her. He knew thinking about the bond was a bad idea, and he tried to block others out if his mind as he cleared it.

“I wanted you to meet him before anything was decided,” the mom stated. He caught a glimpse of her considering killing him.

It would be too easy. Terren hated drinking tea and depriving himself of the opportunity to meet someone, but if this situation didn’t go well and he managed to survive he would need to figure out an option to keep himself more protected.

“I won’t tell anyone,” he stated and thought loudly. He didn’t try to figure out where they were from or where they were going, though he wanted to.

“We could keep him here in case anyone else comes,” a voice offered up. “Something to trade for safety.”

“He’s my boyfriend,” Dorsa echoed through her mind to everyone. It felt finite.

The dad was surprised, somehow, and the mom snorted.

“He is,” Dorsa stated. “He has a special connection to me. He won’t hurt anyone.”

Terren missed the words that passed between her parents, but the mom said he could stay and Dorsa took his hand and he wondered if electricity was magic or feeling.

Either way, he would get to see  them in the morning too and he was free of the palace for a night of fun.

“This way is where I was going to set up a bed,” Dorsa informed him as she pulled him between a few bushes. He sent a wave of teasing amusement; she was making it up as she went. She had a small bag on her back and unloaded a blanket. He looked at her, and took the blanket from her hands to set up. If he was going to sleep with her, he was going to do it right.

He let the wind straighten the blanket out and then fixed the corner that had folded in on itself as he laid it down.

Dorsa smiled at him and pulled her hair down from the band that kept it out of her face. She tilted her head and looked at him, so he kissed her. Her mind lit up in excitement and hope and so he kissed her more. The uniqueness of sharing her mind was more exciting than anything he had come across.

He helped her lie down on the blanket she had set up and placed his hand on the bare earth beside them. He kissed her again, and didn’t care about the mind stuff because she was right there and he was feeling something real. Bond modified, but real. He didn’t want to go to breakfast and see everyone be fake and pretend it was okay. He just wanted to be in the woods and part of life, not withheld because he was a prince.

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