First Meal

(Brother)

As someone who can remember the first thing that they have ever eaten. Let me tell you what it was like, three words: It was heavenly.

At first my instincts had overwhelmed me and during those moments that when as fast as I was able to I stumble crawled closer to the meat and then took some jerky bites I do not remember much. However when that first bit of juicy flesh touched my tongue, I can recall most clearly even now.

Let me repeat myself, it was heavenly…so so delicious. I ate and ate until there was nothing to eat, the first few times this happened there would be another small ‘plop’ and another serving of meat would appear and I would eagerly start on it without any hesitation, but eventually I became completely stuffed.

Now starting to become accustomed enough to the temperature enough that things felt warm, and with a full belly tiredness overcame me and I fell asleep.

When I woke up, there was food again. By the time I ate to my satisfaction, I felt clearheaded enough to start thinking again, and noticed something different.

I think I mentioned before that during these early moments of my ‘real’ life I had been blind. Well allow me to elaborate, I am not sure if I was truly blind at least technically for everytime I had tried to open my eyes I had gotten such headaches and dizziness that I had soon enough given up trying such a pointless thing.

After all it wasn’t like I really needed to see, there was nothing for me in the hatchery that I needed to avoid in the space limited by the amount that I could crawl, my every need was taken care of by the servants at and being a dragon my many other senses served me quite well.

However after awaking nap after yawning I felt again the urge to open my eyes and so without thought as I was still in that realm between awake and asleep that I had brushed during my egg days and now was coming to know even more intimately, but this time to my surprise there was no need to close my eyes again after I opened them.

The headaches were gone.

I still couldn’t fully say that I could see, however for things were very blurry. Unfortunately because the hatchery did not have much light, I did not have color vision either, however I was still in the end very excited I could see!

During my egg days I had been given ‘visions’ primarily from Sister and then later, those we referred to as seers such as Peeper also shared with us some of the things they saw with their abilities and what I was seeing now was nowhere near even  a quarter as beautiful, enlightening or useful. However the fact that I was seeing it through mine own eyes and without anyone else’s help or generosity made it priceless to me.

I stared and I stared, at all the blurry nothing that I could, I stared for so long that my eyes grew tired because of their newness and the headaches came back with a vengeance. Disappointed that I couldn’t use my eyes anymore I nonetheless closed them, and without sight to distracted I realized that I was hungry.

I sniffed the air and soon enough found another chunk of oh so delicious meat and as I was consuming it I realized with some bitter sweetness that I had already gotten used to the taste, as evidenced by the fact that it no longer held my full attention and I could now think and eat at the same time.

After eating I spent a moment or two reflecting on the imaginary scenario where I, having never gotten used to the taste and meat, food always felt so mesmerizingly tasty. If so having meals would waste a lot of time but on the other hand, wouldn’t the deliciousness somewhat make up for it?

However such silliness only held my attention for only a short time and I was soon enough urged by my old pal curiosity to move on to other things. Unable to experience sight for the moment as my eyes were still tired I decided to test out a theory that I had formulated not long after hatching.

That is, the theory that practicing linking back up to the mental net would make it easier to do, despite no longer being intimately a part of it.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I had somewhat mixed results.

I was correct in that the second and third time in connecting was indeed somewhat easier than the ‘first’ time. However it was still depressingly nowhere near easy, and it didn’t look as if it would become easy for quite some time if not ever.

On the bright side, after my fourth attempt I heard the voice of Sister.

“I was thinking that perhaps you might want some help?” she said in an almost teasing way.

“Yes please”

I shamelessly would have replied, if I had the energy to speak, but she undoubtedly knew what I meant anyway for almost immediately I felt myself sigh in relief at the sensation of her supporting me more fully, this time not only with energy but also with her strength.

Though it was not through my strength or skill the ease was reminiscent of the former world that I had already started to miss and that more than compensated for the dint in my pride that I had felt at that fact.

Once I had ‘caught my breath’ mentally that is, I proceeded to share with her through words as well as memories everything that I had been wanting to share with her, taking special care with my fond recollections of what it felt like to eat the meat.

“So food is that delicious…I had been wondering…”

She said in such an odd tone of voice that I was somewhat disappointed and puzzled at her reaction, but my disappointment was quickly dispersed and puzzlement forgotten or at least set aside for later when she said.

“I have been thinking that I might be able to help you with the problems you have been having with your sight.”

“Really?!”

I asked with excitement?

“Yup”

She said casually

“first of all I can heal the tiredness of your eyes as well as do a few things to help you cope with it, basically make it so you get tired a bit more slowly and recover from it more quickly. I don’t think that I can help you with your headaches, and I wouldn't if I could unfortunately I have reason to believe that those are necessary for the guaranteed health of your eyes but the second thing I can do to help, is well…I think I can do something to encourage your mind to recognize what you see a bit better and start to remove some of that ‘blurriness’ you said you felt. "

I immediately agreed, and with her prompting I disconnected my mind from the net after she ‘gently’ stopped supporting me and I opened my eyes in the real world.

This time my eyes no longer ached, though I did feel headaches they were nowhere near as bad as before. She hadn’t even started helping me to see better as evidenced by all the blurriness but I was still satisfied at the fact that I could see with minimum disconcert.

“Are you ready?”

She asked.

“I am.”

I was quick to assure her.

“Then sight training experiment trial one start!”

We didn’t really exceed until the 10th attempt but until then I couldn’t really say that we had failed either. With each attempt I was able to recognize or at least understand more of what I was seeing, and each attempted seem to making the following one easier.

Eventually I got to a point that I could recognize shapes, and shades. Distance and other more complex aspects of sight were still beyond me, but with Sisters guidance I was able to understand that the large blurs were the servant dragons who had been caring for me.

And that several smaller blurs were actually my other siblings who had also hatched not long after me. Peeper had been second so I had been informed and strangely though somehow unsurprisingly door and hinge had hatched around the same time.

Odd yet to me beautiful was the moment when Sister pointed out to me a round blur that though much smaller than the servants was still larger than us unhatched and said that is me.