The red-haired quarter-elf looked up, looked west. Somewhere, someone had been born. Someone significant. Someone who controlled, no, who created, who had caused, would soon cause to have been. . . .
But not here. On another planet, her home planet. Here, on the copy, there were very few humans, and a much better balance of the other races. But still, very few sentient beings. On that home planet, hundreds of children were born every minute. It could take years to decipher which was the one, the powerful one.
The sense of significance was already fading. Pounding one fist on the ground, the elf rose from a crouch and began to run. Trees sped by. So did Paris, with its ancient stonework, and the Seine River. The elf paid no attention to the only human habitation for hundreds of miles.
"I can do this," she muttered as she approached the western sea. The elf had been running for two days when she broke concentration enough to speak, if only to herself. "I can stop it, make nothing ever have happened. I can . . ."
She stepped out of the woods and onto the stretch that led to a cliff overlooking the sea. The creator of the copy had taken a number of minor artistic licenses. The elf did not care about this minor discrepancy. What she cared about was the man lying at full length on the ground.
"What are you doing here?" the elf demanded.
However, being asleep, he did not answer.
She walked over and nudged him in the side with her boot, her slanted purple eyes glowing faintly red with anger. Glancing up, she frowned at the noon sun, then started to step around the man. His eyelids started to move, revealing hypnotic black eyes. "Cherry?"
She started to run up the hill, and he sat up. "Stop!"
She obeyed as if she had encountered a vast, plastic surface, then whirled, the red of her eyes more distinct. "What are you doing here?"
"I followed you, Cherry, pet. Calm down. You're not doing yourself any good."
"How did you know I would be here?" she snapped back, crouching as if ready to pounce and maim.
"Kolano told me."
"Oh, so Kolano told you." She laughed mercilessly, rocking back on her heels in a deceptively more casual stance. "Of course. Your personal prophet, always spying on me, so you always know what I'm doing." She eyed him warily as he got to his feet. "Well, I'm afraid her seeing doesn't work like that, Baslon, so you had better tell me why all of a sudden the gods see fit to send her a vision concerning me, and why it worried you enough that you had to come see me."
"Cherry, I'm always concerned about you. But Kolano saw that you were going to change the way of the majority of the worlds in the universe, and we can't have that. Cherry, I'm afraid I'm going to have to order you to come home. Come nicely, and I won't confine you to your rooms when we get there."
She laughed again. "Yes, your Majesty, of course, your Majesty." Then, without warning, she charged him. She got her hands around his neck, baring her teeth in a strained rictus. "You . . . can't . . . make me. . . . I . . . shan't. . . ." Although he made no move beyond gripping her hands with his own, Cherry suddenly felt a punch in the face strong enough to whirl her around. Snarling, she turned to fight again, but found herself gripped in a bear hug.
"Cherry, you're going to force me to do something neither of us will like," Baslon gasped.
"Then don't do it," Cherry growled. "Vampire. Coward. Thief."
"I'm not a thief, Cherry." He went on, trying to sound reasonable around his lack of sufficient air. "Your blood belongs to me. You're lucky I don't take what's mine more often. I'll leave it to more objective people whether or not I'm a coward."
In response, she snapped as if trying to bite his nose off. Then she lifted her feet, throwing her entire weight into his arms, and kneed him sharply. Baslon squeaked, dropping her, then cast himself upon her. With animal savagery, but the precision of a surgeon, he bit her neck, exactly broaching the two small scars there. Cherry quivered away. Blood splashed the lichen-covered rock where they rolled.
"Go to sleep, Cherry," Baslon ordered. Her eyes glazed as she fought not to obey. It was a mere instant before the coercion won out, and she lost consciousness.
Baslon slowly got up. "Kolano!" he bellowed.
A short, brown woman stood up from behind some brush. "Yes, your Majesty?" she demanded testily.
"I suppose now you'll tell me why this was necessary?" he asked, trembling with the need to keep himself under control.
Kolano snorted. "If you want to stay married to her, you'll have to keep her on this world for a decade or two. That's all I can say. Though why you should want to. . . ." She took another look at his face, then added, more kindly: "Come along, your Majesty, I'll take the two of you back to the castle." She looped one arm around King Baslon's and bent to touch Cherry's forehead. The threesome vanished.
And time passed.
Comment to encourage me to write more! Especially if you have an idea for a better title!