Fornotia fluffed her hair in her mirror, trying to make sure it was perfect. Tonight was a big night, she had a date with one of the most popular boys in her school. Her makeup had to be perfect, flirting had to mastered and the art of dressing not-too-sultry-but-not-schoolgirl had to be perfected. She twirled around in her yellow dress that offset her fluffy orange and white ringed tail and hair. Like the sun, she loved the way it complemented each other.
"Fornotia?"
Fornotia looked back and saw her father at her door. "Hi dad."
"Honey, I hear you have a date with Yohertavich tonight," her father began, "I really would appreciate it, if you cancelled."
"Cancelled?" Fornotia scoffed. Cancel the date she has been dreaming about? "Are you kidding? I'm not cancelling my date. Yoher is the dreamiest guy I've ever met and he picked me. He actually picked me to date. He only goes out with the cutest girls and he picked me."
"There's a reason." Her father grabbed her hand gently. "Things are happening with these evolved. Things that are bad, and honey, I don't want you mixed up in it. You need to date a normal person. Understand?"
"Normal? You mean an original? No way, you don't get it, he's-"
"I guarantee you're not the cutest girl he's ever seen," her father said roughly. "He's dating you because he can't date like he used to. Times are changing and his easy life is about to get hard. Yours doesn't have to. Now stop being stubborn. You're not going out with him."
Fornotia glared at her father. "Mother said I could and you don't own me." She pushed past her father to the door. Honestly. What a mean thing to say. What could be so bad that her father would condone such an act?
Her father had never been prejudice. A silver colored tail or hair meant nothing. Everyone held all kinds of colors, so why was this such a big deal now?
Her anger all but melted away as the doorbell rang. She fluffed up her dress once more and opened the door. She smiled affectionately.
Yoher. His pants were tucked in and he wore a white muscle shirt with a simple jacket. He looked even better than her but what did she expect? He was always popular for a reason. "Hi, Yoher."
Yoher winked. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, definitely, and quick." Fornotia closed the front door.
Yoher seemed to catch onto her eagerness. "Did someone say something to you?"
"Oh, it's my dad." Fornotia rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about him, he's just anxious."
"Yeah." Yoher bowed his head. "He's right to be. I'm different."
"There have been plenty of different guys and I like your slick tail-I mean-Oh!" Fornotia covered her mouth. "I didn't mean it like that, I mean, I wasn't looking to-"
"Nah, nah, I get it." Yoher chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her. "So, you think my silver tail is great. Yeah. The whole school used to love it." He brought it forward and the silver still seemed to glisten in the moonlight. "Things change. Well, at least someone still likes it." He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head. "Usually, I took girls out to Dixana's for a bite to eat and then go play over at Yonders, but, um?" He rubbed his foot against the ground. "I'm not allowed there anymore."
"Really?" Fornotia rubbed her lips across the top of her teeth. "Did you get in trouble?"
"No." Yoher looked over at her. "Evolved aren't allowed there anymore. We're not allowed in as many places."
"What?" Fornotia didn't understand. "How come?"
"Well? Scientists can prove now that . . ." Yoher rolled her eyes. "Fine, look, it's just a date. I want to go out and have fun like I used to. There's no reason to think we're gonna get married or have children, we're just dating. So, I mean, it doesn't really matter, right?"
"Well, I guess not." Fornotia didn't like the way he acted. Was he hiding something? "I just asked why."
Yoher looked at her tail a moment. "Don't think little of me, but, you've got a really gorgeous tail too," he chuckled. "Orange is my favorite color."
Fornotia giggled. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, I always wanted an orange-ringed tail." Yoher looked at his again. "Mine has no volume. Just silver and sleek." He glanced at hers again.
"Well, I like silver and sleek. I don't think it's boring." Fornotia wiggled her tail a little anyhow . Oh by the planet Pagnia, was she talking tails with him already?
Yoher seemed to catch on too. "Uuh, well, so let's get going. I think Tyders doesn't have a policy. You want to go there?"
Tyders. Fornotia tried not to sound disappointed. Fast food wasn't her idea of a great date, but it was Yoher, and for some insane reason he was being rejected everywhere else. "Okay, Tyders is fine."
When they arrived at the eating station, they both sat down in the booths. The air smelled warm and crisp that night, the wind was being playful with Fornotia's tail and hair, blowing them softly. When the food came, Fornotia smiled before biting into her meal. She gulped it down but tugged on Yoher's shirt. "Hey, aren't those your friends?"
Yoher didn't seem as pleased at her announcement. "No. We don't speak anymore." He put his hamburger down. "Say, Fornotia, do you wanna go someplace else maybe?"
"Fornotia!"
Fornotia looked to the left of her and saw her own friends. Her eyebrow furrowed as they came over to interrupt her date. Couldn't they just watch from a distance? The chances she'd ever get to date Yoher again were slim.
"Fornotia, you should go." One of her friends tugged on her arm and looked over at Yoher. "I mean, we need to talk to our friend for awhile, okay?'
"Not okay." Fornotia pulled her arm away. "I'm on a date here."
"Fornotia, I think you should leave with us," her friend insisted again. "What do you guys think?" All her other friends nodded their heads. "Trust me, let's go."
"No. Why are you acting like this?" Fornotia scoffed.
"Because I could have a soulless child."
Fornotia looked over at Yoher as he said that insane phrase. Have a soulless child? "What?"
"That is what they call it. I shouldn't have done this." Yoher put his hands on his head. "One minute I'm the king of the school, everybody likes me, and invites me to everything. On the sports team, I was the best. I thought I might be trying for class president soon. Then the next, I'm nothing but trash. My friends won't talk to me, and I'm not allowed inside anywhere. Only reason I even get to go here is because Tyders son is like me." He shook his head. "Sorry, Fornotia. You better go. I know you wanted to date me to get with the popular groups, but that's not gonna happen."
"Come on Fornotia, you heard him." One of her friends tugged on her shoulders.
Fornotia tugged herself back again before being released. "No. What do you mean a soulless child?"
"The evolved are having kids that, well their tails aren't silver, it's . . . " Yoher closed his eyes.
"Fornotia, if he has a kid, it's gonna be like the devil. There's no changing his genes, the evolved need to stay with evolved," her friend insisted again. "Please, come with me and the group."
"I'm just dating, stop going so psycho." Fornotia stood up and stood beside Yoher. "Maybe a walk by the beach instead?"
"Are you sure?" Yoher asked. "There's no way for me to ever be like you. In fact," he chuckled oddly, "your popularity is going to plummet if you hang out with me instead."
"I don't care. I wasn't dating you for popularity," Fornotia said as she held out her hand. "I liked you, and I still like you. I don't care about your genes, okay? I mean, what are the chances anyhow, you know? Let's go out and have some fun."
Her heart skipped a beat as Yoher gave her the smile that melted any girls heart. The smile he used to have on him almost all the time about a month ago. "You know what?" Yoher stood up and offered his hand. "I think you really are my kind of lady."
------
Yoher and Fornotia continued to date despite what others said. Yoher had been right though about Fornotia's popularity. Whispers and rude remarks were made in the hallway about Yoher and her all the time. Every time someone said something bad about Yoher, he ignored it. When anybody said anything bad about Fornotia though, he fought back. He fought hard too, the evolved were made for battle. They would go everywhere together, hand in hand, or Fornotia underneath his arm. She felt so safe around him all the time. They continued to date for two years before Yoher had to ask an important question.
"Fornot, we've been dating for some time now," Yoher began one night. He looked above at the stars. "We've gone through a lot together, and I know you're the only one for me. I want to ask you something."
Oh no, oh gosh, he is going to ask! Fornotia began to panic . Okay, deep breath. All you have to do is say yes. This is so perfect, I can even tell him the great news afterward!
"Fornotia?" Yoher looked over at her. "Could you stand to be a childless mother?"
"What?" Fornotia squealed. "A childless mother?"
"You've seen us evolved in our purest forms by now. We've heard about them on TV," Yoher reminded her. "Say what you will, you know the same as me. They aren't the same as the past evolved. Once an evolved gains that pinkish bald tail, their eyes turn pure pink and they're unstoppable. They're soulless marching creatures." He bit the bottom side of his mouth. "If we have a kid, there's a chance it could be one of them. I-it's the only reason I haven't asked you yet to marry me. I don't want you to give up your future for me."
Fornotia started to tear up and she rubbed her eyes. "I can't, I just can't."
"Oh. O-okay," Yoher looked away. "I understand."
"I'm not childless." Fornotia looked away as well. "Not anymore."
"What?!" Yohers jaw dropped and he stared at her blankly. "When?"
"I was gonna tell you tonight. I know, I couldn't believe it, we were always so careful." Fornotia looked at her belly. "It's too late." She heard Yoher bang the steering wheel as hard as he could. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault, I should have waited. We should have waited. Aw hell, we never should have in the first place." Yoher covered his face. "We should never have, ever, even if we got married."
"I couldn't take that and you couldn't either." Fornotia grabbed his hand that was clinching the steering wheel. "There's a good chance it might not be soulless? It might be like you. Science is still trying to figure out the details of when things change. It's not all at once."
"Fornot, my great grandfather was evolved, my grandfather was evolved, my father was evolved, and I'm evolved! How many generations does it take?" Yoher hit his head on the steering wheel. "No one knows. Everyone's different."
"Well, I can't reject it." Fornotia pointed out. "Yoher, there's still like maybe fifty percent?" She was yanking the figure out of the air.
"You could be carrying a rat-tailed soulless demon thing," Yoher grunted.
"I might not be," Fornotia reminded him again. "Either way, what's done is done. Maybe if we raise it just right-"
"The only thing it'd want to do is kill." Yoher pointed out. "As soon as it's old enough to hold a knife, it'll try to kill. I read about it the other day when I got a paper from the Evolved Kingdom. They're inviting me to come live there too. We'd be treated as equals, is what they say, but I don't believe them. I would, but those soulless kind are living there too among the ones like me. I don't want to see you hurt."
"Yoher." Fornotia lifted his head and looked into his worried eyes. "I think you need to give it a chance. I know." She felt her belly. "If I had something with that much evil and rage inside, I'd feel it." She took his hand and placed it on her belly. "You're going to be a daddy of a nice baby. Original, evolved, I don't care. A nice baby." She chuckled. "Give it a chance?"
"It's like zombies if they didn't just change at a bite," Yoher said to her. "At first, they just lose a little of their humane edge, and then another generation down and they are biting on animals, until they are purely maniacs eating each other's brains."
Ugh! "How can you even make that comparison, Yoher?" she complained.
"How can you see so much positive all the time? You never think in the negative." Yoher said back.
"Originals are positive creatures," she answered back. "You're positive too. Your warm. Your cheery."
"But I can be realistic. But I could fight if I needed too," he reminded her. He placed his hand on her face. "All right, I'll give it a shot. There's nothing else to do but try."
As the months passed by, several things happened.
Fornotia was shunned and thrown out by her family.
Yoher's family was disappointed for him not thinking things through and evicted him.
Both were accepted into a family that lived between them that had always treated everyone with respect. Her friends stopped talking to her, Fornotia and Yoher had been rejected for future schooling, and some old 'friends' even tried to push Fornotia down a flight of stairs.
Evil eyes, evil whispers, everything increased dramatically as gossip spread about the original having the next soulless child.
Fornotia and Yoher stood strong. When the time arrived, they were ready. No matter what the outcome, they'd do the best they could for their child, no matter who it turned out to be.
If it's a rat-tail, I'll change it's nature. I'll find a way, I have to! Fornotia screamed in her mind as her physical body bared the burden of birth. In seconds, a cry was heard. She felt Yoher's hand tightly in hers as she waited for the results. She tried to read the healers face, to see how it turned out.
"Well?" Yoher managed to squeak.
"Congratulations," the healer breathed a sigh of relief as he handed over the baby wrapped in a blue blanket. "It's an evolved boy. A good evolved boy."
Fornotia gasped as she stared at her newborn son. His eyelids were closed and his fingers were so small. A complete innocent, and a beautiful soul. She looked behind the back of its leg and saw its smooth silver tail. Just like his father. "Everything's going to be fine." She looked over at Yoher who had his own look of awe. "You see? It turned out fine. No pink tail."
"Yes." Yoher touched his son's hand. "I think we should name him Lucky."
Fornotia laughed until she realized Yoher wasn't joking. "Oh. Well. How about Luckavich?"
"That'd work." Yoher sighed and looked back at Fornotia. "We're lucky too." He looked back at his son. "He may not be. We might be grandparents of a soulless rat tail. Or great grandparents. Somewhere along our line, we'll stop being lucky." He smiled and touched his son's tiny nose. "For now, we are all the luckiest evolved in the world." He looked at Fornotia. "And original."
"You've come to your fifth generation," The healer announced as he looked at his charts. "According to this, you have to live over in the Evolved Kingdom."
"No." Yoher shook his head. "No, Fornot's all original, she won't be respected there."
"You aren't respected here," Fornotia reminded him. "You and Luckavich will be mistreated here."
"That is nothing compared to what would happen to you!" Yoher said with hardness in his eyes. "Fornot, you don't know the evolved with pink eyes. Originals will whisper and they'll say mean things, but over there you could be more than mistreated. I could lose you forever in a moment. No, we have to stay here."
"No, you have to go," the Healer insisted. "You are all living under the roof of a four generation evolved family. By law, you have to go."
"N-no we aren't," Fornotia said quickly, "we're living with the Cattral's. They took us in, everybody else said no."
"Friends of the family, but they're family," Yoher insisted. "More family than mine or Fornotia's ever were."
"Hm. Well, if you make yourself legally tied to the Cattral name, technically you don't have to go." The Healer put the papers away. "You two watch yourselves. This is a dangerous time to be mixing right now."
Fornotia nodded and went back to staring at her new baby. "He's so tiny and helpless. It feels like a million things could happen if I didn't hold him just right."
"One day, I'm going to have to fight."
Fornotia looked up at Yoher. "Why did you say you have to fight?"
"One day, soon, the original and evolved are gonna go to battle." Yoher looked over at Fornotia. "I'll fight on the original side."
"What? After everything my kind have said? After the way you've been treated here?" Fornotia looked away.
"Originals don't fight." Yoher put his hand on her shoulder. "One day they'll have everything taken away if they don't. It'll be a losing battle, but I'll fight anyhow. Dangerous evolved are the future. I don't think there's any way of stopping it. Mixing might be seen as bad right now, but I bet in the next hundred years no one even bats an eye. It only takes one to corrupt the gene pool. Originals will be the minority before you know it. They'll be the ones hiding."
"Stop being so negative." Fornotia smiled at him. "Cheer up. Our son was just born. He's happy, healthy, so lighten up already." She laughed. "The future's not here yet, let it stay in the future. We'll deal with it when we have to."
Yoher sat beside Fornotia as he stroked his son's cheek. "Alright. I'll save it for the future." He looked back at Fornotia. "I'll do everything I can to keep this family safe. I'll convince the Cattral's to adopt us. I'll lie to authorities if I have to. We'll move out into the country, deep out into the forest wilderness. No one will bother us there."
"A little house in the woods sounds homey." Fornotia gave her newborn son a squeeze. "Your Mrs. Fornotia Marks would have it no other way."
-------------
Several hundred years later . . .
"Keep your fingers crossed." Yoher held Fornotia's hand steadily in the waiting room outside the Healer's room.
Fornotia took a deep breath. Her son Luck was having his first baby. It would be sixth generation evolved. She prayed with all her might that Luck had the same luck his own name had. Please oh please oh please. Both her and Yoher were so edgy, Luck's lucky lady turned out to be evolved too. As predicted, becoming mixed became very common. Colored fluffy tails were disappearing more each year. Hair colors were now about 80% silver.
Fornotia continued to plead in her head. Let my grandchild be normal. Please, let it be normal. She felt Yoher's arm around her. "No matter what, okay? We'll love our grandchild the same. Genes won't matter."
"I always said that." Fornotia bent her head down.
"I know, but we were so stupid back then." She felt Yoher hold her closer. "We'll love it if it's different. Luck will too. It'll be raised with love and it'll be okay." Yoher was clearly trying to convince her. As he said that, Luck appeared at the door.
"Well." Luck rubbed the back of his head unsteadily and looked at the ground. "It's a girl." He closed his eyes tightly. "Uh, she's a little different."
Fornotia felt her heart ache for him as she saw her son's expression. Luck had not been with him. "Well. Well, is she pretty?"
"Pretty? She's pretty." Luck rubbed his silver hair and tugged at it a little. "She's uh, she's got a different tail. It's uh, it's the . . . " He covered his eyes up, obviously not letting Fornotia see how he felt. "Healer says they've studied the pink tails more and-and it's not the first in the . . . the family that usually goes wild with madness . . . "
Fornotia and Yoher quickly ran to his side and comforted their son.
"She'll be okay. She's a little . . . she doesn't cry much or-or want so much. But-" Luck choked. "She has a smile, she can smile, so-it's good-it's good it…" He squeezed his nose. "She can smile. She's gonna be okay. The Healer says she's the first bald tail in our family and she's gonna act a little different. But, she's not gonna be . . . she won't be a real fighter yet, it uh-it takes uh-two generations. At least. So they say. She's um, she's gonna live about maybe a um…a hundred years or so."
"Oh honey." Fornotia held her son tightly. A hundred years? Only a hundred?
"It's not like early death though. She grows up faster, she won't die as a child. By the time she's twenty she's going to be considered an adult. So really, I." Luck looked at his parents. "I'll spend twenty years with her or so and um, they say she won't act out half as much so she'll be easier to raise. Not as playful. More serious. More intelligent." Luck gulped. "Her kind aren't allowed in our kingdom at all though. We have to move."
"No." Fornotia held onto her son tightly. "No, there's got to be something you can do. She's not evil, just different. Maybe a law will be enforced so that pink tails can't have kids?"
"Did you hear yourself just now?" Yoher had moved her chin slowly toward his eyes. "Fornotia, no one knows for certain why we started to evolve. Saying that, it might kill us off even faster. The road we are on can't be changed. Removing that freedom is wrong."
"B-but our great grandchildren after her and Luck m-moving." Fornotia held on tightly to her husband.
"They have to go," Yoher said, his voice a little quivering. "It's not like with us Fornot, they're all evolved. His family will be happy, they belong there."
"I'll never see any of them again." Fornotia looked at Luck. "Please?"
"Mom, only ten originals have seen our little girl so far. Ten. And?" Luck's jaw went slack. "She doesn't belong here. I'm going to miss you, but I have to put her first. I'm sorry."
Fornotia felt her son's gentle hug. "Can I see her?"
"After the reactions, w-we've decided to keep her secret," Luck quivered. "We're not even naming her until we get to the Evolved Kingdom." He rubbed his eyes. "Now, um, I guess this is goodbye. We can still talk on the phone though. Okay?"
Talking on the phone would never be the same. Never, in their lifetime, would they ever meet or see each other again.
"Son." Yoher brought Luck closer and gave him a firm handshake. "Remember what I taught you when you were little. No matter how accepted you ever feel, if war ever breaks out-"
"I'll be on the side of the originals." Luck hugged his dad one more time. "It's going to be tricky enough getting our little girl out, so we've gotta move fast. Mom. Dad." He took a deep but choking breath. "I'll miss you."
Fornotia watched as her boy, her son, the one she risked everything for to keep, walked out of the waiting room. Never again, would she ever see him.
"Come Fornotia." Yoher held her hand. "He was a strong man, you should be proud of him." He gave her a gentle kiss on the head. "Times are changing. We might see him again one day. Who knows, maybe we'll see him when we're Ancients." He teased her, trying to cheer her up, but it wouldn't work. No playful joke could ever make her feel better. "Ancient Yoher Marks and Ancient Fornotia Marks. Has a nice ring to it."
"Do you think you'll live long enough to be an Ancient with me?" Fornotia turned around, rubbing her eye one more time. "If anything happens, do you have to go to a losing battle?"
"Hey, now, I thought we agreed that was for the future," Yoher reminded her. "Until that future, we can dwell on whatever future we want." He held Fornotia closer to him. "I dream of being a cruddy old cranky Ancient," he laughed, "who yells at everyone to stay off my property and that 'they're all too young to understand'. I'll be Grampy Yoher and you can be Grammy Fornot." He teased.
"Yoher." Fornotia couldn't help but laugh. "How is it you can see the bright side of things?" She gave him a simple kiss and fell deep into his embrace. She wanted to believe in his dream. That they would live long enough to be Ancients. That they would see their two thousandth birthdays, together, hand in hand. But a feeling, in the pit of her stomach, couldn't quite believe it. In those changing times, she knew things would happen. Awful things. She couldn't think about it though, dwelling wouldn't do any good. She would cherish everyday she could live with Yoher, and who knows? Maybe they'd have a second someday now that the house would feel so lonely. "Yoher, there was something I wanted to ask you-"
"I'd love another one." Yoher grinned at Fornotia. "But we'll have to go through this all over again. They'll leave to another Kingdom, with a child that's most likely pink tailed."
"I know." Fornotia nodded. "It's hard knowing the future for any that we do have, but we can't change genes." She sniffed. "We can't change who we are. All we can do is enjoy our own lives, the way we want to. Nobody, not even our great king could stop us."
Yoher laughed. "Probably not, your own dad couldn't. Remember when he tried to run me over with his car?" He wrapped his arm around her. "We'll give it a few years, enjoy having the house all to ourselves, and then . . . " Fornotia giggled as he tickled her tummy. "We'll see what the future holds."
It was strange. Knowing the future of her next generations. Fornotia knew, deep down, that even having Luck added to the problem, but if they didn't live their lives in happiness, they'd regret it when they were too old. Other evolved would be with originals. Other evolved would be with evolved. It was a never ending cycle and she knew the days that she had grown fond of would one day come to an end. Her kind would be gone one day, and only the hateful, soulless, blood-driven kind would remain. There was nothing a single original could ever do though.
It was evolution.
So if it didn't matter, in the end, if she had one or two more kids? Then shouldn't she be happy?
The future could wait. Could wait thousands of years if it wanted to. She hoped it waited until her time on Pagnia ended, but something nagged her in the back of her mind, saying it wouldn't. Enjoy the days while she can…