Look at Me
By Atila
A/N: I'm going to try to keep the author's notes in this story to a minimum but I thought it was a good idea to include one here. I've been sitting on this story for some time. While reading it, I want you to question the conclusions the main character draws about things, and how things appear. The fun part of this story is the illusions. Please read and review, I always enjoy feedback. Other than that I hope you like it.
Prologue
The little fetus moved inside her mother's womb. The Lone Power watched it was a curiosity that was almost a longing. He had never known what it was to be alive, to breathe the air and feel the ground beneath his feet. Feelings like that, senses like that, was a luxury that had always been denied the Powers that Be. He was no exception, rebel or not.
It had been several months since Nita Rodriguez had first found out she was Pregnant. This was the first time the Lone One had seen the little potentiality. At first, he was half of a mind to destroy the little thing. Her – he could see it was a her – parents were Wizards, after all. The likelihood was high that this child would be also. Somehow, though, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
That puzzled him. It wouldn't take much effort to destroy a child of this stage, especially for someone with as much power as he had at his disposal. He couldn't interpret the feeling that was gripping him. Well, he thought. If I can't kill her I may as well make her useful to me.
He touched the little life with a soft but forceful urge of intention. He could feel the power of her tiny life restructuring its self into something new. Now she really was a potentiality. A potentiality of power that, he was sure, he could use someday. Feeling satisfied, the Lone One departed for deep space. It was boring to stay any place too long.
******
Try to picture a world of water droplets, each sliding down a window pane. Some of them move slowly, others race each other to the end. Some of them collide with others, merging to form and endless stream of water. In a way, that's how my kind has always viewed human beings. Little drops of water that can do great good – or bring great ruin – from the tiny ways they impact the world.
Perhaps that is why we have always invested so much in your race. You may not know it, but we are always watching, nurturing, making sure you'll have the tools to succeed. Whether you use those tools is up to you. Every now and then we create you for specific purposes. You retain your free will. All we can do is watch and hope.
I cannot say what my Brother was thinking when he created Ruby. But he didn't know what we interfered with his creation. Or that he would like the changes we made, in the end.
******
Ruby Arianna Rodriguez was born on a calm midsummer's night. She was her parents' second child; her older brother, Daniel, had been born three years before. Ruby bore a strong resemblance to both of her parents. She had her father, Kit's, Spanish skin tone and her mother, Nita's, large brown eyes. Her dark hair wasn't a surprise: it was her heritage from both parents.
After birth her paternal Grandfather plucked a rosebud from the bouquet beside her mother's bed and placed it in her tiny fist. "See?" he said to the room full of family. "Now she can say the first thing she ever held was a rosebud." Ruby made to put the bud in her mouth. He took the tiny flower out of the infant's fist and let her hold his finger. She could suck on that without getting hurt. Ruby immediately started crying.