A Daughter's Destiny
Disclaimer: Terry Pratchett and I know what I've borrowed and I'm sure you do too.
AN: I was thinking about prehistoric Lucy today, and reading about Nobby ("Is it a monkey?") and the plot bunny was born. It hasn't started breeding, so this should be a one-shot.
Remember to read and review! Thankyou. :)
It has often been assumed that Corporal C. W. St J. Nobbs, also known briefly as The Rt Hon Earl of Ankh, or more commonly as 'Get-over-here-where-I-can-see-yer-face-ye-bastard', was an only child. However, science has proved that there was one other Nobbs child…
Errol Nobbs was a typical street urchin. He picked the cream of society's pockets, (1) occasionally gaining a clip round the ear for it. He followed people and reported on their movements to other people (for a small fee, of course). He begged, borrowed or stole whatever extra food he could. He learnt to fight – dishonourably. And he shared some romantic moments playing Dead Rat Conkers with another street urchin called Alice.
As they grew older, Errol and Alice grew more attracted to one another. Finally, the unemployed Errol proposed to Alice. She accepted immediately. This may or may not have had something to do with the fact that she was pregnant.
Five years later, Errol, Alice and their daughter, Lucy, left Ankh-Morpork to 'see the world', as Alice liked to put it. They sailed in the Circle Sea, then decided to explore further abroad.
It was when they were in the Rim Ocean that the storm struck.
Later, Alice woke up, still clutching Lucy with one arm and Errol's hand with the other. The first thing she noticed was the heat, and the second was the grit – no, sand – underneath her. Was she back in Klatch? But they'd been on a boat… and there was no sound of waves at all… and hadn't they gone over the Edge of the Disc?
Alice put Lucy down on the sand and stood up. The sun was too far away… and the disc was too small. And there was no water.
"Errol? Errol! Look, Errol! Look at the Edge! Where's the Rim Ocean, Errol? What's happened?"
What the Nobbs family did not realise was after falling over the Rimfall, they had landed on our own planet. In Africa. They soon realised that they were not on their own Discworld, but, despite this, managed to make a life for themselves…
Lucy, to Alice's well-hidden disappointment, grew up to look like her uncle, Nobby Nobbs. However, her limited intellect came from her mother, and her pointed nose from her father.
And so, the Nobbs family grew up reasonably happy, living and dying in Prehistoric Africa. Little did they know how much Lucy Nobbs would fascinate archaeologists in years to come…
"I'm telling you, she's definitely the missing link!"
"Between humans and apes? I don't think so."
"For goodness' sake, man, look at her! Of course she is!"
"What are we going to call her, anyway?"
"Australopithecus afarensis. Lucy for short."
"Hmm. Missing link indeed…"
It is a shame that neither Lucy or her family knew that her destiny was to do what the artificial dinosaur skeletons on the Disc were doing: keeping archaeologists occupied. After all, if people like that got bored, who knows what they might take it into their heads to do?
(1) at least, the pockets of those floating at the top of the great melting pot that was Ankh-Morpork