Chapter 9

Caroline could feel herself not ageing. It was the weirdest feeling. Humans just accept from day one that they age; it is like sound or smells that are always there, they get filtered out of everyday life; and so did aging for people normally. But here, she had slowed and stopped. She liked being twenty five, her body had opted to stay there for a while in this new world.

Her body still functioned, she still had monthly periods. It was one of the ways she kept track of time now, though there were seasons, they weren’t the same or as definitive. It snowed for three days and yet the flowers continued to flower, the air temperature felt comfortable, there was no need to dress in layers and layers. She had been talking to two elf-maids on the third day when it stopped and had suddenly jumped up and rushed outside to make a snow man. For an instant they thought she was creating a snow-gollum, like the stories of the ancient ones who made earth ones. Then they saw the crude features and the silly face of sticks for hair and apples for eyes and laughed. This was a human joke. Then she had grabbed the small table they had been seated around, took it to the top of the grass bank, upended it and slid down.

All the elves stopped and looked, amazed. They had sledges, pulled by unicorns, these were efficient and smooth. Some were used for transporting elves, others for bringing in food and logs for cooking. No-one had ever just slid down a slope for fun, why would you? This was just a hint of an echo of the old human wild magic, the desire to do things just because ... The elf-maids tried it, fell out and all roared with laughter, as they tumbled into the cold snow. The air was warm, the snow didn’t melt; it was unexpected for Caroline, but it meant you could be frozen with your face embedded in soft snow, one minute and then standing and laughing as your clothes dried in the warm air the next.

The king, who saw all things in his kingdom, watched and wondered if this introduction of the remnants of human magic – the ability to laugh at their own misfortune, to enjoy such tumbles, to have fun for the sake of it – was good or bad. His ability to see the future was being clouded by this woman; but he found even that not unpleasant. An unknown in a world where you are all-seeing. It made a change.

“I don’t understand Caroline, if you are bleeding, why doesn’t that mean you are injured inside”

Caroline gave a mental sigh and started to explain again to another little group the human menstrual cycle. Almost every month she would find some elf who was totally perplexed at the thought of bleeding from inside being perfectly normal and safe. It was like being in a group of eleven year olds. Old enough to understand and ask detailed and very pertinent questions, young enough to still be fascinated by this weirdness. Elf-girls would ask to see her intimate details, and then pull up their own dresses to compare. They were smoother, less complicated in their genital makeup; but they never expressed disgust or disapproval, just interest. Caroline was just different. They looked on with amazement when blood oozed from her vagina “So ... there is a baby in there?”

“No, no, to be a baby it has to have met a male sperm; I think it similar for you. What is leaking now is blood and the single cell ... cell? Yes? ... okay, the single cell that could have become a baby if a male had fertilised it”

There was a danger that this could spiral into understanding of philosophy, was an unfertilised egg a life? Was a fertilised egg a life? Where did life come from? Luckily the physical complications were so massive that they got engrossed in all that and the moralities got ignored. Perhaps elves didn’t have too much time for such niceties, she already knew that a lone elf-maid ‘on-heat’ was fair game for any elf who met her; and regarded herself the same way. Life was more animalistic here.

So she was still having periods. She wondered if, if she stayed for ever, she would simply run out of eggs. She knew that a female human had all the eggs in some form when she was born. But she didn’t know that her body was regenerating in all sorts of ways. She was making new eggs, and these new ones were more vibrant. Did she but know it, but if she ever got back to earth she would be as fecund as a twenty year old until she was sixty or older! She did notice an old scar had faded.

So, what of the male elves? The knowledge of female elves being able to enjoy all the time was kept from them. Common consent (something Caroline felt rather than understood, it was as though all the female elves agreed something without discussing it) kept it secret, kept the pleasure of female orgasm brought on by a female’s gentle hands and lips from the more aggressive males. But there were several who were curious as to what a human would be like to fuck. Caroline was strong, she could fight off any single male, and the king made sure she was protected.