...because I could not stop for death - ronance

chapter 1

 814 BC

Ancient Egypt

           The first time they meets her, she is young and they are already old.  They have had thousands of names, both killed and saved men, helped empires rise and watched them fall, laughed, and even cried once or twice. They are hundreds, no, thousands of years old. She can’t be older than seven.

           They meets her first when they are Seth, god of the desert, and she is a child.

           Her hair glows gold in the sunlight as she plays in the Nile, giggling and splashing the muddy water. She spots them sitting on the banks and instantly stops, her face a light shade of red.

           “Hi,” she says softly.

           “Hello.”

           She sits in the water for a moment, just staring up at them with wide blue eyes and muddy clothing. Then she grins at them, showing a missing front tooth and a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Want to play with me?” she asks.

           They almost says no, they have better things to do, things that should already be done. But then the sun hits her hair just right and they swear its pure gold and when they look into her eyes, so wide, so filled with hope, they find them self unable to refuse.

           One thousand six hundred and eighty two years of life, and for the first time, they feel something inside them snap. Something like hope, but stronger, more resilient. They brush the feeling off and instead splashes the little girl causing her to giggle and go under. When she comes back up, her hair is muddied and the sun no longer makes it glint -.

They play for what seems like hours until eventually they climb out onto the banks of the Nile and she follows them.

           “I’m Nefertiti,” she tells them. “I was going to be named Cleopatra, she was one of the great queens of Egypt, but then my parents decided Nefertiti instead. But one day I’m going to be a great queen and the whole world will remember my name. And they’re going to write stories about me because I’m not just going to be a queen. I’m going to be a healer too. So when my people get sick, I can help them.”

           “That’s a good idea,” they say. Reaching out, they grab a strand of her muddy hair and gives it a playful tug. “But I think you’ll be remembered for this more than anything else.”

           Her grin gets even bigger. “My mother says it’s a gift from the gods, she says that Ra kissed my head when I was born and made my hair as gold as the sun. Even though it's actually brown. She says I need to pray to him every night to keep my hair gold and to thank him for his gift.”

           “Because his ego needs even more boosting,” they mutters under their breath. They knew Ra, but they knew the other immortal by his true name, Jonathan. The guy was a dick to say the least.

           “Hmm?” the girl asks, but she’s barely paying attention, now drawing pictures in the mud with a stick.

           They looks down and sees two figures in the mud, squiggles over the top of them that they assume is a river. One of the figures is much bigger than the other and has short hair and they try to believe it’s not supposed to be them. “Aren’t your parents looking for you?”

“Probably.”

           As if right on cue, they hear a woman’s voice yelling the little girl’s name. They stand to leave, only to have a muddied hand wrap around their wrist in a death grip. Wincing in pain, they try to hide it behind a smile as they look back down at the Egyptian princess.

           “What’s your name?” she asks, curiosity in her blue eyes.

           They could’ve given her a thousand different answers. They could have simply walked away. Hell, they could have told her they were a fish that had grown legs and she’d have believed them. So they surprise even them self when they answer her question the way they once swore they never would: by telling her their real name.

           “Robin. My name is Robin.”

           She waves and begins running along the banks. “Bye, Robin! You should come back tomorrow and we can go swimming again!” She disappears between the reeds towards the voice calling her name.

           For a moment, Robin considers it. Robin considers coming back just to hear her giggle, to see her gap-toothed smile and the sun glinting off her hair. But then Robin remembers, Robin's an immortal and she’s not.

           Far too many times Robin had become attached to a mortal, forced to watch as their life drained away, as they grew old and Robin didn’t. They all died in the end and Robin was left alone, only a few others like Robin scattered throughout the world, such as Jonathan. After the last mortal Robin befriended had died of old age (her skin was wrinkled and her hair once a fierce red now a withered white, and Robin had been forced to sit by her side, still not looking a day over twenty) Robin promised themselves they were done becoming attached. Mortals lives ended too quickly and they were too foolish, too mind-numbingly ignorant to understand a life like Robin's.

So Robin doesn’t come back the next day. Robin doesn’t come back ever. Instead, Robin travels up to the Italian tribes in the north west, where there are women with brunette hair and stormy eyes aplenty.

           But Robin doesn’t forget the little girl. Robin can’t forget her if they tried.

           So five years later when Robin hears news that the jewel of Egypt, the young princess Nefertiti, who had been kissed by the Sun God himself, was murdered by bandits on her way to her summer home with her mother, Robin can’t ignore the twist in their gut nor the pain in their chest.

           It’s the first time they've cared about what happened to a mortal in a millennium.

           It scares the hell out of them.

           And seven hundred and fifty years later, when another Nefertiti comes along, a Nefertiti that they do remember, that they do write tales about (but not because she was a good leader but rather because she was a scandalous story), Robin just can’t seem to shake the bitter taste on their tongue.

Author note: okay this chapter was so fun to write, I've always been fascinated by immortals and what they'd do on this earth. In this story we will explore much of Robin's life as an immortal and how it effects them. Also please respect that I've used they/them pronoun's for Robin in this fic. I have other fics where Robin uses she/her but I really wanted to write one with they/them pronoun's.
This fic will be updated weekly. Every Monday :)
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