The Infection: A Cautionary Tale

Thinking it over later, She couldn't see how She'd missed the infection for so long: generally Her awareness of the state of Her health was pretty good, even in the midst of the crontrolled choas of her being.

Even so, health is easily ignorned when it's one's natural state. Then only its sudden abscence commands attention.The parasites, or whatever they were, had been something of a very recent mintage,lShe was certain of that. Otherwise their noisome burrowings and travellings all over Her, always leaving a track of waste and debris behind them, would've long since gained Her notice. As it was, they'd gained a pretty good good foothold by the time they'd by the time their cumulative effect upon Her beathing alerteted Her to the fact that something was definitely amisss, She shuddered in remembrance of that first awareness.

But She was strong, and moving from a strong youth into what She knew was going to be a long, strong, middle age, still a beauty by any standard one might please, She allowed Herself to reflect, smiling inwardlly at the thought:. Just ask her Lover, who'd been right there with Her since before She could remember. He smiled at Her devotion, though, admittedly, She knew He had many other lovers, spread across the sphere of His influence - how could He not? They were all drawn to Him, captivated as She was Herself. But She knew also that She was His special one, that one who suited His kind best, and knew that He knew. So She forgave Him His stable of circling admirers - they kept theri distance well enough. She and He went on their stately waltz thorough time together, tugging gently on one another's hearts. Yes, such constancy made for a stable life; She was seldom really troubled. Therefore, She suppossed, the idea of actual sickness had simply never occurred to Her, unil She was almost in it's throes.

- Not that She didn't have Her unstable moments. She had Her seasons and Her storms. Sometimes She steamed with tropical passion; now and then She could be frigid, but overall She was temperate. She made it interesting; what woman worth her salt doesn't?

Then there were the disasters and close calls of Her youth, when everything seemed to go by in one great crowded rush. She'd been through some nasty collisions back then, and some had nearly did for Her; but resilience is the essence of Youth, and She ended up making Herself prettier than ever.

Of course She teemed with tiny life everywhere, for it is the way of life for the lesser to swarm upon the greater for a free ride through the dark and dangerous seas of fate. They formed all sorts of mutual arrangements everywhere they could bet a foothold. They minded their own business, though, liviing, dying and eating one another generation upon generation, sometimes drawing a litle upon Her for sustenance, yet always returning somethintg in kind. They''d been with Her since almost her Beginning and She tolerated them, barely thought about them,

Besides, their prescence never showed upon Her lovely face; and they never made Her feel....ill

The Parasites, however, were different.

They multiiplied prodigiously: relentlessly. They took from Her more than anything else that had shared Her, and what they returned, though assiminable, was often useless, perhaps even toxic. Wherever they roved they changed Her, - and not for the better.

Still, She was so Vast on their scale that they'd been around for awhie befoe their ceaseless depredations combined to make it impossible that one could not become aware that one's whole self was subtly shifting out of its normal balanced alignment, Her breath thinned; She felt flushed. Before long even the proximity of Her lover began to feel uncomfortable.

Never having been really sick before, She was getting a little panicked, when, thankfully, Her own inner nature came to Her rescue, though it made Her feel unpleasant for a little while. To burn the bugs out of Her system, She ran a fever. It worked. After she'd stopped sweating, all was well again.

The parasites had broken the Caridal Rule of Parisitism: Never Threaten the Actual Life of Your Host. If you do that, you'll likely provoke a Defense, and then you'll have to pick up and move somehere else if you want to live. If, that is, there's someplace hospitable to move off to. If not, you just die.

So in the end, as often happens, the parasites died from the heat of Her fever. They died in their millions. their billions, from the drowning, and the starving, and the unbearable heat. i

All the while they cried; in their homes, in their streets, in their fields, to their numberless conceptions of "God", they cried, "Why...Why....Why?"

They recieved no reply.

They were, after all, too small to hear,

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