Sarah sat in the grass next to the road. It was very long grass because nobody had been maintaining it for a very long time. The road too hadn't been really maintained in ages, but it still looked in great shape, probably because only one person ever used it once a month to go pick up supplies in town.
Sarah lay down, grass tickling her face, her hands underneath her head, looking up at the sky. Clouds driftly by slowly and the setting sun gace the sky a friendly red glow. A bird started singing not far off, perhaps to greet the coming evening, perhaps because it simply enjoyed singing. Not that it really mattered. It was a beautiful sound in the quiet air and that's what mattered.
The sun sank slowly, almost leisurely. Like everybody else on the planet, it wasn't in a rush and it took its time. But, unlike everybody else on the planet, it still had millions of years stretching ahead of it.
Katia should see this sunset, Sarah thought.
And with that thought, she stood up and walked towards her home. It was a small house, sitting at the edge of an encroaching forest, but it was more than enough. Sarah wasn't surprised to find her wife sitting in what they called ‘the lab’. She paused in the doorway for a moment, watching Katia's back as she worked near the screen.
“Hey, Princess.”
Katia stopped whatever it was she had been doing, turned around and smiled a smile more beautiful than any sunset. “Sarah, hi.”
“You shouldn't be working here at a time like this,” said Sarah.
“Maybe not,” said Katia. “But I want to get this finished.”
“Why?” Sarah asked, sauntering further into the room.
“Just so that I've done it,” said Katia.
“Good,” said Sarah. “Because if you'd said you wanted to leave a record for coming generations or something, I'd have to slap you.”
Katia chuckled. “I'm not that much of a dreamer. Oh, hey, look at this.”
Sarah went to stand next to her wife's chair and looked at the computer screen. “Yeah? What is it?”
“You know how you've always called me ‘Princess’?”
“Yeah.”
“Well… here.”
Katia clicked with her mouse. On the screen a regal image appeared, sitting haughtily on a throne. The figure was female, but it was impossible to make out any of her features. And, although Sarah knew the figure's throne must have been standing in some room in some castle somewhere, she appeared to be sitting in a black void, filled only by an occasional passing mirage.
“Princess Katharina or something?”
“No. Princess Suzanna.”
“Huh.”
“And watch this.”
Another figure walked onto the screen across the black nothingness and kneeled in front of the throne. It was wearing beautiful ornamental armour which shone brightly.
“Kalas,” said Katia. “Her champion.”
“Well, well, well,” said Sarah. “And it looks like they're not trying to kill each other for once.”
“We never did, not really,” said Katia. “We just… didn't know.”
“If you say so, Princess.”
“Anyway, I think I nearly got ‘em all,” said Katia. “Just a few more months and then…”
“Then you'll have to come up with something else to fill your time with,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, I guess.” She sighed.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. It's just… somewhere around the 21st century something… happened. It left a… a scar I think. I can't really get a grip on it and I don't really think I want to.”
Sarah shrugged. “Then don't go there,” she said. “It doesn't really matter.”
“Yes, it does,” said Katia. “It won't be complete without it.”
“No, look, what matters is that it's a beautiful warm evening out there with a gorgeous sunset and singing birds and everything and you're missing it.”
Katia looked at Sarah's face for a moment.
“You're right,” she said, “that does matter more.”
“See?” said Sarah. “So come on, Princess.”
Sarah and Katia left the lab and the computer and the project and went to sit in the grass next to the road, Sarah holding Katia in her arms. And they waited for evening to fall and listened the song of birds and the beating of their hearts.
And when the sun finally lowered below the horizon, it really was the most beautiful sunset they'd ever seen.