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<sup><h6>“Shit! It sounded like that the way I said it. To me there is not one of them who is not important. I believe that every family, same for the Normals as for the Cherinians, has a gestalt and the feel of that gestalt gets richer and more complex with every new member. It is not possible to take out one member of the family from that gestalt without damaging it. We are all so intricately interwoven into one, that to unravel one you are in danger of killing the whole gestalt.”</h6></sup>
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<p><center><a href="https://steemit.com/sfandf-fiction/@arthur.grafo4/little-cherine-book-03-bpost034">Previous Post 034</a></center></p>
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<p><h3><center>1741</center></h3></p>
<p>“Cher love, this Robert loves to spin out words like a spider loves spinning webs.”</p>
<p>They, and we, had a good giggle at the expense of Robbie whose face was a bright scarlet - we could sense the heat of it.</p>
<p>It seems the old man is waiting for something. Robbie tried to guess, did everything he could to strengthen and set them on the right path (right as we saw it), but he has continued to remain in that world. He is using his healer almost daily now to rid himself of any sexual needs; going to the void and having the four girls around him at all times does not help.</p>
<p>He got into an argument one day with Cherine and he took a big decision, wishing he could ask for approval, but taking the responsibility. If our Cherine does not approve, he decided he accepts that the blame will be his and it will be a horrible guilt to carry. He offered Cherine a copy of the memories of our Cherine.</p>
<p>“She has had to grow in directions you did not need to - just as the opposite is true. Use her memories in a good way and you will become stronger.”</p>
<p>“If I do, then I will no longer be the Cherine that I am.”</p>
<p>He reassured her. “At all times her memories will remain separate from yours, you will be able to taste the difference. It is not as if you are bringing in her personality which could take you over. That does not happen when you mind-speak and share minds, so why fear her memories? I am more interested in you learning from her mistakes.”</p>
<p>“You mean a Cherine can make mistakes?” Robert teased.</p>
<p>He treated the question seriously. “Not on her judgement of people. On other matters? She is a little girl and makes all the mistakes that kids do - which is what is helping her to mature into a wonderful adult.”</p>
<p>Cherine took a copy of her memories and spent the next days in an odd world. She would suddenly have an angry look, get upset and cry or have a look of utter bliss, depending on which memories she was re-living. At the beginning we could feel our Cherine cringing.</p>
<p>“Rob, thank you. You were right. Robert, you cannot imagine what his Cherine is like. She is how I would dream of becoming if I could have imagined it is possible. I hope I can be as brave and full of love as she is. Rob, would you like to take my memories for her to look through? That way she will know how much I admire her.”</p>
<p>“She can also learn from you - you have your own admirable qualities. Thank you Cherine.”</p>
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<p># <i> With life being so normal for him we found ourselves able to concentrate on doing all the little things we had let slide. The men concentrated on their work, though Alki and Elia were prudently arranging their affairs so that their absence will not cause them financial damage. Sometimes we are able to co-ordinate our own lives in a way that makes us feel part of Robbie’s life. If he goes to Kefalari for a coffee and chat, we do the same and once had a glorious night at the night club; we almost felt like he was with us.</i></p>
<p># <i> “I think there is no ‘green leaf’ this time; the old man is just letting him recover and enjoy himself. That might mean he knows the next world will be another terrible experience for him.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “I don’t agree. I think he knows Robert is looking for Aganthi and will not be happy unless he finds her.”</i></p>
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<p>The reason for Tasso thinking so, was Robbie was often spending his early hours of the night standing in the darkness outside the club where we found her. He had tried looking at traffic lights for her friend, but he had not found anyone he knows. Finally he gave up and asked Tasso to help.</p>
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<p><h3><center>1742</center></h3></p>
<p>Tasso took nearly three weeks before he found her. In this world she is working in a brothel that has a number of children for their ‘special’ clients. Robbie went and stood outside, extending his senses. None of us were surprised to feel the tears coursing down his cheeks - most of us were also crying. Aganthi and her little sister, three little boys (including her little brother) and another one girl were being ‘used’ inside. The collective pain and cynical hardness of the children was something that tore into our hearts. What did surprise us was that he controlled his anger and did not destroy the adults.</p>
<p>He returned and discussed what he had found with Robert and his family. Tasso was with and he agreed with Robbie.</p>
<p>“We could call the police. They will arrest the adults and the children will be put in homes. None of them are Greek. They will either be sent back to Albania or whichever country they come from, where their fate will probably be even worse. There is also the possibility that the parents will get them back and within a couple of days they will be back at work somewhere else. I’m certain Officer Savva will confirm what I’ve told you.”</p>
<p>“What do we do then?”</p>
<p>“Whatever we decide, it better be decided right now. I cannot stand by and let them endure one more night.” They all looked at his bloodshot eyes and shrank away from the anger that glowed in him, his powers broiling in a white hot rage as they struggled to escape his control and strike out.</p>
<p>“Rob, if we grab the kids we could find homes for them, but the brothel will only find other children. How do we stop this?”</p>
<p>“You cannot.” - “As long as there are men who will pay, there will be those who will supply.” Tasso and Savva pointed out.</p>
<p>Savva continued: “Roberto, police forces all over the world have been fighting this evil for many years and they have not found a way to stamp it out. All we can do is reduce the incidents.”</p>
<p>In his practical way, Tasso added, “By forcing them underground it also becomes more expensive. That means less customers.”</p>
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<p># <i> Theresa burst out in anger, “Why is he sitting there talking instead of killing those bastards!?”</i></p>
<p># <i> “I think we are seeing a more mature Roberto, Theresa. He is now grappling with the problem, looking for a solution instead of letting his anger lash out at a handful.” Themi shook his head sadly. “I fear he will find none and end up having to lash out anyway.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “That makes him sick, he must find another way. Theresa, when he killed those men, a little part of him died - do you want that to happen again to our Robert?” Dommi asked.</i></p>
<p># <i> “No. But those men…” she burst into tears. Aganthi put her arms around her, her own eyes filled with tears.</i></p>
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<p>“Roberto, before you go out and kill those men, the customers, as you are thinking of, think about it first. Many of them are men with families, good citizens in all other ways.”</p>
<p>Cherine sat with her head bowed, looking down at her lap. She lifted her head and with eyes gleaming she spoke to our Robbie. “The men who do this, they have no empathy. All they can feel is their own need.”</p>
<p>Robbie stared at her. “Will you help?”</p>
<p>“How?”</p>
<p>He flared up. “Damn it! It does not feel right. I feel like tearing them to pieces, make them feel the pain they inflict, but a hundred times worse.” He visibly forced himself to calm down, banking all the need for aggressive action. “I need your gift of empathy. I am too filled with hatred for me to do it. I think if we can make the customers place themselves in the minds and hearts of those children they will leave.”</p>
<p>“It is worth trying Rob. Robert, you will come with?”</p>
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<p><h3><center>1743</center></h3></p>
<p>“Yes my love. This is our problem and we must work together.”</p>
<p>They spent three days and nights projecting from outside the building. As Robbie saw the men weep and tenderly hold the children without gratifying their own lust he began to lose his anger, only his sorrow still as strong. On the third day Cherine broke down and had to be forcibly taken home by her Robert.</p>
<p>A man she had projected to had found his ability to empathise, ability to feel what the child does, a reason to become even more vicious, inflicting as much pain as he could. Robbie froze all his muscles and sent a wave of calming love to the child. He put the child into a deep sleep and jumped to the room.</p>
<p>He did not harm the man who was staring in terror. Instead he did the one thing I think none of us could have done. He entered the mind of the man and rifled quickly through his memories. He saw all the children this man has damaged and went past that, searching for the reason why a man could become so evil. When he found it, it was as if something within him withered. It took him some time to recover and he sat on the edge of the bed.</p>
<p>“What do I do with you? I tried to open your mind, make you empathise and feel her terror and pain and it only increased your pleasure. I came to kill you in a way that would avenge all the pain you have caused. Having looked in your mind I now understand why you are like this. </p>
<p>I cannot see that you will change, so I cannot allow you to walk out of here alive. I would then be responsible for each child you hurt. My first reaction was to let you escape life without any further pain, but the voices of all those little hearts you destroyed cried out in protest.</p>
<p>Giorgo, I understand why you are as you are, I know the horrors you went through yourself. There are many other adults who went through the same and did not become as you are. You allowed yourself to become the person you are and therefore you share the guilt of your father and uncle.</p>
<p>I will allow you to return home so that you may prepare yourself. Sometime within a week, I will come for your soul. I will collect from your own mind all the pain you made children feel and you will die feeling it all as even empathy could not force you to. Try to hurt another child during this time and I will be the most vicious killer of all time…you will wish your mother had died before giving birth to you. Get out.”</p>
<p>Soon as he was alone with the sleeping child he muttered to himself, ‘I can’t believe I used that corny line!’ Gently he picked up the girl in his arms and took her to her new home with Dommi to love and cure her.</p>
<p>“She must not meet me, let her only get to know your Robert.”</p>
<p>“You fear Aganthi will love you? That would not be a bad thing Roberto.”</p>
<p>“Dommi, I have my Aganthi and she is enough to fill my heart. Let this one fill your hearts.”</p>
<p>“Are you really going to kill that man?”</p>
<p>“Yes. I did lie though, I cannot make him suffer, not in cold blood. He will sleep and die peacefully. If the souls he damaged cry out, then I will have to bear their pain.”</p>
<p>He hardly ever returned to the house, just for a shower, some food and when he could not avoid it, a few hours sleep. He kept his word and Giorgo passed away in his sleep. Luckily he did not meet another like him and when the brothel found the demand for children had died away they decided to stop wasting space on them.</p>
<p>Now Robbie felt he could act and he did swiftly. He grabbed the small sister and brother of Aganthi, took them directly to Savva and his wife. They had already met the children in the mind of Robbie and agreed they too could love them. He stayed long enough for his healer to repair their bodies and left their hearts to be repaired by the love of their new parents.</p>
<p>“Roberto, Marian and I have seen the great love we have for each other in your world and have come to see this is growing between us too. Bring us any child you cannot find a home for.”</p>
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<p><h3><center>1744</center></h3></p>
<p>Themi and Natalie had also been brought together and they also asked for a child, despite already having his brother as a baby. Having done what he could for the children, he saw only one thing he needed to do for Robert. He jumped to London and from there travelled to Ireland and found Rose.</p>
<p>After explaining he told her to look in the mirror, he had already sent in his healer and she was looking younger. She crossed herself and turned to him as the front door opened and a frail young girl walked in. Robbie knew immediately. This was the original Laura.</p>
<p>Rose saw his tears and finally believed.</p>
<p>“Son, she did not die, in this world she ran out for the ball and the driver swerved, crashing into a building. Death refuses to be cheated, I have been allowed this extra time with her, but she is already dying. She has leukaemia.” </p>
<p>Laura did not speak, her eyes only asking her mother for an explanation. Wearily she sat. “You called him son. Is he my brother Robert?”</p>
<p>“Yes my love. He has told me of things that sound like miracles.”</p>
<p>“From your face it seems he is a miracle for you. You look younger.”</p>
<p>“Rose, mother. I need to stop with you and send my healer to Laura. Death will just have to look elsewhere, I will not let it take her.”</p>
<p>He made them collect a few things they were sentimental about and took them to Cyprus. They booked into a hotel and his heart warmed up again as he came to love them both. When he took them to their new home in Greece, he saw the reaction in Robert, knew this Laura was too old to fall in love with her brother, but he knew it does not matter, she will find a love. He looked at the face of Robert and did not protest when Cherine pulled at him so that she could whisper in his ear, “You found your green leaf; it was my Robert.”</p>
<p>Tenderly he pulled her into his arms and kissed her as he would have our Cherine. He stood up and as he disappeared his smile and the look in his eyes were left behind to warm their hearts.</p>
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<p># <i> “I’m glad I got to see what I would have looked like. Mother, would you rather have her back?”</i></p>
<p># <i> “Laura baby, how could you think I would not want you as you are. That Rose has her Laura and I have mine.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “If we learn to jump there you could both have both Lauras.”</i></p>
<p># <i> Rose shook her head. “We better leave things like that for the future. Now, this minute I have all I want.”</i></p>
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<p># <i> Maybe my Robert is learning a lot from all that is happening to him, but I think we are learning even more. It is not that we did not appreciate our Robert, god knows we did, but seeing him handle all these problems has made us really appreciate him. Even Solomon and Ordinx feel this way. I think we have the best Robert in any world. Guess I really was lucky to find you my love. - Cherine</i></p>
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<p><h3><center>Chapter One Hundred Eleven</center></h3></p>
<p>Robert arrived to find his protector already forming an umbrella to protect him from slashes of fiery energy that were raining down upon the world around him. The destruction and panic were enough to unsettle anyone and for a short while he did nothing as he watched with uncomprehending eyes. Our home was in front of him, the part that is our entrance hall and dining room already seared and demolished. He walked into the house and finding nobody he climbed down the stairs to the basement. All the Cherinians of this world were down there.</p>
<p>They stared at him with shock and their happiness was expressed in slapping of his back and hugs.</p>
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<p><h3><center>1745</center></h3></p>
<p>“How did you get back? Where are Cherine and the girls?”</p>
<p>“Hold it. I am not your Robert. I have just arrived from an alternate reality. Will someone please tell me what is happening? What happened to the family?”</p>
<p>“We are under attack!” Angelo called out, his face streaked with tears.</p>
<p>“Your family Angelo? I’m sorry. Alki, please explain.”</p>
<p>“Something from space, we do not know what it is. Robert and his family left here two days ago to try and fight it in space. They hoped to draw it away from Earth. We do not know much else.”</p>
<p>“Will you look after my body?” With a nod he lay down and went to the void. He saw the Sparklers were there, but he realised it was not them attacking. They were trying to collect the souls and a Sparkler tried to ‘collect’ him too. He evaded it and went amongst the Sparklers broadcasting his need to communicate (he does still have his Sparkler motes in his soul). A path opened before him and he went in to the tunnel they opened before him. Deep within he suddenly found himself in his body, standing on a featureless desert of sand. A form shimmered before him.</p>
<p>“You hold our energy within you, how is this?”</p>
<p>“I come from an alternate reality where you, the Sparklers and I are friends. The souls you are collecting, you are damaging them. Look in my mind for the truth.”</p>
<p>Fiercely he fought to remain standing as they called forth his memories, images and scenes flashing through his mind. When he was released he found himself laying face down in the sand. Spitting out the taste of the sand he raised himself onto his haunches. He gave a laugh of joy when the shape of Solomon formed in front of him.</p>
<p>“We have seen the truth as in your mind and formed a replica of your Solomon. Our people have been warned to alter their energy so as not to harm the souls of your dead.”</p>
<p>“Have you any knowledge of the life form that is attacking my world?”</p>
<p>“None. They exist in the reality of your world, not here.”</p>
<p>“You saw the misunderstanding when we met, of my guilt?”</p>
<p>“We did and as your Sparklers did, we have understood. Fear not, we wish you no harm.”</p>
<p>“I had no fear of that, not if you are as my Solomon. What I meant by my question is, will you lend me your support if I call upon you?”</p>
<p>“The force you wish to fight seems to be trying to rid your world of all life, not only human. We are defenders of life, we would help.”</p>
<p>“Thank you. I do not wish to frighten or upset your people. I will be joining with the void so as to draw some of it’s energy. Solomon, what if I attack them and find they too are an intelligent species that misunderstood what we are, same as happened between us? How do I attack them?”</p>
<p>“Your first responsibility is to see to the survival of your world.”</p>
<p>“I will defend without destroying if I can. After I come out of being the void, would you send a Sparkler to join me, enabling you to see and know of all I do?”</p>
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<p>Robbie became the void and we lost him. Our contact was severed. Even the power of the old man could not take us there with him. Heart in mouth we all waited for him. He reappeared, took a Sparkler and returned to his body.</p>
<p>“My protector will remain here to watch over you. If the family return, tell them to stay here until I return. Alki, take from me the Sparkler I carry, it will help you contact Solomon should you need to.”</p>
<p>Robert worried that it might take him more than a few days to end the attack and the locals do not have healers for looking after his body, so he decided to take it with him. Since he would be travelling in normal space, he liked the idea. </p>
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<p><h3><center>1746</center></h3></p>
<p>A raging furnace of energy surrounded him as he climbed up the steps. At the top he found the old man waiting.</p>
<p>“Robert, you will not be staying here, there is nothing you can do. Go to space, just be an observer - do not attack or you will be destroyed. Your job here is to learn. When you return to your world you must search it out through the void and use energy streams to draw it off into following a different path so that it misses your world.”</p>
<p>Robbie only glared at him and with a flare of energy he formed a globe of air about him within a shell and shot at an incredible speed into space.</p>
<p>“I heard him my loves. You know I cannot - I love you all. Bye.”</p>
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<p># <i> After the last months this was too sudden. Cherine and I were the only dry-eyed children. Even many adults felt this is the end, our Robbie is finally facing an enemy he cannot fight. Socrati was furious.</i></p>
<p># <i> “That old man, he must have known our Roberto would not desert a world being killed. He sent him there to die.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “Socrati.” Cherine put her hand up to stop him and we all turned to her. “It may be that the only thing that keeps our Robert strong enough to survive is our faith in him. I refuse to lose my trust in him ever again. Help me by trusting him please.”</i></p>
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<p>Within these moments he was already in space and being attacked. He was immersed in an attack as fierce as visiting the surface of the sun would have been. His shield seemed able to withstand the fury, but it could not keep out the heat. Robbie set his ball dancing in and out, drawing the attack, but not staying within it for a second. He was trying to direct his movements in the direction of the source of the attack and whatever it was that was attacking him realised his intentions and it kept on increasing the power, broadening the sword of its fury until he could no longer totally escape the heat. </p>
<p>Logically, but breaking our hearts, he abandoned his body, wrapping it as it fell, in whatever protection from radiation, heat and the vacuum he could, and stopped zigzagging, aiming directly for the heart of the stream.</p>
<p>In the turbulence his body was thrown about and we saw a foot vaporise as it fell out of the sheath of protection. The stump was sealed by the melting of flesh and bone. Robbie ignored his body, he had already done all he could for it and accepted it may have to be sacrificed. Suddenly he veered and broke out of the stream of nuclear fire directed at him.</p>
<p>He saw now where it originated from and dodged again as the flames leapt at him. We all felt despair at the sight he had seen. He and we had perhaps expected to see spaceships, but instead all we saw was energy appearing out of the darkness of space. There was nothing there for him to attack.</p>
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<p>Robbie had noticed that the attack on Earth had stopped as it tried to kill him, sending all that awesome fury of nuclear destruction at him. He decided any time he could buy for Earth was worth his death. Calmer now, he turned back to his body and placed it within a time seal, in ‘stasis’ as he called it - which is the gift John had wanted to give him, Robbie had sort of reasoned it out and searched for the door in his own mind, thus avoiding having to ask John and then be obliged to carry out his wishes.</p>
<p>“I will not have much time to fight or talk to you. Get your healers to create another Robert, it must be ready to take over my protector. Cherine, prepare yourself to take my memories so that he knows what to do to turn this away from our own world.”</p>
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<p># <i> She did not quite know what to do, but waited with her mind wide open as all of us did. We all received his thoughts that held all his latest memories and like a treasure of infinite value we wrapped them up within our minds. I looked across at Cherine and she placed her hands in Dommi’s and mine.</i></p>
<p># <i> “I am not doing it, I do not want another Robert, I want him back.” I nodded without speaking. I could not have spoken for my heart was hurting me too much and the ache in my throat threatened to force my eyes to spill tears I refused to shed.</i></p>
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<p><h3><center>1747</center></h3></p>
<p># <i> I finally managed to ask, “I can’t understand. Why doesn’t he use his powers to kill it?”</i></p>
<p># <i> “He is afraid to, in case it is like the Sparklers.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “That is stupid Cherine, it is not trying to take the souls - it is just killing!” I had to write of what I said, for it is too easy sometimes to think I am clever and see deeply - or deeper than my loves do. Now they can hold up to me (should they need to) an example of how shallow I can be when I get afraid. </i></p>
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<p>Slowly, so very slowly, Robbie drew it after him until months later Earth was but as bright as Venus is in our sky. He used every mountain of rock he could find to hide behind just for one moment of respite from the searing furnace of fire that beat against him relentlessly. At times he would hallucinate, seeing us in his mind and he would forget to move, allowing the full fury of the attack to eat at his shell. We all fought then to send our screams of warning to him. Somehow it was always Candy who would go to him in his hallucination and cry about a fire that is going to kill him and with that he would come to with a start.</p>
<p>Robbie had stopped trying to approach the source as he saw no point to it. All he was interested in was drawing it away from our solar system while he was also careful not to direct it towards any other stars, fearful that he might then condemn another planet filled with life to a burning death. He aimed away from our Milky Way (I cannot say above or below the plane, for both sides are both above and below, depending on the observers’ point of view) for the great gulf outside our galaxy, hoping it cannot survive there for the period it will need to return or reach another galaxy.</p>
<p>He was slowly but steadily growing weaker. We all knew that the end is approaching. When he got the giggles and talked to himself, we did not think he was talking to us anymore and saw it as a sign of the end of our beloved Robert.</p>
<p>“Somebody said I do not have an enemy I fear, that I treat our wars too casually. Guess they did not know there could be anything like this - a world of fire. Wonder, how could I treat this one casually? Maybe that would make it so angry it explodes…”</p>
<p>He carried on, sometimes making us laugh between our tears.</p>
<p>During another hallucination we saw him sit and talk with me. He was discussing the Sparklers and the Anadir. He spoke of them with so much love, his worries of how to bring to them a need for life. I asked him about how he becomes the void and he chuckled. ‘Cannot tell you that yet, you are not able to block parts of your mind. We don’t want to lose Aganthi and Irene eh?’ I then asked him if he would be able to draw energy from it whenever he wants and he answered me as if I were an adult, describing the void, how it is everywhere and throughout all of time. Candy came to him crying and he came to with a start.</p>
<p>“Sam? My darling Samantha, you trying to help me even in my dreams? I cannot draw energy from the void unless I manage to hide for at least a few minutes. How can I do that?”</p>
<p>At other times he would think of the oddest things. He wondered if Wendy has written any new songs; he told her he wants to hear them. Many times he wondered about the source of this attack. Is it a creature that lives in space? Why does it hate life, it uses energy so it is a part of all life. Once, he wondered whether it is the Cosmos, seeing life as an infestation it needs to rid itself of. Even his ramblings were of interest and provoked debates among ourselves - well, mostly the adults.</p>
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<p># <i> One morning, while we were all watching Robbie, a ray of sunshine first lit the top of a tree in our garden and the sounds of birds came in to us. Dommi gave a start and looked around at us.</i></p>
<p># <i> “Cherine, you said we must hold to our trust in him and we have done so. I never would have thought he could last so long just through sheer willpower. Have all of you looked at yourselves recently? You look terrible! What are we going to tell our Roberto when he returns, that we let his babies starve? That we did not sleep, using our healers to keep us going?</i></p>
<p># <i> Marian. Claire, Rose, Anna, all the adult women, I need your help. We must change our ways of watching over Robert. We must all take turns sleeping, we must bathe and change our clothes more often. The laundry has to be done and everyone must start eating properly. He must only feel joy when he returns. Help me please?”</i></p>
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<p><h3><center>1748</center></h3></p>
<p># <i> It is strange. We all showered, changed our clothes and went out for lunch. The change in our physical wellbeing affected our outlook. We started wondering, not whether Robert would survive, but how he will vanquish his enemy. The tears we were continually holding back became a fierce determination that our Robbie will win.</i></p>
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<p>Perhaps that is why it hurt so much when Robbie went into another drawn out hallucination and this time the fierce energies managed to break through his shell. It brought him back and he sealed himself off again, but this was like a harbinger of what is to come. </p>
<p>For him there were no days and nights, just the endless flames that surrounded him. At the beginning he would dart out to take a look and check that he is moving in the direction he had chosen - out into that emptiness that lies between galaxies. Lately he tended to forget to look, even when stars appeared, and he was veering off course towards a spiral of our galaxy. By now there would not have been even one human who would blame him. He was struggling to hold on to his sanity and was wracked by nightmare after nightmare.</p>
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<p># <i> “Ordinx, perhaps your people could help us find Robert?”</i></p>
<p># <i> “Solomon, we do not know which reality he is in!”</i></p>
<p># <i> “I’ve thought of that. If we can identify more or less where he is in our reality then we could send out scouts, teams that would jump from reality to alternate reality until they find him. Since they will be affecting their jumping of realities by striving to aim for Robert, by wanting to arrive by him, I think they are likely to find him. We have not tried it before, but I have just sent a Sparkler to the reality of the alternate Teller family, without ‘showing’ it where the Sparklers of that reality are and it found them. Once they do find him, they can return to the void, gather as much energy as possible and jump from the void to him directly within his sphere. Perhaps that way we can supply him with the energy he needs.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “That is a big gamble, but worth trying. Let’s go.”</i></p>
<p># <i> They disappeared and we all looked at each other in wonder, a small flame of hope coming alive within our hearts. Two and a half days later Ordinx returned.</i></p>
<p># <i> “Solomon has sent out hundreds of teams, each team made up of hundreds of thousands of Sparklers. Each Sparkler can only deliver a tiny amount of energy, but if even one team finds him, the energy in total they can give him should be enough. They can continue to supply him for as long as necessary.”</i></p>
<p># <i> I was the first one to realise. “The Sparklers have found another purpose!”</i></p>
<p># <i> Ordinx smiled at me. “Solomon said so, he also guessed you would realise it. He told me to tell you that even now Robert manages to reach out to his people and help them.”</i></p>
<br>
<p>Days passed and Robbie was deteriorating quickly. Some corner of his mind must have realised and he leapt away from the flames. The leap was big enough that it took at least three seconds for the flame to find him again, but the sight of the galaxies, the myriad of stars that shone and shaped images helped feed his mind that had been starved of sensory information. He saw his correct destination, in broad terms, and sent himself moving that way as fast as he could. This seemed to provoke an attack that was as vicious as the original ones. We all wondered what fixated the creature or creatures on Robbie, is it possible they see him as a threat or is he the closest form of life and they cannot bear to let him live? Ordinx grabbed the information and returned to Solomon, but found he was not needed. Solomon had passed on the information to the Anadir who had calculated the probable whereabouts of Robbie and armed with this new knowledge swarms of Sparklers left to find the original teams.</p>
<p>“My poor babies! You must all be suffering. My thoughts and heart is still filled with you. God, to be home with my loved ones and friends! Living in the middle of a sun is not that much fun, especially when I never did enjoy getting a tan. I think after this I will probably lock myself in the dark for a month. At least having you with me will make that fun!”</p>
<br>
<p># <i> This was the first clear thought we’d had from him for a long time. It rejuvenated us all for a while, despite the amazed comment by Ordinx. “He still thinks he will get away!”</i></p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>1749</center></h3></p>
<p>“The little fish gets eaten by a bigger fish; then that fish gets eaten by a bigger fish. All life is predator and prey. What feeds off this predator? Robert, if it does not have a predator that threatens it, reduces it’s numbers, then why is the Universe not full of them? Maybe there is not enough food for it. Are we it’s food or does it just hate us?” He was silent again for a long time, only living through more nightmares that came out of fears from his past and those of his failure to lure this enemy away from Earth.</p>
<p>“If it does not have an enemy, then I must be it’s enemy. Robert the slayer of fire-dragons.” His mind went into a fit of giggling. “No, too big for a dragon. Fire-world!!” That sobered him and he recalled his need to check on their direction. This time the flame hesitated a moment before engulfing him again. He noticed.</p>
<p>“Careful Robert, it might be nearly ready to give up. Must not let it give up - too soon. Come you bastard, you killed my Cherine, I’m coming to get you.” The crazy fool leapt down or up the throat of flame in a desperate bid to reach the source. The force of the blasting flames soon pushed him back again, but now it, the creature, sped up in its rush to get at him. Robbie sent us or to himself an image of himself lying back, his hands under his head, relaxing. “Push you bastard, push! The faster you come for me the faster you push me away from you.”</p>
<p>The image he was projecting sat up as if in thought, elbow on knee and chin in his palm. “Sails. Of course!” He let the image go and concentrated on changing the shape of the sphere so that it became more efficient at using the thrust of the energy being hurled at him. That was his last coherent thought. His energy was almost at an end, his soul shrinking as he fed the sphere of himself.</p>
<br>
<p># <i> “Oh my poor Robert.” Cherine turned to us with a deep sorrow in her eyes. “He is trying to keep his body for our sake, that is what is using up most of his energy. Doesn’t he know we would love him in any body?” She hung her head to hide the pain and tears that now fell despite her trying to be brave.</i></p>
<p># <i> Socrati waved us back as we reached for her. “Cherinaki, you are wrong.” She looked up at him. “He is using his body and the shield to attract that thing, whatever it is, he knows it senses his energy and body. If he tightens himself into a tiny ball of his soul only, it might lose interest in him.”</i></p>
<br>
<p>Five months and eight days after this had started we all gave a shriek of joy. Little green specks appeared within his shield. A team of Sparklers have found him!</p>
<br>
<p># <i> Cherine jumped up, running to Ordinx. “They found him! I’m going to Solomon, they can show me where he is. I must go to him!”</i></p>
<p># <i> Alki gently stopped her. “Calm down Cherine. We do not know that Solomon has that information. Think kori mou, use your brains instead of your heart. If you go he will need a lot more energy to protect you also. What the Sparklers can give him may not be enough.”</i></p>
<p># <i> She cried as if she would never stop. Her mother held her and we all tried to fill her with our love and understanding, but she is, as only Robert is able to always remember, still only a child and her disappointment broke her heart. She ended up crying herself to sleep, exhausted by the strength of her emotions.</i></p>
<br>
<p>Robbie dimly realised something had changed and struggled to return, to become alert again. When his dazed mind understood that Sparklers had found him, he looked around for the emerald cloud and saw only his shroud of flames, twisting in their eagerness to consume him.</p>
<p><i>*You are of my world, come from Solomon?* </i>They could not answer but Solomon had shown them what to do. They danced for him in the form our dances take. <i>*Why have you come?*</i></p>
<p>Each Sparkler gave of the tiny amount of energy it held and disappeared, other Sparklers taking their place. Slowly Robbie understood and his thoughts were a shout of joy.</p>
<br>
<p><h3><center>1750</center></h3></p>
<p>“My loves, you are still able to feel me!! Space has not faded me from your minds! Solomon, thank you, thank you. They are coming to me directly from the void. I can already feel the energy they are feeding me with. Tell them when you can, it is not only the energy that is feeding my soul. Seeing friends out here, in the centre of this molten furnace, that is the best tonic.”</p>
<p>As his store of energy grew and his mind cleared, he examined what he had done while half in a delirium. He played with the shape of his shell until it was mostly a large curved sail, carrying a small pod at the bottom (similar to a seed he has seen, he said). The effect of this was dramatic. Gradually the view on the further side cleared. He is able now to ride at the front of the flames.</p>
<p>At first all he did was feel relief and his confidence soared. Then he became Robbie again.</p>
<p>“Right, let’s find out if this thing has any brains.”</p>
<p>The crazy idiot got it chasing around in a circle. Slowly he narrowed the circle until he was close enough to see the source. He quickly veered off, widening the circle again.</p>
<p>“This is fucking crazy!! It looks like a moon with a black hole!! I could even feel it pulling at me. Since when are black holes alive? Shit, scientists have never even proven they exist!”</p>
<br>
<p># <i> “Actually they have.” Themi muttered softly.</i></p>
<br>
<p>“Solomon, no guilt this time. This thing is not intelligent. How do I kill it though?” He was silent for a time and then chuckled. “After my recent trip to South Africa, I would suggest marrying a black hole to a white hole. Now, would someone kindly tell me what the hell a white hole is and where I can find one?”</p>
<br>
<p># <i> Solomon had just joined us and he giggled (very unnerving to think of a creature made out of a large number of Thinkers giggling like a little girl). “He has bounced back very fast.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “For us Earth humans, being alone and deprived of sensory data is a torture. Like when they stuck him in a dark cell.” Keith explained.</i></p>
<br>
<p>“This thing can’t have a dark hole, it would not need the flames. It would have been big enough to sink itself within our planet and we would all have disappeared down it’s maw, compressed tighter than a zip file.”</p>
<br>
<p># <i> “A zip file?”</i></p>
<p># <i> “A program Solomon, used on computers.”</i></p>
<p># <i> “Oh! I do not see the relevancy, but thank you Keith.”</i></p>
<br>
<p>Flames often lapped on either side of him, obscuring his view, but he welcomed them. He seemed to be relaxed and enjoying himself, joking about his taking such a grand tour for free. He even found a way to dance with the Sparklers.</p>
<p>Though weeks went by, none of us gave matters of our world too much thought. We all enjoyed listening to Robbie, watching the craziness in him. One of his jokes, among many others, was his idea of taking it into the heart of a white sun.</p>
<p>Another week went by before he came back to that idea. He mulled over it, toyed with ways of achieving it. His biggest problem was that he does not want to make it also his own fiery burial ground, as he put it.</p>
<p>“I would look a little silly if I did that, died, and this thing just rode through the sun and came out stronger. Solomon, I estimate that you must have sent me somewhere between fifty and two hundred thousand Sparklers. Could you send at least twenty times the amount that are here? I need to build up a huge deposit of energy.”</p>
<p>Solomon sent off all the teams which had returned, without waiting for a reason from Robbie.</p><br>
<br>
<p><center><a href="https://steemit.com/sfandf-fiction/@arthur.grafo4/little-cherine-book-03-bpost036"> Next [Book 03] - Post 036</a></center></p>
<p><i><b><h5>I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.</h5></b></i></p><br>
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<h6>Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου<br></h6>(Alexander Zenon Eustace)<br>
<sup>23rd August, 2019</sup>
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* posted on Steemit: 23rd August, 2019<br>
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