Chosen by Desire

I didn't want to leave the farm. I had my own little farm and a nice little home away from Earth. I think it was the most beautiful place in the universe, if you don't count Earth itself. But then she came and disrupted everything.

* * *

I remember when Sirchez first arrived on my planet, Alophan Prime. I had already been here for a few hundred years and I had started to get used to life without her. My best friend and roommate, Jowy, told me that I should be happy for her. He said that we'd never gotten married because of our jobs. We were both miners on Earth; we had to work 14 hours a day and all day on weekends or we'd be fired, so eventually we just drifted apart. But he said that Sirchez could finally have what she wanted: a family, kids, good food, a nice house with all the modern amenities... And maybe even a dog!

Most of the people who lived on Alophan Prime were originally from Earth but they couldn't afford to pay their bills back home anymore. They came here with nothing more than what they could carry on their backs and set out to make a new life for themselves here in paradise. That's why there's no real technology on Alophan Prime; if you need something, you have to make it yourself because there's nobody around to do it for you. It took me several weeks just to figure out how to get fresh water from my well after landing here; I almost died of dehydration before I figured it out!

But for Sirchez, it was perfect. She got her house right away because somebody had just passed away down the road, leaving his entire estate behind him. She never heard the news; apparently, she was too busy watching TV at work when it happened! As soon as she stepped foot off the ship she gasped with joy at all of the greenery around her; she pointed at every flower she saw as though they were all new discoveries! And then when they brought her up to this incredible big house overlooking the valley, she exclaimed, "Oh my God! This is amazing!"

She walked into the living room and turned around slowly with her eyes closed, taking in everything around her - the vaulted ceiling, the stone mantle above the fireplace where trophies and keepsakes were displayed... She opened her eyes again and went over to one of them - a framed picture of men holding up an enormous golden nugget bigger than their heads! She picked it up off the mantle and cried out with joy once again!

"This is so good!" she said through tears. "So good!" Then she put the trophy back on its display stand and went over to another one: three men sitting inside a large metal tube wearing huge gloves on their hands; one of them was holding something like a stick and pointing it toward some sort of device on top of another tube next to them... She stared at it for several minutes before saying, "This is so incredible!"

"Yeah," replied Jowy as he walked into the living room behind her carrying four large suitcases full of clothes and other personal items that Sirchez insisted on bringing with her when she left Earth. "It's pretty cool." He set them down by an open door leading into what looked like another bedroom adjacent to that end wall where all of those trophies were displayed above two swords crossed in an X shape above a shield bearing a crest with two rearing horses galloping side-by-side toward each other... At least that's what Jowy told me later when he showed me around this place called "the Hall".

Sirchez went outside onto a balcony attached to that end wall carrying one of those suitcases in each hand while Jowy carried the other two out after her. There was a railing around part of this balcony which overlooked an incredible view of mountains covered in evergreen trees with grasslands beneath them stretching down toward that valley below where hundreds or thousands of homes dotted the landscape in clusters as far as you could see... Including hers! It really was pretty awesome but nothing like home back on Earth... Oh well, I told myself as Jowy stood beside Sirchez admiring their new surroundings while looking very much like any proud husband showing off his new wife's prize possession!

And now here we are several months later still living together under this roof which has become our very own castle... The only thing missing is that dog - but Sirchez said that if we got one then we would be responsible for feeding it so instead she bought two chickens which are always laying eggs at our doorstep every morning when we wake up! It's pretty great actually but every once in a while one of those chickens gets eaten by whatever eats chickens around here - Jowy says he thinks maybe it might be those wolves which apparently roam freely throughout these mountains surrounding us... And then he starts talking about building us some kind of fence or wall around our home so maybe those chickens will be safe