SciFi and Fantasy Art: Agnu (Runing-Out-Of-Time-Girl)

I am Agnu, the girl with the clock in her forehead. I was born 719 years ago, but my life is not counted in earth years, thusly, my face and body are still a child’s. I am the best-known urchin in our world- my name has been on the lips of every being, from the newest star to the oldest nova. But I do not enjoy my celebrity; it only works to fuel their hatred. Everyone in my family was given a job, a certain specification around which to center their entire being. My little sister, Lacha, collects the first laughs of newborn children, and my older brother, Michra, is a patron of books. They are delightful, for Lacha always laughs, filling the air with sparkles and bells and summer afternoons spent eating sweet grass, and Michra is a tomb of knowledge, wise and careful to explain his every word. I have thirteen other brothers and sisters, all of whom have burdens to carry, and most of whom I have never met. My parents are not like their offspring- my mother mends dresses and my father is a sheep herder- yet they recognized the unique characteristics given to their children quite soon after they were born. In my case, they shied away from me, frightened because I have the doomsday clock in the center of my forehead. When I was born, the clock pointed to twelve, midnight or noon, take your pick. Every minute is a year, and the clock counts down to the end of our existence so far, maintaining a steady rhythm although it has no hand to count the seconds. Presently, the clock reads fifty-nine minutes past eleven, and there remains half a day on my watch. When I was born, there were 720 years left, and still I was despised. To humans, 720 years would be several life times, but an immortal is used to a century flying past and becoming a memory. Some of them have been known to spend hundreds of years on card games. I am their death personified, and must subsequently suffer for it.

an excerpt from the story, explaining about Agnu