-- Gift And Curse -
-- helplessness and hunger --
The first time it happens, she is twelve and the Wraith have come to Ossetia for a culling.
Teyla has accompanied her mother, and her uncle to Ossetia for trade, but there is no talk of trade when all three stiffen and stare up at the leaden sky.
Within seconds, her uncle is moving, his deep voice ringing through the marketplace. Eyes widen and heads jerk towards the sky, even as the shopkeepers begin babbling and people start to screamn.
Emotions hit her like a blow, like one of Mahael's blows when he shows her the stavework that is all her parents permit her to learn.
It makes her reel.
-- panting fear burning anger running despair coughing dirt screaming dazzle hurting fire --
"Teyla!" Her mother grabs her, hauls her upright, shakes her. Dark eyes dominate her mother's face, with an intensity that stuns her. "Control it. Block them out."
-- hunger time to cull hunger food to catch hunger watch them run hunger taste their fear --
Which them?
The Wraith are louder in her head, but she resonates more fiercely with the terror and panic of the humans who scatter like the tiny lemak-birds before the broad-winged hawk. Some may be caught, but not all.
"Teyla!" Her uncle slaps her lightly, drawing her out of her shock. "Move, child! Get these people to safety!"
She moves. She gets people to safety. She stays calm as she knows her mother and her uncle wish her to be.
But the helplessness and the hunger resonate for many long hours afterwards.
- fin -