Title: Dreams of Yesterday
Rating: PG
Summary: He saw her amidst the cranns and thought her to be an aingeal. Ronon and Malena once upon a time.
"Slán! Slán!'
She cried at last
'I leave you now for my rest!"
The first time he heard the pure words of Seti was when he was fifteen. They were studying literature in that dusty old classroom that he recalls fuzzily was always bathed in gold. He had a seat by the window and had been starring out of it idly, half listening to the Master recite the poetry of the long dead gaiscíoch.
"Great gaiscígh," the Master had murmured earlier when the lesson had first begun, "are expected to be more than muscle. They are expected to be wise and true, the best of our culture." The old man and his hoarse voice had never made an impression before on the bored teenagers but there was something in his eyes at that moment which excited the tine in Ronon's blood.
Eighteen was fast approaching and the choice lay before him. Sateda demanded its people either chose medicine or join its army for when the inevitable came. The people could choose other professions as well and learn them alongside whatever their choice was.
Ronon came from a long line of gaiscígh on both sides of his family. It was nice of everyone to give him the illusion of choice but his choice had been made for him long before his birth.
But he was young enough to dream of glory and victories that would be sung of. To him, the future was naught but an adventure he had yet to undertake.
The Master was reciting to them out loud the renown gaiscíoch's epic tragic poem of a warrior and his forbidden sióg lover. The story had been retold and rewritten over the centuries and all of them had grown up with different versions of the tale.
The book, in which they were supposed to be reading along in, lay open on his desk. From time to time his eyes would flicker to it before returning to the window. It was titim and the cranns were goldandred. The úll cranns were at last ripe, the toradh a luscious red. The liles were blooming on the banks and Ronon could see them everyday as he walked home from school.
A breeze caused the cranns to sway back and forth. He watched them with the wondering thought of what it would be like to be one of them. To be free of this maddening tension, of feeling the lull deep within his cnámhs, and to just be able to sway peacefully in the wind.
He saw her then. A class was exiting the school and he watched them, longing to be them and to no longer have to sit in the stuffy classroom. She was one of the last to exit but his eyes were immediately captivated by her. She wore a plain white skirt and red shirt but he hardly noticed. His eyes were captivated by her pale skin and rare goldhair that glowed in the sun.
His breath caught in his throat and he hardly dared to breath, irrationally fearful that if he did she would vanish like the famed siógs of myth. She was an aingeal; Ronon knew this immediately, likening her to the tales his seanathair had told him long ago. Beautiful avatars of compassion that any gaiscíoch would be fortunate to see.
By chance she glanced up and their eyes meet. Time stood still as they gazed at one another. He hungrily drank in the vision before him. Her eyes were a rich brown and her lips were full and pink.
Time abruptly moved again when a friend tugged on his aingeal's arm. She blushed and smiled before turning away, leaving him with a feeling of loss that hurt as nothing had before. The Master's words were clearly heard again as he watched her walk away.
"Oh! I dream
Of things beyond the endless sea
And scenes from yesterday…"