Title: to be of mud instead of stars
Disclaimer: not my characters; just for fun. Title from Shana Abe.
Warnings: AU
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 340
Point of view: third
Atlantis is strange. Nowhere else she has ever been, has Teyla felt so… adrift, away from sure and steady ground. The dirt is deep, far beneath the ocean. She can barely hear it, and should she have need of it, Teyla is uncertain if she has the strength to call it to her aid.
The Alantians—Earthlings, one of the soldiers said—also have Ancestral gifts. All of them. At about two hundred, that amount nears how many Teyla has seen in all her travels. Her father, too, had been a GroundSpeaker, but no other Athosian in her clan.
All four of the elements are represented on Atlantis. The power—it sings. The leader, Dr. Weir, is like Teyla. After she catches her breath, Teyla is happy to speak with Dr. Weir("Call me Elizabeth."), to share history and lore.
Teyla feels slightly guilty for her bit of relief that Colonel Sumner did not survive. He was quick to anger, quick to act—he had no time for reflection, no time to consider other paths. Like all FlameSpeakers Teyla has met, he flared and burned all obstacles, but that is not a leader's way.
Major Sheppard, on the other hand—Teyla is not sure he'll do any better. And Dr. McKay—he is impatient and loud. The power between them… Teyla is glad they seem to on her side.
They have the makings of a great people, the Atlantian-Earthlings, but they are so very young. She will do what she can to help them find their place in this new land—the Pegasus Galaxy, they call it. Elizabeth had explained the legend of a winged horse. It seems very apt, considering Major Sheppard's gift, the most powerful SkySpeaker she has ever heard tell of.
At night, Teyla listens hard, straining to hear past Atlantis' creaks and groans, for the lullaby of the ground. It is so very far away.
Often, she dreams of her father and the games they played when he taught her what it meant to be a GroundSpeaker.