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AN: Hey, sorry for the long delay. Please enjoy!
Teyla's people were not overly proud, they did not need words to remind them of their strength… instead that felt it in the every day motions of living and in every breath, they did their best to live… to live well. Her people loved one another, shared with one another, grew along side one another beneath the Athos' Sun. Teyla remembered the ground beneath her feet. Cold in the winter and warm in the summer… she remembered Charrin's Tuttle Root Soup, and she remembered her Father, her father who had for most of her life seemed impossibly strong, who had lead his people the best that he could.
She grew up in a small village, moving from place to place. She learned all the things that she could. How to farm, hunt, heal, fight…
Anything and everything that she could learn… she did. She wanted to know the trees and plants by name, to be fast like the prey the hunted, and soothing like Charrin. As a little girl she would disappear for days on end. Into the woods, running game trails, living off the land and her wits… until the first Culling of her young life.
She'd been on her way back to the village when the feeling had slammed into her, an extra sense, the feeling that something was coming. She'd been filled with fear… it froze her in place as the feeling grew stronger. It wasn't until she heard the sound of the Wraith ships leaving the Ring that the paralysis broke. She ran. The woods blurred around her and her lungs burned but the pit of her stomach was eating away at itself and Teyla needed to find her father. They found in each other in the woods outside the camp and he'd held her close until the Wraith were gone. Teyla felt the burden of her fear and swore on that day that she would not let anything stand in the way of doing what needed to be done She swore to herself then to find the strength within her.
Teyla understood from an early age that life was valuable, precious, and fleeting. You could fight it all you wanted by death was a present reality for them. Cullings, disease, starvation in the winter, mudslides in the rainy season, and back breaking labor in the summer marked the years… but Teyla did not feel that her life was hard or empty… instead she felt a peace within herself and a confidence that grew as she did.
When her father died, Teyla had been young… but ready to take over the reigns of leading her people in the way the Ancestors would have wanted. It was hard in those first years, she could barely bring herself to rise from her bed on days when it seemed that the entirety of the stars was coming for her.
Still, Teyla believed that the Ancestors would watch over them. That the Ancestors would give them a better future they just had to believe and stay true.
So with each morning as the Sun broke the night and her people gathered close to her to drink the ceremonial Tea and start the day… Teyla reminded herself of that vow. She reminded herself of the value of life and the strength that was within her.
It was on such a morning, before the tea and long before the rising of the sun, that Teyla met John Sheppard. There was a stillness about him that drew her eye first. The older man that he was with had eyes that flitted from place to place… a deep restlessness and disgust that showed in those eyes. The younger man shifted from foot to foot, his hands moved from place to place on his weapon… it was hesitation that Teyla saw in him… But John Sheppard had a stillness that lay close to his bones.
That was not all… it was in his gaze that Teyla found herself caught. His older companion looked through her and his younger companion looked at the floor. Sheppard looked at her. He saw her for what she was… a leader, a woman, a survivor, a possible friend… all of those things were reflected back at her in his eyes.
It was why she had trusted him, why she had followed him through the ring, why she had stayed on in the City of the Ancients even after her people had gone.
She had searched beside him when Ford had left Atlantis, Fought beside him against the Wraith, Mourned when Carson died, welcomed new members to their team, wept when Elizabeth had left them, almost died beside him…
She knew that the universe had troubles a plenty for them, things that they had never dreamed of, but at night Teyla slept soundly… because she knew that John watched over her… that John, for all his humor and stillness, had strength in him that matched her own and would give his life to keep her safe… so she stayed in Atlantis… because she couldn't imagine a place in the Universe that she would rather be.
Please Review and let me know who I should I do next:
- Chuck the Gate Tech
- General Chapter about the Marines
- Jack O'Neil