“My father was a warrior. He was away a lot, so I was raised by my mother.”
She glanced to him as she unrolled her bedding, the snowstorm wind whistling through some of the planks of the cabin. The wood stove warmed her arm and she was grateful that Ronon had placed his bedroll alongside the wall, offering her the warmth of the fire. She smiled as they both finished tucking their blankets around their sleeping pads. “She did a fine job.”
He made an effort of arranging his pillow so that she wouldn’t see his flattered response.
Encouraged by his meek reaction, she toyed a bit more. “I’m sure both of your parents would be very proud of you, Ronon.”
He was quiet for a heartbeat, sitting with his legs folded under him, then he flashed her a self-conscious look and a mumbled “thank you.”
“You kids settled?”
Both looked over to see Sheppard in the doorway, hands on his hips.
Ronon answered first. “Yep.”
“Good.” Sheppard gave a brief nod.
Teyla couldn’t help but grin at the defeated look on the Colonel’s face. “And you, Colonel Sheppard?”
He tried not to scowl at her. “Oh yeah, I’m dandy.”
Ronon shrugged, amused. “It was your idea to draw straws.”
“Yeah, but usually I’m able to rig it so that I don’t get the short one.”
Teyla shook her head, smiling. “Colonel, Dr. McKay’s snoring isn’t that bad-”
“Let me put it this way, Teyla.” He took a step forward. “I’d rather be sharing a room with a rhinoceros.”
Ronon lifted his chin a little, his arms folded over his crossed legs. “What’s a rhinoersus?”
Teyla looked away to hide the fact that she was biting her lip to stifle laughter and amusement danced in Sheppard’s eyes. “It’s an animal from earth. Big, smelly, with a horn on its nose.”
Ronon narrowed his eyes. “Why’s it have a horn on its nose?”
Sheppard opened his mouth with a professorial look before closing it again, eyebrows raised.
A corner of Ronon’s lips lifted in an amused smirk at Sheppard’s expression. Before the colonel could admit that he didn’t know, Teyla leaned towards the Satedan and hastily whispered under her breath. “To hit other rhinoserasus’ with.”
Sheppard cocked his head as the two aliens chuckled in amusement. He bounced on the balls of his heels. “Exactly.” Ronon and Teyla looked back to him and he sighed, obviously dreading the restless night’s sleep ahead of him. “Night guys.”
“Goodnight, Colonel.”
“Night.”
As soon as his form cleared the doorway the shape of their elderly hostess replaced it. “Are you sure you don’t need anything else?”
Teyla inclined her head with a smile. “No, thank you. We are quite comfortable here.”
“And thank you for the meal.”
The elderly woman bowed her head at both. “Don’t hesitate to let me know if you need anything.” The two thanked her and she shuffled down the hall to Sheppard and McKay’s room. Teyla rose and quietly closed the door. Ronon was already lying on his bed, watching the snow appearing out of the dark night as it pelted against the glass of the window across from him. She followed his gaze as she sat down, the silence between them filled with the thudding of the snow and the wailing of the wind. She could hear eerie whistles and howls echoing down the metal pipe of the stove’s chimney. Though she couldn’t place why, the noise unsettled her and she broached the wind. “Was there snow where you come from?”
Ronon blinked to her as he drew a breath, pulling out of his thoughts. He swallowed to clear his throat. “Sometimes.”
She unlaced her boots. “There was snow in the mountains of Athos. Sometimes my village took trips there to visit the people of the Highlands.” She paused, trying not to wonder what became of the Highlanders after the awakening of the Wraith. Their villages had been very small, defended only by their rocky slopes. “I did not often go. I suppose I prefer the warmth to the cold.”
Ronon had already tugged off his boots and now slipped under his blanket.
She felt foolish for speaking of herself when he didn’t respond, so she prompted him. “And you?”
He sighed, lying down on his back. “Never much cared for snow, either.”
She ran her fingers through her lose hair, untangling it as much as she could before braiding it.
He rested his hands under his head, watching the window. “I used to complain about it...” His face lit with the ghost of a smile at a memory. “And my mother would remind me that it was only temporary. She knew I loved summer best.”
“As much as I dislike the cold, watching the seasons change has always brought me such... admiration for the world around me.”
His voice was gravelly, quietly relaxed as his breathing evened. “It’s always changing.”
She tied off her braid. “Always something new to see...” Her mind drifted to her childhood and the visits to the Highlands. Her life before seemed something of a distant past. Her voice grew somber. “So much can change in the blink of an eye.”
He rolled his head to look over at her, his gaze inquiring at her grave tone. Though she knew his life had also been shaped by forces outside of his control, she allowed herself this moment of quiet ponderance, keeping her eyes turned down, remembering what once was, lamenting the thefts of change and time.
Long moments passed and she felt his eyes upon her still, yet she did not meet them, enjoying the warm tickling they left on her skin.
“A lot changes, but not everything.”
His quiet voice fed the pleasant chills and the tingling filled her chest. With some effort, she looked to him. His eyes were genuine, if not fringed with sleepiness. She rested her cheekbone on her knee, looking down at him. His eyes flitted to the door as the light underneath the frame disappeared, their hostess having retired to her room. He looked back to Teyla and the earnestness of his eyes called to her, pulling her in with the invitation of shelter and beauty.
“There’s one thing that stays the same.”
Though she tried, she couldn’t shift her eyes from his, and she found peace in that unabashed surrender. “What’s that?”
Distantly, she noticed that he made no effort to look away, either, their voices close to whispers. “It’s forever, the circle unbroken. Seasons keep changing – it always remains.”
Her eyebrows twitched towards each other, her mind sluggish, her senses distracted by him.
“Spring will melt the snows of winter and the summer gives us days of light so long till autumn makes it fade. It has no end, like the wind in the trees.”
She realized he’d stopped speaking and looked to her feet, attempting to distract him from her blush with her words, lightening her voice, confused by the way time had just slowed. “There are many things that are as such, Ronon.”
“Many things, but only one thing.”
She looked back, her heart skipping a little faster when she found his eyes waiting for hers. He tilted his head ever so slightly, inquisitive green searching her brown as he looked up to her. She suddenly felt lighthearted, his gentle countenance welling warmth in her breast. Yet when he offered no more explanation, she narrowed her eyes. “You are not going to tell me, are you?”
His eyes gracefully shifted from curious to playful before she’d even finished her question. He shook his head ‘no,’ his smile dancing more in his eyes than on his lips.
She forced a sigh, glancing away from him and to the wall to her left, biting back the pleasant butterflies of a giggle. There was the shifting of wool on wool and when she looked back he’d pulled his blanket up to his shoulders. He gave her his attention once more when she spoke. “Then I suppose I shall have to listen to the wind, won’t I?”
His eyes traveled her face searchingly for a few heartbeats before settling on hers, a soft glow alighting within them, causing her to miss a breath. But then they shifted, and the affectionate glow was joined by the aged starlight of the wisdom of a wanderer. He nodded once, his eyes not leaving hers. “You’ll always find it there.”
Assurance coupled with puzzlement danced in her spirit, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud snore from down the hall. Both recovered from their start with a smile. There was another snore and Teyla chuckled, reaching to turn off the kerosene lantern. “Goodnight, Ronon.” She turned the knob, lowering the room in darkness.
She could hear him roll over so his back was to her as she slipped under her blanket.
“Night, Teyla.”
~~~*~~~
Screams were everywhere, pounding her ears. Futile gunshots sickeningly ceased and all fell silent. A Wraith suddenly reared before her, its blood-curdling screech deafening as its eyes widened, reaching out its arm to feed on her.
~~~*~~~
She shot up on her bedroll, flinging the woolen blanket from her with a panicked gasp, glancing wildly about the room, yet the darkness pressed in on her. The pattering against the windowpane was the only reminder of where she was.
She shivered with sweat and jumped when a husky voice asked if she was alright. It took only a moment for her to recognize it as Ronon’s and for her to fully remember where she was. She placed a hand over her heart as she closed her eyes, calming. The stovepipe near her screeched in a gust and with relief, she knew the source of her nightmare. “Yes, it was... just a dream.”
She could feel his sigh of relief against her shoulder and she stiffened, not having thought him so close. The dying embers of the stove aided her adjusting vision and she could faintly see the sheen of his bare arms and the glint of metal as he sheathed his knife. She heard him sit back down, giving her her space. “About what?”
“The Wraith.”
There was alarm in his voice. “You sense them?”
“No.” She shook her head, a small shiver coursing through her as her damp skin quickly cooled in the drafty room.
He was quiet, allowing her time to gather her thoughts to speak further. She knew his eyes were protectively on her. “It was this stove. The wind in the chimney sounded like a Wraith.”
She felt foolish admitting to such a childish truth, yet the feeling quickly absolved when he showed no amusement in her revelation. “We should switch places, then.”
She could discern more of his body now. “You would not mind?”
He pushed himself up from the bedroll. “Of course not.”
She rose to move, her braid falling from her back, exposing the bare of her neck to the cold and she shivered.
He rested his hand on her back as he crouched past then paused, surprise in his voice. “You’re trembling.”
“It is nothing.” She answered too quickly and knew he’d see through her response since her arms quaked with dissipating adrenaline. He slid his hand down her lower back, his other resting on her bicep, making her heart beat faster and a new trembling begin. He pulled his hands away and she fought the urge to lean towards him in pursuit. He exhaled as he sat back on his haunches, looking from the chilly wall his bedroll was against and to the stove. Then he moved and his bedroll hit her hand on the floor. She shifted back onto her bedding as he scooted his next to hers then grabbed his blanket, crawling behind her. “I’ll sleep here, so that way you don’t have to hear the wind. And now you won’t be cold – the other side of that wall is snowdrift.”
“Thank you.” She tried to keep each action graceful and deliberate so as to not betray how very aware of his nearness she was. She matched his calm as he lay down with his back to her, lifting the blanket for her to crawl under behind him. Tugging the blanket to her shoulders, she rested her forehead against his back, feeling slightly flush when she felt that his heart was beating at least as fast as hers.
The warmth from his body relaxed her and she focused on breathing evenly to keep up her half of their feigned composure. She couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t sound very sleepy when he spoke. “Just remember something happy.”
She tilted her head so her chin was nestled beside his spine, curling up her legs, careful not to bump him. Her heart was beginning to slow and she tucked her hands against her breastbone, soothingly warm. “Such as?”
He turned his head a little towards her even if he couldn’t see her. “I dunno. Something to take your mind off the dream.” He lay his head back down.
She sighed, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against him again. She didn’t need to ask – his voice spoke of untold nightmares by the hundreds. “What helps you?”
The wind whistled for the span of a few breaths, then he answered, his quiet voice lulling. “...Remember the sound of laughter.”
Her mind immediately drifted to a wildflower-filled meadow and she smiled. “That is a pleasant thought.”
No more needed to be said, and lulled by his steady heartbeat the howling of the wind was forgotten. She slept as peacefully as Sheppard didn’t.
Listen To The Wind
Listen To The Wind Home
I. Prologue: The Legends of Leaves
II. A Whisper, A Kiss In A Dream
III. Shadows Dance Behind The Firelight
IV. We Thought Our Hearts Would Break
VI. I'm Not Really Gone
VII. High Up In The Trees
VIII. Epilogue: Strong Wind