five thousand more - Highlander - PG, gen, Methos
Title: five thousand more
Fandom: Highlander
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: spoilers for everything?
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 290
Point of view: third
Notes: inspired by pprfaith’s “ a storyteller’s prerogative”; hers is better
He’s been five thousand for years and years. He was five thousand when he met Kronos, when he took Cassandra, when he drank with Darius and talked philosophy with Rebecca, when he taught Byron and joined the Watchers and charmed-infuriated-played with Duncan.
He’s been five thousand and lived through volcanoes and sank to the bottom of the ocean and watched silently as everything ended and began anew.
He’s been five thousand and tamed horses and hunted mammoths and huddled in the snow. He’s been five thousand and he may have been the first to ever purposefully strike a fire. It’s impossible to say, really. He’ll claim it for his own, though, if anyone ever asks. (It’s good to be a myth. The children may challenge his words-and even him-but no one can ever be sure.)
He’s been five thousand and rode a pale horse and terrorized a world. He’s still famous for that, a part of popular culture. He was a monster, and he was a man, and the children may judge-will judge-but they weren’t there. They don’t know. Strip away ‘civilization’ (be from the ages before civilization) and see what is left, what is necessary to simply see another dawn.
He’s been five thousand and he survives. There were others with him, though they weren’t five thousand, and they are all dead. He killed some, but most simply couldn’t adapt. They did what they’d always done and the children, so bloodthirsty, so violent, ripped them apart.
He’s been five thousand for a very long time. (Some he remembers. Most he doesn’t.)
He’s been five thousand for a very long time, and he’ll be five thousand for longer still.
(He’s been five thousand and he survives.)