|
|
|
April 19th, 2008
12:45 am - Chapter Two: The Work Of The Flame Of Glory
“Rose? Rose! Could you wake up now? It’s morning and all -- quite bright out, actually … Rose?”
Rose blinked and rubbed her hand across her face. Blimey.
“You see, I’d really like to go into town, weelll, I suppose I could go by myself, but I’d rather not … don’t know why, exactly, just that I’d rather not … And then you might be cross if you woke up and I was gone without you … I don’t like it when you’re cross, though truth to tell, you’re not cross very often … you’re quite fun, usually. So, I was hoping that you’d get up now …”
Oh, gods. Don’t tell me…
“I made coffee for you …”
Rose groaned. “Didn’t I tell you to stay away from the coffee?”
“Oh, you are awake!”
He handed her the cup of coffee through the half opened door. She really didn’t mean to slam it in his face like that, but a girl wanted to have coffee and a shower private-like. Halfway through the shower she was humming under her breath and grinning at the memory of the alarmed look on his face when he’d caught sight of her over that coffee cup.
She decided to keep with the native dress. The shirt floated over her head, light as a breeze. She stood for a moment, admiring the effect in the mirror. A full length skirt followed the shirt, and a vest that saved her decency. A short hooded cloak was hanging where the shawl had been. Rose patted the wall of the TARDIS. “Thanks!”
The Doctor was in the control room, hovering over the monitor and muttering under his breath. He turned at Rose’s step. “Hallo.” His eyes traveled up and down, and he smiled. “Wonderful! Perfect! If we hurry, we won’t be late.”
“Late for what?”
“Church!”
It was very bright, with a clear, eggshell blue sky, and cold. The ground was hard frozen and their breath puffed out in white clouds. A few other villagers walked with them, all heading toward the center of town.
“I don’t know when I went to church last,” Rose murmured. “What about you?”
“Been in a church … Can’t say the last time I went to church.”
“So, you felt the need to say a prayer this morning?”
The Doctor looked down at Rose, eyebrows raised. “Gallifreyan spirituality is rather complicated, hm?” His hand reached out to hers, warm against the morning chill. “No, what I had in mind was to hear something about those “Angels.” The TARDIS has given me some very mixed readings.” He kicked at a rock in his path and frowned. “I don’t like it when she gives me mixed readings. Never bodes well.”
“She hasn’t found anything,” Rose sent her eyes skyward, “up there?”
“Up, down, inside, outside — nothing.” The Doctor shrugged. “Perhaps they are a cultural myth, and these people simply have a very short lifetime. Don’t think so, though.”
“Rose! Doctor!”
Rose turned to see Gella closing up the door to what must be her bakery shop. The older woman’s face was grey and puffy, with dark circles under her eyes. The Doctor held a hand out to her. “Gella?”
“Oh,” she pressed her fingers to her lips and blinked. “I’ll be alright. It’s just…my Alvie.” She looked up at Rose, her eyes bright with unshed tears, and then smiled fiercely. “Life is short! Hang on to love when you find it, girl. Hang on tight! And live every moment to the fullest, because… because you never know,” Gella blinked and sniffed, “you never know when your happiness will be snatched away.”
Rose felt her heart fall down to her toes. “Oh, Gella! Do you mean..?”
“The Angels took my Alvie — took him last night, just as we were fallin’ asleep. He went…” she clenched her jaw and then relaxed, “He was a good man. He went peacefully. No kicking and screaming from my Alvie.”
Rose saw the Doctor swallow, and his eyes blazed. “That’s…” He closed his mouth on whatever he was going to say. “Gella, I am sorry for your loss.”
Gella turned toward his kindness and the Doctor embraced her in a gentle hug. She sighed, letting herself be held for a moment and then straightened. With gentle fingers, she patted the Doctor’s cheek. “What a sweet fellow you are.” Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and took Rose’s hand in one of hers, and the Doctor’s hand in the other. “My daughter lives in Cropsthorne, and my son has gone to visit — he’s got a pretty little thing there that he’s romancing. So, I’ve no family to sit with me.”
Rose squeezed Gella’s hand softly, “We would be honored.”
“Well then,” Gella gave a brave smile, “Let’s to church. I’ve a need for the words and the music this morning.”
The church was a large, plain wattle and daub building, its half-timbers almost black against the whitewashed daub. Double doors led into an antechamber, which opened up into the meeting room. Wooden pews faced a lectern.
Behind the lectern, a large brazier sat holding a flickering flame. Gella led Rose and the Doctor up to the first pew. Before turning into the pew, Gella faced the flame and placed both of her hands over her heart. She murmured something and then threw her hands gently out.
The Doctor only frowned at the flame and moved to sit beside Gella.
Rose stood for a moment, looking into the flame as it weaved upon the air. For just a moment, she thought that she could hear a whisper, like a sigh, low and warm.
“Rose?”
The Doctor’s voice broke the spell. Rose shook her head slightly and leaned forward, peering at the flame, but it was just a flame. She scooted down the pew and sat beside the Doctor.
A man came up to the lectern and spread his arms toward the congregation. “Life is short!”
“Life is short!”
“Let us sing, oh Children of Heaven.”
“Now we must honour the guardian of heaven,
The might of the architect, and his purpose,
The work of the flame of glory.
The eternal flame established the beginning of wonders.
Stopped war and illness, with the angels, saved us.
Then the guardian angels and the eternal lord,
The almighty flame, afterwards appointed this new earth, the lands, for men.”
The Doctor turned and whispered in Rose’s ear, “A very old Earth hymn ... Caedmon’s Hymn, with a few words changed…interesting.”
There was more singing, a short sermon, and more singing. At the end, the Reverend raised his hands, “Let us pray,” he intoned, “for the loved ones of those that the Angels have taken. May they live their remaining days in joy and light, with the remembrance of their loved ones soft upon their hearts.” He gestured to Gella, “Mother Gella, will you come forward?”
Gella choked back a sob and nodded. Head bowed, she stepped up to the lectern. With a shaking hand, she wiped the tears from her cheeks and then lifted her face to the congregation. “Life is short!”
“Life is short!”
“My man Alvie was taken last night. He went peacefully, giving me a hug and a kiss.” She smiled, “Said he wished he could give me a bit more ‘n that!”
The congregation chuckled. “Good fer Alvie,” someone in back yelled up.
“Yes, he sends his love to all of you. It was a good life, and he was proud to go.” She paused and looked out over the congregation. “Come, my friends, come to the pub with me and drink one for Alvie. Drink one for old Marge, and Danno from Kespy-Farm; let’s go remember the ones who’ve gone to seal the bargain! And drink one for our own selves, too!”
The Reverend came and laid his arm around Gella’s shoulders. “A wise woman, our Gella, and full of life. Go now, Children of Heaven. Go to live and laugh; go to dance and make love.”
Rose nudged the Doctor, “Don’t know about you, but that’s not what our Reverend told us to do.”
The Doctor was watching Gella as the congregation came up to offer their condolences. “I think that these people serve in another way.”
The Broken Shoe was in full swing when they arrived. A fiddler played and dancers swung and clapped their hands, skirts swirling and voices rich with laughter. A group of older villagers sat at the pub bar, drinking beer and reminiscing.
Well, the Doctor thought, for these people’s definition of ‘older’.
At his side, Rose was looking about, bright eyed. “Why don’t you go dance, Rose? It looks like fun. I, ah, I think I’ll go sit by Gella and see what I can find out.”
Rose looked up at him, reading something in his face — what, he had no idea. Whatever she was looking for she must have found because her face broke into a sunny grin. “Oh, alright. Don’t mind if I do! Been a while since I danced one of these country dances.”
He watched her for a moment as she twirled and clapped. With a start, he realized that he had a huge smile on his face. She was so lovely, so full of life. He gave himself a few more moments of pleasure, watching Rose dance, and then turned to where Gella sat at a corner table, surrounded by friends.
“Doctor, welcome! Come tip a mug for my Alvie.”
The Doctor accepted the mug with a nod and tipped it up. Damn good beer. He’d have to get a barrel to the TARDIS before they left. If their exit from this space and time wasn’t one of those run-for-your-life! kind of exits.
Gella looked better, more rosy-cheeked, though still tired and sad. She must have been prepared, knowing it would be soon.
As if she’d read his mind, Gella sighed. “Aye, Alvie and I knew it’d be soon for us.” She shook her head, “I thought it’d be me, first to go. Don’t know why, ‘cept that I’m a year older. But sometimes it’s like that.”
“Gella, was that the first time you saw the Angels?”
Gella raised her brows, “First time? Oh, no! I was home when the Angels took me Ma and Pa; took them together, just like in the play. I was the youngest, see? They called me and wished me farewell, and then the Angel took them in hand and swept them away in a beam of light.”
“I wonder,” the Doctor doodled on the table with spilled beer, “I wonder what it was like before the Angels came.”
“Don’t they teach you anything where you come from?” Gella snorted. “War and pestilence! Babies dying at their mother’s breasts, and women dying as they brought their babes forth! Old men, grown mean and nasty, sending young men off to die in fruitless conflict! It was Hell!”
“Well, yes, that part sounds right awful … but don’t you ever wonder what it would be like to live your allotted years? To stay and see your children’s children?”
“Ah! I place you now! You’re one of those Scientists, aren’t you? You think that we can do without the Angels? You think that we can run this world on our own, without the Light of the Flame to guide us?”
The Doctor looked up, calm in the face of her denunciation. “I don’t know! Humans are amazing creatures. Perhaps now that the Flame has shown the people of this planet that they can live in peace…”
“Oh, you Scientists sound all the same! I’ve heard this claptrap from my own son. Told him he was a baker, and should set his mind to his loaves and tarts, I did.” Gella rapped her knuckles on the table in agitation, grabbed up her mug and took a long drink. She dabbed her lip with a finger and considered the Doctor. “They say you have a little box that you stay in, on the edge of town. Can’t be very nice for the girl, all scrunched like that. Come stay at my place. I petitioned the Angels that I be taken as soon as I got my affairs in order, and they agreed. Should be within the week. Come stay with me and see my Ascension; your heart will be eased, hm?”
The Doctor swallowed. “Yes. That will do.” He tried for a smile, but it felt lopsided on his face, “Rose and I would be honored.”
“Looky here! An’ don’t they have chips! ‘Cept that they’re purple. But they taste just like!” Rose pushed her way through the crowd, a basket of chips balanced on one hand and two mugs of beer grasped in the other. The Doctor was sitting off by himself, brooding, Rose thought. She smiled at him, hoping to lighten his mood.
He did smile, too, and nodded to her in thanks when she plopped the beer and chips down in front of him. Rose studied him over the rim of her mug. “What’s happened, then? Have you got it all figured out?”
The Doctor waved his hand. “That part was simple. It’s just…” His long, elegant fingers played around the chips, picking one up to nibble on. “Rose, if you could make a bargain on Earth, to trade half of your lifespan for no more war or disease or hunger, would you?”
Rose frowned. So that’s it. “Blimey,” she sipped her beer again. “I dunno, Doctor. Might be tempted, that.” She sat back and looked around the pub. “These people here, they seem a happy lot.”
“Yeah?” The Doctor glanced around and then met her eyes. “Where is their art? Their great works? They’ve been here for hundreds of thousands of years! Their culture should be rich and vibrant. But it’s … stagnant. Safe.”
He looked at Rose, his face unreadable. “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned throughout the centuries and travels, it is that humans die. But death isn’t the important thing. What is important is how a person lived. And these people, they’re like songbirds kept in a cage — safe, warm, well fed…”
Rose nodded. “Yeah, I get yer point. I guess, given the choice, I’d rather … fly.”
The Doctor smiled into her eyes. “Yes. Yes you would.”
Rose had to close her eyes against that smile. She blinked and the Doctor was nibbling on another chip. “Mmm! You’re right!” He grinned and took another. “These are just like!”
|
Comments:
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ljg_fanfic's journal
