five thousand more - Highlander - PG, gen, Methos

[tigriswolf]

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.)

 

Comments

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

Very, very nice. 5,000 is such a round number, especially when no one knows when he was born exactly, that it's easy to imagine that millenia just slipping by without anyone noticing. (I wonder when some enterprising watcher will look at a thousand-year-old document referring to the 5,000-year-old Methos and begin to think.) This story/character study shows what it's like for Methos once he's stopped counting. He's just old. He's always been old. He always will be old.

Wonderful.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so very much!

[pprfaith.livejournal.com]

I like it. Especially the 'strip away civilization' part and, sue me, but I love the title. You are so much better with titles than I can ever hope to be.

[tigriswolf]

I really like titles. *hee*

Thank you!

[romyra]

(He’s been five thousand and he survives.)

Somewhat chilling but in a good way.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you for reading!

[trovia.livejournal.com]

This is quite beautiful. I enjoyed it a lot.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[zigsternenstaub.livejournal.com]

Perfect, perfect, perfect! I've read other stories in which Methos is older than five thousand, but always there was an element there of the author being tired of this number, of it not being old *enough,* whereas your story is more about how people fail to notice the passage of time, fail to adjust their myths accordingly, and Methos fails to correct them.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so very much!

sorry for the delets i was editing , one more time

[mysticdreamer32.livejournal.com]

This brings to mind something that I thought might be possible, I've always thought if he lied about not remembering his family /ie mortal life then why not his age too.

BTW nice story :)

Re: sorry for the delets i was editing , one more time

[tigriswolf]

Thank you for reading!


Also, cute icon.