Cymry, Part One

They really were snowflakes. Alec shook his head in amazement as they drifted onto his uncovered head in the April afternoon. "Crazy," he sighed, shivering. Snow after Easter was unusual, even for Michigan, and he wasn't sure he liked it- but then again, there was a time when he'd wanted snow to last forever, as a little boy in Washington, so perhaps he shouldn't complain. He just missed the sunshine that he'd thought was there to stay for a while.

Inside the library it was much warmer, and alive, too. Students wandered the bookshelves or sat whispering on couches, subdued but always full of energy. All the students at Dakota College were- it was what had attracted Alec about it immediately. They talked about anything and everything, sprawling in groups on the quad after classes, playing soccer in the dorm hallways, laughing and joking with their professors in the hallways. Alec loved the life at his school that thrived even on a cold April day.

He settled down on a couch in the quieter Conner Room to read for his Old Testament survey class the next day, opening up to Numbers. He spent a half hour absorbed in it, underlining and taking notes every once in a while, until Kate and Jack came in and sat down next to him.

"Hey, how did you know I was here?"

Kate shrugged. "You've been here for the past few days. I thought maybe you'd be here again. Mind if we read here too? We won't be distracting."

"Of course not," he smiled. His friends were anything but quiet, even studying, but he would rather have to ignore them then study without them. He moved his backpack for Jack, and Kate curled up at the end of the couch. To Alec's surprise, the actually did start reading right away, with random interjections from one or the other; they had the same British history class and were reading about Wales.

"Alec, you should just tell us everything we need to know," Jack said suddenly. "You probably know more about Wales than Dr. James does."

Alec laughed. "I don't know everything about Welsh history. I only lived there for a little while. But what do you want you know?"

"Oh, I don't know, we're reading about the legend of Arthur right now and how it supposedly was Welsh in origin, not English."

"So was Robin Hood," Alec nodded. "Rhi Bran. The Raven King. Yes, they were Welsh."

"There was a certain Welsh tribe the legend says Robin Hood was, isn't there? Some Celtic people."

"Cymry," he murmered. A wistfulness came with the word, and he almost thought the air shimmered for the briefest moment.

"Alec? What did you say?"

He looked back at Jack and blinked. "Cymry. The people are the Cymry. Warriors- good warriors. Good people... they were the race of kings."

He turned back to Numbers, but the longing for Wales was back and he didn't feel like reading anymore. He remembered his Saturday walks in the Cethness woods, where he felt most at home, sometimes with his Welsh friends, and sometimes alone; those were the best part of his semester there. But that Cethness had been nothing like the Cethness he loved, and so he had come back to Michigan to be with his family instead. It was another Cethness he was daydreaming about now...

...........

The sunshine was sparkling on the water of Gwyn lake, where a group of girls was watering the horses of several warriors who had just come back from a good day's hunting. A young boy ran up to them, asking for a certain warrior until one of the girls pointed him in the right direction. The boy, perhaps eight or nine, ran off again with his black dog chasing him, and found the warrior.

The warrior listened to the boy's chatter with a contented smile on his face. He was tall - all his Cymry brothers were - and dark haired, with eyes that changed at will from amber to sable. Right now they were sable, sparkling amiably when he laughed, which he did often. The boy was the son of a friend, and walked next to the warrior with three steps for every one of his tall friend's. They walked back to the caer, stopping to say hello to a friend or two, where the warrior returned the boy to his father.

In a few hours everyone had put away their plows and swords, and were all in the hall for a feast. The king was giving a feast in honor of his wife, for her birthday, and most of the caer was there to honor her as well. All the unmarried warriors ate at one table. They spent most of their time together- sword brothers, they called themselves, closer than blood brothers. The queen was wise and sweet, and they saw her as their angel; their king they revered above any other man. He had earned their admiration from his first year on the throne and had kept it ever since......

"Alec!"

Alec snapped suddenly out of his daydream to see Kate watching him worriedly. The air shimmered again before he shook his head, clearing it. "Sorry, I was just daydreaming."

"You looked kind of out of it," Jack laughed softly. "I just wondered where your mind was."

"Wales... just Wales." Alec shrugged and went back to his Bible, where there remained but a lingering wistfulness and a hint of sunshine. He did manage to concentrate for the next hour while he finished his Old Testament reading, then he stood and stretched. "Kate, Jack, do you want to go get some coffee or something?"

Jack grinned. "Let's go to Starbucks. Please, we haven't been all week."

"That's because it's a half an hour drive," Alec laughed.

Jack made a sad face, sighing. "It's sooo good, Alec. Look at Kate- see how badly she wants Starbucks? She really really wants some. Please?"

He gave in with a helpless wave of his hand and grabbed his keys from his bag. "This time, guys, we're coming back... No two hour detours in Jackson, promise me."

"Promise," Kate smiled innocently. "Only save me from my lack-of-coffee illness."

Alec loved driving. That was one thing he loved about Michigan. In Cethness he'd had no car, just walked everywhere; after growing up driving tractors on his uncle's farm and riding horses across their six hundred acres, walking had felt slow and ponderous. He also loved music, but with Kate in the car, he had to fight for the music choices. He preferred piano rock and Celtic music; Kate loved rock and punk and never understood why anyone would subject themselves to Celtic music at all.

"Kate," he warned teasingly, "My car, my music."

Kate just grinned and pulled out a CD. Alec reached out and pushed her hand away, which Kate ignored.

"Kate," Alec said in his sternest voice, "Don't do it."

To his surprise, she stopped and stared at him. "Wow. I have never heard such an authoritative voice from you... sweet funny Alec... where did that come from?"

His amber eyes danced. "Well, I had to get you to stop somehow."

"You sounded like a general or something," she laughed. "Scary man."

Jack suddenly pointed out the window and yelled, "Don't hit Romeo and Juliet!"

"What?!" Alec stared frantically to the right. All he saw was some fur on the road.

"Romeo and Julet... they died together, don't you see? The poor little racoons."

Kate burst into convulsive laughter. "Jack, you're pathetic. I think you need to stop reading English Literature for a while."

"No seriously, guys, look at them. One of them followed the other and they died together... so sad."

"Sure, Jack." Alec and Kate rolled their eyes at each other and ignored him.

They reached Starbucks after a half hour of Kate and Jack pretending to die from the Celtic music. "Mmm," Jack grinned. "I love the smell of this place."

"Me too... I want to live here someday," Kate sighed, shaking out her strawberry blonde hair. "Can I order first to recover from the music?"

"Me too?" Jack teased. He and Kate had been best friends almost as long as he and Alec, and everyone thought they were siblings because they had the same silver green eyes. Jack's were sparkling now in anticipation.

Finally it was Alec's turn to order. "I'll have a triple grande one and a half hazelnut one and a half caramel mocha with no whip," he said carefully.

"Oh, Alec. You're so meticulous about your coffee. Which is funny, because I'd never expect it of you," Kate said, waiting for her simple capuccino. "You're the layed back music major man. You're so uncomplicated... until you get to Starbucks."

"And you?" He answered. "You're the color-coordinated, fashionable dance major. Who majors in classical dance? Only you. You have a typed out schedule for every day. Yet you get a capuccino... nothing else. You're also a paradox."

"Don't you dare make fun of me." Jack crossed his arms. "So I'm a weird political economy major... I'm more normal than you guys. Just because I read English literature, see racoons, and think of Romeo and Juliet, doesn't mean I'm weirder than you. Alec, you have a Celtophile complex, you know!"

"Clanna na cu, Jack, you don't have to tell me that!" Alec rolled his eyes. "I speak Welsh fluently and moved there for a semester of school, and you think I don't know I'm a Celtophile?"

Jack threw a straw wrapper at him and turned his back on them, trying not to laugh.

Alec and Kate rolled their eyes again, grabbing their drinks from the counter. "Let's hit the road. We still have work on that project tonight, you know."

They stopped for dinner on the way back to campus and then spent the next three hours on a project for their Constitution class. As they worked, Alec's mind kept wandering back to sunshine and the smell of plowed fields. He was used to it, though, ever since he'd come back from Cethness. Kate and Jack had never understood why he'd come back if he missed it so much, but he didn't really have an explanation for them either, so he simply shrugged and told them he was glad to be with them anyway.

Someday, though, he knew he'd be back.