Mamm and Alaric : A Timeless Love

Mamm of Dunnottar and Alaric 

Their joint Destiny leads them through one battle after another. 

Greece falls before them, and then Rome, as they seek a homeland for their people. 

From Mamm of Dunnottar:

Mamm, Alaric, Stilicho and Ataulf ... they have met before, in battle.

Rivals and allies, Alaric and Stilicho make history happen in a big way. 

Here they have just concluded a very important meeting with a lot of important people.

...   Mamm makes a startled noise in her throat.

The eyes of the two men are drawn to her and Ataulf.

She calmly returns their looks but locks eyes with Alaric and the two of them do not break that look.

Ataulf glances back and forth between the two of them and holds his peace.

Stilicho breaks the silence.

‘We know you, young warriors.’

His words make Ataulf smile.

‘We are healers more than warriors, Stilicho. We would have peace in this land and in all lands.’

‘Ah yes. So would we all. Going to battle for the sake of peace, does this not sit ill with you, Man of Peace?’

‘No. It is too often necessary.’

‘Aye. That it is. Let us make an effort not to be engaged in the same battles at the same time, shall we?’

‘That would be a good idea. I agree with you.’

And still the gaze between Alaric and Mamm remains unbroken.

Stilicho gives the two of them a hard speculative look and his cold grey eyes linger long on the face of Mamm of Dunnottar.

His exit is not noticed by any except Ataulf, and TallUllin who has stood watching and listening.

‘Well now,’ muses the tall lean man. ‘Well now.’

Signaling Ataulf to accompany him, the pair leaves Mamm and Alaric to their gazing.

Since tiny sparks of grass-green and deep blue are beginning to flit here and there in the space between them, TallUllin gives Ataulf a poke in the back to get his feet moving faster and out the door they go.

Finding Ethan and MammTwo of Tarnos right outside the door, TallUllin goes immediately into a quick but intense conversation with them. And the inexplicable popping in MammTwo’s ears is explained. It happened when her sister fell in love with Forr, but is unexpected here on this day. But now she knows.

Grins appear on the faces of Ethan and MammTwo of Tarnos and they hustle themselves over to the door to peek through.

They could just as well have barged in shouting and blowing their war horns for all the notice they get from the pair inside.

When they turn back to TallUllin their excitement is palpable. Crinkles edge their eyes and their smiles reach clear across their faces.

MammTwo takes a little skip of a dance step and links arms with Ethan and TallUllin, quacking under her breath so as not to disturb Mamm and Alaric. TallUllin doesn’t bother with being quiet and shouts out his quacks for all of Andorra to hear.

And hear they do.

The noise brings them running.

They might be some surprised to find TallUllin waggling his backside in time with Ethan and MammTwo of Tarnos, and Ataulf laughing and quacking right along with them, but most of them have known this family for a good long time and nothing much that they do can ever really surprise these mountain kin for long.

‘We’d better hurry,’ says MammTwo. ‘Those two will stay like that forever if we don’t wake them out of that trance they’re in!’

And so they do.

In short order Andorra has all the trappings of a ceremony in place, working around the still-motionless couple, Alaric and Mamm, who are lost in each other’s eyes.

TallUllin, Ethan, MammTwo, and Ataulf take their places nearby the pair of them and then don’t know what to do.

They are as completely ignored as Stilicho had been when he stalked from the room.

These two young people have no idea that there are any other people in the room with them, or even in the world with them, or even that the world around them exists.

They are in their own place and in their own time, just the two of them.

TallUllin clears his throat loudly and waits for a response.

Ethan and MammTwo advance on the ensorcelled couple and examine them closely. Then, chuckling to each other, they take the un-moving hands and lift them in their own.

There is no response until the pairs of hands finally touch one another.

MammTwo and Ethan leap back and almost knock TallUllin over when those pairs of hands touch for the first time.

A blast of whirlwind shoots out from that touching and just about blows everyone off their feet before it settles down to dance in circles around the knees of Mamm and Alaric, humming and buzzing with a cheery melody all its own.

And still the two of them remain locked away each in the eyes of the other.

Well now what?

Ataulf tries to interrupt the look by putting himself between them but they seem to just look right through him.

When he tries to break the grip of the four hands he finds it impossible and soon gives up.

Catan winds herself around Mamm’s legs, the whirlwind passing about her without a ripple of her long fur.

When this whole thing has been going on for quite a while, Catan sighs and walks out of the room.

In short order she is back.

She has brought Glisten.

As well she should.

If Mamm were in the here and now instead of wherever and whenever she is, she would most certainly want her friend by her side.

And so Glisten goes to stand by Mamm’s side while Catan takes up her own spot on the other side.

Ataulf stands tall behind her, trying to look into the eyes of Alaric to see what his little sister has found in there that so entrances her.

All he sees is a pair of deep blue eyes not unlike many pairs of eyes he’s seen in his life.

Ataulf shrugs and stands still.

Glisten at long last nudges Mamm, who remains motionless.

Another nudge, stronger this time, almost knocks Mamm from her feet but she sways back into position as though she hasn’t felt a thing.

Catan and Glisten look at one another for a long moment.

The screams they let loose scare everyone half to death and several people really do fall over from the shock of it.

But the spell is broken and Mamm turns to glare at her friends.

‘What did you do that for?’

Glisten and Catan merely look at her and then calmly stand at her sides looking at Alaric with interested eyes.

They draw his gaze from Mamm and he shakes himself a little.

Realizing that their hands have become somehow clasped, the pair first tries to disengage them but, finding that impossible, instead move closer to stand together.

And now they realize that there are others in the room with them.

TallUllin comes to stand in front of them, with Ethan and MammTwo of Tarnos flanking him, and immediately recites the marriage ceremony words – and he does it pretty darned fast before these two go back to wherever and whenever they’ve been for all this time, someplace in each other’s eyes.

When the time comes, Ataulf loudly prompts the both of them.

‘You have to say AYE,’ he tells them.

‘What?’

‘Tell TallUllin AYE!’

‘Oh.’

And into the air of the room they Speak.

‘Aye.’

And ‘Aye.’

And so it is done.

The whirlwind disperses and carries its humming and buzzing off into the air outside.  ...

Once begun, there is no stopping this pair.

The love between Mamm and Alaric led them to make 

enormous personal sacrifices - because their love for their

people was greater still. 

Together they changed their world.

The love they shared, they share still, and will share through 

the ages.