"This is going to take all day," complained Daniel, looking at the fifty meter expanse of training ground strewn with dirt, mud, sticks, twigs, rocks, trees, logs and all sorts of sound detecting equipment and motion detecting sensors.

"Yes it is," replied Jack with a touch of exasperation.

"I do have better things to do you know," said Daniel. "Why do I have…."

"Aht! You are not going to start with that again, Daniel. Yes you do have to learn to cross quietly without leaving much of a trail. It's not that hard – well come to think about it, in your case, it probably will be … hard … that is."

Daniel chewed at his lips as he looked at the ground. "There's just nowhere for me to step across without making noises of some sort, Jack."

"Look, Teal'c can cross the course in record time – with a full pack mind you and he didn't even set off one of the motion detectors."

"Teal'c has had decades of practice at this, Jack. His life depended on him learning this sort of thing."

"Now we're getting down to the nuts and bolts, Daniel. Think about it," said Jack.

Daniel glared back at the course. He didn't need to think about it really. He knew that the lives of the team might depend on how stealth-fully he could move around. He just … wasn't any good at this sort of thing. "I guess I was born with two left feet, Jack. No matter how carefully I try to get across, I just … can't."

"It's not that you have two left feet, Daniel," Jack paused significantly his mouth twitching with the urge to supress his snarky commentary. "It's that you're not choosing where to place your feet carefully enough."

Daniel sighed and regarded the course once again. "Okay twigs – avoid; dry leaves – avoid, muddy ground avoid, bare ground try to avoid when possible."

"Look, it's easy …"

"Will you stop saying that. It's not easy at all."

"Yes it is."

"No, it's not."

"Is."

"Not."

"Look, just take it one step at a time, Daniel and try to plan a path ahead of you as you go. It doesn't have to be perfect – just enough to pass. You'll get better at it with practice. Lots and lots of practice – like Teal'c had."

"We don't have decades, Jack."

"Yup, just today. But the course isn't really all that hard, as long as you're careful and you use your head. You know what makes noise and what leaves an obvious trail – just avoid those things."

'Daniel huffed out a frustrated breath. He jammed his hat onto his head and stepped out to the start line and chose a spot where he could see at least a few places that he might be able to get to without triggering the sound detectors too much.

Jack set the timer and Daniel started to move out, taking one step at a time as Jack had told him to. He started counting off the steps in his head as he went, sure that he wouldn't get further than ten paces. Surprisingly, by planning ahead a little he did make it that far, and then he spotted ten more paces that he could make on stony ground and along the fallen tree log. "Hey Jack, you were right! This isn't as hard as …"

The sound detector buried near the end of the tree stump gave off a jangling alarm.

Jack sighed, overly loudly behind him. He scrubbed at his face in obvious frustration. "You were doing fine there, Daniel. Just … . This is meant to be done without alerting the bad guys or in this case the sound detectors ya know. That means no talking – or yelling – or even sneezing if you can avoid it."

"Sorry, Jack."

"Or apologising."

"Okay, Jack."

"Or agreeing."

"I get it, Jack."

"Or commenting."

Daniel sighed.

"Or making unnecessary noises. Remember - stealthy is good. No noises is good. Get back to the start line, Daniel."