MUD DEMONS
The sky was overcast with dark grey clouds, threatening to burst and release their rain. John really didn't want it to rain, he hated the feeling of the rain falling into his has, dripping into his face, his clothes sticking to his skin, wet clothes constantly rubbing against his skin. His team walked up the dusty path that was suppose to lead them to the village.
A strong wind rose blowing through his hair, sending Teyla's dancing around her face.
John felt a wet drop of water hit his nose, he sighed heavily annoyed almost as if the thought of hoping it wouldn't rain brought it down.
After that one drop of rain came more, a lot more.
It started lightly but it didn't take long before it pelting down. It quickly soaked though his clothes, he looked over at his once content team, now looking miserable.
The rain fell hitting the ground with a thunderous noise.
Mckay turned to him, arms wrapped tightly around his body, "Can we go?"
"We continue to the village, we must be close!" He yelled over the rain. Even though he himself would rather go home he knew there was no point.
They trudged up the increasingly muddy hill, there were no rocks or plants to offer stability.
John slipped and fell to his knees, "Great!" He muttered as he picked himself up, he looked down at the mud now covering his pants, from his boots to his knees.
"Lets move." He grumbled.
Finally they reached the top of the hill, and at the bottom through the thick haze of rain was a large village, the whole reason they had come.
"Careful you guys, lets take it slow." He warned the team, the hill looked steep and treacherous
Slowly and carefully placed one foot after another. He set his foot down, it slipped beneath him sending him tumbling after, and once he fell that wasn't the end. He had started sliding down the hill pulled his legs in front of him.
He was nearing the bottom when he noticed a large rock; in fact it was a boulder.
He tried to slow down, grasping at the ground only to come up with handfuls of mud.
He twisted his body to the side so his legs would not smash into it.
He closed his eyes and prepared for impact, wrapping his arms protectively over his head.
He hissed in pain as he slammed onto the side of the large boulder, he flopped to the ground lying there, mud now covering his back.
"I hate mud," He grumbled.
He looked to the top of the hill where his team stood, now small figures.
The rain fell onto his face he wiped the water off his eyes.
Something moved beneath his back, he rolled onto his knees and quickly stood up.
Pointing his gun where he had been laying, he stared down in confusion as nothing was there.
He looked back to where his team was standing; he was about to wave them down when something hit him in the back, knocking him to his hands and knees.
He stood up slowly looking around for someone, or something.
The rain was still falling heavily making it harder to see. Something hit him in the back again; he stumbled but caught his balance. He swung around, but all he saw was mud, rain and a lot more mud.
Hw stood still waiting for whatever it was, as he stood there he saw a large glob of mud flying towards him, he stepped to the side and it flew by.
He fell to his knees as something else hit him in the back.
"What the heck!?" He cried out in surprise.
He started crawling on his hands an knees, deciding it might be safer.
He didn't see the mud in time to react, it slammed into his side knocking the air out of him, a second one hit him, knocking him to the ground.
John grumbled he was wet, muddy, and mud was flying at him, he didn't know how things could get any worse.
He lay on his stomach, still. He could see the town from where he was. He readied himself; he shot to his feet and started to run, well run as well as one can in so much mud.
He heard a mud ball land behind him, some shot past him.
Right before his eyes mud started to rise forming a large mound, at least twice his size.
Things had just got worse.
......
"Why does he keep falling?" Mckay asked staring at his friend at the bottom of the hill.
"I suppose it is slippery." Teyla said.
"No it's something else." Ronon told them.
"Like what the rain?" Mckay asked sarcastically.
"Something is attacking him." Ronon huffed.
"Its hard to see down there, "Teyla added "But it looks like it will be giving up soon, thankfully."
"We need to get down there," Ronon barked, already starting down the hill.
Teyla and Rodney stared in horror as what to be seemed mud rose in front of John.
......
John slid trying to stop, he fell stopping right in front of the creature, mud whatever it was.
"Whoa big guy, just passing through." He said to the creature, not sure if it would even understand him.
The mud had two large black eyes, and it grew two arms that reached for him.
He started crawling backwards in the mud; the creature wrapped its muddy fingers around him, and picked him up.
John laughed nervously, "I though i would just have fallen through you fingers."
The creature pulled John close to its face, John whose hand had been resting in his gun fired. The bullets sprayed the creature, but going right through.
The creature roared, and threw John. He flew through the air landing in the mud with a hard thump.
He groaned as he stood up.
"Oh crap!" He muttered as he turned around, there was not only one, but six. Surrounding him in a circle.
"I was wrong this is worse."
Which way, which way? He thought, confuse them.
He ran towards one of the creatures, turning towards a gap at the last moment.
One of the creatures large hands sprang out of no where slamming into Johns chest and sending him flying through the air.
"Your fast, Fast and ugly!" He yelled to the creatures.
He sat up wincing as pain shot though his chest, he pulled one arm around his chest, and once more stood up.
One of the creatures grabbed him from behind and threw him into the air as if he were a toy. He prepared for hitting the ground, but it didn't come, another one of the creatures caught him, and threw him again, then caught and thrown, caught and thrown. This time landing on the ground roughly.
He sat up feeling slightly nauseous, whipping the mud off his face. There was now pretty much no part of him that was not covered in mud.
And the rain really wasn't helping.
He walked over to the first one he had seen, "What do you want?" He yelled.
The creature grabbed him with both hands and picked him up off the ground.
"What do you want?" He asked again.
A low rumble cam from the creature and it started to squeeze him. Tighter and tighter.
He was starting to have trouble breathing, the creature held his so tight that he couldn't take a breath. Black dots started to appear in his vision.
He heard Ronon yell, and he was dropped, the black dots filling his sight, pulling him into darkness.
......
Ronon growled, the creature had released John, he pulled his sword soundlessly from it's sheath, rushing at one of the creatures.
He sliced viciously at the large brown are that swung towards him, it severed falling to the falling to the ground.
The creature growled and grew another one, hitting Ronon before he had the chance to slice that one off as well.
He landed in the mud, sending it splashing in all directions; he quickly jumped to his feet, Teyla joining him.
They stood in the middle back-to-back, waiting to make a move, or for the creatures to make a move first.
"Look." Teyla said pointing to the sky, it had stopped raining and the clouds were dispersing.
They quickly looked back to the creatures who were roaring loudly.
Teyla and Ronon covered their ears, they watched in amazement as before their very eyes the creatures began to shrink and disappear.
"John!" Teyla called running to his side, she knelt beside him.
Shaking him lightly she called him again, "John, John."
He groaned, "What?"
"Are you okay?"
"No, I'm muddy."
she laughed, "I am sure we can fix that."
She helped him up and looked in dismay at his mud covered clothes, the sun was out and it was already producing heat, causing the mud on his clothes to start to dry.
"Lets go."
"Perhaps you would like to go back to Atlantis and get cleaned up. We can always come another day." She suggested.
"No, were here now, I would rather get this over with"
"You look well." Rodney said trying to stifle a laugh as he joined them.
John turned towards him, glaring. He turned and kept towards the village.
Everything in the town was made of stone, stone houses, stone stores; even the ground around the village was covered in stone.
There were no gardens or even plants in sight. The town was also strangely quiet, every window and door was shut, and there was no one to be seen.
"This is odd." John whispered.
"Maybe no one lives here anymore, with those mud things being around." Rodney
Offered.
"They're here." Ronon said knowingly.
John sighed and walked up to the closest house, he knocked on the door, "Hello, in anyone here."
No answer.
He walked to the next house and knocked, "Hello-o"
The door opened a crack, and a small face peered out, the little girl screamed and slammed the door shut.
"John took a step back, "Well Its nice to meet you to. Seriously, what was that all about."
Teyla cleared her throat, "May I suggest that it has something to do with your appearance.
"You try."
She knocked lightly on the door, a young man answering it this time. He opened it cautiously "Yes?"
"Where is the leader of your town, we would like to speak to him." She asked softly.
The man looked back, "Pa, there's some people here who would like to talk to you!"
An older grey haired man opened the door, all the way this time, and his face rigid, full of authority.
"Welcome travelers, what would you like?" His searching eyes looked over each of them,
landing John, a suspiciously stare.
"He got a little bit dirty." Teyla explained, "The hill was quite slippery."
"You ran into the mud demons."
"The what!?" Rodney squeaked.
"Mud demons, they come out whenever it rains they will attack any living thing within their reach.
This is why our town is built like so, to protect us."
"And how often does it rain?" Rodney asked cautiously.
"Sometimes only once a day, some days it rains many times."
"And what do you eat?" Teyla asked curiously.
"Beyond that hill are orchards and rich fields. We have workers that go in shifts.
Out there they have housing such as this. They work and take care of the fields and collect food.
And on the Holy day it does not rain, this is when they return and the others leave."
"You wouldn't happen to want to trade would you?" John asked.
"I am sorry but we require all the food we harvest."
"No need to apologize, we understand." Teyla told him.
"You should come inside, it is about to rain."
"Mind if I stay outside and wash some of this mud off.?" John asked though it was more of a rhetorical question.
"No," The man barked, taking them all by surprise." It is not safe you must come inside."
John moaned following them in, annoyed that he had to stay mud covered for longer.
When they were inside they sat a a small wooded table, candle light casting shadows on the floor.
"I am Bracon, and you are...?"
"I'm Colonel Sheppard, this is Rodney Mckay, Teyla Emmagen, and Ronon Dex.
"Welcome to my home, I am sorry that my world is not very welcoming. But you will need to leave first thing in the morning."
"Why?" Rodney asked.
"It is getting into the rainy season, and I fear that if you do not leave tomorrow that you will have to stay longer than expected.
I have layed mats for you in the other room, I hope you sleep well."
he left the room, the team sitting there in silence.
"Well I'm beat, time to hit the hay." John left for the other room, the others following.
He layed down on the mat, and the paper-thin mat, adding no comfort against the stone floor underneath.
He rolled onto his stomach, he hissed in pain and quickly flipped onto his back.
He lay there in the darkness his teams light breathing oddly comforting. He lay there until sleep took him.
......
They walked up the steep hill placing each foot carefully. Once over the hill they continued down the long dusty path towards the gate.
The journey was long and dusty, but they finally made it.
Rodney dialed the gate, no one said much of anything, they were all exhausted.
He was pretty sure he wasn't the only one who slept poorly.
The gate kawooshed, and they all stepped through, back to Atlantis.
"What happened to you?" Weir asked trying not to laugh as she walked up to John.
"I hate mud."
"Why did you slip and fall, then say to heck with it and roll in it until you were covered in
it from head to toe.?"
"Yes, then it attacked me."
"It attacked you?" She asked in disbelief. "I never heard that one before."
"Sorry, but I am tired and dirty, I promise i will explain later. So you can laugh at me then."
"Okay, but I want you to report to the infirmary first."
He nodded to tired to protest.
He walked into the infirmary, Keller eyeing him suspiciously.
"Go ahead laugh, it seems to be a mutual felling among people."
"I wasn't going to laugh." She told him trying to keep a straight face.
"Weir sent me." He mumbled.
"Yes I see that, but I am not looking over you like that. I suggest you take a shower and get cleaned up."
"Thank you." He cried not afraid to show his relief. He jogged out of the room and towards the showers.
......
He returned clean and refreshed.
"Take a seat." She instructed. "Anything in particular that I need to look over?"
In response he lifted his shirt, pulling it off and throwing it to the floor.
A large black and purple bruise covered a large portion of his chest, more on the right side.
Her careful fingers began to poke and prod.
He clenched his teeth trying to ignore the pain, when she was done she walked over to a cabinet pulling out a large bandage.
She wrapped it securely around his chest.
"You have two cracked ribs. And as I have told you before that means taking it easy, no sparing. I mean it." She said sternly.
"And how does mud attack you?"
"It's a long story." He moaned with a slight smile.
THE END