Title: Cayua
Beta: ice_elf
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I wish they were mine, but they aren't.
Spoilers: Light ones for 'The Other Side' and 'Divide and Conquer'
Summary: There must have been some full out from 'The Other Side', and it was never really addressed.
Authors Notes: It has been at least 7 years since I last wrote Stargate Fic, and this was a rather extreme way for me to reintroduce myself to it. Forgive me for any extreme flights of fancy?
Inspiration taken from 'The Piano Tuner', names taken from Guaraní Indian legend, title from the Jesuit name for the Guaraní – meaning 'Men of the Forest'.
For: aoife_hime as part of the sjficathon . Who wanted: Something based on, .com/art/Coup-d-oeil-48393937?q=by%3Ahitostargate&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps and the theme of "glances". To be set pre-'Divide and Conquer'.
The air was heavy with the rich aroma of spices, and as Jack O'Neill breathed them in he was reminded of the Middle East. Before his capture, there had been times in various base camps where the smell of similar spices had drifted in over the perimeter fences, a sure sign that various street vendors were hawking their wares outside. That was before the IED's and aerial attacks, when the metallic scent of blood had mingled with the spices, making Jack swear off curried foods for years.
Jack coughed as a particularly strong cloud of smoke from the fire filled his lungs. As he wiped water from his eyes he cast them over the rest of his team. Teal'c was stood out of reach of the smoke, so still that he could easily have been mistaken for one of the trees surrounding the clearing had it not been for the constant flickering of his eyes as he mapped the group SG-1 were with. Despite the total lack of hostile activity on the planet the natives, the Sinhô, seemed to have knocked Teal'c slightly off kilter. Jack himself had been unable to fully relax either, so unused was he to what was turning out to be a quiet mission.
Carter was sat on an exposed tree root that stretched out into the clearing and was surrounded by a group of wide-eyed dark children. The children were alternating between stroking their hands through her hair and trying to teach her one of their games, laughing each time she did something wrong. A shred of material, some sticks of something akin to bamboo and several differing sizes of stone made up the supposedly simple game they were playing. A few hours ago Daniel had picked the game up quickly and then spent another hour (or so it had seemed to Jack) talking about the ways it could save Earth...or maybe that wasn't quite what he had said.
As Jack thought about the archaeologist - anthropologist - defender of the planet, his eyes strained through the smoke in an effort to spot him. It wasn't until he looked up into the tree canopy that he saw Daniel. Between some of the branches that hung over the clearing a wooden platform had been mounted. It wasn't as intricate as the dwellings away from the clearing but provided an open meeting place. At some point Daniel had ditched his military issued black t-shirt and had adopted the garb of the natives. The garment was designed to hang from one shoulder and to curve around the body like a protective arm until it met back at its starting point. It seemed to be made from a material unlike anything that could be manufactured on Earth and had been the catalyst for Daniel starting up a conversation with the young man who had presented it to him. Jack was sure that the conversation had steered into something more historical but had no way of telling due to the fact that he'd never been taught Guaraní at school.
Although the initial UAV scan of the planet had indicated some form of human life there had been no visual ID. A few clicks out from the Stargate, just where the open grassland had started to merge with jungle, a group of young men had appeared from between the trees. Despite carrying spears they had given no outward sign of being hostile and Daniel had launched into finding a way to communicate.
Officially Jack made the decision to stay when Carter had pointed out the strange material that the young men were wearing was unlike anything she had seen before. He had been tempted to make a quip about how closely Sam had been studying the men but Jack had held his tongue. Therein lay the unofficial reason that he made the decision to stay. Despite the temporary closure provided by the handing in of reports Jack felt as though SG-1, particularly he and Carter, hadn't really healed after their encounter with the Eurondans. A quiet, fact-finding mission had the potential to act like a plaster to their partnership within the team.
Jack's gaze wandered back to Carter as he thought upon the fallout of their past mission. It wasn't like anything tangible had changed nothing that Teal'c and Daniel had made any mention of, there was just something off between them. Carter's eyes met his for an instant but even as she saw him she looked away. That was it really; she hadn't looked at him properly since that long moment on the ramp, the dull thud of Alar's body hitting the iris still in their ears.
As a new smell mingled with the existing spices Jack came to the sharp realisation that Carter losing some form of faith in him hurt a lot more than it was supposed to. The decision to order the iris shut hadn't been one made without due consideration, as soon as the Eurondan's had been 'found out' Jack had been preparing for the fact that some of them may try and use the Stargate to escape, he hadn't been fully prepared for being stood on the ramp as it happened. There was no way he was going to be responsible for bringing another planet's version of Nazism back to Earth.
"Jack! Daniel to Jack." Jack looked sharply away from Carter towards a descended Daniel who gestured towards a woman stood in front of him. The woman was looking at him with an earnest expression and in her hands, was a bowl full of whatever had been cooking over the fire since they had arrived. Jack looked at Daniel, trying to once again express to him that eating the native's food on a mission was not the standard MO, and Daniel shot him the usual reply look straight back. The look that said 'I don't care if it makes you sick; you're going to offend the Sinhô'. Jack knew without looking that Teal'c would have the Jaffa version of a smirk on his face and that Carter was already thinking about having a night off MRE's.
With a smile Jack accepted the bowl from the woman who looked at him with an unashamed look of wonder before scurrying off to the other side of the fire. He fished the spoon, which seemed to be made from a hardened form of the material they used for clothes, out of the bowl and decided to go for it. The food inside the bowl looked much like a masala but Jack decided against asking Daniel what sort of meat was in it. He took a mouthful.
If the smell of the spices had been intoxicating then the taste of them was something else. The flavour was strong and yet came in little waves that allowed Jack to taste each one of them as an individual. When he bit into the meat it fell apart in his mouth and almost overwhelmed him with a new taste that went perfectly with the ones he was already experiencing.
As he swallowed and prepared for another mouthful Jack snuck another look at Carter. She had a bowl in her hands and a look on her face that spoke of pure delight, almost like when she got her hands on some freshly made blue jello. A quick glance turned into an almost all out stare before he noticed one of Carter's kids looking at him strangely. He took another mouthful of the food and promised himself that he'd talk to Carter later.
Later came and went, and at some point Daniel spoke to Jack long enough to tell him that although the Sinhô were very isolated they had had visitors in the past. Daniel had tried his best to get more information but the tales of the visitors were so far back in the Sinhô's history that there hadn't been much to learn. Apparently the Sinhô weren't fully representative of all of the people on the planet as there were other tribes; Daniel thought that this called for another explorative team to be sent at a later stage.
The fire had now been built so high that it seemed at one with the sky. So high and bright, that the stars were hard to see in the glare. Most of the women of the tribe had vanished into the trees, taking their children with them and leaving the hunters of the tribe around the fire. Amongst the hunters few elderly women remained as well, who looked on at the festivities and whispered amongst themselves, their wrinkled skin flickering in the firelight.
Around the fire danced the young men that had first greeted them on the fringe of the jungle, the newest hunters of the tribe. They had come back empty handed from their hunt, mainly due to their discovery of SG-1 and were now making up for it. Using ash from the fire and some carefully harvested tree sap, they'd decorated their bodies. Now, as they danced around the fire to a throbbing drumbeat, the lines on their bodies switched in and out of shapes, joining bodies together for an instant before a shift in shadows would re-form them. Outlines flickered in front of Jack's eyes, but the harder he tried to focus on them the less he saw.
Feeling like a traitor he looked away and straight at Sam. The light from the hungry fire flickered around the features of her face, almost as if it were reaching out to her. Although she was sat a fair distance away from him, Jack could see the dancers reflected in her eyes. He wondered if she was trying to make sense of the shapes as well.
A movement out of his line of sight caught Jack's attention; he turned and was faced with a rather nervous looking Daniel. Behind Daniel stood one of the old women Jack had noted earlier, holding a bowl in her creased hands. Even before Daniel spoke Jack had a fair idea of what was going to be asked of him. No matter the planet there was always some form of local custom that Daniel would feel obliged to try and involve the team in. Jack didn't mind flexing the rules when food was concerned, even a mild dose of food poisoning sometimes seemed preferable to MRE's, but there was no way he was going to strip mostly naked and start dancing around the fire.
"Jack..."
"No Daniel"
"You don't even know what I'm going to ask."
"I don't have to Daniel; the scenario is all set-up behind you and around me." The archaeologist at least had the goodwill look to look a little ashamed.
"I promise that it involves no drugs, dancing or dead animals."
Jack cringed as he was reminded of one of their early missions and something that had looked loosely related to a bat - loosely as although Jack knew bats had wings he was reasonably sure that they didn't have tails like that. He was all ready to say no and to warn Daniel not to press the matter further when he looked back at the dancers. For the briefest second he saw the outlines of a four person team before it dissolved in front of him.
"Tell me more."
Daniel looked shocked and immediately launched into a long-winded explanation detailing the ceremony he wanted Jack to participate in. "...so basically you and Sam can take part. They've guessed that Teal'c's a bit 'different' and they want to continue discussing their history with me..."
"Back-up a bit there Daniel, exactly what are we going to be doing?"
Daniel shot Jack a look that he had perfected over the years, one of utter frustration. "They want to perform a bonding ceremony..."
"Ah ah ah Daniel, that sounds a hell of a lot like...well...something a lot more…legally binding." At that precise moment Jack hated his mind, he'd been unable to use the word 'intimate' as the very thought had taken him to all sorts of places. Damn stupid alternate universes putting non-workable, impossible suggestions in his head. He tuned back into Daniel.
"...so it's not like a wedding at all. They use it to bond hunting groups together, to make them more aware if each others actions. It's a pity that Teal'c and I can't be part of it but you know...um...it may help."
Jack knew that Daniel was skirting around the real issue and he felt a twinge of guilt over the fact that the non-military parts of the team had noticed. It was his fault, as Carter's commanding officer he should have addressed the issue, should have taken care of his team. He didn't put much faith in whatever Daniel was trying to push on him, but at least it would provide a starting point in a conversation.
"Ok" - and was it really wrong of him to enjoy the look of surprise on Daniel's face? - "Have you asked Carter yet?"
"I've already agreed, Sir."
Well, of course she had. Carter stood in front of him, blocking out the light from the fire and leaving him sat in shadow.
"And you sure that just the two of us can take part?"
Before Daniel could answer Carter spoke again, "Maybe it would be better this way, sir? If something does go wrong, but I can't think what, then there would still be two able-bodied members of the team left."
They were crazy, the pair of them. He didn't linger on the inherent doubt he had in strangers and that something 'could' go wrong. "Fine, what do we have to do? And Daniel, this material had better be worth it."
A few minutes later it was too late for regrets or to call a halt to the whole thing. The fire had been subdued and almost everyone had been cleared from the area. Only the old women remained, bedding themselves down in a hut that had previously been concealed by vegetation. According to Daniel, the men became the elders of the village, living amongst the trees until they died, whilst the women guarded the tribe at night and cared for the tribes more practical needs.
He was sat back-to-back with Carter, could feel the rise of her shoulder blades every time she breathed in. They'd stripped off their external BDU jackets not long after entering the jungle that day, and so he could just feel the tops of her arms resting against his own. In front of him knelt the woman with a bowl, she was smearing his face with the same substance the hunters had used, using two fingers and her thumb to firmly drag lines across his skin. Every so often she would take something out of a pouch she was holding and squeeze it into the mixture; there was no discernable smell though. She was staring at him now, eyes almost lost in her loose skin yet still piercing into his. Jack had the inescapable feeling that he was being judged and would never know the verdict. The woman made a noise in the back of her throat before standing up and moving away from him. Behind him he could hear Carter's counterpart doing the same.
One of the hunters who had previously been stood off to the side now approached them. Daniel had instructed Jack and Carter to keep their eyes dead ahead at all times, so although Jack heard the hunter approaching the man had stayed just out of his line of vision. He began to speak; the words sounded poetical to Jack's ears and fell upon his ears with a rhythm that made them make perfect sense. Unfortunately Jack would never know what they meant as Daniel had been forbidden from translating any part of the ritual and was only allowed to pass on instructions.
"Jack, Sam, find each others hands and hold onto them," Daniel said in a low voice, like he was afraid to interrupt the atmosphere the words were creating. Although he was tempted to argue, Jack's hands had already found Sam's and his fingers were already tangled in hers. Where his right hand and her left one joined, he felt another hand rest on top of them, and the flow of words continued to wash over him.
It felt like they sat there forever, using each other as an anchor against the pull the words and the hand were having upon them. Although he couldn't understand the words the hunter was saying, he couldn't help the almost euphoric feeling that was tugging at his mind. Then the words stopped, and the extra hand was removed.
Continuing in a low voice, Daniel said, "Ok, you can stand up and look at each other now".
Jack's hands felt strangely empty when he let go of Carter's but he was distracted from the feeling as his knees creaked in protest of him standing. He turned around and looked at Carter, eager to see what sort of effect the 'paint' had created, he was unprepared.
He had thought that the 'paint' would create the same form of effect as the camo paint they used on Earth, but unlike camo paint – which was used to break up the lines of the face – this 'paint' did nothing of the sort. Instead of blending Carter's features together, the dark lines somehow accentuated the natural lines of her face. She still looked like Carter but somehow darker and with an air of mystery around her. The remaining light from the fire curved around her cheek bones and chased a dark green line down one cheek to the slope of her jaw. Jack knew that if he didn't look at her directly than some form of image would appear across her face and he wished he could ask her what she saw on him.
"Sir?" Same old Carter and she knew that they were meant to stay quiet. He smiled in response, pleased that she seemed just as shocked as he did.
"Ok guys, in a second you're going to go up that tree," Daniel pointed, "Don't worry Jack, it's got steps and everything" – cheeky little… - "Once you're up there, you have to close the door and light what will look like candles. Sit down, breathe deeply and listen to the chant that you will hear from down here. The scent from the candles and the chant will summon the spirits of the jungle. Jack, stop pulling faces. In your mind you will be guided through the jungle on a hunt, which will help you to develop an instinct for how the other will respond to the presented situation. This instinct will be very strong for you, but after a nights sleep it is said to fade out of conscious thought and become an intuition that you will never question."
All of this was beginning to sound a bit intense to Jack, but the idea still intrigued him. Besides, if the mumbo-jumbo didn't work he would have a chance to talk to Carter and if it did work, it may do better than any words he could come up with. Daniel was still talking:
"Sam, even before you ask, I'm sorry but they won't divulge either what's in the candles or the words of the chant. Don't think of trying to take a sample, the candles are designed to burn for a very specific amount of time."
The hunter said something to Daniel and motioned towards a tree to the edge of the clearing, just out of reach of the light from the fire. "You have to go now. Just, I don't know, go with the flow?"
It physically hurt Jack not to make some form of sarcastic response; instead he followed the hunter to the base of the tree and started to haul himself up Daniel's so-called steps.
A third of the way up the tree was a platform that formed a rough square around the trunk. This platform provided a base for the hut that was similar in design to the ones in the surrounding trees, except that it was closer to the ground and not joined to the others by a walkway. Due to the way the tree grew the platform was supported by a mixture of natural branches and struts of wood that had been lashed together.
Jack automatically tested for stability when he first stepped onto the platform, but the structure did not move. Even though the platform was formed around the trunk, the hut was off centre with only a corner encompassing the trunk, this left a patch of space for Jack to stand in whilst Carter finished her climb. Once Carter was there, they moved into the hut.
The entire hut could only have been about three metres square, but was tall enough to for them to not have to duck. In the farthest corner from the door, a shallow shelf had been carved into the trunk and the surface polished until it reminded Jack of amber. On the shelf sat two thick unlit candles and one small lit one. The small candle provided a flicker of light but the rest mostly came from the dull glow of the fire beneath them which crept in through the door. Although there were windows, they were covered in a thick curtain of flat leaves, and the roof seemed to be made of young supple twigs that were tightly woven around each other.
A large proportion of the floor space was taken up by two mounds of the material that Carter and Daniel were so interested in. One was thick and stuffed with something that offered a firm resistance when Jack touched it, where as the other was softer and more like a blanket, certainly not the worst bed they had ever been presented with. Jack sometimes wondered if someone in a forgotten office of the SGC was keeping count of how many times the members of SG-1 ended up sharing a bed off-world, sometimes it was just inescapable.
As Jack explored, Sam went to the shelf and used the smaller candle to the light the two others, before moving around Jack and shutting the door. Almost immediately a low throbbing sound rose up from beneath them. The sound was so quiet that it was barely audible and yet once again Jack felt a pull inside of him. This time the pull was far stronger, enough to make his legs almost fail him before he reached the low bed.
Sam was already on the bed, sat crossed legged and supporting her head in her hands. She was looking down and her hair had folded forwards so that only a strip of her darkened forehead was visible in the barely existent light. As Jack sat next to her he was hit by the smell coming from the candles. The smell was sickly sweet, nearly metallic, and reminded him of something that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He breathed again, trying to familiarise himself to the smell yet as he did the chant below him shifted in pace and volume.
Instead of being like the dull thump of a heartbeat the chant started building in strength, the part of Jack's mind that was still fully lucid compared it to the theme from Jaws and automatically his senses heightened themselves to a danger that didn't exist.
With his next breath he felt as though he was fighting for air. The smell that flooded through his brain was that of the wet, humid jungle they had trekked through to reach the Sinhô. Rich and cloying it seeped through his lungs, with only the barest hints of flower blossom and fresh water coming through.
Jack's heart felt as though it was straining to keep up with the demand that his brain was placing upon it, as the adrenaline kicked in he felt as though he was running a marathon with lead boots on. He reached for Sam hoping that she'd understand that he couldn't speak and would raise some sort of alarm that something was going terribly wrong. The effort it took for him to raise his arm and then to pull Sam towards him only served to drain him further.
Then Sam was there, filling his field of swimming vision, the paint on her face shining like wet ink in the light of the candles. When he looked at her his senses sharpened and all he could feel was her.
His vision cleared as her eyes met his, there was something not quite right about the dark crimson eyes that stared back at him but he couldn't place what was wrong.
She was taking deep, long breaths. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. A slow fight to stay alive.
Beneath the hand that was encircling her wrist he could feel her frantic heartbeat, that wasn't only in time with his but with the chant that was surrounding them. Despite the choking smell of the candles and the way he was rushing oxygen into his body he could still smell her. The near vanished smell of the shower gel she had used that morning in the locker room all but drowned out by the scent of someone who had gone trekking through a jungle that afternoon and then been sat by a fire.
It seemed only natural to investigate how she would taste.
They fell into each other, lips meeting and anchoring them whilst their other senses fell apart. As their tongues met and hungrily tangled the scent of the jungle overwhelmed them. All that either of them could see was green, and it suddenly felt as though they were running. They were hunting, and he could feel her in his mind.
Jack woke three times during the night, but would only remember the third.
The first time he woke the blood was still thumping through his veins and a strange heat held his body in a vice like grip. He rolled over to try and escape the heat and encountered a soothing balm with arms that slipped around him. Yet as the balm seeped into him a strange drum beat sounded in his ears, emanating from somewhere inside his soul. As the beat took hold, he closed his eyes and the green jungle welcomed them.
The second time he woke the word 'Tarobá' was being whispered in his ear over and over. It crawled down inside of him, until unbidden the name (he knew it to be a name) 'Naipi' fell from his lips. Again and again the name fell, until his lips were covered and he could speak no more. Somewhere in the distance, the beat started up again and the sounds of the jungle enveloped them.
The third time he woke he stayed awake. For a very brief moment he wondered where he was. He was surrounded by the scent of the unfamiliar and covered by an alien ceiling. When he wiped his face his fingers came back streaked with green, brown and black. He didn't need to look at Sam to know that she was there; in the back of his brain he could not only tell that she was asleep but also a long way from waking. The instinct wasn't intrusive nor disturbing, just comfortable.
When his feet touched the ground the wood was cool against his soles and aided his quiet progress across the hut to where his trousers lay. He still had his boxers and t-shirt on, he knew that they hadn't had sex and although the 'chain of command' had certainly been rusted it had not been broken. His memory was vague and incomplete, like someone had put masking tape over his vision of the previous night.
He dressed quickly, even put his boots on outside to make as little noise as possible and made his way down the tree, back to the clearing. It was quiet and the air as cold as it probably got before the sun began to heat the jungle again. Around the clearing the jungle was dark and uninviting, a chorus of strange bird calls providing an eerie soundtrack to the scene. Around the glowing embers of last nights fire the old women were carrying out the morning preparations, and even as he watched one of them emerged from the jungle with a basked of lime coloured fruit.
Teal'c was stood off to Jack's right, with the combined weapons of Carter and Jack at his feet, insurance that they would not be able to cause harm to themselves or others whilst 'under the influence'. When Jack acknowledged him the Jaffa nodded and said "O'Neill'. Together they stood and watched the world come to life around them.
-_-_*_-_-
Later, much later, after breakfast and Daniel securing samples of different forms of the material, they were almost back at the 'Gate. They'd taken a detour on the route back; the Sinhô had wanted to show them what they considered one of their greatest treasures. The treasure had turned out to be a waterfall, whose thunder could be heard long before it could be seen.
Sam and Jack had both taken the opportunity to clean the paint that was still clinging to their faces. They had rid themselves of their footwear and waded out into the water. Almost simultaneously they'd both scooped the icy water into their hands and washed it over their faces. Jack gasped as the strongest feeling of being here before hit him and he felt it go through Sam as well. Whatever it was between them had been growing weaker with each hour that passed and yet was still strong enough to cause a jolt of feeling rush through both of them.
"Do you feel like we've been here before?" She asked.
"Yes, I feel as though I know this whole jungle though." He knew that she felt the same, had sensed the growing wonderment in her mind as they had followed the Sinhô to the waterfall.
They had spoken little of the events that had transpired between them, mainly because the memory of the night had grown thin and stretched as the heat of the day had intensified but also for the fact that it just hadn't felt right. Things between them were better than they had been before Euronda, better than they had been for a long time, neither one of them wanted to jeopardise it.
Both of them had lost their boots at the waterfall, according to Daniel the Sinhô had blamed a freak current in the water, Jack thought it more likely that the group of hunters had felt like accessorising a little. The jungle wasn't hard to walk through and the Sinhô managed it with ease, so they had followed suit.
SG-1 and their escorting Sinhô were back at the 'gate now, Jack, Teal'c and Sam had already said their goodbyes, Daniel was completing his apparently lengthy discussion about return visits from other representatives of their 'tribe'.
Teal'c was either being overly vigilant or enjoying the view, as he stood with his back to the Stargate, looking out over the hills that had welcomed them to the planet. In contrast Sam was totally at ease, sat on the grass with her back against the Stargate platform and her head tilted towards the sun. Jack stood as a connecting point between the two of them.
Although the method was not conventional or described in any sot of USAF training booklet, Jack was more than satisfied with the resolution that had been reached between him and his second-in-command. She no longer refused to meet his eyes, and on the trek back to the 'Gate the conversation had been easy between the two of them and Teal'c.
He glanced out of the corner of his eye at her, pleased that the bond between them had faded so that she wouldn't be able to feel the guilty pleasure that went through him. As he snuck another glance an image of a memory that he shouldn't have flashed before his eyes. Jack shook his head as if to clear the image from it. That was not for them, the other universes could have their share of happy and un-happy endings, and this was the way that it would be for them. The way that they worked best, wordlessly Sam seemed to confirm it by smiling as she turned to look at him.
Later, when writing their mission reports, both of them would be unable to describe what they had been through that night in the jungle, or what they had been left with. Both of them would fail to mention the things that they dreamt about, even to each other.
They dreamed of hunting through the jungle, running side by side. Of shapes that flickered over each others faces as shadows and paint melted together. In the nights immediately following the mission they would wake, panting for breath with adrenaline coursing through their veins, both hyperaware that the other was feeling the same even through they were nowhere near each other.
Buried beneath military logic and calculated physics the bond remained between them, until a month later when a barrier stood between them. Despite the lies that they had told themselves, when their eyes locked through the blue haze they both felt the strength of feeling that lay between them. The bond let them feel the love, and it also let them feel the fear.
For a moment, they both heard the sound of drums.