(originally published on Livejournal)
Daniel looked over her shoulder and sighed once more before announcing, "I'm bored."
"Shut up." Vala waved her hand and continued flipping through the pages of the ancient text, pausing only to gesture widely. "You have no idea what this is worth..."
Daniel offered no comment, so Vala ignored him. The sun glared down on them both, making Vala's hair look like a halo and Daniel's look like a wet dog. There were advantages to being Vala, none could deny.
Rubbing his sweat-gleamed brow, Daniel groaned and dropped his chin to his chest.
"Really, Daniel." Vala gave him a pointed look. "There's a lovely rock over there that you can sit on. You should sulk out of my hearing."
"I'm not sulking," he protested, vainly. "But we're not here on a treasure hunt."
"Excused me?" Both of Vala's hands went immediately to her hips, and she raised a curved brow. "What did you call that rock thingy we brought back last week?"
"A treasure—but also an alien artifact!" Daniel gave her a prickly look. "It was for valuable research."
"So is this," Vala declared with a flick of her hand. "Now shoo, you're invading my bubble of calm."
Muttering under his breath, the archaeologist retreated to a rock.
Vala, eyes alight with curiosity, continued flipping through the crisp pages. A book without words—the only way to ensure that Daniel wouldn't have his greedy hands on it. Each aged page bore ink drawings of exquisite quality, shaded and marked figures that were human...but not quite. It smelled of mystery and dust, normally Daniel's purview, but in this case tickling Vala's sense of adventure. A story dwelt here, between the changes from drawing to drawing. And then at last, it made sense. "It's a novel," she said aloud with delight.
"What?"
"Daniel, if you hadn't dismissed this as an alien fashion catalogue, you might have noticed the structure!" Vala beckoned him over, valiantly avoiding any smugness. "Try reading with your eyes this time, not your brain."
Skeptical, Daniel approached, arms crossed.
Side by side, Vala turned the pages for him, watching his face.
"This...is incredible, Vala." Daniel's voice had the awe of the scientist as he adjusted his glasses more firmly over his nose.
She grinned. "I know!"
They hunched over the text, turning pages that Vala hadn't gotten to before, drinking in the odd tale expressed through minimalist drawings. Peril arrived for the ink figures, dark horror awaiting around the corner. Just a few expert brush strokes somehow managed to make Vala's hackles rise in suspense, unsure what fate awaited the characters. She could hear the hitch in Daniel's breathing as they finally reached the finale...
The main ink figure suddenly burst from the pages with a roar, exploding in front of their faces in smoke and fire and bits of paper. Daniel yelped, Vala squealed, and they both fell back onto their asses.
"That's a unique art style..." Daniel caught his breath, then mumbled under his breath, "Illusion or science?"
"And you said you were bored," Vala commented with a little snort.