CHAPTER ONE: The Beginning
Jack O'Neill walked into the kitchen of his house. He had a killer headache. Opening the cabinet, he looked around for something that would ease his pounding head. That's when he saw it. The white box with the beautiful, pink, miracle pills inside. He grabbed the Benadryl and took a couple.
He went back into the living room and sat on the couch. He was watching one of his Ti-Voed hockey games that he had missed due to off-world activity. He looked at his watch. He had about two hours before his team would be coming over.
Team movie night. It was a once a week thing that one of the members of the team would host at their place. This time...it was Jack's turn. He thought about swapping with Daniel, who had next week, but then he wouldn't hear the end of it for skipping out. Somewhere in the midst of his game, he fell asleep.
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Jack stirred. He looked up to find himself standing in front of a castle.
"What the hell?" he asked. Something wasn't right about his voice. He looked down at himself. "I'm a kid?!" Now he was pissed. He hated dreaming things like this, even in his dreams.
Suddenly, the drawbridge came down and a white horse flew by, forcing him to jump out of the way.
"This is, by far, the weirdest dream that I have ever had," he told himself, as he got up and began to dust himself off. The next thing he knew, there was a man, wearing black armor, sitting on a black horse in front of him. The evil looking man, stared him down. Jack drew a sword from behind him, which he now suddenly had, and also the shield that he was now, randomly, holding.
"What the-?" he asked but the man shot something out of his hand and knocked him down.
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Jack swatted at something flying around his head and rolled over on his other side.
"Jack! Wake up!" A voice said. Jack just rolled deeper into his bed. "Come on! Can the fate of the planet seriously depend on such a lazy guy?!" Finally Jack was aroused enough to sit up. His room smelt different. It smelt like cedar, or was it maple?
"You finally woke up! I'm Thor." The little guy in front of him said. "I was asked to be your partner. Nice to meet you!"
"My what?!" He didn't like the sound of that. "What are you?!" He asked, noticing that he wasn't looking at another human being.
"Let's get going. We're going to be late!" The little guy said.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" He forgot what he was going to say when he looked around the room. This definitely wasn't his room.
"Let's go!" Thor insisted and headed quickly out of the only door in sight. Jack followed him.
He stopped abruptly when he got outside.
"I'm in a tree house!" he said. This was all really weird for him. Suddenly, he saw Janet Frasier running up to him. There was another of—whatever Thor was—following her as well.
"Hi Jack!" she said, waving him down. Jack climbed down the ladder attached to what he considered the porch. "Wow! You finally got one, too! That's great! Now you're a true Kokiri, Jack!"
"A true what?!" He looked at himself and noticed he was wearing something completely different. "I'm in a dress?!" Okay, he was pissed all over again.
"It's not a dress, Jack, it's a tunic!" Thor insisted.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's a dress," he noticed he was wearing a weird hat, also. "And a floppy hat." Shaking off the news, he looked around to notice that they were in some form of forest colony. There were tree houses, exactly like his, everywhere! Thor said something to Janet, but Jack was too busy trying to figure out what was going on to listen.
"Is that right?! Jack! The Great Hammond Tree has summoned you!" She sounded excited, but he was obviously clueless. "It's such an honor to talk to the Great Hammond Tree! Get going! I'll be waiting here when you get back!" She said, hurrying him along.
Jack walked away, following Thor. He was utterly confused. One minute he was lying on his couch and the next minute he was waking up in Neverland! That had to be some powerful stuff he was taking!
Thor led him to the edge of the colony. He tried to leave the colony but some punk wouldn't let him through.
"Hey you! Mr.-No-Asgard. What's your business with the Great Hammond Tree?" the punk said. "Without an Asgard, you're not even a real man!" He saw Thor peek out from behind Jack. "What?! You actually got one!"
"Yep," Jack said. "Apparently, I'm also summoned by the Great Hammond Tree," he said, in a sarcastic tone of voice. "And, supposedly, I have to go this way, and you're preventing me from doing that." That was his way of asking this punk to move. Any politeness that he would have received, jumped off of the tallest building when he tried to be tough shit with Jack.
"What?! The Great Hammond Tree actually summoned you?!" There was pure shock in his tone of voice.
"Yep," Jack said again.
"Why would he summon the likes of you and not the great Feretti?!" The punk said. Jack grinned. "This isn't funny!" He paused again. This was obviously, really disturbing for him. "It's not fair. You're not even fully equipped yet! You need both a sword and a shield!"
"You don't have your equipment ready," Jack pointed out.
"What?! You're right, I don't have my equipment ready, but if you want to pass through here and help the Great Hammond Tree, like you say, then you should at least be equipped with a sword and a shield!"
Jack rolled his eyes. It was all that he could do to keep from punching his daylights out. He hadn't signed on for any of this! Nothing! All he wanted was a little allergy relief!!!
"Sheesh!" Jack said, walking away.
Thor led him up some kind of hill and to a log passage way type of thing. Jack just shot Thor a look. Thor motioned for him to crawl through.
"You're kidding," Jack said. This was messed up!!!
"You have to get the Kokiri Sword, you know!" Thor simply said. "And hurry up! The Great Hammond Tree has summoned you!"
Jack reluctantly crawled through the log tunnel. It was a tight fit, but he was able to get through it. At least he was still young...he was young! He was at least fifteen years younger! He cursed as he crawled out of the tunnel.
"Great," he said. "A maze." He barely dodged the rolling boulder, which seemed to be rolling in a pattern. Jack decided to follow it and wound up standing in front of a treasure chest.
"Well, open it!" Thor insisted.
"Are you serious?" Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. He rolled his eyes and opened the chest. Inside of it was a sword. He picked it up. It was the same sword from his dream.
"Woo hoo!" Thor said, bouncing up and down. "You got the Kokiri Sword!" Jack fastened the sheath in place. He made his way out of the maze area and back into the colony.
"Come on!" Thor said, heading toward a tree house with a red roof. Jack reluctantly followed. They went inside.
Jack looked around the neat, little shop. He had to admit that this place was pretty cool. He found a stack of shields. The price tag said "40 Rupees".
"What's a rupee?" He asked Thor. Thor simply looked at him like he was dumb.
"Currency," he said, bluntly.
"Well, that sucks, because I don't have any." Jack turned to leave, but Thor stopped him.
"Yes, you do!" He held up a wad of something similar to cash.
"There's ninety-nine rupees here. The red ones are twenty, the blue ones are five, and the green ones are one."
"Right," Jack said as he took two of the red ones and handed the rest back to Thor. He grabbed a shield and took it to the counter to pay for it. They exited the shop. "Now what?"
"Now, we go see the Great Hammond Tree!"
"Right," he said. He put the shield on his back, much like the sword. They headed towards Feretti.
"Hold it!" Feretti said. "I already told you. You have to have both a sword and shield." He looked at Jack, and noticed that he actually did have them. "Well, even with all that stuff, a wimp is still a wimp."
Jack walked up to Feretti and punched him in the face, knocking him flat on his butt. Feretti quickly stood up and moved out of the way. That'll teach him, Jack thought to himself.
At the end of the path, Jack saw a giant tree, with the face of General Hammond.
"Are you kidding?" He said to himself as Thor ran up to the Great Hammond Tree, saying, "Great Hammond Tree, I'm back!"
"Oh, Thor! You have returned!" He responded. Jack nearly fell down. The tree was talking! "Jack, welcome." Now, it was talking to him! "Listen carefully, to what I am about to tell you. I know your sleep the last few nights has been restless and full of nightmares. As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those who are sensitive to it. Jack, the time has come to test your courage. I have been cursed and I need you to break the curse with your wisdom and courage. If you have the courage enough to undertake this task, then enter Jack, and you too, Thor." Suddenly, a large opening appeared underneath the mouth of the tree.
"Whoa! Wait, just a minute!" Jack said. "This isn't right! I'm talking to a tree who wants me to break a curse in it?! I don't think so!" He looked up and started shouting at the sky. "Alright guys! Whichever one of you hooked me up to this simulator thingy can get me out now. I'm giving you ten seconds, then when I get out I'm gonna beat the crap out of you! One...two..."
"Jack, this is serious! We need to help the Great Hammond Tree!" Thor insisted. Jack threw his hands up in the air, in surrender, and closed is eyes as he walked into the tree.