Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret productions, and Gekko Productions.* This Stargate SG-1 fan fiction story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended.
It was barely dawn when Daniel rolled from his bed and pulled on soft cotton trousers, calf-high desert boots, and a loose, airy wrap around tunic. Over this, he wrapped a light-weight scarf that served to cover his head as well as provide a little extra warmth against the pre-sunrise breezes of the Egyptian desert. Slipping quietly out of the tent that had served as home during this dig, the small boy paused by the well to carefully fill a skin canteen. He had no intention of being gone long or in going far, but even at eight years old, he knew the vagaries of the desert and equipped himself accordingly. Slipping a note under the flap of his parents' tent door, he turned and made his way out of the camp.
A few minutes later, Daniel was climbing a steep dune only a short distance from the archaeological dig encampment that had been his home for the last two years. That was coming to an end today. His parents were being acknowledged for this find and with the permission of the Egyptian government, they would be erecting the small temple on exhibit in New York at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Daniel understood that it was an immense honor for his parents, but his small heart grieved at leaving all he had ever known...even if only for a short while.
His parents had lectured him...again...on speaking English once they left on the journey to the United States. Daniel's first language was Egyptian Arabic. He was also reasonably fluent in French and Dutch, his mother's first languages. He knew English, but he disliked the harsh sound and sometimes incomprehensible complexities of the language. Daniel spent most of his days with the children of the dig's foreman and other workers at the camp, playing with them and sharing their games and education. In addition to that, his parents made certain he was home schooled based on American and European standards as well. Daniel's education was not lacking. In fact, he had overheard his parents expressing concern that he would be too far ahead of other children his age in New York and bored in school. It was not an inability to speak English; it was unwillingness.
Daniel paused at the top of the dune and looked back at the camp. A light breeze that promised to turn into a sharp wind later had already blown sand over his boot tracks. It made little sense to try to navigate using the ever changing dunes as landmarks, so Daniel oriented himself based on the direction of the camp using his compass. No lights showed yet which meant he still had time for his short trek into his beloved desert. Turning away, Daniel hitched the light skin canteen and soft pack of emergency supplies...as well as breakfast...higher on his slender shoulders and continued down the far side of the dune.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel was ascending to the top of an outcropping of rock that mysteriously lay in the middle of the unending and unyielding desert. A tiny, natural fountain bubbled up from an aquifer located deep beneath the stone oasis and Daniel leaned down to take a deep drink from the cool, sweet spring. It had still been wise to carry the canteen for in the desert one never knew when water sources would be rerouted by nature or dry up altogether. Carefully, the boy unrolled a small, colorful cloth and laid out his last breakfast in Egypt. Despite his parents' assurances that they would only be away for a year to eighteen months at most, Daniel felt certain he would not be returning to his life here.
Fresh dates, a small round of cheese, and two slices of a local fry-bread sweetened with honey and crushed nuts comprised his breakfast along with fresh, cold water from the hidden spring. Leaning back against the larger of the stones, Daniel sighed as he watched the sun rise bathing the desert in shadows in varying shades of wheat and gold. A noise caught his attention and Daniel turned to look deeper into the tumble of stones and smiled as a small, rare Egyptian Fennec emerged from the shadows of her den. Daniel had befriended the tiny desert fox and often brought her treats of left-over meat and vegetables as well as trapping locusts and other local insects thus ensuring she did not resort to raiding the chicken coop to feed herself and her kits. He had not forgotten her this morning either and pulled a packet of cut-up chicken, eggs, and hardened cheese and bread out of his pack. The Fennec watched cautiously, but did not run as Daniel leaned over and placed his offering near her burrow. Once he returned to watching the desert, the fox crept close enough for a long drink and then hastened back to the treat the boy brought her.
Daniel finished his meal just as the Fennec finished her portion and began ferrying the rest back to her waiting kits. His routine visits to the rock oasis had allowed Daniel to glimpse the kits but nothing more. Their mother kept them safely hidden away during his visits. In fact, he assumed it was only the lure of his food offerings that brought her from the shelter of the burrow.
The wind had now increased and Daniel pulled the scarf back over his face to protect himself from the sting of the sand. He was in luck! The desert was going to give him his going away gift. The sun cast its rays across the ever moving sands turning them to a deep molten gold in color. A brilliant azure sky, cloudless as usual, provided the canvas backdrop to the dunes. The wind added the music.
Drinking the images in and imprinting them on his mind, Daniel closed his eyes and bowed his head and smiled. The desert rewarded him with her song. It was one that was hard to detect and you had to want to hear it...at least that is what the grandfather of the dig's foreman had told him when he took Daniel to hear the music the first time. The wind increased and Daniel could hear the soft, delicate chiming of the grains of sand as they moved and danced to the call of their mother. Soon the sand and the wind combined to create a unique and heartbreakingly beautiful chorus.
As if on cue, the wind slowly died and the sand settled back into its drifts as if awaiting acknowledgment for the show. Daniel opened his eyes, bowed his head and thanked the Mother for the music.
"Daniel! Daniel! Where are you?" Claire Ballard-Jackson's voice echoed over the dunes as she called for her small son.
"I'm here, Mama," Daniel started to call back, but then the voice of his mother faded and was replaced by another, equally loved voice. "Daniel, are you out here?"
The man rose to his feet allowing himself to be seen amongst the rocks that, after all these years, had been nearly covered by the sands. The spring still burbled quietly in its niche and a new Fennec had made its home in the small tumble of stones below the spring. Turning his back on the stone oasis, Daniel looked over the dunes to the small village that had grown up where the dig's camp once stood and smiled at his wife and small son. "I'm coming..."
Without looking back, Daniel made his way back home.