Dream Catcher - Part 1
Disclaimers can be found in Part 0

***

The full moon light shining onto the landscape made it look barren and cold and gave the river a malevolent silvery sheen. The river, which was usually so calm and peaceful to the people who called it Miquadak, was roaring in anger as it traced its path down the mountain to be swallowed by the sea. The people stranded on the south side could only stand and watch in horror as Miquadak reached up a watery hand and tore the only way across to safety from the side of the mountain and washed it down stream in her rage. Her anger wasn't satisfied with the bridge alone and she again reached; this time taking a piece of the mountain with her.

Children cried in fear at the violence in front of them. They clung hopelessly to their parents who had no comfort to give them, no peace to replace the numbing certainty that they all would die that night at the hands of the invader ... The Darkness that walked the mountain and who had so angered the spirit of Miquadak that she rose against them.

Five souls fell into Miquadak, screaming terror and begging forgiveness for whatever they had done that had brought this horror upon them. Those left on the ledge watched helplessly as their brothers were swept away in the torrent that was Miquadak.

A black cloud drifted across the face of the moon, blotting out the cold light and the people turned to face The Darkness. Some believing that it would be better to die at the hands of Miquadak took their children and jumped into the raging torrent. Those that stayed cowered in fear as first one and then another was sucked into the maw of the evil that had come to their home and taken over their lives. The last to go, a warrior who had once been the pride of his tribe, screamed in rage against his fate and cursed the gods who had allowed this to happen. His torment and frustration at not being able to save his people echoed back at him as he drew his final breathe.

***

"Damn."

Colonel Jack O'Neill, leader of SG-1, sat bolt upright. Shaking his head to clear it of the dream he had just had, he swung his feet over the edge of his bed and stood. His 6'2" frame was still slender enough and muscular enough to be the envy of some men half his age. He walked naked to the kitchen where he got himself a glass of water. Drinking it in one slow swallow, he set the glass down in the sink and walked back into his bedroom. Sitting on the edge of his bed once more, he shook his head and rubbed the back of neck feeling the tension that he had had upon waking slowly drain out of him. Dr. MacKenzie, the SGC's resident psychiatrist, would have a field day with this, he thought to himself. Especially since it wasn't the first time he'd had this particular dream.

"Going to have to change my diet," he said out loud.

Lying back down and pulling the sheet up, he tried to fall asleep again. However, his mind kept returning to his dream. The scream of frustration made by the last to succumb echoed around in his head until finally, sleep did come.

***

"Arts and crafts time again Daniel?" Colonel Jack O'Neill teasingly asked his friend and team member the next morning after he had reported in for duty.

Dr. Daniel Jackson was working diligently wrapping a long strip of leather around a circular hoop. He glanced up and smiled at O'Neill and then looked back down to what he was doing.

"A friend sent this to me."

Daniel had reached the point where he had begun wrapping and with a few deft movements had laced the leather together making a continuous and unnoticeable connection. He laid his hoop down on the table and picked up a box, handing it to Jack.

Jack turned the box over in his hand and looked at the picture on the front. It showed a hoop with string laced in the middle making a shape very similar to a spider's web. Leather strips hanging from the web in the middle hung down and feathers were attached to the ends.

"Nice," Jack said handing the box back to Daniel. "But what is it?"

"It's a Dream Catcher."

"Dream Catcher?"

Daniel stood up and walked to the shelves behind his work table. Running his fingers along the spines of the books on one shelf, he found the one he was looking for. He thumbed through a few pages and laid the book down on the table in front of Jack.

"It's a Native American belief."

"Really." Jack picked up the book. On one page was a picture of a hoop similar to the one that Daniel was working on. The other page was titled "The Legend of the Dream Catcher".

***

"A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother.

Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it.

"No-keegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him."

"Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy.

The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web."

***

Jack placed the book back on the table as soon as he was finished reading. While Jack had read, Daniel had started spinning his web. Jack watched for a few moments.

"Daniel?"

"Yeah Jack."

"Why did your friend send you this?" Jack's hands swept over the makings of the Dream Catcher.

Daniel stopped weaving, looked up from his hoop, and raised his eyebrows. His look was one of embarrassment.

"Uh, well ... uh, you see," Daniel mumbled.

Jack put both hands into his pockets and leaned against the table. He could wait.

"Well I ... ah ... was talking to this friend. She's a historical anthropologist. Specializes in Native Americans. Primarily Lakota ... ah Sioux. And, ah, well I was telling her that I had been having some bad dreams."

Jack remembered his dream of the night before and squinted his eyes as he continued to stare at Daniel. "Bad dreams?"

Daniel continued, embarrassment evident in his voice.

"Yes, bad dreams."

Setting his Dream Catcher down on the table, he turned to face Jack.

"For the past couple of weeks I've been having the same dream over and over again. It's about a bunch of people who appear to be Native Americans. I called my friend and described it to her. I was kind of curious if she could recognize what tribal nation is was or if it had any basis in Native American myth. She said the people could have been Lakota, but she didn't recognize the dream as being from any legend she had ever heard about." He pointed at the box the makings of the Dream Catcher had come in. "This came in the mail this morning. A gift."

"The same dream?"

"Yes, the same one. I've had it, oh about six times in the last two weeks. Same thing happens in each one," Daniel explained.

"Sweet," was Jack's only response as he headed out of Daniel's lab.

***

Continued in Part 2