As promised: the second (and final) part. Enjoy!
---oo---oo---
Sam waited only a couple of minutes. She hoped the Natives wouldn't detect her as she left the canoe, gliding over the edge on her stomach. The force of the current shocked her as it dragged her almost alongside the canoe and she desperately started swimming towards the river's edge. Hopefully she would reach shore, before she would come to the falls.
She wasn't making much progress. The water was cold, very cold and her muscles started protesting the movement. Shore was still too far away as she heard the thunder of falling water. With some final frantic strokes, she struggled to reach safer grounds but it was useless. Cursing inwardly, she closed her eyes, knowing nothing could save her now. Hopefully the rest of the team would find a way to make it. 'Sorry, guys… I've failed…" she thought and tumbled down the huge fall.
---oo---oo---
Jack O'Neill was furious. He saw the canoe drift away with his Second in it and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Although barely able to stand up straight, he moved, approaching the silent group. They all rose from their kneeling position.
"What the hell did you do!" O'Neill barked at Chief Eagle Eye.
The Chief stepped forward, a peaceful expression on his face.
"This has pleased the God of Thunder. Hinum won't punish us anymore."
"Oh, come on! There's no such thing as Gods punishing people this way. That is ridiculous." Jack could barely hold his anger. "You can't kill other human beings by pretending you're sacrificing them to appease a God."
"It is a great honor to be chosen," the Chief protested. "It is all for the best, you will see. No more harm will be done. I will release your friends and you are free to go." Without saying more, the Chief followed his people back to the camp.
Two of his men cut the ropes and Daniel rushed forward, planning to support his injured friend. Jack shrugged him off; angry that he had been unable to stop this from happening and that Carter had paid the price. "I'm fine," he snapped.
Daniel worriedly examined the Colonel's exhausted features and knew he wasn't fine. He could see all the guilt in Jack's face and understood what was running through the other man's head.
"No, you're not fine, Jack. There's still a spear sticking in your side. Easy, let me help you," he kept his voice soft and steady, although he felt rather shaken up himself. Sam was probably dead by now and that was SO hard to believe. Daniel pushed his emotions away, telling himself there was no time for that now. He drew Jack's left arm over his shoulder.
"You are not to blame, O'Neill. There is nothing you could have done to prevent this," Teal'c spoke softly.
"Yeah? Tell that to her father…" Jack protested. He repeatedly clenched and unclenched the fist of his left arm and stared at the river.
Damnit.
He'd lost Carter. He'd failed.
He looked at Daniel and Teal'c, determined to at least bring her body back to Earth. "Let's go get her and take her home."
"I do not think that is wise, O'Neill. You are in need of medical assistance. Let Daniel Jackson escort you through the Stargate. I will remain to retrieve Major Carter."
O'Neill shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving without her, Teal'c. Lead the way."
---oo---oo---
Carter was vaguely aware of the thunder of falling water. There was water in her ears and she was shivering from the cold. Come to think of it, her clothes were soaked, her hair…
Abruptly, she sat up and cracked her eyes wide open.
She had tumbled down the falls!
Remembering now, she looked around, stunned to be alive and well. Well, soaking, shivering… but all right.
She was lying on the cold, wet floor of a cave. There were walls around her, except in front of her, where gallons and gallons of water tumbled down. She could see the sky through the falling water and realized she was in a cave, located behind the falls.
Carter was amazed. What happened? She couldn't remember anything after plunging over the falls. She got up to step closer to the water as a beautiful young woman stepped through the water into the cave.
The woman smiled encouragingly at the stunned Major. "I am glad you are all right," she spoke with a soft soothing voice.
"Did you save me?" Carter wanted to know. The woman nodded at her. "How?"
"I caught you. The Thunder beings helped me…"
Carter lifted her brows in surprise. "The Thunder beings?"
"Yes," the woman stated without explaining. "Did the people sacrifice you?"
Now it was Carter's turn to nod. "Apparently to appease the God Hinum."
The beautiful woman's face darkened. "Foolish people… They will never learn…"
"Learn what?"
"That they are living by a false legend. They believe they have to sacrifice a young maiden to please the God of Thunder called Hinum. They are wrong…" The young woman stared at the wall, her face blank, with a single tear running over her cheekbone.
"I am the one who was the first to plunge down the falls. But it was no sacrifice…" She turned to face Carter. "…I was desperate. I married three times and all my husbands died shortly after the marriage. I figured there was something wrong with me… that I caused their deaths."
"So you tried to kill yourself?" Sam studied the woman in front of her.
The young woman nodded slightly, brushing her tears away. "Yes. I decided to ride the canoe over the falls. I was saved… by the Thunder beings. They healed me, here, in these caves…" Her voice was barely audible.
"Healed you?"
"Some kind of snake had inhabited my body. The Thunder beings freed me and sent me back to my people… I married again and my spouse didn't die. We had a happy life."
"What kind of snake?" Carter suddenly got the idea and couldn't wait to meet the Thunder beings, wondering how they had been able to remove a Goa'uld from the woman's body.
The woman made a dirty face as a shiver ran over her body. "Oh. Just… an ugly, very ugly snake… It is gone now."
"But why are you here?" Sam asked, not understanding the whole story yet.
"I found out that the people have misinterpreted what happened to me. That they are now deliberately sending women in a canoe over the falls… There is no such a thing as sacrificing people to appease Gods. It is wrong! My people, the Six Nations, have never, ever sacrificed a maiden… So I decided to come here after my death, to save all women they sacrifice. It is all I can do…"
Sam looked at her in surprise. "Wow. That's very noble of you…"
The woman just shrugged.
---oo---oo---
The silent group made its way to the falls. O'Neill was leaning heavily on Daniel and he was breathing in short gasps. Sweat was running down his pale cheeks and his right arm was cradled protectively around his side.
Daniel had attempted to get his friend to rest twice, but the stubborn Colonel had refused and kept going.
They reached the falls. Looking down, O'Neill estimated it to be a drop of at least fifty yards. He cursed out loud this time. There was just no way Carter could have survived a drop like that.
Teal'c took out his binoculars and scanned the river down below, hoping to spot Major Carter's body. He searched the riverbanks on both sides, as far as he could. He could not find her. "I do not see Major Carter, O'Neill."
"We'll have to climb down," Jack said as his trained eyes had already discovered a trail that went down to meet the river below.
Daniel turned to him, protesting loudly. "You are NOT climbing down, Jack. You'll never be able to get back up again!"
Teal'c approved. "I will go down, O'Neill."
Jack was about to protest when a beautiful young woman appeared on the trail, only about half way down. She smiled mysteriously and waved at them, motioning them to follow her.
"Daniel?" O'Neill hissed, surprised by the woman's appearance.
Daniel studied the woman and shook his head, blinked a couple of times as if he expected her to be gone. She was still there, signaling them to go with her.
"Err.. I think she wants us to follow her, Jack," he said.
"What the …" Jack muttered under his breath.
Teal'c supported O'Neill down the trail as they followed the woman. The trail led them closer to the falls and then it disappeared behind the tumbling water. The woman's finger dragged them further and the three stunned members of SG-1 entered the cave.
"Sam!" Daniel cried out, spotting the Major in the cave.
Teal'c just smiled widely.
O'Neill sighed heavily, staring from the mystery woman to his Second-in-one-piece and back.
"Glad that YOU'RE okay," he said, indirectly telling he wasn't. Exhaustion took its toll as his knees buckled underneath him. Teal'c rushed forward and lowered him to the ground while Carter knelt next to him, checking his pulse. Her eyes caught the soaking bandages and she realized the wounds had started bleeding again.
The young woman stepped closer, knelt on the other side of O'Neill. She moved her hands over his injured side without touching it and closed her eyes.
"Step back please," she whispered and her long fingers gently removed the bandage from the Colonel's side. She started humming softly.
O'Neill stared at the woman, his mind racing. He nodded at Carter and she reluctantly stepped back from the scene.
The woman's hands touched the spear, then she took it in one hand, covered it with the other. Slowly, she pulled the spear out and dropped it to the ground. Her hands ran over the wounds again, while she finished humming her song with her eyes closed. Then she turned to Carter. "You can apply a new bandage now."
O'Neill raised himself from the floor leaning on his left elbow and stared at his side. The bleeding had stopped. "How did you do that?" he asked. "I don't feel a thing!"
The woman just smiled. "Oh, but you will, later on."
Sam examined her CO. The spear was out, the wounds had been bleeding but somehow the woman had managed to stop that, closing the wounds. Teal'c handed her the med kit and she dressed the wounds carefully, although the Colonel didn't flinch under her touch.
"There. All set, Sir. How do you feel?"
"Fine. For now." He wasn't sure what the woman had done to him. The exhaustion was gone, he didn't feel any pain at that moment but she'd also told him it was temporarily. He motioned Teal'c to help him up.
The woman stepped closer to the tumbling water, where the entrance was. "Come," she said. "You must go now. Return to your world and please, do not come back."
Daniel was about to protest, but she silenced him easily. She looked at Carter one last time. "Remember… do not believe in false legends…" With that remark, she disappeared through the falls, vanishing in the mist of the tumbling water. Stunned, the team stepped out of the cave, searching up and down the trail but couldn't find her anymore.
She was all gone.
THE END