Chapter 3

McKay and Ronon made their way through the dense forest once again. It struck them how little wood there was on the ground. It was leaves for the most part and the occasional twig. They wouldn't be able to make a proper stretcher out of twigs. McKay had contacted Teyla and let her know they would have to think of a different way of chopping them while Ronon looked ahead for usable trees.

"This is useless. You didn't bring your knife, did you?" McKay didn't even look at Ronon for his reply. Until he heard the sound of chopping. "But of course you did. I should have known." McKay decided to stand behind Ronon and be the watch for those beasts.

"I saw the forest on the feed coming from the MALP and figured a good knife would be useful." Ronon continued his chopping for a good branch of a normal sizeable tree.

"Glad you did, Ronon. Glad you did." McKay's eyes shifted from left to right and back as he walked around the large tree. The branches hung till two meters from the ground, and even though Ronon almost reached that height, it took him some effort to chop the large branch, as he had to reach above his head.

"Need help?" McKay saw Ronon struggle.

"No." Always as short as needed, especially in situations like these.

"Okay. I'll just watch out for those beasts then while you chop-chop." McKay met the words with short laughter, and a chopping motion with his gun in one hand. "Right." He always needed to distract himself with talking whenever he felt nervous. Or eating. But he left his bag with Teyla. He did have some energy bars in his tac-vest though. But that meant he had to put his gun back. No way he would do that. "You don't happen to have another knife hidden somewhere, do you?" McKay saw leaves rustle on the left of their spot, and saw one of those rodents run up to them up into the tree.

"No." Ronon was almost through.

"Right." McKay checked the life signs detector again. He knew it didn't usually show animals, but this one was huge, so who knew. Looking at it, he let out a yell and started shooting in the air.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teyla ripped a piece of cloth from her trousers and poured water on it. She dabbed Sheppard's forehead. Ronon and McKay had been gone for twenty minutes and had let her know it might take them a while since they had to chop it all themselves. She hoped they would hurry, since she had her own problems. She had heard another growl right after McKay and Ronon had left, but hadn't been able to kill it. As the unseen approach of the second animal already proved to her, they were cunning animals. On top of that, Sheppard's condition seemed to have rapidly worsened. He was sweating heavily, and his breath unsteady. She knew there wasn't much she could do.

He wasn't talking anymore and had trouble staying awake. He was in pain from his back and the wound, but by now every muscle hurt. And his skin too. It was a stinging pain, reaching from his little toe up to the last hair root on his head, and it kept getting worse. He lay as still as possible, looking Teyla in the eye every now and then to let her know he was still awake. Or she nudged him to keep him with her. In any case, he knew it didn't look good for him at the moment.

Teyla crawled to one of the creatures and opened its mouth, still listening to every strange noise she might hear. Then she noticed the birds were quiet. She stood up and turned around at the spot, focusing on everything in her sight, drawing her gun.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ronon heard noises above him. It seemed McKay did too, as they both looked up at the same moment. Both saw rushing figures flying down from the trees towards them. They fell to the ground and before either could reach for their gun, they were grabbed fiercely and pushed face down.

"Hey! We're just trying to help our friend! He's hurt. We have to help him. Hey!" McKay was shouting his lungs out, while Ronon was kicking and struggling to loosen himself from the grip of his capturer. Immediately both were gagged and their hands tied together. They were put on their legs and pushed forward to start walking. McKay tried talking again, and Ronon struggled some more, but it was to no avail.

As Rodney walked behind Ronon, he could see their capturers marching around them. They were human, which surprised him the most after seeing the faint bleeps on his life signs detector. They were very lean and tall, and didn't look particularly strong. Even though the one grabbing Ronon had no real problems holding on to him. They were all men, but their haircuts and haircolours differed. The man escorting Ronon had short, black hair. A bit like Sheppard, McKay thought. Even though this planet most likely lacked a store with the 'out-of-bed-look gel'. He tried screaming through his gag again, but ended up with a silent humming.

They hadn't walked all that long before they were halted. When Ronon turned around, he looked in the face of a young man. His look was one of stern determination, and surprised Ronon. With the man's strength, he had expected someone a little older than twenty. He eyed McKay to see if he was all right, and received a nod in affirmation. Ronon knew he had to find a weakness with these men. They didn't have much time to loose. He had to get Sheppard back to Atlantis.

McKay in the meantime was behaving. He hoped they would take of the gag so he could explain their presence and leave. Although he knew it was never that easy.

But it was. Once they halted, their gags were taking off and McKay could finally say what he'd been dying to say for a while now.

"Look, we are explorers. We are explorers from another planet, just travelling through your planet to see what's going on around this area of the galaxy. Nothing more. Then our friend was injured by one of those… bear-like creatures, I don't know what you call them…"

"Lorans," The Sheppard-haired man said.

"… Lorans? Okay, Lorans. One Loran attacked my boss, and we need to get him back to our planet before he… before he gets worse. Okay, fine. I am sorry I shot at you! But that was only because those animals attacked us and I thought you were them." McKay looked the man sharply in the eyes.

"Come." It was no request, but more like an order.

"We have to get back to our friend. You can come with us, and then we'll go with you. Maybe you can help him." Ronon was in no mood to leave Sheppard and Teyla by themselves for much longer. The fact that they had lost precious time didn't help.

The men looked at each other. The one that seemed the eldest nodded to the others. "Very well. With how many more are you?"

"Two. We're a team of four, and we left one behind to watch out for more of these creatures while we would look for wood." Ronon could be charming when he wanted to.

"Alright. Lead the way." The man signalled Ronon to lead them back.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teyla saw something approaching through the trees. She shot two shots in the air with her P90 to scare it off. At least that was the plan. All that happened was that the moving stopped. She was sure it had not turned around and left. She shot in the air again. And pierced her eyes towards the trees ahead of her. In the background she heard Sheppard breath heavily and moan. He knew there was a problem.

Then without warning something jumped at her from behind and pushed her forward. She fell towards the ground next to Sheppard, and tried to get on her back. A heavy body restrained her. It wasn't the creature; she knew that for sure. She kept struggling, but it didn't help. He held her hands behind her back.

Then the figure hauled her up on her feet and faced her. It was a man. He was very tall, she thought to herself. About two heads taller than her. No wonder he didn't have trouble restraining her, since he didn't look very muscular to her. But she was the living proof that didn't say anything.

"Who are you?" He looked her in the eyes, but held a firm grip on her arms. Meanwhile Sheppard was still breathing heavily, and had his eyes closed.

"I am Teyla Emmagan. We are explorers of planets. We came here to explore your planet when my friend here was attacked by a wild creature. He is severely injured and needs medical attention." She articulated that last bit.

The man gave Sheppard a brief look. "What attacked him?" He loosened the grip on Teyla.

"Some kind of creature. It looked like what we call a bear, but with very sharp teeth and claws. He bit him in the shoulder. He seems to have a back injury as well from the fall." She loosened herself from the man's grip, and sat down next to Sheppard. She grabbed the cloth and wetted it. While she was dabbing his forehead, the man sat down next to Sheppard and held his wrist. It seemed like he was checking his heartbeat.

"He's weakening. We need to take him with us. Wait here. I'll be right back." As he stood up, a longwinded whistle was heard among the trees. Teyla looked around, but knew she wouldn't be able to see anything anyway. The man nodded at her, and ran away through the trees.

He seemed to have a very quick and light tread. It was as if he hardly touched the leaves, and she could hardly hear a soft rustling for the bushes, leaves and branches.

She was now regretting that she hadn't told him about Ronon and McKay. He might encounter them. She could only hope for understanding on both sides. Right now, she mostly worried about Sheppard. There was no way they would be able to carry him back to the gate without hurting him more. And she knew it would take too much time to ask Atlantis for help. Either way it would take another ten hours or so before Atlantis would dial for a head's up.

She touched her comm: "Ronon, Rodney. Come in."

Silence.

"Ronon, Rodney. This is Teyla. Come in please." More problems. Great, she thought to herself. But she knew she couldn't leave Sheppard by himself. She had to wait for the man to return, and then had to tell him.

TBC