Greetings one, greetings all, greetings two, greetings three and greetings to me!
Here is the latest installment of 'Hello, Yellow Brick Road.'
I think it is fairly important at this stage of the story to inform you that though it has a humorous and peculiar setting, 'Hello, Yellow Brick Road', isn't a parody or fantasy. The story may take a more serious turn in the not too distant future. So keep in mind that while the hilarity will continue, there will be some meatier matter to deal with too.
That is all!
Many hours since leaving the small cottage, the four companions could still be seen walking down the yellow brick road.
"A little monotonous, don't ya think," Jack said. The scenery hadn't changed since they had left Munchkinland and Jack was beginning to miss the music and the dancing.
"It shouldn't take too much longer, sir," Sam said, more out of encouragement than any kind of realistic calculation.
"You know what I still don't understand?" Daniel asked. Sam shrugged and Jack stopped himself from blurting out a jibe about Daniel's 'cowardice'. "Why did they kill that woman?" Sam nodded. She too had wondered this, and started to wish she had looked more closely at the body before leaving Munchkinland.
"Perhaps the circumstances were similar to that of the story," Teal'c offered. "The woman may have been a ruler that the Munchkins had overthrown."
"Another question for the Wizard," Daniel concluded and the four walked in silence once more.
The comfortable silence was broken some minutes later when SG-1 came across an intersection in the road.
"Now there's a problem," Jack said, putting on his sunglasses to hide the glare of the slowly setting sun.
"Which way do we go?" Daniel asked, voicing Jack's concern. Sam looked around her, unable to see past the hills that now engulfed them. There was a great hill of forest in front of them, a huge body of water to her right and a raised field to their left.
"I can't see the Emerald City, sir," she said, taking out her compass. Back at Munchkinland she had made note of the bearings, in case they had gotten lost. "The City should be in that direction, sir," she said, pointing across her shoulder. She turned to look in that direction and found it to be right in the middle of the large body of water.
"The road doesn't follow it," Daniel said, eyeing the great river cautiously.
"We should stick to the road," Jack agreed. "It's what Dorothy did," he said with a shrug.
"Then I believe we should continue in that direction," said Teal'c, pointing to the strip of road to their left.
Daniel squinted. "But that's in the opposite direction to the city," he said.
Sam shook her head. "Teal'c's right," she said. Jack looked at her, waiting for a long explanation that he hoped included no form of techno-babble. "We're assuming that this world was meant to be a replica of the one in the movie, right?" she asked, waiting for her team mates to nod before she continued. "If we head in that direction, we should end up in that corn field, where you would usually find…"
"Me!" Jack jumped in, pleased that for once he was following his 2IC's ramblings.
"Exactly, sir," Sam agreed, excited that Jack was following her. "If Dorothy's journey to the Emerald City took her through the corn field where she found the Scarecrow, then it only makes sense that we should go through it too."
She looked around at Daniel, who shrugged and Teal'c who bowed his head in agreement. Jack grinned and led the way.
The cornfield was exactly how it should have been. The field seemed to stretch for miles, the many rows of fresh corn standing tall and straight like an army. There were crow-like-birds hovering over the crops, swooping in and out with bits of the ripped plant fastened between their beaks. The crows congregated in one area, a few metres to SG-1's left and began an aerial attack on the produce. Jack grinned at the simplicity of it all until he heard a loud cry from the direction of the crows. Sam threw him a concerned look and without need for communication, SG-1 swiftly and silently made their way to the area of distress.
Cowering between two rows of corn, crouched a young girl, whimpering in pain as the crows pecked at her head. Daniel began to make loud noises, swishing his arms around her head with a fallen ear of corn, hoping to frighten the crows away. The crows did not even seem to notice, continuing to swoop down upon the small girl, who Sam was now trying to pull out of the line of fire. Daniel's shrill caws and Sam's loud reassurances to the girl merely made the crows angry at the noise and they did not relent in their pursuit, choosing to broaden their target to cover both Sam and Daniel as well. Sam swore when a crow pecked her forearm and Jack ran in to lend a hand.
A loud shot sounded and silence hit the field. The crows immediately retreated, cawing erratically into the distance. Sam, Daniel and Jack turned around to see Teal'c holding a P-90 toward the sky. He bowed his head at the company, who had begun to help the girl to her feet.
"Yeah, that'll do it," said Jack with a look towards the sky. He scratched his head and turned to the girl.
"So," he said, "Killer crows, huh?" The girl looked at him with terrified eyes. She turned to Daniel, who smiled back at her. This only made her cower more. She barely looked at Teal'c without yelping with fear and it was only when she locked eyes with Sam that her face split into a small, shy smile. She grabbed hold of her belt and hid behind her, watching the three men with fear.
"We're not going to hurt you," Daniel said calmly. The girl peered out from behind Sam's waist. "What's your name?" he asked, kindly.
"Rini," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Daniel smiled and held out hid hand to her.
"Hi Rini," he said. "I'm Daniel."
The small girl looked at his hand for a moment before taking it. She still held onto Sam's belt, so the Colonel covered it with her own hand. Rini blushed.
"I know you," she said, smiling up towards Sam. "You're the one with the ruby red slippers." Sam smiled and nodded. "I've dreamed of meeting you." She sat down at Sam's feet and touched the slipper that was on her foot. The people of Munchkinland had demanded that she wear the slippers on her journey, and Sam, who would much rather have worn her combat boots had reluctantly complied, stuffing the heavy boots into her pack.
Jack came forward and sat down next to the little girl, his eyes wide with a spark that SG-1 had only ever seen when he was around children. Sam smiled warmly and watched him introduce himself to Rini, noting how each little gesture he made was much softer than usual, mirroring the softness on his face that she so rarely saw. Feeling her eyes upon him, Jack looked up at her. Flushing slightly, Sam looked back at the little girl, unable to shake away the butterflies that crept up into her stomach for a fraction of a second.
Daniel coughed loudly and broke the silence, a look of pure amusement on his face. Sam's butterflies flew swiftly away and she kneeled down to inspect Rini's crow-induced wounds.
"How long have you been out here?" she asked, noticing that some of the small scabs on her arms and legs were several days old.
"I come here every day," Rini replied. "I look after the corn and shoo away the Burungia."
"Burungia?" Sam asked with a look toward Daniel.
"Crows?" he guessed, and cawed loudly again.
Rini giggled and nodded. "Yes, Burungia. It has been my job for months now, since scarecrows were outlawed."
Daniel nodded. "When the wizard came?'
"Yes," said the girl, wincing as Sam cleaned one of the larger cuts on her face.
"You mean you've been out here, day after day, getting eaten alive by those birds because the Wizard won't let you have a rag on a stick to shoo them away?" Jack asked, as eloquently as possible.
Rini nodded. "There is only one true Scarecrow now," she said, earnestly. "Only he may frighten away the Burungia. Until he comes to Oz, we must do what we can. Do you bring him with you?" she asked Sam, tugging lightly on her BDUs.
Sam gave an amused look to her C.O who, after getting up, whirled the little girl around in his arms. He clapped and struck a dramatic pose, earning a giggle from both Rini and Sam. "The one and only," he said and gave Rini's hair a ruffle. She grinned and led Jack through the fields, the rest of SG-1 following not too far behind.
"I think he might be having a little too much fun," said Daniel, as they followed Jack and Rini.
"I believe this journey through the Stargate may prove to be therapeutic for O'Neill," Teal'c said.
"He misses it," agreed Sam, a smile still tugging at her face.
"Indeed," Teal'c concurred. "It is most rewarding to have him on SG-1 once more," he said.
"Yeah, it is," said Sam, warmly
"How exactly did he get on this mission anyway?" asked Daniel.
"He said that he recognised the architecture from the MALP telemetry," Sam said, sceptically.
"He thought it was Ancient?" Daniel asked, curiously.
"No," said Teal'c. "I believe it was a ruse."
"Oh," said Daniel, crestfallen.
"I think he was avoiding his paperwork," Sam said with a laugh.
Her laugh was cut off by a gasp from Daniel. Looking wildly around, her eyes landed upon a large dais that had been hidden by the surrounding corn. Jack was already on the platform, following Rini to a podium that stood in the centre.
Daniel raced up to meet them, pulling out his camera as he ran. He investigated the podium, making notes in one of the many books now pouring out of his pack. Sam grinned at the sight and went over to meet them, Teal'c not far behind her.
"What have we got?" she asked, kneeling down next to Daniel.
"Well, it looks like Jack wasn't exactly lying when he said he recognised the MALP telemetry," he said, pulling out another book from his pack.
"Ancient?" Sam asked, to which Daniel nodded gingerly. He traced the writing with his fingers and rifled through one of the notebooks.
"Wow," he said, looking up at Jack. "This is…a scarecrow."
Jack looked around him sceptically. "This is a scarecrow?" he asked. "Well, someone sure upgraded the old model."
"Really," assured Daniel. "It says here that the Burungia were introduced to this planet because they were poisonous to something called a Raksala, which I think is some kind of beast that was killing the livestock. Eventually, the Raksala were wiped out and the Burungia were left. The Ancients created this machine to get rid of the Burungia before they destroyed all of the produce."
"So, it's a crow zapper?" Jack asked, causing Rini to giggle.
Daniel nodded. "It seems the Ancients had the same problem with introduced species that we have."
Rini led SG-1 to the other side of the podium. "The Scarecrow will scare the Burungia away," she said, pointing to two small panels on the podium. Jack shrugged and put his hands over them.
Nothing happened.
"Think about getting rid of the birds, Jack," Daniel suggested, whilst scribbling madly in his notebook.
"Ya think?" Jack asked and closed his eyes.
Dead ducks, dead ducks, dead ducks, he said over and over in his head. He could feel the panels warming up under his fingers and opened his eyes to see what was happening. The panels had begun to glow and the Burungia were flocking towards the dais. Before their eyes, the birds disappeared.
"That was cool," Jack said, taking his hands away.
"Where'd they go?" Daniel asked.
Jack shrugged. "Who cares?" he asked, jumping off the platform. Rini followed him.
"Thankyou," she said, taking a deep bow. "You have saved me many months of discomfort."
"How did you know what the device did?" asked Sam.
"The prophecy of course," the girl said with a smile. "The Wizard told us that the Scarecrow would come and save us, and he did."
"The Wizard reads Ancient?" Jack directed to Daniel.
Daniel shook his head. "He wouldn't need to. There are other markings here too. I think the villagers must have left them here. It's possible they were taught how to use it."
Rini shook her head back at him in earnest. "No," she said. "The great and powerful Oz drew these markings," she said, pointing to the crude drawings that were scraped around the Ancient writing. "He said that he alone could understand the script of old, but in his benevolence, drew pictures for us so that we too could understand."
"But if it required the Ancient gene to function…"
"Then they've just been waiting for someone to make it work," Daniel said, finishing Sam's sentence.
Teal'c, who had been characteristically silent throughout the event stepped forward.
"Then it would seem that the Wizard is aware of the presence of the Ancient gene in O'Neill," he said.
The four team members looked at each other, concern etched on each of their faces. If the Wizard knew this, then it was fairly safe to say that he knew other things about SG-1 as well.
"Well then, I think it's time we upped the pace a bit, don't ya think?" said Jack, and with a few brief goodbyes, SG-1 left the small girl to continue on their now urgent journey to find the Wizard, whoever the hell he was.