Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of its characters. The only thing I own is my character Adolfina!

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The Apprentice

Chapter Seven: The address home

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Later that night

We were all sitting around a fire with the people of the planet, who were laughing and eating. Daniel and I thought the food looked good, but the rest of the team didn't seem to think so and stared at the food skeptically. Daniel was the first to reach out and grab a piece of flat bread. He sniffed it then took a small bite.

"Hey Jackson, I don't think we should eat any food here," Kawalsky stated, shaking his head.

I rolled my eyes at that and grabbed a piece of flat bread for myself.

"I dunno, they might consider that an insult," Daniel replied.

Suddenly a new platter was set in front of us and there was some sort of armored-skinned creature sitting on the platter. It looks like a freaken large armadillo. I could hear Kawalsky laughing.

"Well, we don't want to offend them now do we Daniel?" Kawalsky asked sarcastically.

I snickered as Daniel reached forward and grabbed a piece of meat out from the center of the animal hide, sniffed it like he did the flat bread, then took a bite.

"Tastes like chicken… Tastes like chicken it's good," Daniel exclaimed, laughing.

I reached out and picked up a piece of meat from the armadillo creature and took a bite. Wow, he's right, it does taste like chicken! Kasuf smiled, and Daniel turned to him.

"Tastes… like…" I could see Daniel trying to figure out what to say to make the man understand, "Bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk," Daniel imitated a chicken causing the team, some of the people around us, and myself to laugh.

"Tastes like chicken, good!" Daniel exclaimed again.

Kasuf smiled and laughed. The boy who'd I'd recently learned was named Skaara sat down next to me.

"Jackson, Anderson, you said that was an Egyptian symbol," Jack stated.

"Yeah, the Eye of Ra," Daniel replied.

"Would you say then that it might stand to reason that if they know one Egyptian symbol," Jack said, gesturing towards Kasuf.

"Yes," Daniel exclaimed, standing up.

He walked over to Kasuf who held out a bowl in offering, but Daniel denied it. He reached under his shirt and pulled out the necklace and showed it to Kasuf, who then bent his arms and started muttering something.

"No-no," Daniel replied.

He pointed to the necklace, then reached down to the sand to draw something. Kasuf's eyes went wide at this, and he quickly stood up and started speaking rapidly to the crowd of people. We've got to find a way to properly communicate with these people!

"What the hell's going on?" Kawalsky asked.

"It seems like writing is forbidden," Daniel answered surprised.

Forbidden? Who the hell forbid these people from writing? And why would anyone forbid them from writing in the first place? I was brought out of my musing when several women walk over to Daniel and herded him away from the crowd.

"What? What? Uh-heh, uh…. They want me to go with them, should I stay?! I'll go with them, I'll be fine," Daniel exclaimed, letting the woman herd him away.

I smirked and shook my head. Hopefully he'll get to spend some time with that girl who seemed to like him. I glanced over at Skaara who smiled at me and gave him a shy smile back.

"Aren't you gonna follow him?" Kawalsky asked, looking over at me.

I eyed him questioningly.

"Why?" I asked, taking a bite out of some flat bread.

"Cause' you always follow him where ever he goes," Kawalsky replied.

I rolled my eyes at that. Yeah sure I'm over protective of him, but what harm could come from him hanging out with a bunch of the woman of this planet? Besides, it would give me a chance to spend some time with Skaara and hopefully get to know him.

"Eh I think he can handle himself this time, he don't need me," I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

I glanced over at Skaara who was still sitting next to me smiling and felt my face heat up.

"Uh-huh yeah sure that's why," Jack exclaimed, putting out his cigarette.

Kawalsky laughed, and I knew my face must be as read as a lobster.

"Oh, shut up," I exclaimed, tossing a piece of bread at them…

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I was sitting in one of the rooms, that Kasuf had lead us to, with Kawalsky and Brown while Jack was sitting in the other portion of the room smoking another cigarette. Honestly, I was still a bit miffed with Jack for earlier, and I think he could tell, seeing as I was currently intent on ignoring him. I was riffling through my bag looking for the candy bar I'd shoved in there, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed Skaara moving into the room Jack was in.

He was staring intently at Jack's lighter from the doorway, and gasped when Jack lit the cigarette with the lighter. There's no doubt in my mind that that boy has never seen a lighter before. It was adorable how his face lit up at seeing it.

"It's okay, it's just a lighter," Jack stated, noticing Skaara.

Jack closed the lid of the lighter, and Skaara hesitantly sat down near Jack.

"See? Here, catch," Jack said, tossing the lighter at Skaara. He caught it and lit the flame himself.

"Hai!" He exclaimed in amazement.

"Yeah, it's pretty fabulous," Jack replied.

Skaara tentatively reached for a cigarette, and Jack shrugged in permission.

"Yeah," Jack muttered.

I shook my head at this, a small smile playing on my face. Does he really think letting him smoke is a good idea? I watched as Skaara sat back down in his spot and lit the cigarette. He seemed to be trying to copy everything Jack was doing. I smirked, and once more shook my head. Skaara tried to copy Jack when he took a large drag off his cigarette, but he started choking, and coughing. Skaara shouted, dropped the cigarette and stomped it out. I giggled at his actions.

"Yeah, you're right it's pretty stupid," Jack said, putting out his cigarette.

Skaara picked up the lighter and brushed it off before offering it back to Jack.

"Nah, you- keep it, it's yours," Jack replied.

Skaara grinned, and held the lighter up for me to see, a proud smile on his face. I nodded my head at him and gave him a smile. Skaara seemed to like Jack, which made me like Jack a little bit more. I was still a little angry at him, but it was starting to fade the more I watched him interact with Skaara.

Skaara suddenly turned to look at Jack's gun which was lying on the bed, and he reached over to grab it. I was about to stop him when Jack glanced down, just as he was about to pick it up, and slapped Skaara's hand away.

"NO!" Jack shouted, standing up.

Skaara backed up quickly, staring up at Jack with wide eyes.

"Dangerous!" Jack stated.

Skaara took off running, and I could hear him shouting for Kasuf. I could understand him not wanting Skaara to play with the gun, but he didn't have to be so harsh.

"Jack what the hell man?!" I asked, jumping up from my seat.

Jack just ignored me and sat back down. I scowled, just when I was starting to like him he decides to act like an ass. I shook my head and chased after Skaara. I found him in one of those large animal's pens, showing off his newly acquired lighter. He lit the lighter and they all backed away from him in fright. I smirked and shook my head.

It was funny to watch these boys react this way to something so simple… well simple to the people of Earth. Another boy, who I'd learned was named Nabeh, tried to touch the flame to see if it was real and pulled back after a few seconds.

"Yeah, no you really don't want to touch the flame," I stated, giggling.

"Hai!" Skaara stated, showing me the lighter once more.

I smiled at him, and he looked like he was about to say something when Jack's voice cut through the air.

"There's no sign of him?" Jack asked. I glanced back to see Jack and Kawalsky standing a few feet from me.

"I haven't been able to locate Jackson, sir," Kawalsky replied.

Ah crap, Danny's missing. Really man can't you stay out of trouble for more than a few minutes?! Maybe I should have gone with him when those women dragged him off. Kawalsky saluted to Jack who returned the salute and walked over to Skaara, his friends, and me.

"We're lookin' for Jackson," the boys just stared in confusion, "Jackson? The guy who wears this jacket?"

Jack held up Daniel's jacket, but they still didn't seem to understand what he was asking.

"He's got like long hair that comes down," Jack stated, pulling at his hair.

The boys all smiled and copied him, obviously thinking it was a game. We really have to find a way to properly communicate with them! While it might be adorable to watch these boys copy a frustrated Jack, it was annoying not being able to have them understand us.

"No-no, no its… he wears glasses-so he can see?" Jack said, mimicking glasses with his hands.

The boys once again copied him, and Jack sighed.

"I guess the word 'dweeb' doesn't mean anything to you guys, does it?" Jack muttered.

"Really dweeb?" I questioned. Jack just shook his head.

"Yeah why not, I'm on planet X, looking for a dweeb who wears green fatigues, he wears this jacket, he's got long hair, it comes over his eyes, he wears glasses, and… choo… sneezes," Jack said, mimicking each description.

After Jack mimicked sneezing Skaara's eyes lit up in realization, and a giant smile formed on his face.

"Ich! Bwah! Bwah-bwah-bawh," Skaara exclaimed, miming Daniel's chicken impression.

"Chicken, chicken man you got it!" Jack replied.

"Chicken man?!" I asked, looking incredulously over at him.

Skaara got the other boys to stop mimicking Jack, then turned back to Jack gesturing for him to give him the vest.

"Wha- you want this?" Jack asked.

Skaara nodded and took the vest. He ran over to the large animal and started speaking to it. The animal sniffed the vest then started trotting off with us following him. I caught up with Skaara and he smiled at me. He said something, but I wasn't exactly sure what. Something's I understood but that was very limited. I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders at him.

He had tried to have a discussion with me earlier, and we'd managed to exchange names but that was about it. He sighed and gave me a smile which I returned. Honestly, I was getting very frustrated at the language barrier between us. We reached a cave a few minutes later and when we walked in I could see Daniel, and Sha're sitting on the floor talking in Sha're's language.

"Thought you couldn't speak their language," Jack exclaimed.

Daniel jumped, and stood up.

"Huh? You scared me," Daniel said, moving towards us.

"How'd you learn their language so fast?" I questioned, moving over to stand beside him.

"It's an ancient Egyptian dialect; I mean it's like the rest of their culture. It's evolved completely independently, but… uh… once you know the vowels…" Daniel said, gesturing to the wall.

"You'll have to teach me," I exclaimed excitedly.

Daniel nodded at me, a smile forming on his face.

"Just answer the question," Jack said.

Daniel glanced back over at Jack and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well- uh, I-I me- I just had to learn how to pronounce it. I mean it hasn't been a living, spoken language in more than one thousand years. I mean, look at this. It says, uh: 'A traveler from distant stars escaped from a dying world looking for a way to extend his own life. His body, decaying and weak… he couldn't prevent his own demise,'

"Apparently, his whole species was becoming extinct, so he travelled, or searched the galaxies looking for a way to cheat death, and uh… look here," Daniel continued, pointing at a pictograph showing the pyramid with the sun above it, "He came to a world, rich with life, where he encountered a primitive race—humans. A species which, with all his powers and knowledge, he could maintain indefinitely. He realized within a human body, he had a chance for a new life.'

"Now, he apparently found a young boy. It says: 'As the frightened villagers ran, night became day. Curious, and without fear, he walked towards the light. Ra took him and possessed his body—like some kind of a... parasite looking for a host. And inhabiting this human form, he appointed himself ruler,'

"He used the Stargate to bring thousands of people here to this planet, as workers for the mines, just like the one we saw. This mineral is clearly the building block of all his technology. With this, he can sustain eternal life. Now, something happened—where is it—back on Earth. A rebellion or uprising, and the Stargate was buried there. Fearful of a rebellion here, Ra outlawed reading and writing. He didn't want the people to remember the truth," Daniel finished.

Suddenly Kawalsky came running back into the room, looking excited.

"Jackson? Anderson? I think you'd better take a look at this," Kawalsky exclaimed.

We all followed him down a small hallway and into a small room where an oval shaped stone, similar to the center of the cover stone back on Earth, was imbedded in the wall.

"That's it! That's what we're looking for! They must've hidden it here in hopes that one day the 'gate on Earth could be reopened. I knew they'd have it written down someplace," Daniel exclaimed, moving past us.

I followed after him, and helped him wipe sand off the stone, but we stopped when we reached a jagged edge at the bottom of the stone. Oh no. Where's the seventh symbol?

"Wait a minute, where's the seventh symbol? It must have broken it's gotta be here somewhere," He said, bending down and picking up two broken pieces of stones.

The broken pieces were worn down and the symbol on it was nonexistent. How are we supposed to get back if we don't know the seventh symbol?

"It's worn out, I can't make it work without the seventh symbol," Daniel stated, glancing back at Jack.

"All right that's it, Kawalsky? Brown?" Jack shouted, moving out of the cave…

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Jack had decided that it was time to head back to the Gate. I sighed and looked back towards the city. I could see Sha're staring sadly at Daniel and Daniel had the same look. I could also see Skaara and some of his friends standing a few feet away from us. I smiled sadly at him and he smiled back at me. I rested my hand on Daniel's shoulder.

"So why don't you explain their language to me while we walk back?" I asked, smiling at him.

He smiled back and began explaining their language to me. I glanced back for a second, and almost did a double take. I could see Skaara and some of his friends following us. I sighed, ignored them and gave my full attention to Daniel…