It was dark and cold.
Cassie pried her eyes open and gasped back the groan at the way her body protested her smallest movement. She glanced around, trying to see through the curtain of dark that reduced the jungle around her to nothing but shadows.
The young dragon had curled up next to her, its back plastered along the length of her own spine. It reminded her of the dog Jack had gotten for her when she had arrived on Earth; it had done the same thing on the rare occasions her Mom had let it sleep with her. The dragon was snoring. She eased away from it and licked her dry lips. She should get up and drink some of the water. There was an ache in her stomach that she dimly recognised as hunger.
Water, Cassie thought with some determination. A body could last days without food but would struggle without water. She half-staggered, half-walked to the edge of the stream and drank deeply.
A few moments later, she heard the dragon stir behind her. She stayed still, unsure how it would react. Would it remember her? Remember that she had healed it? Or would it consider her a threat. She watched as it stretched, arching its back and extending its wings before folding them carefully into its sides. It padded up beside her, seemingly ignoring her presence. It pushed its snout into the water and gulped back water like there was no tomorrow.
Cassie wrinkled her nose and reminded herself to drink upstream from where the dragon was slurping away.
She shivered violently. The temperature had dropped with the onset of night. She crawled back up the bank and untied her jacket and shirt. She wearily put the shirt back on over her vest, buttoning it up tightly. She curled up on the ground again and used the jacket as a blanket huddling under it. The dragon lumbered back to her and lay down behind her. A second later, a wing was extended out over her; another blanket of protection.
'Thank you.' Cassie murmured, nervously. She felt touched by the gesture and remembered the wave of emotion she had felt before she had passed out from exhaustion. Clearly the dragons were more than simple beasts. They appeared to be sentient creatures. Or maybe she was just reading too much into it. She wished Daniel was there to discuss it with her; he would know. Either way, the little dragon had obviously decided to stay with her; maybe it was grateful; maybe it thought Cassie was its mother. Cassie closed her eyes, determined not to worry about it until sunrise.
The thought of the next day made her stomach churn anxiously. She would have to continue to make her way back towards the Stargate and hope to meet up with Rya'c. She couldn't stay by the stream forever even if it was a good source of water. Worry flooded through her again as she remembered how Rya'c's body had tumbled away down the grassy hill. Was he OK? Was he injured? It had been a bad fall.
'My father considers you as a daughter of his house and that makes you my sister...you will always have a place with Karyn and I.'
Rya'c's words to her the day before echoed in her head. She had always known Teal'c considered her part of his family but she had never once considered what that meant for her relationship with Teal'c's son, the bonds of family that tied them. She knew the Jaffa took their familial relationships seriously. She couldn't deny that Rya'c's simple acceptance of her as Teal'c's daughter – as his some-kind-of-sister – warmed her.
Cassie had lost two brothers and a sister when Nirrti had cleansed Hanka. She barely remembered Jorin; he had been so much older than the rest of them. She mostly remembered warm brown eyes and strong arms lifting her into the sky and making her squeal; her mother's soft voice admonishing Jorin for scaring her. Alandra had only been a few years older than Cassie; she'd had the same colour hair and eyes. Cassie remembered Allie telling her bedtime stories, huddled together under blankets in the bed they had shared. But her memories of Kip, her younger brother were strongest; with his sunny smile and pudgy hands that had always reached for hers. She had often looked after him for her mother; bathing him, sitting with him. Cassie brushed away the tears that spilled onto her cheeks.
She rarely talked about her siblings. She had barely mentioned them even to her Mom. As a child, the loss of Hanka and her previous existence had been too huge for her to grasp. She had mourned for her family but she had been surrounded by love; by her Mom and SG1.
They had given her a new family and while they could never replace that which she had lost, they had banished the loneliness, the deep fear of being all alone that had consumed her as she had hidden in the bushes.
Just as Rya'c with his simple words had banished the new fears that were bubbling away inside of her. She would always have him.
Just like she had Jonas and Vala.
She smiled. The two of them sparred like squabbling siblings, elbowing each other for room and uncertain of their place at the table. They didn't realise there was space for both of them. She knew deep down that she would always have them in her life too. If the worst came to pass, she could return with Jonas to Langara or travel with Vala...
It surprised Cassie to realise that she couldn't picture going back to Earth if they didn't find SG1.
She shook the thought away.
They would find SG1: they would. SG! weren't dead or gone. She would not believe it; she could not believe it.
Cassie shifted on the hard ground. The dragons had probably attacked SG1 but they had guns and training. They would have been much better prepared for it than she had been. She remembered her mindless panic when she had been in the grip of the dragon and it made her flush.
SG1 would be fine. She would find Rya'c in the morning and they would find SG1...it was a plan.
The dragon made a growly murmur as though in agreement and she felt a rush of confidence; of strength.
'Thank you.' She whispered into the darkness.
She barely slept despite her exhaustion. The ground was too hard; the air too cold, and her body too pained from the fall and the run. She was grateful to see the first weak rays of sunlight creeping through the sky, turning the dark to grey before the golden colours of morning seeped in and painted the sky; before the second sun rose and drenched the jungle, heating the air and creating a faint mist over the ground.
Cassie drank deeply, knowing that the water would have to suffice through the long walk back. The baby dragon bounded away and brought her back a branch adorned with bright blue berries. Cassie grimaced but she accepted it. She ate a couple, testing them and was surprised at the sweet juicy fruit. She was tempted to eat them all, her mouth watering at the idea, but she knew she had to see if her stomach revolted, if they were poisonous, before she ate any more.
'Do you know the way back to the Stargate?' Cassie asked the dragon seriously. It seemed to understand her and Cassie knew she could do with the help.
It gave a huff and bounded away downstream but, Cassie realised, in the direction she had been travelling the day before. Good, thought Cassie. If they stayed by the stream she'd have water. She also kept hold of the branch with the fruit and followed the dragon.
The walk helped to loosen her limbs and she began to breathe easier as the time passed. With no sign that the fruit had been bad, she ate some more.
The dragon stayed with her, occasionally bounding ahead to startle some poor creature out of the undergrowth or to chase its own tail. Cassie was reminded even more of her dog. Bobo had stayed with her until she'd moved away to college and ostensibly he lived with Jack. But with the hours Jack worked, Cassie figured the dog-carer Jack had hired to walk and feed him, probably spent more time with him. She'd spoken with the firm after Jack had been declared MIA and she had decided to leave to look for SG1; they had agreed to move Bobo to their kennels for the duration. Maybe when they all returned home, she should suggest to Jack that Bobo stayed with her. Her hours were regular and she didn't think Kelly would mind...
The idea of returning sent a quiver through her.
Cassie frowned. Earth was her home. Heck, she'd spent most of the previous night wishing for her own comfortable bed with its great mattress and warm blankets. She'd greeted the morning sunlight with the fervent wish for her espresso machine.
But.
And there was a but...she suddenly couldn't help wondering if what she really wanted to do was become a teacher. Apart from her own uncertainties that she had chosen the job because it would provide her with a veneer of normality, her ideas for her future seemed so...so small when she compared them to everything she had seen in the past couple of days, she thought whimsically. She was beginning to understand what Sam had meant when she had said she wasn't destined for the white picket fence after the older woman had called off her engagement to a cop. Sam's life was extraordinary; the trappings of normality couldn't compete with it. Maybe it was the same restlessness that Jonas had talked about in his life too. He loved his homeworld but he wanted desperately to travel through the Stargate. Cassie was beginning to understand the compulsion.
Cassie sighed and picked off some more fruit from the branch; it was almost bare. After everything she had been through since she had walked through the Stargate in the SGC, if she found SG1 - when she found SG1, she couldn't imagine just returning back to Earth and picking her life up where she had left off.
The dragon froze suddenly up ahead and Cassie did the same, slowly lowering herself into a crouch and getting the zat ready to fire. The dragon's wings began to extend and Cassie realised it was doing it to protect her. She held her breath; her heart beating what was becoming a familiar tattoo of anticipation and fear.
Suddenly, a giant bird which reminded Cassie of an ostrich on steroids erupted from the undergrowth. It gave a squawk and beat its wing ferociously as it galloped toward them. The dragon sprang forward with a huff that Cassie knew it had meant as a battle cry.
She readied the zat but couldn't hit the bird without hitting the dragon. The two creatures collided. The bird tried to stab at the dragon with its beak as it attempted to bite at its legs. Cassie realised the bird, or one like it, had probably been responsible for the little dragon's injuries the day before.
A hand landed on her arm and Cassie jerked away, whirling in a panic and raising her zat.
Rya'c grabbed it from her before she could shoot. There was a bloody scratch over his forehead, a bruise that had blossomed on his cheek but otherwise he seemed uninjured. He handed her the zat and motioned to the forest beside them.
Cassie shook her head, unwilling to leave the dragon. It was still fighting with the oversized chicken. 'No...' If the dragon got hurt again, she would need to heal it...
'We need to leave before they finish their fight.' Rya'c hissed.
The bird suddenly gave a howl and darted back into the undergrowth, leaving the dragon victorious. It gave a yap of celebration and turned in the direction of Cassie eagerly.
Rya'c rose with his staff weapon armed.
Cassie reacted on pure instinct. 'No!' She threw herself in front of the dragon. 'Don't hurt it!'
