Chapter 11

Jack was pulled from his sleep the next morning by the sensation that he was being watched. He quickly opened his eyes and scrambled into a defensive position as he crouched as high as he could on his bed with the chain around his neck. His bed was surrounded by small boys his 'age' and a few a little older. All of them stared at him with wide-eyes, suspicious expressions. One of the boys stepped forward. He had light brown eyes that caught the incoming rays of the sun and seemed to shine golden. He stood as straight as an arrow, and he had well-formed features. He looked to be about ten years old.

"I'm Leonidas," the boy said. "Who are you? Where'd you come from?"

Jack grinned. He could tell this kid thought he was pretty hot stuff. It was rather endearing. "Call me Jack," he said. "I came in last night."

The boy smirked. "I notice that you are wearing a chain like a skylos."

"Come closer," Jack said, "and I'll show you how well I can bite like a dog, too."

The boy started in surprise at the comment, and then a reluctant grin broke across his face as the other boys around him laughed.

"Well, then," the boy said, "I bid you welcome. I am the youngest son of Hypethilmas, one of the Kings of Sparta."

Jack nodded and came off the bed. "Nice to meetcha," Jack said, and then he looked around and asked, "So, what's going on this morning?"

Leonidas grinned and pointed out of the room, "We are to convene out in the courtyard for breakfast. Our curiosity has delayed us, however."

"So, uh, Leonidas," Jack said, "any chance you've got the key for this chain?"

The boy shook his head. "No. The guards will come and release you in a moment. What did you do anyway? Why are you chained up?"

Jack shrugged, "Oh, you know. Killed a few people, slaughtered a village, some little thing. Don't know why they're making a bid deal about it." As Jack finished his statement he looked around to find all of the little kids looking at him with large round eyes and amazed expressions on their faces. So, he quickly added, "I'm kidding. Obviously. I just tried to escape and they're making a bid deal about it."

"Why would you try to escape?" Leonidas asked, confusion written all over his face.

"Why wouldn't you?" Jack shot back. However, their conversation was interrupted as a guard came forward to unlock Jack's chain. Jack stood patiently as the clasp around his neck clicked open, and then he suddenly found himself free. "Well," Jack said, rubbing his hands together, "I'm hungry."

Leonidas nodded, "This way."

Jack followed the ten year old out and found a long table at which boys and girls were lined up with plates. "So how often do you get to eat, Leo?" Jack asked.

The boy looked at him and raised an eyebrow in a miniature version of Teal'c. "Leo?" he asked.

"Hey," Jack said defensively, "it's a cool nickname."

"Nickname?" Leonidas repeated, sounding out the English word. "What is that?"

"Oh, you know, a shorter version of your name."

"And what does this word 'cool' mean?"

"Neat, nifty, amazing, sweet, awesome...NICE!" Jack exclaimed as he saw the food that was laid out for them on the table. It was filled to the brim with actual fruit, vegetables, and a variety of meats.

Leonidas looked at him curious. "Did you not eat such food when you were at your home?"

Jack shook his head, "Oh sure. But after eating the blood-slime that they've been serving the older boys in the Agoge, I was expecting something much worse."

Leonidas grinned. "I have heard such stories of blood soup. My older brothers have loudly proclaimed their dislike of it."

Jack grinned, "Well, good. And here I thought I was the only one who was none to fond of it." However, as Jack reached for a plate, a heavy hand descended on his shoulder.

He looked up into the face of a scowling guard. "As part of your punishment for getting caught attempting to escape," the guard ground out in a deep gravely voice, "you are not allowed meals today."

Jack shrugged off the hand on his shoulder. "Fine," he drawled. "Anything else?"

The guard nodded. "You are also to receive twenty lashes before classes begin."

Leonidas looked at him with amazement. "Are you sure you really didn't slaughter a village? That's a pretty severe punishment."

Jack shook his head as the guard once more put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Yep. Ah well. Look, Leo, I'll get back to you later."

"Come," the guard said, and Jack waved at Leonidas as he was led away. Leonidas looked confused, but copied the gesture.

Jack was led into a small building off the east end of the compound. He entered to find an older man with graying hair sitting at a large, well-built desk.

"Ah, the much talked about Jack!" the man said. "Enter." The man gestured to an empty chair in front of him. "Sit."

Jack shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. "I'd prefer to stand."

The older man's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he said, "Very well."

The older man pushed himself to his feet and strode toward Jack. Jack held his ground and glared dangerously at the man. He could already tell this was going to be another individual that he was not going to be 'none to fond of.'

As the man spoke his first words, Jack instantly knew he had made the right call. "You may have made a fool out of Glitsa," the man said as he circled around the boy's form in front of him, "but know I am not the fool that he is. You try anything with me, and you will be severely punished for it. I will not make any allowances because the Ephors find you interesting. I expect instantaneous and willing obedience from you. Is that clear?"

Jack glared at the man in front of him. "And who exactly are you?" was all he answered.

The man strode right up to Jack and with a solid right knocked him right off his feet. "I'm the one man in this place you don't want to be on the bad side of," the man said. "Now I asked, is that clear?"

Jack pulled himself to his feet and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. "As clear as mud," he retorted, and for a moment, a bit of confusion filled the older man's eyes. He didn't seem like he knew what to make of Jack's answer, and that only seemed to irritate him more. However, he simply marched back to his desk and sat down in it. "Now," he said, "as to the matter of your punishment. You will be attending all the regular courses after you suffer twenty lashes in front of all your peers. You will be with the same group that you slept with last night, so I expect you to follow the other students' well-behaved examples. If I hear of any trouble from your end, know that there will be a consequence for it. Do you understand?"

"Sure," Jack said. The man studied him critically, then seemed to relax a bit.

"My name is Lyndicus," he said. "I am the overseer of this stage of the Agoge. All children report directly to me. You will start today's schedule with many of the simple exercises I've been told you have done previously. Following those you will be taught speaking and writing, as well as basic mathematics and science. After that will be lunch, which you will not be eating today. Instead of eating lunch, you will begin to learn basic swordmanship and spear skills. The other students will join you after they are done eating. Following several hours of that, you will meditate for an hour, and then will participate in more aerobics. As night falls, we shall learn dancing and singing. Any questions?"

A thousand retorts sprang to Jack's lips, but anxious to get his punishment over with, Jack squelched them with a great deal of self-control. He simply shook his head to the negative.

"Fine," Lyndicus said, "you are dismissed."

Jack nodded, and walked out. The guard that had walked him in, walked him out and brought him to a tall, man-high post. The guard turned and addressed the eating children. "For the crime of being caught trying to leave the Agoge, Jack O'Neill will be punished with twenty lashes. You must all watch and bear witness to the punishment."

The guard nodded to another, thick, heavy-set man who came out carrying a long stick. At the sight of the stick, Jack's eyes widened slightly. "Hey," he protested, "I thought you said 'lashes.'"

The guard shrugged. "They decided to use the rod today. Prepare yourself."

"Aw, for crying out loud," Jack said and turned toward the post, "let's get this over with." He knew from experience that if he fought the punishment, more 'lashes' would be added on. He figured he might as well take it and get it over with. It probably wouldn't be the last time, after all.

He reached his arms around the post and gripped it tightly. From his view he could see all the children watching him, and he struggled with his automatic reaction to resist and taunt the deliverer of his pain. As the first impact of the rod struck his back, he bit back a curse. In its own, different, special way, the rod hurt much more than the whip. Where the whip bit, the rod impacted. The welts that still remained on his back from the previous weeks lashes were bruised by the feeling of the thick stick on his back. Clenching his teeth, he decided he wouldn't give the sycophants the pleasure of seeing him make a sound.

He quickly lost count of the number of times that the rod struck his back as he internalized his mind and used a tactic he had learned in Iraq to push the pain away. His body still felt the pain, but it was as though it came from a long distance away. It almost seemed to be someone else's pain. He began to analyze the escape attempt from the night before and try to figure out where it went wrong, so he could fix it the next time. He could only hope his team hadn't been moved, though he figured the Spartans were too overly-confident about their ability to stop him from escaping again that they wouldn't bother moving his team to somewhere else.

It was almost with a bit of surprise, that Jack noticed the rod was no longer hitting his back. He turned to look at the guard who had been 'punishing' him, to find the guard's face looked a bit surprised, and a little respectful.

"Are you done?" Jack asked, and he couldn't help it if his tone was a bit snide.

The guard nodded, and Jack turned. He took two steps before his legs gave out from underneath him, and he found himself with his face in the dirt. He heard the sound of running feet, and managed to roll over onto his back to look up and see the concerned face of Leonidas above him. The boy's face was blurry around the edges, and Jack realized with a bit of detachment that he was going into shock. His vision was tunneling, and sounds seemed to be coming from a great distance away.

"Help me up," he thought he heard himself say, but as Leonidas put his arm under Jack and helped him stand up, Jack could feel a great rushing sensation to his head, and the next instant, everything went dark.

Jack woke up a short time later to feel a great deal of pain coming from his back. He blearily opened his eyes to once again look up into the tawny eyes of Leonidas.

"Hey, Leo," he said. "What's going on?"

Leonidas's face broke out into a large grin. "Good morning, Jack!" the boy said, his exuberance filling his face. "That was pretty...cool."

At the sound of the English word, Jack couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face despite his pain. "What was cool?"

Leonidas sprang to his feet, and with easy grace of a trained athlete paced back and forth in front of the rug Jack was laying on. "The way you took your punishment. You never said a word or made a sound, it was as though you didn't even feel it. We were all very impressed."

"Thanks," Jack said, dryly as he slowly pushed himself up. Leonidas instantly sprang back to his side.

"I don't think you should be moving yet, Jack," Leonidas said, his expression concerned, "you took a pretty good beating."

"Probably not," Jack said, "but if I don't move, my back will stiffen up and I'll probably get punished again." Leonidas nodded, instantly understanding, and reached down a hand to help the smaller 'boy' up.

"So," Jack said, "are you in my group?"

Leonidas shook his head. "No. You have been placed in the group from our sleeping compartment with the other boys your age. I am in an older, more advanced group."

"That's too bad," Jack said. Leonidas nodded.

"I agree," the boy said. "However, I am fairly confident you will do well among your own age group."

Jack smirked at the irony of that statement and followed Leonidas out of the room where he had been laid. The boys were finishing eating as they emerged, and Leonidas led Jack over to a corner of what could only be called the gymnasium. "This is where you will work on your exercises. I will talk to you later."

Jack waved at the boy as he left, and Leonidas waved back. "He's a good kid," Jack thought to himself and then turned to look at the other members of his group. They were all obviously newbies into the harsh world of the Agoge. Four other children stared back at him with wide, curious eyes and he sighed as he understood the torture they would have to endure to prove themselves. He decided right then and there, that if this was going to be his group until he managed to escape, he was going to do his best to protect them.

"Hey, guys," he said. The other boys looked at him as courageously as they could, but Jack could sense the fear under their steady gazes. All the boys have varying shades of brown hair at black hair at different lengths and everything from brown to blue eyes. Jack decided he might as well start the introductions. "I'm Jack," he said.

As most children did when they met Jack, they all seemed to instantly like him, except for a small black-haired boy in the back of the group. He merely glared at Jack and sneered as he asked, "Why do you think we care?"

The kid closest to him, a brown-haired boy with green eyes, looked at the black-haired boy and said, "Come on, Erypthos, he seems nice."

Erypthos snorted and deliberately turned his back on the boy who had just spoken. The blue-eyed boy shook his head in exasperation and turned to Jack. "Hi. I'm Strithyos."

Jack grinned, "Pleased to meetcha, Strithyos." The other two boys introduced themselves as well. A brown-haired brown-eyed boy who went by the name Tra'yint bowed low and then watched Jack with narrowed suspicious eyes. There was a sense that the boy was much older than he appeared, and Jack had a sudden suspicion about him. However, it went on the back-burner as the final boy introduced himself as Zeyenth. He had brown hair and bright blue eyes and he looked at Jack with a pleased, almost hero-worshiping expression.

They all wore the normal red cloth that was wrapped securely around their bodies, but they looked better fed than many of the boys in the later stage had looked. "There is another boy in our herd," Zeyenth said, "but he is not here yet. He should be here soon."

Jack nodded, but at that moment, he heard somewhat enthusiastically crying his name. He looked up to be hit by an affectionate explosion of a boy. "Jack!" the figure cried happily.

Jack looked down in surprise to see what had attacked him and found himself being hugged by a familiar form. "Tauraus?" he asked.

"Yes, Jack!" Tauraus responded.

"Let me guess," Jack said, looking at Zeyenth, "this is the last member of our herd."

Zeyenth nodded, grinning. Jack quickly extracted himself from Tauraus and said, "Nice to see you again."

"You too, Jack," Tauraus grinned. However, pleasantries were at that moment cut short. Jack's new 'father' was approaching, and it was time for the lessons to begin.