Guiding Light

Fandom: Stargate SG-1

Rated: G

Category: Gen, Supernatural, Open Character Focus.

Season: Any

Spoilers: None

Summary: Sometimes Help Comes From Unexpected Places.

For The Ancient Obsessions Advent Challenge:

December 24 (Star)…

XXX

I've been here three days.

Three miserable, lonely days filled with hunger, thirst, and desperation.

The days here are short and the nights are very long and very cold.

There is no moon, and there are no stars.

Not a single pinprick of light penetrates the utter darkness of this despondent ball of rock at night.

Don't ask me to explain how that's possible, but it's true.

For three days, I've hidden. And for three long nights, I've tried to get to the Gate.

But I can't find it. I have no idea where it is or even how I got here, wherever here is.

My last memory is of setting up camp just outside a small settlement. I slept during first watch.

I woke in the woods, cold, hungry, wet… and alone.

My team is gone, and the Gate isn't anywhere nearby.

My search pattern has yielded nothing.

I don't even know where to start tonight, and hunger and fatigue are starting to wear me down inexorably. I can feel myself starting to not care if I ever get back.

I have to rest for a moment. Only a moment.

I sit and lean my head back on the nearest tree and my eyes drift closed.

I know I shouldn't sleep, but it feels so good to relax that I convince myself I can rest for just a second.

My eyes open much later than I'd intended. My joints are stiff with sleep, and I curse under my breath.

Dammit!

I search the sky for signs of the approaching day, wondering how long I've dozed.

There are none.

The sun is not beginning its journey above the horizon.

But I see something I haven't before.

Its presence so shocks me that I stare at it for what feels like a very long time before I move.

A star!

One puny little spark struggles to be seen in the opaque sky of utter desolation.

My feet begin to follow the heading the star points out without thought, but I realize my motion after only a minute. I stop, thinking thoughts about omens and such that don't make sense. Why should I follow this heading as opposed to any other? I shake my head to clear it and decide that since nothing else has helped me in this place, I'll just go with it.

At least this might keep me from going in circles.

As that idea dances across my brain, a small smile graces my lips.

Perhaps this little star can guide me home, after all.

XXX

Somehow, against all odds, the little star never leaves me. It shines brightly through my journey, even nearly showing itself by day, until two days later, when my hunch finally pays off.

As the event horizon slides over my skin like baby oil, and I know I'm going home.

And I thank the heavens for their help.

Literally.