Chapter 25

Changes

There wasn't anything left to eat.

Jack cut some brush and bundled it, tying it together with their wooden bowls into his jacket. If he got lucky and shot a groundhog, they could light a fire and eat.

Water was their first priority, though.

They hiked along the rim, searching the stone valley beneath them for water and a way down. Jack knew Daniel would see any visible water source much earlier, but he still kept looking through his binoculars.

There were animals in these mountains, for crying out loud.

They had to drink, too.

Jack carried Cupcake, who was sleeping a lot. It didn't cross his mind to leave her behind. Not anymore. As much as he had wished the critter to disappear in the beginning, she was part of his family now.

Noon came, and they settled down to rest.

Daniel fell asleep and Jack, too, had a short restless nap.

He woke up when Daniel shook his shoulder and called his name.

"What?" he croaked, rubbing his dry eyes, blinking into the glaring afternoon light.

"I know the way," Daniel informed him, his eyes wide with... what? Fear? Realization? Jack wasn't sure what he saw in the kid's face. Daniel looked like someone who had just found all his answers to life and the universe – but wasn't sure if he liked them.

"What?" Jack repeated.

"I know where to go," Daniel said slowly, his dirty face scrunched in concentration. "It's like a golden beam of light in my head... showing me the way."

"Right," Jack mumbled. "Will that golden path show us water?"

"Dunno. But it's the right way to go. Come on, Jack." Daniel pulled at his hand and waited impatiently until his older – approximately a hundred years older, from the way he felt right now – friend scrambled to his feet and grabbed their bundle.

"Comin'."

Daniel scooped up Cupcake and walked off, leaving Jack to follow in his wake.

"Hey! Slow down, grasshopper!" Shaking his head, Jack forced himself to move faster than a turtle, until his tired bones and stiff limbs obeyed him again.

They found a steep path downwards, and as O'Neill followed his little mountain goat over sharp-edged cliffs and fissured rocks, he wondered how mushy his brain had become that he let a five year old lead him through a hell like this without even questioning him.

But here he was, climbing and skidding, carefully picking his steps, while Daniel seemed to know these mountains like the backyard of Jack's house.

Daniel, who seemed to have lost his fears all of a sudden.

On a wide plateau, Jack sat down and called it a rest.

"But we have to go on," Daniel insisted.

"Where to?" Jack asked, wiping sweat from his brow and flicking it away. "Where are we going, Daniel?"

A shrug.

"Talk to me, buddy." Jack sighed.

"The Stargate," Daniel replied, but it was more a question than a statement. "Where the palace is."

"O-kay. How far is it?"

"Dunno."

"Daniel, we need water. Do you think you can find water? With your new cool senses?" Jack was grabbing for straws, but it was the only thing he could think of.

The kid cocked his head and looked at Jack like he was seeing him for the first time. There was a detached curiosity in the blue eyes, and Jack felt a cold shudder run down his spine. Something was going on here. And he didn't like it one bit.

"Danny?"

"What?"

"Water?"

"Oh. Yeah. I don't know. I can try," Daniel said slowly. Then he sat down, cross-legged, and closed his eyes.

Jack waited.

He cradled Cupcake to him, scratched her ears and sadly rubbed over her skinny body. She was just a baby, and the lack of food and water already showed.

When Daniel stood, Jack was fighting fatigue. But he grabbed his bundle and the critter and followed the kid further down the mountain until they had reached the next plateau.

Crouching, Daniel picked up a small stone and sniffed it like a dog.

There, Jack thought, bemused. This should be Cupcake's job, right? But he guessed the puppy was too small to find water and food on her own. She probably was dependent on her mom – or in this case, Jack and Daniel – until she matured on her own. And she was weak already.

Daniel tossed the stone to the ground and looked up at Jack. "There is water. But not here. We have to go down."

"Down," Jack echoed.

And down they went.

###

Approximately halfway to the canyon's bottom, Jack tripped and almost lost his footing. Cursing and dropping Cupcake, he latched onto the fissured rock surface, feeling the sharp edge cut his hands. But he regained his balance and then stood, breathing hard, waiting for the tremors in his legs to stop.

Cupcake plastered herself against his leg, yipping unhappily.

Daniel gazed at them, then blinked and rushed back the short distance he had been ahead. Scooping up his puppy, he looked at Jack with wide eyes. "Jack?!"

"Fine," Jack huffed.

Daniel reached out a hand and placed it in his. "You need rest," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Right. 'I' need rest. It should be you who needs... ah, never mind." Jack groaned and slumped down on his ass right where he stood. "This sucks big time," he growled, glaring at his blistered hands. "Wanna share where I can get your skin?"

Daniel sat next to him, hugging Cupcake, his head bowed and shoulders hunched. "It's happening," he mumbled. "I'm changing again, Jack. An' I don' like it."

Neither do I, Jack thought. "What's going on?"

"Dunno. Something."

"Daniel, that's not helpful."

"I know."

"You still scared?" Because Jack was.

A tiny nod was the answer, then a head shake and then, "Sometimes."

"C'mere." Jack put a heavy arm around the small shoulders and pulled him close. "What's with the water? Can you smell it? Or sense it? Because I gotta tell you, we'll be really screwed if we don't find any. And soon." There was no point in lying to the kid. He knew anyway.

Daniel stretched out his legs and wriggled his bare, dirty feet. "There's a lake down there. Way down. I haveta go there, Jack. But it's still far."

"How far?"

"A few days."

Crap.

"I think I can sense water," Daniel said out of the blue. "I am drawn to water."

"Drawn?"

"The water's callin' me."

O-kay. This was weird. Even more weird than all the other weird stuff going on.

"Because we need it so badly?"

"Nooo, it's like... I haveta go to the water to be completed."

"And what if you don't go there? What if you just refuse to get completed?" Jack felt like an army of ants was running down his spine.

"I'll die," Daniel whispered.

When hell freezes over, Jack thought grimly. The fresh anger gave him strength to get to his feet. "Let's just try to find water to drink first."

What they found was another small trickle of rainwater that had collected in a natural ditch. They drank as much as they could, and Jack decided they'd stay the night here so they'd have more water in the morning.

O'Neill tried to get the tinder to burn, using two sharp-edged stones as a lighter. But the constant wind made it impossible, so he gave up.

Daniel refused to take Jack's jacket. "You need it more than I do. I'm not freezing anymore," he said quietly, his eyes inheriting that dreamy, faraway look again.

Jack suddenly noticed that Daniel didn't seem to be thirsty anymore, either.

They argued for a few minutes, and finally Jack took the jacket to shut the tyke up and get him to sleep.

Once Daniel's breathing had become even and deep, he gently placed the jacket over the small body and leaned against the rock wall. He tried to get some much-needed sleep and controlled his breathing to relax his body. It wasn't easy. Jack wasn't a patient man, and it had always taken lots of willpower to let go of control and relax enough to sleep in a hostile or survival situation. His instinct to protect and to be on guard was too strong to be ignored just like that. He knew his body needed rest so it could function and wouldn't fail him. That was what his training dictated. But it had never been an easy goal when there was nobody else to take watch. Jack dozed. He had learned to doze where he stood to get at least a minimum of rest. But now, even that was difficult because of all the body parts that hurt.

Yet, he must have fallen asleep for some time because he was jerked into awareness by the screams of the unknown animal, which haunted the mountains by night.

Shivering in the chill air, Jack listened and was relieved when the creature seemed to be further away from them than the previous night.

He settled back again and tried to get some more sleep, when Daniel suddenly started tossing and turning, soft whimpers escaping him.

Jack placed a hand on the child, as he had done the previous night, to calm him. The screams of the animal had stopped, but Daniel worked himself into a full-blown nightmare panic.

"Ssh, Daniel." Jack picked the boy up and cradled him in his arms, rocking and whispering soothing nonsense. Suddenly he felt the kid stiffen, and then a high-pitched wail erupted out of him. "Jaaack!"

"I'm here, I'm here. You're safe, kiddo. It's okay, I'm here."

"Don't lemme go into the water, Jack... promise me... don' lemme go into the water... the water's bad... pwease, don't..." Daniel cried, squirming and wriggling in Jack's hold until he could bury his face into Jack's t-shirt, sobbing and shivering.

"Okay," Jack whispered. "I won't. It's okay. Nothing's gonna happen to you, buddy. I promise." He felt the cold grabbing his heart and hoped desperately he could live up to his promise.

And somewhere above the mountains, that creature, cloaked by the darkness, screamed like it was taunting Jack.