Beginnings

The village elder regarded the premier team from Atlantis and beamed. "Welcome, friends, to Tangado!"

Rodney was feeling deeply bored on this new planet they were checking out. There were no energy readings or anything of interest to him in the mud and straw dwellings. He sighed and looked away with his arms folded over his chest. He was totally unimpressed with the people and the way they were living just like so many of the other backwards settlements he had visited since joining the lead reconnaissance team.

Sheppard elbowed him in the side and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "Be nice, McKay."

Rodney huffed, but started to pay attention.

The elder went up to Teyla first, who was smiling serenely at him. He held up his arm with his hand bunched into a fist as though he was going to bring it down and strike Teyla a hammer blow. Rodney jumped and a cry of, "No!" was on his lips, but suddenly Teyla also raised her fist and linked arms with the elder.

Rodney narrowed his eyes and John shifted uneasily beside him. Ronon was tense, but had not moved. Rodney knew Ronon could draw and fire his blaster with deadly accuracy in the time it took him to blink, so he was not worried.

The elder opened his fist and took Teyla's hand in his own, like a midair arm wrestle. The elder nodded and Teyla also tipped her head forward. Then he freed his arm and moved onto Ronon. The elder held up his arm and Ronon duplicated the movements.

The Wraith had obviously visited this planet as their feeding grounds continued to spread out far and wide. They had succeeded in reducing much of the Pegasus to no more than fearful, superstitious people who were overly wary of strangers. The remnants of humanity left behind clung to their customs, because for a lot of them, it was all they had left after the Wraith had sucked their settlements almost dry and destroyed everything they had built.

Sheppard was next, and Rodney had trouble hiding his smirk, which was not missed by the elder, who shot him a slightly angry glance before returning his attention to Sheppard.

The elder moved up so that he was standing in front of Rodney. McKay rolled his eyes and raised his fist in the air.

There was a loud intake of breath from more than one person and Rodney suddenly blacked out.

When he came to, Rodney was on his back and bright white, twinkling stars were popping in front of him. His ears were ringing and he closed his eyes and furrowed his brow. As his sight and hearing gradually returned to normal, a blunt flare of pain steadily started to crescendo around his nose. His eyes were watering and soon after that, his battered head recovered enough to replay what had just happened.

The elder had whacked him really hard in the face with his fist.

Rodney opened his eyes in fury and dabbed at his bloody nose. John was crouched down beside him and helped him to sit upright where he had landed in the mud. John left his hand resting on Rodney's shoulder to stop him from falling backwards while Teyla and Ronon stood in between him and elder.

Rodney peered up and cried nasally, "What the hell was that for? I was taking part in your crazy handshake! What are you? Freemasons?"

Rodney drew out a tissue and wiped the blood away. He tilted his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose which made him shudder and gasp at the pain it caused as he pressed the bruising to try and staunch the blood flow.

The tightness of John's grip on his shoulder increased as he trembled.

The elder was glaring at him while his minions eyed the team in disgust. The elder said, "You insult us with your mocking of our most sacred greeting ritual. This was supposed to be a joyous occasion."

Rodney glared at him and winced. "What did I do wrong?"

The elder gazed at him suspiciously and then his face softened ever so slightly as he saw the Rodney really did not know. He said vehemently, "I was greeting you. You must wait for me to raise my fist to the sky god who provides us with all."

Rodney looked away, "Oh." He sniffed sadly and grimaced at the metallic taste running down the back of his throat. He could not bite down a sarcastic reply, "Well, tell your sky god that I'm sorry, and I'll make sure to give him a good punch with my fist later."

The elder lowered his brow into a deep frown which was like the gathering of dark storm clouds above his sparking eyes. He turned to the rest of Rodney's team and spat, "If you are unable to control this man, then you are not welcome here at all."

John helped Rodney upright and he swayed slightly before he regained his balance. The pain in his nose had diminished to a dull throb. He suddenly found his anger building and glared right back at the elder through where Ronon and Teyla were still standing in front of him as shields. He said indignantly, "You broke my nose! I could have permanent brain damage! Do you have any idea how important my brain is?"

John squeezed Rodney's arm and breathed a warning, "That's enough, McKay."

A bubble of blood formed under Rodney's nostril and blossomed and grew into a gory bud. It finally burst into a warm trickle down his face and over his lips. He puffed it away in disgust and then clamped his mouth firmly shut to avoid swallowing any.

The elder was still glaring at him dangerously and was now fingering a long knife attached to his belt with wicked intent on his face.

Teyla said calmly, "Perhaps we should return later."

The elder nodded and kept his eyes on McKay. "That would be wise. Do not bring him with you when you return, or he will have more than a bleeding nose to worry about."

Rodney's hot reply was cut off in a yelp as John crushed his arm in his hand until it hurt and Rodney was sure he was bruised.

John guided him away and they started to make their way home.

When they were out of earshot of the village, John finally relinquished his grasp on the scientist and Ronon said, "That didn't go so well."

Teyla said quietly, "No, it did not. The Tangadons are not very forgiving and have many rituals. The greeting ritual is the simplest."

Rodney sighed sadly as he felt an evil and debilitating headache coming on. He was running his hand over his face to try and clean off the blood, but it was dried on. His eyes sockets were steadily turning black as the bleeding from the punch spread out under his skin.

They reached the DHD and John turned to them all. He shrugged as he hit the symbols, "Could've been worse. At least they didn't chase us all the way back to the gate."

Rodney frowned and tightened his eyes as his painful nose shifted and then went through the gate after Teyla.