"What is Space, Sam?"

"Depends where you look," Sam replied. Right now she was idly gazing at Saurav's back, at the space across his broad shoulders, at the exquisite dragon extending down his back and arms and around his chest. The last thing she wanted was serious questions. She'd held him close as they'd made love under the waterfall, but now she was apprehensive, almost fearful of touching, disturbing, awakening the creature that rested all around his body.

"Why?"

The question was almost too simple. "Well, for a start it depends on scale, perspective. The space between stars, galaxies, space as a whole, or the space within the nucleus of an atom?"

"All of them, and both the last two."

"At the same time?"

"Can you truly understand one without the other?"

"That's something we haven't yet learned. It's something we search for, a unifying theory."

"What is Time, then?"

"Time is a paradox. There's always never enough when you need it the most, and too much when you need it the least."

Saurav laughed as he rolled onto his back and pulled Sam closer. "Time is a state of mind. Space is... an illusion. My people, almost all of them, have taken themselves out of space and time, at least as you would understand it. They are restless and fearful. As am I. Yet still I must travel from world to world, unseen, alone. It is my only fear that I should be discovered, that I should expose my people to harm. Now, here I am with you, and..."

"And?" Sam closed her eyes as they kissed, yet she could still see the stars. She watched them turn, slowly at first until they began to speed away and she was looking at a single local group, then a galaxy, and a cluster, and a cluster of clusters. And always, Saurav was there beside her. And just when she thought they'd leave their space behind them, she opened her eyes and again saw the look in Saurav's.

"And now I'm afraid for you."

Sam glared at him. "No one is afraid for me but me," she said, trying to ignore Saurav's gentle touch. "It doesn't work. I've been there too many times."

"Perhaps this time it will." Saurav said.

His voice was soothing, comforting. Sam let him hold her close. It was her choice to be safe in his arms, her choice to allow him to get near to her heart. They were both vulnerable, they'd both suffered more than time could ever fully heal.

Yet there was hope, however brief their time might last. They were open with each other, confident together; when one spoke the other listened, watched, most often they held each other, giving and encouraging with all of their senses.

"But Sam, I fear that I will place a burden on you that will never lift. The more we are together the more dangerous it will be for you. We have our own paths ahead of us. You are not ready to journey with me."

"You think so?" Sam was lying in Saurav's arms, almost cradled against his body like a child. "I'm much tougher than I look." She beat a fist gently against his chest.

"I know so. I am trying to convince myself as much as I am tempting you into committing yourself." Saurav spoke the words both of them were thinking. "Just being together is danger enough. Whatever has brought us together has done so for a reason. Why should you be distracted from your own journey? Why am I so far removed from mine?" he asked.

"You Tau'ri are still young, as we once were so very long ago," Saurav continued. "You perhaps have the spirit that I do not. You would venture more, risk your life where others would run and hide." Tenderly, Saurav held Sam closer still. "Sam, shall we have this night together, a night in each others arms?" Saurav sighed. "In the morning you will swim and I shall hunt. And then... then we shall see."

...

Sam stretched out in the soft grass, eyes closed, head turned away from the early morning sun. Saurav was already gone when she woke. He hadn't said what he was hunting, or how long he would be gone, so she swam to ease her tension, to clear her mind of doubts and stray thoughts -- until there was only emptiness as she waited impatiently.

The morning was as quiet as his shadow falling across her. Sam looked up to see Saurav's arms full of tunic stuffed with green leaves. "You hunted for salad?" Sam asked playfully. Saurav let the contents spill out onto the grass. "And fruit and twigs and rocks. I'm impressed," Sam laughed.

"Special leaves." Saurav smiled. "And no ordinary fruit." Saurav split a melon-sized fruit, scooping out the flesh. "Please," he asked, "would you fill this with water?"

Sam returned to find experienced hands stripping the leaves from their stems. Very precisely he began crushing the leaves between the two rocks, slowly mixing in the water Sam had fetched, creating a paste. In his steady, unhurried manner, soon he had half a fruit-full. "Of all the things we've talked," Saurav glanced up at Sam, "Of all the questions you never ask," Saurav spread his arms, flexing muscles, accentuating their definition, "your own sense of propriety prevents you from intruding." Sam watched as talons seemingly flexed and wings unfurled, as a second heart beat within Saurav's chest.

"Come," Saurav stood, taking Sam's hand, leading her to the water. "Will you still join me?" Sam followed readily, she'd so quickly become much more than happy with Saurav's confidence in himself and in her.

They swam out to the waterfall. Sam laughed as the fine spray filled the air about them, delighted as she saw bright fruit and fragrant white blossoms floating in the water around them. As they kissed, Saurav removed her t-shirt. Scooping up the fruit in his large hands, gently he pressed the sweet flesh to her skin, caressing her body and cleansing her spirit.

And when Sam thought she couldn't take any more, when the heady scent of the flowers threatened to overwhelm her, when she thought his delicate, sensual touch would claim her, Saurav lifted her in his arms and carried her to the shore. And all Sam could do as he laid her down on his silk tunic was smile into his deep brown eyes.

"Be still now," Saurav smiled back, kissing her brow. Sam looked on as he fetched the fruit-bowl of paste, as he fetched more water and a soft leaf. Her body was still as he made a cone of the leaf, filling it with the paste. A soft sigh escaped her lips as the first, the coldest, the tiniest drop fell on her breast. Sam closed her eyes, aware of the cool lines as Saurav began his drawing, alive to the swirls growing across her body. She didn't resist as he lifted her hands and worked his art the length of her arms.

As the cool breeze swam around her, Sam lay still, lost in the world opening itself up to her, certain she could sense every ebb and every flow of the air washing over her. Slowly, Saurav kissed her, deep and tender until she opened her eyes to look up into his, to see them dark and glowing with an energy she had perhaps known before. Carefully, cautiously, he lifted her, eased her onto her stomach.

Sam sighed as the cool silk soothed her, yet still it was an eternity. She knew exactly where Saurav was as he walked around and about her, the faintest vibrations giving him away. She heard him sit, she heard the scrape of rock on rock as he mixed more paste, so, so loud in her ears as she suffered to be still. Her mind began to rebel, her body began to ache, it was only her training, her discipline, which kept her from screaming against her immobility.

Saurav again sat beside her, his cold touch on her back was almost too much of a release. Sam forced herself, called on all her willpower to breathe slowly, calmly. Line after line, arc after arc, circle after circle he drew, each one the most delicate torture until, finally, he too sighed.

"Just a while longer, Sam," Saurav whispered in her ear, and Sam knew that his heart, as much as he tried to be steady, was beating as wildly as hers.

At last, as the air began to chill, he stood and walked to the water. But still, Sam knew she had to wait. Slowly, he returned. Softly, he washed every inch of her skin. The urge, the need, the desire to cry out was greater than anything Sam had ever known. Strong hands held her, turned her, so deftly that she lay on her back staring into his eyes before she could even think to move herself. And so he began again, washing, cleansing until every last pore was fresh and new.

Sam breathed deeply. The sun was low over the waterfall, she knew there was little daylight left. Saurav cupped her face in his hands and they kissed as if it was their very first time. As they stood, Sam stretched out her legs, stretched out her arms, arching her body, giving her muscles the chance to work after so much inactivity.

And she saw in the fading light the great claws on her hands, the strong stripes on her arms, the sleek lines across to her stomach, the strength and the fineness, the bright contours across her chest. She stood tall, alive to the new weight of the animal, dangerous and aware on her back.

Saurav watched her, his eyes drinking in her beauty, her perfection. Sam stood before him without fear or embarrassment, not naked but dressed in swathes of browns and golds. And Sam saw the power reflected within Saurav, the darker shades, the softer glow.

The last of the sunlight fell behind the waterfall but the darkness never came. The stars came alight in the sky but the brightness didn't diminish. The air turned chill but didn't touch her.

Renewed, invigorated, Sam wanted to run and to chase. The world was so much more alive around her and she wanted to touch it, to smell it, to taste it.

Saurav watched her, his eyes drinking in her passion and fire. Sam took a single step, lithe and purposeful, the ground beneath reflecting her grace. She was changing; there were more colors, brighter, stronger; the fragrances were clearer, more intense; the sounds were more emphatic, so much louder. She was seeing further, each flower more vivid, hearing more clearly, each rustle of leaf, each creak of branch more distinct.

Sam knew that more than her senses, more than her awareness had been heightened, enhanced; that Saurav had painted on her and transformed her. She turned to him and smiled, baring her teeth in a grin that was primal, almost feral. She chuckled, the resonance building deep within her, emerging low, dark, a snarl filled with blood and menace.

A shrill, keen cry answered her, ancient and regal. Saurav fell to his knees, lurching forward on to his hands, his back arched, his neck twisting to an impossible angle. His body convulsed, a tremor starting at his feet, twisting, writhing up his legs, along his lean body. His arms flew out wide, his neck stretched out long and his head... Sam shivered as his head split in two, a new want engulfing her with more passion than she could ever imagine.

The dragon shook itself from head to tail, dark scales glinting in the starlight, glistening wings spreading three, four times wider than Saurav's own span. It sat back on thick, strong haunches, its massive frame heaving as it sucked in the night air, bellowing out its rage.

Sam cried out with lust as pain flooded through her. Her legs buckled, she fell forward, muscles straining against tendon in her arms and legs, striving to rip free of her fragile body. Razor sharp claws tore through hands and feet. Her hips cracked, fractured as her spine spasmed, as it uncurled, as it grew a great tail. Frightening teeth burst out from huge jaws, a heavy tongue filled her mouth. Her ribs broke and her lungs burned as she fought to learn how to breathe. A defiant roar rang out over the still water.

Dragon and Tiger called out to the night.

Dragon furled his wings. For one brief heartbeat all was quiet, still, then a blur as he launched himself into the air over the lake, spread his wings, found an updraft and soared.

Tiger, crouched low, looked on with awe. Hesitantly, she edged forward, unsure of herself and the world about her -- the ground was too close, the water too near. Slowly, she crept on, her balance strange, her tail a distraction, her feet heavy. Yet with every stride she grew alert to a new essence, a new vitality, a new hunger, until in mere moments she raced along the lake-side, two hundred yards devoured in less than a dozen heartbeats and almost nowhere left to run. Dragon swooped down over her, calling out to her, daring her. Tiger leapt high, clawing at nothing yet finding purchase in the cold night air.

Together they climbed, the waterfall, the island, the world of the Nox falling away beneath them. Tiger's long stride matched the slow beat of Dragon's wings as she chased him across the sky to the way beyond.

There was no time to stop and think, to fear or fall. No time to analyze each beat of dragon wing folding time and space; no possible solution to the complex transform etched in her flesh, carved on her soul.

Planets dissolved as stars by the thousand grew bright only to diminish in the blink of an eye. Dragon flew on and on, Tiger chasing in his wake until they came upon a bright white sun. Dragon screamed, wings held out wide as he slowed, shrieking the hatred of ten times ten-thousand years.

A white mass, a small barren rock, glinted in reflected starlight high over a world of blue and green scarred black with pain. Talons dug deep into lifeless rock, claws raked up clouds of dust, as Dragon and Tiger stalked the airless moon. Unnatural eyes gazed down upon the infected world. Below them, ten times a hundred-thousand slaves toiled under the whip of a thousand Jaffa in sufferance to the yoke of the Goa'uld.

Dragon quivered, screeching with rage. Tiger watched, waited, eager for the hunt, blood-lust consuming her, overwhelming her, a blackness edged with crimson devouring her sight.