GateCrashers
Part 8 Of The Thundersdawn Series
By Chaoseternus
Wearily, Anise opened her eyes, her whole body screaming the adrenaline filled excesses of the last day. Groaning, her forced her abused muscle to move as she checked her body over carefully. The cut and bruises were gone, and her feet, her worst worry, were covered with raw new skin, where last night bone had been revealed, smacking painfully into the ground.
It would take her awhile to complete the healing process, weary as she still was, she would have to eat, then rest again.
With a groan, Anise jerked back awake again, uncertain what had woken her. She stiffened, then slowly silently slipped to the narrow crevice that led into her cave as the clomping sound of searching Jaffa hit her, from this side of the waterfall. She hoped that in the delirium of yesterday, or was it the day before? No matter, she just hoped she had successfully cleared away all the signs of her presence. Otherwise she was in trouble.
She ducked back as she heard a Jaffa approach the crevice, a light flashed down sweeping into the fringes of the cavern. She waited, knowing she had no other escape if the Jaffa decided to block her entrance up.
She breathed a slow sigh of relief as the Jaffa left the waterfall cave 15 minutes later, then moved deeper back into her hidey hole, dropping to the ground on a small cushion at the back of the cave. Quickly, she inspected her hosts body, she knew, she could feel that she was okay now, all the damage was repaired, but Freya had had enough of the abused state she was in yesterday and refused to believe unless she saw it through her own eyes. If it kept her host happy, so be it.
But tomorrow, once she could be certain the Jaffa were no longer searching in this area, she would have to leave her sanctuary, and go scouting.
Anise edged forward, her eyes resting on the small mirror she held out, pointing it just around the corner. She moved the mirror slowly carefully around, looking into every corner of the cave, nothing. She edged slightly further forward, the mirror now pointed at, and through the waterfall, nothing.
Slowly, carefully she moved forward, struggling to remember other details from the Tau'ri Escape and Evasion she had been forced to go on, wishing fervently she had paid more attention. The course had been designed with exactly this situation in mind, and she had refused to pay attention because… Freya acidly broke in at this point,
'Because it would never happen to you? And what were the exact words of the instructor, oh yes, an attitude of 'it will never happen to me' could get you killed? And what exactly has happened to us now?'
Anise winched inwardly, Freya was very very rarely as acidic as that. It usually only happened when she did something that wasn't just insulting or stupid, but in Freya's opinion, it was something of monumental stupidity. Strangely enough, Anise knew she couldn't argue it wasn't deserved in this case.
'Leave it Freya, we have more important things to deal with'
Freya went silent, tacitly agreeing to hold this conversation for another time. Nodding, Anise slipped from behind the waterfall, quietly smiling as she realised the dirt and mud on her battered clothing made for excellent camouflage, and that the moccasins on her feet would not leave a distinctive trail for any but an experienced tracker to follow. She just wished she had left a slightly better pair of shoes in the cave last time she had visited.
Anise slipped through the forest, past streams and clearings as she headed for the Tok'ra base. She stopped suddenly, the hairs on the back of Freya's neck rising, prickling. She ducked, diving into a thick patch of undergrowth as a twig snapped close by.
She carefully quieted Freya's breathing as a group of Jaffa passed by her, garbed not in the heavy metal armour typical of the Jaffa, but a thick dark mottled green robe.
Camouflage Freya commented, as Anise tried to figure where she had seen such before. Anise grimaced, agreeing silently, it would make any scouting, or escape that much more difficult.
Anise cursed as she looked over the last entrance to the Tok'ra tunnels. Everywhere it was the same story, Jaffa posted on the entrances, and sensors buried in the ground, apparently tracking escape tunnels as the Tok'ra attempted to grow them. It was obvious Maktenos knew exactly where the tunnels were; it was also obvious he had no intention of entering. He was containing the Tok'ra, and Anise wished she knew why. She guessed she wouldn't like the answer. Finally, she turned and fled towards the StarGate. As much as she knew the Tau'ri didn't particularly like her, they were the Tok'ras only hope, and she would have to find some way to contact them.