Morning was sooner than they'd all expected – apparently the planet they were on had shorter days and nights than Atlantis or Earth – and McKay was still on watch when the sun came up and the sounds of the children and Cay and Rella getting ready for the day came drifting through the barn.

Rodney knelt down next to Mitchell, resting his hand on her shoulder. She came awake immediately – which was a far cry from how she woke up when they were someplace familiar.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's morning."

"What?" She looked at her watch. "Already?"

McKay rolled his eyes, but he held back his comment about how redundant it was for her to look at a watch when it was obvious the sun wasn't on the same schedule here that it was at home. Had it been anyone else, he'd have said it in an instant, but he still hadn't quite figured out Mitchell, and wasn't sure how much mockery and sarcasm he could get away when it came to the Colonel.

"The sun's up," he told her, biting his tongue and moving on to wake up the others.

A five-hour night? No wonder it went from sunset to bedtime so quickly

She rolled out of her pile of hay – she'd had far worse beds in her time – and stood up, stretching.

"We'd better find out how long a day lasts here," she said as the others got up and started putting on their gear. "If we don't want to get caught out in the middle of nowhere when night falls."

"Maybe we should head to the gate and check in?" Ford asked. "Let them know what we're doing..."

Sheppard shook his head.

"Weir knows we were planning on being here a couple days. They won't start getting worried unless we don't show up or check in by tomorrow evening."

"What makes you think we can find this city in two days?" McKay asked. "These folks have lived here forever and they haven't found it."

"They don't go 3 miles from their homes," Ford said.

"It is difficult to explore a place if you're afraid to leave the protection of your walls," Teyla agreed.

"Well, let's see if they have anything for breakfast," Sheppard said. "I want to get going as soon as we can."

They'd brought supplies of their own – in case they hadn't been able to find people, or the people had been unfriendly or unable or unwilling to feed them – but they didn't want to make a mess cooking their own stuff if they didn't have to.

OOOOOOOOO

They didn't have to. A huge breakfast was provided for them – along with more of the tea that they'd had the night before. Mitchell looked at her cup mournfully, wishing it would magically fill with coffee, but when it didn't, she ignored Ford's amused look and drank the tea she'd been given.

I like it

So you've said.

Don't pout

I'm not pouting I'm sulking. There's a difference.

Despite her disappointment with the choice of beverage, there was nothing to complain about when it came to the meal. Ham and eggs, mountains of fried potatoes that were seasoned with some kind of herbs they'd never tried before, and fresh strawberries. This was the sort of food they were going to be trading for – once they returned from checking out the city (which would give Cay and Rella's neighbors time to decide how much of their surplus they could part with)

OOOOOOOO

"Southeast, huh?"

"That's what they said..."

Their stomachs filled with breakfast, it'd been a relief to walk for a while and work the heavy meal off. They'd hiked for four or five miles, not in any particular hurry but watching the woods around them carefully for any sign of movement that might be a precursor to an attack by the as yet unseen Guardians. That hadn't turned out to be their biggest problem, however.

Long before lunchtime, they'd come upon their first obstacle – and it was a doozy.

"It doesn't look that bad," Ford said as they all stood at the top of a cliff. A very high cliff that had to be at least 100 feet – which was plenty high enough. "We could probably make it down..."

"Why don't we go along the edge for a while?" McKay said, obviously not enjoying the thought of trying to make it down that steep incline. "Maybe there's an easier way down..."

They looked both directions – the trees had ended about fifteen feet from the edge of the cliff and the bare area ran along the cliff as far as they could see in either direction.

"What do you think?" Sheppard asked Mitchell.

"There might be an easier way somewhere else," she said. "As long as we stick to the general direction that we were given – and we can if we head south – then we might as well look for a better spot. I'd hate to risk an injury needlessly."

"Have I ever told you that you're a genius?" McKay said, looking down the cliff once more.

Melony smiled, and looked at Sheppard.

"It's your decision, Major."

He nodded.

"We might as well look for a better spot. This looks pretty steep, and I'd hate to have to pick up the splattered pieces if McKay fell."

"Funny..." Rodney threw Sheppard a scathing look, but John merely smiled and started off, moving towards the south. The rest of the team followed, with Mitchell bringing up the rear.

I spy with your little ey-

That piece of moss.

Damn it

Melony grinned, and looked over to the right, away from the cliff face. They might be playing, but they were both still paying close attention to what was going on around them, and Mitchell hated having the steep cliff on one side of her – it cut down on escape options in the event of an attack, after all.

Turned out, she was wrong – sort of.

They'd only walked a mile or so along the cliff when the attack came – and it was lightning fast. They were walking past a section of land where the wooded area actually extended almost to the very edge of the cliff and they were forced to walk more or less in the trees in order to be able to keep from being too close to the edge and risking a long fall. A movement and a rustling of leaves and brush to the right was all the warning Mitchell had – even with her Talon-accentuated reflexes. She turned, just in time to see an impossibly huge shape bearing down at her, and barely got her hand to her side – and nowhere near her guns – before that shape crashed into her.

"Colonel!"

The noise had alerted Ford, who was right in front of her, and the Lieutenant turned around just in time to see a wolf-like creature tangled with Mitchell and the two of them go tumbling over the edge of the cliff.