The next morning I wake to find my head on Daniel's shoulder as he stretches his upper body.
"Good morning." I say.
"Yeah," Daniel says after a moment, looking at me as if he hadn't noticed me. "Were we like this when we went to sleep?"
"I don't think so." I say. "Doesn't seem to be any clothing out of place…" We are positioned relatively strangely, Daniel lying diagonally from the upper left to the lower right, (the left side being the one I started out on and the one closest to the door,) while I'm lying almost horizontally.
I sit up and check out the room, working out some of the kinks in my back and shoulders. "Yes, but that still leaves the question of how." He says as I notice that Teal'c is no longer in the room.
"True, but until either of us can answer that question I'm gonna ignore it."
"All right."
"So, how do you want to do this?" I ask standing up and go over to the backpacks.
"What?" Daniel asks, aghast.
"I gotta change, so are we gonna turn away from each other or what?"
"Oh, uh… I'll take the first option, just because it saves time."
"Okay." I say, grabbing my jacket and tying it around my waist. I rummage through one pack soon discovering that it's Daniel's. "Okay, we're even." I say, closing up the pack. I rifle through the other pack looking for clean panties, considering why my bra is unhooked.
"What?" Daniel asks.
"That's your pack I was looking through."
"How are we even, then?"
"You've seen me topless, and I've seen your boxers. That's what I call even."
"Oh." Daniel says, as I find the underwear and turn to face a wall, my back towards him as I drop my pants and change my panties, hearing some shuffling from behind me while I'm doing this.
"You good?" I ask zipping the pants I'd pulled back on.
"Uh, yeah." Daniel says, taking his word for it, I go back over to my pack pull out a shirt and socks. "I'm curious, is anyone in your family shy?"
"Not really. Dax sort of, but her twin more than makes up for that." I say, changing my shirt after hooking my bra.
"Oh." Daniel says, as I sit down on the bed to change my socks.
"What would make you think anyone in my family is shy)?" I ask, putting my boots back on.
"Thought I might be liking the black sheep of your family."
"Nah, that's Dax's twin, Dae." I say, before the main point hits me. "You… like me?" I say smiling. I laugh a little at that and at the time it took for his statement to hit me.
"How is that funny?" Daniel asks, not very amused.
"It's, its not. It's actually very sweet, but you sounded rather like a schoolboy. No offense." I say, smiling.
"Oh." Daniel says, smiling sheepishly. "So how much money do we have left?" He asks a few minutes later as I'm putting my brush away.
"Oh, uh…" I say as I check my pockets for the coins Cale gave me last night. "Forty gold, twelve silvers, seven coppers."
"I hope that's enough." Daniel says, heading for the door, and I follow. We go downstairs to the bar to find Jack, Sam and Teal'c seated at a table having breakfast.
"Didn't take you two long." Sam says, as Daniel and I join them.
"Take long for what?" I ask, sitting down next to her.
"Well, I went in there earlier and you two were still asleep together. Kinda figured it would take you a while to get down here." Sam says, taking Daniel by surprise.
"Ah." I say, determined not to let my discomfort show.
"The eggs aren't bad." Jack says, digging into the plate of eggs and bacon that the waitress had just brought him.
"Can I get you two anything?" The waitress asks after setting Sam's plate down.
"I'll have two eggs and a side of bacon, please." I say nicely.
"I'll have the same, please." Daniel says, just as nicely.
"Coming right up."
"So let me ask something while everyone's here." I say, after the waitress walks off. "Is there some reason you know of why General Hammond recruited me? Other than my unique skills, I mean."
"Like what?" Sam asks.
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking. Something like a personnel shortage, maybe?"
"Nothing like that I know of." Sam says, looking around the table. "No offense, but it's not like we make many mistakes."
"Oh of course. If you did I wouldn't ask." I say.
"Perhaps it's more of the old 'two heads are better than one', and you're the most efficient way to accomplish that improvement." Daniel says.
"That makes sense." I say doubtfully.
"Almost sound surprised, Kelly." Jack says, polishing off his eggs.
"No, you haven't heard me surprised yet." I say, seeing the waitress coming towards us with the food Daniel and I ordered.
"Sorry for the wait." The waitress says, setting our plates in front of us.
"That wasn't a wait." I mutter, as she put two glasses of apparently fresh milk in front of Daniel and I.
"Thank you." Daniel says, before the waitress walks away.
"So what are we doing today precisely?"
"After we eat we're supposed to go over to Cale's place." Jack says.
"Okay, do we have room for one more on this expedition?"
"Well…" Sam says slowly. "Couldn't hurt."
"Why?" Jack asks.
"I met a - well, I met a strange little man last night, and he asked if he could help out and come with us." I say.
"Who is it, and how could he help?" Jack asks.
"I don't know how he could help, but he's Vep, and I'm not sure what else. He's behind you, though." I say, as Vep walks up behind Jack.
"Hello." Vep says meekly, as Jack and Sam turn towards him.
"Vep, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Captain Samantha Carter, and Teal'c." I say, gesturing to each of them as I introduce them.
"Hello." Sam says.
"Gonna sit down or what?" Jack asks.
"You remember Dr. Daniel Jackson?" I ask, as Vep drags a chair over to our table and joins us.
"Oh, yes, though I don't think I got your name." Vep says.
"So what do you do?" Jack asks.
"What?" Vep balks.
"Are you strictly a thief or what?" I ask, comfortingly.
"Oh, well… no. I don't think so. I can fight a little, and I travel a lot." Vep says.
"What do you know about the 'Snake Warriors'?" Jack asks.
"Oh! I know more about them than the city Pali. What do you need to know? Where the base is, when the shift changes are, who's in what cell - " Vep says.
"I Gotcha." I say, interrupting him.
"If you really know all of this, you could be a lot of help." Sam says.
"Really!?" Vep says, his orange eyes going wide with amazement.
"You really wanna come?" Jack asks.
"Yeah." Vep says, his amazement quickly subsiding.
"Let's go, then." Jack says, standing up and snagging his pack.
We settle our tab before walking out into the street. The fresh air, the hustle and bustle, and the noise wakes me up and rejuvenates me almost right away. On the way to Cale's home, we walk through one especially crowded portion of the city and I wind up hanging on to Daniel's arm to keep from being trampled. For the entire twenty minutes I am hanging onto him I'm thinking "my, my get a load of this! Very buff for an archeologist". I notice that Vep has grabbed onto Jack and Daniel glances down at me as he holds my hand.
"Afraid you'll get lost Kelly?" Daniel asks, bending some to whisper almost in my ear.
"That too." I say to him quietly, with a little smile.
"Kelly!" Landra cries, as we walk up to the fence.
"Hey Landra!" I say, She runs right up to the fence towards me, as her father comes out of the barn to see what all the commotion is about. Landra climbs up the fence a little to my right and starts to fall. I catch her, of course, and hold her on my hip.
"Jack, good for you to come so early. I'll get Moke and you can get going." Cale says, approaching the fence. "You want to get to the market before everything is gone."
"Yeah, okay." Jack says, and Cale hurries into the house.
"Daddy says you're gonna find my Momma." Landra says.
"Well, we're gonna try." Daniel says, as Moke walks out of the house with three animal skin bags.
"Samantha, Jack, Daniel. Are you ready to go to the market?" Moke says, addressing those he spoke with in detail last night.
"Yeah, I guess." Jack says.
"Can I come too?" Landra asks.
"If it were just you, me, and Mom you could, but I wouldn't want you to get lost, and we're leaving right after." Moke tells her as I put her down in her yard.
"All right." Landra says, before Moke jumps over the fence.
"Back before the week's end." Moke calls, as we start to walk away.
"All right, what's first?" Jack says, as we enter the market district.
"Equipment first. Horses, then food." Moke says, as Daniel grabs my hand.
"Horses?" Jack asks, as we push through the crowd.
"On foot the journey would take more than a week." Moke says leading us into a shop.
"Moke! What's brought you back so soon?" the shopkeeper says as we walk through the door.
"Aunt Shelby. Nothing good, unfortunately. These people are going to help me get my mother back from the Snake Warriors." Moke says, hugging his aunt.
"What do you need?"
"Boots, saddlebags, and I'm sure a few cloaks wouldn't hurt." Moke says, his aunt nods while he's talking.
"All right. I'm Shelby, Merrique's sister." She says, turning towards us.
"Kelly Tyler." I say.
"Samantha Carter."
"Jack O'Neill."
"I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson, and this is Teal'c."
"Well met, I'll find what you need and be right back." Shelby says, before going into a back room.
I look around while we wait. Noticing that Daniel isn't just casually following me, but that he is still holding my hand. "So what's your excuse?" I whisper to him playfully, as I draw close to him.
Shelby comes out of the back room with boots on top of cloaks on top of saddlebags, and needles, thread, and scissors in arm, hand and mouth. She set everything down on a nearby counter and turned to us. "Who's first?" Shelby asks.
"I guess I am." Sam says stepping forward. Shelby takes her over to a pedestal and tells her to stand still. She puts a blue cloak on Sam, trims it to fit her height, and tells her to try on some boots. Shelby repeats this process with the rest of us very quickly, surprisingly efficiently putting Teal'c in gray, Jack in brown, Daniel in dark green, and me in cranberry. She decides that all of us need new boots, so she asks us all to try on the boots she had brought out, which - amazingly - fit perfectly.
"Anything else?" Shelby asks, as Sam and I put our boots in our packs.
"Arrows, a flint, and a spit." Moke says.
"No problem." Shelby says, reaching under the counter and pulling out a quarrel filled with arrows, which probably also holds the flint and the spit. "This and five saddlebags make your total twenty-seven, fifteen, nine."
"All right. We need to get out of the city before high sun, so I'm going to go buy some food and water, can you get the horses?" Moke says, as we walk out onto the street after paying.
"Just point me towards the stables." I say, once more holding Daniel's hand.
"Towards the Eastern gates, where you came in." Moke says, pointing down the way. "I'll meet you there shortly."
"All right." I say, as Moke starts to walk away. "Quick question; can any of you ride?"
"Horses? No. Motorcycles…" Jack says, as we head for the stables.
"Not really." Sam says.
"Horses - don't like me." Daniel says.
"I do not." Teal'c says.
"Ah, any of you think you can ride alone?" I ask, as the stables come into sight.
"Yeah, sure." Sam says, after glancing at Jack and Teal'c.
"Uh, no." Daniel says.
"Who do you want to ride with?" I ask.
"I'd rather ride with someone who knows how." Daniel says, as we stop outside the stables.
"Right, so me or Moke?" I say, thinking on how we'd work this. Teal'c needs a larger horse and Jack and Sam need midsizes. Normally I ride a midsize as well, but I'm not sure if that could handle both Daniel and me.
"You, I guess." Daniel says.
"Okay, Vep, mind riding with Teal'c?" I ask quickly.
"I guess not…" Vep says meekly.
"I do not." Teal'c says, I nod and we go in.
"G'dday, I'm Peter. How may I help you?" A young man with brown hair says, walking up to us.
"We need five horses for a week." I say.
"Alright, no problem. Pick your horses and we'll discuss price." Peter says, and I walks over to a brown and white stallion.
"Teal'c, how do you like this one?" I ask.
"It is adequate." Teal'c says, I nod and go over to a blonde mare I'd seen Sam eyeing.
"Sam?" I ask.
"Yeah, sure." Sam says, she walks over to the mare and I go over to a chestnut mare.
"Jack?" I say, Jack nods and gets closer to the horse. I spot a black stallion and keep him in mind as I go over to a black and white midsize. "For Moke?"
"Sure." Peter says, I nod as I walk over to the black stallion.
"Daniel?" I ask.
"You can ride that?" Daniel asks, coming over to me.
"Yep, used to have one just like him, Bolt. You like?" I say, petting the horse's neck.
"Sure." Daniel says.
"Do any of these horses have bad temperaments?" I ask Peter.
"No! Not at all. You want these five then?" Peter says.
"Yes." I say. "How much?"
"Five horses for how many days?" Peter says.
"I'm not sure, less than a week." I say.
"Twenty gold pieces." Peter says.
"Hmm, could you help us saddle up, as well?" I ask.
"Extra five silvers, yeah." Peter says.
"Well, these are very nice horses, but I'd really rather eat. So how does this sound; ten gold pieces for the horses and two silvers for the help."
"Uh, Kelly?" Daniel whispers to me, alarmed.
"Eighteen gold, seven silvers." Peter says, sounding more curious than angry.
"Twelve gold, one silver." I say.
"Fourteen gold even." Peter says.
"Deal." I say, pulling the coins out of my pocket. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Likewise." Peter says, as we shake hands.
"Tell me that Peter charged you under twenty-one gold pieces, please?" Moke says walking up to us as Peter walks off to help put the saddles on the horses.
"Fourteen." Daniel says, sort of amazed.
"How'd you manage that?" Moke asks, equally amazed.
"I don't really know. Big family." I say.
"You give credit for everything to your family, don't you?" Jack asks, sarcastically, as I notice that three of the horses are saddled.
"Yep, and they really do deserve it." I say.
"Really?" Sam asks, as she and I start to unload our packs and load the items into saddlebags.
"Well, I was moving around with my family so much when I was younger I was almost exclusively home schooled when I was really young and neither of my parents were any kind of teachers." I say.
"Oh, that makes sense." Sam says, as Moke comes back over to us. "So you're one of those that like their siblings?"
"Most of the time." I say. "Hey guys, its kind of difficult to ride with a backpack on, might want to use one of those saddlebags."
"Makes a certain amount of sense." Jack mutters, taking a saddlebag that Daniel hands him. We spend a few minutes stuffing the standard issue equipment we'd been carrying into the relatively oddly shaped saddlebags, occasionally talking to multiple inanimate objects when they almost fit or something got left out, and check the equipment we hadn't even tried to fit into the bag while we wait.
"Horses are ready." Moke says a minute later.
"Great." I say, walking over to the black stallion as Sam walks over to hers, Jack to his, Teal'c to his, and Moke to his.
I hop right onto the horse Daniel and I are sharing and help him up. Samantha is up a minute after Moke, and Moke was up right after me, Teal'c is up next, Jack has a little more trouble, but he does get up.
"You okay?" I ask Daniel, as we all ride out of the stable towards the gate.
"Yeah, think so." Daniel says.
"Well, relax will you? You're gonna make the horse nervous." I say, as Moke leads us through the gates.
"How?" Jack asks, obviously overhearing.
"You're nervous, the horse senses it, and gets nervous in return. Kinda like dingoes and fear." I say.
"I actually understood that." Jack mutters.
"Well how do I relax with a hundred pounds of animal under me?" Daniel asks.
"Well… you might wanna hang onto something more substantial than part of the reins. Or you could close your eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale slowly." I say.
"We really do need to pick up the pace." Moke says, as Daniel lets go of the reins and immediately grabs onto my waist.
"Right. How?" Jack says.
"Oughta hang on." I whisper to Daniel, he hangs on just a little tighter.
"Watch and learn." Moke says. He gently snaps his reigns and he and his horse take off.
Sam and Teal'c follow suit almost immediately.
"Need help?" I ask Jack.
"Sure." Jack says slowly.
"Hang on." I tell Jack, he grips his reigns a little tighter and I slap the horse on the rear. The horse takes off after its friends, Daniel squeezes me, and I gently snap the reigns. I am soon riding along side Samantha with Teal'c and Jack not far behind. We ride hard until just before dusk and set up camp in a large clearing. Sam and I tether the horses to a tree, feed them, and water them before going to help with dinner.
"All right, who's cooking?" I ask, sitting down next to Daniel.
"Cooking?" Jack asks.
"Yes, cooking. That funny little thing where meat gets really hot to the point that it's safe to eat. Don't look at me like you haven't done it before." I say, tired of his sarcasm and deciding not to take it anymore.
"Yeah, but we usually don't cook on missions." Sam says calmly, smiling a little.
"All right." I say, with a heavy sigh. "What food do we have on hand?"
"Well, I just picked up some fruit and vegetables at the market, but conies are easy to find in this part of the forest." Moke says.
"Okay. I can hunt while someone else gathers firewood." I say.
"Umm… I don't mean to sound like a complete moron, but what's a coney?" Daniel asks.
"A small, furry creature with long ears known for its great speed because of its leaping gait, usually tame." Moke says.
"A rabbit." I say. "So who's going to gather the firewood?" I stand up and take off my cloak.
"I'll go." Daniel says, after waiting for someone else to offer.
"All right, let's go. I want to get back before full dark." I say, as Daniel stands up.
We head out of camp going South for about ten minutes before I find any sign of a rabbit.
"Kelly?" Daniel whispers, following me closely.
"Hm?" I say softly.
"How are you going to kill a rabbit?"
"Usually I'd have a crossbow or something, but as it stands I think I'm going to have to kill it with my knife."
"Oh. All right. I'm just gonna - "
"Shh." I say, putting my left hand out. "Stay still a moment?"
"What is it?" Daniel asks, as I crouch to see the ground a little better.
"Trip wire." I say, following the wire with my fingertip. "Looks like an alarm or a boundary marker, we should be careful."
"Okay." He says, watching me carefully as I stand back up and gingerly step over the wire. "Kelly…"
"One moment." I say softly, I pull my knife with my right hand, I throw my knife, it hit the rabbit on the head with the pommel, killing it.
"Oh. That was humane." Daniel whispers after I take my hand away.
"Yeah, I'll be sure to ask Moke to clean and skin it out of camp." I whisper, taking out my handkerchief as I go to collect the coney. Picking it up with the cloth around my hand, I snap its neck to make sure it's dead. We pick up three more, all in the same manner, in the next ten minutes and Daniel gathers a bit more wood.
"You're oddly good at this you know." Daniel says, as I search the ground for one more set of tracks.
"Thanks, I'm good at many things." I say, keeping my voice as soft as his. I hear the familiar soft whistle of an arrow as Daniel slams me into a tree. The arrow thuds into a nearby tree trunk.
"Are you okay?" Daniel and I ask each other in unison, we both chuckle softly at that.
"I'm alright." I say, smiling.
"So am I." Daniel says, smiling a little.
"Good." I say, as we stare into each other's eyes for a moment before. We share a deep, long delicious kiss against the tree. "Daniel!" I gasp, as soon as I could speak clearly.
"Kelly?"
"There's someone shooting at us. Besides - "
"You're right, I'm sorry." Daniel says, backing away a little.
"Don't be. What I was going to say is that we have dinner for four other people with us. We should get back, but I'd like to continue this later, though." I whisper.
"Really?"
"Yeah, but first let's go find whoever's shooting."
"Good idea." Daniel says, we move away from the tree a little. I kiss him once, quickly, on the mouth as I move to insect the arrow that Daniel and I wound up against the other tree because of. I judge the angle the arrow was protruding from as Daniel gathers his firewood back up. I follow the predicted path of the arrow as he picks up the conies as well. "Kelly, I have a couple of odd questions for you."
"Okay, ask."
"Does anyone call you Alia?"
"No…" I say after a thoughtful pause. "Do you ask because you want to?"
"Occasionally. The other thing is; who would they be shooting for?"
"You, actually. I wouldn't take it personally until we find out why, though." I say, stopping and looking around. I spot another rabbit and kill it I hear the draw of a bowstring and freeze in my tracks. "Show yourself and face me honorably, coward."
"Alia?"
"Shh. Stay there, Daniel." I whisper. A figure with a loaded bow drops down to my left. I dart forward and pick up my knife at the man with the bow as he aims his bow at Daniel. "Put down your bow and identify yourself!"
"This is my forest! You lower your blade. I'll lower my bow." The man says. I lower my knife and drop it to the ground as he lowers his bow and relaxes the string. "Who are you and why have you come?"
"My name is Kelly Tyler, this is my… companion, Dr. Daniel Jackson. We didn't mean to trespass onto your land. We are just passing through."
"I am Dalarek, of the Lar'Thinanali. Why do you kill so many conies for just the two of you?"
"We are traveling with others. Five conies are all we needed." Daniel says.
"I see… hm. Do you plan to stay in this forest?"
"No. We set off again at daybreak." I say, picking up my knife and the last coney.
"Then begone back to your camp. We will give you no trouble on your return journey." Dalarek says.
"Thank you." I say, sincerely.
"You said 'we', are you not alone?" Daniel asks.
"No, he's not." I say, as Dalarek stares at Daniel and I stare at Dalarek. "We are surrounded."
"Oh."
"It would be wise to leave now." Dalarek says quietly.
"Read my mind." I mutter, as Daniel and I head back to camp.
"Alia." Daniel says, after a while.
"Yeah?" I say, noticing that Daniel had stopped walking, and stopping to turn to him.
"Why did you do that?" Daniel asks.
"What, call him out?" I ask, unsure. Daniel nods in response.
"Because I didn't know where he was exactly, but I heard him draw his bowstring."
"Quite a chance to take."
"More of a chance if he was aimed at you."
"How so?"
"I can catch or dodge anything coming at me. I wouldn't have been able to do catch the arrow or get to you in time if he'd shot at you."
"You were worried about me?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
"Because I like you. Because you're a living being that hasn't tried to kill or hurt me. How's that?"
"Is it the truth?"
"Yes, why would I lie?"
"To get me to be quiet." Daniel says with a small smile as he starts walking. I stare at him for a second half a smile on my face mixing in with my amazement, and then start walking again.
"All right. I killed it, someone else clean it." I say, as we walk back into camp.
"I'll do it." Moke says, taking the six conies from Daniel.
"Anything interesting happen out there?" Jack asks, as Sam takes the wood from Daniel.
"A guy that lives in the forest tried to kill us." I say, as if it was no big thing.
"You all right?" Jack asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I say, sitting down on a nearby log as Sam builds the fire in the fire pit.
"There wasn't any actual fighting, just a lot of weapons pointed at heads." Daniel says.
"Oh, okay. So who has first watch?" Jack asks.
"I'll take it." Sam says, looking around for a way to light the wood in the pit. I grab a dry rock and pull out my knife and use them to strike a spark, which lights the fire. "Thanks."
"No problem. I forget how many times my family went camping and forgot the matches or lighter or something." I say, as the fire grows a little.
"That must've been fun." Jack says.
"Yeah, it was." I say, as Daniel sits down next to me and I put my knife away. "So are we working on a plan, or are we just going to fly by the seat of our pants?"
"No plan for now." Jack says.
"Awright." I say, spotting something moving near Jack's hand. "Jack, might wanna move your left hand."
"Aw, geeze!" Jack cries, after looking down and to his left as he jumps up from his seat.
Before he could draw his gun and shoot the thing crawling across the other log, my knife was protruding from the log, after killing the snake.
"What? I hate snakes." I say in response to the amazed stares I was getting from Jack, Sam, and Daniel, and the raised eyebrow of Teal'c.
"Nice." Jack says, picking up the body of the dead snake and throwing it into the woods.
"Least it wasn't his hand." I mutter to Daniel, as I get up to retrieve my knife.
"How?" Samantha asks.
"It's hard to explain." I say, cleaning off my blade. "I was just taught to be quick to react."
"How quickly do you judge?" Daniel asks softly in Russian.
"I don't. Or at least I try really hard not to." I reply softly in the same dialect.
"Good things. Now, can we eat?" Jack says guessing as to what we were saying.
"That would be difficult to accomplish without food." Teal'c says, as Moke comes back into the camp with the food and something in an animal skin bag.
"Yeah, okay." Jack says, as Moke puts three of the conies on a makeshift spit over the fire.
Moke cooks and Daniel gives me a little crash course in the Gao'uld language. Once I could easily understand some of the more important phrases - words for 'stop', 'die', or 'idiot' - Sam gives me the briefing on off world protocol she had forgotten earlier. After everyone eats - albeit hesitantly - we work out who's on watch when, I take first with Jack and Sam taking second and third. I climb up into a tree on the West Side of camp and settle in for my watch.
"You're obviously not merchants, then. What are you doing here?" Dalarek says, whispering softly, hardly startling me.
"I told you earlier; we are just passing through." I say, in a barely audible whisper.
"Yes, but to what? We lost your trail at the cursed ring."
"Really? Hmm…" I say, considering the bit about the trail carefully, noting that I have been leaving tracks. "You know about the soldiers, the ones the people of Evermoon call "Snake Warriors", no doubt?"
"Yes, they have taken scores of my people and killed more. That is the reason for the trip wire you found."
"I see. We're just trying to rescue someone at the moment, but we're going to be taking them out if the opportunity presents itself."
"Then my kin and I will join you."
"No. Too many people sneaking in would look too conspicuous. I wouldn't want to see any of your people harmed in this anyway."
"My people can handle themselves just fine, but if you do not wish for our help, so be it."
"Thank you."
"I will come with you alone."
"No, shadow us if you will, but we can't take anyone else along."
"Very well. I will finish out your watch with you, then." Dalarek says, and I nod. "Across the glade."
I hear him move away as I notice that Sam never went to sleep. I watch Vep tangle himself up in the blankets of his bedroll as Sam gets up very quietly and walks over in my general direction.
"Kelly, where'd you go?" Sam whispers very softly to herself, looking for me on the Northeast side of camp.
"Yeah?" I say, dropping down behind her. everyone else is sleeping near the fire on the Southern end.
"Can we talk, woman to woman?"
"Sure." I say, she motions that we should go into the tree. I shrug, jump into the tree, and swing down to help her up. I wrap my legs and ankles around the branch as I reach down. Sam grabs onto my forearms and I hang onto hers. "Hang on." I say, I pull my body up to wrap my arms around the branch, taking her with me. "What's up?" I ask, as we right ourselves, after climbing a little higher.
"Let me be honest," Sam says in barely a whisper, "you are faster and stronger than any twenty-eight year old woman I've ever met. Not to mention your agility and your intelligence, and quite frankly those things have me just a little worried."
"Why? High IQs run in my family and my strength, speed and agility are skills I've developed since I was four."
"Because you seem to be getting very close to one of my friends, and I don't really know you so - "
"You're just trying to look out for Daniel. I understand that."
"Good, so I'll only tell you once; he's a good guy, I've seen bad happen to him before and I don't wanna see it again."
"I'll tell you just like I told Jack earlier; I have no intention of hurting Daniel in any way. I really do like him, believe me or not it's the truth."
"Somehow I believe you." Samantha says softly. "So how am I supposed to get down?"
"Just a sec." I say, I reverse the process I used to bring her into the tree and re-settle myself in the tree I intend to stay in for the night.
"Tyler?" Jack whispers an hour or two later, standing nearby but facing the wrong direction. I shrug and drop out of the tree, landing quietly on my feet behind him.
"Yes?" I say softly.
"Geeze!" Jack exclaims, still whispering, as he turns around to face me. "Call it a night, I'll take over."
"All right. Mind if I stay in the tree?"
"Whatever floats your boat."
'Or finds your lost remote.' I add silently in my head. "Thanks." I whisper aloud, and climb back into the tree.