"It doesn't look like coffee," Kale said when he'd returned from his scouting to find Melony examining the berries she'd found. He went over and took a packet of instant coffee from an MRE and opened it, pouring the grounds out into his palm.

Mitchell smiled.

"That's because what you see there is the finished result," she told him. "First, they pick these berries, and take the seeds from them – only they call them beans – then there's sorting and dry roasting and all sorts of other things that have to happen before they can grind them and come up with what you have in your hand."

"Are you so certain that's the correct plant?" He asked. "There might be plenty of plants that look similar."

She shrugged.

"It looks like coffee to me, but there's a whole base filled with scientists back at Atlantis with free time on their hands, and I'll be one of them can do some kind of analysis on these to see if they're what I hope they are."

"And if they are?"

"Then I'm going to come and clean this place out of every bush I can get my hands on," she joked.

You're not joking

Well, I wouldn't take every bush.

Talon snorted, and reminded Melony that they weren't there to find coffee.

"Did you find anything worth looking at?" She asked Kale as the Light One carefully dumped his instant coffee into a cup of hot water and handed it to her. He didn't find the taste all that great, but there was no denying that she did.

"Actually, I did," he said, nodding. "At least, I found a rocky area not far from here." He pointed off to their left. "It seems to be fairly widespread, so there is a possibility at least that there might be some caves." He shrugged, looking at her to see if she was interested.

She definitely was.

"How far away?"

"A short flight. I found it easily once I was headed in the right direction. The rocky area stretches on for miles."

"No sign of any Wraith?"

He shook his head.

"I didn't see anything – Wraith or otherwise – but I didn't land, either. Would you like me to go back and take another look before it grows dark?"

It was her turn to shake her head.

"No. I'd rather you had a chance to rest." He'd been flying a lot more than he was used to, and she knew it – even though he hadn't complained. "We can go look at it in the morning, when we're both fresh."

He smiled, pleased by her consideration.

"Perhaps we can risk a fire tonight?"

"Sure."

They hadn't seen any sign of any threatening creatures that might be drawn to it, and a fire would be nice.

You just want a chance to try and roast some of those berry seeds, Talon accused, good-naturedly.

Well, since we have a chance to have a fire, and fires are good for roasting things, I might give it a shot – just to see what happens.

She felt his amusement, but he didn't say anything else, and she got to her feet.

"I'll go find some wood, if you start the fire."

"Fair enough."

The Light One went to the fire pit they'd dug and started setting up kindling and shredded paper that Melony had set next to the pit in case they'd decided to make a fire, and by the time she'd returned with enough dry wood to last the night, he had a small fire burning merrily. Melony dropped the wood, and crouched down beside him. It was going to be a nice night, and with good company and a fire blazing, it was hard to remember that she wasn't out camping somewhere with her brother and Jack.

Only they never went camping naked, did they?

Yeah, well… there is that.

"I'm going to see if I can play Juan Valdez and get some of those seeds out of those berries," she told Kale.

Since he didn't have a clue who Juan Valdez was, and Melony knew he didn't, she understood the confused look he gave her, but she just smiled and patted his shoulder as she stood up again and headed for her pack. There had to be something she could use as a roasting pan of sorts.

Try the tinfoil

Good idea.

While Kale watched curiously, Mitchell sat and patiently pulled the seeds from the berries she'd brought back to camp. Then she rinsed them off with some water from her canteen and set them in a packet she made with the tinfoil. Then she set the whole mess close to the fire, but not inside the fire. She wanted them roasted, not burned.

"How do you know this method?" Kale asked when she was finished and had gone over to sit next to him. "Is it common for your people to make their own coffee?"

She shook her head.

"I know because I was in Columbia one summer and found myself in a position to find out how it was done. Most people just get it from the stores already ground – or as beans that they take home and grind themselves."

"And Juan Valdez…?" He asked. "Who is that? The one who showed you how to make the coffee?"

She laughed, and shook her head, and while she made dinner for the two of them she told him about the made up character and his little donkey – which had led to discussion of other creatures that were from Earth, and had then led to discussion of creatures that lived on the planet the Light One was from.

That discussion led them through the evening and up until they decided it was time to go to bed. The fire had gone down – although it wasn't out – and Melony pushed her tinfoil roasting pan closer to the ashes and then headed for bed, followed by Kale. Morning would come soon enough, and she'd see if her beans were coffee or something else – and she'd see if this rocky area was what she was looking for.

Not surprisingly, she had just a little trouble getting to sleep that night as Kale curled up around her in wolf form. But eventually she did.