"You know, I'm not really one to complain, but I'm pretty sure you didn't mention a midnight swim in a river of ice when I agreed to come with you on this little jaunt."

Mitchell shrugged as she started putting her shirt on. She was still damp and shivering, but at least her clothes were dry.

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise."

He snorted, and started dressing, too, as Mitchell turned to flash her light at the guys on the other side of the river.

"We're going to leave the harnesses here," she called over to them. "We'll be back in an hour, stay close – and don't lose those ropes."

They still had the harness – with ropes attached – on their side of the river, and the Marines and Peterson had the other ends on their side.

"Yes, Ma'am."

She waited for Sheppard to finish dressing and then the two of them headed down the tunnel, both of them shining their flashlights ahead of them and walking more carefully now that they didn't know exactly what to expect.

"You didn't mention a walk in the dark, either…"

"Yes, I did."

Yeah, maybe she had, at that.

Melony shined her light upwards – the good thing about the tubes was that they seemed to stay fairly consistent with their size. None that they'd been in ever shrank smaller and smaller as they went along, and none of them had ended abruptly in a dead end – although they hadn't been able to explore beyond the hot room, because it was way too… well, hot… to go beyond.

"You're not afraid of the dark are you?" She asked Sheppard, shining her light over at him.

"You're asking me this now?"

She grinned, and looked down at her watch.

"We'll walk down the tunnel for half an hour, and then head back." That way they'd be able to return in an hour, like they'd said they would.

Sheppard nodded.

"Unless of course we get eaten by something."

"At least we're clean after the swim."

"Funny."

She grinned and they walked.

OOOOOOOOO

"Okay… this could be a problem…"

The two of them had gone another 20 minutes – mostly in silence – and were just talking about heading back in another 5 minutes or so, when they caught a whiff of something out of the ordinary. When you're walking in the dark, all your other senses come into play even stronger than usual and their sense of smell was no exception. Mitchell smelled it first, but Sheppard wasn't far behind her.

"What is that?" He asked, frowning.

"No…" she shined her light on the ground about ten feet ahead of them. "What is that?"

Ahead of them was a pile of…

"Um… it looks like…"

"Dung?"

He nodded. By then they were both right on the stuff, and they knelt down and shined both lights on it. It was a fairly big pile of what looked like dung – or might have been mud, or something else, but smelled just stinky enough that they both thought their first guess of shit was the right one.

Pulling the first aid kit from her pack, Mitchell put on a pair of rubber gloves and reached out and touched it. It was soft and warm, and lumpy.

"Yuck."

She nodded her agreement, but pulled a piece of the pile away and shined her light on it to get a better look. It was the first evidence of any large creature that she'd found on the planet – in the tunnels or out – and she figured she'd find out what it ate by checking out what was in its dung.

"Does that look like the dung of a meat eater or a grass eater…?"

"I hope it's a grass eater…" Sheppard said, suddenly feeling nervous enough to rest his hand on the butt of his gun.

"I don't see any grass in it."

"It's green though. Cow pies are green, right?"

She shrugged. Just because she was from Wisconsin, it didn't make her an expert on cows.

"Beats me… I think so, though."

"So maybe it's an herbivore."

"Or maybe it ate a little green man last…"

"Pleasant thought."

"As long as it sticks to green ones, we're okay."

"It feels a little cooler," John said, realizing that the air in the tunnel – which had been fairly decent – was now chilly, and there seemed to be more motion in the air, like maybe a slight breeze. "Think we're getting close to an opening?"

"It's possible." Hell, anything was possible, right? Maybe they should go back and wait until daylight. It was entirely possible that they were close to another bolthole and didn't notice because of the late hour outside.

"Why don't we-"

A sudden rustling made her cut short whatever she'd been planning on saying, and the two of them froze, both of them turning off their flashlights, since they knew immediately that if something was in the tunnel with them the light would draw them quicker than anything else.

The rustling grew a little louder, and Melony could feel her heart starting to pound in anticipation and worry. Her hand slid to her Beretta, and she drew it from the holster silently. She could hear Sheppard's breathing next to her – right next to her, since he'd moved closer to her so they wouldn't be separated in the dark – and heard the telltale sounds of him pulling his own side arm from its holster.

There was suddenly a deep rumble from somewhere ahead of them. A very deep sound that reminded Mitchell of a lion, or maybe a tiger.

Lots of things rumble like that, Talon told her, trying to sound reassuring. Don't panic

I'm not panicked, she told him. It was true, she wasn't. She was just a bit nervous. A lot nervous.

"Earthquake?" Sheppard whispered so softly that Melony almost didn't hear him.

She reached down and touched the ground. She still heard the rumbling but the earth wasn't moving under them or around them.

"No…" She answered just as quietly. It wasn't quiet enough, though. The rumble ceased, and then started again, this time with a curious tone to it, and it grew louder. And so did the rustling noise. They both felt something looming in front of them, and Melony couldn't help herself – she snapped on her flashlight. If she was going to get eaten, she was at least going to see what it was.

They both yelped.