Once more, it was Sam who regained consciousness first. She was lying on her back between Daniel and O´Neill. She looked over at both of them, and could just make out the two figures breathing deeply. She sat up and realized they were inside a cave. Everything was damp and cold and there was barely any light. She took a deep breath, trying to remember everything that had happened so far. She still didn´t have a clear picture in her head about what had happened to them back at the gate but she did remember everything else. She took a deep breath, it couldn´t of happened that way, it couldn´t be real. She was interrupted by a voice.

"This is all very real."

Sam turned around. There was the older girl, sitting down, simply watching them. She smiled and stood.

"Come", she said, "I have food. I promise it will not make you sick."

Sam wasn´t really sure about accepting any more food from the girl but she was curious about her. She looked at the rest of her teamates, still out. She stood up and followed the girl outside.

It was amazing. The entrance to the cave was at the very edge of a cliff, near the top of a mountain. From there, Sam could see nothing but endless forests of trees. In the distance, there were several mountains, all of them looked blue, a really deep shade of blue. The sun was still high up and there weren´t many clouds to be seen. The girl sat down near the edge, her feet were hanging over the cliff. Sam sat next to her, she didn´t put her legs over the edge, but she was very close to it.

"I am Kaia.", said the girl. She handed Sam another one of the cookies. Sam took it, she looked down at it. She was very hungry.

"I promise it will not make you sick. That was because you were hurt. It was so you could heal."

Sam had no idea what she was talking about, when did they get hurt? How did they get hurt? The girl noticed her confusion and simply pointed at Sam´s chest. She looked down, there was what appeared to be a burn mark on her shirt. She hadn´t noticed it before...The older girl looked over the cliff and pointed towards the shortest mountain.

"Sailen. The people from the South. They hurt you with their weapons. You were most unlucky.....you walked into a battle, or what was turning into one."

Sam noticed everytime Kaia stopped talking she made a face. As if there was something in her mouth she didn´t like. Sam couldn´t help but stare, Kaia noticed and turned to face Sam. "I am sorry. Your language is.....simple but.....bittersweet. It is a strange one."

Sam couldn´t believe what she was saying, "Bittersweet? Our language, you mean you taste it?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"No one knows, there are a lot of things we do not know or understand.....especially about ourselves."

Sam was really confused by this point and decided it was best to go back to the basics. She took one bite of the cookie before asking her next question, the cookie really wasn´t too bad, "Who are you?"

"I am Kaia. I am of the Padeos, my master was Bolshoi. I am a Steward of the Great Ones and in service of the Chitkina."

None of that made any sense to Sam, she started wondering if it wasn´t a better idea to get Daniel. Kaia clearly saw the confusion in Sam and was quick to explain, "Padeos is the name of my people. We are the students of the Dragons. My master was Bolshoi, one of the most powerful dragons to ever live."

Sam needed a minute for all this to sink in, "Dragons? As in the serpent- like creatures?"

Kaia seemed confused. She looked into Sam´s eyes, as if she was looking for something. Sam felt uncomfortable. Kaia smiled after a moment, "You believe dragons do not exist. They do not live on your planet but that does not mean they do not exist. They are also not the cruel and evil creatures you believe they are. They are wise, ancient and compasionate creatures and even though I am human-"

Sam didn´t mean to interrupt her, "Wait.....you´re human?"

"Well.....almost human. I am no longer as I was as a child, it is the price of becoming Padeos and it was the gift my master gave me when he died." Sam noticed Kaia´s eyes were inmersed in sadness at the mention of her master. She felt compasion for the girl. She was about to ask her something else when Kaia stood, "You will come to understand everything soon, I promise. For now, we must wake the rest and go. Iablaka will be back soon."

"Iablaka?"

"The other one. My student. She is.....exceedingly good, but her pride is a problem. She does not trust you. She says you are dangerous and that you should go back the way you came."

Sam felt a little guilty altough she didn´t really know why. She always hated it when the local people didn´t like them very much. She was about to suggest that maybe they could go back when Kaia spoke.

"You cannot go back. The Stardoor is now part of the Sailen lands. The battle was lost. We cannot risk you being captured. Your knowledge would be taken, your home destroyed."

Any one would think that after being stranded a thousand different times on a thousand different planets one would get used to it. In truth, one does not. Sam felt the all to familiar panicky feeling inside of her. A thousand different images went through her mind, she saw SG-1 stranded forever, the SGC trying to get them back but the armies of the black people would defeat them everytime.....

"Do not worry. It will be difficult, but you will go back." Sam stared at Kaia, she got the feeling all of a sudden that the girl was inside her head. Kaia handed Sam a bag with something inside, "All we have to do is cross my lands, the Gyffins will help. Now, you must change clothes, it is not safe for anyone to know you are outsiders. The Sailen people do not know you are here, all those who saw you come through the Stardoor are dead. No one outside my people must know who you are." She headed towards the cave entrance, "I will wake the others, you change. We must go, it is already much past midday and Iablaka will be waiting for us at the base of the cliff."

Kaia disappeared into the cave. Sam took a second to look over the cliff, it was a long way down and there was no apparent way to get back to the ground. She was worried, she really didn´t feel like repeating the flying stunt they had done earlier. She finally came back to her senses and looked in the bag, in it were clothes that looked just like the ones Kaia was wearing. She took them out and examined them, there was a dragon in the centre of the shirt, only this one was brown and looked more like the european style dragon Sam was used to. She changed quickly, before any of her teamates decided to step outside the cave. The clothes fit well enough. When she was done she threw the bag over her shoulder just like Kaia wore hers. She felt out of place and it wasn´t until she bagan picking up her clothes that she realized two things: Kaia had not been wearing shoes and there was still something at the bottom of the bag. Sam took it out, it looked like a rectangular piece of cloth, it was a deep shade of purple. She was still examining it when Kaia came back out. Behind her came Daniel, Teal´c and O´Neill, all of them dressed in much the same way as she was. Kaia was wrapping their clothes into some cloth, tying them off with a piece of rope and fashioning an awkward looking pack for them to carry. As soon as she was done, Kaia noticed Sam holding the purple cloth, she smiled and took an identical one out of her bag and wrapped it around her waist. The result was a skirt. Sam couldn´t help but roll her eyes and she noticed O´Neill smirking out of the corner of her eye, she hated this. Why did it always have to be a skirt? How was she supposed to climb down a cliff wearing that? She didn´t ask Kaia because she was already over the edge of the cliff, climbing down. The skirt did not seem to slow the girl down.