Title: Nabu
Author: P.L.S.
Rating: PG /PG-13
Warning: Alternate Universe, Exploitation of a Minor
Summery: AU- Project Nabu was created by a stroke of luck on the NID's part but luck runs out and sometimes fate won't let you wander off your path.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 TV series, and are copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. In other words, I don't own it, I'm not making money off of it, so please don't sue.
Author's Note: Was hit by ideas in the middle of researching a paper and unfortunately for my grades writing seems to be more engaging. AU Points- Sha're is about sixteen-seventeen, Skaara is about twelve-thirteen, and Sha're & Skaara's mom hasn't died yet and has a job called Keeper of Secrets. She's kind of a priestess, librarian, and curator all in one and Sha're is next in line to take up this position. It is passed only though the females of her line and is my reasoning for why Sha're took Daniel to that story room and wrote stuff in the movie. BTW, I'm using Urdu for the clan names.
ooOooOoo
Chapter Four: The Rights of the Faker
Skaara smiled to himself. The house was empty, everyone was off to the mountain to mine for Ra's tribute and he had done it! He had really, truly, and defiantly faked out his mom, dad, and irritating sister. Kashen had told him the most interesting news and he planed on being the one to meet the strangers, or at least watching and throwing ladles of water at them from the walls.
He threw his blanket down and crept over to the edge of the loft. His dad hated the two story home that was part of his mom's birthright and really wanted to go back to living in a tent by the riverside like a merchant or career soldier. But dad married mom and that was that as far as choosing where to live went. It was his dad's own fault that he was on council instead of still commanding the militia.
Skaara knew that his dad hated the way that the council never really did anything, but until the old laws were read again or his dad finally became the head elder of Nagada nothing was going to change. Skaara grinned. His dad as head elder would be funny, well to him at least. The city might not think so. After all they kept putting old irritated geezers up as council members and those old men pushed each other up to head elder, ignoring his dad and other younger men who somehow were chosen to represent their clans.
The reason his dad was on council was simple, the Pathar Agg clan was the clan filled with either the soldiers, traders, or the ones who were the best at doing the most dangerous mining. So no one really expected the men to get old, or the women for that matter. More often than not the men didn't try to control the women of their clan, which caused the other clans to look upon the Pathar Agg as ill-bred or barbarian. Not that Skaara cared. Nope, he liked knowing that his mom could kick his dad's butt, and not be stoned for it. After all, dad did do some stupid things sometimes.
Skaara frowned. He was caught. His mom was waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder with her famous 'You are so dead meat' smile. Sha're was starting to learn how to mimic it now. But seeing his mom made it worse.
"Uh, hi?"
"Uh, hi? Is that all you want to tell me, Skaara?" asked his mom.
"Boy, you sure look awfully pretty today, momma." Skaara's eyebrow furrowed, "I, uh, feel tons better. Your tea sure does cure anything." He gave her the biggest grin he could imagine. His face even hurt doing it, but it didn't work. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
His mom smiled again, "I don't know. You got me out of today's work too, and if the reason is good enough, I might not let your dad know about your lies."
Skaara couldn't stop the grin. His reason was the best ever and his mom with him, being ambassadors for the city together would be awesome. Without stopping his sliding down the rails of the ladder he rattled out the story as Kashen told him and the smile on his mom's face let him know how well he told it all.
"So, Kashen snuck out and fell asleep on the wall, and saw strangers coming out of the desert? Which way?"
"They were walking from the east, sunrise side, but they were a while away at dawn."
"So from Ra's built mountain?"
"I donno. But they are foreigners, right? I mean who in their right mind would travel through the desert without a mastage to carry water." Skaara said and his mom nodded.
"Indeed. So crazy pilgrims who got lost from the road to Ra's mountain. Crazy people are always interesting to meet, after all I did marry one." She smiled at him.
"Yeah, dad is kinda crazy sometimes."
"And so are you. And all of us Hot Rocks." Skaara laughed at the name his mom had for the clan she married into. She was from the Lambaa Machhli clan, a clan that was typically best at fishing for the long fish that lived deep in the river. She still thought more of her home clan than the Pathar Agg, but she knew that she was treated far better by her new clan than any of the previous Keepers of Secrets were by any other clan.
Skaara understood why she still liked the Machhli better than the Pathar and it wasn't that big of a deal. No one fought over anything like clans when Tribute to Ra was just two moon cycles away and the Choosing was eleven moon cycles in coming.
During the Choosing this year, Sha're would be hidden away in a secret place by their mom, she was the next Keeper and the Keepers and their students always were hidden so that Ra couldn't steal the rest of their history and knowledge away. It was because of Ra that he wasn't allowed to read like Sha're, it was because of Ra that he would probably be taken in three season turns unless he became ill, was scarred, or hid like his father's brother did. But it was cowardly to hide and Skaara knew his place as leader of his friends.
Maybe the strangers would be magicians and would help like they did in the stories that the old women used to tell him when he was little.
Maybe.