"You know, I'm pretty tired of being tied up."

They'd spent a miserable night by the fire, hardly sleeping, and then only in light catnaps that would be interrupted with the slightest noise. Their captor came and went at irregular intervals, apparently keeping an eye on things around the camp, but who knew really, and that was just as annoying and unnerving. Even though they didn't hear any more screams or screeches or whatever they were, it wasn't fun waiting for the next one to come, and they were all fairly edgy by the time the sun came up.

Dex was sitting on the other side of the fire pit, sharpening a wicked looking knife. Aside from looking up at the sound of his voice, however, the man didn't reply, and Sheppard scowled.

"Our friends are going to come looking for us if we don't check in."

"They won't find you."

"We're more worried about that whatever it is out there finding them," Ford said, glowering. He wasn't happy about being a captive, and was just as tired of being tied up as the Colonel was.

"If they are wise, they'll stay out of the forest."

"Well they're not going to stay out," Sheppard said. "So why don't you let us go so we can get back to the village and let everyone know we're safe…"

"I can't do that."

"Why not?" Teyla asked. Of the three of them she was the most calm – and had been most of the time they'd spent there.

Dex looked like he was going to say something, hesitated, and then shrugged.

"I don't want the villagers to know about me."

"I don't think the villagers care if you're hanging out in their forest," Sheppard told him sarcastically. "It's not like they're using it right now."

"That's not the problem."

"Let me guess…" John said, pretending to think hard. "You're in love with someone's wife, having an affair or something, and they found out, and now you're on the run from the crazed villagers…"

"No."

"Then let us go."

"No."

"You can't keep us forever."

"People will come looking for us," Teyla said, her dark eyes flashing with annoyance. You will not be able to hide from them all…"

The look Dex gave her was completely unreadable, although there was just a hint of pain and loss in his features.

"I've been hiding a long time," he said, standing up. "I'm very good at it."

With the freshly sharpened knife in his hand, he headed out of the small clearing.

"Where are you going?" Sheppard called after him, exasperated.

Ronon Dex didn't even turn around. A moment later he had vanished into the forest without a sound.

"That guy gives me the creeps," Ford said, staring the way he'd gone.

"He's spooky all right," Sheppard agreed.

"There is something odd about him," Teyla said, also looking that direction, although her expression was puzzled, as if she were trying to solve a riddle.

"Something?" Sheppard repeated. "I'd say a lot more than just something. A whole lot of somethings, maybe."

"I would say there is more to Ronon Dex than he is allowing us to see," she said, but she didn't explain any further, instead once more trying to loosen the bindings on her hands.

Sheppard just snorted. He'd already seen more of the guy than he cared to.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What could do that to a Wraith…?"

The four of them had been looking at the remains in the tree for several long minutes, now. Mostly without speaking until Rodney had spoken up just then.

Melony shrugged, feeling just a little sickened by the gruesome sight. It was one thing to kill a Wraith, but to rip it up like this one had been, insides literally outside now, and pieces barely attached to a body that was barely in one piece was another thing entirely.

"I don't have a clue…"

"Does Talon?" Rodney asked.

Of course, the symbiote didn't know much more about the Wraith than McKay did – he'd thought they were a story to scare children, after all.

Not a thing, Talon said before Mitchell could ask.

"It looks like an animal killed it," Duck said, his face pale as he looked up the tree, too.

"Animals don't kill Wraith," McKay protested.

"I'm just saying," Duck said, shrugging. "It looks a lot like what's left of those deer that get chased down in those documentaries on the Discovery Channel."

"He's got a point," Mitchell agreed. "It does-"

"So something tracked down a Wraith and ate it?" McKay asked sarcastically.

"I thought all the Wraith were dead," Boyett said, looking over at Mitchell.

"We got the majority of them," she said, shrugging. "But there's always the chance that some individuals – maybe even some very small groups or squads of them were on assignment in other places and weren't caught up in our ambush."

"The Wraith take advantage of overwhelming numbers to wreak their havoc on populations," McKay said, adding to the conversation. He and Mitchell – and several of the others – had already had this conversation. "The small few that might have escaped our culling won't be much of a threat, really…"

"Not that we should take them lightly," Melony cautioned. "They're still dangerous…"

"This one isn't," Duck said, looking around the base of the tree to see if he could find any kind of tracks or something.

There was a soft beep from the tracking device in Rodney's hand, drawing his attention from the conversation. He looked at the device, and then at the carnage in the tree, and then down at the device once more.

"This can't be right…"

"What?"

"Whatever is interfering with our locator device is coming from the… um… tree…"

"The tree or the Wraith?" Boyett asked.

"The Wraith," Rodney said, looking at the tree once more. "We need to uh… get… it… down… and see what's going on…"

"Get it down?"

"Bring it out of the tree…"

Oh, yeah. That wasn't something any of them wanted to do. Or even consider.