Author's Note: This one's a little short

OOOOOOOOOOOOo

"You guys okay?"

Sheppard nodded, his eyes still smarting from the stench coming from Mitchell's uniform.

"A little tied up…"

Melony smiled, backing up a couple of steps to move downwind from them.

"Rodney, untie them."

Ronon Dex frowned, his hand moving just a little towards the weapon at his side, and Melony raised an eyebrow at the motion – although her staff weapon didn't move from where it was lazily hanging from her hand.

"You're not going to make me fight you for them are you?" She asked him.

He shook his head, his hand moving away from his side.

"I suppose not."

Rodney moved forward, taking his knife from his belt and slashing carefully through the thongs that had the missing away team bound so tightly.

"Thanks," John told him, rubbing his wrists gratefully and trying to get the circulation flowing once more into his hands, which were literally numb.

"You're welcome," Rodney said, moving on to Teyla, who held still so he wouldn't accidentally cut her instead of the ropes. This was Rodney, after all.

Dex watched as his prisoners were released, but Melony was watching him.

"What were you going to do with them?" She asked, curiously. He didn't seem like the type who was saving them for some kind of burnt offering or sacrifice – or for dinner, since she could see that he actually had some kind of meat spitted on sticks draped over the dying little fire.

Dex shrugged.

"I hadn't figured that out."

"Why did you even bother to capture us?" Sheppard asked, annoyed. "As far as I know, we weren't even doing anything…"

"You weren't villagers," Dex said. "I wanted to know who you were and why you were here."

"You could have just asked."

Melony snorted, amused now that she knew they were safe.

"What is that all over you?" Ford asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he rubbed his own chaffed wrists.

"Wraith guts."

"Among other things," Rodney added.

Sheppard frowned.

"Wraith? Here?"

"What's a Wraith doing in a Podunk little planet like this?" Ford asked, frowning as well. "And why didn't the villagers tell us about it? Them."

"This one was tracking our friend here," Rodney said, looking over at Dex.

"What?" John asked. "Tracking?"

"That's why we had so much trouble finding you," Melony told them. "The Wraith's tracking thing was interfering with ours."

"Tracking device," Rodney said.

Teyla had been watching Ronon intently during this conversation, and she spoke up.

"You do not seem surprised at this information," she said.

He hesitated, and then shook his head.

"I'm not."

"You mean you knew a Wraith was tracking you?" Sheppard asked. "How many more are looking for you? Is that thing out there one of them?"

"No."

This was from Melony.

Sheppard looked at her, startled.

"Have you seen it?"

She shook her head.

"No, but the Wraith we found was literally torn to shit. If I had to bet, I'd say that whatever that creature is out in the forest did it to him, not another Wraith."

"And is probably responsible for the missing villagers," Teyla said, still looking at Ronon speculatively.

Mitchell shrugged.

"Most likely. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hang out here in the forest after hearing that thing screaming."

"No doubt," Ford agreed.

"Which leads us back to the question…" John said, looking at Ronon once more. "What are you doing out here?"

"He is hiding from the Wraith," Teyla said.

Everyone looked at her, surprised. Including Dex.

"What?" Rodney asked. "What do you-"

"You are a runner," Teyla said, making a statement out of it, but also turning it into a question.

Dex hesitated for an instant, but nodded.

"Yes."

"What's a runner?" Melony asked, beating everyone else to the question.

Teyla looked at Ronon, who sighed.

"It's a long story," he said.

Melony made a show of looking at her watch.

"We have time."

He gestured to the area by the fire, deciding that he liked this woman – whoever she was.

"Then by all means, have a seat and I'll tell it to you."

They all started to sit down, but John held up his hand, waving Mitchell off when she started to move over to sit by him.

"You sit over there, Colonel," he said, gesturing to the far side of the fire – and with the gentle wind to her face rather than her back.

"Amen," Ford agreed, making a show of plugging his nose and waving his hand in front of his face.

Melony scowled, but moved to the other position, and decided that it would be just as good to listen to the story standing – just in case that whatever it was out there decided that it wanted to listen, too.

Teyla took the spot beside John, watching Dex, and Rodney pointedly moved away from Melony as well, moving to sit beside Ford.