Author's Note: When trying to picture what these cats look like, think of cougars and mountain lions (or pumas, depending on what you call them). That should help you get an idea of what they look like in case I don't do them justice!

OOOOOOOOO

Startled by the sudden attack, Ronon went down, his weapon flying out of his hand as the weight of the huge cat knocked him tumbling into the bushes. The cat followed, pressing its attack, and Dex felt something slice across his side as it tried to catch hold of him to deliver a killing bite to the back of his neck. Grunting in pain, he twisted desperately, and felt the sharp claws snag in the leather of the jacket he was wearing, which bought him a little time. Not much, though, and not enough for him to manage to do much more than grab the creature around the middle, pulling himself as close to it as he could to try and prevent allowing it the chance to get positioned for a new bite. Claws raked his side, sometimes catching the jacket, many times hitting skin, and the only things keeping the cat from finishing him was that they were in heavy brush, now, and Dex wasn't holding still to give it the chance.

Completely stunned at the dual attack, Rodney McKay was frozen, the tracking device hanging from numb fingers at his side. As if in slow motion he'd seen Dex lose his big weapon – a weapon that would surely be able to stop the cats with a single shot – and had seen the guy disappear in the brush under the ferocious cat. Mitchell and her attacker were rolling on the ground in the brush even closer to McKay, snarls from the cat mixing with the grunts and yelps of pain from Melony as the cat occasionally scored a hit with claw or tooth.

He dropped the tracking device, and incredibly enough; even over the twin sounds of mauling, he heard the dull thud as it struck the ground at his feet. A thud, nothing more, but the device broke, and Rodney looked dumbly down at it. Now he'd have to fix it. Crazily, it was this very thought that jerked him out of his paralysis. The daze that had fuddled him was wiped away, and replaced by panic as he realized that neither Dex nor Mitchell could possibly hope to survive the attacks, and while he didn't know all that much about Ronon Dex, he did know Mitchell, and he knew he couldn't just let her die. What would Carson say? More importantly, what would Teal'c say? Teal'c didn't like him all that much anyways, after all, and what if he blamed him for-

A yelp from Melony jerked him out of his thoughts – it had only taken an instant for his mind to go over all those possibilities at any rate, and it had only been moments since the attacks had begun, but already it seemed like eternity to him. He pulled his gun, his fingers slippery with nervous sweat and residual grease from the meat he'd eaten earlier, and pointed it in the air, firing off several rounds and hoping that it would scare off the creatures. If nothing else, it would alert the others, who were probably already on their way to the scene – they weren't that far away, after all.

Nothing happened. The gun slipped out of his hand – he'd been considering throwing it at the cat that was rolling around with Melony – and dropped beside the broken tracking device. His normally agile mind completely out of ideas and desperate to do something, Rodney unthinkingly did the first thing that came to mind. With a running leap and a terrified scream, he jumped into the middle of the fight, grabbing the cat from behind and holding on for dear life as he tried to distract it long enough for Talon to do something about it.

OOOOOOOO

The first indication Sheppard had that something was wrong was the gunshots. Fast and furious, they were so out of place in the quiet forest that he actually started, nearly jumping out of his clothing at the loud reports breaking the silence of the day. He instantly reached for the Beretta that Mitchell had handed him before they'd headed out, and ran through the brush towards the shots, grabbing his radio with his free hand as he did so.

"Colonel? McKay?"

The shots hadn't come from far enough away to be Teyla or Ford. Besides, they didn't have Berettas. Ford had Rodney's zat, and Teyla had Melony's. Crashing towards the noise, he heard the arrival of Ford and Teyla, both reacting to the shots as well and both with their weapons drawn.

"What is it?" Ford yelled as soon as he was close enough.

"That way!" Sheppard returned. "Move."

They could hear screams, now. Screams that were just like the ones they'd been hearing since they arrived – only now they were a lot closer and they were accompanied by a lot of other noises. Like some kind of intense wrestling match was taking place just ahead.

With Ford in the lead, now, because he was faster than the others, Sheppard ran into a small cleared area. Just in time to see Rodney McKay jump on the back of what looked like some kind of cat. The cat wasn't paying much attention to McKay though – it had someone else down on the ground under it. Judging from the staff weapon on the ground close by, it was Mitchell.

"Shoot it!" Sheppard yelled, turning his head toward the other one, which was attacking Dex.

He couldn't do anything. He had absolutely no chance of firing into either melee and hitting just the cats, but Teyla and Ford both had zats, which could stun the cats – and Mitchell, Dex and McKay, too, unfortunately – and give them a chance to separate things out. Hopefully before it was too late.

Ford and Teyla both took in the scene as quickly as Sheppard, weapons up as they rushed into the area. The cat Rodney was on gave a mighty twist, snarling furiously as it turned and took a swipe at the astrophysicist. The big paw hit McKay in the chest, and while his flak jacket protected him from the terrible claws, the force of the blow sent Rodney flying, tumbling tail over teakettle until he came to a stop several feet away.

The distraction was enough for Talon. Bleeding from several scratches – and one lucky bite – Talon managed to grab Melony's knife from her sheath and try for some offense for a change. Her hand, slippery with blood, slashed against the underside of the cat attacking her, opening a deep wound, and the cat screamed with pain and retaliated with a stunning blow from a huge paw that knocked the knife out of Melony's hand.

"McKay!"

Certain that the others would use their zats and deal with the cats, Sheppard started towards Rodney as both Teyla and Ford fired their zats. The screams of anger from the cats muffled the yelps of pain from Dex and Mitchell when the electrical currents from the discharged struck them, and as the cats jumped backward, rolling sideways in surprise at being shocked, Ford and Teyla both took aim for a second – hopefully killing – shot.

And then, as if things hadn't been bad enough already, there was yet another snarl – hardly any warning at all – and Ford was suddenly bowled over as yet another big cat came rushing out of cover, slamming into him and taking a swipe at the hand that held the zat as if it knew somehow that that hand was the most deadly.

Ford tumbled, losing the zat and landing hard against the trunk of a small tree as the cat's momentum carried it over him. With a grunt of pain, he twisted to catch the attack that had to be coming, and heard the sound of a zat firing as Teyla took aim at the cat that had just attacked. The shot hit the animal, causing it to stumble in mid-leap, and it went crashing into Ford, driving him to the ground once more, this time with the weight of the stunned creature landing full on top of him.

Teyla whirled; saw that Dex was just recovering form the stunning blow of the zat that had been fired at him and the cat. The tall warrior was bleeding and battered, but the fight wasn't out of him yet. He was reaching for a knife – with absolutely no chance of getting to it in time – when the cat shook off its own reaction to the zat, and the creature sprang at him once more.

Suddenly, a force bolt slammed into the side of the cat, knocking it to the side. It screamed, rolled, and sprang again, and there were two more bolts, fired simultaneously. Both struck the cat, knocking it back once more, and this time it lay still, twitching slightly, but quite dead despite the small motions.

Teyla turned, surprised, and saw several Jaffa emerging from the forest, accompanied by an exhausted-looking Boyett. A moment later several more blasts from staff weapons – far better aimed than anything Teyla could have done with the same weapon – slammed into the cat that Mitchell was wrestling with, knocking it back and leaving Melony lying on her back, stunned and panting heavily as she tried to catch her breath.

As more Jaffa emerged and dispatched the cat that was covering Ford, Teal'c walked over and looked down at Mitchell, who looked up as a shadow came over her, blocking her from the sun she'd seen only moments before. There was a little concern in the big Jaffa's expression, but it faded when he saw that she was only bloody, and not dead.

"Colonel Mitchell… it is good to see you again."