I Can Hear You

They say that if you lose one sense, the others become more acute, to make up for the loss of information coming in. Thus if you lose your sight, your hearing becomes much sharper.

The reason I'm contemplating this, is of course, the current lack of moonlight.
Though there is supposedly a sliver of a visible orb in the sky, somewhere up there, the thick clouds which rolled in as the sun was setting have completely obliterated it. We had a campfire going earlier, but it has since died down to faintly glowing embers.

All the other watches were uneventful, so I shouldn't worry.
Of course, I was always the kid who saw monsters in the shadows and heard strange noises emanating from under my bed. Probably comes from moving from room to room before they had a chance to become familiar. Such is the life of an unwanted foster child.
Now I can barely make out the shadows.
I try closing my eyes, to see if that helps the sharpening of my other senses, but all I can see are phantom afterimages on the insides of my eyelids.

Gradually, I start to hear things.
The faint wind, rustling the knee-high grass which surrounds the camp.
Sam, turning over in her tent.
Water babbling away in the creek to the South.
Jack, quietly coughing in his sleep.
A bird, clicking. At least, I think it's a bird.
The crack of a spark in the dying embers of the fire pit.

Suddenly, I hear something out of place in this idyllic scene – a cautious but steady parting of the grasses to the East. I remember from the aerial images brought back from the MALP that there is a settlement about 6 clicks in that general direction, and I can hear my heart begin to pound a little faster. A twig breaks – I didn't imagine that. There is definitely something approaching. I level my zat in the direction of the foreign sounds, and stop breathing momentarily so I can hear more clearly. If only the blood would stop rushing through my eardrums ...

The sounds stop. Where ever you are, what ever you are, you have stopped. I pause momentarily to wonder why ... and then I can hear you once again. Chewing. Wait – chewing? Another rustle, and the moon unexpectedly peers through a slight break in the cloud cover. And now, I can see you too – a majestic local version of a stag. Definitely grazing. Your head rises, we look at each other, eye to eye, and I understand. I could hear you – and you could hear me too.

I watch the stag for a timeless moment, when suddenly he looks at a point over my shoulder, and gracefully bounds out of view. I turn, and see Teal'c's tattoo shining in the pale moonlight.

"I'm sorry, DanielJackson, for disturbing your friend. It is the time to change over the watch."

I nod, and quietly slip over to my tent, all the while pondering whether I should be worried or not over the fact that Teal'c had managed to get out of his tent and cover the ground between us without me hearing a thing. Actually, it bothered me more not that he had slipped past my detection, but rather that of the stag. As I entered my tent for a little more shut-eye before dawn, I could still hear the sounds of life continuing relentlessly on the other side of the thin nylon walls. I moaned softly to myself.

"Now how the heck am I supposed to fall asleep, when I can still hear you?"