Ancient Discovery
Chapter Four: Late Night Encounters
Day One
Daniel woke up to the sun streaming through the tent, making it hot and stuffy. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at his watch. Six am? He'd forgotten that the sun rises early in the desert. Grumbling, he pulled on some pants and a long sleeve shirt. He lathered himself in sunscreen and placed a hat on his head before pulling on his boots and heading out the door.
Teal'c was sitting on a chair in the middle of the four tents. He had the last watch the night before, and was waiting for everyone to be awake before he left his post.
"Morning," Daniel mumbled. "Anyone else awake?"
"You are the first."
"Oh ok." He yawned. "Want some coffee?" he pulled the sweet powder from his pocket.
"No thank you."
"Damn," came a shout from Jack's tent. Daniel gave Teal'c a questioning look. "Oh for crying out loud!"
A disheveled looking Colonel O'Neill stumbled out of his tent muttering under his breath. Daniel stared at him. Teal'c stared at him. He gave them a dumbfounded look. "What?"
"Nothing," Daniel said innocently, before stalking off to find some boiling water. Teal'c just stared.
"Why are we doing this again?" Jack asked Teal'c once Daniel was out of earshot.
"Fate of the world, finally ridding the world of the Goa'uld ... Hmm, Trip over your bag again Jack?" Sam eyed Jack's disgruntled look with a grin as she emerged from her tent. "I thought you would have been more careful after tripping before your watch last night, but I stand corrected."
"Could you let my brain start working before you gang up on me?"
"Sorry Sir, we only have a week," she said, grinning.
"Well, then... Don't call me sir!" he finally managed to get out.
With that he stormed off in Daniel's direction, seeing him boiling water in a pot over a fire. Sam just laughed. "Come on, lets get some food," she said to Teal'c
By 8:00 the whole camp was up. Teal'c, Marik and Bakura were eating breakfast (they found the stash kept for them by Pat), Kaiba was grumbling in a corner, Yugi and Mokuba had started a game of snap, Daniel was deep in conversation with Ishizu about Egyptian History and Jack and Sam were arguing over paper planes.
"Don't you ever make a plane just for the fun of throwing it?"
"Look, Jack, the aerodynamics are off. The wing is bent too far. If you tried to throw it, it would veer to the left."
"Come on, I've been making planes for years. What else do you think I did in high school?"
"SNAP!" yelled Mokuba, making everyone jumped.
Jack picked up the paper plane he was fiddling with and threw it at him. It veered to the left and stuck into Yugi's hair. He pulled it out and glared at the perpetrator. Sam grinned triumphantly.
"How did you know I wasn't aiming for him?" Sam looked at Jack skeptically. "Ok, so I'm a little rusty," he grumbled. Sam just laughed.
"So I see everyone's getting along fine," Pat said as he walked over and addressed the group. "We're going to be heading to the tomb to begin the tour in half an hour. That means pack up, grab any gear you need and head out."
The group mumbled agreement and Teal'c started stuffing the last of the donuts in his mouth. He was startled when he saw a light grey cat with dark grey spots poke it's head up from behind the box. He grabbed the remainder of his precious food, and held it away from it.
"Oh, sorry, that's my cat Isis. She's an Egyptian Mau," Pat said with admiration. "Don't let her near your food, she'll eat the lot."
Teal'c held his donuts protectively and backed away. The group just laughed at him, and Jack threw another plane. This time it hit Teal'c on the back of the head. Turning to Sam, he gave her a triumphant grin. She hit him playfully.
"Alright, grab your gear and let's head out," Pat called.
Daniel walked with the rest of the group into the tomb. It was a big area, and everyone wanted to look carefully, so they were working only a few rooms at a time, not like some other guides where you walk through at top speed. Everyone wanted to find some new room, new translation that no one had heard of before. Daniel especially, maybe it would get him back with the ranks of academically sane. If only he didn't have the SGC to deal with.
He hauled his gear towards the area, stumbling as Jack laughed. This was because in his hands he had a video camera, tripod, notebook, paper for rubbing, special pencils for rubbing and a digital camera. When Pat signaled for them to enter, he was the loudest and clumsiest of all.
The first thing Daniel did was film the surrounding walls. Only for a second though, while he set up the tripod. Placing the video on the tripod, he started snapping at various things with his digital. He put that down for a few seconds before grabbing the paper and rubbing different texts, then put that down to study the wall more and write some things down in his notebook.
When all this was done he discovered that the group was somewhat ahead of him, Jack giving him an impression of Teal'c's eyebrow raise. Quickly he gathered up his stuff and moved forward, trying hard to film as he went. Realizing this wouldn't work, Daniel handed the video camera to Jack.
"And what do you want me to do with this?"
"Just film... Everything. I need it all done." Jack just shrugged and began to film everything, not quite sure whether he was doing it right. He realized he wasn't when Daniel stopped him again.
"Jack, slow. I want to be able to see it." He started walking really slowly, slow motion almost. In truth he was trying to annoy the Space Monkey, but it was exactly what Daniel wanted. Slow.
Daniel started it all again, this time without the trouble of the video. It was still difficult, and he ended up falling behind... again. Getting thoroughly annoyed, he handed his camera to Teal'c.
"Here, take pictures of whatever you see. Make sure you get as many hieroglyphics as you can."
"Very well," he said, snapping away.
Pat had started to get agitated at Daniel's constant talking and shuffling. They were interrupting his brilliant tour information. In truth, everyone was paying too much attention to the corridor and weren't paying a bit of attention to him. Kaiba just rolled his eyes at the whole thing.
And so the tour continued. Slowly, very slowly, as everyone wanted to get everything they could down and refused to let Pat go faster. And ever so slowly Daniel fell behind again. Not as bad this time, he was still having trouble taking rubbing's of the walls while writing down various words in his notebook. Eventually he handed the paper and pencils to Sam, who he trusted to get it right.
"Pictures. I need pictures and the words around them. Can you please?"
"Sure why not?"
And again the tour continued but this time, Daniel had time to stop and... smell the carvings so to speak. He started writing down different words, trying to find some meaning to them. When they finally stopped for a lunch break (only into the first room. Large rooms, they're moving slowly.) Daniel managed to speak with the other members of the team.
"It's the weirdest thing I've seen. It's like, checkers. See these here," he indicated some of the rubbing's, "this is a form of Egyptian text known as Hieratic Writing. This was used by priests, scholars and students before they learned hieroglyphics."
"So?" Jack asked casually.
"So, these writings aren't." he pointed to a different section of the paper. "They're ancient. Look here it's got Hieratic, Ancient, Hieratic, Ancient. It does that across and down, like checkers."
"So some wacky Pharaoh was a game freak?"
"No! It was a code!" Everyone stopped and stared at him. Daniel took a bite of his sandwich and turned red.
"Remember Daniel, where supposed to be doing this secretly."
"Yeah, right. I get it."
"So can you solve it?" Sam asked.
"What?"
"The code!"
"Yeah, I think I can. It'll take some time though."
"Well what have you got so far?"
"I can't really tell until I get it in the proper context. I'll work on it, but I need it all."
And so the tour continued. This time, everyone listened to what Daniel was saying. He needed it, so they got it. With everyone getting the text they needed, they had the room finished and didn't fall behind. Eventually the time came to return to base camp, eat dinner, and annoy the crap out of the person in the tent three doors down.
Unfortunately for SG:1, a game of Three Doors Down was exactly what Mokuba and Marik were planning.
For those of you who don't know (I would suspect most of you) three doors down is a game played at camps. It consists of you sneaking up on the tent three doors down and basically scaring the crap out of them. If you succeed in scaring them, they have to go on to scare the crap out of the tent three doors down from them. The trick is to catch them unawares, not let them know they were about to be scared, or even tell them the game was taking place.
For further reference, the tents in that order would be Marik, Ishizu, Patrick, Seto, Mokuba, Bakura, Yugi, Sam, Jack, Daniel Teal'c. If you can guess, the watch for night one was done on that basis.
Marik started, for the simple reason that he wanted to freak Kaiba out. They decided to play by the first rule of Three Doors Down, don't let anyone know the game was taking place. And so poor, defenseless Seto Kaiba had absolutely no idea of the horror about to befall him. And so late that night, Marik struck.
Seto Kaiba sat in his tent, reading a book on Alexander the Great by the light of a small lamp. He had no idea why it interested him, probably because he modeled his business ethics on Alexander's ruthlessness. In truth, he quite admired the man. However during this quiet reading session, he heard the voice of someone he didn't expect.
"Why Seto, I didn't realize you enjoyed History so much. Alexander was a powerful man wasn't he?"
"Marik? What on earth are you doing here? I didn't let you into my tent."
"You know, in a way you remind me of Alexander the Great, powerful, deadly to all who oppose."
"Do you have a point, I'm getting bored."
"Oh, but Seto, of course I do." Marik did his best effort at moving seductively further into the tent. "I always have admired you."
"Marik that's enough!" He tried to back up, but failed when he bumped into the cot-bed. Instead he fell onto it.
"Enough? But Seto, you left the door open for me, I thought it was a sign. All those tournaments, my evil side trying to kill you, that was just a farce. In truth it was you I was after, your mind and your body." He walked forward, until he was standing before him on the bed.
"I... I don't understand."
"Oh but you do. It's written in your dueling skill. Strong and powerful, yet refined, the artistry of a painter. I could tell that you felt the same as I." Marik leaned in very close, so his face was almost touching Seto's. Kaiba tried to back up, but hit a wall. He stared horrified into the face of the Egyptian. "Seto, tell me, are you scared?"
Despite this, he still had his pride. "Of you? Never!"
"Then I was right. You do feel the same way I do." He turned his head slightly and whispered in his ear. "I want you. Bad. I know you do to. And no one is around."
At this, Seto pushed Marik away. At the top of his lungs he yelled "Marik, I don't know what's gotten into you but you're starting to freak me out. I..."
"Damn, I was just starting to have fun." Marik said, interrupting him. He stood up and straightened his clothes. "In that case, my turns over. You're it."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"You are dense aren't you? We're playing a game of Three Doors Down. I just got you, you have to get the person three doors down from you."
"Damn. I'm never sending Mokuba to camp again."
Ok, so the chapter is over. The game of Three Doors Down will continue through the fic.
NEWS FLASH! I am now accepting Challenges. If you have something you think I can't put in a fic, or that you want me to put in the fic, just add it to your review. The best Challenges (or most fun) will be in further chapters. This can include the game of Three Doors Down.