The sun shined down on the cabin that housed Rodney and John for the night. A black bird crouched down on the roof, preening its feathers. Inside, John was waking up from a night of drunken dreams. The usual headache came with his coast to consciousness. Rodney though was happily snoring, as usual. This only increased the pain in John's head, so he grabbed his pillow and covered his face and ears with it. When that failed to drown out the noise, he smacked Rodney in the face with the pillow. This did little to disturb Rodney's sleep or stop his snoring. So in a last ditch effort he pushed Rodney off the bed. Blessed silence. Then Rodney started groaning as he startled awake.

"Bastard." Rodney tried to push himself up off the floor.

"Shut up, I have a headache." John returned the pillow to his face, smelling the weird scent the cotton or cotton-like substance gave off.

"Yes, well my side aches as someone shoved me into the floor. Besides it's your own fault for getting soused last night." Stretching his back, Rodney walked into the wash room the cabin had.

The bird, done preening, jumped off the roof and glided down towards the window of the cabin, looking in as if staking out its prey.

Both men readied themselves for the day, John finally resorting to taking Tylenol at Rodney's insistence.

Outside the bricks in the road glinted with light. There were several cabins around, mainly for men and women too drunk to make it back to their homes. John and Rodney both dressed in jeans and t-shirts walked towards the market. They were taking a short vacation from the stress of daily life in Atlantis. John wore sunglasses to help dim his suffering. Rodney though was enjoying the light and the warmth it instilled in him.

They were walking so slow that the bird was able to dawdle behind them, occasionally flying when he fell behind.

Entering the market they found a beautiful arrangement of tents and carts. One section had food, various fruits and vegetables, and delicious arrangements of breads and pies. There were also carts full of jewelry, vases, and various trinkets. There was one popular tent show-casing rugs, quilts, and blankets.

They stopped to have a look. "Early Christmas shopping?" John held a blanket with ocean waves and a sunset stitched on it that he thought Elizabeth would enjoy.

"We should definitely come back with something to trade. I saw some specialized clocks. I bet we could get one made to fit Atlantis time." Rodney was amazed at the gorgeous art that was being displayed around them. Then he became interested in a couple carts that had dolls and other toys. He never really much cared for children but he knew it would mean a lot to the Athosian children to receive presents.

John had brought with him from Earth some posters of his favorite artists. He would trade them for the blanket he reserved. Rodney went up to a man who made figurines out of metal and talked to him about making something personal. He drew him a sketch of a Puddle-Jumper and promised he would come back later when it was done with something to trade for it. Rodney planned to talk with other Atlantis members to come to the planet and trade for toys for the rest of the children. The toy Puddle-Jumper would go to a girl who was always thrilled to see the Puddle-Jumper whenever it was on the mainland, asking for rides constantly.

The dark bird watched all this with curiosity. He glided from tent to tent, none of the people shopping noticing him.

"Done for the day Rodney?" John yawned and took off his sunglasses, blinking at the bright sun. Oddly his headache had disappeared while he excitedly looked over his find.

"We are definitely coming back though." They continued walking through the market leaving it and heading towards town. They had been told about a library that they wanted to check out.

The town was a collection of stone and brick houses. In the middle they found a pretty building made out of marble. This was the library they were told about. Knowledge and the written word were considered the main distinction between humans and animals and therefore it was cherished.

Inside they toured the building, seeing all the books inside. The bird followed them in and flew towards a stack of books. John noticed the bird and went to look at those books the bird gawked at. Many of the titles involved animals. Inside there were stories about men magically turning into animals and animals turning into men.

"Hey Rodney, look at this. They have fairy tales here." John held up one book that had pictures of a man touching a strange device and turning into a bird.

Rodney was surprised to note that the bird looked like their night friend. The bird had flown away. John looked up for it and saw it by another set of books. He tapped Rodney on the shoulder and they went to check those out. "These are science books. Look at this
technology; it looks more advanced than these people."

"The books are kind of old, so maybe it's from before their time."

The bird flew onto Rodney's shoulder. "Ahhhh, get off me." Rodney tried to shake the bird free.

"Look at this. Doesn't this look like the device in that story book?" John lifted the book and pointed at the page.

"What? Let me see." Rodney grabbed the book and put it down on a table nearby.

A woman walked by and asked them if they were finding everything alright. John pointed to the device, "Is this still around somewhere?"

"Oh the great Metamorpher. A building toppled around it. We excavated what we could, but it's broken. Now many of our people are stuck."

"Stuck how?" Rodney glanced up from reading the text.

"In their animal form."