Chapter Six.

Vala turned and sprinted up and around some large boulders and turned around to watch as Daniel zatted the bear from a good distance. Bears can move fast but this was a particularly steep slope, which was slowing it down, some. The bear kept coming and he used the zat again. It paused as if confused and stood there, unmoving, which was all Daniel needed to turn around and race towards Vala. She watched as he struggled around the boulders and her eyes grew wide as she looked past Daniel. He knew without having her tell him that the bear was on the move again. They ran around another big rock and saw a space between two of them so they made it between them just in time. They hit the ground and watched as the bear reached in and tried to take a swipe at them.

"Daniel, can it get us?" Vala decided that she didn't like bears, at all! She was shaking as she lay on the ground. Daniel helped her up off the dirt and they both flattened themselves against the rock behind them.

Daniel looked at their surroundings and wondered after a moment if this was a natural formation or something that just fell together. It looked like a cave or the entrance to one.

The bear had stopped reaching for them but it was still right outside making 'woofing' sounds and it didn't look like it planned on leaving anytime soon.

"I'm sure it can't get us, unless it knows another way in here, and I seriously doubt that."

He looked around at the back of the hole they were in and saw that there seemed to be another passage leading back into the mountain. He reached into his pack and found his flashlight and turned the beam towards the dark opening..

"Look what I found?"

"Of course, the archaeologist WOULD find something."

He turned around and inquired, "Are you angry with me? What did I do?" Daniel was really confused now as they had just spent a nice time comforting each other and now she was honked about what?

"I'm sorry, I'm not angry with you. I'm angry with that bear! HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET OUT OF HERE?" Vala was shouting now, which didn't help the situation and Daniel shouted right back, "I DON'T KNOW."

She stopped, stunned, and looked at him and then started to giggle. Daniel looked at her like she'd just lost her mind. He stopped and watched her try to keep from laughing and realized that she'd only yelled at him because she was so terribly frightened. She was actually near hysterics so he calmed down and chuckled.

"Sweetie, you should have seen the look on your face," she said as she hiccuped.

He shook his head, "I guess I must have looked pretty stupid. I'm sorry. Listen, the bear can't get us in here. There might be another way out. If not, the bear will eventually leave. We have plenty of water and some food left so we'll be fine. Let's take a look around and see what we can find? Okay?"

He reached for her and held her close, rubbing her back and as he did so, he felt her shaking. 'I really blew it! She didn't deserve that. She must have been terrified because I know I was.' "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I must say that THAT bear didn't look anything like the cute, little purple thing that Sam has on her bed."

Daniel was confused and looked at her incredulously and said, "Sam has a purple bear on her bed?" You're kidding? Are you telling me the truth?"

She nodded an affirmative against his shoulder and didn't move away. It felt good having him hold her like this. She reached inside his jacket and put her arms around him. The opening of the jacket came around the back of her shoulders and eventually, the shaking stopped.

For Daniel's part, he couldn't imagine a purple bear anywhere in Sam's house, let alone on her bed. He'd file that away for future reference. "Are you ready to explore a little bit? Maybe we'll find our way out."

He kissed the top of her head, reached down and took her hand as they made their way, all the while hearing the bear woofing at them from outside.

0 0 0

The path sloped downward slightly and they entered a small cavern. It wasn't very big but Daniel noticed right away that there were drawings on the walls.

"Look at this?" He touched the drawings with his fingers and looked intently at them, muttering to himself.

Vala watched him, fascinated at the change in him. He was completely engrossed in the new find and she had to admire the brilliance in this man. He was a rare find. She wondered how someone nearing 41 years old, which was fairly young by most planet's standards (at least the ones she'd been to) could be so intelligent. She'd have to ask him about that, sometime. How did he learn so much, so quickly?

She remembered hearing two women in the commissary talking about him when they didn't know she could hear them.

One said, "He is so handsome."

The other said, "He's a geek. I don't know what you see in him."

"Are you kidding, that man is drop dead gorgeous! I don't care how smart he is."

"SO, he could be some guy who drinks beer, belches really loud, farts in public and has grease under his nails from working on cars and it wouldn't matter."

"Yup, all that and more. It's those eyes."

"Valerie, listen. He's a geek. G-E-E-K. Do you know what that stands for? Goofy, Emasculated, Effeminate, Kook. He's probably socially inept and gay. Don't waste your time getting all flustered about him. From what I've heard, he hasn't had a date in years and he's a workaholic."

"Really? You think he's gay?"

"I'm positive."

Vala had to laugh. 'If only they knew... He's so good in...'

Daniel heard her laugh and turned around. "What?"

"What? Hey, what did you find there?" She changed he subject quickly. 'If he knew how people at work talked, he'd be mortified. Maybe I'll set those women straight. It certainly wouldn't hurt to drop a word or two. His reputation would definitely be better for it. I wonder if some of the men at the base hit on him? It would stop that, too!'

Daniel said, "Well... it looks like this might have been a burial site at one time. It looks like they buried a hunter here... someone who got killed while hunting..." He stopped and looked at it again. "Elephants? That's not possible. Elephants aren't indigenous to the North American continent." He got out his journal and started copying what he saw. "I can cross reference this with some books I have at the office and see if I got it right."

"What are elephants, Daniel?"

"See this drawing right here? It's a big, gray animal that has a long trunk, see it here, (he pointed at it) and large ears. They can stand almost twice as tall as a man. They can be trained to move large loads, like logs and people can even ride on them. Remind me when we get back to the SGC to get on the internet and show you." He busied himself making the sketches that went around the room. 'The walls are covered with them! And, nobody knows it's here but us!' It was some time later before he was finished.

He sat down against the wall of the cave next to Vala and they shared a bottle of water. Daniel looked at his watch and saw that it was around 6:30. "I'm going to go see if the bear is still out there."

"Don't get too close. I don't want to have to explain that you became dinner, tasty morsel that you are, mind you."

He just grinned and went around the wall. As he neared the exit to the cave he stopped to listen. He didn't hear anything and wondered if the bear had left. He stepped closer and just missed being sliced into ribbons as the bear made a lunge for him. The roar from the bear was hideously loud for such a small space and he hurried back to where Vala was.

She jumped up when she heard the bear growl and saw Daniel come around the wall, white as a sheet. "Are you okay? Did it get you?"

"I'm fine. I thought it was gone but I was wrong. He's sitting out there waiting for us to come out." He slumped against the wall and realized that they were in serious trouble but he didn't want to scare Vala so he kept quiet about it.

"I thought you said it would give up." Vala didn't want to stay in this place and said, "You know, I love being with you but the accommodations are dreadful and the entertainment sucks!"

"Have you been hanging around Jack? It sounds just like something he'd say."

She sat back down, leaned against the wall and handed him the water bottle, of which he took a good drink and then handed it back. She had been wondering about something so decided to ask. "Are you two good friends?"

"I guess you could say that. There was a time when we weren't." He paused for a moment, picking up some small stones and tossing them across the room. "That was a few years ago before I ascended. Things had been rough, some things were said. Eventually, we worked it out, but it was strained for a while. After I came back, things were better." He stopped with the stones and smiled at her. "At first, I didn't remember all the conflict so that helped. And when I did remember, it didn't matter anymore." He felt a little better sitting there talking to her about something other than their present quandary.

He pointed the beam from his flashlight around the room and saw that there was a small opening on the far side, near the back. They both scrambled over to it and he poked his head in. "Vala, this might be our way out... It's another cavern, a larger one."

They grabbed their packs and pushed them through the small hole and then crawled inside. After standing and dusting themselves off, Daniel grabbed his light and pointed it around the place. It was a lot larger than the cave behind them and had more drawings on the walls. It was also a lot cooler, which made Vala shiver and rub her arms.

This room also had cave drawings of hunters and animals scattered across the surface of the walls. Daniel was thrilled with the find and wanted to pause to take it all in. It was huge! He took his journal and started scribbling furiously, wanting to get it all down on paper.

Vala, on the other hand, realized that it was getting later and they still hadn't found a way out of the predicament. She didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm but there were more practical issues at hand.

"Darling, shouldn't we be looking for an exit?" Vala didn't want to nag, but she knew Daniel would gladly stay in this cave for days and weeks, if he could, trying to uncover the mysteries on the walls around him.

"Uh huh." She doubted that he'd even heard what she'd just said. 'I guess I'll have to look around. He's a bit absorbed at the moment,' she thought to herself with a sigh.

She used her flashlight to look around the room to see if there were any openings besides the one they just came through, but she didn't find anything at all. It was a very large room but a dead end and that meant they would have to get past the bear. "Wonderful!"

"What?" Daniel stood up and aimed his flashlight in her direction.

"There's no way out, Dear. We're going to have to get by Yogi out there."

"Yogi?" Daniel smiled at her and asked, "Where did you hear about Yogi?"

"Teal'c said something about 'Yogi Bear'. I assumed it was some cultural reference but he didn't explain and I didn't ask."

He just grinned and said, "We'll leave that for another time. So, you're sure this is it? No other passages?" He carefully searched around the room and came to the conclusion that she was right.

"Okay, Yogi, it is." He looked around the room and decided that he could bring a team back at some point and go over all this more thoroughly. For now, the priority would have to be escaping this place. "I'm going back to the entrance to see if 'Yogi,' has left."

He left his pack with her and crawled through the hole in the wall. Once on the other side, he quietly made his way toward the opening and looked to see if there was much daylight left. While the sun was still up,it was darker where they were, in the early evening shadows. And he saw something else. The bear had moved off a ways but hadn't left. 'Great.'

He made his way back to Vala and told her that they would probably have to spend the night there.

"Why can't we wait until dark and then make a run for it. The bear might not see us."

"Well, we might not see us, either. Bears are nocturnal. That means they sleep during the day and are out hunting at night."

"If that's true, why was he out there in the middle of the day?"

"He was probably hungry. Which is also why he won't leave, just yet."

"So, he might be there in the morning, waiting for his 'Happy Meal?'"

"You've been watching too much T.V," Daniel said. "The bear has to sleep at some point so it'll probably go back to it's den and then we can get out of here. Until then, we just make ourselves comfortable and wait."