CHAPTER TWO
Rodney was never aware of first light.
Sometime in the night, he began to sweat and tremble. His skin felt warm while he shivered from cold, even as the deep crimson staining his jacket finally began to slow in its spread.
When Nak tried to wake him the next morning, the scientist never even stirred.
Nak was torn. He was a nomad. He couldn't lug this guy around forever. Then again, his conscience wouldn't let him just leave the stranger to die.
He decided to try to help. The elders would know what to do.
It was ten hours later when Nak drug a still unconscious McKay into his home village.
The trip usually took him six hours.
Nak collapsed with exhaustion as soon as he reached his home, only barely managing to tell the few that had come out to meet him of his adventure.
XXX
Nak awoke sometime later to the sound of arguing voices. As he looked around, he discovered he was laying on the floor of the council of the elders. The old men were arguing, but it took Nak a minute to figure out what their debate was about.
When he did, he laid his head back down on the floor and sighed.
McKay.
'So typical,' thought Nak.
He'd tried to do something nice, and he was already causing problems.
Nak laughed a little at the thought. He'd have no luck at all if not for bad luck.
The elder closest to him heard Nak's snort and turned to face him.
"And you! What were you thinking bringing a stranger here?"
"He needed help."
"True, and I applaud your spirit, but we have enough problems with the Rud already. There is no reason to bring more upon us by harboring a man who is obviously their enemy."
Nak stood as he entered the conversation, and as he did, he saw the object of this argument.
Rodney was stretched out on a cot across the room. He was still apparently unconscious, but he was moving around slightly in his sleep and mumbling things that were unintelligible to the men present. His skin was as white as the snow Nak often saw in the mountains, and sweat stood out on his brow.
Nak was no doctor, but he knew a dying man when he saw one. His long journey looked like it would be for nothing. The arduous miles spent dragging McKay behind him on a makeshift stretcher were going to be negated by nature.
Rodney McKay was going to die.
Of that Nak was certain.
"Perhaps if we can get him back to the stone ring...he said he could go through it...get help...and that he wouldn't be back if we let him go..."
Nak had only mumbled the words to himself, but the council had heard him anyway. They immediately erupted into a frenzy of frazzled debate.
"It is too far!"
"He will die before he reaches it, anyway."
"The stone ring must not be activated at this time...it will draw the wrath of the Rud upon us! You know they control that area!"
Nak sighed and prepared himself to counter their arguments, but he never got the chance.
Sudden gunfire erupted outside the meeting place.
One of the elders cried out an alarm.
"The Rud! We're under attack!"
Nak grabbed his weapons while yelling a command at the others around him.
"Quickly! Hide the stranger! The Rud must not find him here!"
Rodney was quickly carried by the youngest of the men to a far corner of the shelter. The older men hastily threw whatever they could find on top of him, in an attempt to hide him from sight. Blankets, trash, leaves, and brush were piled on the wounded man.
To an observer, the corner now looked like a mere brush pile. A mess that needed cleaning.
Once their 'guest' was concealed, the men rushed out of the shelter to join in the fight any way they could. Most of the men that had been deciding the fate of the stranger were old, but not so old that they couldn't be of use in a battle.
The men assumed positions around the village, taking weapons of all sorts with them, and before long a full-fledged firefight was going on around the now forgotten feverish stranger.
Gunshots combined with spears, arrows, and all other manner of weapons fire. Shouts rang out in two languages from all directions.
The noise of the battle in the compound was deafening.
But it was short-lived.
As abruptly as it started, the battle was over.
It ended because the warriors from both sides looked fearfully to the sky and ran for cover as if they were possessed or had completely lost their faculties. Even Nak ran.
Everyone ran.
