A/N: I have to admit - when I wrote this first paragraph I sat in my chair, stared at my computer for an hour, and thought, "Okay, now where in the hell to do go from here?" I blame the pain pills ...

VII: Best Laid Plans

My door chimed and I was startled awake from a very disturbing dream where I was the Tin Man, Shadow was the Cowardly Lion, and we were besieged by a flock of shit slinging flying monkeys that all had Rodney's face and were wearing little Starbuck's paper hats and aprons. I sat up and immediately decided two things before I was even fully awake; one, I was never going to eat a tinu ever again, and two, I was never going to tell anyone about that dream for as long as I lived. The door chimed again and I scrubbed hard at my face to try to get the images of the dream out of my head – I think the damn monkeys even had bright red butts like baboons. "Oh, man," I muttered as I thought the lights on and shuffled over to the door. I ran my hand over my hair in a sad attempt to get it to lay flat before I opened it and found Shadow and Rodney standing there. I glanced at my watch. "Wow, it's that time already?" I only felt like I'd been asleep a few minutes, but it was closer to three hours.

"Corral your chia symbiote – it's time to eat," Rodney said and snapped his fingers. "I want to get there before all the good corner pieces of the cheesy Spam bake are gone."

Shadow's eyes met mine – they were wider than normal and I knew deep down in my gut he was ready to throttle me. I grimaced. "Still flying, huh?" I said quietly to Shadow as I stepped out into the hall.

Shadow nodded and said just as quietly, "And I don't understand why – he quit smelling like tinu awhile ago."

"Um, hello – right here," Rodney sing-songed.

"Yeah, kinda hard not to notice," I said. "Did you two spend all this time in the Chair Room?" We started down the hall.

"No, we only stayed a couple hours, then went down to check out the main water treatment facility." Rodney gave Shadow and actual pat on the back. "The kid here showed me how to increase outflow by nearly eight per cent. Then we spent some time in the 'Gate Room going over some of the systems the Ancients activated. I'm going to ask Weir if we can trade him for Zelenka – he has a gift for Ancient technology."

Shadow gave me a pained, pleading look. "You should have pulled the Elizabeth card," I whispered.

"I tried, she even came out once, but I couldn't get away. I needed a blow gun," he whispered back.

"Again, right here," Rodney piped in.

"We know," I said. "Jesus, I'm sorry, kid." Shadow only growled quietly in reply and Rodney and I both flinched a little. "I promise not to leave you alone with him ever again." But damn, I really needed that snooze after the tinu wore off.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "All right, now that we have established I'm horrible to be stuck with, can we please go get dinner?"

"Oh wow, you actually said please," I said and grinned as we stepped into the lift. "There may be hope for you yet." And just because I knew he was going to say it, I said asshole the same time he did.

An hour later I was kicked back in my chair with some coffee. Elizabeth was next to me with a bottle of water, a slightly horrified grimace on her face. Ronon sat across from her and was canted back in his chair, arms crossed, and smirking. "Ya know, kind of reminds me of 'Shark Week'," I drawled. "Only with more carnage."

Apparently, not only did Shadow have the vitals of a cat, he had the metabolism of one, too. They had meatloaf that actually tasted like it was made from honest to God beef as well as the cheesy Spam bake, and between him and Rodney with his tinu revved appetite they polished off enough for four people, including dessert. And the good thing was the more Rodney ate, the more he wound down, so by the time he was shoveling the last bite of German chocolate cake into his mouth he was close to going lips down on his tray. Shadow glanced briefly at me and Elizabeth and flashed us one helluva wicked grin. "I should have done this sooner," he said.

Rodney dropped his fork onto his tray. "Oh my God," he said. "I can't believe I ate all of that."

"It was rather – frightening to witness," Elizabeth said.

"Remind me to never eat … whatever that was ever again," Rodney said as he pushed his tray away and laid his head down on his arms.

"Tinu," Shadow supplied as he swiped the one unopened pudding cup from Rodney's tray. At the sound of him pulling the foil top back Rodney groaned.

"Where do you put it?" I asked.

"Changing requires a lot of calories," Shadow said after his first big spoonful. "And I've been awake for well over a day now."

"Sorry," I said as I realized that short nap upstairs was the most he'd slept since, well, our team arrived on his world. "We'll show you the guest quarters after this."

"Thank you," he said, and a minute later he was using his finger to get the rest of the pudding. Rodney was a very bad influence.

"Major Lorne checked in just before you came to get me for dinner," Elizabeth said. "Nothing unexpected has happened, except for it actually quit raining for nearly an hour and Dr. Zelenka cleaned them out of every dose of Imodium they had in their emergency field kits."

"Good!" came the muffled reply from Rodney.

Shadow chuffed and leaned back in his chair. "If he is still in distress the next time you speak to him, ask Teyla to have Kintu get him some mehuac root. It will help."

"I will pass that along," Elizabeth said. She set her bottle on her tray and stood. "If you will excuse me, I have a few more reports to go over before I can call it a night. Shadow, you will come see me after your trip to the mainland tomorrow?"

"I will," he said and offered her a brief smile.

Rodney let out a short snort of a snore and I kicked him under the table. It wasn't hard, but he sat bolt upright and blinked. "Huh? What?"

"You were talking in your sleep," I said, deadpan.

"Huh?" Rodney said and looked a little panicked.

"Something about chickens," Ronon added, then glanced my way and smirked.

When Elizabeth couldn't hold back a short laugh, Rodney glowered at both of us. "Assholes," he grumbled through a yawn. When he got a disapproving frown from Elizabeth he said, "Well, they are."

I snorted as I stood and picked up my tray. "C'mon kid, let's get you settled for the night." We followed Elizabeth and turned our trays in. As we left the cafeteria I glanced over at Rodney and saw Ronon had him by the scruff of his shirt and was leading him towards the dish line. Rodney was swaying like he was drunk. Damn, those things may pack a helluva wallop, but the crash is even more impressive.

Shadow was watching, too. "I cannot believe he ate three."

"I can," I said.

"I do hope Radek is all right," Elizabeth said. She glanced worriedly at Shadow. "He will be, won't he?"

Shadow was in mid yawn when he nodded. "As long as he doesn't get dehydrated, he should be fine."

"That's good. Well, gentlemen – good night."

"'Night," I said with a nod as she parted company with us. I turned and saw Shadow watching her a little too intently as she walked away so I cleared my throat. He gave me a little smirk as he turned back around. "Behave," I said and he tried to give me an innocent look. Yeah, right.

The guest quarters were on the same level as the cafeteria but on the other side of the tower. It was a nice large suite complete with a killer balcony, and that was the first place Shadow headed. I joined him and we just stood there in silence for several minutes and enjoyed the view. The sun was behind us so the sky we faced was a pale turquoise overhead but a deep blue over a blue-gray sea at the horizon, and some of the brighter stars were visible. The city was lit with that low golden light that made details stand out in sharp relief, and in the shadows cast by the towers you could see lights reflected on the fairly calm water. You know, even after nearly three years this place still takes my breath away.

"It is hard to believe such a cold race could create something so beautiful," Shadow said.

I turned my head his way, eyebrow raised. He regarded me in a similar fashion. "Yeah, I haven't been feeling much love for the Ancients myself lately."

Shadow leaned forward on the railing and chuffed. "I have the reminiscences of nine Guardians in my head. It is difficult to not be prejudiced."

"I can imagine." I turned around, leaned my butt against the rail, and crossed my arms. "Waking up in that damn … pod wouldn't help, either."

He drew his lips in and was silent for a minute. "My predecessor was cloned from a traveler through the stargate. She was a warrior, a leader of her people – they were escaping the Wraith and found sanctuary on my world. She was gravely injured when they came through, and she died from her injuries shortly thereafter. Her people only stayed long enough to heal, then moved on to another world." His gaze dropped to where his arms rested on the railing, and when he spoke his voice was barely audible over the waves. "She lived the longest of all the Guardians by several centuries – I don't know how she survived witnessing so much life and … loss."

And between the lines I could clearly hear, I don't know if I can do it. I nudged his shoulder. "Hey, you're going to do fine. Just think – you have centuries of experience to draw from. Most people don't even have years – they wind up flying by the seat of their pants."

"But how will I know it is enough?"

He turned his head towards me and all I could think was, God damn, did I ever look that young? "Hell, I don't think anyone really knows until they have to, well, do."

"Your people seem very confident. You seem very confident."

I snorted. "Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving. We all do the best we can, take it day by day, and hope that whatever shows up on the horizon tomorrow doesn't have bigger guns than us." I gave him a lopsided grin. "And if you're Rodney, you just yell louder." And build a bigger nuke, I added mentally.

"In my case, I believe that would be roar louder."

"Exactly!" I nudged his shoulder again, harder this time, and was happy to see a hint of a grin appear on his face as he rolled from the motion. "And just remember, as long as you have your tea … someone to watch your back, you can face anything and survive."

Shadow chuffed and returned his attention to his hands. "Kintu has taken it upon himself to be the guardian of the Guardian. He frets …."

"Like a mother hen. Yeah, we have a couple of those here, too. There's no escaping them, and they mean well." When he yawned a moment later I straightened up. "I should probably let you get some sleep. Big day tomorrow."

"The ocean," he said, a slow wicked smile lighting his face.

"The ocean," I repeated. I was just leaving the balcony when a thought struck me. I turned around. "Um, you do know how to swim, don't you?"

Shadow frowned as he cocked his head. "I … do have a memory of it. I believe I can." He shrugged. "I guess I will find out tomorrow."

"Huh." I tried to remember if we had any PFD's in stock. Damn, I wasn't sure. "Well, get some sleep – I'll be by to get you for breakfast."

Shadow nodded. "I think I will sit out here for awhile."

When I left he was just a silhouette staring out at the city, the glow of the sunset fading from the towers and the lights of Atlantis slowing coming into their own.

oOo

I didn't dream about flying monkeys with red butts and attitudes that night, thank God, but I did have one where I was hunting urtal in the depths of Atlantis with Ronon. We never did see one of the big cats, but we could hear them, and every so often we kept coming across bloody drag marks and paw prints in the dark corridors. When we came across the scraps of embroidered cloth and jade beads I snapped awake. Then my alarm went off and I damn near jumped out of my skin. I smacked the sonuvabitch clean off the table and was happy to see it rebounded off the wall about ten inches from its usual spot. One of these days I'm going to tape a target there and keep a running score. I'll be curious to see how many points the clock will last. I'm figuring, oh, sixty, tops.

I did my normal morning run, showered, and by the time I hit the cafeteria level I had pretty much forgotten about the dream. As I rounded the last corner that led to the guest quarters I saw the door open and Nurse Carrie leaving. She was moving a little slowly and was halfway down the hallway before she noticed me, and when she did she turned bright red and picked up her pace. I nodded as she passed, she said colonel and turned an even darker shade. I resisted the urge to turn around and watch her – she was squirming enough as it. But it didn't stop me from chuckling. Ya know, it didn't really surprise me. It just didn't.

I stopped in front of the door and after a couple chimes with nothing happening, I opened it. I wandered slowly through the small sitting area in hopes of giving Shadow enough time to pull himself together, but when I got to the bedroom door I saw he was still sprawled kinda diagonally across the top of the bed. And he was in his half form and thankfully on his stomach. Okay, that brought up images I really did not want to contemplate. I cleared my throat. One ear flicked. I walked over, kicked the bed, and one eye opened and regarded me. "Breakfast?" I prompted. Shadow chuffed. "I'll wait out in the hall," I said and turned around before I could see anything I really didn't want to as he started to roll over. I already noticed he had a little stub of a tail in that form, and that was more than enough information at this time, thank you very much.

I was leaning back against the wall, arms crossed, when Shadow came out not quite twenty minutes later. His hair was damp, and as he slid on the hoodie he gave me a sheepish smirk. "Sorry. I'm more comfortable in that form," he said as if he needed to give me an explanation.

I held up a hand. "Don't want to know," I said and Shadow actually turned a little red and ducked his head. "Food?"

Shadow nodded enthusiastically.

It was no surprise Rodney and Ronon were already in the cafeteria. We loaded down our trays with enough scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon for three, maybe even four people. And cottage cheese. For some reason Shadow was just fascinated by the cottage cheese, and once we sat down with Rodney and Ronon he took one bite, grinned, took a bite of scrambled egg, grinned even wider, and happily mixed the two together. I thought Rodney was going to puke, and Ronon just grunted in approval.

And speaking of Rodney, he still looked like, heh, crap this morning. Apparently a tinu hangover kicked about as hard as a tequila one, judging by the blood shot eyes and the way he flinched at any overly loud noise. He watched Shadow eat for a moment, then pushed his own half eaten breakfast away. He held his left hand up like a blinder so he couldn't see Shadow and just concentrated on his coffee.

Ronon pounced. "You going to eat that?"

Rodney gave a sickly little wave at his tray. "Knock yourself out."

"What is that?" Shadow asked around a mouthful and pointed at a foil wrapped item on the tray.

"Pop Tart," I said.

Shadow swallowed. "Are they good?"

"I don't care for them," Ronon said as he tossed the package down on the table near Shadow's tray.

Shadow figured out the packaging in no time, and when he broke off a chunk of what looked like frosted Strawberry from this angle and tried it, his face lit up. Then he started alternating bites of egg/cottage cheese slop and sausage with Pop Tart and chewed away happily.

"Oh, dear God," Rodney sputtered and turned his back to Shadow. "That is just … sick and wrong. Tell me when the mutant garbage disposal is done."

Well, pot, meet kettle, I thought. I just chuckled as I grabbed the Tabasco and doused my eggs. Shadow cocked his head and I handed him the bottle. He took a sniff, made that great face again, and handed it back to me.

"Please tell me he isn't adding that to his, his travesty," Rodney whined.

"He isn't, you wuss," I said.

Rodney grunted in relief.

"I hear you're going to the mainland this morning," Ronon said around a bite. "Mind if I come along?"

I raised my eyebrows at Shadow. "I don't mind," the kid said.

"Thought I'd show the kid how to surf."

Ronon perked up, which in Ronon's case meant he lifted his eyebrows. "I've heard Carpenter talk about surfing. I'd like to try it."

I eyed Ronon. Well, that surprised me. Huh. I wonder if Thorgerson would let me borrow his board this morning, too. That way I can put Shadow on mine, Ronon on Carpenter's …. "Do you have anything that isn't leather?" I asked because I was pretty sure we didn't have any wetsuits that would fit him.

Ronon nodded.

"Okay. Cool." All we needed now was a cooler, some brews, and some babes in bikinis. Then I glanced at Shadow and noticed he was tracking someone across the room again. I turned my head and saw the same dark haired woman from yesterday. She didn't notice this time since she was with some other people and talking with them. Nope, babes in bikinis would be a bad idea – the kid would probably get terminal whiplash. "Meet us up in the Jumper bay at oh-eight-thirty."

Well, we didn't get a chance to go to the mainland. Hell, I only got as far as retrieving my duffle from the infirmary before the call came. I was watching Shadow and Nurse Carrie trying to be nonchalant and failing miserably when Elizabeth's voice said in my ear, "Colonel Sheppard and Shadow, please report to the Gate Room."

I recognized the tight delivery as I tapped my earpiece. "This is Sheppard. What happened?" Shadow suddenly glanced my way and lifted his chin inquiringly. I waved at him to follow as I headed for the door.

"Major Lorne is on vid – he's requesting to speak to both of you immediately."

"We're just a few floors down. Be there in a sec. Sheppard out." I turned my head and wasn't surprised to see Shadow next to me. "We're needed upstairs." He nodded, and without a word we both broke into a jog. A second later I heard the call for Carson and a med team to stand-by and we increased our speed.

Less than a minute later we were standing next to Elizabeth. Lorne's expression was set, all business, and it was clear he was in the Jumper. "Report, Major."

"Sir. I and the men were accompanying a group of the women, along with Dr. Brown, her people, Teyla, and Kintu and three of his hunters outside the wall. We were less than a hundred yards from the jungle perimeter when the hunters were attacked."

"Was anyone hurt?" Shadow asked immediately.

"Not seriously," Lorne replied. "Kintu's bird was killed and he has a possible broken arm, and another hunter is scraped and bruised, nothing serious. The women are all unharmed. I, Teyla, Morales, and Ferguson were able to take care of the threat." Now Lorne was starting to frown, and that made me concerned. "Sir. Shadow. You need to come see this."

"Will you need a med team?" Elizabeth asked.

"Not a full one, ma'am. But I think the doc better come, too." She nodded in reply and stepped aside to speak into her headset. Then Lorne fixed his eyes on mine. "And, sir? I would like to request a couple more men."

The way he set his mouth set my teeth on edge. "Understood." I glanced at Shadow – the kid was so utterly still and intent it upped my nervousness. "As soon as Carson gets here you go with him. I'll follow with a team."

Shadow nodded once and headed for the stairs.

"I'll ferry Shadow and the doc to the village as soon as they come through," Lorne said. "Then I'll be right back for you, sir."

"Is there any immediate danger?" I asked.

Lorne shook his head. "Kintu ordered everyone to stay in the village and keep the gate closed until Shadow returns."

"All right, Major. See you in a few. Atlantis out." The connection died and the 'gate closed a moment later. I nodded to Chuck and he immediately began dialing back for our people.

"Carson will be here shortly," Elizabeth said to me as I glanced her way. "Give me a report as soon as you can."

I nodded as I trotted past her and towards the lift so I could get geared up. I tapped my earpiece. "Ronon, team eight – report to the Gate Room immediately, full gear. Wait for me. Sheppard out." I glanced down at the main floor as I passed the stairs and saw Shadow pacing and stripping out of his borrowed clothes. It was getting a few reactions, but I have a feeling the faint low growling I could hear coming from him was deterring some of the more overt ones. The 'gate dialed in a second later and as soon as he was free of the jeans he was through. I could hear Carson enter a moment later as the lift doors closed on me.

Less than twenty minutes later I, Ronon, and four more Marines were just stepping out of the 'gate and Lorne was bringing the Jumper back around. A few seconds later I heard someone exit the 'gate and I turned to see Rodney, fully geared up and red faced. "Okay, what's going on?" he gasped out as he leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees. "I heard the call."

"Nothing you needed to worry about," I said. It wasn't raining and the clouds overhead actually showed patches of blue as I tracked the Jumper as it came in for a landing on the pyramid.

"Like hell," Rodney said as one hand came up and danced as he spoke. "You called Ronon. If I'm remembering things correctly – and you know damn well I am – he is on the same team I am on. Therefore, if he's here, then I should be here. Case closed." He stood up straight and jut his jaw out.

I sighed. "Fine. Get in the damn Jumper." We piled in and were airborne in a matter of seconds. I sat in the co-pilot's seat, Rodney behind me, and glanced at Lorne. "Talk to me."

Lorne kept his attention focused on the controls as he spoke. "The women were digging for roots this morning and showing Dr. Brown how to as well. Kintu and his boys were riding perimeter and me, Teyla, Morales, and Ferguson were guarding the women when we all heard a, well, scream come from deeper in the jungle."

"Katie is all right?" Rodney interrupted. I shushed him with a wave.

Lorne nodded before he continued. "It sounded a lot like the ones from the other night, and the women immediately stopped what they were doing and grouped together. The four of us formed a perimeter and we started ushering everyone back to the village." Lorne brought the Jumper down through the canopy and started to land. "We had just entered the cleared perimeter around the wall when one of the hunters came back and ordered everyone back to the village. We kept everyone covered until they were behind the wall, and as we were coming back Kintu and his bird came out of the jungle with this thing in pursuit."

"Thing?" Rodney and I both said as the back hatch opened and the Jumper powered down.

"I thought it was another one of those cats that you and Shadow killed the other night, sir," Lorne replied. "Then it tackled Kintu's bird, he went sailing, and we got a better look at it. We opened fire the second Kintu was clear." As Lorne got up from his seat he flashed me a tight frown. "It was running on two legs when it came out of the jungle, sir."

I froze halfway through the rear compartment and Rodney ran into me. Ronon and the Marines were already waiting for us outside. "Was it like Shadow when he is … changed?" Rodney asked.

"Yes, and no," Lorne said. "It didn't look, well, right. It was like it was half finished and … sick. We helped drag it back to the gate."

I grunted and we exited the Jumper, and as soon as we cleared the ramp I could see Carson, Teyla, Shadow, Kintu, and several of his hunters, their Jubjubs tethered nearby, all clustered around something about thirty feet from the gate. Carson was checking Kintu's arm and Shadow was crouched down on the balls of his feet when we jogged up. I glanced down and flinched. "Jesus Christ!"

It had the same spotted golden fur of an urtal, but the coat was dull, matted, and large patches of it were missing altogether. In the bald patches were scabs and lumps that resembled gray cauliflower. Its shoulders and chest were oddly out of proportion to the rest of the body, and the head thrust forward at an unnatural angle. It definitely walked upright judging from the position of its narrow hips, and it had hands as opposed to paws. The most disturbing part of the creature was the strips of badly tanned pale leather it had wrapped around its middle, forearms, and lower legs - some it bore distinctive tattoos in faded red and black, and the belt was adorned with recognizably human jawbones. And stink – damn, I was starting to regret eating breakfast.

"Okay, now that is why it is a really bad idea to give a nasty predator opposable thumbs!" Rodney blurted out as he stared in horror at the creature on the ground.

Shadow suddenly shot to his feet. Rodney flinched back out of the way and I was just waiting for a girly scream. He spoke rapidly with Kintu and the hunters. The hunters quickly mounted up and Kintu acted as if to join but was waved back by Shadow. When the wiry man started to protest Shadow growled and bared his teeth at him before turning to Carson. "Doctor, please see to his arm. We are going to follow its trail before the rains come and destroy it."

"We'll follow," I said.

Shadow shook his head as he started to unclip his belt. "We'll be moving fast. Please, stay here and protect my people."

Before I could protest he dropped what little clothing he had as he turned, dove forward, and was running on all fours in the time it took for me to register he wasn't completely hairless in his human form. He and his three hunters disappeared into the jungle perimeter in a matter of seconds.

I turned my back to the jungle and saw Lorne's eyes were wide and his cheeks twitched, once. He wisely kept his mouth shut. The Marines behind him, however, had their mouths open and Ronon was smirking. I narrowed my eyes and at least the Marines straightened up.

Zelenka's mildly panicked voice came over our radios. "Major, I just picked up four life signs heading into the jungle. Are you all right?"

I tapped my earpiece. "We're fine – that was Shadow and his boys."

"Colonel! You both made it. Good. Good." There was a short pause and a few unintelligible murmurs in Czech. "I am tracking them on sensors, but the growth of the deeper jungle is causing some interference."

"Rodney, could you …?"

"I'm on it," he said before I could finish and took off at a decent trot.

"Radek, keep an eye on them. And when Rodney gets there, see if you two can kill the null field – I want communications up and running inside the wall."

"Will do, Colonel," he replied. "Will keep you updated."

I just grunted and killed the transmission.

"I'm going to take Kintu to the Temple and scan his arm," Carson said. "I'm sure the break is a clean one – setting it will be easy." He motioned for Kintu to follow, but the man shook his head. "Teyla, dear, could you help?"

It was an effort for Teyla to tear her gaze away from the monstrosity on the ground. She offered Carson a small smile, but her grip on her P90 didn't relax. "Certainly." She joined them and it took a couple minutes of gentle persuasion before the little guy agreed to be led away. He was in noticeable pain, but his concern for Shadow outweighed it. Jeez, now who does that remind me of? I thought and grimaced. Before they got to the gate Carson motioned them on and returned. He sat his pack down and quickly fished out a syringe to take a blood sample from the dead critter. He flashed me a tight grimace before he trotted away.

My curiosity was getting the better of me and I crouched down next to the corpse. I coughed a few times as the smell of rot and musk got stronger. "Major, as soon as we have communications, I want a couple men up on the wall." I put the barrel of my P90 under its chin and lifted it. Its fangs weren't as long as a regular urtal's and one was broken at the tip, and its face was still more cat than human. And it definitely wasn't … natural. "And when the null field is down, bring the Jumper in."

"Yes, sir."

I dropped the head and stood up, then with a boot to a mangy shoulder rolled the thing over onto its back. The first thing I noticed was an obsidian bladed knife in its belt. The second thing was the necklace of teeth and what I think were finger bones. I drew my lips in and fought the urge to kick the thing in the head. Repeatedly.

Ronon came over and pulled the knife from the belt and examined it. The blade was crude, poorly made, and the haft was made of bone. "They're smart enough to make their own weapons," he rumbled as he dropped the knife on the ground next to the body. "You think it's related to …."

"Fuck, I hope not," I said just a little too quickly under my breath. I squinted towards the jungle and hoped the kid and his hunters were okay.

"Null field is down," Zelenka suddenly said in my ear. "Rodney is working on diverting power from that system to boost scanner sensitivity."

I nodded to Lorne, who in turn pulled the two smallest Marines aside and told them where to find access to the top of the wall. A second later he trotted over to the Jumper and had it airborne in no time. He had wandered back out to join us before we heard from Rodney and Zelenka again.

"Holy crap!" Rodney said between mild gasps a moment later. "Do you know how many life signs there are in a jungle?"

The corner of my mouth twitched as I tapped my radio. "Oh, trust me - I have an idea. Narrow the parameters down."

"Huh, now why didn't I think of that? Thank you, colonel – how could I ever function without your valuable input?" I could hear Rodney mutter over the connection as he worked. "Ah, got it! I have Shadow and his hunters on screen, about two klicks in."

Wow, they were moving fast, I thought.

"And we are picking up a dozen more signs," Zelenka added.

A tense couple minutes passed, and when Rodney started speaking I went cold. "Oh, no. No no no no no. That's not good. I think Shadow was spotted – the other signs are closing in."

"Shit," I said and took a couple steps towards the jungle.

"Okay, okay, that's good. He's turning around. They're all turning around." There was a pause before he followed with, "Oh, shit. They're being chased."

Without a word I raised my weapon and trained it on the jungle as I thumbed the safety off. Ronon moved off to the side and did the same thing, and judging from the sound of movement behind me the remaining Marines were fanning out to provide cover as well. "Sing out when they're close," I said.

A second later the two Marines on the wall let me know they were in position.

Zelenka swore suddenly. "One of Shadow's party has been overtaken. No, wait, one is turning back."

That would be Shadow, I thought. Damn him.

"He's engaged enemy," Zelenka said. He figured out who it was. Then he let out a short hah! "He and other sign are coming back this way."

"Yeah, but not as fast as before," Rodney added. "And I've picked up more signs deeper in." He was quiet a moment. "At least thirty total."

The next few minutes were some of the tensest I've ever waited through. Twice more the two lagging life signs were overtaken, and twice more they managed to escape. But after the second time they were moving much slower than before.

"I see movement," Pawlowski called from the top of the wall. A second later the first hunter exploded through the brush, his knees flexed and bent over the back of his mount like he was riding a thoroughbred in the Derby instead of a seven foot tall feathered super predator. The second hunter came through just as fast, but he was barely holding onto his Jubjub's neck instead of the reins. The broken shaft of an arrow was sticking up from his right calf, and as he got closer I could tell his leg was actually pinned to the bird. The first hunter reined his mount up so hard the bird damn near sat, and he instantly whirled it around and caught the other bird by the bridle and led him quickly towards the gate.

"Here they come," Rodney said a moment later, and Pawlowski confirmed movement.

A riderless Jubjub came lurching into the clearing. Blood coated its neck and chest, and one of its tiny wings was hanging by a few strands of gristle. It made it halfway across before it just collapsed, then continued to struggle to get back to its feet as it made surprisingly dainty chirping sounds.

"I see him," Ronon said and took a couple steps forward, gun ready.

Shadow burst through the brush in his half form, crouched over and a wounded hunter draped over his shoulders. His mouth was open and he was panting hard as he charged towards us, and not too far behind him were half a dozen pale shapes bounding through the undergrowth. As soon as Shadow shot between me and Ronon I shouted, "Fire!"

The staccato roar of P90 fire filled the air and birds in the closer trees took flight. We literally mowed down underbrush along with pursuers, and after maybe fifteen seconds I held up a fist. The quiet that fell was only interrupted by the weak chirping of the fallen Jubjub and some really nasty wet sounds coming from just inside the jungle.

"You got all but two," Rodney said over the radio. "But I'm picking up a lot more, deeper in. At least two dozen."

"Are they moving?" I asked as I watched Ronon walk over to the fallen bird and shoot it in the head.

"No, they are just standing there," Zelenka supplied.

"Pawlowski, can you see anything?"

"No, sir. Jungle is too thick."

"Crap," I muttered.

Then the screaming started.

A/N: Yeah, I'm a stinker. My mother would agree wholeheartedly. :)