Daniel stepped through the event horizon. Nerves jolted momentarily as his bare feet touched the cold of the stone.
A slight breeze pulled gently on his sleeping pants and played across bare arms and chest. It wasn't destructive or disturbing, only making the leaves of the garden shuffle up against one another, making the whole place fell like it had a life of its own.
Something flickered at the corner of his vision. He turned to see what it was.
Nothing.
Just the trees and wall and garden.
It was a strange place. An overgrown, walled garden. Some of the stones in the walls were loosening and some had fallen and since been clamed by the dark weeds. The over hanging branches of trees blocked out any view of the sky, but it must have been night because no light was coming through and the only source of light was the event horizon of the Stargate.
Dark grass covered the ground and Daniel could feel his feet sinking into it as he stepped down from the steps of the Stargate. In the middle of the garden, where the DHD should have been was a circle of stones inlayed into the ground, about a meter and a half wide, seemed to take pride of place in the garden. In the middle of the circle was a pedestal encased with vines.
Daniel slowly moved towards the pedestal, more than a little concerned at the lake of DHD. It was a bit over a hand width wide and rose to just above his navel.
Brushing away some of the vines he inspected the top. It seemed unnaturally smooth, like flawless, polished marble but it was dull and grey like ordinary rock.
"Daniel" the word seemed to whip through the leaves on the wind, barely recognisable. Daniel's head snapped up. The trees were rustling but all else was quiet.
"Daniel" something moved at the corner of his vision. This time Daniel turned around, looking desperately around the garden for the source. He could hear the voice echoing inside his head. His chest was heaving, panicking. His hands were shacking, the back of his neck prickled and a bead of sweet rolled down his temples.
A slightly stronger breeze whipped through the garden. It was cold, Daniel shivered.
Suddenly, somehow, something seemed to force it's self into his vision. The pedestal. He couldn't take his eyes off it. It was as though it was resonating some sort of energy.
He moved slowly back towards it. His hand moved towards it and brushed away some of the vines. He crouched down to get a better look. There were symbols carved around the rim, six of them. It was a gate address, minus the point of origin.
Daniel traced them with his middle finger. Entranced by them.
All this time the Stargate had remained active, passively open and giving off its eyrie light. A figure stumbled backwards out of the gate, falling backwards onto the grass.
Daniel jumped up and took an alarmed step backwards, eyes wide with shock. It was a woman, clearly distressed, her breath came rapidly.
Daniel quickly glanced her over. He couldn't see her face as her back was to him but she had dark brown, almost black, hair the reached down to right between her shoulder blades. It was servery tousled, as though she had been running. She wore lose fitting, cotton like pants of an off white colour and a dark, sleeveless coat.
Daniel was startled like a rabbit in headlights. The woman scrambled backwards on all fours for a few meters, still fleeing what ever had scared her so much.
She unsteadily got to her feet.
Daniel finally managed to gather his senses together enough to say something.
"Who...?" his words stuck in his throat. Whoever it was, her head snapped up and she spun around.
The expression on her face shocked Daniel. It was torn with an inhuman fear and anguish. She let out a pitiful scream that tore through the air, crying out for help.
"DANIEL"