MEMOIRS OF
BRIGADIER GENERAL JACK O’NEILL
(Retired)
Part IX
Chapter Two
By Arrietty
2008
Thirty minutes later, all the horses were ready to go. It was early evening and the sun was low in the sky. I didn’t want to hang around here for long. I didn’t feel safe and the sooner I was on the road the better. I knew of a place that we could camp for the night which was only three hours ride away. If we left soon, we would be there in plenty of time.
It wasn’t until I was sitting on Meadow that I realized my predicament. I had somewhere to sit, but La Haia didn’t. The Shire were loaded up to the gills with feed, and by the downwind smell of her, I didn’t fancy having her up behind me. And anyway, I wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t attack me like she did Neeron.
Neeron came up to me and handed me one of those small grey objects like he’d handed to his guard.
“You know what these are?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“I’ll show you, he grabbed the nearest ‘slave’ which happened to be a young woman and pulled out her arm. I saw the same fresh open wound on her arm that the old woman had had, but this one had another line at right angles across it. I saw naked fear in this woman’s eyes as she stared at the object in Neeron’s hand.
“You don’t have to show me, just tell me,” I quickly said. The woman relaxed as I spoke.
Neeron pushed her away.
“See this button?” He pressed down on a dark grey circle, “This initiates the branding.” Then he pressed a light grey circle. “This one here takes it away.”
“Thank you,” ‘I think.’ I said as I pocketed the object.
“If she gives you trouble, just give her another line across”, he showed me by running his finger across his own forearm. “If they do well, I reward them by taking it away. But don’t remove the long line, that is their brand, it tells the authorities that they are slaves.”
I nodded. Keeping what I really thought of all this deep inside. I knew if I spoke I wouldn’t be able to control myself.
Then he handed me the papers. “For Meadow” He grinned as he spoke the horse’s name. “Here are the papers for the chestnuts, and here are the ones for Skouliki.” They prove to authorities that you own them; you will not be able to leave this planet without them.
I understood, as I had received papers for myself when I arrived. It would be the only way I could leave without a lot of problems.
Just then, I heard some shouting and scuffling. It took two men to drag La Haia out of one of the stables. She never made a sound, but fought the shackles that bound her wrists. A rope was firmly attached to the shackles and she was pulling on it, digging her bare toes around the cobbles trying to hang on tight. When they managed to drag her to where we were waiting, she must have seen the two large horses, because she stopped struggling. The feeling of pure hatred and malice hit me as I saw the glint of her eyes through her thick brown hair. She quickly lowered her head and stood quietly.
I could see I was going to have my hands full with this girl.
My problem of where she was going to sit had been solved. No one expected her to sit anywhere, because she would be walking.
The lead ropes to the horses were tied around the pommel of my saddle and with one hand I held on tight to La Haia’s rope and then with the other guided my mount out the courtyard. As I left, I saw the old woman standing and watching. She was smiling. I glanced at La Haia and she was staring at the old woman, pulling slightly on her rope. Yes she at least had had one friend while being there.
I traveled slowly; I didn’t want to go too fast for the girl. I had seen that she had bare feet and the road was not a comfortable one. I was in a predicament; she couldn’t walk all the way to the Stargate, not while I rode. And until she’d a bath, she wasn’t coming up here that was for sure. At least, after a couple of days there would be room on the Shire horses, as the feed would have gone down.
We had been traveling for about two hours when it hit me. There I was, the great General O’Neill, leader of the SGC, Goa’uld killer, warrior, you name it and here I was, leading two great fat horses and a very unhappy dirty girl in the middle of nowhere. If Teal’c could see me now; I rolled my eyes in the dark and sighed at the thought. Oh and Daniel, he’d never leave it alone. I would be the laughing stock among the marines. Well, they would laugh on the other side of their faces when I got the doohickey for them.
I felt a tug on the rope. So I stopped and turned around, the girl was pulling off to the side of the road and gesturing towards some small bushes.
“A pit stop?” I asked.
I stiffly climbed down from my horse; it had been a long while since I had ridden one. Boy, was I going to be sore tomorrow. Slightly suspicious, I glared at my charge, I’m sure I saw a smirk in the moonlight at my obvious discomfort, but I wasn’t sure. I nodded for her to go into the bushes and firmly hung onto the rope.
Soon I was back up on my horse and we were continuing along the road. After a while, I turned off the road up into the hills. There was a small cave that I had noticed on the way in and had checked it out. Now I had these horses I would be even more of a target for bandits. I had been fortunate the first time, but I might not be the next time. Since my experience with the bandits, I had checked out the terrain all the way here, looking for places to hide out in with two large horses and places where I could stop for a while and sleep if I wanted to. This was the first place.
As soon as we arrived, I pulled out a large wooden stake. It was similar to the one that the bandits had used on me and, in fact, that was where I got the idea. I had requested this before I’d left. Neeron had looked at me as though I had grown another head, but I hadn’t enlightened him on what I wanted it for. Pulling out a large mallet, which I had requested also, I pounded the stake into the hard packed ground. Then in the large metal ring that was already attached to the stake, I pulled out another pair of shackles and connected them to the ring in the stake then onto a metal chain, which was then attached to the ring in the centre of La Haia’s shackles. I did all this cautiously. This girl was fiery and I couldn’t see what she was thinking behind that mop of hair.
I pulled the baggage off the horses and unsaddled Meadow. I was beginning to like that name after all. And tipped some feed into their nosebags before tying them to a line. I realized that each day was going to take longer to unpack and re-pack with the extra work with the horses. They had only traveled a short distance, so I left them to their own devices and started to build a fire.
La Haia had a short chain, but not too short. I had it long enough so she had some privacy if needed, but not too long that she could throttle me with it in the night.
The evening was getting cooler, so I pulled out a blanket and threw it to the girl. She picked it up and wrapped herself in it and promptly fell asleep.
“I’m going to have some dinner.”
She didn’t reply, but then she didn’t speak. Shrugging, I continued to make some stew. All my supplies had been freeze-dried. This made it light and easy to carry. Meat, veggies, fruit and even some spuds. Personally, I preferred MRE’s, but they were heavy, and bulky. This had worked so much easier. I only used this stuff when I couldn’t buy fresh food.
It was pretty easy; I just emptied the packets into the water and left it to bubble away for a long time. It wasn’t the best tasting stuff in the world, but it was sufficient. It had all the right nutrients and even bulk. The only problem was it tasted like crap.
Once it was cooked, I dished it out into two small bowls and poked La Haia with my foot.
“Hey!” She didn’t move.
“Faye. Food!” I yelled in her ear. That should wake her up, but she didn’t move. So I placed it down by her nose, or where I thought her nose should be and toddled over to a fallen log and sat down to eat mine.
After a few minutes, a hand crept out and touched the bowl. She slowly sat up and picked up the bowl and turned her back to me. First, the spoon went west. Then, the bowl was dropped, while she clutched at her burnt hand. She looked at me; I briefly saw the glint of tears. She thought I’d tried to burn her on purpose.
“Zesto,” I said, then stood up and picked up her spoon. Dusting it off, I placed it back into her fallen bowl. Fortunately the bowl still had its contents. I picked up a spoonful of stew and blew on it to cool it down.
“Vieppiss zesto! Fissixe. Then I blew on it again, to cool it. Isterra troyye, inne kalo.
I placed it back down in front of her and went back to finish off mine before it got cold. I watched as she picked the bowl back up and blew on the spoon of food. It was most probably stone cold by now with all that blowing, but she seemed to get the idea. It was then I realized that she most probably had never had hot food before. By her skinny tall frame I wouldn’t have been surprised if that had been the case.
I watched mesmerized as she scraped the bowl clean, then started to lick out the bowl. This was one hungry girl. I could see that I would run out of food before long if this carried on.
Smiling to myself, I built up the fire some more, then pulled out my sleeping bag, I had to sleep sometime, I just made sure I was not within throttling distance with the food expert over there. As I rolled myself up in my warm bag, I noticed she had moved close the fire and had wrapped herself up in the blanket. She looked like a small child curled up in a ball. I wondered if she had been like one of those children, before she had grown, not being able to play or learn.
~*~
I awoke to the sound of horses nickering to each other and the soft pad of feet, then a clink of a chain link. I was sitting up looking around me in a flash. The fire had gone right down during the night, and I couldn’t see the girl. I followed the chain to the horses. She had pulled out a handful of hay and was rubbing down the horses. Every few minutes she would stop for a second and lean against their great sides, as though listening for a heartbeat, then would continue on with her work. I was pleased to see that they were busy munching in their nosebags. La Haia was looking after them well; maybe we would get to the Stargate a bit quicker than I thought.
I stretched my aching back muscles first, and then scrambled without much dignity out of my bag. The muscles down the inside of my thighs screamed with pain. Oh, this was not going to be a fun day today at all. I hobbled over to the fire, and built it up. I needed coffee, desperately. As soon as the hot water had boiled, I made my coffee, and then threw in some dried fruit into the boiling water. The coffee was like nectar.
La Haia continued to rub down the horses and kept her back to me the whole time. Even when I called her over to eat some breakfast, she ignored me.
The fruit pulp wasn’t the best of breakfasts, but I had run out of oats on the journey in, so had to make do. I wandered over to the horses and passed her bowl over. Once again, a spoon stuck into the bowl of steaming apple.
“Zesto… Hot.” I repeated in English. I had no idea what language she understood, and as I preferred to speak English she might as well learn it.
This time I was pleased to see that she blew on her food and that she used the spoon and not her fingers.
As soon as I had finished, I packed up the camp. La Haia was still polishing the bowl with her tongue. This I would have to work on. We needed to get going soon or we would not reach our camp by nightfall and it was important that we did. Neeron had mentioned that the winter storms would soon be approaching and that we would need to find shelter when they broke.
I have to admit I was confused about the seasons, as it seemed to be in the middle of summer at the moment. He chuckled, which annoyed me, then told me that they only had two seasons here, not like other planets. Summer and winter. He then offered for me to stay until the thaw, which would be about eight week’s time. Not wanting to stay at his place for any longer than I had to, I declined. Apparently, the weather here consisted of summer and winter only, but changed every two months. I pondered about how they grew their crops, but the answer to that one would have to wait until another time or until I got to Leocold and could ask Leocold. ‘I still can’t get used to that.’
We were soon on our way, after I had wrestled the bowl and spoon away from La Haia. I could see the trip was going to be rather interesting. She came more willingly this time, which made things much easier. We only stopped twice to visit the bushes. I gave her a water bottle to drink from and an energy bar to eat, but apart from that neither of us stopped to eat along the way. After the energy bar, I noticed that she didn’t pull on the rope, but actually tried to walk beside my horse. I think she was hoping that I would give her another one.
“No, you will get fat,” I told her, not that she would have understood me, but I think she understood my tone because she dropped back to walk beside the large lumbering horses.
We arrived at the next camp in really good time. I was amazed at how fast we had traveled. I was pleased, too, because I could hear a faint rumble in the background as storm clouds gathered. It looked like winter was going to be early.
As soon as we arrived at the campsite, La Haia, immediately, started to unload the horses. I purposefully left the stake in the packs. It was time to see if she would run or not. When she had finished, I walked over to her and took hold of her arm. I could see the ugly red slash down her arm, plus two across her arm. They looked sore and inflamed; I still couldn’t understand how it worked. The blood seemed to stay in and not pour out, but it looked as fresh has if someone had drawn a knife across her arm. I reached forward and unlocked her shackles; they fell to the ground with a loud thump. I saw her wrists were red and scraped.
“I have something for that, it will help the pain.”
I gave her a smile, she kept her eyes downward.
“Ella . . . Come.” I repeated, still hopefully trying to make her understand me. Leading the horses, we walked into a large cave. An underground stream flowed along the back of it, but other than that, it was dry and warm. There was room for the horses to stand and fresh water for them too. I left her to tie up the horses then went back to get the food and packs. When I got back into the cave, she had moved some of the dry wood that I had previously gathered last time I was here and made a small pile in the middle of the floor. It wasn’t right, but I could see that she had tried. Smiling to myself, I dumped the packs onto the floor then went back outside for more. This time I had come back, I could see the horses had their nosebags on and were happily munching away.
I stood and looked at the scruffy, dirty girl in the dim light. No, not girl, she was too tall for that. She was a grown woman, but I had no idea how old she was. “Well.” I said, “Now it’s your turn.” I bent down and opened my pack and pulled out a small bag and a rather tired looking towel.
“Come on!” I gestured with my arm for her to follow me. Snatching up my handgun along the way, I led her down through the rocks to the large pool. The sun was out hot and strong, and I was dressed in my trousers and t-shirt. It was far too hot to wear anything more than that. The waterfall that splashed into the pool, reflected colours from the sun as it shone through the spray. It looked cool and inviting. I quickly pulled off my shirt, boots and socks, and then waded into the water.
“Hey, this is great!” I smiled at her.
She crouched down beside the pool and poked one finger into the water, then drew it out again, then began to wander off towards a small patch of purple flowers.
“Oh, so you don’t like water, do you?” I waded back out onto the dry land and walked over to where she was picking the flowers. I still couldn’t see what was going on in there, but I was thankful that I hadn’t received that malicious stare today.
“Come on, you’re goin’ in whether you want to or not.” I bent down, and picked her up around the waist and slung her over one shoulder, making sure I was not within biting distance. I was surprised, she was so light, but then, maybe, I shouldn’t have been. After all, Neeron treated his slaves very badly.
At first, she didn’t react, but when I started to wade into the water, she was a handful. La Haia kicked and punched me and threw herself around so much I had trouble hanging onto her. I didn’t lose my hold fortunately, until we were waist deep in the pool and I dropped her into the pool with a loud splash.
She came up gasping for air, her hair hanging over her like a large mop. I couldn’t help myself. I laughed, most probably not the wisest of things to do, but it just came out before I could stop it. Reaching over I grabbed the bag and pulled out the shampoo.
“Right, Miss don’t like water, you are going to have to put up with it.” She stood there shivering in the water with her head down. “Are you sure you aren’t Nox?” I asked. “With that hair, it certainly looks that way.” Not expecting nor receiving an answer, I started to plow into her hair, hoping that nothing crawled out of it at the same time. After a few moments of massaging the shampoo in, she knocked my hands away from her head, and reached out for the bottle of shampoo. I quickly took some for my own hair before handing it to her. Still with her head down, she put her nose over the end and sniffed the opening. Then promptly squirted some more shampoo over her head. After rescuing the bottle, I left her to it as she rubbed and scrubbed her hair with the sweet smelling stuff. I wondered briefly what she would have thought of rose petal shampoo.
I had liquid body-wash gel; I found it easier to travel with than a hard tablet of soap. This I showed her briefly what it was for. Under the drooping bits of soap-filled hair I saw a flash of a smile when she took the bottle from me. I wondered if this was going to be the last time I ever had a decent wash until I could get some more. At least, it won’t take us as long to get back to the Stargate because now she could ride behind me. Leaving her to her ablutions, I finished off my hair and ducked under the water. It was cool and refreshing as I swam through the clear water.
When I came up for air, I noticed she had gone. “How could I have been so stupid?” Then I saw a ripple on the water, the sun glinting off the surface. I saw another movement as fawn-coloured head broke the surface, long straight (clean, I might add) hair hung down over her face. I heard her gasp a breath then sink back down under the surface, leaving bubbles and soap film swirling on the surface of the pool.
Only my head was above water while I waited for her to come up again. I waited for what seemed to be ages, before I saw the movement on the water, and then the mound of her head broke the surface. This time her fawn-coloured hair was pushed back away from her face and her hands came up and smoothed the water from her hair, leaving it a lighter shade as the water was pressed out from it. The sun glinted of her wet eyelashes when she opened them to the sky and then she turned and looked straight at me, for a second she was relaxed and happy, a small smile on her lips. Then fear and confusion moved into her eyes and she looked down at the water.
I was speechless and dismayed all at once. I didn’t know what to think or say, an overwhelming anger built up within me, filling me with confusion.
~*~
2030
“Hey, Jack. What are you doing?”
“Just pottering, why?”
“You’ve been in here for ages; I just wondered that was all.”
“I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Oh . . . this thing. I thought you had given up on this idea long ago.”
“The dreams, they’re back. I thought I would try this out some more. It worked last time.”
“Yes, it did . . . Jack?”
“Yes.”
“I think you should finish it. Really finish it. All of it, so it doesn’t come back.”
“It stirs things up, things I don’t want stirred up.”
“I know, Jack, but it helps, you know it does. No one is going to see this, but you, remember? This is better than those doctors you don’t want to talk to.”
“Yes, you are right. I will finish it, but not right now. The sun is shining, how about we go for a walk?”
“Good idea.”
~*~
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