STARGATE: EXPLORER

by Lady Grey
Alpha/Beta by Jude

August 30

Daniel glanced up from the circular platform, realizing that they had, indeed, been transported, out of the middle of the forest and into an enclosed space. He found himself inside an enormous dome, hundreds of feet high. The architecture was amazing, filled with artistic detail and organic embellishment. Earthy colors at the base of the walls became sky colors in the dome, filling the gigantic room with light.

If his new friends had told him correctly, their party was now standing on the other side of the planet.

He turned wide eyes to the others, now exiting the arrival platform, and spied a creature that Daniel could only assume was a member of the Mountain Clan, and quite obviously male.

This being was a giant in every sense of the word. Daniel guessed his height at somewhere around ten feet tall. Where Sky Clan were delicate in build, Forest were lean and Grass on the stocky side, this being was massively built, with a broad but benevolent face and thick, muscular limbs. He was dressed in a burgundy leather vest and loincloth, with red metal gauntlets on his forearms and fingerless gloves on his sturdy hands. Metallic greaves of dark burnt orange covered his hairy shins, but his feet were bare.

Long gunmetal-blue hair framed his dark brown face, and his eyes were steely gray. He smiled at Daniel, his expression filled with kindness. “Welcome to Shahr, first city of the People,” he rumbled, his voice a deep bass, as befitting his great size, but surprisingly gentle.

“Wow,” breathed Daniel, awestruck at the sights, both his surroundings, and the alien who had come to greet them. He gathered his wits and stepped right up to the big guy, the top of his head just about even with the giant's chest. “I’m pleased to meet you. My name is—”

“All the People know who you are,” the huge alien assured him with a kind smile. “The city has been preparing for your arrival for many days now.” 

“Oh. Thank you.”

Scout, Hunter, and the three members of Sky Clan followed the Mountain Clan male, whom Daniel decided to call Denali, the Native American name for Mount McKinley. It meant "Great One," and this fellow was decidedly impressive.

The others of the Forest Clan dispersed through several arched doorways leading into brightly lit areas. Additional openings were darkened and quiet, still more leading out into what looked like busy urban streets. There must have been fifty different passages leading away from the arrival center.

Daniel watched some of the Forest Clan move away from them, while following his party toward a different destination. “Where are they going?” he asked no one in particular.

“Home,” replied Scout. “Their Hunt is finished. They have learned to live in harmony with the All, and thus have earned the right to live as adults. They may now choose mates and bear children. Those who have not yet fulfilled the Hunt may not.”

“It is a rite of passage,” Claire added, darting about his head. “All of the People must do this as they mature. It is necessary to spend time learning to survive without the aid of any of our tools, with only what they know, before they truly belong to their Clan. It is a living lesson of our history that we must never forget.”

Daniel pondered that information, comparing it to what Scout had told him in the forest, of how their enemies had relocated them to this world without provisions or technology. This was an echo of the far past, but he suspected the tradition had become much more than that now. The People used the experience not only to test their young’s knowledge of survival, but also to learn to be in harmony with nature, to observe and respect the rhythms of life in the wild.

An event of great tragedy had become a lesson in wisdom.

“What about those who don’t succeed?” he asked thoughtfully.

“The All takes them,” replied Hunter, his gravelly voice thick and rough with emotion. The little Grass Clan male kept his eyes straight ahead. His meaning was clear.

Survive or die. The lesson was a harsh one.    

They approached one of the unlit arches and a soft amber glow illuminated the interior, which proved to be a small room.

Daniel realized suddenly that he couldn’t see outside, regardless of where he looked. There were no windows in sight, no breezes. He looked at Scout. “Are we underground? And really on the other side of the planet?” 

“We are,” the Mountain Clan male answered with a slight nod of his head. Denali held up his left arm as if checking a watch, his thick fingers dancing over sparkly bits set into the metal gauntlets. Then he rotated his left hand palm-up and held it out toward Daniel.

Above the pad of Denali's fingerless glove, a holographic image of a planet appeared. A small green continent about the size of Australia sat in the southern hemisphere in a vast ocean, a long ridge of mountains curving up the northern coast past the equator and fading into a string of islands that disappeared over the top of the globe.

“Here is the Wheel of Worlds,” said the giant, touching a portion of the continent with his fingertip.

Instantly, the image zoomed in to show a tiny rocky landscape with the crystal-crowned stargate and the long, straight road stretching away from it. Daniel could see the step-pyramid in the distance, ringed by the mountains that formed the northern coast. Not far from it, off to the west, he could see the location of the transporter pad they’d hiked through the woods to reach, glimmering with gold and jewels.

Denali grasped the image of the globe between two fingers and rotated it to show Daniel the other side of the planet. A second continent, twice the size of the first, connected to it through the island chain. 

“Here is the city of Shahr,” the alien giant explained, touching the southern coastal mountains.

A map spread out from his fingertip beneath the illuminated surface of the hologram, expanding to an area so enormous Daniel’s eyes widened and his mouth formed a small “o” of surprise. The city of Shahr appeared to be the size of the entire state of California. 

Daniel tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly dry. “Do you have other cities?” he asked.

With a smile and nod, Denali touched two other spots on the same continent. “This is Zhwahyu,” he said, pointing to another spot near the western polar cap, “and this—” His fingertip illuminated a small city on the northern coast that extended in long, wide spears beneath the ocean.

Claire zipped between Daniel and the hologram. “The elders are waiting,” she interrupted. She didn’t look too happy, either, her mouth drawn up tight, emerald eyes flashing up at the Mountain Clan guide. 

Scout gently touched Denali's arm with a warm smile. “Yes,” he agreed. “We should be on our way. There will be plenty of time for geography lessons later.”

“Of course.” The giant gave Daniel an apologetic smile and turned the projection off. He bowed a little. “This way,” he said politely, leading them into an anteroom.

Daniel glanced around the room for a moment before he realized they had stepped into another transporter. By the time he’d turned to face the doorway where they’d entered, the big domed room was gone. In its place was a darkened corridor, leading off to either side. Claire flew up to perch on the giant’s shoulder and gave Daniel a smile, staying right where she was. The rest of Sky Clan landed on a small shelf on the wall and took seats on a padded bench that seemed to be made just for them.

Mountain stood at parade rest, his wrists lightly clasped behind him, obviously not going anywhere.

“Come,” said Hunter, tugging on Daniel’s sleeve.

He followed the little alien to the left into the dark corridor. Hunter stepped into a small booth with a pillow on the floor, just his size.

Daniel started to follow him inside, but Hunter grasped a black curtain at the doorway and nodded to his right.  “You next,” Hunter advised. Then he pulled the curtain closed between them with a jerk.

“This way,” Scout offered, easing past him in the hallway. He gestured into another small booth, where a larger cushion awaited. “Please sit here. When the council has assembled, we will speak with you.”

Daniel thanked him and sat down on the thick pad. He heard the curtain close behind him and Scout’s near-silent footsteps retreating further down the hallway. Daniel flinched as a red light passed over him in a precise grid. When it shut off, the booth plunged into complete darkness. An instant later, he appeared to be sitting in a room with a member of each of the Clans, easily recognizable by their build and coloring, but all miraculously the same height.

Holograms, he told himself, to make everyone equal in this forum.

He couldn’t help smiling at a six-foot-tall Hunter seated at his right.

Scout was seated to his left, and Daniel exchanged a glance between the two aliens he knew, smiling. “I’m honored to have traveled with two of the elders of the People,” he said with genuine pleasure.

“We welcome you, friend,” said the human-sized Sky Clan representative. She was the lone female in the group, a mane of pale green hair framing her delicate face, big turquoise eyes staring back at him. Daniel recognized her as one of the fairies in the tree when they had first approached him at the edge of the grasslands, and he had seen her again during his recovery after the sh'khan attack.

“I thank all of the People for the hospitality you have extended to me,” Daniel returned politely, shifting right into diplomat mode. “I would not have survived without your assistance. I owe the People my life.”

“Perhaps,” said Mountain with a shrug. Of all the People, this one showed his age far more than any of the others, with tiny lines around his mouth and eyes. His black hair was liberally streaked with silver, and there was significant wisdom in his rust-colored eyes. “You should know, friend, that much of what has happened to you here has been by design, to test your character.”

That was a little surprising. Had they somehow controlled the animals that had attacked? He considered that idea and measured his response. “What did you learn?”

“Kind,” stated Hunter with an approving nod. “Good fighter. Noisy like child.”

“You are honest,” Sky observed. “You have not lied to us.”

“How would you know?” blurted Daniel, then almost wished he hadn’t said anything. Then again, that might have been the response they sought.

Scout’s amber eyes narrowed slightly. “As I told you, the People do not trust easily. We have gone to great lengths to study you, your reactions, your language, habits, and memories.”

“I haven’t really told you that much,” Daniel returned, resisting the urge to shrug, “and I could’ve been making things up.”

Mountain shook his broad head. “Long ago, we learned not to trust what we were told by those who claimed to be our friends. We learned to look deeper, and so we have seen the truth of who you are.” He waved a hand over the space in the center of the circle around which they sat, and another holographic scene appeared.

Daniel found himself looking down at an image of the device Ernest Littlefield had studied during the 50 years he’d been marooned after the first use of Earth’s stargate in 1945. SG-1 and Catherine Langford, Ernest’s lost love, had rescued him from that planet, but Daniel had been sorely tempted to stay behind and study the machine. Only Jack’s friendship and counsel had brought him home safely.

The next image showed his first sight of the Asgard in the testing chamber on Cimmeria. Another showed Lya, one of the xenophobic Nox, smiling up at him. Every vision had been from Daniel’s point of view, as if they had been seen through Daniel’s own eyes, as if…

Daniel’s stomach clenched. “Those look like…” He cleared his throat and tried again. “Are those my memories?”

Hunter nodded, his expression sober. “Yes.”

"Ohmygod," he whispered in English, bowing his head, covering his face with his palms. He struggled to breathe, shocked and horrified beyond belief. These people had looked into his thoughts, into his mind! They might have seen everything, every dark moment, every unsavory memory, all the stupid, hateful things about himself that he believed or knew. They had the capability to view his most intimate moments, the experiences that he most treasured and feared. They could look at what he knew about humanity as a whole and make their own determinations, simply from what he had seen and heard as he had lived his life.

He lifted uncertain eyes to search their faces, dreading their reaction to this intimate knowledge of the human being in their midst. He had failed more often than he'd succeeded in almost everything he'd attempted, but he'd kept working, kept trying to make a difference. In the end, he'd failed spectacularly, because his world was now gone. His head and heart ached, and he put his head down for a moment in shame. 

Daniel held his breath, mentally preparing himself for their reaction, and lifted his gaze to the holographic faces assembled around him. There was no judgment in the alien eyes cast upon him in curiosity, seeking only understanding and knowledge. Their expressions were kind and open, simply waiting for his response.

Sky Elder leaned forward, her mint-green eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “We find your people's concept of privacy interesting. You appear distressed that we have witnessed your past, yet we have found that you have lived an honorable existence. What is the purpose of keeping secrets, when so much of your time has been experienced and shared with others who have participated in it? Does that not make each life public?”

They thought he was honorable? After all they might have seen in his memories, they still welcomed him? Daniel was astonished. He pushed past the embarrassment he felt and tried to put his best diplomatic face forward, saving the self-recriminations for later.

“It is cultural, really,” he told them, keeping his tone of voice positive, upbeat. “There are many other Earth societies that do not embrace the idea of privacy to the same degree. Many others are much more open than mine.” 

He wondered how much of his past they’d been privy to, what deeply personal details they might have seen. He decided he didn’t want to know. What had been done was done, and as they had said, the review of his life was educational material for them. 

Lifting his chin, he made eye contact with Scout, seated to his left. “I take it these tests, whatever they were, have helped the elders come to a decision about me?”

“They have,” declared the Forest elder. “You will be welcome among us as an equal, a full citizen of Shahr. We will teach you our languages and customs as you wish, and give you access to our library of knowledge. We ask only that you contribute what you can, that you and your people might be remembered.”

A sudden rush of gratitude filled Daniel, chasing away his doubt and embarrassment. “I would be honored,” he told them with pleasure. He wanted that monument to his people and their rich history, and if he were the last remaining source of information, he’d gladly give them everything he knew.

“Then there is only one matter left to address,” stated Sky, her expression suddenly shuttering closed. “Something of prime importance to the People. We have seen in your memories the destruction of the Asgard by their own hands.”

Daniel started slightly in surprise. "You know the Asgard?"

Mountain nodded. "Long ago."

Looking down at his lap, Daniel played with his fingers as a wave of subdued grief pulled at him, the destruction of the Asgard home world reminding him of the sight of Earth being blown apart in similar fashion. “Yes. They faced evolutionary extinction and chose to engineer their own end, rather than die out slowly. They chose to leave the legacy of their technology to us, along with a history of their culture. It covered millions of years, far more than we might have studied in our lifetimes. I was in the process of researching it, when I could spare the time.”

He sighed and shook his head. "All that may be lost along with the rest of my world. I do not know."

Scout’s handsome face darkened, and Daniel saw a similar reaction in the other elders’ expressions. A tingle of intuition crept across the nape of his neck. “May I ask why you want to know about the Asgard?”

“We wished to know if there was mention of the People in their history.” Mountain’s eyes were cool, glittering with leashed anger.

Warning shimmied with cool fingers up Daniel’s spine. “Not that I know. They never mentioned ‘the People’ and I heard no reference to the history the Forest elder told me in the woods.” He simply couldn’t believe the Asgard could have participated in such a ruthless extermination of any race as these people had suffered in their past. 

Hunter expelled a weary sigh and shook his head, sadness in his gaze as he eyed the other elders. “We are forgotten.”

“What of the Ancients?” asked Sky.  “And the Nox?”

The question, and the frigid tone of voice with which it had been asked, made gooseflesh rise on Daniel’s forearms and nape. “The Nox keep to themselves and have had little dealings with us, because they think we are too primitive and violent. The Ancients…”

He felt a little shiver run through his body. “A plague struck them long ago, and no colony was left untouched, even in other galaxies. They either died or ascended. We do not know exactly when the last colony on other planets disappeared, but on Earth, the Ancients vanished a million years ago, as we measure time. We suspect the last of them may have met their fate several thousand of our years earlier.” 

At this news, astonished looks flashed all around the circle, and the elders began talking in their own dialects, none of which Daniel understood. Voices rose in pitch and volume until everyone was shouting. Hands sliced through the air. Fists were raised and shaken.

Finally the furor died down to utter silence.  Defeat and hopelessness was written on every sad, shocked face.

“Plague?” asked Hunter, his voice calm now, touched with sorrow. “Ancients all dead? All?”

Daniel shook his head. “Some ascended to a higher plane of existence,” Daniel reiterated. “They exist without physical bodies, as pure energy, in a state of enlightenment. They have strict rules against interfering with those on the mortal plane.”

“Enlightenment. Bah!” Hunter shook his head, frowning. “Ancients not capable of this.”

Daniel frowned, considering, and then deciding on full disclosure, since they might have recorded other memories of his, ones he couldn’t reach on his own. “I speak from first-hand knowledge, since I was among them for a time. There was an accident.” He swallowed hard, pushing past his memory of the reactor overload on Kelowna and the agony that had followed. “I was dying, and one of the Ancients had been watching me. She showed me how to ascend.”

Every eye was fixed on him. No one moved or spoke. The aliens’ collective astonishment was palpable. 

Daniel sighed, fiddling with his hands again. “I remember none of that time, not whether it was my choice to return to mortal form, or if the Ancients exiled me.” He shrugged. “Later, I made a second attempt at ascension, which was obviously not successful, but I suspect that was my last chance to become one of them. I am at peace with this.”

He searched the faces of the elders for some sign of how that confession had been received.

Scout gazed down at the center of the circle, which Daniel guessed was actually some kind of control panel.  He manipulated the holographic display and the image of Daniel's first ascension materialized, seen through the bandages wrapped around his head as his body collapsed, surrounded by the faces of his friends. The Forest elder watched as the view was blotted out by a brilliant white light when the soul of Daniel Jackson floated up into the air, then crashed what appeared to be moments later onto mossy, soft earth in the form of a naked, shivering man.

Daniel glanced away, wishing he hadn't seen even that much of the images stolen from his mind. He was mortified, horrified, a sense of violation seeping through him, making him feel utterly naked. He struggled to remind himself of the importance of remaining in the moment, concentrating on the matters at hand. There would be time to experience the emotional repercussions of this mind-rape later. 

Sky sighed, speaking to the other elders, but in the language of the Ancients for Daniel’s benefit. “This explains why he seemed more advanced than those who came with him, but marked him as more primitive, different from the First.”  

“The First?” asked Daniel. They were talking about him, and he needed to pay attention, especially since they were often cryptic in their speech.

She nodded. “In the long-ago, two races met when they came to this galaxy to explore. The Asgard were the oldest race, travelers and mapmakers. The Second, Antquietas, were also very old. They built colonies and began to settle on many worlds. They met many other alien races during their exploration of the galaxy, but none who were close to them in development, not until they discovered the People.

“We were a young race then, brilliant and vibrant, full of promise, already living on many, many worlds and traveling among the stars. We introduced the Nox to the others, and an alliance of four great races was born.”

Mountain took up the narrative. "The Ancients gathered representatives of the four Clans from the many worlds we had settled, taking only a fraction of our numbers under the ruse of friendship. Their attack on our colonies was swift, executed with precision at the same moment all through the galaxy. We had no warning, no chance to fight back and, once the destruction was complete, a few survivors were sent here through the Wheel to bear witness to the others, as a warning. We were not to attempt escape from this world, and so we have been forced to remain here in exile." 

"We know the Nox did not participate in the war because they were pacifists, and violence was not their way," added Scout. "We are not as certain about the Asgard, but they did not come to our aid, and so both races bear some responsibility by default for our imprisonment." 

In that moment, everything clicked into terrible place in Daniel’s mind.  He was horrified by what he was thinking, hoping he was wrong.  His stomach rolled.  “In your languages, what is the word for ‘the People?’” he asked thickly, his throat constricting.

"Same in all Clan tongues." Hunter’s chin tipped up proudly. “Furlings.” 

Daniel flinched as if he’d been struck. He bowed his head in grief, trying to get a grip on both his emotions and his thoughts. His eyes prickled with tears, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, struggling to make sense of this mess. Finally, he sighed and made eye contact with Sky.

“The Asgard were never comfortable talking to us about the Furlings,” he told them, looking at them one by one. “The Nox told us nothing about anything.  And the Ancients… Perhaps you are the reason why they now refuse to interfere with other cultures. Perhaps they felt guilty about what they had done to your ancestors.” He shook his head, still failing to grasp the enormity of what had happened to these people, his mind and heart reeling.

“All I can tell you is that we were told the Furlings existed. We were never able to find any trace of you except in two places: one we called Heliopolis, which you saw in my memories. There were four languages written on the walls of a great meeting place, but the building crumbled into the sea, taking the language translator with it. The other place was a world where my people found Furling writing in some ruins, inviting others to come to their utopian paradise. The only remains found were human and Goa'uld, and they had all been dead for some time.”

The aliens were all staring at the floor, stunned defeat and unimaginable loss written on their faces.

“Our enemies are gone,” observed Mountain. “Only the Nox remain. Perhaps they can tell us why the others turned against us. It is something we must know."

"The Nox have buried their stargate," Daniel informed them sadly, also needing to understand why the Furlings had been condemned to this place, hunted down and destroyed by the other races. It made no sense to him. There had to be something he was overlooking, something really important.

Maybe the Nox had the answers.

"We have tried to contact them by sending a ship to their world, but they can make themselves invisible. They would not talk to us.”  Daniel studied the shocked, angry faces surrounding him. "They might not speak with you, either. They might be afraid of you."

"We would not harm them," snapped Sky. "There is no honor in fighting cowards.”

“No justice,” agreed Hunter.

“The Third Race,” murmured Daniel, studying their alien, almost-human faces. He sympathized with them easily, understanding their grief and loss, but found a sense of wonder forming in his heart.

He’d found the Furlings!

Then he remembered something else.

Number Three.

The scanner in the pillar at the stargate only operated when dialing out. The portable DHD had a lock in place for Number Three – the Third Race, preventing them from leaving the planet.

“They meant this world to be your prison.” 

Scout straightened his shoulders and lifted his head, his mouth pressed into a firm, angry line as he composed his thoughts. “We were never told what crime we had committed. We were simply relocated here or killed.” 

Hunter’s purple eyes gleamed intently, his gravelly voice deeper, darker. “People innocent then. Trusted too easily.  But lesson not wasted.  We learned.”

Daniel wondered if this tale were a hundred percent truthful, or engineered to engage his sympathy. It might also have changed over eons of retelling, embroidering upon reality with drama that might eventually have been considered fact. He had no way to know how much was history and how much was fiction.

Then again, a truly advanced race would have had more than one way off this rock.

“Do you not have spacecraft?” he asked. “You could have built ships to return to your travels and find the Ancients. The stargate is not the only way to explore.”

Scout passed a hand over the holograph control and brought up a view of the planet in the center of their circle. Completely encompassing the globe were scores of tiny, brilliant dots glittering with light.

Daniel remembered Captain Hailey, shortly after their SG team had first arrived, pointing them out in the sky, reflecting the morning sunshine. 

“We cannot launch any such craft until the Hub releases the Wheel of Worlds. To do so would be to destroy the ships and those who pilot them. We have already tried.”

“The Hub?”

“The Ancient device you carry,” explained Mountain quietly, his deep voice rumbling. “You can operate it. We cannot.”

“You have earned our trust, friend Daniel,” said Scout with a gleam of joy in his amber eyes. “Now it remains for us to earn yours. If we succeed, perhaps you may choose to release us from our prison.” His expression grew sober, uncertain. “If we do not, then perhaps the others were right to lock us away.”

Daniel wondered how this race could make such a judgment about themselves. He thought he'd found a truly honorable, noble people here, and felt privileged to be among them.

Scout's somber expression melted into a tiny, hopeful smile, respect and a little wonder gleaming in his amber eyes. He extended both hands toward Daniel, palm down, then palm up, as if to show that he was unarmed. “My true name,” he intoned with great formality, “is el-Mikha.” 

Sky made the same gesture. “My name is el-Riel.”

“el-Rafa,” said Mountain.

Hunter chuckled. “el-Ur, honored guest. Welcome to Shahr.”

Daniel felt a lump forming in his throat. He thought he should say something weighty and important, but nothing came to mind. "Thank you, friends. You have made me feel at home." He guessed the hand gestures they had all made were similar to a handshake among his people, meant to reassure, and so he repeated the sign to each of them.

Everyone was smiling now, a sense of relief lightening the mood in the council chamber.

“I have questions,” Daniel said, leaning forward eagerly. “There is so much I need to know.”

“In time,” el-Ur advised with a paternal grin. “For now, you rest, eat, sleep. Then you learn.”

Glancing down at his dirty clothes, Daniel sniffed, his skin prickling with dirt and sweat. “A bath and clean clothes would be nice.”

“Such comforts are easy to provide and already await you,” Scout assured him. “Come. We will see a little of the city on the way to your new home. Whenever you are ready, you are free to explore. Nothing will be beyond your access.”

Daniel was stunned. Such wide-open acceptance was unheard-of in his world. “Thank you. I’m eager to learn about all the People. I have been for a very long time.”

One by one, the holographic images of the elders winked out and subdued lighting came on in the booth where Daniel sat, trying to take in this turn of events and fully grasp what had just happened.

Smiling, Scout opened the curtain and led him and Hunter back to the transporter room, where their Mountain escort and Claire still waited for him. An instant later, they stepped out into a busy metropolitan street, with the city stretching out in all directions from them. Passages were filled with lithe Forest Clan and Grass Clan, with Mountain giants stepping carefully around them. Sky Clan zoomed about in their flight gear above everyone else’s heads, most in plain clothes and piloting various types of flying machines.

There were young and old, children and adults, as far as he could see. In many ways, Shahr resembled other cities he’d seen, with buildings, people, potted flowers, shops and markets everywhere, but there also was a sense of serenity here that he’d never before experienced.

Shahr also had features that set it apart from every other urban center Daniel had visited. There were no animals in sight -- no pets on leashes, no livestock, no working or service animals. The city was entirely underground, level upon level in staggered terraces, stretching up, down and away in every direction. Buildings weren’t just functional definitions of space; they were individual works of art, painted and carved right out of the living stone of the planet with breathtaking embellishments and decoration. Great rock arms and arches reached out in massive shapes of trees, gigantic representations of various Clan members, and soaring birds or beasts. Even the walkways beneath their feet were gloriously paved with mosaics. Balconies made of gem-encrusted metals connected levels or lined terraces. Intricately patterned grates and bridges were placed above flowing streams contained in canals of various sizes, some flowing into waterfalls that provided a soft white-noise background to the burble of voices all around him. 

Sometimes Daniel was so dumbstruck he stopped walking, just staring at some magnificent detail he encountered. His eyes were wide with wonder, his mouth hanging open, his breathing shallow and halting as his gaze cast all around, and then he would force himself to keep moving, following his guides. He wanted to explore, to touch and talk and listen, but he was also exhausted and hungry. He’d need to rest before he could fully appreciate this beautiful place.

Daniel felt as if he were walking down the golden streets of Heaven itself.

They rounded a corner and stepped into a small courtyard, clean and open, the stone floor decorated with gold and silver swirls that reminded Daniel of stylized symbols of air currents used in many ancient Earth cultures. A waterfall flowed over the edge of a balcony above the roof of a small building set apart from everything else by sheltered walkways. The upper balcony was upheld by a tall statue of a Sky Clan female, head bowed gracefully, arms holding up the stone channel of the waterway, reminding Daniel of ancient Greek columns. The fairy's body was set as the corner pillar for the building, and the wings were made of iridescent glass, providing windows for the dwelling. At the statue's feet, the walkway curved around and out of sight, forming an inset balcony beneath the overhanging level, under the streaming fall.

A notched gothic archway was set into the stone wall toward the back, away from the damp spray.

Daniel realized there were no doors on any of the buildings he’d seen; not a single door anywhere in the city. Everyone had access to everyone else. That spoke of a remarkable level of trust among their society, as well as an utter lack of privacy.

Scout gestured to the opening. “These rooms are yours. There is clean clothing made especially for you inside, and fresh food. Nari will stay with you to see to your needs.”

“Nari? Why do some names have the prefix 'el' and others do not?” 

"El is our word for the All," explained Scout. "Only those whose lives are lived in direct service to the All add the prefix to their names, as a reminder that we are here to serve." The Forest elder gave him a polite half-bow.

"Like priests and priestesses?"

Scout chuckled. "Not as you know them, no. We are something quite different. There is no direct translation that we have found in your language, or that of the Ancients that we now use. Perhaps one day, you will understand, but for now, you must rest."

Claire did an aerial pirouette two feet from his face. “You may continue to call me by your honored mother’s name, if you wish, but my true name is Nari.” She sped away into the apartment, and the lights came on as she entered.

“Thank you,” said Daniel to no one in particular, everyone surrounding him as he strolled into a spacious sitting room in his new apartment. Many furnishings were carved directly out of the rock in a clean, simple arrangement. Fabrics were sumptuous and soft-looking, and the view out the fairy-wing windows was peaceful and relaxing.

The others who had been traveling with him offered gracious bows at the doorway and then left, all except Claire.

“Come,” she said brightly. “I will show you the rest of your new home.”

End Chapter 12

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