Chapter Eight

Date: Unknown — Planet Designation: P2X-3YZ — Time: Unknown

 

The door closed behind Nafrayu and Daniel with a deafening scrape of granite on granite.  Like giant nails on a giant chalkboard, thought Daniel.  Then reality simply bent into itself, leaving the linguist without the words to explain that experience in a way that would make sense to the human mind.

 

He could smell how fast he was moving, hear the purple luminescence that vibrated behind his eyes.  This exchange of senses seemed to last forever.  It was as if he was going through the Stargate but inside-out.

 

Daniel remembered a pizza party in his first semester in college when some ass thought it would be funny to dose the dork by adding LSD to his soda.  He was just 16 years-old and recalled spending the night huddled on the floor of the kitchen pantry, packages of Ramen noodles scattered all around him.  They felt cool and resonated with a lovingly soothing crunch when he squeezed them.

 

The indigo sound in his ears suddenly tasted red.  Dark, sensual, berry red.  The juice running down the back of his throat spread warmth down his neck and spine, to his arms and fingertips, and down his waist to the stumps that used to be legs.

 

Everything then went black.  Well, not exactly black, just not— there.  Nafrayu was gone.  The wheelchair was gone.  He was gone.  There were no more whirling sensations or confusion.  Just a warm, content nothing.  This was nice and so very peaceful.  He totally understood the song Comfortably Numb.[1] 

 

Slowly Daniel became aware of pinpoints of white and orange light that shot through the darkness like sparks from a bonfire.  First, there were only a few, then a few more— swirling all around him in seemingly random formations.  Pulling together and then flying apart, they were like fireflies courting and dancing in the dark.

 

A deep humming pulsed, building slowly into what seemed to be music.  The sound expanded and he realized that they were pipes.  As he listened to the melodious tones, the lights throbbed and skipped.  They started joining together like stars dancing around a cosmic maypole.  Morphing and changing, they meld into a rhythm, forming a remarkably beautiful and vivid entity.  He imagined that this was what falling into a kaleidoscope would feel like.  It was soothing and Daniel was sure he was dead, again and experiencing… an angel… or a vision of heaven.

 

Suddenly the throbbing music began to form an audible structure that he recognized as a language.  And not just any language.  Unmistakably, these were words he knew— pulsing, twisting, turning.  This was Gaelic!

 

“Daniel Jackson, you beautiful child,” he heard the slow cadence of the melody coalescing into words in the echoing void.  “I am the Gate-Keeper and you have the look of one who has seen the back of the north wind.  We have been expecting you.  Welcome.”

 

The light wrapped itself around Daniel, cradling him like an infant.  He had never known contentment such as this.

 

“We know why you are here, but indulge us, say what it is you truly seek.”

 

The voice was resounding and vibrating through him.  He had to make a real effort to remember not only his purpose but also who he was.  In the confusion of the moment, his motives and priorities no longer seemed clear so Daniel struggled to find the right words.

 

“I seek healing.”

 

He wasn’t even sure if he spoke the words out loud or merely thought them.  His voice sounded weak and small compared to the Gate-Keeper’s.  As Daniel uttered those three timid words, he realized that he was asking for more than just his legs to be returned.  He wanted healing, a real deep, solid restoration after forty years of pain, losses, and death… so much death.  Not just his, but also the deaths that he was guilty of causing.  He wanted his very soul healed.

 

Laughter rang out—

 

“Daniel Jackson, you may pass.  Welcome to the twilight lands of the Sidhe, Tir Na n’Óg - Land of Youth.”

 

Suddenly, as if someone had pulled the plug on a giant bathtub, he felt himself pulled through an infinitely small hole in the fabric of time, space or reality as he knew it.  He wasn’t sure.  One moment nothing, and then…

 

Daniel and Nafrayu were standing in what appeared to be a stone hall.  He looked back and saw a huge caldron and almost laughed.  Jack will never believe this, he thought to himself.

 

Turning around, he saw tables all in line with steaming plates of every kind of game you could imagine.  Beef, lamb, chicken, duck, and pork— all as roasts and chops, fire kissed and fat glistening.

 

On another table, there were exotic fruits and vegetables.  On yet another table, there were pastries, chocolates, cakes, cookies, custards, tarts, and baked puddings.  Basically, he saw every confection he had ever known.  Daniel pictured Jack’s face seeing the third table and smiled.

 

He remembered reading that eating the food of the Sidhe was the same as signing a contract of eternal servitude.  Still, there was no one here but Nafrayu, and he realized that he was ravenous.  He took a step towards one of the laden tables and for the first time it registered.  He had legs again!  These legs were whole, with no scars, no seams, or ghost pain.  He had his legs back.

 

And then he also noticed what he didn’t have.  Clothes.  Blushing profusely, he looked over at Nafrayu and saw that the young man was also without a stitch on; only on him, it didn’t seem to matter as much.  Looking down at his body, Daniel saw that the scar from his appendix was also gone.  He raised a hand to the side of his face and felt his cheek.  There too, the scar was gone, he felt only his beard.  And his glasses were not in their customary spot on his nose, but he could see with an utter clarity that he never had before.

 

He looked at Nafrayu dumb-founded, “How?”

 

“I am afraid I do not understand the Tuatha, or how they work.  They are much older and a great deal more advanced than the Nox or even the race you call the Ancients.”

 

Daniel couldn’t help but laugh wildly.  He threw caution to the wind and ran down the length of the hall.  He jumped, spun and then ran back to a smiling Nafrayu.  He had never felt so exhilarated… well, no, not quite true.  He had felt like that when he had cast off the physical realm altogether, but that was like a fading dream.  His whoops and hollers echoed down the stone hall.  He stopped and took a deep breath and the smells of all that food came cascading in.

 

Be careful of willow trees, never sleep in a toadstool ring, and never… ever… eat food or drink wine and ale offered by the Tuatha Dé Danann.

 

Daniel remembered the warnings, and he stared at Nafrayu vexed.

 

“I’m hungry and very thirsty,” he told his companion.  “Hmmm, Nafrayu, do you think it would really do any harm to get a drink?  Legends repeatedly speak of how dangerous it is to accept fairy hospitality.”

 

“Nothing regarding the Tuatha is ever assured.  They are never safe, everything has a condition attached— or two or three,” the young one answered.

 

Daniel thought about it for a moment.  He walked over to a giant oaken barrel on one side of the hall.  It was surrounded by massive oaken mugs.  He was here; he felt better than he had in an extremely long time and damn it!  Why not?

 

“Can I pour you a mug?  What have I got to lose?  I already know what it’s like to be without these,” he said slapping his legs and grinning like a Cheshire cat.  “Let’s celebrate.”

 

“As you will, my friend,” smiled Nafrayu.

 

Daniel grabbed two mugs and turned the wooden spout on the kegs.  A golden liquid gushed into the mugs.  He handed one to Nafrayu.

 

“Here’s to the freakin’ little people!!”

 

He drank deep and closed his eyes to savor the crisp, sweet, yeasty goodness that flowed over his tongue and down his throat.  It was magnificent.  When he opened his eyes, it was as if a curtain had been lifted.  Colors brightened and pipe music floated around the hall.  There were suddenly hundreds of beings all around him, laughing, eating, drinking, and dancing.  Before him stood a tall, sleek, muscular, olive-skinned man.  He stood there smiling with arms opened wide.

 

“Welcome home, Master Daniel!” he said as he embraced the stunned man.

 

With eyes as wide as they could get, the lover of all things past was staring into the face of history itself.

 

“You are Ta’om.  I don’t know why I know that, but you are The Poet,” Daniel whispered in an awed voice.

 

“You know us all, Daniel, because you are one of us,” Ta’om smiled at him.  “Sit down and dine with me.”

 

Daniel looked at Nafrayu questioningly receiving a grin and a nod.  The Nox turned and walked over to the vegetable and fruit table and started to graze.

 

Ta’om pulled on Daniel’s arm, “Come, Daniel, sit.  We have much to discuss and much to discover together.”

 

He gestured to a bench at one of the giant stone dining tables.  Then Ta’om motioned to a beautiful, tall, moss-green woman.  As she came closer, Daniel remembered how exposed he was.  Immediately embarrassed, he covered himself the best he could.

 

Ta’om laughed at the newcomer and then turned to the woman, “Sister, fix our friend a plate of food.  He has gone too long and his spirit is famished.”

 

She smiled and nodded.  Daniel couldn’t take his eyes away from her.

 

Ta’om grasped his arm, “You have questions?”

 

“How…?” Daniel said looking at his legs.

 

“You of all people should know that the physical shell we cloak ourselves in is of our own creation.  An outward manifestation if you will.”

 

Ta’om suddenly changed before Daniel’s eyes.  His olive skin turned rough and scaly, his pointed ears were abruptly absorbed into the sides of his head, dark pupils turned into vertical slits and his tongue flickered out of his mouth, snake-like.  Just as quickly, he morphed back to his original form.

 

Daniel gaped at him.  The change was so quick that he thought he might have imaged it.  But then, with a smile, Ta’om pointed at Daniel.  Looking down at himself, he found that he now had a light shirt of fabric he could not name and a pair of breeches on.  They felt like the softest deer hide he had ever touched.  Then a steaming plate of food was placed in front of Daniel.

 

“Eat, Master Daniel.  You are going to need your strength.  Tonight the Children of the Earth celebrates you, my friend.”

 

Daniel tucked into his food with fervor.  He had never tasted anything as amazing.  Nafrayu sat down beside the linguist.

 

“So, Dr. Jackson, is this what you expected?” the young Nox asked.

 

“I didn’t know what to expect.  In the past, I have dealt with aliens that were manipulating humans by expounding on mythic archetypes…”

 

Ta’om laughed a loud, deep laugh, “I am a mythic archetype, boy.”

 

“My point exactly,” Daniel smiled.

 

Another mug of mead was placed before him by the same Green Woman that brought his food.  She ran her fingers through his hair and blew a thin stream of air across the back of his neck.

 

“Will you dance with me, Daniel Jackson?” she asked in a sultry whisper.

 

Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  His head was whirling.

 

You never could handle your alcohol, Danny-boy. Jack’s voice echoed in his mind.  He turned and looked at the beautiful fairy woman that was rubbing up against him, cat-like.

 

“I, I… I don’t dance.”

 

“Ridiculous!  Everyone dances.  Just feel the music pulsing through your soul, boy.  Raise your arms and spirit… let yourself become,” Ta’om said, smiling slyly.

 

Daniel shook his head, “I don’t dance and I don’t sing!” he said a little too loudly.  Then added in a dropped tone, “Not anymore, at least.”

 

He raised the mug of mead and drank deeply even though he could feel his mind starting to float.

 

“This is not a place where your pain and grieving are welcome.  We have no patience with self-pity.  You have got to let go and dance,” Ta’om cuffed him on the shoulder.

 

Daniel glanced at Nafrayu.  The young Nox smiled and quietly said, “I am going to go home, Daniel.  It is a bit loud for me.  You will be taken care of, there is no need to fear.  They will return you to your home… if that is what you desire.”

 

Daniel’s heart raced anxiously.  It was clear he had only scratched the surface of this strange place in all of his previous research and readings.  He nodded and drank deeply again.  Before he knew it, the Green Woman’s hand was on his thigh.

 

“Dance with me.  Use your new legs, child, and dance with me.”

 

The Green Woman’s voice was as honey.  Dark and rich, sluicing its way into his soul.  Daniel stood up and tentatively took her hand.  Nothing seemed solid.  There was an odd feeling that everyone and everything was quivering… vibrating around the edges.  Very slowly, they made their way to a chain of dancers that was weaving its way down the great hall.  She had an iron-like hold on Daniel.  Suddenly they were swept into the frenzied line of dancing Tuatha.  The jig echoed and the crowd twisted round and about, carrying Daniel like an errant wave.  Everything was a blur.  Faster and faster the music droned and the throng moved increasingly chaotic through the hall.

 

At the pinnacle of the dance, Daniel realized he would be perfectly content if it never ended.  He vaguely remembered tales of men caught in fairy mounds, dancing and partying till they went mad… or died.  Was this his fate?  To regain his legs only to lose his mind?

 

The music slowed and he looked around the hall.  It was empty except for Ta’om and the beautiful Green Woman.  He suddenly realized he had no idea what to call her, and that she looked exceedingly familiar to him.  They went back to the table to alleviate their thirst.  He took a long swig of his mead; it went straight to his head.

 

“Why do you believe the Nox brought you to us?” asked Ta’om, the Poet.

 

“Because you were the only ones with the technology that could replace my legs?” Daniel answered the question with a question.

 

“No, Daniel… we have watched and waited for you.  Do you think someone like yourself would go unnoticed?  We had known you before you were born.  We nearly switched you in your cradle, like we did with your father.  However, we realized that you needed to experience life, the universe, death, and ascension.”

 

Daniel’s face was an image of shock and confusion.  The tomb-like silence of the hall overwhelmed him.  After another sip, he turned his attention back to Ta’om.

 

“Um… I, I really don’t understand.  You took my father?  But he… he was human, like me.”

 

The fairy smiled warmly and said, “At first he was, yes.  But we saw in him the potential to become so much more.  We took him and raised him.  Teaching Melburn of our ways.  But, as what sometimes happens, he returned to the realm of his birth… and forgot.”

 

Daniel’s eyes were wide with surprise.  Then he wondered why the Tuatha were interested in him,  “Why would you know about me?  Aside from my father being here, I’m not that important.”

 

Ta’om softly chuckled as he reached out and put his hand on Daniel’s arm, “You are of the Sidhe, Daniel Jackson.  One of us.  And now you have come home to us at last.”

 

“But… b, but how?”

 

“Magic, my dear one.”

 

“There’s no such thing as magic… only unknown technology,” he said with confidence.

 

Ta’om shook his head slowly with a wry smile.  “Oh, Daniel… how young you are.  Of course there is magic.  Human’s have merely changed the name.  Have you not seen for yourself wonders that mystified comprehension?  In human terms, you have died many times, therefore your very existence is supernatural!

 

“Do not dismiss what is all around you as only technology undiscovered.  The Tuatha have been a part of the universe before time was counted.  Yes, we are, as you would say, advanced.  Still, what happens all around us is magic.”

 

“Your father, he knew of the magic.  When he did not return, the knowledge was lost to him.  You, however, have embraced the idea of the impossible.  The unusual for you is normal.  You have even used the magic of the ones you call Ancients.  In your battle with  Orici called Adria, did you not tap into the powers of Merlin?”

 

Daniel’s brows were creased and low over his eyes as he tried to comprehend what Ta’om was saying.  Everything he ever acknowledged as cold hard fact was being turned inside-out.  He was a man of science.  He accepted that the Ancients were merely further along the evolutionary line.  Their human brains, being more evolved, gave them their extraordinary abilities.

 

Still, the very definition of magic was to have extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source, according to some dictionaries.  But then he remembered how frightened and intrigued Skaara and the Abydonians were when he pulled out a pen to write in his journal.  It took him days to convince them it wasn’t sorcery.  Taking that into account, he supposed all science could be classified as magic.  His head was swimming.

 

“I think I need another beer.”

 

Ta’om smiled at him, placing a long fingered hand on Daniel’s shoulder.  “Come, it is late.  I will show you where you can sleep.  Tomorrow, I have a special surprise for you.”

 

Daniel stood and followed Ta’om in silence.  His head was reeling with the combination of mead, dance, and information.  He wasn’t sure how to take it all in.

 

And then there was the little voice inside his head that kept needling him in Jack’s warning tone, Watch your six, Danny.  You don’t know what these guys really want with you.  And don’t forget, I’m not comin’ to bail your ass out this time.

 

Then another voice gently nudged at him.  A soft, smoky voice.  One that hung with meaning and truth.  I love you, my Daniel.  Don’t forget.

 

He shook his head to try to clear the cobwebs so he could identify the second voice, but instead it just faded away.  The only thought that came to him was— Carpe Occasio.

 

 

 

[1] Pink Floyd, Songwriters: WATERS, ROGER/GILMOUR, DAVID JON
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., IMAGEM U.S. LLC