Picture Language of the Ancients ~ Annotated
for velara ( original entry)
Title: Picture Language of the Ancients
Spoilers: TM: entire mini // SG: general ’verse
Rating: same as the shows
Pairings: Wyatt/DG (established)[oh, so now he's Wyatt. what happened to "Cain"? heh.]
Author’s Notes: damn voices! This time, I learned my lesson, so I’m not fighting them.
Summary: A unique artifact is found in the O.Z.
The patrol knew they were near the Realm of the Unwanted, but they weren’t concerned with the underground city-state. It had been a little over a month since the O. Z. was saved from the evil Sorceress and the Queen returned to her rightful throne.[timestamp!] The Tin Men were reinstated, with Wyatt Cain as the Commanding Officer over all the Tin Man regiments.[i'm sensing a theme with all my fics here....]
The mission of all the units was the same - patrol the border areas of the O. Z., inform the Resistance fighters the war was over,[whoo hoo!!] and detain any Longcoats who might not have heard the Sorceress was gone.[dude, that is SO last annual!]
Two of the men had gone out further than they had the previous day, and surveyed the land. The grassy plains seemed to extend past the horizon in front of them. What seemed to be close by was a mound, and some sort of marker. The two men exchanged looks.
“Only time I’ve seen markers like that is on the Old Brick Road,” Jefferson, the tall man with wild red hair, said.
“What’s it doing all the way out here?” Weitz wondered. He was shorter, but at six feet tall and with broad shoulders, no one would dare call him short.[unless you were Andre the Giant. or Jared Padalecki.]
They started across the field, but the mound was further than they’d thought, and it was a good hour later they were finally where they wanted to be. The mound was covered with grass and weeds, and the dirt was packed solid, as Jefferson’s boot told him.
The marker was a little taller than the Central City road markers, but this was some sort of metal, something Weitz certainly had never seen.
“What do you think of this, Jeff?” Weitz asked his partner. The red-head came over to stand in front of the marker as well. He studied it a moment, and then frowned.
“Nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” he said. Their shadows were long on the ground and the first sun was starting to set. Jefferson started walking back.
“We should get going,” he said, “they’ll send out a search party for us - whoa!” he exclaimed, as he faltered. Weitz steadied him, and looked at where his buddy tripped. There was something sticking out of the ground, something hard, under the grass.
He kicked and scuffed at it with his boot, and finally knelt down to work at the dirt with his hands.
“There’s something under here, Jeff!” he was excited. “Maybe it’s buried treasure!”[hee!]
“Have you been listening to those stories from Princess DG?” he asked. “Everyone knows buried treasure is marked with a big red ‘X,’” Jefferson pointed out.[oh, DG.....]
But by the time the first sun was low in the sky, they had uncovered more metal that matched the marker, and it seemed to be something very large.
“I think we’re gong to need to tell someone about this,” Weitz said, wiping sweat from his forehead. He was glad he kept his brown hair short, not a wild mane like his partner. Jefferson agreed, and the two headed back to camp.
~*~
When word reached the palace there was something buried near the Realm of the Unwanted, there were rumors everywhere as to what it was. The Queen and her Consort spent many hours with Glitch and other advisors, Wyatt and Jeb Cain, the Princesses Azkadellia and DG, and some of the Viewers, including Raw and Kalm, discussing how to uncover - whatever it was.[well, i know what it is. heh.]
There was the suggestion to use machines to uncover the thing - no one knew how big or how deep it was buried. This prompted the suggestion of using magic to remove the earth. There was a great deal of discussion on this as well, because the use of magic would drain the wielder and would more than likely not be as effective.
Finally DG stood up from her chair at the vast table.
“Yes, DG, my light?” the Queen recognized her younger daughter.
“I don’t know about all you guys,” DG said informally as she looked around the room, “but I’m ready to just take a shovel and go over there and dig the darn thing up.”
There was murmuring through the assembled, and finally one of the advisors whom DG only knew by sight nodded in agreement.
“We should send a small team of men to the site to just dig it up,”[is there an echo in here?] he said, rising, and repeating what DG had just said.
“Thank you, Wilhelm. Your opinion is so noted,” the Queen said. DG sat down, a broad smile on her face.
By the evening meal, it was settled - exactly as Wilhelm suggested. Wyatt was given the task to assemble six of his strongest men who could handle the physical work. They had to be ready to go in two days, with horses and equipment to undertake this task.
After the evening meal, Wyatt and DG walked out on to the balcony behind the great hall of the palace. The suns were just touching the horizon, and it was a very colorful sight.
“Are you going with your team?” she asked, watching the sunset. Her arms were at her sides, and her hand lingered near his, barely touching his fingers.
“I don’t know yet,” he said, watching her. “I might go out to see everything set up, and then return,” he suggested.
“I’d like to see the site,” she said, turning to him to watch his expressions.
He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. He took her hands in his, and looked into her blue eyes as he carefully worded his reply.
“If it’s something we’ve never seen before - something that could have come from the Other Side, you can ride out to the site with me. From what the men who found it said, it could be quite vast.”
“So... no,” she translated.
“Not yet,” he corrected.
She pouted. She stuck out her lower lip and her eyes got big, round and wide.
“Well, at least you didn’t just say ‘no,’” she said.
He let go of her hands, and cupped her face in his hands, and tilted it slightly upwards.
“I know if I said ‘no’ you’d follow anyway.”[very smart guy... he knows his princess.]
“Would I do a thing like that?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.[of course you would, DG!]
“Of course you would. Rhys[yep, him again!] would have a heart attack, I’m certain.” He leaned in to gently touch her lips with his. She put her hands on his waist and kissed him back.
When the kiss was over, he told her, “Once we find out what this thing is, I’ll tell your parents of my intentions towards you. They have a right to know.”
“You’re not going to ask them?”
“Hell no, I don’t want them to tell me ‘no’ either.”[heee!]
“And Jeb?”
“I’m pretty sure he knows.”[cause smartness runs in the Cain family...]
“Won’t Rhys be upset to be out of a job?”
“Why would he be out of a job?”
“Well, if we’re going together, you wouldn’t need him to be my shadow anymore. You could do that.”
He arched a brow at her.
“Actually,” he countered, “with everything you’ve been known to get into, he’d still need to be your shadow too.”[two grown men to handle one mischevious princess. heh.]
She playfully slapped his arm. He kissed her again.
~*~
Surprisingly, it was only the day after the men left, that Wyatt returned from the site in time for the evening meal. As he ate from his seat at one end of the head table, he relayed the findings.
“It is a large ring, made from a metal that no one seems to know what it is. We’ve attempted to run some preliminary tests to determine what it is, but nothing is even registering on the equipment we’ve brought.”[ooh! i know what it is! i know! pick me!]
“I’d like to see it,” the Queen’s advisor interjected, sounding more like Ambrose than Glitch. “From a scientific standpoint, it could be very useful in understanding whatever it is.” He cocked his head for a moment, and sounded like Glitch when he spoke again.
“What is it, Cain?”
“We have no idea.”[i do! you're not listening to me! i know what it is!!]
“You said it was a large ring, Mr. Cain?” It was Ahamo who spoke from the center of the head table.
“It was. There is some sort of base at one point on the ring, and the thinking is that it should be raised. This way it would stand up on its edge in this base. It is a thick ring, carved with strange pictures around it.”
“It’s the picture language of the Ancients,” DG suddenly heard her sister saying in her mind.[just as i heard young Az say in my head when i wrote this... serious.]
“Do you know what the pictures are?” DG asked instead.
“No, no one has seen those before either. The whole thing is certainly puzzling.”
“I’d like to see it as well,” DG said.[of course you would. :D]
“And you shall,” Wyatt told her. The Queen, who had been silent throughout the report, now turned towards the end of the table. She realized that DG, a princess, had chosen to sit at the end of the long side of the head table, so she was essentially next to Mr. Cain, although he sat on the end.
“Do you know what it might be, my angel?”
“I have no idea, mother,” she said. “But Cain did promise I could see it once it was uncovered.”
“If I may offer a suggestion, your majesty?” Wyatt asked. The Queen nodded her assent, and he continued. “If DG were to ride out to the site and see this object, there is a possibility she may know what it is - if it comes from the Other Side.”
The Queen thought for a moment, and turned to Ahamo on one side, and Ambrose - or was it Glitch at that moment? - on the other to confer.
“We believe this to be a wise suggestion,” she said after a moment, and DG did a small fist-pump under the table so only she could see.[yes!] The smile on her face seemed to get bigger even to a casual observer. The Queen turned again to her husband and advisor for a moment of brief discussion.
“Who would accompany you on this journey?” she asked, sounding more like a concerned mother than the Queen. Wyatt shifted slightly in his seat before bolding replying,
“No one, your majesty.”[well, wouldn't DG and Cain technically accompany each other?]
The room fell silent at this pronouncement.[cause we know what they're all thinking....]
“We shall leave in the morning, and the site is not very far if we ride at a good pace,” he clarified. But his initial response had the effect he was hoping for. Before the week was out, he was certain the whole of the O.Z. would know of his intentions towards the younger princess. And that made him smile.[obviously not a man bothered by what people think of him....]
The Queen thought this over once more.
“We shall discuss this matter more,” she said, and DG’s gaze started to fall, “when you return,” the Queen concluded. DG looked at Wyatt, then her mother, and if they weren’t sitting formally at the table, she would have flung her arms around both of them. Instead, her smile lit up the room.
*
“You did that on purpose,” she accused Wyatt later as they sat on her balcony watching the moonrise.
“I did,” he admitted.[i like this Wyatt. see? now you see why i call him Wyatt, not Cain. heh.]
“You know everyone’s going to be talking”
“Let them talk.”[woot!]
“You are - ” she searched for a word, “an amazing guy,” she said, shaking her head.
“Come on over here, I’ll show you just how amazing,” he said, patting his upper leg.
“I can not believe you just said that,” she said, but getting up from her own chair and going over to sit his lap anyway.
She put her head down on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For keeping your promise - that I can go out and see what this thing is.” She lifted her head up to kiss him.
“You’re welcome, kid,” he said, and kissed her back.
~*~
They left shortly after the sun rose, DG grumbling a good bit of the way and desperately wishing for a hot cup of coffee. But after being out in the fresh, cool morning air, she began to stir, and sit up and notice her surroundings and where they were going.
She spent some time admiring the view directly in front of her - riding on a sleek black stallion leading the way was Wyatt. His duster covered most of the back of the entire horse, but she could see his broad back and the way the fabric stretched across his shoulders.[*guh*] His hat was low on his head, but she could see the short hair at the base of his neck. Part of her wanted to figure out how to take the hat off and play with his hair.
After about an hour, she rode up next to him on her chestnut horse, and broke the silence.
“Aren’t we near the Realm of the Unwanted?”
“We are.”
“Don’t tell me this thing is down there!” Her eyes went wide at the thought of major digging and excavations going on underground.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
She playfully thumped his back. “You enjoy teasing me far too much, Tin Man.”
His response was a grin that would have made a wolf jealous.[sorry, no bunnies for that AU... i already did the fangs once....]
It was only just another ten minutes of riding before the site came into view. She gasped at the enormity of the area that was uncovered, that maybe five weeks ago had been covered in grass, as five travelers sought out the Realm, looking for a man named Ahamo. Now, she knew who Ahamo was, and all the golden grass was gone, covered in mounds of dirt - all to uncover something big and round. Make that huge and round, DG amended her thoughts.
She nudged her horse forward to get a better look, and that was when she saw some of the symbols carved in the silvery-grey stone. The strange symbols went all the way around. No way, she thought to herself,[yes way!] and got off her horse. As she was looking around for somewhere to tether the horse, Wyatt walked over to her, leading his horse behind him. He took the reigns of her horse so she could get closer.
She walked all the way around the huge metallic ring, pausing at the far end to inspect the symbol there longer than the rest.
Wyatt watched her with interest. Was this something she was familiar with? he wondered, or was this how she treated all new things?[some of both?]
She’d completed her circuit, and was now looking at the marker off to the side of the metal ring. The way her fingers played over the top of the marker, touched the metallic surface, Wyatt wondered if he shouldn’t be jealous. He saw her speak, and led the horses over so he could hear what she said.
“You have something there, Deeg?”
“Yeah - It’s just... well, I didn’t think these were real.”
“What was real?” The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he tried to ignore the tingling sensation that caused him to be on his guard.
“This - ” she motioned to the metal ring. “It’s a ‘gate.”[see? i told you i knew. but noooo... you didn't listen. you had to let DG tell you, not me. *humpf*]
“A what?”
“A ‘gate. A stargate.” He was silent, knowing she had more to say about this strange object. “They say it’s used to travel between worlds. I... I didn’t think they were real. ” She licked her lips before continuing. “I saw something once on TV about them once - some reality show,[LOL!] but I thought it was more sci-fi at the time.” By the time she finished speaking, she was whispering.
“A... stargate,” Wyatt repeated.
“A stargate?” said a new voice, and Ahamo was now standing beside Wyatt. The Tin Man turned, and saw behind him were about a dozen men, as well as the Queen, Azkadellia, Glitch, Raw, and Jeb.
Glitch had dismounted and now joined the two men on Wyatt’s other side. He looked over the site, and nodded as if he knew what it was.
“You know what this is, Glitch?” Wyatt asked.
He gave a very self-assured nod. Then stopped and shook his head. He nodded again, and this time said,
“No.”[hehe... i love when Glitch can't make up his mind.]
“Well, which is it?”
“I mean, I don’t know.” He studied it some more as some of the men attached ropes to the ring. There was a shout, and in unison, the ropes were pulled, but nothing happened.
Az now came over to stand next to DG, who was in front of the men, taking it all in. It was true, she’d seen something on television, talking about theoretical astrophysics and wormholes. The show mentioned that it might be possible to use portals - or “stargates” - to control these wormholes. At the time, DG just passed it off as science fiction, someone’s vivid imagination.[well, the guys who first wrote the Stargate movie... and Farscape. that used wormholes too.] But that was all before she ended up in the O.Z.[truth is stranger than fiction?]
“What is it, DG?” Az asked, seeing the thoughtful look across her sister’s brow.
“Just lost in thought,” she replied absent-mindedly. “Here, help me,” DG said, raising her hands. “I want to help them raise the ‘gate. We can do it together.”
Az and DG raised their hands and directed their magic towards the ‘gate. Slowly, with the princesses concentrating, and the men pulling, the huge “stargate” was finally upright in the base that Wyatt had mentioned.
“I’ve got it!” Glitch suddenly said, and then was quiet again, shaking his head, murmuring “No...”[*pets Glitch*]
DG put her hand on Az’s arm and quietly offered her thanks. She then turned back to Glitch.
“It’s all right, Glitch. You wouldn’t have know what this was,” the younger princess put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her.
“What is it?” he asked, his face suddenly serious.
“It’s a stargate, Glitch.”
“Hey!” he said brightly, “I think I invented it!”[*hee*]
“No, not this time. But it is pretty cool,” she said reassuringly.
“How does it work?”
“Well,” DG started, and realized she had more than the attention of Glitch, Wyatt and Ahamo. “I’d seen it demonstrated only once - on a TV show[Stargate SG1, perhaps?] - but you need to have another one of these,” she pointed to the ‘gate. “And it has an address that’s a combination of some of the symbols on there. You enter the right seven ones in the right order, and then you can travel there.” She hoped that explanation would do - she didn’t know all that much about them herself. “Wherever there is,” she added under her breath.
As if on cue, the “stargate” began to spin.[ET phone home!] Wyatt, Jeb, and some of the other men had their weapons drawn and raised.
“What’s it doing?” Wyatt asked. Although his voice sounded calm, and he’d never admit it, he was ready to take the horses and go back to the palace.
“I think another ‘gate is trying to reach us,” DG said, taking a step towards the ‘gate, watching wide-eyed as it spun, and the symbols started lighting up. Wyatt moved to stand next to her, watching as well. There were five or six of the symbols lit up, when it just stopped spinning and went dark.[oops, wrong address.]
“What happened?” everyone assembled wanted to know.
“Wrong address,” DG said.
It was Wyatt who noticed the symbol that was now at the very top center of the stargate. He moved closer to try to see what it was.
“It’s the symbol of the home location of the ‘gate,” DG said, now next to Wyatt again. He looked up, needing to shield his eyes from the sun now shining in them.
“It’s - ”
“Yeah, that swirly spiral that was on my hand,”[what would you call it?] she confirmed. He took her hands in his - with her parents and friends, and a fair share of strangers watching - and brought them to his lips and kissed them. There seemed to be a collective sigh from the crowd.[*sigh*]
Taking her hand in his, Wyatt and DG walked back to where Ahamo stood. The Queen stepped forward to join her husband.
“Your majesty,” Wyatt said, nodding at the Queen. He turned to her Consort. “Ahamo,” he said, nodding again. Gods, he was ... nervous, he realized. It had been awkward to ask Adora’s parents, but now it was the Queen of the O.Z.!
And he wasn’t asking.[go Wyatt!]
“DG and I...” he started. “That is, I ....” he tried again.
The Queen turned to her husband, and they held hands and smiled. She turned back
to Wyatt and her younger daughter.
“Of course you may. With our blessings,” she said, smiling at them both.[dontcha hate when the Queen knows what you're trying to say and answers your question for you?]
DG squealed and wrapped her arms around Wyatt’s neck. He put his hands on her waist, drew her close, and leaned down to kiss his princess.[and they lived happily ever after. :D]
-
Title: Picture Language of the Ancients
Spoilers: TM: entire mini // SG: general ’verse
Rating: same as the shows
Pairings: Wyatt/DG (established)[oh, so now he's Wyatt. what happened to "Cain"? heh.]
Author’s Notes: damn voices! This time, I learned my lesson, so I’m not fighting them.
Summary: A unique artifact is found in the O.Z.
The patrol knew they were near the Realm of the Unwanted, but they weren’t concerned with the underground city-state. It had been a little over a month since the O. Z. was saved from the evil Sorceress and the Queen returned to her rightful throne.[timestamp!] The Tin Men were reinstated, with Wyatt Cain as the Commanding Officer over all the Tin Man regiments.[i'm sensing a theme with all my fics here....]
The mission of all the units was the same - patrol the border areas of the O. Z., inform the Resistance fighters the war was over,[whoo hoo!!] and detain any Longcoats who might not have heard the Sorceress was gone.[dude, that is SO last annual!]
Two of the men had gone out further than they had the previous day, and surveyed the land. The grassy plains seemed to extend past the horizon in front of them. What seemed to be close by was a mound, and some sort of marker. The two men exchanged looks.
“Only time I’ve seen markers like that is on the Old Brick Road,” Jefferson, the tall man with wild red hair, said.
“What’s it doing all the way out here?” Weitz wondered. He was shorter, but at six feet tall and with broad shoulders, no one would dare call him short.[unless you were Andre the Giant. or Jared Padalecki.]
They started across the field, but the mound was further than they’d thought, and it was a good hour later they were finally where they wanted to be. The mound was covered with grass and weeds, and the dirt was packed solid, as Jefferson’s boot told him.
The marker was a little taller than the Central City road markers, but this was some sort of metal, something Weitz certainly had never seen.
“What do you think of this, Jeff?” Weitz asked his partner. The red-head came over to stand in front of the marker as well. He studied it a moment, and then frowned.
“Nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” he said. Their shadows were long on the ground and the first sun was starting to set. Jefferson started walking back.
“We should get going,” he said, “they’ll send out a search party for us - whoa!” he exclaimed, as he faltered. Weitz steadied him, and looked at where his buddy tripped. There was something sticking out of the ground, something hard, under the grass.
He kicked and scuffed at it with his boot, and finally knelt down to work at the dirt with his hands.
“There’s something under here, Jeff!” he was excited. “Maybe it’s buried treasure!”[hee!]
“Have you been listening to those stories from Princess DG?” he asked. “Everyone knows buried treasure is marked with a big red ‘X,’” Jefferson pointed out.[oh, DG.....]
But by the time the first sun was low in the sky, they had uncovered more metal that matched the marker, and it seemed to be something very large.
“I think we’re gong to need to tell someone about this,” Weitz said, wiping sweat from his forehead. He was glad he kept his brown hair short, not a wild mane like his partner. Jefferson agreed, and the two headed back to camp.
~*~
When word reached the palace there was something buried near the Realm of the Unwanted, there were rumors everywhere as to what it was. The Queen and her Consort spent many hours with Glitch and other advisors, Wyatt and Jeb Cain, the Princesses Azkadellia and DG, and some of the Viewers, including Raw and Kalm, discussing how to uncover - whatever it was.[well, i know what it is. heh.]
There was the suggestion to use machines to uncover the thing - no one knew how big or how deep it was buried. This prompted the suggestion of using magic to remove the earth. There was a great deal of discussion on this as well, because the use of magic would drain the wielder and would more than likely not be as effective.
Finally DG stood up from her chair at the vast table.
“Yes, DG, my light?” the Queen recognized her younger daughter.
“I don’t know about all you guys,” DG said informally as she looked around the room, “but I’m ready to just take a shovel and go over there and dig the darn thing up.”
There was murmuring through the assembled, and finally one of the advisors whom DG only knew by sight nodded in agreement.
“We should send a small team of men to the site to just dig it up,”[is there an echo in here?] he said, rising, and repeating what DG had just said.
“Thank you, Wilhelm. Your opinion is so noted,” the Queen said. DG sat down, a broad smile on her face.
By the evening meal, it was settled - exactly as Wilhelm suggested. Wyatt was given the task to assemble six of his strongest men who could handle the physical work. They had to be ready to go in two days, with horses and equipment to undertake this task.
After the evening meal, Wyatt and DG walked out on to the balcony behind the great hall of the palace. The suns were just touching the horizon, and it was a very colorful sight.
“Are you going with your team?” she asked, watching the sunset. Her arms were at her sides, and her hand lingered near his, barely touching his fingers.
“I don’t know yet,” he said, watching her. “I might go out to see everything set up, and then return,” he suggested.
“I’d like to see the site,” she said, turning to him to watch his expressions.
He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. He took her hands in his, and looked into her blue eyes as he carefully worded his reply.
“If it’s something we’ve never seen before - something that could have come from the Other Side, you can ride out to the site with me. From what the men who found it said, it could be quite vast.”
“So... no,” she translated.
“Not yet,” he corrected.
She pouted. She stuck out her lower lip and her eyes got big, round and wide.
“Well, at least you didn’t just say ‘no,’” she said.
He let go of her hands, and cupped her face in his hands, and tilted it slightly upwards.
“I know if I said ‘no’ you’d follow anyway.”[very smart guy... he knows his princess.]
“Would I do a thing like that?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.[of course you would, DG!]
“Of course you would. Rhys[yep, him again!] would have a heart attack, I’m certain.” He leaned in to gently touch her lips with his. She put her hands on his waist and kissed him back.
When the kiss was over, he told her, “Once we find out what this thing is, I’ll tell your parents of my intentions towards you. They have a right to know.”
“You’re not going to ask them?”
“Hell no, I don’t want them to tell me ‘no’ either.”[heee!]
“And Jeb?”
“I’m pretty sure he knows.”[cause smartness runs in the Cain family...]
“Won’t Rhys be upset to be out of a job?”
“Why would he be out of a job?”
“Well, if we’re going together, you wouldn’t need him to be my shadow anymore. You could do that.”
He arched a brow at her.
“Actually,” he countered, “with everything you’ve been known to get into, he’d still need to be your shadow too.”[two grown men to handle one mischevious princess. heh.]
She playfully slapped his arm. He kissed her again.
~*~
Surprisingly, it was only the day after the men left, that Wyatt returned from the site in time for the evening meal. As he ate from his seat at one end of the head table, he relayed the findings.
“It is a large ring, made from a metal that no one seems to know what it is. We’ve attempted to run some preliminary tests to determine what it is, but nothing is even registering on the equipment we’ve brought.”[ooh! i know what it is! i know! pick me!]
“I’d like to see it,” the Queen’s advisor interjected, sounding more like Ambrose than Glitch. “From a scientific standpoint, it could be very useful in understanding whatever it is.” He cocked his head for a moment, and sounded like Glitch when he spoke again.
“What is it, Cain?”
“We have no idea.”[i do! you're not listening to me! i know what it is!!]
“You said it was a large ring, Mr. Cain?” It was Ahamo who spoke from the center of the head table.
“It was. There is some sort of base at one point on the ring, and the thinking is that it should be raised. This way it would stand up on its edge in this base. It is a thick ring, carved with strange pictures around it.”
“It’s the picture language of the Ancients,” DG suddenly heard her sister saying in her mind.[just as i heard young Az say in my head when i wrote this... serious.]
“Do you know what the pictures are?” DG asked instead.
“No, no one has seen those before either. The whole thing is certainly puzzling.”
“I’d like to see it as well,” DG said.[of course you would. :D]
“And you shall,” Wyatt told her. The Queen, who had been silent throughout the report, now turned towards the end of the table. She realized that DG, a princess, had chosen to sit at the end of the long side of the head table, so she was essentially next to Mr. Cain, although he sat on the end.
“Do you know what it might be, my angel?”
“I have no idea, mother,” she said. “But Cain did promise I could see it once it was uncovered.”
“If I may offer a suggestion, your majesty?” Wyatt asked. The Queen nodded her assent, and he continued. “If DG were to ride out to the site and see this object, there is a possibility she may know what it is - if it comes from the Other Side.”
The Queen thought for a moment, and turned to Ahamo on one side, and Ambrose - or was it Glitch at that moment? - on the other to confer.
“We believe this to be a wise suggestion,” she said after a moment, and DG did a small fist-pump under the table so only she could see.[yes!] The smile on her face seemed to get bigger even to a casual observer. The Queen turned again to her husband and advisor for a moment of brief discussion.
“Who would accompany you on this journey?” she asked, sounding more like a concerned mother than the Queen. Wyatt shifted slightly in his seat before bolding replying,
“No one, your majesty.”[well, wouldn't DG and Cain technically accompany each other?]
The room fell silent at this pronouncement.[cause we know what they're all thinking....]
“We shall leave in the morning, and the site is not very far if we ride at a good pace,” he clarified. But his initial response had the effect he was hoping for. Before the week was out, he was certain the whole of the O.Z. would know of his intentions towards the younger princess. And that made him smile.[obviously not a man bothered by what people think of him....]
The Queen thought this over once more.
“We shall discuss this matter more,” she said, and DG’s gaze started to fall, “when you return,” the Queen concluded. DG looked at Wyatt, then her mother, and if they weren’t sitting formally at the table, she would have flung her arms around both of them. Instead, her smile lit up the room.
*
“You did that on purpose,” she accused Wyatt later as they sat on her balcony watching the moonrise.
“I did,” he admitted.[i like this Wyatt. see? now you see why i call him Wyatt, not Cain. heh.]
“You know everyone’s going to be talking”
“Let them talk.”[woot!]
“You are - ” she searched for a word, “an amazing guy,” she said, shaking her head.
“Come on over here, I’ll show you just how amazing,” he said, patting his upper leg.
“I can not believe you just said that,” she said, but getting up from her own chair and going over to sit his lap anyway.
She put her head down on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For keeping your promise - that I can go out and see what this thing is.” She lifted her head up to kiss him.
“You’re welcome, kid,” he said, and kissed her back.
~*~
They left shortly after the sun rose, DG grumbling a good bit of the way and desperately wishing for a hot cup of coffee. But after being out in the fresh, cool morning air, she began to stir, and sit up and notice her surroundings and where they were going.
She spent some time admiring the view directly in front of her - riding on a sleek black stallion leading the way was Wyatt. His duster covered most of the back of the entire horse, but she could see his broad back and the way the fabric stretched across his shoulders.[*guh*] His hat was low on his head, but she could see the short hair at the base of his neck. Part of her wanted to figure out how to take the hat off and play with his hair.
After about an hour, she rode up next to him on her chestnut horse, and broke the silence.
“Aren’t we near the Realm of the Unwanted?”
“We are.”
“Don’t tell me this thing is down there!” Her eyes went wide at the thought of major digging and excavations going on underground.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
She playfully thumped his back. “You enjoy teasing me far too much, Tin Man.”
His response was a grin that would have made a wolf jealous.[sorry, no bunnies for that AU... i already did the fangs once....]
It was only just another ten minutes of riding before the site came into view. She gasped at the enormity of the area that was uncovered, that maybe five weeks ago had been covered in grass, as five travelers sought out the Realm, looking for a man named Ahamo. Now, she knew who Ahamo was, and all the golden grass was gone, covered in mounds of dirt - all to uncover something big and round. Make that huge and round, DG amended her thoughts.
She nudged her horse forward to get a better look, and that was when she saw some of the symbols carved in the silvery-grey stone. The strange symbols went all the way around. No way, she thought to herself,[yes way!] and got off her horse. As she was looking around for somewhere to tether the horse, Wyatt walked over to her, leading his horse behind him. He took the reigns of her horse so she could get closer.
She walked all the way around the huge metallic ring, pausing at the far end to inspect the symbol there longer than the rest.
Wyatt watched her with interest. Was this something she was familiar with? he wondered, or was this how she treated all new things?[some of both?]
She’d completed her circuit, and was now looking at the marker off to the side of the metal ring. The way her fingers played over the top of the marker, touched the metallic surface, Wyatt wondered if he shouldn’t be jealous. He saw her speak, and led the horses over so he could hear what she said.
“You have something there, Deeg?”
“Yeah - It’s just... well, I didn’t think these were real.”
“What was real?” The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he tried to ignore the tingling sensation that caused him to be on his guard.
“This - ” she motioned to the metal ring. “It’s a ‘gate.”[see? i told you i knew. but noooo... you didn't listen. you had to let DG tell you, not me. *humpf*]
“A what?”
“A ‘gate. A stargate.” He was silent, knowing she had more to say about this strange object. “They say it’s used to travel between worlds. I... I didn’t think they were real. ” She licked her lips before continuing. “I saw something once on TV about them once - some reality show,[LOL!] but I thought it was more sci-fi at the time.” By the time she finished speaking, she was whispering.
“A... stargate,” Wyatt repeated.
“A stargate?” said a new voice, and Ahamo was now standing beside Wyatt. The Tin Man turned, and saw behind him were about a dozen men, as well as the Queen, Azkadellia, Glitch, Raw, and Jeb.
Glitch had dismounted and now joined the two men on Wyatt’s other side. He looked over the site, and nodded as if he knew what it was.
“You know what this is, Glitch?” Wyatt asked.
He gave a very self-assured nod. Then stopped and shook his head. He nodded again, and this time said,
“No.”[hehe... i love when Glitch can't make up his mind.]
“Well, which is it?”
“I mean, I don’t know.” He studied it some more as some of the men attached ropes to the ring. There was a shout, and in unison, the ropes were pulled, but nothing happened.
Az now came over to stand next to DG, who was in front of the men, taking it all in. It was true, she’d seen something on television, talking about theoretical astrophysics and wormholes. The show mentioned that it might be possible to use portals - or “stargates” - to control these wormholes. At the time, DG just passed it off as science fiction, someone’s vivid imagination.[well, the guys who first wrote the Stargate movie... and Farscape. that used wormholes too.] But that was all before she ended up in the O.Z.[truth is stranger than fiction?]
“What is it, DG?” Az asked, seeing the thoughtful look across her sister’s brow.
“Just lost in thought,” she replied absent-mindedly. “Here, help me,” DG said, raising her hands. “I want to help them raise the ‘gate. We can do it together.”
Az and DG raised their hands and directed their magic towards the ‘gate. Slowly, with the princesses concentrating, and the men pulling, the huge “stargate” was finally upright in the base that Wyatt had mentioned.
“I’ve got it!” Glitch suddenly said, and then was quiet again, shaking his head, murmuring “No...”[*pets Glitch*]
DG put her hand on Az’s arm and quietly offered her thanks. She then turned back to Glitch.
“It’s all right, Glitch. You wouldn’t have know what this was,” the younger princess put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her.
“What is it?” he asked, his face suddenly serious.
“It’s a stargate, Glitch.”
“Hey!” he said brightly, “I think I invented it!”[*hee*]
“No, not this time. But it is pretty cool,” she said reassuringly.
“How does it work?”
“Well,” DG started, and realized she had more than the attention of Glitch, Wyatt and Ahamo. “I’d seen it demonstrated only once - on a TV show[Stargate SG1, perhaps?] - but you need to have another one of these,” she pointed to the ‘gate. “And it has an address that’s a combination of some of the symbols on there. You enter the right seven ones in the right order, and then you can travel there.” She hoped that explanation would do - she didn’t know all that much about them herself. “Wherever there is,” she added under her breath.
As if on cue, the “stargate” began to spin.[ET phone home!] Wyatt, Jeb, and some of the other men had their weapons drawn and raised.
“What’s it doing?” Wyatt asked. Although his voice sounded calm, and he’d never admit it, he was ready to take the horses and go back to the palace.
“I think another ‘gate is trying to reach us,” DG said, taking a step towards the ‘gate, watching wide-eyed as it spun, and the symbols started lighting up. Wyatt moved to stand next to her, watching as well. There were five or six of the symbols lit up, when it just stopped spinning and went dark.[oops, wrong address.]
“What happened?” everyone assembled wanted to know.
“Wrong address,” DG said.
It was Wyatt who noticed the symbol that was now at the very top center of the stargate. He moved closer to try to see what it was.
“It’s the symbol of the home location of the ‘gate,” DG said, now next to Wyatt again. He looked up, needing to shield his eyes from the sun now shining in them.
“It’s - ”
“Yeah, that swirly spiral that was on my hand,”[what would you call it?] she confirmed. He took her hands in his - with her parents and friends, and a fair share of strangers watching - and brought them to his lips and kissed them. There seemed to be a collective sigh from the crowd.[*sigh*]
Taking her hand in his, Wyatt and DG walked back to where Ahamo stood. The Queen stepped forward to join her husband.
“Your majesty,” Wyatt said, nodding at the Queen. He turned to her Consort. “Ahamo,” he said, nodding again. Gods, he was ... nervous, he realized. It had been awkward to ask Adora’s parents, but now it was the Queen of the O.Z.!
And he wasn’t asking.[go Wyatt!]
“DG and I...” he started. “That is, I ....” he tried again.
The Queen turned to her husband, and they held hands and smiled. She turned back
to Wyatt and her younger daughter.
“Of course you may. With our blessings,” she said, smiling at them both.[dontcha hate when the Queen knows what you're trying to say and answers your question for you?]
DG squealed and wrapped her arms around Wyatt’s neck. He put his hands on her waist, drew her close, and leaned down to kiss his princess.[and they lived happily ever after. :D]
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