As he exited the gate, O'Neill paused on the steps. Daniel's gear lay by the DHD but there was no sign of the scientist. Seeing Sam and Teal'c exit behind him, he proceeded down the stone steps to the equipment and as he moved closer, his eyes widened, and his breath hitched in his throat. There, on the ground next to a broken pair of wire rimmed glasses was a puddle of bright red glistening blood.

Carter moved down the steps and stopped beside him, her sharp gasp audible in the sudden deadly silence which surrounded them.

Jack knelt down and touched his finger tip to the bright drops. They were just beginning to congeal. Scooping up the broken glasses, he stared at them with haunted eyes. His earlier indignation at the scientist suddenly washed away to be replaced by concern as he realized a member of his team was down. Remorse flooded him. He should have made sure Daniel was safely through the gate, but he had let his feelings of anger toward the young man dominate him.

"Damnit!" Jack swore at himself more than the circumstances as he lurched to his feet and motioned to the captain and the Jaffa. "Heads up." The colonel thumbed his gun safety off as he scanned the area. "Teal'c, scout around. See if you can find anything." He turned to Carter. "You think the natives did this?"

She shook her head. "No sir. The area around the Stargate is forbidden to them. They wouldn't come near it. Besides, the locals liked Daniel. They wouldn't hurt him." She hesitated, biting her lip before asking, "Daniel wouldn't have done anything to ...himself,....would he Colonel?"

O'Neill looked her strangely. "What do you mean?"

Carter hesitated before blurting out, "I know you two had a disagreement of some kind. Daniel was upset this morning. Would he have been upset enough to..."

Jack fiercely shook his head. "NO! Nothing drastic like that." A tiny voice reminded him, Daniel had been very agitated the night before. Jack could still see his anguished face flickering in the light of the campfire. A tiny seed of doubt could not be shaken.

"O'Neill," Teal'c's voice broke into his troubled thoughts, "there are signs of a struggle. It appears something was dragged."

"Can you track it?" Jack asked anxiously as he proceeded to where the Jaffa stood.

Teal'c nodded. "I will try." Bending down, he studied the ground and pointed off in the distance. "It appears to go in this direction." He looked at O'Neill with questioning eyes and Jack nodded. Securely gripping his staff weapon, Teal'c took off at a jog, following signs only he could see.

Jack turned to Carter. "I'm going with Teal'c. You..."

"No sir, I'm coming with you." Sam wasn't one to normally disobey his orders, but this involved Daniel. "He's my friend too. I want to go with you."

Releasing a sigh, Jack nodded and jerked his head toward the vanishing figure of the Jaffa moving away in the distance. "We better get a move on before he leaves us behind." Sam took off at a quick jog and he hesitated only long enough to carefully tuck the broken glasses in his pocket, before following

Pain...overwhelming, all consuming hurt flooded in on him and he gave a small inarticulate cry of agony as every nerve ending seemed to pulse with fire. He tried to move, but even the slightest twitch set his body on edge. It seemed to center in his shoulder, but the misery knifed all through him. Choking on tears, he became slightly aware of his surroundings. Daniel could hear strange animal-like sounds. He tried to open his eyes, but it was dark and his vision was blurry. Gritting his teeth, he curled into a ball and let the darkness swallow him.

"Are you sure this is the right way, Teal'c?" Jack questioned for the tenth time.

"I am certain, O'Neill. These are the tracks I found by the DHD. If it is indeed what seized DanielJackson we can locate them."

Of that Jack had no doubt. The Jaffa could track a bird through the air. Still, the blood...there was no way to determine how badly Daniel was injured. "Can you tell anything about the tracks at all?"

"It is a creature of some kind. That is all I can ascertain at this time."

"An animal?" Sam asked.

"That would seem likely, Captain Carter. A large feline."

"A cat?! There's nothing like that on the fauna reports."

"I stated a feline type, O'Neill. It is much larger and moves on two legs."

Carter cut in, "I overheard Daniel talking with one of the natives and the local was telling him about a legend. It involved a cat like creature which attacked in the night. I thought it was just a local urban tale....You don't suppose it's real, do you?"

Jack shrugged. "But it was daylight when Daniel was attacked."

"Perhaps the creature was hungry," Teal'c pointed out matter of factly, and the two soldiers both shot him horrified looks.

O'Neill straightened. "Let's move."

The strange sounds drew him from the comforting, painless darkness. As consciousness slowly returned, the misery consumed him. Trying to focus on something besides the agony flooding through his body, Daniel tried to assess his situation. He was laying on hard rock, the cold leaching the warmth from his body. Fire centered in his shoulder and down his side. Weakly moving his fingers he could feel the stickness of coagulating blood. Jagged stabbing points of pain throbbed along his back and hip. "Not good, Jackson," his mind snickered as he lay unmoving, unable to see in the darkness, but he could hear grunts and squeals coming from nearby. Mauled beyond caring and just wanting to die to escape the pain, Daniel lay shivering in shock, awaiting his fate.

When he once again regained consciousness, Daniel was disoriented and lost. He finally focused on the faint light filtering around him. Blinking his bleary eyes he moved slightly, but could only see a distant pinpoint of brightness as though it were at the end of a long dark tunnel.

As he concentrated on the light, the illumination was blocked and he saw the shadowed form of something. Something big. Something huge. He blinked rapidly and his breath caught in a hitch of alarming agony.

Whatever it was it moved with feline grace. Then suddenly it rose up on its rear legs and...and was as tall as an American Grizzly. Daniel's blue eyes widened in terror as realization dawned. That thing had obviously dragged him to its den.

He nearly suffocated on his fear, feeling as if his heart would pound out of his chest. Tears of frustration welled hin eyes. He didn't even have his gun. He had been carrying it in his hand with his pack and had dropped it with the rest of his gear when he had approached Jack at the gate.

Jack. Even as Daniel realized he was going to die here, his main regret was that he wouldn't have the chance to apologize. All the pain which filled his body was nothing compared to the sorrow in his heart as he understood how badly he had hurt his best friend. And Jack was his best friend. His friendship had been the one sure, steadfast thing in Daniel's wretched existence and now..."It doesn't matter anymore," his mind pointed out, and he knew it was right. Nothing mattered anymore....

Still, he wondered in some distracted sense as he hovered at the edge of blackness, would Jack come back for him? Or if he were still angry, would he leave Daniel...Daniel's body...abandoned here, not even caring anymore about his fate? Although he knew it was futile, the words were a silent prayer. "Please, come back Jack. I'm sorry. Please come back."

The sounds of soft squealing jarred his senses and in the brightening light, he could make out two smaller versions of the huge creature. As Daniel stared at them with pain glazed eyes, an appalling sense of horror besieged him. He suddenly knew why he was here. "Oh, God, no!" The creature had brought him back to it's lair...to be food for the young ones.

The creature must have heard, and it rumbled menacingly as it padded across the rock toward him. Suffocating with panic, Daniel's mind screamed "Play dead or be dead!" Feigning, he froze as it moved closer, sniffing at him so close he could smell its rankness. He swallowed hard to keep from gagging. Moving closer, the creature reached out a huge paw and swatted him, much as a cat playing with a captured bird. Daniel bit down on his lip trying not to scream as the paw hit his injured shoulder. Then again the creature swatted at his head, its knife sharp claws raking his scalp and drawing blood. He attempted to remain motionless. Maybe if it thought he was dead it would...." What Jackson, go away and not eat you?" his mind giggled hysterically in fear.

It gave up swatting at Daniel and suddenly pounced. Driving his battered body into the rocks, the creature batted him about as if he were some human catnip toy.