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The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. The Stargate franchise is currently owned by Metro-Goldwin-Mayer. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.

Camelopardalis

Chapter 19

Come Sail Away with Me

From Chapter 18

"We certainly would not allow that to happen," a new voice joined the conversation and Daniel found the Lady Xu-Chaulk had appeared. She was as beautiful as Daniel remembered and very obviously pregnant.

"My Lady," Daniel bowed. "I didn't see you there."

"Come now, Daniel," Ruby replied. "I'm nearly as big as one of my father's whales." She poked at the Shaman's side when Sam laughed. "I'm hard to overlook."

Looking at the Royals Daniel realized he was looking at a family. He looked around for Dean and caught sight of the King standing quietly in the house doorway watching them all. There was a rustling movement in the shade behind the King and another, slightly taller, man appeared with dark wings outspread. Daniel had a feeling that he knew exactly who it was guarding the King's back. It was the Wizard Castiel.

Chapter 19

A description of the ritualistic burial of the Sacred Tree Stone of the Kings of Tikal:

The mood of the crowd intensified as sounds of drumming echoed throughout the large plaza. It seemed as if everyone in the city was present. The piercing cry of flutes and clay whistles rose from the children of Tikal. Rattles shivered on the dancing ankles of farmers, masons and weavers, counterpointing the deep-throated rhythm of the chest-high drums arrayed along the stairs. The people – ahauob and common folk alike- sang and danced a plaintive dirge to rekindle the spirits of the desecrated tree-stones of the ancient kings. At the culmination of this ritual of remembrance and burial the gods and ancestors would turn their faces once more toward the great kingdom as the center of the world. The lineage of Tikal's kings would reign once again with honor restored.

From "A Forest of Kings" by Linda Schele and David Freidel, copyright 1998

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Daniel watched and waited until the King Bahlum-Kuk left the doorway and advanced toward the group of Earth visitors. The Wizard Castiel followed behind the young king like a dark winged hawk on guard.

"Daniel," Dean smiled and held out his hand. "It has been so long. I thought you had forgotten us."

"No one who has ever seen it can forget Seladon." Daniel replied. He turned to the Senator and placed a hand on her arm. "King Bahlum-Kuk I would like you to meet Senator Alice Lasky. She is now ambassador to Seladon as selected by Earth's Council,"

Dean smiled at the woman who, though tiny by Earth standards, was a fairly normal size for the older women of Seladon.

"Welcome Senator Alice Lasky. I hope you will enjoy your stay."

The Senator was somewhat surprised at the King's greeting. She had heard that most of Seladon's natives also spoke English but the King's fluency was unexpected.

"Thank you, Bahlum-Kuk." She replied. "You have an incredible world. I'm sure I would enjoy the visit if I simply stood and stared at your city all day."

Dean smiled broadly. "Tell me Daniel, what happened to that ignorant, rude man who wanted to treat us as barbarians. I believe he was called Meckelberg?"

Daniel smiled broadly. "He was thrown out of office by his constituency. He no longer holds any power in the government."

"Odd," Bahlum-Kuk murmured. "I don't understand. Is he no longer one of the ahauob? How can that be?"

Daniel cleared his throat. "We should perhaps discuss the political processes of Earth some other time when you have more time to listen to a long and slightly boring description of the politics of Earth. Right now I think the Senator would appreciate a small tour of the city with a knowledgeable guide and I would be interested to hear what it is that you have done to the temple field. I noticed the changes all the way from the Star Gate. It almost appears you have turned your family's temple to face the Gate."

"Come now," the Lady Xu-Chaulk interjected. "You have all had one long walk through the jungle in the heat of the afternoon. Let us enter the house and sit down in the patio. I have drinks and food waiting for you all."

The Senator looked over this most interesting of Kings. Bahlum-Kuk was taller than most of the people she had seen in the city and his brother Yat-Balam she suspected might be the tallest of any Seladon native.

The waist of the king was encircled by the wrappings of his hip cloth and skirt, garments made of fine cotton like cloth resplendent with painted and woven patterns rendered in the bright hues of forest dyes. He wore a turban of fine fabric bound tightly around his long fair hair with a jade-studded leather headband. Elegant tail feathers arched from the headband to bob in time with his movements. Deep green jade beads and blood red spondylosis shell ornaments hung from his ears and gleamed against his brown chest.

Dean noticed her staring at his ornaments and smiled. He took one of the jade necklaces he was wearing and dropped it over her head.

"There you go, Senator Alice Lasky." He grinned with the spontaneous joy that Daniel remembered from years ago. "I don't usually wear my fancy regalia every day. This was simply in your honor. You can have that piece as a remembrance of our first meeting."

Alice fingered the cool jade beads. "My first souvenir of Seladon." She smiled. "I thank you. I did want something of this world to treasure."

Dean smiled again. "We should go in. My wife gets cranky when we don't do as she says, especially when she has made such careful plans. Please enter my house, all of you."

He gestured toward the open archway and the Senator followed. She stared at the backs of the two brothers. The one they all called Sam still carried the little girl Sunny. The Senator felt sure that this was Sam's child he was cradling so carefully in his arms. A story there, she thought. She then glanced at the man following on Bahlum-Kuk's left side. He was about the same size as the King with heavy dark wings that glistened in the light. Iridescent colors chased over the feathers highlighting the man's movements. Another story there, she thought to herself. She would have to be careful around these people. There was much she didn't understand and much depended both them and on her relationship with them.

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The group entered the dark cool entrance hall that led straight past the interior rooms with their shaded windows and faint purple shadows out into the sun again. The light at the end of the tunnel was the communal central patio with the tumbling mountain stream, graceful palm like trees with long lacy fronds casting welcome shadow on the sand and soft grassy knolls. There were platters of food scattered over many of the large flat rocks. The platters were shielded with large bright green leaves.

Daniel was ready for Seladon's food; the shredded greens that crunched in his teeth. The sweet shredded meats with just a touch of fire and citrus flavors and the tortilla bread that was just this side of chewy but strong enough to hold the meat and vegetables even when one of the spicy condiments was added. The flavor of the food was just as wonderful as he remembered. Three years was not near long enough to erase the taste from his tongue.

Just as he was assembling the first of his choices he almost dropped it as Teal'c rammed an elbow into his side.

"Daniel," the Jaffa whispered. "Look up. Look at the roof. Isn't that one of those Angels?"

Daniel looked up immediately then called out "Dean, Sam, there's an Angel on the roof." He put down his food and reached for Sam's arm as Sam was the closest brother.

Sam turned at the pulled on his arm. "It's OK, Daniel." He said calmly. "Things have changed in the past couple of years. It's fine. The Angel belongs on our roof."

Daniel's eyebrows did a little shocked dance and he pushed his antique glasses up on his nose. "Maybe we should talk about that first." He looked around for Dean and saw the King laughing with Senator Lasky, completely at ease and ignoring the sworn enemy sitting on the roof over his head.

"What happened, Sam?" Daniel asked. "When I left here they had just killed your father. Now you have them sitting on your roof?"

"Look, Daniel, Teal'c," Sam said calmly "let's just go sit down with Dean and Castiel and we'll tell you all about it. The tall Shaman sent them over to join Dean.

Daniel heard Sam call out "Anadel" and he looked back at the tall brother. Sam was waving at the Angel and beckoning him down from the roof. To Daniel's shock the glowing Angel lifted and then floated down to the garden next to Sam.

Dean looked up at the visitors. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess that takes a little explaining."

They gathered beside the fast flowing spring. Senator Lasky was enjoying herself, splashing her feet in the water like a child. The Lady Xu-Chaulk was fully in the water, her wet clothes clinging to her swollen belly. All the Royals were laughing and relaxed. No one seemed to care about the Angel in their midst. Sam walked over with the Angel beside him and they all gathered around the stone where the food was laid out.

Sam started the explanation. "When Ruby got pregnant I began o worry about the Angel attacks. I was worried about the child coming into the world possibly with Wings. That would make the baby a target. Angels have been known to hunt out and murder newborns with wings."

"Yes, Sam got angry and you don't want to make my brother angry. Storm clouds gather and lightening flashes and forests get burned when Sam gets angry." Dean laughed and picked up a hollowed out fruit that apparently was full of juice.

Sam snorted. "My story, Dean." He objected.

"Sorry."

Sam went on. "After thinking about it for a while I went to the temple field and then stood under the jungle edge and thought about The Oldest. It took some time but finally one of them appeared. I explained my fears to him and asked for them to intercede. The battle between Angels and their Winged descendants had gone on long enough, I said. Too many had died and I wanted to keep Ruby's baby safe."

"What did he say?" Daniel asked.

"The Oldest don't speak," Sam replied. "they listen."

"He left and I came back to Anthol. After sometime I found that they had listened to me and decided to do something about the problem. They began to constrict the land in the mountains which was the only place the Angels could stand on the face of Seladon. I found out later that every day the boarders shrank. Also every day another Angel was eliminated, falling on to forbidden ground and burning. Finally there was barely standing room and the Angels cried out to the Oldest begging for mercy.

The Oldest appeared and explained the Angel's options. The borders would grow closer and closer and eventually all the Angels would die most horribly. That was one path. The other path was for each individual Angel to find a Seladon family that would offer them a home and forgiveness. They could become house Angels but then would owe complete loyalty to the family that took them in and forgave them."

Sam reached out and laid a hand on the Angel's shoulder. "This is Anadel our house Angel. He has been with us since Sunny was born.

"It was the younger Angels who were happy to find this path." The Angel spoke in a high, sweet voice. "Those of us who were created on Seladon were most open to change. The older Angels, those that had come through the Circle far back in the beginning, refused to yield to the new order. Most simply fell to the ground although, I admit, some of them required encouragement to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs."

Daniel kept his opinion to himself but it certainly sounded like civil war in the Angel ranks to him.

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It was very late. Seladon's sky was alive with its jewels of the night. As if the place needed even more beauty, there had been a torrent of shooting stars just after the moons had started to rise. Daniel stood in his doorway staring out into the patio. He could hear soft laughter coming from under the trees. He knew that when dinner was over almost everyone had gone to their beds. The people of Seladon lived in the sunlight. The dark of night was for lovers.

He had seen the way Dean leaned back onto the chest of the Wizard Castiel, Ruby's father. He had told himself that it didn't bother him, that these people could do as they like but he felt a spike of jealousy as he eavesdropped on Dean's murmuring voice and the rumble of response by Castiel.

He had not expected Dean to be faithful or to wait for a lover who couldn't even estimate when they would see each other again. He remembered, all too well, the taste of Dean's mouth and the weight of the man on his chest. He remembered playing with those slim, agile fingers and most of all he remembered how those hands could play his body like a musical instrument. No lover since had even come close.

Dean and he had talked privately for a short time after dinner. The Earth delegation had arrived just in time to catch Dean on the King's way out the door. He and Castiel were traveling to Castiel's Ocean Kingdom this very morning; a trip long planned and provided for.

Sam and Ruby would rule in Dean's absence. Senator Alice Lasky would not miss her chance. Sam was fully capable and authorized to make any decisions needed for the good of the city. Earth would have its embassy now, Daniel was sure. The people of the city had come to accept the brothers' power sharing arrangement. Anthol had become even more prosperous and strong though the alliance with the Ocean Kingdoms and Daniel was confident that Dean and Castiel could very possibly celebrate their relationship on top of the Royal pyramid and no one would say a word.

Daniel laughed at the idea. Sam was concerned that the exposure of these family secrets, including his own, would cause trouble in the city and he insisted that secrets be kept secret.

Daniel had also satisfied his curiosity about the changes to the temple field. Dean had moved his father's body into the sacred room where all the Kings of Anthol had performed their most sacred rituals. Now that room was a tomb and Dean had, as was traditional, built a new Sacred Mountain on top of the old, maintaining the power of the previous openings of the Wacah Chan and building on the spiritual power of the location

He had centered the face of his new pyramid to focus upon the Star Gate, the source of much of his own power. The Royal temple was now twenty feet higher, twisted to the south and covered in sparkling clean and new works of art done by the most talented of the civilization's artists. Dean's power was acknowledged. His people loved him as they grew fat and prosperous under his rule.

If he chose to periodically sail away with the Wizard Castiel that was the King's business. Daniel mourned the loss of his lover but wished the King well. He hoped that the Wizard Castiel could give Dean a place to breath quietly in the night wrapped in his lover's arms.