Elenando
Sanctuary

Notes:This chapter owes a lot to HarbingerLady. Some things are yes, and others no, but she made me think, and realize I was moving too fast. Thankfully, the characters have a lot to tell the gwanún, and much of that 200 days will be told them during the visit. As for why Elladan and Elrohir are visiting, I will explain almost immediately, so just sit down and have a read.

For three seasons, most of a year, they had been stranded on the Hidden World, and they had never had contact with people, human or otherwise. Now, when the leaves were turning and the former Stargate team were thinking about the coming winter, two humanoid alien men had come to visit from an apparantly near-by city. Twins, they were named Elladan and Elrohir, and they called themselves elves. They had come out of the forest and into the sunflower fields on the same mission as Sam and Teal'c had gone to them for; the seeds of the giant sunflowers, as they explained on the way to the house. Elladan said, "Our father uses the oil from the seeds in many of his medicines."

Sam asked, "Your father's a doctor?"

"Doctor?"

"A physician, a healer?"

"Ah, yes. And what of your folk? Why have you come so far to get the seeds? And on foot, no less!"

"Oh, it's not that far. We've settled just next to the river. In fact, we're almost there."

The two elves looked at one another. Elrohir said, "Humans are living on the Hoarwell?"

Before Sam could answer, they emerged from the sunflowers into the new wheat, a two-acre field of lush green grass that would go dormant over the winter, and then return in the spring, make grain, and be harvested in the summer. But right now it was an emerald stamp on a slowly browning world, and beyond it was the barn and the house. Harvested plants had been plowed under and awaited the next spring's planting. The entire area was full of the sounds of poultry, dogs, goats and oxen.

Elrohir closed his jaw with an audible snap. Elladan asked, "How long have you been here?"

With no little pride in her voice for their accomplishments, Sam answered him. "Just since early spring. We've done a lot since then." Realizing she had shocked the elf men, she said, "Why don't you come on up to the house? Jack and Daniel should have finished dinner by now, and you can rest before heading back to your city. You know, we didn't have any idea that there was a city close by when we settled here."

"Few humans realize that it exists at all. Fewer still are so comfortable with our race as you seem to be."

Sam shrugged. "We've met a lot of different kinds of people. We'll talk about that later. I'm much more interested in dinner right now."

Teal'c chose that moment to make a comment. "Captain* Carter, are you certain you wish to eat a meal prepared by Colonel O'Niell?"

She grinned. "He's gotten a lot better, Teal'c."

He raised an eyebrow in an eloquent fashion. "He could only get better, for he could not get any worse."

Sam chuckled, then shouted, "Jack! We're home and we've brought company!"

The mention of company brought Jack and Daniel both out of the house. Jack blinked, twice. Daniel had a little more poise. "Wow. Um, I think we made enough for two more. Would you like to share our evening meal?"

The twins nodded in unison. "That would be pleasant."

Jack finally managed to speak. "Welcome to Sanctuary."

Dinner was better than Teal'c's dire predictions would have led the elves to believe; venison stew and rice. But they were much less interested in the food than in the humans' story. Elrohir (Sam could only tell them apart because their clothes were not identical) asked, "So, where have you come from?"

Elladan said, "Yes, and why did you choose this place to settle?"

Daniel beat Jack to the punch, knowing that the former Colonel would have said something annoying and/or sarcastic. "We came down out of the mountains to the north, and because of how we arrived there, we can't return."

Annoyed, Jack threw in anyway. "Yeah, we accidentally bought a one-way ticket."

"What is keeping you?" asked Elrohir.

Sam answered him. "The device at the top of the mountain is supposed to allow travel both to and from, but on this end it was deliberately disabled, probably by the builders of the devices in ancient times." She sighed. "There is no way to repair it. We can receive packages from home, and that's how we got all the things we needed to survive and build a life here, but we can never go back ourselves."

The twins looked at one another. One of them said, "Elenando." The other nodded.

Daniel asked, "What does that mean?"

They looked thoughtful for a moment, then Elladan said, "You came from another world, did you not? One much like this one, but where the race of men were alone. You came here by the Elenando, the Gate Star, and were trapped."

Elrohir continued from his brother. "Then you spoke to your leaders, and they sent you supplies and beasts, knowing that you could never return to them."

Daniel was surprised. "You know about the Stargate?"

"Still it lingers in our oldest legends. Our ancient forbearers ensured that this world would remain hidden, both to protect its younger races, and to ensure that its one great darkness would never escape it, thereby giving all the races a chance to remove it, permanently."

"That time is coming fair soon, as the earth counts time. But as men count it? No one knows. All we know is that the Great Eye once again looks out upon the world on occasion. Mordor never sleeps."

All of the humans had sat up straighter. Jack asked, "Are we in danger here?"

"No, not yet."

Elladan shook his head. "Its time has not yet come, though we believe it is more active than many would prefer to think." Indeed, whargs and orcs still moved in the Mirkwood at times, and those times were coming closer and closer together. It was a dark sign of the movement of the Enemy.

Elrohir seemed eager to move on to a different subject, though. "Enough talk of coming dark times. There is yet enough time to discuss them. Much more interesting, I think, would be to talk about your people and your travels. Are all your women so outspoken as this one? I thought the race of men sought to both protect and suppress their women."

Sam grinned. "It used to be that way on Earth. But times have changed rapidly over the past hundred years or so, and women have gained the right to be equal to men. We can do all the same work as men, and be leaders over men and women together." She leaned close to them. "That doesn't bother you, does it?"

The elf shrugged. "If it works in your society, then of course not. I was only surprised."

Elladan asked, "What was your original purpose in coming here?"

Daniel said, "The mountains are rich in a certain mineral that is valuable to our people. We were supposed to do two things; first to make sure that the deposits were good enough for us to use, and second to make sure that we weren't going to disturb anyone with our mining. We've found that—ah—primitive human cultures can take such mining badly, and we didn't want either to harm anyone or to invite retribution. The Stargates on other worlds have tended to be the center of the planet's religion, and it almost always complicates things."

"Hmm," Elladan murmured. "Is it because of the Serpent Bearers?"

Daniel nodded at the obvious reference to the Jaffa. "Yes. They and their leaders, who pose as gods."

"The false gods are called Goa'uld," said Teal'c. "I am what you have called a Serpent Bearer, but I defied the Goa'uld and until being trapped here, I have been fighting them ever since."

Elrohir and Elladan looked at one another. "The Serpent Bearers who came before all died. The serpent within left them, and they died within hours."

The four teammates were instantly alert. Sam asked hurriedly, "What happened to the symbiotes?" Were there Goa'uld on this world?

But the twins were quick to reassure them. "This world has evil enough in it without buying it from others," said Elladan.

Elrohir finished for his brother. "The serpents were beheaded, both head and body burned."

The humans relaxed visibly, and Teal'c as well. But Elladan and Elrohir were not so reassured. "What of the serpent within you? How long do you have before it leaves you?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, inscrutable as ever. "It is very young. When I took this primta it was too young, and should not have been implanted for another year. So there are still twenty years before it will begin to seek a host, and if none are available, it will try to take me."

Elladan nodded, then sat backward on the chair he was seated in. "Perhaps in that time our father can find some type of recourse for you. But he would have to come here to do it. We have sworn that no evil will ever pass the boundaries of Imladris. No matter. What will be will be."

Elrohir changed the subject to happier things. "You have not yet had one winter in this place, but you seem to be doing very well. Will you and your beasts have enough to last the winter?"

Sam leaned back in her chair. "We planned our crops with that in mind. We don't want to head up the mountain during a blizzard because we ran out of something. Of course, we planned based on Earth's year length, and for a while we were worried that your year would be longer than ours, but so far it seems to be almost the same, maybe longer by a day or two. We should be fine. Really we got very lucky with this location. It's practically perfect for the kind of agriculture we needed and it's very protected by the northern mountains. That's why we named it Sanctuary."

"Did you plant food only?"

Daniel answered him. "No. We put in culinary and medicinal herbs, and a couple of fiber crops, as well. We planted cotton because I'm allergic to wool, and we thought about trying our hand with linen, so we planted flax, too. Of course, Sam wanted roses, and Jack had to have hops for his beer." He chuckled. "You know, none of us grew up farming. It's a good thing we had access to such good advice from back home, because if we'd just had to figure it out on our own, we'd have starved this winter, if not sooner."

"Yeah, not to mention trained oxen," said Jack sourly. "I still say that cow hates me."

Sam grinned at him. "Amelia's just allergic to b. s., Jack."

"Oh, is that why she tries to kick me every single time I try to milk her?"

Grinning as well, Daniel told the elfin twins, "That's why milking her is my job now. Jack handles Earheart instead."

Sam said, "Speaking of animals, how are your dogs doing, Teal'c?"

Pride shone on his face when talking about his hunters. "All have learned how to hunt by my side. Both females will soon give birth, so we have not gone out hunting for a time, but the preserved meat we have already is more than enough to sustain us through the winter."

They passed the evening in pleasant conversation, the gwanún avidly listening to the tales of the humans' first year on what was to them their new homeworld. They had not faced famine or pestilence, nor had the trolls that lived in the shaws to the south ventured northward to bother them. They had met and dealt with a pack of timber wolves, using Teal'c's staff weapon to drive them back. They always kept a watch at nights, a hold-over from their days as a military unit, and no predator had ever gotten the better of them.

Elladan asked, "You mentioned something called electricity?"

Sam nodded. "It's the same power as lightning, only smaller amounts and much more controlled. Back on Earth, they use it to run all kinds of things, from simple room lights to complicated and powerful thinking machines called computers and vehicles like cars and trucks." She stood at that time and went to a black chest that was kept in a corner of the room. She opened it and dug around until she found a small black metal cylinder with a bulbous end. This she twisted in place until a light shone out the end of it. "This is one of the simplest uses of electricity, to make light. We call these flashlights."

"Why do you not have more such objects, and why keep this one hidden?"

"This one and the other three that are in the chest are for emergencies. Really, we're trying to avoid using electrical things here, because we don't want to be beholden to Earth for too much, since we can't pay them back. They already send us certain chemicals that make life easier here, like salt, soda and lye. And they gave us all the things we needed to get started, like the animals and the seeds. Next spring, General Hammond said he'd be sending us some horses; a stallion and four mares, all of good riding breeds. He said they were our birthday presents for the next twenty years."

Jack looked at his watch, then said, "Well, it's getting late. I'd suggest we all turn in. I'll take first watch. Teal'c, come and relieve me at 02:00?"

"Of course, Colonel O'Niell."

To the elves Daniel said, "You're welcome to sleep in the floor here, or in the hay loft, whichever you'd prefer."

They chose the hayloft, having heard that humans snore.

The next morning, they said farewell to their guests, who headed back home. Sam watched them leave back through the sunflower field, along side Jack, who had just woke up from his night's sleep after watch. "Do you think that Mordor they were talking about will become a problem here?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know if they would tell us if it came."

Daniel came up on their conversation on his way to feeding the poultry and the goats. "You don't trust them?"

"Don't know them. And they don't know us, not really. I wouldn't be surprised if we found ourselves under a close watch."

There you go, a good long chapter. For me, anyway. Reviews welcome!