Chapter Text
Notes: Two months of heat wave and counting. I'm considering lighting an incense and praying for rain.
***
The air was warm and soft like a kitten's fur. Jack looked at the fiery sunset on the horizon. He never tired of the ever-changing sight. The sun resembled a huge ball of gold and fire as it set behind the white chalked towers of Coda.
Jack sighed as he heard the head cook shouting for Jamil. Sounded like the young novice was in trouble again. He would have to have a talk with him soon. The young man was good in the martial arts, but his concentration and dedication were shaky when it came to the more spiritual aspects of his chosen vocation. *Could be he is one of those younger sons who are pushed to take up the robes.* Not for the first time, Jack cursed the old traditions that prohibited asking the youngsters why they wanted to become monks. *But then what would the families do with their extra sons?* he thought sarcastically. Well, if Jamil did not have the aptitude to become a full monk, maybe he could work in the stables or the smithy.
The bell tower sounded the evening tolls. Jack rose from his mediation mat and walked to the stairs leading down from the roof of the main building of the monastery. It was the largest chaol monastery in the plains, with a few hundred monks plus the novices and apprentices. As its abbot, Jack was the most prestigious spiritual leader in the region. The thought never failed to amuse him. Sometimes he allowed himself to think of how Sam, Daniel or Teal'c would have reacted, but not often. The past was over, done with. He still sometimes visited the stargate, mostly out of nostalgia and because he wanted to remind himself of who he had once been. After the first five years, he had accepted the fact that the DHD had been lost, probably crashed and broken to pieces in one of the many clan wars that had raged in the plains a century ago. It had taken less time to recognise the fact that no one from the SGC would be coming after him. The SGC did not have the time to spend months or years looking for him, especially since they did not know where he was. He had been the last one through the stargate, stepping in just as that weird energy weapon hit the gate. Next thing he knew, he had stepped onto this unfamiliar world.
Jack walked out of the main hallway and onto the inner courtyard. His current homeworld had two seasons: dry and rainy season. Currently they were at the end of the dry season and the fruit trees were still bare, just waiting for the first drops of rain before sprouting new leaves. The social system was medieval, with local Councils and the High Council at the top of the food chain. As the abbot, it was part of Jack's duties to represent the less privileged classes in the local Council that just happened to be the High Council with even more snotty lords and wealthy merchants in it, in Jack's opinion. It was not an easy task to widen the worldviews of the high and mighty, but the former colonel liked the challenge it represented.
Jack turned his head as he noticed a group of novices walking towards the dining hall.
"Jamil!"
The gangly youth started, then hurried over to him. A mere novice did not keep the abbot waiting.
Jamil bowed in front of Jack, not saying a word.
"Seek me out after your morning prayers, young one," Jack simply stated. The proper behaviour and etiquette had been the hardest part to learn in being a monk. The previous abbot had sometimes despaired over his foundling and some of the older monks still shook their heads at their somewhat unconventional abbot.
"As you wish, holy one," Jamil said, trying to cover his nervousness. The novice bowed again before hurrying over to join the others. His friends started questi ning him as soon as he joined them.
Jack began his own walk towards the building housing the dining hall and the kitchens. He nodded in greeting to a few older monks standing by the main doors who had been waiting respectfully until the abbot chose to acknowledge them.
This was not the life Jack would have envisioned for himself, but it was a pretty good one. He just hoped he could have shared it with someone, preferably Daniel. *You never appreciate what you have, until you lose it.* His biggest regret concerning his old life was never having told Daniel how much the other man meant to him.
Jack took his seat at the head of the central table and folded his legs under him. There were no chairs on this world, only thick pillows designed for sitting on. The others sat down after him in the order of seniority. The kitchen monks and their apprentices started serving the vegetarian food. Jack no longer remembered what meat tasted like.
*I wonder how the others at the SGC are doing?* the former colonel wondered, not for the first time. So much must have changed during the 15 years he had been living here. The others could be dead, stranded as he was or still fighting the goa'uld. Anything was possible, but he would never know. The thought no longer aroused bitterness for this was now his home, these were his family. *Accept that which cannot be changed and your soul will be free.* The chaol believed in reincarnation. Jack had incorporated a wish to be reborn with Daniel to his personal evening prayers. Maybe his wish would come true, but if not, well, there would be other turns of the wheel.
-----