Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1 or any of it's characters.

Hey, this is my first fanfic, so please r&r. The story is AU, and Maria is Samantha Carter's younger sister I made up.

Written in Sand

Maria Carter ran as fast as she could through the woods. She was being chased by this group of senior bullies from the high school, who wanted to beat her to a pulp because she had broken their stupid rule allowing the seniors to cut in any line one too many times. Her father had always told her to stand up for herself, and not let others push her around, and see where that got her?

She ran as fast as she could, jumping over big roots and rotting logs, and getting hit in the face by branches as she ran. She was going to get hopelessly lost, she realized. But she had to keep running, to get as far away from those seniors as possible. Better to be lost and in one piece than lost and hurt, she thought. She could hear the bullies catching up with her.

Ahead of her, a large pond came into view. Next to it, a dense clump of bush looked like a good place to hide. She dived behind it, then crouched down, pulling her gray hood up for camouflage. She waited, afraid to breathe.

Several moments after that, Maria saw a couple of the bullies run right past her hiding spot, and they continued on to the pond. She heard them speak as she watched them through the bushes.

"Where is she?" Asked one.

"Dunno," replied another, older looking one. "But when I find her, I'm gonna pound her ugly freshman face until she's black and blue. She's gonna be so sorry she ever disrespected us!"

Maria gulped, but continued to watch. She was more afraid than ever before. The bullies looked around the area at their end of the pond, but they didn't once look at the bushes she was hiding in. One of them looked down near the edge of the water and froze.

"Holy crap! What the hell is this thing?" The boy yelled. The other boy came over next to him and swore, staring down at the ground. Maria couldn't see what it was they were looking at, although she wished she could. Anything that distracted those bullies from her had to be really weird.

"I've never seen anything like it! It looks kind of like a snake with fins and gills. And what the heck is that on its' head? Looks really sharp or something."

"Maybe if we capture it, we could sell it to some group of scientists and get really rich. What do you think?" The boy picked up a stick.

"Yeah! And we'd be famous too! Forget the girl, she's probably gone home, cryin' to her momma. I'll open my backpack, and you pick it up with that stick."

The boy who had spoken took off his backpack, then swore angrily. "Hurry up, idiot! It's trying to get back to the water!"

You go, fish thing, Maria thought. She wouldn't want to be captured either. She watched as the boys scrambled to catch the creature. The boys let out cries of surprise when it started hopping around to avoid the stick and backpack they kept trying to get it with. It made frantic high-pitched shrieking noises that hurt Maria's ears. Poor thing, she thought. It was probably terrified. Like she was. She suddenly felt tired, emotionally tired. Tired of being afraid of those seniors all year, of taking their 'I'm – better – than- you- so - shut - up' crap. She suddenly wanted to do something about it. She wanted to help the poor creature. But how? She had a simple plan of action: wing it and hope it worked. And she needed to act soon, the creature's jumps were getting smaller and slower, a sign that it was getting tired.

She stood up stepped out of the bushes slowly. She was going to distract the boys from the creature long enough for it to escape, and then she'd run. That was basically where her plan stopped.

"Hey you!" She called. The boys stopped what they were doing and looked over at her in surprise. Maria got a good look at the creature, which, at the sound of her voice, had laid down in the mud, defeated. It really was strange. Just like that boy had said.

"Leave that thing alone! It's me you want, remember?" She sounded braver than she felt. She stood where she was, waiting to see what they would do.

The older boy stepped toward her, dropping his backpack. "You mind your own business, chick. We're seniors, so we tell you what to do, and you do it. Got that?"

Maria shook her head defiantly. "No, I don't get it. You may be a senior, but you have the brain of a toddler. You think the world revolves around you, but it doesn't. I won't let you hurt that creature." Maria could hardly believe what she was saying.

That did it for both of the boys. The older one charged her, but he hadn't gone three feet when he stopped and let out a howl of pain. He looked down at his leg, and saw the creature slithering away from him. There was blood on his ankle. A lot of it. The creature had bitten him! It was almost like it was trying to help her! Strange, she thought, but cool just the same.

The other boy stood there looking scared. The boy who'd been bitten tried to step on the creature, but it easily dodged it. So the bully came after her again, while the creature cornered his friend. It was almost funny for such a big guy to be so afraid of something so small. But she didn't have time to laugh. She ducked as he swung a punch at her, and he wound up hitting a tree instead. But Maria wasn't ready when he kicked her, right in the stomach. It knocked the wind out of her, and she fell over, gasping for air. He raised his foot to kick her again, but stopped when the other boy let out a girlish scream.

"Toby! Get this damn thing off of me!" He waved his left arm frantically. Maria smiled weakly when she saw that the creature had bitten his arm and was holding on tightly. Way to go, fish thing!

But the boy finally sent the creature sailing into a tree, where it fell to the ground. It let out a small, weak noise and stayed where it was. The boy's arm was covered in blood. That thing had some sharp teeth, or fangs, or whatever.

The older boy took the opportunity while she was distracted and kicked her in the chest, harder than before. It knocked the breath out of her again, and sent her rolling down the small, yet rocky slope behind her.

But he didn't chase after her. "You haven't seen the last of us! We'll be back, and next time you won't have your freaky friend to help you!" As Maria got to her feet, she saw that the bullies were running away. Probably to nurse those bites. That must have hurt, she thought. But she didn't feel sorry for them at all, not one bit. They deserved it.

She remembered the creature and what had happened to it. She hoped it was alright. Walking over to it, she saw that it was conscious and moving quickly. But not toward the water. It was moving it's tail through the mud. Maybe it was trying to burrow or something.

"I won't hurt you," she told the creature, afraid of being bitten. As she got closer, she saw that it was writing something in the mud. What the heck? How could it do that?-! Maria stood there, watching, frozen in shock as it finished.

It had written: Please help me.

Maria stood there, too shocked and surprised to speak. What the heck was she supposed to do?

Thanks for reading! I'll update soon.