Teal'c tugged his hat a little lower on his forehead as he climbed back into the four-wheel-drive truck that Jack had rented. They stopped at Stella's Kitchen and Bakery and ordered bear claws and crullers, then headed east on Route 87.
Teal'c carefully inspected the pastries before selecting a bear claw.
"Daniel Jackson mentioned that stakeouts should include doughnuts," he observed between bites.
"We'll find a Dunkin' Donuts on the way back," Jack promised.
It took a little more than two hours for Jack to navigate the roads to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Teal'c said little, but he raised an eyebrow as they left the smooth pavement of the interstate and turned onto a rough road, marked only with a sign that proclaimed it "Tillets Fish-Rearing Station."
"Bad Pass Highway, they call it," Jack explained briefly. "You need four-wheel-drive to manage."
Teal'c seemed to bear the jouncing with equanamity, merely biting into another cruller.
Jack pulled the truck over near a spot where the land stretched out ahead of them, wide and open. He winced a little as he slid out of the truck, easing the kinks out of his back after the bumpy ride. He couldn't help but notice that Teal'c's movements were as fluid and graceful as ever.
A grand, enormous silence settled over the two of them, broken only by the faint ticks of the cooling engine. Jack leaned against the fence at the side of the road, and waited.
Teal'c slid a glance in his direction, then lifted his chin to gaze across the vast expanse of flatland. "I do not understand why this untamed land is of particular interest, O'Neill."
"It's a national park," Jack said, reluctant to give too much away. "Development here is against the law."
"Indeed?" Teal'c's serene expression didn't change, but his voice suggested that Jack wasn't fooling anybody.
"Yeah, it's - ah. There they are." He nodded off to the west. "Take a good look, Teal'c."
Teal'c looked, and Jack knew him well enough to spot the slight stiffening of his shoulders and the barely perceptible intake of breath. Yes, he was impressed.
Jack was, too. He gripped the fence's rail a little more tightly as the herd of mustangs swept across the flats beyond, the rhythmic drumming of the hooves rolling across the distance. The grace of their movements called to him, a dance of fierce wildness completely unspoiled and untouched.
As the thunder of their galloping faded and the horses disappeared into the distance, Jack clapped a hand on Teal'c's shoulder.
"There," he said, and he couldn't stop the hint of affection that crept into his voice. "Those were undomesticated equines, Teal'c."
Teal'c was silent for a long moment, his eyes gleaming a little more brightly. "They are truly wild? They have never been tamed?"
"Nope." Jack considered, then added, "Technically, they're feral horses, not biologically wild. They have domesticated ancestors. But the mustangs went wild long ago."
"They were once enslaved, and now they are free?"
"You could put it that way, yeah," he agreed.
Once held in harness. Now free. He looked sidelong at Teal'c.
"Undomesticated equines," he said again, his voice softer this time.
They remained until the shadows lengthened into dusk, and then, without another word, climbed back into the truck for the journey home.
