Originally Posted: Dec. 2nd, 2006
Length/Rating: 100 words, PG, Gen
Pairing/Warnings: none
Summary: Written for sg_challenges Challenge #35 : Bones/Death.

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They weren’t the only village that practiced sacrifice; in those lean years when the Wraith were few and far between, the tithe kept the village alive. Five people chosen randomly each month to live caged for the Wraith to feed upon or spare as they saw fit. A way to manage death, contain it within rules and ritual. A desperate bid to control the uncontrollable.

Rodney hadn’t thought the Wraith capable of irony. Not until he saw the five rail-thin bodies pleading from the cage in voices rough with starvation, and the village behind them inhabited by nothing but bones.