The bottom inches of Eve's loose, green pants were covered in mud, and her sandals were pinching her feet to the point that she could occasionally feel small drops of blood sliding down her soles, no doubt making tiny blood stains on the insides of her shoes. She glanced over at the horse she was guiding, the one Gabrielle gave her after settling into the Amazon village, and she considered briefly how relieving it would feel to sit atop her and ride to their destination, instead of irritating her dirty feet by walking on them farther. Elijians believed in living a life as want-free as any humans could be, so she pushed these thoughts out of her head. She might have wanted to ride atop the horse, but it would have been unfair, since that meant Varia would have to walk on foot on her own.
Eve had, of course, offered to let Varia ride the horse, either by herself, or behind her; but Varia adamantly declined and said she wouldn't mind if Eve climbed on without her. Eve suspected Varia had some sort of fear of horses, but she didn't think it polite to bring up.
"I still can't believe you don't travel with any weapons at all," Varia said, easily walking along in her comfortable and battle-ready Amazon shoes.
"What would I need with weapons?" Eve asked, slightly laughing at Varia's obvious struggle to understand life without physical conflict.
"Well, you know, in case you get attacked by someone. I mean, you used to be Livia, conqueror of Rome, and you traveled a bunch with Xena and Gabrielle. Someone somewhere is plotting your death."
"Maybe they are," Eve smiled. "And when death comes I'll accept it, peacefully. Without rage or violence."
"You know that peace and love stuff isn't going to do you a lot of good when you're left cold and bloodless on some trail someday."
Eve shrugged, "We'll see."
"How long till we get to this place anyway?" Varia asked.
"It's only about one more hour away," Eve said, then added, "You know, it'd probably be a lot faster if we both got on Aggie, here" and patted the horse's back.
"You named her?" Varia asked, her eyebrows and corners of her mouth raised in amusement.
"Well, yeah," Eve said defensively. "Why wouldn't I? I named her after my old nanny when I was little." Eve smiled remembering her childhood in Rome. "She used to make me stew and read me the reports she stole off Octavius's desk that detailed all the recent massacres in the area."
Her smile fell after a second of pondering. "You know now that I'm thinking about it, that was kind of fucked up."
"Yeah I think a lot of your childhood was fucked up," Varia said. "But mine was too I guess."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Eve said. A spit-inducing laugh burst out of Varia. She couldn't believe Eve would have the balls to reference something Varia almost once killed her for.
"I'm good, though," Varia said. "I'm enjoying the walk."
Eve was pretty sure that was a lie and silently cursed to herself.
When an hour had passed and the two arrived at Virgil's home, Eve collapsed on the first bench she saw that sat outside Meg's Tavern after tying Aggie to a post. Varia stood above her, hands on her hip, clearly not as tired as Eve.
"This is it?" Varia asked. "Shouldn't we go in or something?"
"Just give me a minute," Eve said, taking off her sandals to reveal her bloody feet.
"Dear gods," Varia gasped. "How do you travel with those?"
"I don't usually," Eve grimaced. "I bought these in Chin right before I left. Just haven't broken them in yet."
"Well that's a relief," Varia said as she sat down next to Eve. "I thought maybe that was another thing about your religion or something. Self-inflicted pain by shoe."
Eve laughed. "Hey before we go in there, there's something you should know."
"The thing about how you killed the dad of this family? Gabrielle told me before we left."
"No," Eve said. "Not that. See, Virgil's mother kind of looks like-"
Eve was interrupted when the door to Meg's Tavern busted open, revealing the woman that Eve was just about to warn Varia about.
"-my mother," Eve finished, though she knew she didn't have to. The likeness Meg had to Xena was uncanny, and Varia sat wide-eyed with her mouth seemingly stuck open.
Meg wore the same tattered, loose clothing Eve had last seen her in when her, Xena, and Gabrielle had stayed at the family's house for a few weeks, resting from their mighty battle with the now deceased Gods of Olympus. Her hair was a mess and her raspy voice was still yelling something to whomever was inside the building, most likely one of her children. Still, even with Meg's unkempt appearance and unpleasant demeanor, Eve couldn't help feeling a kick in her gut as she reminded her so much of her beautiful mother.
"God that is freaky," Varia whispered, helping Eve to snap out of her brief feelings of grief and giggle at the Amazon's bewilderment.
"C'mon," Eve said, and pulled Varia up toward the cavern. "Meg!"
"Hey," Meg said, as she looked up to see Eve approaching her. As Eve reached to hug Meg with a huge smile on her face, Meg yelled back into the tavern. "Hey, Virgil! Evie's here!" and then accepted Eve's hug.
Like Virgil, Meg had forgiven Eve for the devastation she had brought to her family, and even sort of enjoyed her company. Eve had a calming energy and loving outlook on life that Meg was drawn to. Meg was also unaware of the exact nature of her husband's murder. After Virgil realized Eve would undoubtedly be a part of Xena and Gabrielle's life, and therefore his family's, he allowed his mother to be under the impression that Eve had killed Joxer incidentally in a battle, not purposefully out of hatred. This allowed Meg a better capacity for forgiveness, and helped soothe her pain.
"Eve!" Meg and Joxer's two youngest children came running out of the tavern with their arms out, running to hug Eve's waist. They had absolutely no knowledge of Eve's involvement in their father's death.
Virgil stepped out of the tavern, smiled while wiping his hands off with a cloth, and made his way over to Eve.
"How've you been?" He asked while wrapping his arms tightly around her.
"I've been better," Eve sighed, then gestured to Varia. "This is my friend, Varia. She's an Amazon."
"An Amazon, huh?" Meg rolled her eyes. "I wore more clothes when I was a hooker."
Varia looked down at her clothes and Eve noticed a slight scowl on her face.
"So what's up?" Virgil asked, still smiling. "Where are Xena and Gabrielle?"
Eve's face fell completely and her head drooped slightly toward that ground.
"That's kind of why we're here," she said in a softer voice than before. "I think we should go inside. Somewhere private."
As Eve and the family sat in Meg's bedroom discussing the unfortunate news Eve brought, Varia decided to sit out in the tavern and get a drink amongst the abundant Xena memorabilia. She drank her foamy booze while playing with the chakram coasters the bar was littered with. As an Amazon, she wasn't that well adjusted to normal civilian life, and thus her small tolerance for alcohol left her tipsy after a few big gulps of Meg's strong alcoholic concoction that was meant to serve people of more street experience. After a while, she began pretending the chakram coasters were just mini chakrams, and she threw them Xena-style at the wall to her own amusement.
"Hey beautiful," A scruffy man with a beer gut said, putting his hand in Varia's hair as he sat next to her at the bar.
"Hey ugly," Varia said as she put her drink down, and then promptly wrapped her hands around the man's throat, squeezing just until he let go of her hair. While he gagged and put his hands to his neck, either in an attempt to soothe it or protect it, Varia added, "Now get out of my face."
The man stood up and began to stagger away from Varia's place at the bar, but not without murmuring to himself, "Crazy bitch, wear more clothes if you don't want it."
Varia stood up and grabbed the back of the man's stained, ragged shirt.
After Eve told the family of her mother's recent death in Meg's bedroom, every person in the room became silent and damp in the eyes with grief. Every person except for Meg, of course, who's face was completely drenched in tears as she howled her sobs. Even with Meg's rough personal background and street-raised toughness, Eve could tell she was still a sensitive and an overtly emotional girl.
"She was my hero!" Meg cried.
"She still can be," Eve said, and reached out to rub Meg's thigh. "Just because she's not physically here anymore doesn't mean she's gone. She'll live on forever in your hear-"
Her speech about keeping Xena's memory alive was cut short by another loud, scream-like sob from Meg, and Virgil lifted up his mother by her waist and attempted to walk her to one of the doors. Meg abided for a few steps, then stopped again when she saw a portrait of Xena and Gabrielle that hung on her wall, and collapsed onto it to sob some more.
"Maybe we should avoid the tavern then," Virgil said and began pulling her to a different door, one that led into the rest of their family home and not the tavern that was decidedly dedicated to the warrior princess.
"No, no," Meg said through sniffles. "I need a drink."
Meg opened the door to the tavern as Varia was slamming two men's heads together.
"Oh shit," Eve sighed.