hey guys. so, this was an idea i had. i've only watched a few episode of xena and to be honest i really don't know much about the xenaverse, but the amazons i'm trying to get the idea of here are based on the amazons there. i'm taking many creative liberties, so don't be like "no one's name was brittany in ancient greece". lol but yeah writing this is kind of hard because i'm trying to make sure everything makes sense and trying not to butcher anything. feel free to help me out because i will appreciate any of your suggestions. it's my first time writing anything so yeah. this chapter will just be to introduce the characters and the setting.
disclaimer: i would kill to own these people. you don't even know.
Santana woke to find herself blinded by a wall of blonde hair and entangled in the arms of the owner of said hair. She smiled, remembering that Brittany had chosen to spend the night with her. Although waking up to her best friend was not an uncommon nor an unpleasant occurrence, she knew that it was frowned upon because Brittany was Amazonian royalty while she didn't have a drop of royal blood in her. In fact, as far as she knew, she didn't even have any Amazon blood in her.
She had been living with the Amazons for six, almost seven years now, when one of their hunting groups had stumbled across an unconscious ten year old Santana in the forest a few miles away from the village. They had taken her back and when they found that she couldn't really remember much about her family and friends and where she had came from, they took her in.
It wasn't that Santana didn't remember anything at all. She could remember the faces of certain people, and a small town, and kids running around, but it didn't help much in terms of getting her back home. Most of her memories came to her in her dreams, and it was difficult for her to determine what was real and what was just figments of her imagination. The one about a three headed dog and dragons was probably just a dream, but not all of them were so easy to figure out.
There were a few people in particular that always popped up in her mind though, and she knew that they were real people, that they were her friends. There was the tall boy with a goofy smile, the boy with a mohawk who smirked a lot, a boy with blonde hair, and an Asian boy. She always thought that was weird because there weren't many Asians on this side of Greece.
Santana didn't trouble herself too much with trying to remember things though. She had no need to, she was an Amazon now. This village, these people, they were her life now. To dredge up her past would only make her life difficult. She looked over at Brittany. Brittany was her life now. Brittany had been glued to her side ever since she got to the village. At first, she was annoyed because the blonde was always asking questions about her that she couldn't answer, but she got used to it. It was hard to be annoyed with her bubbly friend.
"Don't you have anywhere else to be, that's like, not here," Santana finally snapped at Brittany. Santana had only woken up yesterday, and was still a little disoriented about where she was and what was going on. All of a sudden, a little girl had burst into the room and started talking incessantly about how excited she was and how she wanted to be friends. She had a headache and she wished the girl would leave, but Brittany didn't seemed deterred by Santana's reluctance to participate in her conversation.
"Nope! The other kids have lessons and stuff, but I don't get to go with them because I have private lessons. I never get to hang out with anyone," Brittany said. "That's why you have to be my friend! Mommy and her friends are nice, but I don't like talking to adults all day."
"Why do you have private lessons?" Santana had asked, admittedly curious.
"Because I'm the Princess silly! Everyone else has to learn how to fight and shoot arrows and grow food and everything but I have to learn how to be a Princess. I like being a Princess because I don't like fighting, but it gets lonely," Brittany explained.
Santana stared at her. After she had been told where she was yesterday, she had racked her brain trying to think of what she knew about the Amazons. Pretty much all she knew was that they were an all female society. And that they were vicious warriors. Santana's thinking was interrupted when two Amazons came into the room.
"Brittany! I've been looking for you everywhere," the first one scolded. Santana remembered her as the blonde lady who had tried to explain where she was and what was going on the day before. What was her name again? E…Ephon? Ephesos? Ephiny. "You shouldn't be bothering Santana right now, she needs to rest."
"But when you said she was in here, I had to go keep her company or else she would get lonely," Brittany pouted. "I don't want to leave, she's my friend now!"
Santana kept quiet, not really knowing what to say, although she was starting to find Brittany's unique personality as less annoying and more adorable.
Ephiny sighed. "Just go sit and wait in the corner for a little bit ok? We need to talk to Santana right now."
Brittany smiled at Santana before going to sit in the chair on the other side of the room. Santana couldn't help but send a small smile back.
"So Santana, how are you doing today?" the other Amazon politely asked. This one was Cynna, the healer. Santana remembered because she was the one that had been taking care of her.
"I feel pretty good I guess. I still don't remember much though," Santana said.
"That's ok, that's what happens when you get hit on the head. It'll come back to you eventually. Anyway, we're here to talk to you about what's going to happen in the meantime." Cynna turned to Ephiny.
"Right, so I've discussed things with the Queen and the board of elders, and it shouldn't be a problem for you to stay here and live with the Amazons until you can fully remember where you're from and are able to return," Ephiny said. An excited squeal was heard from across the room, and three heads turned to look at Brittany who had a huge grin on her face.
"Oh…that's really generous of you guys," Santana said. "But what if I can never remember?"
"That's not a problem, you can stay here for as long as you want," Ephiny said. "The only condition is that if you're going to stay here, you're going to have to live the way we live. You're going to learn to be an Amazon."
"I can do that," Santana quickly responded. After all, it's not like she had many other options. She caught Brittany's eyes and decided there were definitely worse places she could be stranded in.
"Well alright then. You'll stay here for couple more days, until Cynna gives you the clear, and then we'll find a place for you to live. We can take care of the logistics later," Ephiny stated. She started leaving and beckoned Brittany. "Brittany, your mom's been asking for you. Come on, you can visit Santana all you want later now that she's going to be living here."
Brittany looked back at Santana and waved happily, before walking out with Ephiny.
Brittany did, in fact, visit Santana all she want, and Santana found Brittany by her side all the time. Santana never complained, finding herself greatly enjoying Brittany's company. Although the board of elders had agreed that raising Santana would be a communal effort, Santana ended up spending most of her time with Brittany's tutors and family, simply because she and Brittany were attached to the hip. Brittany's mom, Queen Ariella, and Ephiny, the regent, didn't mind, as they had taken a shine to Santana, and were happy that Brittany had found a companion.
However, a few months after Santana's arrival, they decided that it was time for Santana to start taking her classes and doing her duties with the other kids. Her time with Brittany was cut short, but they always found plenty of time to spare with each other. She didn't make many other friends though, as she remained aloof to the other kids. Everyone thought she was "sucking up to the royalty" or whatever, and they thought that she thought she was better than them because she was friends with Brittany. It didn't help that Santana excelled in all the combat lessons and could whoop pretty much anyone her age.
The only other people she ever spent time with besides Brittany were two girls her age, Quinn and Rachel. She supposed Quinn was the only other friend she had, because she didn't want to associate the term "friends" with Rachel, and if she ever did, it was in the loosest sense of the word.
Quinn was the first person to introduce herself to Santana when she first met the other kids in a tracking lesson, and Santana found herself sticking by Quinn when she wasn't able to be around Brittany. Quinn turned out to be one of the only people in the whole village who could give Santana a run for her money when they sparred, and they loved competing with each other. Santana knew she could beat Quinn when they sparred, but she also knew that there was difference between sparring and all out fighting, and to be honest, Santana was a little scared of what Quinn could do no holds bar. There was one thing that Santana couldn't beat Quinn at though, no matter how hard she tried. Quinn was by far the best archer in the whole village, and could shoot anything in sight, or even not in sight for that matter.
"Psh, whatever. Archery is for pussies anyway. Who the hell stays somewhere high picking off people when there's a real battle going on?" Santana had exclaimed after she missed the target for the fifth time.
Quinn took two seconds to steady herself before hitting it dead on yet again, and stuck her tongue out at Santana. "You wouldn't be saying that if you could beat me."
Rachel, on the other hand, probably couldn't hit a target if the target was the ground right in front of her. She was the only other person besides Brittany who didn't have to go combat lessons, as she was chosen by Cynna five years ago to be her apprentice. Rachel spent most of her time with Cynna in the med hut, learning how to treat illnesses and injuries of all kinds. The only reason Santana knew her at all was because she found herself spending a lot of time in that hut after getting into fights with the other kids. She was pretty much a guinea pig for Rachel, as Cynna demonstrated how to sew stitches and treat broken bones on her to Rachel every time she came in. Also, Brittany had started becoming friends with Rachel, so her, Brittany, Quinn, and Rachel had formed sort of an odd group.
Rachel was annoying to say the least. When Brittany rambled on about nonsense, Santana found it quite endearing, but when Rachel talked, Santana wanted to bang her head on something. She was overbearing and bossy, and she didn't seem to know how to talk in phrases shorter than a paragraph.
"Santana, you really should look into drinking the tea that I told you about. It will help you stay energized and hydrated whenever you're active, and it has vitamins to keep your muscles healthy not to mention it could help you grow taller. I've heard that taller people are better at archery, and you're always complaining about how Quinn keeps beating you, and -"
"Shut it, dwarf. You're one to talk to me about height. How about you drink your stinking tea and tell me how that works out for ya. Can you just hurry up and finish?" Santana growled. She had been sitting in here for forever waiting for Rachel to finish wrapping up a cut on her arm that she normally would have ignored, but was forced by Brittany to go get fixed because it was leaving bloodstains on Brittany's bed.
She wasn't aware of the smile that crept on her face as she remembered what she was doing on Brittany's bed in the first place. They weren't doing anything like that; Santana knew it was out of the question because she and Brittany were best friends. Nothing more. She would be lying to herself if she said she didn't want to ever want that kind of relationship with Brittany, but she knew Brittany was off limits, being next in line to be the Queen of the Amazons. Actually that was part of the reason, but the bigger reason was that she didn't know if Brittany felt the same way. Sometimes, when they were just lying next to each other and talking about nothing in particular, she could swear that Brittany liked her in a more than friendly way, but when she saw the way Brittany treated everyone like she loved them, Santana doubted herself. Santana knew the only reason Brittany treated her extra special was because Santana was her best friend. Heck, Brittany treated everyone like she loved them because she did love them. Brittany loved her people, and Santana knew that she would make the best Queen ever because everyone loved her as well.
Santana had been convinced that Brittany was half goddess for the first two years she had been an Amazon because Queen Ariella had joked about an immaculate conception which involved the goddess Artemis giving her the baby. She found out later that Brittany did indeed have a father which was not the female goddess of the Amazons, but a guy from Corinth named Persideus who visited the Amazon village frequently as a diplomat. Santana met him a few times over the years, and he seemed to be a decent man with a sense of humor. Brittany was always excited when he came to visit, and since Brittany seemed to like the guy enough, Santana had no qualms about liking him either. After all, it was pretty funny to watch Persideus making the great Queen Ariella blush like a teenager.
The Queen was a fair but strict woman, although she was a lot softer when she was talking to just Brittany or her close associates. Santana admired the way she was always calm and collected, and never lost her temper when dealing with things. Although she wasn't one to let things slide, Queen Ariella was quite lenient when it came to her daughter. It was Ephiny who ended up being the mean nanny, chasing Brittany around the village and making her go to her geography lessons and scolding her when she didn't sit like a lady.
Although she knew the Queen and Ephiny as well liked her well enough, Santana also knew that they would disapprove of a relationship between her and Brittany because they already had someone in mind for Brittany. Someone who was pretty much born into the role of Brittany's champion. Almost everyone in the village was expecting them to get together when they came of age, which was in two years.
Santana never said anything about that, because although she was pretty much an Amazon now, she still felt like she was still a guest who had intruded upon this Amazon life sometimes. There was a way that things worked around here before she got here, and that was the way things were always going to be. Santana knew it wasn't her place to interfere with their traditions, and doing so by trying to make a move on Brittany would be like slapping the Queen in the face after all she had done for her.
Just because she was never verbal about it though, didn't mean she never expressed her feelings about it. Everyone knew Santana got into a lot of fights when she was younger, but after it was clear she could beat almost everyone up except for Quinn, there was still one person that she ended up scuffling with almost on a weekly basis, and unfortunately for Santana she was the one other person who could put up a fight against her.
Artia. Just her name made Santana want to punch someone. She was infuriating, and the most infuriating thing was that she could do no wrong. She had the looks, she had the charm, she was good at everything she did, and she had the Amazon bloodline that the village found suitable for a Queen's champion. Santana had disliked her from the moment she laid eyes on her, long before she even found out about the Brittany and Artia deal. Whereas Rachel was overbearing, Artia was just plain conceited. She knew her place in life, and she was the first person to tell Santana that she didn't belong as an Amazon. Santana had quickly proven her wrong, but that didn't stop the tension between them, which rose as the years passed. Artia hated that Santana was so close to Brittany, and Santana hated that Artia was going to be the one that gets the girl in the end. Everyone knew that if left alone together, Santana and Artia would be fighting a death match within five minutes. Brittany had disapproved highly of this, and told her as much.
"San, why can't you just be nice to her? She tries to be nice to you!" Brittany whined after the third fight this week Santana had gotten in.
"When has she ever tried to be nice to me?" Santana snapped back indignantly. "That bitch has hated my guts ever since I got here! Everything she says is to egg me into a fight with her!"
"Well why can't you just walk away then?"
"Because! Don't you understand? It's about pride! I can't back down. When have I ever been the bigger person?"
"What? You're never the bigger person! The only person smaller than you is Rachel. That doesn't even have to do with anything San."
Santana groaned and covered her face with her hands. Brittany would never get it unless she told her what her animosity with Artia was really about. And she could never do that.
"What're you thinking about?"
"You," Santana answered honestly as she snapped out of her thoughts and focused on the blonde waking up before her.
Brittany yawned and stretched herself out on the bed happily. "What about me?"
Santana looked away and started getting out of the bed. "Nothing in particular. Come on, get up before we miss breakfast. I wants to get my eating on."
Brittany gave a small frown, but said nothing as she got out of Santana's bed and followed her out the hut.
so, i'm not quite sure where i'm going with this whole thing yet. it could either be like dramatic and angsty or i could keep it light and humorous. i was planning on dramatic, but now i don't know haha so tell me your opinions please!