"Gabrielle, time to get up!" Xena stood and stretched as she looked over at her friend. Who was still asleep. "Gabrielle!" She shouted. Xena couldn't even imagine sleeping like that. She hadn't since she became a warrior, all those years ago. She wasn't sure if she was glad that her companion put so much trust in her. On the one hand, no one had ever trusted her that completely. At least not after they got to know her, and it was rather nice. On the other hand, however, Gabrielle wasn't able to do some things on her own. Like wake up when she hears a twig snap. And catch arrows. Important qualities for a warrior. Or someone who travels with a warrior. And she's STILL not awake! Xena went over to the water pouch that was strapped onto Argo. She grabbed it and very deliberately walked towards Gabrielle, looming above her friend and hoping that, even in her sleeping state, she would catch the hint that she was about to be very wet.
"Okay, okay, I'm awake!" The bard shouted, squealing as the water stream grazed her shoulder. "You know, you could just shake me awake. It's not like you're in the middle of a fight or something." She stood and brushed her self off before turning and looking at Xena.
A low chuckle greeted her angry stare, and that lightened her mood. "You know, Gabrielle, if you could dodge arrows like you dodged that water stream…" She let her voice trail off as she blocked a playful swipe at her head by her friends staff. She raised both eyebrows and grabbed both the staff and the arm holding it. The staff dropped by her side, but the girl was pulled closer. "Be careful, Gabrielle. I don't want to hurt you." But there was a feisty look in her eyes; one that definitely said the closest I'll get to hurting you is squirting you with water. The bard gave her a playful grin, and squirmed out of the hold of iron.
"You're annoying," the bard informed her as she picked up her staff, only to lay it down again when she went to roll up her bedroll. "You should use your power for good, not evil." She sighed dramatically.
Xena eyed the girl before turning to roll her own mat. "So waking you up is evil, huh? I'll have to keep that in mind next time someone's about to decapitate you."
Gabrielle rolled her eyes in Xena's general direction and stuck a scroll she had been working on last night into her pack. "Fine. I get the point. Just," she lifted her hands helplessly, "just, be nice about it. Is that so much to ask?"
"Maybe." Xena gave her a sly grin as she fastened her leather pouch onto Argo. "Come on. There's a village that I wanted to hit by dark. I think one of my old friends lives there.
Gabrielle sighed as she collected the last of her things and followed her friend down a seldom-traveled path leading… somewhere. She mumbled something about newer, tired friends under her breath and sighed again. It was going to be a long day.
"How do I know that the colors that you are seeing are the same as the ones that I'm seeing?"
Xena looked at her friend, confused. "See that tree over there? What color are its leaves?"
"Green."
"That's what color I see them as, too. We're seeing the same color."
Gabrielle shook her head. Xena wasn't getting this. "But what if my color green is different from your color green? What if my color green looks like your color blue?"
"So what?" Xena asked, shaking her hands in the gesture she always used when Gabrielle was off on one of her ramblings. Just then she stopped and sniffed the air. Gabrielle opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but thought better of it when she saw Xena's body grow tense. Her hand reached for her chakrum. She grabbed it and hurtled it, knocking into three trees and sending a giant berry from one of them right at Gabrielle.
Gabrielle's instincts were fast, but not quite fast enough. "Great. Just great." She said, covered in the blue juices. "Now, I've got purple skin and a brown top. Thank you, Xena." She wiped some of it out of her eyes, and found that it simply stuck to her hands.
Xena smiled apologetically as she went over to the saddlebag. "You're lucky that that wasn't an arrow. Sorry though. I didn't think it would be that sticky." She handed her friend a cloth.
Gabrielle just rolled her eyes and when she thought Xena wasn't listening, gave a happy little sigh. She had almost died, but now they were back together. Even covered in purple juice, she was thrilled.
Xena looked over her shoulder at the girl. She had almost lost her best friend. Never again. She vowed to herself. Some things were too precious to lose.
They came to a clearing in the dense undergrowth they had been hiking through. Leaning her staff, which was now a definite shade of purple, against a tree, Gabrielle ran into it, looking distinctly like a young child. Her hair flying behind her, she spun around and around. A child who has lost her childhood. That's exactly what she is. A young girl who shouldn't be here, with me. She shouldn't have to live through this. Gabrielle almost looked a golden, glowing, goddess. Gabrielle, the Golden Glowing Goddess. Xena thought to herself. She could write little things, too. Even if it wasn't quite up to a bard's standards. She remembered a time when those kinds of funny little sayings were a part of her life. Long, long ago…
It had been long ago when it was decided. Well, it was always decided this way. And so, Lycius and Toris were up against her. Not really, this was all a game, but Xena still didn't think that she should have to be against them both. "I don't like fighting, and Lycius is younger than you." Toris had explained.
That seemed to be his logic for everything. 'I don't like__________ and Lycius is younger than you." He just loved to make Xena's life miserable, him and Lycius ganging up on her.
Now they were playing a game of war. They each had little bags full of beans. The idea was to hit the other team, Xena vs. her brothers, on one of the places where they had tied a pig's bladder, hard enough to pop it. It was hard, she had to admit, and with the two of them on a team together, it made it even harder. She was only seven years old, and this was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. Her victory meant that next time, she might get one of them on her team, and her loss would be her demise.
"Hey, Xena!" Lycius called out from the top of the tree in front of her.
The little girl looked up, black hair appearing even longer. "Lycius! Mother will kill you if she finds out how high you are. Get down here, right now!" Just then, she felt a jolt and heard a pop. She looked down to see one of the bladders popped. Toris had sneaked up on her. It was that day that she decided never to be caught by surprise again. The day that the future Xena: Warrior Princess was born.
Gabrielle had stopped spinning and come back to retrieve her staff. Xena raised an eyebrow, an action to which Gabrielle just stuck out her tongue.
"You should try it sometime." Gabrielle said, speaking of her twirling. "You know, Xena, you don't have to have your guard up every second." Almost as an after thought, Gabrielle swung her staff, which was of course caught by Xena, inches from her face.
"Apparently, I do," Xena chuckled to herself.
"Here's a good place to eat," Gabrielle eyed the sun. "It's almost lunch. And it's so hot; we could rest. I could practice. You could, uh, polish your sword or something."
"Practice what?"
'Well, you know that move you were doing with my walking stick the day we met the Amazons?" Xena shook her head in confusion. "Well, anyway, I never did learn it. I thought I'd give it a try."
"Alright, as long as you don't practice on Argo."
"I won't. I learned that lesson a long time ago, Xena."
Xena smiled an amused smile and sat on a rock, ready to be served. Her friend rolled her eyes and went over to the saddlebags. On her way over to where she kept the food, she had to cross in front of Argo. Gabrielle looked into the eyes of the mare, and remembered how much she hated horses. "It's not you, Argo." She whispered as she patted the mare's nose. "I just don't like horses. Although, maybe that is a little unfair."
It's not fair. Gabrielle thought to herself. I mean, it is, I refused to go, so they left without me, but it still isn't fair. Gabrielle looked longingly out the door of her room. The whole school had gone to the next village over for the day. They were riding horses, though. "Horses." She huffed. "What if someone had been allergic to horses? They would have had to stay home, like me."
Her parents had consented to let her stay home, but they warned her to stay out of the way.
So, at first, she had gone out, trying to find odd little jobs to do for people, maybe earn a dinar or two for spending money. However, she had soon found herself in the way.
"You're eight-years-old! You should be in school." One farmer had told her. One that obviously didn't have children going to the next village. Everyone in Poteidia knew Gabrielle's opinion of horses.
She wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to help, but really causing more trouble than good. She was standing, watching a group of very young children play some kind of game with a ball when a merchant nearly crashed into her with a cart.
"Gabrielle!" He had screamed. "Get out of the way!" He then proceeded to grab her roughly by the arm, smack her, and drag her home. When her mother saw her tear stained face, she put down the sewing she was working on and came to the door.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" It was then that she noticed the merchant. "Edicus. What happened?"
"I found your daughter standing in the middle of the road, in the way. I nearly crashed into her with my cart."
Gabrielle's mother was starting to get the picture. "So you hit her." Edicus nodded. "Well, thank you for bring her home, but if you would kindly leave the disciplining of my child to me." With that she turned her back on the door, not wanting to let down the curtain on such a beautiful day, and sent Gabrielle to her room.
So here she sat. She had been warned that "When your father gets home…" but she didn't take the threat too seriously. When Lila and Perdicus got home, she would be free to go play, and the matter with Edicus would be forgotten.
Gabrielle almost smiled at the memory. The matter had not been forgotten. She had had to take a lecture that evening after supper, but it had been an adventurous day. Besides, Lila and Perdicus reported that the trip had been boring, anyway.
Now, still covered in blue juice, she was practicing a new move. So far, she had only hit herself in the head twice.
"Gabrielle!" She heard Xena call.
"What?"
"Could you get something for me?"
"From where?"
"The saddlebag."
"No."
"Why not?"
"You're closer."
"Yeah, but I'm sitting down, and you're standing up."
"I'm practicing."
"You're doing fine. You're great. Please?"
Just then, Xena heard her friend groan.
"Gabrielle? Gabrielle? I know what you're doing. You're going to make me come and get you. Gabrielle? Now you think that since you didn't answer, I think that you're really hurt. Gabrielle?" Now she was worried. What if her friend was hurt? In an instant she had her sword in her hand and had flipped over the bushes that separated her from Gabrielle's practicing ground—only to land right in front of the bard, who was sitting very contently and smiling up at her.
"Great. Now I'm sitting and you're standing. You get it."
"You know, Gabrielle, one of these days, I might think that you're kidding and not save you." Xena had wanted to chastise the girl for taking her protector so lightly, but she found that she couldn't. Although Gabrielle was still somewhat naïve and looked incredibly young, she wasn't a child who could be scolded and sent to her room. She was an adult. Sometimes I forget that. I grew up so quickly. By the time I was her age, I was leading an army. Xena looked at the bard, who was ready with a comeback. Gods, she thought as she saw her friend, she's been married and widowed, had a child and killed it, and been on the brink of death at least twice. She deserves to have me treat her like an adult.
"No," the bard was saying. "You'll always save me. Even if you think that I'm not in danger. That's just the way you are."
"But once I might not."
Gabrielle shook her head with a look of assurance in her eyes. "You always will." She turned to collect her things. "We should keep going if you wanted to get to that village by dark." With that she turned, and taking Argo's reins, led the way through the forest.
How is it that I can never get her off a subject, but she can simply walk away? I think that she knows that I can't communicate with words very well. But does she have to be so good at it?
Xena sighed and followed.As they walked along the path towards a village, though Gabrielle didn't know which one, Gabrielle was still practicing. Every once in a while, she'd throw something at Xena, or try to hit her with her staff. Xena, of course, blocked every one. "You know, Xena, one time, you're going to miss. You're going to get hit, and it won't just be because you let me get through. Not like last time. Oh, no. It's going to be genuine. And I'm going to give it to you. Yes I am."
Xena shook her head. Gabrielle was on another obsession. It almost seemed that she drifted from one to another, never pausing in between. Now it was getting through Xena's defenses. Next week it might be catching fish with her bare hands, a skill that she had never quite developed.
Oh well,
she thought as she watched the bard hit a tree, then turn on a nearby bush. She smiled serenely, thinking of how much this friendship meant to her. She wished that she had never even had to consider giving it up. But this girl wasn't- it isn't good for her. Xena knew it to be true.An attacker on the right, another on the left, the warrior-bard, Gabrielle, got them both, the tree came at her with such force…
Gabrielle stood upright, and became rigid. Something had changed. It had been like a wind, knocking her down. Xena. Xena's mood had changed, but I can't sense things like that. I can't read her thoughts, not like she can read mine…Oh, no. A thought burst into Gabrielle's head. It had been touching the back of her mind for some time now, but she had hoped it wasn't true. Not this. But how did I know?"Xena?" She asked timidly. She didn't want the answer to be yes, but she had to know.
"What were you thinking about?"
Xena was startled. Where had this come from? I shouldn't tell her. She'd hate me. But then, that's the problem, isn't it. She doesn't hate. This isn't the life that she was born to lead. This isn't what should have become of her extraordinary abilities. This- this filth that I live in shouldn't have soiled her soul. How can I tell her that? But Gabrielle's eyes were pleading. Xena could tell that if she didn't disclose her thoughts, the young bard would be hurt. Not that it would be much of a switch. She thought ruefully. "You'll get mad." Xena warned her.
"Maybe. But I'll be more mad if you don't tell me." Let me in. Just this once. Please, Xena?
"Fine. Gabrielle, uh, I don't how to say this, without hurting your feelings. So I'll just say it. You shouldn't follow me. You- you have lost everything because of me. You've given me so much, and I can never repay that debt. And I can't give you back your innocence or your daughter, or your perfect view of the world. But I can give the chance to- to just be you. To be the Bard of Poteidia, and not have to follow me around, taking second place and never getting any credit. This isn't what you were destined for. I know it."
It was all Gabrielle could do to keep her mouth from falling open. She had been right. So had Xena, though. It did hurt. It hurt to know that what she feared most was true. Xena did feel guilty about her. She did feel as though the bard didn't belong here.
"I'm not mad. How could I be mad? You're being honest with me. Completely honest with me. Right?" Gabrielle looked towards her friend and saw the hesitation on her face. "All right. Maybe not completely honest. But you're really close. And that's a step in the right direction." Gabrielle stopped and thought for a moment. She had wanted to know, she had practically begged Xena to tell her, in her thoughts at least. But what could she say? That she understood? That she agreed? Neither was true. That she thought that Xena was being conceited in thinking that she made that much of a difference? But she did.
Gabrielle took a deep breath before she continued. "Xena, I used to think that Lila was the best thing that had ever happened to me. But then she learned to talk. Then it was Perdicus, then my parents. For a while it was being able to follow you. Not being with you. I mean, no offense, but you were pretty intimidating. I seemed to be constantly in the way, constantly making mistakes. So being your friend wasn't too great yet. Just being able to follow you was the best thing that had ever happened to me. But now, well, I've been burned at the stake, tracked by Ares, almost hung and had a knife at my throat more times than I care to mention. I've seen the most preciose people in my life die before my eyes, sometimes to come back, but usually not. It's getting to where I can look death in the face and laugh."
But the bard hadn't yet finished her list. Just this much was enough to convince Xena that she was completely right. But Gabrielle continued anyway. "I've lost my daughter, my husband, my blood innocence, my family—not to mention any hope of a normal life. No, being able—being allowed to follow you isn't the best thing to ever happen to me. But being with you is." Here she stopped; her retort completed, and averted her eyes from those of her friend. What will Xena say? Did I hurt her? Have I stunned her speechless? Have I bored her out of her mind? The thoughts raced through her mind in an instant.
Xena's eyes almost watered; the emotion from the young bard's speech reaching her heart. "Thank you," was all she could think to say. It seemed inadequate, such a short sentence after such a large complement, but it was enough.
There were a few moments of silence. Their eyes locked, and neither wanted to be the one to break it. Finally Xena looked away. "I missed you so much. Words can't express how much. You are my light, and when you were gone, it was as if – it was like someone had taken away the sun. I—Gods, I just—" she fell silent, unable to say what she meant. Xena blinked rapidly a few times, then collapsed to the ground, the never shed tears breaking free.
Gabrielle looked at her friend in amazement. Stoic Xena, brave, strong, fearless Xena was crying. Sobbing would be more accurate. Gabrielle hesitated only a moment before running over and comforting her friend. It was a switch, to be sure, but Gabrielle knew exactly what Xena needed.
"I'm right here." She murmured. "I won't leave you. I promise." The last word came out as a whisper.
Internally Xena shook herself. Now she knew how Gabrielle felt when she couldn't stop crying. The tension had been building and building, the disaster overcome, and now the emotional effects were starting to take their toll, weeks after she had gotten her best friend back. To let someone else be the strong one for just a moment, it felt really nice. Soon she would be done, having mentally chided herself for becoming so much like, well, so much like Gabrielle. She didn't mind when Gabrielle needed the same thing, but she didn't usually do this, didn't usually drown her common sense in a river of tears.
Xena eyed the river mischievously. Her mother wasn't home, and in the hot summer, she longed to swim. She could swim, too. But ever since that boy had almost drowned three years ago, the children of the village had been forbidden to play there without adult supervision.
Xena actually agreed with the edict, for the little children, but she was almost a teenager. She could swim without an adult. And it was so hot! She took off her sandals, (Nasty things, her mother made her wear them) and hiked up her skirt so as too be able to wade in for a while. Her eyes almost blurred in anticipation of the cool water flowing over her burning soles and ankles. The riverbank wasn't very steep, she knew she could make it with out falling in and soaking her clothes, therefore giving away where she had been. The young girl gently extended one foot into the lukewarm water.
The other foot, however, slipped. The rock on which she had been standing was not as sturdy as she had thought. But it was as hard. Her head was knocked into it on her way down and she was pulled into the swirling waters or the wide river. Xena remained unconscious for only a few moments, but it was already to late for her to catch one of the extending roots. She desperately tried to swim back to shore, but she was too dazed to muster up much strength. So she started screaming. She might get into trouble, but it was better that getting into Hades.
The only person that heard her was a fair-haired little girl, traveling with her mother, from a few villages away. The girl must have been four, but she was brave, or stupid, Xena added to herself, for her age. She grabbed onto one of the roots that the older one had missed and reached out her hand.
"Hold on!" She cried, young eyes filled with the just realized danger of what she was doing. Her small hand was almost crushed by Xena's strong grip, but some how she managed to drag both of them to the shore. Xena eyed the little girl, panting and embarrassed. She was about to thank her, but she was interrupted.
"Thank you." The fair-haired youth said. "This has been one of the most boring days of my entire life. Are you okay?"
Xena nodded slowly. "I think so. I'll have to get someone to look at this bump on my head. Thanks, though. You saved my life."
"I'm sure you would have done the same for me."
Would I? Xena thought I don't even know you.
"Maybe someday, you'll return the favor. I'm Gabrielle." She held out her hand.
"Xena." Xena took the offered hand and shook it.
Just then a call rang out from across the field. "Gabrielle! Where are you?"
"That's my mother. I have to go. It was nice meeting you, Xena." The little girl scrambled up the bank and ran full tilt towards her impatiently waiting mother.
Xena watched her go and let out a long sigh. She sat by the river until her clothes were dry, then dizzily walked home to wait until her mother returned to dress her head. She soon forgot about the little Gabrielle, and the favor that she owed. Her life.
Xena blinked. The tears had stopped while she had been thinking about her past. That couldn't have been Gabrielle, could it? Maybe it was a different Gabrielle.
"Did you ever visit Amphipolis?"
This question startled the bard. Where had Xena gotten that? "My mother used to. She said that they had the best kind of goats' wool. I think that they were the only ones crazy enough to make goat hair coats, no offence, Xena. She told me that she used to take me with her, until I was five or so, but I don't remember." Xena shook her head and smiled as the bard prattled on. "Why?"
"I just remembered something is all. No big deal." She started to walk
towards the direction of the village.
"Uh, no. You don't just to walk away. Why do you want to know if I've ever been to Amphipolis?"
Xena shook her head and sternly back at the bard. "I said it was nothing." Gabrielle looked shocked for a moment by Xena's sharp rebuke, but then she saw her friend's eyes dancing.
"Oh, come on. Please?"
Xena raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "Not this time. I told you what you wanted to know last time, and look how much trouble that got me into." She smiled a warm smile in her friend's general direction and continued on her way.
Gabrielle let a sigh out through her teeth and followed after her friend. "One day, Xena…" She mumbled to herself at a carefully gauged volume. Loud enough for Xena to hear and understand, but soft enough for her to ignore. "One day."
"One day you'll understand." Gabrielle's mother assured her. "Soon, in fact."
"Ouch! Why are you pulling so hard?" Gabrielle looked in the mirror to where she could see her strained face wincing. Her mother was doing up her hair. And it hurt.
"We're having Perdicus and his parents over for supper tonight, dear. You have to look nice."
"Mother, we have Perdicus over almost every night. Ouch!"
"Sorry. Well tonight is different. Hand me that ribbon please."
Gabrielle reached for the dresser and picked up a blue ribbon. "How is tonight different from any other night?"
"It's a surprise. Does this ribbon go with the skirt you're going to wear?" Without waiting for a reply she shook her head. "Hand me those two green ones."
Gabrielle sighed and did as she was told. It was going to be a long night.
The knock on the door came as, well, not a great surprise. Gabrielle's mother and father stood by her sides, smiling with pride. Perdicus came in first and met Gabrielle's eyes. A silent communication passed between them. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, as if to say, "No, I don't have any idea about what this is about, either."
Gabrielle's mother welcomed her guests in and bid them to sit at the table where they would eat. Supper was very tasty, and the children (all right, not quite children, they were both fifteen), though they kept meeting their eyes from across the table, enjoyed it. Gabrielle's mother cleared the dishes away and came and sat back down.
She hesitated a bit before she began to speak. "Gabrielle, Perdicus, we have wonderful news. We," she gestured around the table with her head, "have decided that it is time the two of you were betrothed. To each other."
When Gabrielle woke up, everyone was standing around her.
"Gabrielle, are you alright?" Perdicus asked. "Gee, I didn't think that you'd take it that hard. At least, I hoped you wouldn't."
"You mean you knew about this?"
"I had an idea. Please, Gabrielle, I mean, we've been friends since the day we were born, we have the same interests, we're a perfect match."
But Perdicus was boring, he had very little imagination, he often acted like a baby, and puberty was making him weird.
It was amazing, she reflected later—much later--, how quickly opinions can change.
Tears sprang to Gabrielle's eyes. Oh, my dearest Perdicus, if only I had realized then how much you meant to me. If only I had known… she shoved the thought aside and forced herself to focus on something else.
Gabrielle walked behind Xena and Argo, observing how the light from the ever-fading sun shown through the green leaves, making them seem as if they were glowing. She was still quietly mad about the fact that Xena wouldn't tell her why she was wondering about Amphipolis. But she could let that go. She had more important things to worry about.
"Why are there so many Gods, Xena? Wouldn't one be much more efficient? Maybe one that cared about His people…" She was really just rambling, it was a rhetorical question, but Xena answered it anyway.
"If there was only one God, who would torment us, Gabrielle? And what would happen to Hercules?"
"That's a good point. I mean the thing about Hercules. But what if, what if there was a higher power than our Gods? What if there was a Supreme Being that ruled over everything, all the time, and not just when He felt like it? Like, when Callisto had just killed Perdicus, and you—" She stopped. Xena still didn't know that Gabrielle had seen her that night. Heard her. She still didn't know that Gabrielle's blood innocence had lasted as long as it had because she had heard her best friend praying to a Higher Power, begging for His help. And she still didn't know how much it meant to Gabrielle to know that someone cared enough to set aside her reservations on Gods in general to ask for help.
"And I…?" Xena prompted gently.
"Nothing. I was just thinking about Perdicus, is all." She looked Xena in the eyes for a moment and almost got lost in the blueness. It is easy to lie, she mused, when you believe what you are saying.
Xena shook her head, but she didn't press the matter. Some things aren't meant to be known.
It wasn't meant to be known. Of that, she was sure. She looked at the kitten in front of her. She didn't where it had come from or why it was here, but it was.
"Mother is never going to let me keep you," she hissed at the young cat that had followed her home. "She hates cats. Thinks they're evil. Oh, but you're so cute." Xena knelt down and stroked the shaking kitten's fur. "And you're cold. Oh, she'll have to let me at least feed you!"
Xena picked up the tabby and pushed her against her skin. Even in the snow, she wasn't wearing enough to decently shield the kitten from the blowing winds. Not that that had ever stopped her before. She shoved the freezing little animal down her blouse, wincing as the cat's frozen fur was pushed against her skin. With one hand holding the tabby still and the other in front to guard against some of the wind, and the not so slight chance that she would trip, Xena attempted to navigate her way towards her home.
"It would be easier," she mused out loud, "if you, kitten, were not here. Mother's sure to be worried about me out in the snow, probably mad, too, and when I come in asking for food for a kitten, well, I don't even want to think about it. You're just-" Xena fell, just as she knew she was going to, having slipped on some unseen ice. The kitten went flying out of her shirt and into the snow.
Xena was sure this was the worst winter of all her thirteen years. And she just had to get caught outside in its worst storm. She wanted to cry in the pain of whatever she just did to her leg, and for the kitten, but she knew the tears would simply freeze and not help at all. Her bare hands felt like they were burning as she knelt in the snow, hands fumbling for the kitten. In the complete silence she could hear it mewing faintly, but the wind whipped the sound away before Xena could tell where it was coming from.
The image of the next morning flashed through her head. The town would awaken, and she would be right in the middle, feet from her door, but unable to make it that far in the blinding snow, frozen for all eternity with her hands wrapped around her final prize, an unmoving lump of fur. The picture sent more chills up her spine than were already there and her search became more frantic.
Just as she was about to give up her search and surrender herself to the cold threatening to claim her, her fingertips brushed something soft. Xena grabbed the kitten and forced her legs to move. She slowly stood up and took a hesitant step—and it was all she could do to keep from falling over again. The fall, which seemed like hours, but was really only a few seconds ago, had done something to her leg. With a groping hand she reached down to her knee. Sure enough, she had broken the bone, she could fell it sticking out more that usual. Just then, she heard the faint meow of the kitten, about to be sent to a freezing death, and she decided she would continue on.
She took a step towards where she knew her house to be. Her teeth were clenched so that she wouldn't cry out. The pain shot up her leg, it hurt more than anything she had ever known. But the kitten. The kitten had to survive. Xena felt the door and stumbled into the warmth and safety of her home, where she let the kitten go, and collapsed.
At least the kitten survived, the thought broke through the pain. She was sure it was her last.
Xena chuckled quietly to herself. It hadn't been her last. Far from it, in fact. The pain had been nothing, compared to what she would know. The ice, the kitten, all of it seemed trivial now. But I suppose that's what growing up is about. Finding different things to be concerned with. She looked over at Gabrielle, who was working on a scroll of some sort. Xena poked the fire once with a stick and scooted over to join her friend. "What are you working on?"
Gabrielle looked up, eager to try her latest story on a willing audience. "It's a story different from all the others."
"How so?" Xena took the bait.
"Well, all the others are mostly about adventures that you've had, and I've watched. You know, stuff I've got perspective on. But this one, this one is about the two of us. Our friendship and stuff we've done together. Like a team."
"Oh." Xena smiled. "A team. I like that." She nodded her head in approval.
"I call it 'Hero's Shadow.'"
"Interesting title. What's it mean?" Xena asked with her eyebrows raised.
"Well, two things, really. For one, it means that the whole world is under your, the hero's, control. If you don't like something, you fix it. And the other meaning is that, well, I seem to always be in your shadow. To most people, I'm just a sidekick."
Xena shook her head. "Not to me. You'll always be more than a sidekick to me. Goodnight, Gabrielle. I love you." She kissed the top of her friend's head and settled down under her blankets.
"I love you too, Xena. Oh, I guess we didn't make it to that town. Sorry."
"No big deal, Gabrielle," Xena mumbled, already half asleep.
"I'm glad." The bard commented. A thought occurred to her. "Could I read you this one little bit of my story? I wrote it for you."
Xena rolled over to face away from the fire. "Fine. But make it quick."
"Okay. It's a song. I hope you like it. Here it is.
It hasn't been easy,
This life of mine
The pain and the suffering
Just wait in line
The darkness within me
Isn't stronger than the light
The daylight will
Always follow the night
Don't take my weight on your shoulders
My strength on your hands
When this is all over
Don't ruin your plans
Your friendship is enough
To help me reach the sky
Now when things get rough
I can fly!
My faith isn't frail
My spirit won't die
Your hand in mine
Your light to guide… me
I'm lost but I know
I'll soon see your light
Because you have taught me to fly!
I know all the anger
And all of the grief
The promise of happiness
I promised to keep
I've felt all the pain
And watched my life go by
But now, I'm learning to fly
The sunset behind me
The sunrise before
With you beside me
I'm ready to soar
The world at my feet
A friend by my side
I won't miss a beat
I'm ready to—"
Xena cut her off. "Gabrielle, I said fast. Oh, well. Goodnight."
Gabrielle rolled her eyes at her friend and curled up under her blanket. Then, almost as an after thought, she propped herself up on her elbow and leaned over Xena's ear. She had to whisper the last word.
"Fly!"