Soft Moments
Disclaimer: The author was not harmed due to sleep deprivation during the production of that work.
Standard Disclaimer: The characters belong to Renaissance Pictures no Copyright infringement intended.
Subtext Alert!
I felt a slap on my cheek and then a cool hand on my forehead. I expected my eyes to creak as I managed to push my lids up. A greek choir contest took place in my head with all the contestants singing different tunes. My stomach heaved painfully but I managed to keep the bile in.
A dark face appeared overhead – stern, unsmiling.
"You 're alright?"
The words were echoing, ping ponging around the cave before they found a way to my ears, to my brain. I had no clue whether I had passed out from heavy drinking or from a whack to my head. Though both shameful I preferred the latter.
Xena finally removed her hand from my head and I tried to sit up, what I shouldn't have. With an unpleasant noise I threw up and fell back into a lying position.
"Not so alright," I managed to mumble and wondered if I had once again brought myself into trouble and made a fool out of me. I could not remember how I'd gotten into that state. Xena did not offer any explanation voluntarily either.
"You need a rest," she ordered, "we're staying." She kicked a scoop of sand over the stain on the floor and marched off, leaving me confused and alone on my bedroll.
I looked around taking care not to move my head to much. I knew the cave. It sat over a rocky beach offering a breathtaking view on the endless sea. Bright sunlight spilled in from the opening, but it did not reach up to the place were I lay.
Even in the shade the cave felt hot and stuffy. Summer in Greece! The sun beat down merciless and scorched the grass covering the ground. Up north in the mountains were still patches of cool, maybe even snow, if you made it all the way up to mount Olympus – if of course you dared to disturb the gods. But down here along the shores, were hardly a tree grew you could not escape the grizzly heat.
I looked around for water and found a flask right next to my bedstead. No doubt Xena had left it there. She always thought of little things like that. I wondered not for the first time how a kind soul like hers could appear so cold and grim.
I listened but I could not make out my companion. Instead, I heard the water lapping onto the beach and the roll of the stones it washed back on its wake. I drifted into a troubled sleep, filled with magical creatures, that so plentiful walked the grounds of my country.
Cerberus, the three-headed dog; Minotaurus, the man with the ox head, Centaurs and Hydras. Some of them I had met during my travels and they felt strangely familiar. But there was always that invisible barrier for our customs were different. It seemed so little and yet it was hard to cross.
They did not take any notice of me and it took me a while to realize that they were all gathered inside the big arena in Athens holding court. The voice of the judge drifted over the grounds: "Is there anybody, who would like to speak out for Xena – the Warrior Princess?" I wove my way through them trying to get into the middle. I wanted to speak up for my friend.
I was searching frantically as the session came to an end, but I could not find the person in charge and though I screamed with all my might my voice did not rise above a whisper. The sentence was read, but the voice of the reader was strangely tuned in speed and pitch. I could not make out the words.
I woke with a start gagging and gasping and with no recollection of what had been said in the hearing in my dream. My head was still spinning and I closed my eyes again. I could not focus anyway. All the stark lines in the cave seemed doubled and surfaces were swimming in and out only further upsetting my stomach.
"Xena," I croaked without thinking. If anyone with ill intent would approach me now I'd have no chance. I wanted Xena by my side.
"I am here," came her answer without hesitation. I could feel her more than hear her coming towards me and I relaxed.
"Do you need anything, Gabrielle?" I did not say anything but than Xena could look right through me at any time. She sighed and settled next to me holding my hand. Though we had traveled together for a long time we shared our more intimate moments…. in the dark.
Xena, the mighty warrior princess, who made expert use of her body in every single fight and used her body to seduce someone, when ever necessary, was a shy lover. She preferred the wee hours of the night to come to me. Then her body became soft and smooth and her movements gentle and fluent, like I have never seen in the day and probably never will.
We had a few moments in the bright light of the day, but those were all triggered by excruciating pain and need both physically and psychologically and did not count therefore. Sometimes things needed to be said and done and sometimes you just wanted to do them. So during the day we usually appeared well behaved and a bit detached – but there was another world for Xena and me, when the sun went down. A world were our characters were not so different from each other.
Xena let her fingers travel up and down my arm.
"Sing for me," I said. I knew the tiny smile that curved her mouth and I knew without opening my eyes that my face mirrored hers.
"Must I?"
"If you don't, I will die on you…"
And my warrior princess sang. Her clear voice carried out of the cave silencing the waves and the roll of the rocks on the beach, further over the peaceful ocean and right into the glorious sunset.
TBC