"How far till we get there?"
Gabrielle hobbled along, her trusting staff thumping onto the ground with every large step she took. The bard's chest thrusted forward as she picked up her pace to keep up with the warrior, who was a few meters ahead of her.
"If you don't like the life on the road, you shouldn't have begged me to come with, Gabrielle." Xena responded, a small grin playing on her lips.
The blonde chose to wisely ignore the warrior's response. "I didn't /beg/ you." She mumbled.
"Did too."
"Did /not/."
"... Did too."
"Xena!"
The warrior rolled her eyes. "If you're tired, Gabrielle, feel free to get on Argo."
"You /know/ she doesn't like me, Xena!" She mimicked the sarcastic tone as she said the warrior's name.
The warrior chuckled. "It's a days walk to Athens. We'll set up camp in a few minutes."
The woman of few words. Gabrielle huffed. "Could've told me that earlier. My feet hurt like Tartarus."
The warrior choose to ignore Gabrielle, and it infuriated the bard beyond words. Woman of few words indeed. Gods.
'I... I could just... Just hit her with my staff! Or...' The bard grinned as an idea formed in her head. She leaned in ever so slowly and laid her staff in front of the warrior's boots, in the hope that the fierce warrior princess would trip and fall flat on her face.
Part of her was convinced Xena would dodge the staff. Of course she would! The infamous warrior princess, slayer of warlords, conquerer of nations! Of course she would dodge it!
Except she didn't. The warrior princess yelped as she fell flat on her face in the dirt.
As Xena got up, face covered in mud, she glared at the bard. If looks could kill Gabrielle would be lying across the dirt already.
All Gabrielle could do was stare, struck by fear, her eyes wide and her mouth gaping open.
"I-I... Xena... I thought you would've dodged it!" Gabrielle exclaimed, attempting to fix her mistake.
'She's gonna kill me! Or worse, leave me at the side of the road to die!'
The warrior approached her, and Gabrielle knew this was it; the end of her life. Xena would make her suffer a bit, but eventually she would die. Gabrielle closed her eyes in fear.
Surprisingly a pair of strong hands lifted her up. The bard yelped, opening her eyes in confusion. "Xena? Xena, what... What are you doing?"
The warrior refused to speak. Instead she continued to walk with the smaller bard in her arms. "Look! We can talk about this! Please... Please don't throw me off a cliff! I'm too young to die! I have such ambitions! Please, Xena!"
The woman of few words refused to speak, unsurprisingly. Instead she picked up her pace.
That's where she saw it; a lake. A sigh left her lips. She wasn't going to die! Thank the gods!
As Gabrielle had already suspected, the warrior threw the bard in the lake. Gabrielle yelped, fearing that her new boots would be toast. And Xena had told her she looked good in them!
She closed her eyes, fearing what would come next, even if it was much better than the painful death she had imagined Xena would give her instead.
Mere seconds later the little bard of Poteidaia was thrown into the water, and as she had suspected, her new boots were toast.
She looked at Xena from underneath soaked bangs, a look of guilt draped across her features.
The infamous warrior princess grinned that disgusting smug grin of hers, and Gabrielle /hated/ it. She could just… Just kiss that sickly grin off her lips! Wait, what?
"Very funny, Xena. Now, will you pease gather some wood so we can make a fire. That is if you don't want your traveling companion to die of hypothermia, of course!" Gabrielle was already trying to climb out of the icy lake, her body shivering as the freezing autumn wind hit her soaked form.
The warrior eyed the bard, that awful smug grin not having left her lips. As the woman of few words that she was, she left without uttering another word, and silently seeked the needed wood to make a fire.
The rest of their evening resolved in both the bard and the warrior trying to make up for their stupid jokes, and late at night, as Gabrielle was shivering from the afterglow of the icy lake she had been thrown into, Xena pulled her close against her leather clad, warmer body, and the two fell into a deep sleep, both visiting the land of Morpheus, and dreaming of their future adventures, ad the wonderful life they had ahead of them; together.
