Disclaimer: I do not own Xena: Warrior Princess or any of its protagonists, same goes for the giant lizard that appears in this story, i don't own him either unfortunately
AN: I hope with all my heart that you will truly enjoy this story. Please this is just an idea I had, but if you don't see a life for this story then tell me, so I won't waste my time on it, please. At least if you like the story give me some feedback so that I may know!
We were a family. How'd it break up and come apart, so that now we're turned against each other? Each standing in the other's light. How'd we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What's keepin' us from reaching out, touching the glory? – The Thin Red Line
Chapter 1 / Prologue
"That's a Dorian chant, she's using Eonian rhythms"
The whole crowd turned, to look at the young voice who had spoken. There, just near the entrance of the cave was a small girl, dressed in a simple orange skirt and a white dress.
Immediately Gabrielle felt a little bit uneasy, finding herself in the center of attention, but then again, she was a bard after all, she should be used to it, and soon the uneasiness was replaced with purpose, and she made her way to the young couple of guys in front of the crowd, confidence building in herself.
"I made quite the study of this" further explained the strawberry blond girl, with a soft voice, when she reached the surprised teen.
"Shall I try?" she finally asked to the young guy, who quickly reached for the ancient scroll, offering it to the girl, that soon started reading it in the proper way.
"ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν:
πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω"
"you see, you just put the emphasis on the first syllable" explained the Bard, proud of her knowledge, but as soon as the last word left her mouth, the smile on her face disappeared, for the cave was filled with a rumbling sound that seemed to be shaking the very foundation of the earth.
A mighty roar escaped from the depths of the cavern, echoing on the walls, almost deafening all the presents. People started to sought comfort and security from one another but it was clear in their eyes that whatever they were up to before, was not happening, something wasn't going per plane, and soon the firsts men, almost subconsciously had taken the first steps toward the exit of the cave. Surely of the all bunch our bard was the most confused and frightened, not having but a single clue of what was happening. Soon the initial shock was wearing off, replaced by fear and anxiety, and immediately more people followed the example of the guys who had taken the first steps towards safety until more and more men had their back turned from the sound and as a wave were starting to run away from the devilry hiding inside, all but one girl were now running for their lives, but not Gabrielle, for she was terrified beyond reason by the creature who she had a brief glimpse of, but soon had disappeared behind the dirt that was raised from the floor.
And then everything got quiet, a deafening silence preannouncing the storm that was to come. And the storm came, when, from the ground a creature so immense and powerful emerged, disrupting what was left of the floor, red was the color of such creature, the size seemed to be like the one of a mountain, Gabrielle couldn't see the end of the appalling creature standing before her, not in her most vivid dream she could believe in something like that, a true force of nature. She had just glimpses of it, for it was so big that the cave wasn't fit to hold him and soon she realized that as well when the first pieces of the rocky roof started to fall all around here until the creature stopped and Gabrielle realized with a throb that a pair of reptilian eyes where starring at her, lights that seemed to be emanating from them.
The creature stilled and stared right into those frightened green eyes before him, and Gabrielle realized she never was this scared, she feared for her life, she now knew that the thing before her was a sentient and intelligent creature and behind those eyes she could see evil in the most primordial form. Pure, and beautiful, no this was no mindless best she thought and in that precise moment she understood that such a force of nature was not going to be stopped by anything or anyone.
Then the creature spoke
"Well... and who are you, little thing, may I assssk?" a snake like tongue and a thunderous voice who had shaken the wall of the cave, along with her very soul.
"I uhm, I'm Gabrielle" finally answered the shaken girl, barely managing to string a few words together to make sense
"I ssee, Gabrielle" purred the creature, trying the sound of her name, successfully sending chills to the girl, and then continued "you are a small creature, Gabrielle, I met a ssmal thing like you once... a barrel rider"
"you don't happen to know him now, do you?"
"I… who...? I don't even know wh- "
"no, I suppose you don't" interrupted the giant creature
"and you don't even smell like him, yet you are about the same heights, do tell me, what are you?"
"I'm... I'm a human?" answered hesitantly the poor bard
"a human? This small"
"would you please stop that?"
"what did you say?!"
"nothing, nothing!" immediately tried to recover the blond girl "and to whom do I have the honor to speak?" she asked, quickly changing topic
"I'm Smaug the magnificent, king under the mountain… Which reminds me, where are your dwarf friendss? Where are you hiding them?"
"dwarves...?" questioned Gabrielle, with a hint of surprise and confusion, mixed with the fear
"there are no dwarves here"
"you people are so short with fantasy, always the same lame answer"
Once again Gabrielle did her best to ignore the pun, meant it or not and tried to find her way out of this one in the only way she could: talking.
Screams of fear and desperation reached the ear of the Warrior Princess just when she was about to dismount her horse, immediately she unsheathed her sword and run towards the small crowd running a few dozen paces away from here, when she reached the group she was barely able to stop them from their crazed run, to question them.
"and that's how we become friends and started to fight evil together"
"fascinating! Maybe I won't eat you after all" exclaimed Smaug, still after listening to the girl's stories, and still toying a bit with her
"oh…that's good... I think?"
"of course, and how are you planning to fight me?" he hissed, showing his teeth, that were the size of the bard.
"I uhm, I don't – "
"exactly my thoughts" he smiled, content of himself
"now if you'll excuse me I'll go find something to eat, I'm starving after all"
"oh and mind me, you are still alive because you are just too much fun for me, but if when I return you are not here I will burn everything to the ground from here to the white city."
"white city...? no wait! You cannot go out!" exclaimed the desperate bard, causing a fit of rage to escape the red beast.
"and WHO you think you are to tell ME what to do, little thing?" thundered the immense creature, raising his spears like finger that were followed by wings, the bard thought, that thing can fly? Oh, by the gods this is just great, Xena's going to kill me this time, which is funny considering the situation... gods his breath stinks. In fact, the enraged dragon's face was so close to Gabrielle that she could see the smaller details, surprisingly finding out that between his many scales were stuck many pieces of jewelry and coins
"please, please, please just wait listen to me" begged the poor bard, minds working as fast as she could to save the day, and possibly the whole planet
"look" she started, an idea forming and a grin finding his way on her face "if you wait for me here I'll bring you the best food you can find within 300 leagues from here, deal?"
"and if I don't come back you can burn everything to the ground, ok?"
"you never cease to amaze me" he said, with a grin on his monstrous snout
"but know this" he continued "if what you bring me is not satisfying you'll be the side dish"
She thought about it for nothing but a moment
"seems fair" she said, and started to take a few steps back, hesitantly "I'll be back" she then blurted out just to say something, and then headed for the entrance of the cave.
As soon as the sunlight touched her face again she sent a prayer to every single god she knew on Olympus and started to think of what to do now, I can't believe this is happening, I must deal with a god be damned dragon waiting in that cave, why did I have to read that scroll, by the gods what else could go wrong!?
"Gabrielle!" Exclaimed a worried Xena, sword in hands, running towards the bard
Oh, gods, oh this is just great, why can't I just shut up… what I'm going to do now, what will I tell her? hey Xena I think I just have awaken a dragon, have any idea of how to fix that?
Oh, gods here she come
"Gabrielle are you all right? What is going on here?" Asked the warrior Princess, glaring at the bard with a questioning look, enforced by the risen eyebrow.
"I, uhm, Xena I might have awoken a dragon"
WHAT?
"WHAT?" repeated her thought an aghast Xena
Oh, the gods I can't believe I just said that like that! Come on Gabrielle you can do better than this
"he might be bigger than Potidaea itself" she mentally facepalmed herself
"and he also talks" genius Gabrielle, genius
"Gabrielle what are you talking about? Have you hit your head? Gabrielle look at me, are you actually saying the truth?" when blue met green eyes, only regret was found in the last ones
"I swear Xena, I'm sorry I didn't me-" she was then interrupted by the warrior princess
"it's ok Gabrielle, is it actually this big and dangerous?"
"yes..." she finally answered faintly
"it's ok, I'm not mad at you I'm just… oh well first thing first, is there something else I should know?"
"well actually…" started the bard, but stopped when she received an annoying look from piercing blue eyes
"I wasn't being serious"
"but with the luck we have he might as well have wings and fly" half joked Xena, trying to lighten the mood but when she was met with no answer her grin turned into a frown
"I wasn't even… by the gods Gabrielle couldn't you awake something less…lethal? I don't know, a titan or something?"
"also I'm supposed to bring him dinner"
"you never cease to amaze me Gabrielle" sarcastically stated that warrior princess
"he said that too"
AN: about the chant Gabrielle is reading in the story, if you know ancient Greek or you google the translation you will find out that indeed it is not a chant to awake a dead dragon from another universe, but something else entirely. This is mainly due to the fact that I actually do not know any chant to achieve such results so I just had to improvise, as Gabrielle would say, best I could do!
Also, forgive me for any spelling mistake!