Earlier...
The three women had made camp that night. It was late and they still had a five hour ride to Potedia, Gabrielle's birth-town. Both Eve and Gabrielle had fallen asleep after they put their bedrolls down. They were exhausted from the long journey they've been taking. Xena stayed up late, thinking, always thinking.
Xena had waken up first, just after sunrise. Again, she had been sitting for hours, thinking about Gabrielle's sister and how she would react. After all, Gabrielle's parents weren't too fond of Xena before they past away. The reason was because she was the one who made Gabrielle a warrior in the first place.
Hours later, Eve and Gabrielle wake up to find Xena gone. Argo was too, missing.
Xena had scouted ahead, Argo at her side. She was about half a mile away from camp. She took slow steps, not making a sound. She was listening to the forest, for any sound of attackers. She heard a crack of a branch, then was replace by gasping and hyperventilating. She turned her head to the sound. A tall curly-haired man came running through the bushes. He was limping badly and bleeding with cuts and bruises on his body. He stopped and fell back. He rolled over to face her, "Run woman, they're gonna kill us all."
She bent down to help the man with a badly bleeding wound on his chest under his shirt. She ripped open his shirt and touched the wound. He screamed and she looked up. "You broke 3 ribs." She did a pressure point to his chest around the wound. "What did you do to me?" "I blocked your nerves. Now, you can't feel most of the pain that will have to be done in order to heal you, but you will feel some pain." He nodded and closed his eyes. She looked at him as if to say she was sorry, then she looked down. She put both hands on his rib cage. She pressed down and started feeling around for where the broken ribs were. She found them but one was puncturing his lungs, that's why he's hyperventilating. She found the edge of the bone. She reached to her right boot down to where her ankle is, pulling out a dagger. "Ready?" "Yeah.". She put the dagger under the rib, and slowly pushed down. At about an inch deep she started cutting a half circle in his skin. He winced, and throughout the whole time had his mouth open, trying to hold in cries of pain. She lifted up a huge flap of skin and again looked at him, feeling sorry. She stuck her hand through the hole and into his body. He screamed constantly. She grabbed one of the broken ribs, making sure she had the right grip. Again she glanced at the screaming man and back down. She tightened her grip on the rib, and put pressure on his chest. She pulled the rib up to where it was now in place. He cried in pain, screaming worse than anyone ever could.
One by one, the same thing happened. She took her hand out when she was done and closed the flap of skin. She started sewing it back together. After she tied it off, men came running toward her with swords in their hands. "That's them. They did this to me," the man said. The men looked at Xena, then looked at her right arm. It was covered in blood, trickling down her arm and off her fingers. They looked back at her. Some ran, but two stayed.
They charged. She bent down, and picked up the bloodied dagger. She threw it at the bigger man, hitting him in the face near the lower left of the forehead. He fell to the ground, blood oozing out of the wound. She ran up to the other man that charged at her. Just before they collided, she ran up him like a wall, kicked him in the face and flipped off him onto the ground. She heard the scream of two women and instantly knew who they were. The man got back up and took out a dagger from behind her. Xena, facing the other direction, took out her chakram. She applied pressure to the center and making it split into two. He charged at her dagger in hand. With one part of the chakram in each hand, she turned around and swung one hand out, cutting the mans dagger. He staggered in shock. With the other hand, Xena swung the chakram at his head, almost fully decapitating him. She ran over to the other man and pulled her dagger out of his face. She ran to Argo and took out a black cloth from her saddle-bag. She wiped the cloth over the bloodied blade of the dagger, cleaning it off. Then put the dagger back where it belongs. She got on Argo and rode to camp.
When she got there, Eve and Gabrielle were being attacked. A group of 13 Persian men pounced. Xena got off her horse and helped them with the battle. Eve and Gabrielle battle with the strength of many, but Xena stood out. Soon, both Xena and Eve were too busy performing a series of flips and kicks to notice Discord, the one out of many Greek gods, that would help the Persian army get back at Xena for beating them in battle many years ago.
The other gods, including Zeus, knew Xena was too dangerous. The only reason is because she had the power to kill gods. Knowing her reputation, they didn't want to take a chance. They saw her in battle. She defeated an army of over 300 soldiers by herself, resurrected from the dead over 3 times, Killed some gods, almost took over most of the land with Ares help, and even has a God on her side.
Discord shot an arrow at Gabrielle's shoulder while she was fighting. After Xena and Eve killed all the others. They ran over to Gabrielle. Xena blocked her nerves. Xena looked at Gabrielle and Gabrielle nodded. Eve started a fire and Xena got a thin metal bar she kept on Argos harness. She put it in the fire until it turned an orange color. Xena pushed the arrow through Gabrielle's shoulder until the arrowhead came out the other hand. She broke the arrowhead off and pulled the arrow out. Then she got the orange bar and stuck it through the wound, twisting it to clean it out. Then she pulled it out. Gabrielle screamed throughout the whole time. Xena looked at the arrow head to to find a strong smell. She brought it closer to her face to get a better smell of exactly what it was. After she smelled it, brought the arrow down slowly in shock and looked at the arrow design. It was a Persian arrow. A poisoned arrow.
