Hope
A small blonde woman, clutching an angelic-faced, golden-haired toddler to her chest, came over and down the hill facing the little village of Theela. In the dusk light, a few villagers caught sight of her and watched the little woman trip a few times, but catch herself before the baby could fall with her. Her sack dress clung to her, drenched with sweat, and they were just close enough to faintly hear the baby cry.
By time the woman made it to the base of the hill, a small crowd had gathered to watch her approach. As she got closer they could see her face; flushed and tear stained. A woman, the healer of the village, stepped forward to greet the little blonde woman.
Gabrielle ran, stumbling a bit, the baby in her arms growing heavier every second. She clutched her child close at the sight of the curious villagers. Her pace slowed as she approached them. She looked for a way around them, or a friendly face to lend her a horse. She was panting, exhausted. She hadn't stopped running for 36 hours now. Her baby hadn't stopped crying for most of the trip.
Should she keep running? Should she bother begging for a horse? How far behind her was Xena? Was she in the position to beg for hospitality? ... And did she want to risk trusting little Hope with anyone but herself?
She was weighing all of these things still when she slowed to a stop in front of the colorfully dressed healer. The woman was about Gabrielle's mother's age. She stood a few inches taller than Gabrielle, with chestnut colored hair, and a kind, oval face. She watched the young mother; concerned but patiently waiting while Gabrielle decided whether or not to answer her.
Finally, Gabrielle swallowed hard and shifted Hope in her arms to keep the baby's cries away from her ear. "Please," she panted but spoke levelly, "I need your help. She's trying to kill my baby."
The healer was startled and looked at the villagers surrounding her. There was suddenly an outpouring of empathy from the crowd, but the healer was more logical and cool-headed than the rest.
"Do you have the plague?" the healer asked evenly.
Gabrielle shook her head, taking deep breaths. "We're healthy. You can examine us. I just need to hide my baby. Please?"
"Who would you try to kill a baby?" the healer watched her for any sign of dishonesty.
Gabrielle hesitated, and Hope suddenly clutched at her mother's hair, burying her tears into Gabrielle's neck. The words were on her lips before she had time to think. "Have you heard of Xena, the Warrior Princess? She believes my daughter will end her reign. She thinks that if she kills her, it will stop the prophecy."
The healer's eyes narrowed a bit on the frantic young woman's face. She looked at the other villagers. The men seemed in agreement that the idea of this baby being hunted was beond despicable. The women all looked as though they'd fight for the chance to be able to hold the sweet little one. Her eyes made it back to Gabrielle. The girl was hiding something, but she was sincere in her concern for her child, that was certain. The girl's secrets were no reason to deny her hospitality and shelter, though.
The healer held out her hand to the young mother slowly. "I am Sienna, the healer here. This village is called Theela."
Gabrielle shifted her grip on Hope and reached out to grasp Sienna's forearm. "I'm Gabrielle of Potedia. This is my Hope."
Sienna's face was pleasant and welcoming, but it did not slip her attention that Gabrielle of Potedia had gripped her arm, as a man would, instead of her hand. The grip had been strong, and not that of a simple farmgirl.
Sienna escorted Gabrielle into the village center. She offered to relieve her of Hope, which Gabrielle adimantly refused. Instead, she just asked for some food and a place they might sleep. Hope grew quieter as Gabrielle stood still longer. The women of the village tried not to crowd around, but instead stood at a distance and smiled and waived at the baby who took clear, and strangely focused interest in the new faces.
"The two of you can sleep in my home," Sienna led them to a corner of the village edge. "I have a cot on the floor. Not the softest..."
"Anything is fine, thank you!" Gabrielle assured. She watched Sienna shut and bolt the door behind them and only then did she feel safe to set Hope down for the first time in hours. The golden child's feet hit the floor first and she slid downward, her back supported against Gabrielle's legs. Finally released from her mother, Hope scrambled to all fours and she began crawling as fast as she could. She pulled herself up on furnature as soon as she encountered it, and attempted to walk around the cramped little hut.
"She's a bright little one," Sienna observed quietly, watching Gabrielle more than the baby.
Gabrielle, who's loving and proud eyes hadn't left Hope since she set her down, faultered. That word, 'bright', was suddenly a source of fear. But Gabrielle recovered gracefully, and smiled at Sienna. "Thank you. She... certainly is a fast learner." Gabrielle's eyes made it back to her child, an unsupressed fear suddenly bubbling up. "She still hasn't mastered 'no' though."
"What child has at that age?" Sienna laughed off Gabrielle's dark tone.
"Yes," the blonde woman laughed uncomfortably, but then thought about that statement. Children can't control themselves at such a young age. All children have to be taught right and wrong. Gabrielle breathed deeply, acknowledging that Hope would have to work harder, and she would have to be very strict on this lesson; but she smiled at the assurance that Hope was no different than any other child. If only her best friend could see it the same.
"Would you like some food?" Sienna asked as Gabrielle yawned widely. The young woman tucked her face away politely, her eyes ever glued to her babe. "How long have you been running, Gabrielle?"
"Two nights," Gabrielle glanced back at her hostess. "Today was the second day." She spotted the little medical cot in the corner, and eased herself into it stiffly, her attention fixed on Hope, who had let herself drop onto her back as she gazed up at the hanging herbs and lentils.
"Well," Sienna sank onto a stool and began crushing herbs in a bowl, never looking down, keeping an analyzing gaze on Gabrielle, "you tell a good story, Gabrielle, I'll give you that."
The little blonde woman's head snapped up and she tried to arrange her face so that she didn't seem so suprised. "I don't know what you mean. We really have been running for two days."
"Mm," Sienna acknowledged serenly, her hands moving routinely, "I don't doubt that. The 'why' is the part that I'm having some trouble with."
Gabrielle could only gape at the older woman. She nervously swallowed, and checked for Hope. The baby girl had rolled onto her hands and knees and was making her way around the large table. "I told you why," she answered evasively.
"Yes, you did, but..." Sienna's thought was interrupted as she swiftly reached forward and grabbed little Hope, pulling the child onto her lap, the bowl of herbs lost and scattered all over the floor. "No, sweetheart. No, no. Fire is very hot!" she explained to the little girl who even still leaned forward and reached for the fireplace.
"Hope!" Gabrielle was off the cot in a split second and pulling her daughter roughly out of the healer's arms. "Never!" she yelled at the baby, the look in her eyes boardering on insanity, "Never! Ever! go near a fire, Hope! Fire is bad! Fire is very bad! Don't ever go near those flames!" Gabrielle pinned Hope's arm, which was still reaching for the fireplace, with her own arm and held the baby's head against her shoulder. Hope was now crying loudly, but she never fought Gabrielle when she was suddenly on the cot, cradled sweetly in her mother's arms. Hope hid in the crook of her mother's arm and allowed herself to be lulled by the rocking motion that suddenly moved her body. Gabrielle pressed her lips into her child's hair as she rocked her, watching the dancing, crackling fire with a hateful stare.
With a wide-eyed expression, Sienna watched Gabrielle rock baby Hope protectively. Slowly, Sienna moved to kneel at the young mother's feet. "Gabrielle, I need to know who it is that you're running from."
Gabrielle lowered her eyes to gaze at the older woman, a look of pure sadness and heartache written on her sweet young face. "Xena, the Warrior Princess, is trying to kill my baby."
The dark, troubled warrior, who rode into the village of Theela in the dawn light, was met with harsh, angry faces. Wary of their expressions, Xena put on as pleasant a face as she could manage and called out to a man who carried twin buckets of water.
"Excuse me. Could you tell me if a young woman has come through here recently?" Xena never dismounted, but bent over her brown mare so that she was face-to-face with the villager.
He backed away from her, taking note of leather outfit and multiple weapons strapped to her and the horse. "The girl passed through," he lied quickly. "Said she wasn't about to let some monster kill her little baby."
Xena studied the man closely. Gabrielle was moving hours ahead of her now, somehow. She was getting so smart and resourceful that Xena was beginning to regret ever teaching her. In the last few weeks, she'd been regretting ever leading Gabrielle on this journey for the last three years. But, with her best friend's stubborness and determination to keep her little demon safe, Xena didn't doubt that she could be almost a day behind now. Still, this villager seemed to know enough of the situation, and of her, that she did doubt that Gabrielle had just 'passed through'.
Xena nodded her thanks to the villager, who did not return it, and rode slowly through the center of town. She kept her eyes open for any sign of her friend. She was met only by hateful and threatening visages from the men and women who had emerged for morning chores. The whole village seemed to know of this 'monster' who was hunting a woman and her baby. Too much information and too many people for Gabrielle to have simply passed through.
Xena paused at the edge of the village and scoured the ground for the double weighted tracks of Gabrielle's boots. None were there, the earth hardly disturbed at all on this end of the square. She spun Agro around to sweep the village on last time and found a crowd formed, watching her. The men held clubs, the women carried large stones, and their faces dared her to set one foot back in the village. Keeping her face calm, Xena sighed and mumbled to herself, "well played, Gabrielle. Perfectly done."
She turned the mare back and made for the woods in the distance. There was still a chance the villagers had given Gabrielle a horse.
"She's gone," Sienna assured, turning away from the window.
Gabrielle had hardly slept, having woken up every time Hope moved, but the bit of rest she got restored her fast fingers. She was securing Hope into a carrier that Sienna had fashioned for them in the night. "It won't last long," Gabrielle pulled her arms through the straps and adjusted the baby now laying against her chest. "Smart doesn't even begin to describe Xena. She'll figure it out fast, if she hasn't already. We have to go now." Gabrielle checked the window and spun to run out of the hut.
"Gabrielle," Sienna stopped her, "I don't pretend to understand why you're running from someone who you obviously care about deeply. But, I want you to know that you and Hope are welcome here if you manage to make it back to us."
Gabrielle smiled, holding Hope close. "Thank you for everything, Sienna." And with that, Gabrielle bolted out of the hut.
The villagers watched her run back the way she came with something like pride in their hearts. This girl and her baby may just live because of them, and that lifted their spirits for the hard day ahead.
Gabrielle had planned where she would go all night long. If she went back the way she had run and then turned south at the cliffs, there was a good chance that she could barter passage on a ship back to Greece. She would go to Ephiny, to the Amazons. They would protect Hope from Xena. As she neared the edge of the village, she slowed to look back a moment at the good people who took them in, protected them. She would never let herself or Hope forget how good these simple villagers had been to them.
But a high-pitched cry rooted Gabrielle where she stood, as it seemed to sail through the air on the wind. That familiar scream that once meant protection, now spelled doom.
Xena's feet flipped over her head to make the successful landing in front of the terrified little blonde woman, who clutched her precious bundle close. "Gabrielle..." Xena reached out slowly, stepping forward for every one of Gabrielle's steps back.
"No," Gabrielle fought her tears, "no, Xena! Please! Please, she's just a baby!"
"Gabrielle, it's not a baby!" Xena insisted with a hateful leer.
"Leave them alone!" A large man, armed with a hammer, stepped between the women, facing Xena head-on.
Xena took a breath and a step back. "I don't want to hurt any of you."
As she said this, more and more villagers, men and women, pushed their way between Xena and Gabrielle, blocking Xena's advantage. "Of course not!" shouted a woman from the back. "You just want to kill an innocent baby!"
"We can't let you do that!" A man called out.
"You don't understand," Xena implored. She bounced on her toes, trying to see Gabrielle beyond the ever-growing mob. "Gabrielle! At least tell them the whole truth!"
"It's not true!" Gabrielle shouted back, successfully hidden in the villagers. "You want to punish her for something she can't control! She is just a baby, Xena! She can learn!"
"Gabrielle..." Xena started forward, but was pushed back by three people. "Gabrielle, listen to me! It's not even human! I know that you feel like it's mother, but..."
"Wait!" Gabrielle suddenly yelled out. "Step aside, friends. Let me speak to her." The mob parted for her like the loyal subjects of some high queen.
Xena sighed with relief. She had a clear view of her little friend. Although, Gabrielle was several feet away from her, with at least 40 villagers flanking the young woman that she would have to fight through. Well played again; Gabrielle knew that Xena would never hurt these people, even to get to Hope. With a deep breath, Xena began to reason. "Gabrielle, if you'll only listen to me."
"No!" Gabrielle cut her off. "I've heard plenty from you. You say that she was born from evil, and maybe that's true, but you never consider that she wouldn't exist without me. Xena... she is a part of me."
"I understand how you feel-"
"Don't patronize me!" Gabrielle snapped. "You think she's so evil? Then why hasn't she tried to kill me? We have been in this village all night, Xena, and everyone has lived through the night."
Xena was a bit stunned, and she looked around at the villagers to see if any arguement was broached. But the villagers offered no arguement. However the two women's shouting match was taking them by suprise. Gabrielle had not told them the truth of her flight.
"Yes, Xena, her father is evil, and what he put me through... no one here can even imagine it. But please... Xena, please consider her mother too!" Gabrielle took a small step closer. She was near tears and giving Xena the most innocent and sorrowful face that she had seen since Perdicus was killed. "Am I so evil, Xena, that there is no chance that my child could have any good in her?"
Xena exhaled heavily. That yet innocent face of sweet Gabrielle, despite her suffering, begged the determined warrior. This was just one more thing that Xena was going to take away from her dear friend. She had led this sweet girl on a path that had taken so much of her dreams, her ideals, and finally her innocence. This life that they led had left her a widow, and though Xena was not directly responcible for Perdicus' death, she was attempting to now take away the thing that had given Gabrielle's life new meaning. She was destroying her best friend's hope for life... her Hope... her child.
Xena shook it off. The thing planted in her dear friend was just another evil brought into the world to take a piece of Gabrielle's soul. It was all a trick. "Gabrielle, it has already killed. It killed Goen!"
"You don't know that for sure! There were other men in that castle, and who knows how many secret passages."
"If it was the other knights, then why didn't they just kill Hope?" Xena argued vehemently.
Gabrielle had no arguement for that. She looked down at the babe strapped to her chest, serenely gazing up at her. Hope seemed to understaand more that she ought to and it unnerved Gabrielle. But her clear eyes, and that strong heartbeat against her chest made Gabrielle swallow hard and face the warrior again.
"Okay, let's say she did kill Goen- even if I don't believe it. But Xena, what baby can control something that's inside of them? She may have a darkness within her, but she can be taught right from wrong, good from evil. Any child, every child has to be taught. I'm not saying that it won't be difficult, but you're judging her for things that she cannot control."
"Gabrielle..." Xena took a step forward and drew her sword, "it will kill again. I guarantee it." About half of the villagers stepped in the way to protect the mother and child. But half lingered back, not sure how to interpret this new information.
"Please Xena. If not for me, then for Goen. He believed in her possibilties. He knew that she had the chance to be The Child of the Light!"
"I think he'd change his tune if he were alive right now," Xena snarled and tried to move forward, but there was still a formidable mob between her and Gabrielle.
"Xena!" Gabrielle called over the villagers. "You can't have her. You will have to kill these people, and me!, to get to her. And you know, if you do that, you are a thousand times worse than you have accused her of being!"
Xena lowered her sword. Gabrielle was smart, and she was trapped. If she had not become a bard, she should have become some government regulator. Still, Xena felt compelled to avenge Goen's death. Unfortunetly, she was beginning to think of this evil creature as an actual baby. And Gabrielle's next plea pushed her even farther.
"Please, Xena. All I want is a chance for her to prove herself. You gave Solan up to give him a chance at a better life. I ask you to let me keep my child for just the same reason."
The crowd was recinding as Xena looked less and less likely to attack the pair. They moved to the sideline, listening with open hearts to the young mother's plea for life.
"We'll go to the mountains. Just her and I. We'll keep away from people. I'll raise her where she won't be able to give into her dark urges." Gabrielle moved forward, reading her friend's softening edge. "A chance. It's all I ask. The same chance you gave Solan... that Hercules gave to you."
There was silence while the dark warrior watched the small blonde mother. The villagers looked back and forth between them, waiting to defend or attack. Wondering what the whole story behind all of this really was.
Suddenly, the warrior shiethed her sword and whistled loudly. The blonde smiled through her tears and reached her hand out to her friend. The warrior grased her forearm.
"I love you, my dear friend," the warrior whispered.
"Come and find us one day," the blonde replied in earnest. "I will never forget you, my friend."
The warrior's new horse rode faithfully to her side and the warrior swung herself into the saddle. And as the sad blonde woman watched her dark friend ride off toward the ocean ports, she hugged her little babe close. Soon, she too turned away and left the village with no word to it's inhabitants.
1 Year Later
Xena, the Warrior Princess dismounted her loaned horse and cautiously made her way toward the hut. This was the result of her hunt for a week now and she had no idea what she would find. A happy family, keeping up a garden and home? Or a blood bath with more than just Gabrielle's body littering the place she had tried to raise the little monster.
She approached the hut cautiously. She was honestly terrified, but she wouldn't show it. She steeled herself for the worst, and knocked hesitantly on the door.
There was no answer. No reply, not a sound. She knocked again, but nothing. Panic was creeping into the pit of Xena's stomach and she was about to break the door in when a familiar laugh reached her eaars.
Gabrielle, followed by a child, ten-years-old at the least, came climbing up the hill, a bundle of firewood burdening her arms. She laughed, looking back at the child who followed with her own bundle.
"It is good for you, Hope," Gabrielle laughed. "I used to do this for my neighbors back where..."
Gabrielle had turned to face her home and had found Xena standing at her door. The small blonde woman was stunned and speechless. The little girl followed her mother's gaze, but watched the new person with wide green eyes. Immediately, the pile of wood was forgotten on the ground and Gabrielle had flung herself into Xena's arms.
"You're here! I can't believe you're here! How did you get back to Britannia? I missed you so much! How have you been?" Gabrielle refused to let go of her friend, and promptly began crying as Xena began to pry her off.
"I'm well!" Xena insisted, smiling and breathless as she combed her fingers through Gabrielle's hair. The year had worn her young face a bit, but she was still bright, happy, talkative Gabrielle. "I'm well! I've missed you too!"
"You have no idea how good it is to see you!" Gabrielle laughed, wiping her tears away.
"I think I do," Xena smiled, pulling her friend close again.
"Oh! Xena!" Gabrielle turned and reached for the young girl to come forward. "This is Hope!" Gabrielle was beaming with pride as the girl stepped alongside her mother.
Xena's smile faded somewhat as she gazed at the girl who should be no more than a toddler now. The little girl, who looked so like Gabrielle, starred back with the same suspicious eyes that Xena gave her. There was a palpable energy between them as knowing eyes stared at knowing eyes.
Gabrielle was not oblivious, but was determined not to spoil this moment. "Hope, this is your Aunt Xena. She delivered you! She-"
"I remember her," Hope mumbled, stepping closer to Gabrielle, her voice sounding oddly like her mother's.
"Do you?" Gabrielle asked delicately. Her child nodded and moved so close now thaat Gabrielle was compelled to put her arms around her. The girl clung to her mother's waist, and Gabrielle smiled politely at Xena, "Her memory is amazing!"
"I'm sure," Xena replied, watching Hope practically bury herself in Gabrielle's side. Some things never changed.
Gabrielle held her daughter close and felt a panic suddenly rise up in herself, and heard a startling crash of metal from within the house. The little girl attatched to her shuddered against her, and Gabrielle pulled the stawberry-blonde hair away from her face. "Hope? Do you need to go out back?" The girl nodded fervently against her mother's stomach. "Go on, then!" Gabrielle released her quickly. "Run!"
Little Hope was off almost faster than an arrow. She sped through the little garden and threw herself back behind the hut, disappearing all but for her sobbing that carried on the wind.
Xena looked back at Gabrielle, who's troubled expression was fixed somewhere beyond the hut. "Was she about to-?"
"She's just nervous!" Gabrielle explained quickly, but then met her friend's piercing gaze. She swallowed hard and sighed with her first sign of exhaustion. "She's learning to feel when the attacks come on her. It helps... somehow... I don't understand it completely, but I can feel it too. She's getting better," Gabrielle insisted, persisting to Xena's critical stare. "She's much better! Her aging has slowed down," she nodded hopefully. "I think we may actually beat this!"
Xena gazed off to where Hope might be, were the hut not inhibiting her view. She had honestly expected to come to Britannia to bury what was left of her friend's body and kill her demon spawn. Not much progression from the year before. But instead, she arrived to find her friend just a struggling mother raising a troubled child. Progress actually did seem to have been made.
With a cleansing breath, Gabrielle turned away from the hut. "Have you seen Solan? How is he? And your mother?"
"Mother's fine. She sends you her love," Xena smiled sweetly, remembering the period of time when she was distraught and told Cyrene nothing of Gabrielle, leaving the woman to assume the young companion had died.
"And Solan? Please tell me you've gone to see him!" Gabrielle smiled, and glanced behind herself in Hope's direction.
"I have," Xena dropped her eyes. "The peace treaty with the Amazons and the Centaurs..."
"Did it go well?" Gabrielle's gaze was glued to Xena. Living on the side of a mountain in Britannia, she didn't get much news of her Grecian Amazon Tribe.
"It did," Xena affirmed quietly. "Ephiny misses you. Xenon has grown so much! I wish you could see him."
"Xena," Gabrielle stopped her obviously troubled friend.
Xena sighed and spoke sadly. "Clyapus was assassinated at the treaty signing."
"No!" Gabrielle gasped and then quickly took stock of her surroundings. "What about Solan?"
"I have him," Xena nodded. "He needed to get away from everything... I needed to find you. We took the first ship to Britannia. He's staying at an inn by the docks until I send for him."
Gabrielle was beaming again and she impulsively grabbed her friend's hands. "Xena! Does he know... about you?"
"I told him," she nodded. "He didn't speak to me for a few days, but now... he seems... just so happy!"
"Well he should be! He has you!" Gabrielle bounced.
Xena was smiling, near tears. Gabrielle, still the picture of sweetness and light; a beacon in the darkness, as always. She found herself wondering, had she been jealous of Hope all this time? Had she been jealous of Gabrielle's desire to give her guiding light to little Hope; the light that had been Xena's for years to cherish?
Tears were fighting their way through as Xena reached up and stroked Gabrielle's hair. "I missed you so! I... honestly... I didn't think..."
"That you would find me alive?" Gabrielle finished knowingly.
A sob broke through Xena's wall, but she quickly contained it; trying to smile through tears. "But here you are!" she pulled Gabrielle close. "And..." she breathed, preparing herself for this admittance, "you have raised a... a good little girl!" She felt Gabrielle smile against her throat. "Ephiny told me that... if I found you; she said to bring you home. She wants you and Hope to come back to the Amazons."
Gabrielle pulled away, stunned, but still smiling. A million thoughts were passing through her eyes as she glanced around her little home.
"She says they'll take care of you, Gabrielle," Xena gripped her arms and forced her attention. "I've come to take you home."
Suddenly Gabrielle was laughing and she couldn't stop. Tears flowed freely and she fell into her best friend, crying and laughing.
Hope came around the hut, sweat pouring from her little face, a look of exhaustion coming from every muscle and joint. She found her mother, her precious mother, crying and laughing against the dark warrior. In and instant, Hope knew what was happening and she looked around her home, the only one she had ever known, and whispered, "Goodbye."
Goodbye to her home. Goodbye to her solitary life. Goodbye to Britannia. Goodbye to her father's last ounce of evil influence over her.
Now would be the ultimate test of all her mother had been preparing her for. A new country, new people, a new life. And, tilting her head in the wind, she listened and suddenly knew that a great goodness was about to touch her troubled soul. A deep and furious friend would be found in a young boy named Solan... where-ever she may meet him.
