Gabrielle sat down with a thud, understandably stunned. Xena stayed standing, a bit of the suspicion leaving her face.
"Pretty unbelievable, huh?" Amarice said, enjoying Gabrielle's reaction. "Don't worry, the shock takes a while to wear off. Though real Amazons would barely even be surprised. It's part of our training."
"Oh so when you nearly jumped to the moon earlier today, that was just acting?" Corana responded. Then she sighed… hopefully traveling with Gabrielle and Xena would be teach Amarice a few things.
"She never mentioned having a blood sister, let alone a twin one." Gabrielle managed to get out.
Corana smiled again. "I'm not surprised. It's a long story, which I'll get to soon enough. For now, let's just leave it at Ephiny not knowing if she still had a sister. Right now I want to eat this food. I'm so very hungry."
With that, she started on her plate, while Xena and Gabrielle stayed where they are, not moving a muscle, except to look at each other, trying to cope with the unexpected news. Amarice stood there watching them. When all Corana had left was her drink, she was amused at the statues in front of her.
"It's getting a bit chilly out here." she remarked, noticing the huge bonfire was going out. "Let's go to the Queen's hut. It seems like an appropriate place, and protected." Standing up, she made a bee-line for the hut and beckoned the others to follow her. Judging from the expressions on their faces, the others felt the same way as Corana did about being in what would always be Ephiny's hut to them.
"Sit down, make yourselves comfortable, it's gonna be a long story. Once everyone had situated themselves, and she was next to the fireplace to keep warm, she started her narrative.
"Our mother was Melora. When we asked about our father, we were told he was a simple farmer. Our mother never wanted to talk about the past. All we knew about her history was that she wasn't born an Amazon. She had run away from somewhere, and. the Amazons found her unconscious in their territory, half-starved and apparently beaten recently. The tribe was in a sorry state. Lorna, the Queen then, had just been killed in a battle, and her daughter Dora, who was pregnant at the time, now had to be Queen. She took Melora in. The healer who tended my mother discovered she was also pregnant. Dora and our mother became partners. Melora was the name she took when she was fully initiated into the tribe. It stood for Me Love Dora. They gave birth on the same day, the Summer Solstice. Dora's first daughter was named a variation of our mother's name, Melosa. The S stood for Soulmates. Our mother told us that as babies, if Ephiny and I weren't right next to each other, we would cry until we were reunited. Melosa and Terreis were similarly close, even though they were years apart."
"Our childhood was that of typical Amazon children, lessons and training. Ephiny was the stronger of us, and was very protective of me. That's not say we got along perfectly…I was always jealous of her getting the curls of the family and me getting stuck with straight hair. Anyways, knowing that we didn't have a Amazon bloodline, Ephiny always had a need to prove herself a true Amazon. I was the social one, she always preferred being alone. Unless the company was me, that is. Well, with the exception of Melosa and Terreis. The four of us spent a lot of time together, courtesy of our mothers." Corana paused briefly at the memories, and examined her audience. Amarice was trying not to look interested, but she obviously was. Gabrielle had found a scroll and was writing down notes. Xena was glancing outside, and Corana noticed how late it was. She stood up.
"It's late, you guys can get some sleep, and I'll finish my story in the morning. Amarice will show you where the guest hut is." she said, then proceeded to gather some blankets and prepare the cot. They left, Amarice protesting, resulting in Xena and Gabrielle basically man-handling her out the door. As she lay on the cot, Corana was again hit by a wave of grief, realizing that her sister was now forever sleeping. But it was not time to think of such things, it was time to sleep. She closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep.