See part one for all disclaimers.
CHAPTER 2
Xena and Gabrielle had been riding for about a candle mark when they'd decided to take a short break. Dismounting from Argo, Gabrielle reached up to lift Xena to the ground before letting the horse wander onto the grassy side of the road.
"I can do it," the warrior stated as she tried to descend the large warhorse. After a brief trial and error, she finally stood in the saddle and did a back flip to the ground. Her landing, however, wasn't as graceful as she lost her balance and fell onto her backside.
Extending her arm, Gabrielle smiled, "I see that."
Xena scowled, but followed Gabrielle as she sat under a large shade tree and took a drink of water from the skin. Passing the skin to Xena, Gabrielle waited before speaking. "I know this is hard for you, Xena. It's hard for me too. I mean for all intents and purposes you're six now. I don't know whether to treat you as an adult or a child or a combination of the two."
Xena sighed, "Yeah, this is depressing isn't it?"
With a slight frown, Gabrielle opened her arms, inviting Xena closer. Xena smiled, crawling toward the bard, and putting her head on the woman's lap. "I guess we'll get through this, right?"
Gently running her fingers through the little warrior's hair Gabrielle also sighed, "Yes. We'll get through this. We've been through worse right?"
"Oh yeah," Xena agreed. "Let's see, there were the Titans,"
"Ages ago."
"Callisto."
"Dead now."
"Joxer."
"Off saving some poor village I'm sure."
"Being dead."
"Yeah, that was a lot worse than this," Gabrielle grinned. "What about Illusia?"
"If we got through that we'll get through anything." Xena hugged Gabrielle's leg. "Right?"
"Right," the bard agreed. "So are you ready to move on?
"Not yet. I actually feel this strange sensation to run," Xena explained as she sat up.
"Run?"
"Yeah, it's like an impulse and it's getting harder to control. It's as if I need run around. Strange, huh?"
Gabrielle smiled. "No, not strange, but it's something I'd expect any six year old would do after being on a horse for over a candle mark."
Xena groaned. "I hate it when you're right."
"I'm right? About what?" Gabrielle smirked.
"The effects of this, it may be more than just being shrunk," Xena replied, sticking her tongue out at the bard.
Gabrielle shook her head at the childish gesture. "Yep," she agreed as she hugged the warrior, and then helped Xena to her feet. "Okay, you go and run and I'll watch you from here."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"I'd feel strange."
"Go, run Xena. You need to get some energy out if we're going to be riding again soon. Have fun and don't do anything too dangerous."
"Yes, Mom," The warrior teased before taking off in a series of leaps, flips, and cartwheels before climbing a tree.
********XENA*******BARD*********XENA********BARD*******
A half candle mark later Xena and Gabrielle were once more on the road heading to Amphipolis.
"You know, I really enjoyed running around like that," Xena commented as Argo carried her two riders closer to Xena's hometown.
"I enjoyed watching you. You looked so happy," Gabrielle returned.
"I was. It's as if my body craved the physical play."
"Just like when you were six?"
"Exactly like when I was six," Xena smirked. "I had so much energy as a kid, it drove my mother nuts. Most days Lyceus couldn't even keep up with me. Toris never tried, but I could run circles around him even though he was older."
"I bet you could." Gabrielle shifted a bit in the saddle as Xena kicked Argo to make her go faster."
"Xena, no." Gabrielle tightened her grip on the girl's waist. "You know I don't like to go at a full gallop."
"Well, we need to go faster than this to make it to Amphipolis before nightfall today."
"Okay, but just at a trot for a bit," The bard directed as Xena clicked her tongue and allowed Argo to pick up the pace a little.
The longer they rode, the more Gabrielle began to realize that although Xena might still have all the memories of her life, she was more like a six year old than they first realized. The more they talked, the more the bard noticed the lack of impulse control and of the good judgment the warrior always had. She was certainly being affected by the change, but it was as if Xena couldn't see it herself.
After almost two hours, Gabrielle was preparing to stop Argo for another rest when her eyes caught something down the road. Slowly getting closer she realized it was a woman with two young children in a wagon.
Xena stopped Argo, and they both dismounted, walking the rest of the distance to the wagon.
"Can we help?" Gabrielle asked tightening the grip on her staff and noticing that the wagon was stuck in the mud at the side of the road.
"I'm not sure." The woman grimaced. "I've got the wagon stuck in this mud pretty good and we've been trying for ages to get it out." She looked toward her horse. "He doesn't seem to be much help for me today."
Xena left Gabrielle's side and smiled at the little boy and girl sitting in the grass at the side of the road, before examining the stuck wagon.
"Gabrielle," she called near the front of the wagon. "We need to unhitch the horse, the wagon is stuck on this first wheel and he can't get his footing to get free."
"Okay, let me." The bard responded. "You need to stay out of the way so you don't get hurt."
"I won't get hurt," Xena responded. "I've done this before."
"Not like this you haven't." Gabrielle hissed as she bent to unhitch the horse. Leading it from the mud she released the horse and handed him to the woman. "I'm Gabrielle by the way."
The woman smiled. "I'm Melaney and those are my children, Callie and Nikkos."
Melaney looked at Xena and then back to the bard. "Oh, this is Xena."
"Hello Xena."
"Hello," the little warrior replied, still pouting as she pulled a coil of rope from Argo. "Here Gabrielle, tie it tight to the axis and Argo should be able to pull the wagon out of the mud."
"Boy, your daughter sure knows a lot about this." Melaney commented as Xena watched Gabrielle closely.
"I'm not her daughter," Xena responded before Gabrielle could reply. Ignoring the woman Xena continued, "Good, now step away and I'll get Argo to go." Giving a whistle, Argo started to pull the wagon.
Noticing that the wagon still wasn't moving Xena walked around it and noticed the problem. A large stone had become wedged in front of the back wheel. Entering the mud, Xena lifted the stone just as Gabrielle whistled again to Argo. The force of the wagon's movements threw Xena to the ground with a loud thud.
Callie screamed as Xena flew through the air and Gabrielle quickly pulled Argo to a stop before running to check on her.
Hearing footsteps Xena looked up to see Gabrielle's concerned expression. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just hurt my pride." Before she knew what was happening Gabrielle was lifting her from the dirt and had placed a very hard, stinging swat to her backside. "Hey!" Rubbing her bottom Xena's lip started to quiver as she looked at Gabrielle.
Gabrielle was on one knee with Xena in front of her. "Damn it, Xena!" She scolded. "You scared the Hades out of me! You could have been killed or seriously hurt." The panic in her eyes finally stopped as she realized what had happened.
"Oh Xena, I…." she started. But it was too late. The little warrior ran off the road, disappearing into the trees before Gabrielle could finish her sentence.
Standing Gabrielle started to go after the warrior but was stopped by a friendly hand on her arm. "Let her be for a bit, Gabrielle." The woman from the wagon had come up behind her. "You did what any one would when her child scares the Tartarus out of her. She'll be okay." She smiled at Gabrielle, "Besides, my little Callie went off after her."
Gabrielle shook her head and took deep breaths to steady herself. "Thanks Melaney."
*******XENA*******BARD*******XENA******BARD*******
Xena ran into the trees near the road and finally sat underneath one. She had started to cry and didn't want anyone to see her. She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them laying her chin on top. She didn't understand why Gabrielle swatted her. It hadn't really hurt much, but it had confused her, and she'd given in to her gut reaction and ran. She turned her head as she heard a noise.
"Hi." A young girl with light brown hair and freckles came forward and sat in front of Xena. "My name is Callie. You okay?"
Xena nodded.
"Your mom swatted you good huh?" The little girl continued wiping her nose with her hand.
"She's not my mom, but yeah, she swatted me good." Xena wiped her tears away with her hand.
"What's your name?" the girl continued.
"Xena."
"Xena, really? You're mom named you after the Warrior Princess?" The little girl was excited and Xena smiled a bit.
"Uh, yeah. She's a friend of ours actually."
"That is so cool."
"So how come you're out on the road?" Xena asked the girl.
"We're going to visit my uncle in Amphipolis. Thanks for helping us get our wagon out of the mud."
Xena nodded, "Sure. Nothing to it."
"That was pretty neat how you knew what to do."
"I've done it before," Xena answered. "Just have to know where to tie the rope onto the wagon to get the most leverage."
The brown hair girl wrinkled her forehead. "Oh. Sounds hard."
"Not really."
"How old are you?" Callie asked. "And how come you don't have any shoes?"
"Well, I suppose I'm six," Xena answered. "And there was an accident with my clothes and my boots when we camped last night."
"I'm seven." The little girl announced proudly. "Will you get new clothes in Amphipolis?"
"Yeah, I guess I will."
Hearing her name called Callie stood up and held out her hand. "Come on Xena, they're looking for us, must be time to go."
Shaking her head Xena grabbed her legs tighter. "No thanks."
Suddenly hearing her named called too Xena's anger started to return. "Calling me like I'm a little kid," she mumbled.
Callie looked confused. "But you are a little kid. Come on we'd better go. You don't want any more swats do you?"
"No." Xena sighed and took the girl's hand. She wasn't sure how Gabrielle would react to being disobeyed again and quite frankly she didn't feel like pushing the Amazon Queen in front of strangers.
As the girls reached the side of the road Xena noticed the horse had been hitched to the wagon and that Callie's mother and younger brother were waiting for her. "Come on Callie." Melaney called. "Gabrielle has been kind enough to say we can travel with her until we reach Amphipolis.
Callie smiled. "Wanna ride with us Xena?" She climbed into the back of the wagon and held up some carved wooden toys. "We could play house or something."
"How about army?" The words were out of Xena's mouth before she could stop them. Why on earth was the idea of playing with those toys so appealing to her? She shook her head and started to walk toward the wagon only to be stopped by Callie's mom.
"I think you'd better go talk to your um, Gabrielle first dear."
Xena turned and headed toward Gabrielle who was waiting for her near Argo. Finally reaching her friend Xena couldn't meet her eyes. What was wrong with her? She hadn't done anything wrong, Gabrielle had been the one to swat her, but still, she felt as if she should apologize.
Gabrielle sank to one knee and took two fingers under Xena's chin to make Xena look at her. "Are you okay, Xena?" she asked.
"Yeah." Xena grimaced and rubbed her backside. "You know, you're lucky I love you. Not too many people would get away with swatting me like that. At least doing it and living."
Gabrielle smiled, wrinkling her nose at Xena's attempt at humor. "I'm sorry, it was just a reaction. I was so scared when I saw get tossed away from the wagon like that."
"It's okay," Xena moved to hug the bard. "I guess if the situation was reversed I would have done the same thing."
"I bet you would have." Gabrielle's green eyes sparkled. "Do you really want to ride in the wagon with Callie and Nikkos?"
Xena nodded. "Actually I do. It's the weirdest thing but I have this feeling almost like a need to play with them."
Gabrielle hugged Xena tightly. "Okay then. Go play, and be good," she added.
Xena rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Alright." She then headed toward the wagon once again, and did a front flip into the back -much to the delight of Callie and Nikkos.
Gabrielle shook her head as she mounted Argo. This was going to be an interesting day for sure.
