Chapter 3: Investigating Decisions
Morning broke as rays of sunlight cast slivers of sunlight into the room. Eve was already nuzzling and rooting for her morning meal.
"Right on schedule," Xena mumbled sleepily as she adjusted to allow Eve her meal.
Her sleep slowed lids opened with a bit of effort and she spotted an empty side of the bed where Gabrielle should have been.
"That's odd, Gabrielle awake before me, that's one for the scrolls. I wonder what she is up to." A seated fear bubbled up to the surface.
Xena suddenly wondered if Gabrielle was not ready to settle down and had left to find adventures on her own. Truth be told, Gabrielle had come into being a warrior and was quite good at it. Her expertise with the sais was quite suprising even though Xena held Gabrielle's learning ability in high esteem. Not to mention Gabrielle was still a bit younger than Xena and most likely was still interested in adventure. Xena frantically scanned the room for signs that she had left. She spotted Gabrielle's bag and chided herself. "Gabrielle would never leave without talking to me," she realized. Eve quickly unlatched, feeling full and set about to crawl up onto Xena.
"Morning sunshine," she beamed as she lifted Eve above her. Eve giggled and kicked in a happiness only reserved for her mother and Gabrielle.
"Let's go see where Gabrielle has gone, what do ya think honey?" Eve gurgled and cooed her approval.
In the Tavern across town from the Inn where they had slept, Gabrielle had taken a seat at the bar. A couple of its current inhabitants were passed out on tables. They most likely had come in at night and drunk themselves till morning. This was the Tavern Xena had said she went to yesterday for some lunch while Gabrielle shopped. Gabrielle adjusted herself and struggled to peek her head into the back room. It was probably a kitchen and cellar for the drinks.
"Hello!" she called.
The barmaid's steps filled the tavern, everything else was still quiet this early in the morning.
"What can I get ya? Seems a bit early, you must want a bit of breakfast?" the barmaid asked.
"Yes breakfast sounds good, I'll have what you are serving up this morning," Gabrielle stated.
"Oatmeal and eggs, coming right up!" the barmaid said loudly. Gabrielle winced at the thought of the oatmeal. Secretly she hoped the info she could divine from the maid would be worth consuming the pasty sticky oatmeal.
The barmaid came back in with oatmeal and eggs a few minutes later.
"Thanks, ummmm, I didn't catch your name.." Gabrielle hinted.
"Its Aspasia," the barmaid answered.
"Can I get you anything else?" Aspasia asked.
"Actually," Gabrielle began.."I was wondering if you happened to notice a tall woman warrior in here yesterday? Blue eyes, raven hair, .." Gabrielle was cut off.
"Oh yes," Aspasia answered "She was rather in a bad mood from what Phaon was saying to her. She stormed out of here yelling something about ..'why can't people just travel together..blah blah blah..we're best friends'... or something or other" Aspasia stated.
Gabrielle thought for a moment and soon murmured, "what a strange thing to be muttering out loud in a tavern." Aspasia asked if Gabrielle needed anything else, and when she didn't hear anything come from her customer, she promptly left back to the kitchen.
Gabrielle dug in to her eggs and prepped a spoonful of oatmeal.
"That definitely was not worth having to eat oatmeal," she stuck her tongue out and let out a small 'blech' to emphasize her dislike. She wondered at why Xena was talking about their relationship and traveling together.
She chuckled to herself, "at least I think she was talking about me being her best friend and not Argo." Then an idea popped into her head as she chewed on the oatmeal which strangely had the consistency of glue.
"Maybe she was interested in Phaon and was explaining that the companion she was traveling with was strictly platonic in order for him to give her a chance! That's it!" She dug faster into her meal and rushed since her next step of the day was to meet this Phaon fellow.
