Chapter 3: Carried Away

Xena had rescued Gabrielle from the depths of the murky water and was angered to find that the fish she had left on shore were put back into the lake.

"Joxer you fool, if you do that again I'll jam my fist down your throat and have you for a meal!" she threatened.

Gabrielle was still in a bit of a daze from her sneaky kiss. Gabrielle sighed in rapt attention, "She's beautiful when she's angry isn't she? Joxer, I think something might be wrong with Xena. All she wants to do is fish, I've never seen her so focused on fishing..." Gabrielle trailed off as Joxer was looking at her strangely.

The whole time the blond was talking, the dialogue was a lot different from what she was actually saying to him. In fact in his mind, she was his ape princess and she had just said that she liked him. In his mind, she was propositioning him for a little 'zugg zugg'.

"You see Joxer, I think you and Xena are under a spell from Aphrodite. I should talk to her. I should ask her what to do, she has superior intelligence and the best judgement on what to do in times such as these." Gabrielle stood up and headed towards Xena.

Xena at the moment was having a flashback of the last time she was at the lake fishing for a whopper of a fish called Solaris. She had fond memories of Lyceus as she remembered that day and the bite on her fishing line.

"Xena I have something really important that I need to talk to you about." Gabrielle started. The obsession took control. Gabrielle slunk until she was so close, Xena could feel her breath on her neck. Gabrielle sidled closer and and whispered ever so close to Xena's neck and ears. The small hairs on Xena's neck tickled and sent a chill down her spine. The warrior's breath caught as her ears interpreted the whisper.

"Xena, there is just something about you. I can't get you off my mind." Xena who was desperate to halt the tingles that were threatening to take over her body, found an escape route. Xena hugged her to her and tugged Gabrielle's hair and promptly cut a lock off with the knife in her boot.

"Xena did you just cut off my hair?" Gabrielle said, momentarily shocked out of her obsession.

"Yeah, I'm going to use it to trick Solaris." Xena stated matter of factly.

"Who's Solaris?" Gabrielle asked demandingly.

"A fish that Lyceus and I discovered when we were kids. He's wily, he's smart, he's cunning, he's a great opponent. Every time that Lyceus or I would catch him, he would find a way to escape. But this time- no." The blond pulled at Xena's hair and cut off a lock and tucked it into her cleavage.

Xena did not notice and continued talking, "I'm sure Solaris will go for it. We can't have line drag. That's why, when we attack, we do it from the air."

Gabrielle then suggested a different method of capture, "Why don't I round up some villagers to help. More helping hands gives us more chances."

The dark haired woman yelled, "No one catches Solaris but ME!"

A few minutes later Gabrielle felt something urging for attention in the back of her mind.

"Hmm, do you ever feel like we're forgetting something important?" Gabrielle said in wonder.

"It's the diamond, your obsession thing is preventing you from remembering important things." Xena clarified.

"My obsession?" the blond wondered.

"Don't forget we have only a limited time to get the Mystic Diamond back. So we'll get back to retrieving it after I catch Solaris." Xena replied.

Xena had her flying parchment in the air and was ready to test it once again. She yelled for Gabrielle give it a tug, and the clip worked just as designed. Unfortunately for the blond, the release resulted in her falling into the water again. Coming out of the water, she was livid.

"That's it! I know what is going on here! Fishing! Solaris? Right..Now I understand what's going on here. You are trying to get rid of me so you can cheat on me with some floozy! Or worse yet, forsake our love and your reform to go do the bidding of a long dead girlfriend!" Gabrielle yelled.

Xena crinkled her eyebrows in absolute astonishment of how far gone the blond was.

"That's ridiculous!" Xena answered and took a mental note about Gabrielle's resentment of Lao Ma. She knew she would have to address it when Gabrielle no longer was under a spell.

Meanwhile, the warlord and his lackeys soon ran into the avalanche of rocks Xena had caused with her chakram.

"This wasn't here before." Mecanus noted. He walked around in survey of the avalanche and determined there would be no way around it.

"We're blocked, we'll have to detour up around the lake," he directed. They turned and headed towards the lake. The avalanche had worked just as Xena had planned.

**Author's Note: Not sure I'm handling Gabrielle's obsession to Xena the way I should. I think it's leaning toward delusional girlfriend at the moment XD. I'm open to suggestions. **

**Edit: modified Gabrielle's accusation to be more deep seated in Xena's love past, Thanks for the suggestion/idea, Silvermoonlight_GJ :)**

**Edit: Thanks to xgce for catching the Chapter Title error**