A new chapter! : D thank you to those who have reviewed and added this story to alert! it means a lot : )
Disclaimer: I own nothing... except for the cat : D he's fluffy and cute : D
Slowly he moved towards it. One step at the time. He was determined not to make any noise. He knew that would only scare it away. The grass was soft because of the early rain. His eyes were set on his prey. one step closer. The prey turned towards him and he kept himself hidden in the grass. another step.
Squash, squash, squash
The grass was soft. another step.
Squash, squash, squash
his prey sniffed into the air. it knew.. it was being watched. The predator got ready to strike his prey. He waited until the prey turned it's head. His weapons of doom were out and ready to strike the animal down. The prey turned back to the bushes. The predator showed teeth and knew that now was his time to attack. He leaped from the high grass, straight towards the prey.
Everything went in slow motion. almost there! Just as he was about to send his weapons of doom deep into the flesh of his pray he was caught in midair.
'There you are!' Meow?
Horace watched his prey run away and retracted his claws. Next time...
The orange cat looked up at the person who had caught him. He had recognized the voice. He was met with Lila's face as she cuddled into him. He wasn't happy.
'I've been looking for you, kitty. Think you can get away huh?' Horace meowed in respond. He was sad. Why did she have to interrupt his highly important hunt?
Lila scratched him behind ear. He was happy again. purr...
'aww, do you miss Gabrielle? poor kitty.. I miss her too you know..' Lila sat down on the ground with Horace in her lap. Gabrielle? That was my owner, right? the blonde one...
He hadn't seen her in days... maybe he did miss her.. Lila wouldn't let him sleep in the bed like Gabrielle always would.. he missed her... when was she coming back? maybe she'd bring a mouse for him!
'But she'll be ok, little fellow.. you'll see! She'll come home and she'll be fine..' her voice cracked and Horace looked up. She had tears in her eyes. The cat stood up and rubbed his face into her and licked her cheek. He tried to comfort her. She seemed sad.
Lila smiled at him and scratched him on his side. 'I can see why Gabby likes you, you're a good kitty,' Meow
Her tears continued as she watched the sun go down in the horizon.
'Oh dear Gods... Please protect my sister from harm..' The cat purred in her lap and the young brunette couldn't hold back her tears.
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Some adventure indeed!
Yellow paint was dripping from her nose. Another arrow had hit her on the forehead. Perdicus stood there laughing. His hand was on his belly and he was shaking as he almost fell on the ground. It was the fifth day of training. None of the men had really managed to catch any arrows. A few had been caught here and there, but most of them were because of luck. some only dodged the arrows because they got scared in the last second. Gabrielle had managed to catch 2 arrows herself. She was extremely proud of that, and refused to think of the matter that she had caught them both by pure luck. Actually she only caught one by pure luck.. the other one only grazed the staff, but in Gabrielle's mind that was good enough.
The shooters had gotten better aim, especially Perdicus. Xena had told him she liked his improvement and that he was getting better than any of the other shooters. She especially liked it when an arrow had hit Gabriel in the crotch. (of course it took Gabrielle a few seconds to realize where she had been hit and when she finally realized, she fell to her knees and screamed in agony.)
Gabrielle grumbled at Perdicus laughing as she curled her fingers around the arrow and with a bit of force ripped it from her forehead. 'You're dead, Gabriel!' Xena shouted as if it wasn't obvious. Gabrielle just scowled and turned to Perdicus who had finally gotten to his feet.
'Again?' he asked. Gabrielle retrieved her staff from the ground and nodded. 'This time try and hold on to the staff, ok?' Perdicus chuckled. 'You be careful, Perdicus. I know where you sleep,' Gabrielle said in her male voice as she was mentally strangling him. 'And I am very scared,' he aimed the arrow and suddenly it seemed as if everything was in slow motion. Gabrielle watched as Perdicus got ready to let go of the arrow. She noticed so many details. Everything felt so strange, it was something she had never felt earlier... but she had. When she caught Xena's arrow. Everything felt the same way.. but she had heard it coming. Perdicus let go of the arrow. it was coming right at her. He had aimed for the chest. She listened as the arrow rode through the wind, cutting through it.
Now! Gabrielle swung her staff in front of her face with one hand, switched it with the other and held it straight behind her. She looked at herself in surprise, then at Perdicus who was also surprised, then at Xena who had an eyebrow raised but a smile on her lips. She gazed down at where the arrow should have it her. it wasn't there. She looked up at Perdicus again who was staring at her staff. She followed his gaze and a smile was spread on her face. She did it!
Yellow paint was dripping running down the staff. An arrow was stuck to it. She caught it! it hadn't grazed the staff! she hadn't caught it accidentally while ducking and holding the staff above her head. 'Well done, Gabriel. That was even better than the first time,' Xena was standing behind her with a smile.
Gabrielle was taken above for a tiny second and swallowed. 'Uhm.. eh.. thank you! Xena.. it was nothing, really.. I just.. you know, saw it and.. uhm.. caught it!' She hit her palm with her fist at the last words. Had Aphrodite been there and not with her daily boy-toy, she would probably have slapped Gabrielle at the back of her head for that.
Xena just chuckled. 'Keep it up, Gabriel.' Xena turned and walked away and Gabrielle frowned for a second. What was it with the way she said Gabrielle's name? She did that whenever she was talking directly at the blonde... Gabrielle just shook it off and turned to Perdicus who had yet to learn how to close his mouth. 'Someone's going to build a nest in your mouth if you don't close it soon,' Gabrielle chuckled as Perdicus quickly closed is mouth and glared at her for a second.
'Again?' Gabrielle nodded.
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After two months of hard training, all the men had gotten several steps closer to becoming full fledged warriors. All except for Gabrielle. She hadn't done any better after catching the arrow almost two months prior. Perdicus had tried to help her with the training, even after the training sessions where done and the free days Xena had given them to relax.
The triplets loved messing with her, most of the men would have a field-trip every time she'd fail at something, especially if she was the only one. She was the failure there.. the clown.
The moon was coming out from it's hiding place and Gabrielle let herself fall on top of her sleeping rags.
Aphrodite looked up from her scroll. 'Tired?' Gabrielle didn't even gaze her way, let alone come up with something to say. She just grunted.
She was tired... so tired she felt like never getting up again.. she'd rather have the wild animals eat her alive! 'Here, drink this, it will do you good, Blondie,' The Goddess gave the tired warrior a mug filled with a strange kind of liquid. She sniffed it and scrunched her nose. 'What is that?' Gabrielle asked as she held the mug in her hands.
'If I tell you, you won't drink it...' Gabrielle raised an eyebrow. 'But trust me, it will do you good. Just drink it all at once,' Gabrielle nodded and did as she was told.
Oh by the love of Zeus, that tasted like horrible!
'Better?' The Goddess asked. Gabrielle dropped the mug after the liquid was all gone. 'That was disgusting! I'd rather have Joxer make the dinner again!'
The Goddess sat down next to Gabrielle. 'Better?' she asked again. Gabrielle frowned. Her muscles were still very sore, but she did feel better. She felt like she could actually stand up without having a horrible migraine. 'Yeh.. I do feel better! Thank you, Aphrodite!' The Goddess smiled and gave Gabrielle a one-arm hug.
'No problem, little one' She said with a smile and then laid back down on Perdicus' rags. Gabrielle watched her for a moment, while trying not to think of how the aftertaste was even worse than when she actually drank the liquid. 'You wanna tell me what was actually in the mug?'
'Nope' she simply said, while reading her scroll. 'Oh come on Aphrodite! Tell me!' The young girl whined.
Aphrodite kept reading. 'You know what you're missing here? a cute little love story. I mean, sure all the action and drama here is good, Ares would be proud, but I think Xena should be allowed to feel some love.. Just saying..' Gabrielle's eyes went wide. 'YOU READ MY SCROLLS?' She snatched the scroll from the goddess and tucked it under her pillow.
'Well when you just have it lying here for everyone to see, can you really blame me?'
Gabrielle just stared at her before she answered. 'It was in my backpack, at the very bottom, underneath several empty scrolls... wrapped inside some cloth!'
'Same difference' Gabrielle sighed and fell back on her rags. 'You're unbelievable...' she muttered. The Goddess only smiled. 'I know!'
Gabrielle was too tired to fight with the Goddess. Whatever the Goddess had given her did help, but she was still very tired. During advanced staff training, the very "kind" triplets had decided to have some fun. They had managed to sneak a huge bug into her shirt while she wasn't looking. something that got her to put up a very embarrassing show in front everyone.
She even accidently hit Xena in the stomach without knowing. That earned her a pretty angry glare… Oops?
other than that, things had gone pretty.. bad! most of the things Xena had made them do over the months where things that almost only Xena managed to do without problems. The only one who did worse than Gabrielle was Joxer, at least in a few of the things. Jace was doing slightly ok and Jet, Jet was one of the best ones in the squad. Same with Perdicus.
Today they were learning to dodge rocks with their staffs and also even hit back. It didn't go so well... at least Gabrielle wasn't the only one who failed in that department. But she was the only one who earned a pretty bad glare from Xena... The blonde did manage to miss all the rocks, but sending them in return was the hard part... She managed to hit one rock with her staff by accident.
It actually went flying towards Xena who missed it by inches… hence the glare. yeah she was just glad the bucket of water fell over her face before that.
Aphrodite's plan about Gabrielle getting on the captains' good site wasn't exactly going to happen anytime soon, that was for sure.
'Let's just say your pony helped with getting the ingredient...'
'What? Aphrodite!'
'I'm just saying horse uri-' The Goddess was met with a pillow. 'Don't finish that sentence...'
'Gabrielle?' Perdicus was standing by the entrance. Gabrielle looked from The Goddess to Perdicus. Oh right, he can't see her.. He must think 'm crazy for talking to myself...
'Who's this?' Scratch that, he can see her?
'Wait you can see her?' Gabrielle looked from the boy to the Goddess again.
'Ups, I forgot I took away the spell.. it was making me sleepy...' Aphrodite said as she giggled and looked away guilty. Gabrielle facepalmed.
'Wait, spell?' Perdicus was still confused. 'Perdicus this is Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love,' Gabrielle gestured to the other blonde.
By the Gods... You're The Aphrodite?' The Goddess smiled at the young man. 'Why yes I am,' she winked and Gabrielle looked disgusted.
'I thought you were out doing some late training,' Gabrielle said, wanting to change the subject. 'Uhm, yeh I was but I got a message from Xena. She wishes to see you,' The boy half said, half mumbled as he stared at the Goddess. 'What? Xena wants to see me?' Gabrielle jumped up, despite the pain in her legs, and arms, and next and head, and well her whole body. 'Calm down, Blondie.. don't lose your cool now,' The Godess mumbled. 'Yes, she said it was rather urgent,' Perdicus said as he finally looked up at Gabrielle. 'She's waiting by the horses on the east side of camp.'
'All right then! Aphrodite, mind if you explain everything to Perdicus, so that he won't be too confused?' The Goddess nodded. 'Sure sure, you just go and I'll keep Perdy here some company.' she said with a smirk. Gabrielle rolled her eyes and ran out of the tent.
What did Xena want?
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Gabrielle reached the east side with close to no troubles and saw Xena standing by Jared.
'You wanted to see me, Captain?' Gabrielle asked in her male voice. Xena just looked at her for a second before handing her the reins.
'Go home, Gabriel, You don't belong here.' Xena turned to leave but Gabrielle stepped in front of her. 'What? Why? I want to stay! I want to fight! I want to help in the fight against Callisto, just like everyone else in this camp!' Xena sighed.
'I appreciate your determination. But you're just not ready. You're far behind everyone else. I have been getting reports from the General, and he wants the recruits to be sent into battle in a couple of months. They've been following Callisto's army and tried to slow them down in the mountains, but we're losing men.' Gabrielle looked down at her boots and then up again.
'Then you need my help!' She simply said. She looked straight into the piercing blues and refused to look away. She wanted Xena to see she was not going to give up.
'It's been two months, you've barely improved during that time. We're leaving in another two months and I just don't believe you will be ready by then.'
'Give me a chance, Xena! I can be better! I'll show you!'
Xena shook her head. 'I couldn't handle it if you died in battle...' Gabrielle looked at her confused and Xena noticed. 'I mean, any of you.. I can't lose my men in battle because I wasn't good enough to train them,'
'You are good, Xena. And I'll show you that I am ready! I'll do anything!' Gabrielle was practically shouting at this point. Xena looked down at her boots like Gabrielle had done earlier and then looked right into the blonde's green eyes. They just stood there staring at each other for what seemed like ages. 'Alright, if you can manage to improve over these two months and catch up with the rest, you can come with us. But if you fail me, Gab-'
'I won't!' Gabrielle responded quickly with a smile. 'I won't let you down, Xena!' The taller warrior smiled and nodded. 'Alright then, I want you to meet me and Perdicus every night after dinner for extra training. okay? That also means every morning. You won't get much sleep, but if you are to catch up to the rest you have to work extra hard, is that clear?'
'Crystal,' Gabrielle smiled and as well did Xena. 'Good then,' She nodded towards the tents. 'You can go now,' and with that the warrior walked in the other direction. Gabrielle watched her walk away and smiled again. 'I'll show her, Jared. I am not going anywhere,'
I felt like I owed it to those who're still reading my fic^^ I think this is my longest chapter so far actually O.o oh god!
I've gotten some new ideas that I think I can use so that the story will take it's own path, but it will take some time for me to rewrite the chapters, so I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but soon, don't worry ;)
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the cat! He's a cutie^^