CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

By mid-afternoon, a strong breeze had begun chasing the dark clouds away along with the rain. The sunshine was now high in the sky and beaming down over the group on the road below.

Xena comfortably seated on Padon's back in a slow gait on the dirt path. Her Calvary fanned out around her on alert of their surroundings.

The whooshing sound that rang in her ears made her quickly hide her hands in the goat hair pouch that sat in her lap, as Ares appeared only visible to her, on his own white stallion with a big silly grin on his face.

She looked at him with surprise as he deliberately lowered his head and gave her a playful look.

"What?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Oh, nothing much." He answered in a relaxed tone, staring for a moment at Padon's crest.

She scrambled to hide it, and then began to laugh.

"Ok, you caught me." She pulled out the project she was working on and held it up into Ares face. "See, happy now?"

Ares does his best to stop a smile from caressing his lips. He failed miserably though.

"Since when are you into… Feminine stuff?" He asked, barely able to hold back the laugh that threatened to escape his throat.

"Well, I am a woman as you very well know, and braiding is relaxing…."

"Since when is braiding a horse's crest considered to be calming?"

"Ok, hysterical I'm sure you didn't come here to make fun of my secret hobbies - that by the way are the only ones able to keep me sane from a boring horseback ride across Greece." She said then cocked her head and eyed the God.

She watched Ares lightly bounce his leg around in his stirrup, so she directed her horse closer to his and put her hand on his knee to halt the motion. When she looked up into his face, she noticed his rapidly blinking eyes.

"Ok, out with it!" she commanded in a deep tone.

Ares rubbed the back of his neck before he complied with her order.

"Ok, I hired you a personal attendant."

"What?" she openly stared at him before she continued, "Why in the name of Hades would you...?"

However, before she could continue her rant, a shrill whistle claimed her attention and suddenly, she focused all of her attention into the direction from where her scout was approaching at a break-necking speed.

"This conversation is far from over." She made sure to mention in a monotone voice, throwing Ares one last glare. Then, she clicked her tongue and Padon took off into a canter to meet the scout. Ares watched her leave then shook his head and disappeared.

As she hurried towards the other rider and as the wind hit her in the face, a phantom odor of wood burning in a fire pit reached her nostrils.

Once she approached the scout, she guided her horse around the backside of the other horse and came up even with him.

"Report!" she snapped at the scout.

The soldier saluted his fist to chest and responded.

"General we have reason to believe that there is part of the forest burning between where the crossroads ' starts and the city of Pynda."

"Ok, you and the other scouts go back to the crossings and wait for us there." She briefly ordered, and then she turned Padon back into the other direction and trotted back to the waiting army.

As she reached her troops again, she headed towards her Captain and the temporarily promoted soldier whose name slipped her mind now. When she stopped in front of them, she first glimpsed at the new person with a cold stare then she refocuses on Bart.

"There may be trouble ahead; we need to get moving." Her posture stiffened in the saddle and she lets off two sharp whistles then waved her hand in the air, turning her horse in the direction of the roundabout.

As the echo of her command goes down the line of her troops and eventually reached the wagon train, her Calvary spread out around her. Nevertheless, before her captains took their original positions, she heard Bart whisper to the new person.

"Just follow her orders and try to stay out of her way and you will be ok."

Right after that, Bart took the position of her right flank and the new person Homer took the left. She faced forward, unbothered by what others may think of her and headed towards the junction.

It took them less than a candle-mark to reach a crossroads. The smell of burning wood is even more pungent now in the wind than it was before.

Riding on Padon, Xena gave one loud whistle, held her hand in the air, and signaled to her captain's behind her to catch up with her. She waited as they come up on either side of her.

"Bart take the half of the Calvary and half of the foot soldiers and go meet the scouts at the crossroads."

She leaned forward and placed her elbow on the saddle-horn then continued. "Have them show you what they have found and then do whatever you can to contain the fire."

The General observed quietly as Bart picked out the soldiers that are to go with him to the crossroads. With his choosing done, he saluted the boss and threw the other captain a sympathetic look then waved his arm in the air and took off on his horse with the others behind him.

She watched Bart and the others leave then she turned to Homer with a pinched expression.

"I want you to stay with the rest of the troops and wagons make sure that everyone makes it to the crossroads.

With a wave in the air, the group got back on the path and slowly made their way to the intersection.

The troupe finally reached the junction, making their way off the path down the small slope to a little meadow about a half-mile away in less than a candle-mark. As the horses trotted across the field with their hooves making slurping sounds in the mud, the wagon wheels made long tracks behind them. They finally got to a clump of trees with a river that ran through the back half of the meadow.

Xena held her hand in the air to stop the progression of the group. She turned and looked over her shoulder at Homer and motioned him forward with her hand. When his horse is even with hers, she lend over and placed her arm over his shoulders and pulled him closer to her then speaks in a deep throaty tone.

"I want you to line up all the wagons back to back along this line in front of these trees and remember I'll be watching."

Then, she removed her arm and punched him in the shoulder almost sending him flying off the other side of the horse.

She dismounted from her horse and grabbed his reins to lead him around the wagons that have stopped behind them. When she came around the corner to head for the clump of trees, right out of nowhere she finds herself face to face with an old woman half her size. Xena stepped back and adjusted the sash she was wearing across her chest.

She analyzed the old woman who stood in front of her. She was holding a cloth bag in one hand and a glass of milk in the other.

Xena cleared her throat, twisted around to her horse and tossed the reins up over his head and then spun back and took a step closer to the old woman. The general continued on her walk to the trees when she stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of the gravelly voice behind her.

"Mistress, I think it's time for you to eat and then get some much-needed rest." The attendant blurted out.

Xena spun around to face the older woman and gave her a cold stare.

"And may I ask who do you think you are to be giving me orders?"

Her eyes never falter from the cold blue stare of the other pair of eyes.

"My name is Maggie and I'm here to take care of you."

She pressed her lips together and planted her feet into a wide stance. "Lord Ares had given me strict instructions to…"

However, before she could finish her sentence, Xena firmly invaded her personal space, their noses almost touching now.

"Well, you know where Lord Ares can go if he thinks for one minute…"

This time Maggie interrupts

"I care not of your feelings of or your relationship with Lord Ares, all I care about is his heir that…"

Xena slapped her hand over the mouth of the old woman in front of her, pulled her closer to her, and whispered in her ear.

"That is something that will not be discussed in front of my soldiers, do you understand?"

Maggie twisted out of the Generals grip and ran her fingers through her grayish brown hair.

"Yes, then I think we both understand each other very well."

She then extended her hand out, holding the linen bag of smoked meat and the other that was holding the glass of milk to Xena with a smug smile on her face.

"Yes, then let's get on with it then."

She snatched the linen out of the old woman's hand and the glass out of the other. When she looked up from Maggie, she noticed some of the soldiers standing around watching her so she yells at them.

"Don't you have something that you need to be doing?"

She watched as the soldiers jumped on the nearest wagon to them and started throwing stuff out of them to the ground as fast as they could.

She looked back down at Maggie with a tight smile then passed by her heading to the river and the crop of trees.

When she reached the trees she took a small leafy path that she knew, it would lead her to the bank of the river. The short path winds around a few trees and she ducked under a couple of low hanging branches. Then she finally came out of the woods.

Her eyes widen as she stepped out of the trees and onto the bank of the river. Her smile widen and she parts her lips as she takes in the view of the crystal-clear water and the fish jumping out of it. Then her eyes wander across to the other side of the river to the tall hills and the waterfall that washed down it into the river.

After taking in the view, she glanced around for a place to sit. She chose a cluster of grass and leaves over by the trees.

When she sat on the grass and leaves, she leaned back against the tree and in a very low threatening voice said.

"If you value your Godhood what so ever you will turn around and leave the way you came."

Ares peeked around the tree he was hiding behind and then slowly made his way over to sit beside her. He looked at her for a second before he started to speak but then when he did his voice cracked and so he stopped to take a breath.

"Where did you find her, in the bowels of Hades' realm?"

She took a piece of the smoked meat from the linen and ripped a piece off it with her teeth.

As she was chewing the food, she took a sip from the glass of milk and cannot resist peeking in his direction, and then chuckled to herself at the sight before her.

Ares, sat beside her with his head down picking at the clover they were sitting in, was a funny image to look at.

When he heard her snort, he looked up at her with dancing brown eyes. She looked away to study the river in front of her not ready to forgive him yet.

When her ears picked up the crunching of the leaves on the ground beside her, it made her blood race through her veins. Her skin tingled when she felt the rough skin of his finger tracing small circles down her bicep. She took a large deep savoring breath as he leaned towards her and laid on his back and rested his head in her lap.

She bit down on her bottom lip when his fingernails scratched up her arm to her neck. Then his arms wrapped around her neck and her body automatically followed the command of that arm as he pulled her face down close to his. She studied his brown eyes and wet her lips as the tingling feeling ran through them as they moved closer but just as their lips were about to touch a shrill shout rang through the air.

Xena heard the sound and quickly responded by jumping up from the ground and dumping Ares out of her lap where he then rolled down the bank of the river and into the rushing water.

TBC IN CHAPTER FIFETEEN….