Chapter 21

It had been six weeks since Chloe came to live with us, and I was now very close to my little sister we even had our own private language, even if My mother didn't understand it. I knew learning Klingon would come in handy someday, even if I only did it for Ellie. Ellie was a huge Trekkie. She dragged me to Star Trek Conventions every year. If Klingons weren't a Male-dominated society they'd get along very well with the Amazons I think. We both dressed as full on Klingon females every year and thus learned the language. I also had a real Bat'leth that I made myself, it helps to know how to make weapons, and a real d'k taqh, which was the warrior knife of the Klingons which I also made, I didn't use it anytime I wasn't dressing up as a Klingon though, both were too bulky to use in real life. The designers were obviously not weaponsmiths, but either way it gave me the chance to have a secret language with Chloe. She was very excited to have a secret language with me that no one knew.

Mother was teaching English to the Amazons as a battle tactic, she was even having it taught to Amazons in other villages by downloading it into the heads of their teachers, she already downloaded into Agatha, Alice the little girl's teacher, and Hilary the head Nursery school teacher. Hilary had them until they were 5, she taught the cub/pups, and the chicks, and Alice taught the wolves and the eagles, the baby warriors and Junior warriors were taught by Agatha. The Half-warriors, Half-hunters, Half-Healers, cross trained amazons were considered half warriors despite all the other jobs they tended to do, they were warriors first. Cross trained Amazons who didn't get much warrior training were just lower ranked in the Cross-trained corps, which was under Tiana's command, who was a cross-trained Warrior, cross-trained warriors were called cross-trained warriors, and Cross trained Amazons who weren't warriors were called Cross trained Amazons. Even becoming a cross-trained warrior there were three ranks, a cross-trained warrior who was as trained as a normal warrior who knew could do other job in the nation, a warrior who could had multiple warrior skills, and someone who had all the skills of a cross-trained Amazon and all the skills of a cross-trained warrior. They were Cross trained Warrior Alpha grade, Beta Grade, and Gamma Grade. Cross Trained Amazons only came with one grade. Sybil was a Cross trained Warrior Alpha Grade. Because she had been through so much warrior training before she left, and trained herself in her absence and proved herself when she came back.

Chloe liked Hilary her teacher she was nice and she liked the other nursery minders. She was a cub and she was very mischievous, she loved getting into trouble. She'd been giving swats at school, almost every day, in Nursery school, the teacher and the minders just use their hands. I loved my sister she was a seriously cool little girl. She reminded me of a Dennis the Menace with Lilo from Lilo and Stich, and with liberal parts of of Olivia from the Cosby show, Megan from Drake and Josh, and Pim from Phil of the future. My sister was going to be a handful, a destructive mischievous handful. She also couldn't help remind me, of Tony Stark, from Iron Man. She loved our workshop too. And she loved our Uncle Hephaestus always asking him and the blacksmith Gaia questions. Good smart questions. Hephaestus was obviously the little girl's favorite uncle, he was mine too, just because I saw him most, and I had such fond memories of Hank. I liked Hercules too. Those were the only Uncles besides Apollo I had positive experiences with. I don't know how she can be so smart, when she's not related to Athena in anyway. It's really weird, then again there are plenty of smart mortals who aren't related to Gods, maybe her dad is just a smart guy. And Mom is smart everyone thinks Athena is the tactician but it's really Mother. The history books got that part wrong. Tactical warfare belongs to Artemis not Athena. Athena is Wisdom, courage, inspiration, skill, arts and crafts, law and justice, mathematics and logical thinking. I could see where people could get logical thinking and tactical warfare mixed up. Although how she acted during the whole Eve thing showed a distinct lack of logical thinking. But I'm sure that was just fear.

Now it is time to give the 18 Puppies away to good homes. Mother, Chloe and I have come up with a list. I will spent my dad delivering these puppies, as well as a few older hounds. The first Agatha, we have to get her before school starts, Chloe is with me. We give her Brown female and Black male

"What is this Marely?"

"From My mother, for your nieces." I said standing straight.

"What are their names?"

"Mommy doesn't let us name the Puppies." Chloe pouts.

"Well, thank you very much for the puppies, Chloe."

"It's really Mother. She protects her People, what happened to your nieces was not something she will abide. After Princess Lila Cyrene, and the Regent and Weapons Master's twins they were first on the list."

"I appreciate that." She smiled. "I assume you'll not be in class today.

"No here is my homework." I hand her three scrolls. She nodded.

"Ariadne and Gia come down here, Artemis sent you presents." The little girls ran into the room in their sleeping shifts.

"Puppies!" Gia yelled.

"What are their names?" Ari asked.

"You'll have to name them?" I put them on the floor, and the female went to her, the male went to Gia. They both scooped up their new pets.

"Her name is Leather." She said. I smiled.

Gia thought for a minute. "I don't have a name for mine?"

"How about Sirius?" I may not have been a Harry Potter fanatic, but I liked the movies, and I may only be like 15% into guys, but Sirius was hot, and the little puppy looks like the baby version of his Animagi version.

Gia smiles. "Okay!"

After them we went straight to Xena and Gabrielle, we knocked on their door. Gabrielle answered.

"Good Morning, what can we do for you?"

"Go ahead Chloe?"

"Queen Gabrielle, on Behalf of Lady Artemis our Mother we have a brand new 6 week old hound from her personal Hunting Hound Epsilon…." She presented the small various brown shaded hound, who was wiggling, and handed it to Gabrielle, it immediately started licking Gabrielle. "As a Personal Gift of Protection to Princess Lila Cyrene."

"Thank you, Chloe, Marley please come on." Gabrielle said. "Xena, Marley and Chloe brought Lila Cyrene her own puppy from Artemis' Hounds litters."

"Good she needs the protection and I'll train her…."

"Him." I said.

"Him myself…..I'll get her." She left and came back in with a dressed Lila Cyrene and a trailing Eve." Lila Cyrene had started talking 5 weeks ago, and her vocabulary had exploded lately, but not enough to name him. "He needs a name."

"Lila Cyrene, Baby this is your puppy….." Xena put the girl on the floor, and Gabrielle put the puppy on the floor, and they met in the middle. The little girl petted her new hound, and they rolled on the floor a little bit.

"Muddy." Lila Cyrene giggled.

"Muddy? Didn't you name your…" She asked her wife.

"Yes, oh well I guess it's Muddy." Xena shrugged.

"I didn't think someone so young could name a pet she only 13 months." I said.

"Well, what can I say our daughters, have many skills."

"I have to get to Eponin and Ephiny's next."

"Tells them if they can't I'll train their puppies."

"Well do." We went back and got the Puppies for Eponin and Ephiny, a white female puppy, and a grey male puppy. Ephiny let us in.

"Eponin had some training to do. So your mother sent us puppies?"

"We have given three out already, Agatha's nieces, and Lila Cyrene. Your twins were next on the List."

"Of course, I'm not sure what to name them."

"How about Lux and Shadow?"

She laughs. "Good idea…."

"Xena said she'd train your puppies for you."

"No, Eponin will do it…." Terrieus and Diana walks outside of their room, and I put the basket on the floor, the puppies crawled out, Lux went to Terrieus and Shadow went to Diana.

"Mama My Doggie?" Diana said.

"Mama Is my doggie?" Terrieus echoed

"Yes, Your Doggies. But Mommy needs to train them." Next I went to Lila, and gave her a Grey hound for Sarah. It was female and she named Grey Sky. Next we were to give two Puppies, one male and One Female, and two, five year olds hounds one female one Male, named Sandy and Blackie. To Addy for Breeding she gave the Puppies to her daughters, Naida and Ananda, next were Helena, Cadence, and Tabitha the hunters they were also to get Puppies, Helena got a brown female who she named Brownie, Cadence got a grey and brown male she named Hunter, and Tabitha got a Black and Grey male she named Murky. So we'd given out 10 of the Puppies so far. Next we were to give out grown dogs to the elders of the tribe. First one was to Cyrene. A 10 year old, Grey hound named Violet, then Lena who got another 10 year named female named Kay, Constance got a 10 year old named Samson, Mika a disabled Amazon got a male named Jason. The last eight puppies were up to Chloe and I to choose who to give them to. We Chose Kaarina and Morgan, Alyssa, Babette, Chloris that was five. And the last three which was two females, and a male. We chose to give to one Dora, who is a kind of friend of Mine, one we decide to give to Laertes, and the last one we decide to give to Iolous. We give Dora a female, a tan and brown one she names Rivka, We give one to Laertes and he names her Girl, we give the male to Iolous. He decides to name it Fang. When we get back Mother tells us how proud of her she is, the next day we go to school, and everything goes back to normal. A few weeks pass, and I am watching, Addy, and Xena train several of the Puppies along with their owners. It's amusing to watch almost like a modern obedience school. A few more weeks pass and we're into summer. Nothing exciting has happened in months except the puppies, and I'm not wishing for it happen, I'm not crazy. It's hot, but I'm now used to the heat, and the temple has the goddess-magic equivalent of air conditioning. The rest of the village seems unbearable in comparison but it's something I have gotten used to. It's a good thing I don't have asthma, but a few others have, including Gia. I don't think she'll ever be a warrior she's too sickly. I told them Coffee is a good treatment for that, and it's been working. I don't remember where I learned that, but it's a good tip.

Iolous has been spending time with his lover, and his daughters. And Laertes has been spending time with Chloe, I wish My father wasn't nearly, 3,000 years away. We don't have classes right now, and my friends and I are fishing and swimming in the small pond between the oak and the Olive tree, it's our favorite hang-out spot, it's shady, and cool, and not too many people bother with it. Chloe, Morgan and Kaarina came along but they're busy playing tag with their dogs, they're laughter is very loud.

"Hey quiet down over there you'll scare the fish." I hiss. They didn't scare the fish we ended up with plenty of fish. We cleaned and cooked the fish over an open fire. When we had our fill we cleaned up, leaving no traces, as we were taught to.

"Now what?" Jacinta asked always cheerfully.

"Well, we could go to the temple." I said.

"I want to hang outside, we always just lay around in the temple, it's a beautiful day…." Calla said.

"We could swim….." Mione said. "It's certainly hot enough."

"I could swim." Call threw her two dinars." And everyone quickly agreed, so we all stripped and jumped into the pond. We laughed, and splashed and joked and swam. Then everyone laid out on the blanket in the sun watching the clouds and dried, then we got dressed. Then we played Amazon Kick ball. Then we worked on our staff moved without adult Supervision, and then we parted ways, Chloe, Regina, Elvis and I went home. Mother made Chicken Parm Pizza, and Chocolate shakes, and then we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Then Mother ordered us to bed. We had to go to bed, early here. Since school pretty much started like right after breakfast, and breakfast was at dawn. The next morning I got up did my chores. I got showered dressed, we had eggs, and fruit, and coffee, and then it was time for school. After the school part of the day, it was time for training. Lindy despite being in a different training group still tried to get at me, her sidekick Melanie was still in our class and she would kept trying to push my buttons. I hadn't cracked yet, I don't think they realized I was going to be a Goddess and could smite them one day. Not that I would do that of course. I sparred with Alexandra, Jacinta, Calla, Andrea, Hermione, and a few other girls, before being paired with Melanie, she was vicious in attacking me but my skills were just superior then she just went all out and jumped me, she bit me. Xena jumped in and held us apart.

"What the hell was that!" She yelled.

"That was like to know Xena I didn't do anything to her and she was attacking me like a mad dog! She bit me on the arm!"

Xena looked. "So she did, that's pretty deep you better go to the Healer, and you! Melanie, you're going to The seer so she can check you for mind tampering because that is not normal!"

Xena lead the girl, to the Seer, concerned she was hoping there were no spells or anything on the girl. Before she knocked on the Seers door, She opened it. Samson was by the hearth chewing on a hambone.

"Welcome I made some tea, please come in…..Sit….." Xena sat and got the girl to sit. "Xena the girl, is not under a spell, it's worse spells can be counteracted I'm afraid she's mad, in the future, the future Our Goddess's daughter comes from she could get help, but here there isn't much we can do but keep her out of trouble. She needs to be removed from Warrior training it's too dangerous."

"Where won't she be a danger?"

"There will be times when she's quite rational, even without the help she'd get in the future. With Herbs to keep her calm, she could work in the Parchment Makers, or be a stable hand, she could work in the kitchens, or be a messenger. She still needs to go to school."

After talking to the Seer, Xena called Melanie's Mother, she headed with her to Gabrielle's Official Queen hut and explained everything then we called her Mother Gaia the blacksmith. Gaia had a little one, in the Nursery and was scared for her family, but they both assured her with certain herbs she could be rendered docile, all the time. They would make her a tea to drink and it would be given to her all the time. She could still finish school, and be given a relatively low stress position in the tribe like meal server, stable hand, fix-it person, Messenger, Gaia seemed relieved. Xena gave her some special herbs and sent them on their way they agreed that She should sit out weapon's training for now, but not activities like hide and seek and Kick ball.

After I got fixed up, I went home and Mom healed me she said bites were too dangerous not to heal. The next day I heard Melanie was mad, and I felt bad for her. I had no idea what of the many disorders in the DSM it could be. And I wouldn't guess. Psychology was never my strong suite. But she certainly seemed a lot calmer, then during our training session. A more weeks passed and it was the Middle of Summer.

Gabrielle, Xena, and the rest of the Council was in their meeting and it was without a doubt as boring and full of as many idiots as usual. When Constance stood, as usual everyone gave her the floor, other than Cyrene she was the only universally respected, and liked woman in the tribe. She was 70 years old, still healthy and strong, and though a powerful seer, she was also once a formidable warrior, who had earned her headdress of feathers, with blood, sweat and the tears over fallen sisters. She wasn't elderly like some she was aged she had earned her years.

"We have trouble coming….." She said in her what Marley described as a raspy voice with a Bluesy New York night club quality.

"What's coming Constance?" Gabrielle asked.

"Zale's Son, Iorgos he wants to Avenge his father. He wasn't given the real story by his father's mistress, apparently, the woman told her son, the Amazons slaughters and overpowered his father's men when he merely tried to pass through their lands."

"And he believes this woman?" Aleyda.

"His Mother is already remarried and he is now the man of the House, his father's mistress is now his, she has him by the balls so to speak." Constance said.

"How old is he?" Xena asked.

"20, he is amassing an army as we speak he is trained enough to carry a sword and play solider, but no real match for our girls, it is his army that will be the challenge they will not be regular army men but the more ruthless and cunning members of warrior society, they are coming to kill Xena and for the Amazon slave girls, they will kill anything in their way."

"Just what we need." Gabrielle muttered. "When will they be here?"

"The Morning of the Autumnal Equinox, there will only be 30 warriors with him, but they are more skilled and ruthless than the last group that came for us."

"So we have time, not much but we have time, to prepare, we still have the crossbows, we have the Hounds…..we have the other defenses that Artemis helped us create." Eponin said.

"They will not be going for the centaurs, or the other villages, they are only coming for us." Constance said.

"Then perhaps we should invite some friends over." Gabrielle said.

"Queen Gabrielle, you can't be serious." Kala said.

"Why not, we don't want to lead our enemy to our friends, but we still want them to fight by our side. I think the idea has merit."

"Me too." Lena said. In the next few weeks.

With the news that Zale's son, Iorgos was coming after us, training was stepped us, even for us even though we wouldn't be fighting. Mostly for Half-warriors and up, including non-warriors. Everyone was training for this. It was bizarre there was a type of tension in the village, and it didn't feel good. I hoped this didn't end badly.