Usual disclaimers apply.
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Chapter 46
Daphne laid on her bed staring at her ceiling. She could hear Xena and her mother talking about the camping trip and felt the butterflies in her stomach turn into a bunch of winged monkeys the moment her mother's voice filled the air, "Daphne come here now, young lady."
Sighing heavily, Daphne groaned and headed to the other room. "Yes?"
"Sit," Cyrene pointed to the couch and the girl sat down hoping the look on Cyrene's face wasn't as bad as it appeared.
"Xena, join your sister," Cyrene commanded and Daphne held the smirk she felt when Xena jumped a bit at the command.
"Why?"
"Because I told you to, Xena. Now sit." Cyrene pointed to the couch and Xena slowly sat down next to Daphne.
"Alright, I've heard Xena's version of the camping trip, and now I want yours."
"Do you want the entire trip or just certain parts?" Daphne asked.
"I would like to hear what happened from the moment you and your friends decided to get into that tree."
"Oh," Daphne took a deep breath and looked at her hands before looking back up at Cyrene. "Well, Sam has been teaching me this great flip off a tree branch."
"Sam?" Cyrene's eyebrow went up and nodded. "And how has she be doing this?"
"We practiced first with a bar set up and braced so I could use it to flip. I know to always take off on the right foot so I don't get hurt. Anyway, once I had the flip down on the ground I asked Sam if she could teach me to flip out of a tree like she can do. She said yes and we've been working on it."
"And how did you and your friends come to try and do this on the camping trip?" Cyrene asked.
"Well I've been teaching my friends the flip that Sam taught me so we decided we all wanted to try it at once on the trip. I mean it would have looked so cool if we had been able to do it right and enter the camp that way. Right, Xena?"
Xena shrugged, "I suppose."
"Xena stop encouraging your sister," Cyrene admonished.
"Yeah, Xena," Daphne parroted. "You should know better." Her snort was cut off by a shoulder shove from the warrior."
"Stop it, Daphne." Xena directed.
"Why should I?" Daphne asked only to jump when Cyrene clapped her hands loudly.
"Girls!" Muttering for a moment Cyrene finally looked at the teenager and the non-teenager in front of her. "Enough of this. Daphne finish your story."
"Well, my friends and I decided that it would make quite an entrance to enter the camp that way after our enforced hunt." Daphne glared at Xena for a moment and then turned back to her mother. "Anyway, I needed something to look forward to other than the usual Amazon camping torture so the girls and I decided to practice the flip."
"And?" Cyrene pressed.
"And it didn't go quite like we had planned." Daphne finally admitted.
"No kidding."
"Xena, enough." Cyrene's eyes locked with her eldest daughter and Xena looked down at her hands.
"Sorry, Mom."
"What exactly happened, Daphne?" Cyrene tried again.
"Layla took off on her left foot. That started a chain reaction of teetering and well, let's just say you should never try to flip without the proper momentum."
"Something you should have known if Sam had been teaching you to flip from the tree." Xena interjected.
"Sam is teaching me," Daphne stated. "We just hadn't gotten to the actual tree part yet."
"What do you mean you hadn't gotten to the actual tree part yet?" Xena demanded.
"We're still sort of on the doing a flip from a stationary position on the ground," Daphne admitted.
Flicking Daphne's forehead with her finger and thumb Xena shook her head, "Anybody in there? You should never have tried that flip if you can't even do a stationary one from the ground."
"Funnily enough, I've figured that out for myself!"
"Well…"
"Girls!" Cyrene stood and clapped her hands. "That is more than enough." Looking down at Xena the older woman glared. "You act as if Sam teaching Daphne this is no big deal."
"It's not." Xena commented realizing her mistake by the look on her mother's face.
"You just stepped in it," Daphne snickered.
"And you!" Cyrene turned her attention to the younger girl. "To think that this was a good idea despite not being able to do it properly."
"Sam does it," Daphne tried.
"And if Sam jumped off a bridge would you do that too?" Cyrene demanded.
"Only if I had the cord wrapped around my ankle like she does," Daphne replied.
"Only if…" Cyrene trailed off and took a deep breath before continuing. Turning to Xena she shook her finger, "You head home and tell that oldest daughter of yours that I want to see her." Turning back to Daphne Cyrene glared, "And you, go to your room and wait for me there. I need a few minutes to myself."
"Mom why do you want to see Sam?" Xena asked.
"Now, Xena." Cyrene's voice left no room for argument and Daphne decided to get out of the line of fire while she could.
Closing her door behind her Daphne cringed when she heard Xena's protests about getting Sam die with the sting of a wooden spoon. Lying on her bed, Daphne pulled out her blanket and rolled on her side glad that she wasn't Xena at the moment. She still couldn't figure out why Cyrene would want Sam, but decided not to question it. After all, it was delaying any type of punishment for her so why not let Sam come over if it would help.
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I knocked lightly on Yaya's door after being told by Mama that she had wanted to talk to me. Mama had filled me in on what had happened on the camping trip and about Yaya's response to it. I was confused as to why she wanted to see me but shook it off as the door opened. Pulling me inside Yaya met me with six swats from her wooden spoon.
Noticing the door of Daphne's room opened a crack as I was finally freed, I rubbed the sting in my backside, "Yaya what did I do?"
"Do you know what happened on Daphne's camping trip?"
Sitting down on the couch I leaned forward a bit, "You mean about Daphne and her friends flipping out of the tree?"
"What else?" Yaya's eyes bored into me and I shifted slightly.
"Um, is that a problem?" I asked.
"You have my daughter trying to flip out of trees hurting herself and others and you ask if it's a problem…" Yaya trailed off and I sat back and took a breath.
"I don't understand," I finally admitted. "I was just teaching her a valuable skill. I didn't make her teach her friends and try to do that flip before she was ready. That's all on Daphne."
"You are so much like your mother," Yaya shook her head and then focused on me once more. "You have no idea why I am upset about this?"
Shaking my head, I waited for her explanation. "What you taught Daphne is dangerous, Sam."
"But Mama taught me," I protested. "And I've taught her to always take off on her right foot. Not to mention that Eve and her friends can do it already. Why is it dangerous for Daphne?" I asked. "I mean the only think that made it dangerous was the fact that she was teaching her friends before she truly had it down and they jumped out of the tree a few months too early."
"I swear I'm talking to Xena at your age," Yaya quipped.
"I am my mother's daughter," I replied with a grin.
"You are that," Yaya looked at me once more. "We need to talk, Sam."
"I thought that's why I was here," I replied.
"You are here so that I can make you understand why I have such a problem with you teaching Daphne anything that can cause her harm like that flip."
"Eve taught her to gallop standing up on a horse, and every day at school, she's taught Amazon fighting skills. It's part of what makes us Amazons, Yaya. I don't understand why you're having such issues with this."
"You are not an adult, Sam. As good as you are, you are a sixteen-year-old child."
"I am not a child."
"You are not an adult, yet, Samina."
"I go to those blasted council meetings with Mom and I'm at the age of consent." I protested.
"That's true," Yaya admitted. "But you know that you aren't allowed full participation in the council meetings until you become eight-teen. And despite the age of consent you still are in school, you are still in training, and you are still not considered a full warrior."
"And I didn't do anything here that would need a full warrior," I argued. "I was teaching Daphne how to do a flip. A very Amazon thing to do. It's not as if I was showing her how to catch arrows without supervision!"
"I just don't understand this drive of yours to do dangerous things and teach others."
"I am not teaching them anything dangerous!" My voice raised a bit and I took a breath as Yaya looked at me pointedly. "We are Amazons and there are some things Amazons need to do. Among those things is tree walking. And flipping out of a tree is much easier than the regular route and can be the matter between life and death for us; not to mention that I never encouraged Daphne to flip from the tree or teach her friends. I told her the opposite. I knew she wasn't ready. She made a poor choice but it is not my teaching her that caused that choice."
"You shouldn't have been teaching her in the first place without my permission," Yaya tried.
"Why?" My voice raised again. "I was doing nothing different with her than I would do with any other girl I was training. Why is she different?"
Yaya's reply was stopped by a knock at the door. Opening it she moved back and allowed Mom to enter. "I could hear the two of you outside," Mom said by way of explanation. "What is wrong?"
"What is wrong," I began in a huff, "Is that your mother in law has lost her mind about what it means to train an Amazon. She's over reacting for nothing!"
"Samina," Mom's voice was calm and quiet. "That is enough. Apologize to your grandmother right now for your disrespect."
Rolling my eyes, I tried not to growl before looking at my grandmother, "I'm sorry that I was rude, Yaya."
Yaya nodded curtly to me in acceptance of my apology and then turned to Mom, "What do you think Gabrielle of Sam teaching Daphne that flip? The flip that she used on the trip trying to get out of a tree and hurt herself and her friends."
Mom looked up at me and sighed. "Sam?"
She didn't need to say anything else for me to start talking, "I taught Daphne how to do the flip. I told her that she wasn't ready to try it in the trees yet. I told her to stay on the ground when doing it. Daphne tried to teach it to her friends and they decided it would be a good idea to flip out of a tree before any of them were ready."
Nodding Mom turned back to Yaya, "So Daphne chose to use the flip even though she wasn't ready to get out of the tree?"
Yaya nodded, "It wouldn't have been an issue if Sam wouldn't have taught her the flip in the first place."
Mom smiled slightly and put her hand on Yaya's arm, "If there's one thing I've learned since meeting Xena and raising your granddaughters, there are some things you just can't fight. Certain things, like the flip, is something that all Amazons learn or try to learn. I'd rather Daphne learn it from Sam than from someone who doesn't really know how to do the flip."
"But why?" Yaya sighed heavily and sat down at the kitchen table. "Why is it so important?"
Mom walked to Yaya and put her hand on Yaya's shoulder, "It's just a part of being an Amazon." Mom tried. "It's a skill that most of the girl want because it's something unexpected and it can help them in battle. For the girls that don't choose the warrior path it's just something they can show off if they get it down properly."
"I don't want Daphne getting hurt," Yaya looked up at Mom. "I can't lose her, Gabrielle."
"I can't promise that Daphne won't get hurt, but we will do everything we can to keep her safe." Mom sat down across from Yaya. "Sam is very careful when she teaches the girls new things and she told Daphne not to use it in the trees yet. Daphne chose to not listen to the warnings."
"She could have been hurt so much worse," Yaya protested.
"She could have, but she wasn't." Mom looked up at me. "Sam, please ask Daphne to come out here and then I'd like you to head home. I'm sure that your Mama wants to speak with you."
Nodding, I made my way to Daphne's room and opened the door while knocking. "Daphne?"
"Yeah?"
Quickly crossing the room, I sat on the bed next to her, "Mom wants you to head out that way. I think she and Yaya want to talk with you."
"What about you?" Daphne asked quietly.
"I've been sent home," I shrugged and punched her on the shoulder lightly. "You shouldn't have used that flip in the trees and you shouldn't have tried to teach it to your friends. I told you that you weren't ready."
"Yeah, yeah," Daphne sighed and leaned into me. "I screwed up. I just wish I could have perfected it. Would have made one hell of an entrance."
Hugging Daphne lightly I pushed her back and shook my head, "Yeah, it would have." I agreed before gently pulling her from the bed and escorting her from her bedroom, my arm around her shoulder.
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