I SURE HOPE YOU LIKE THIS ONE ...DID YOU SEE IT COMING ? :)

At first there was nothing but the heavy shroud of darkness that enveloped everything around her into an eerie, uncomfortable mist that made her skin crawl….For some reason , that nearly non existing landscape looked staggeringly familiar despite the fact that she could not recall having ever been there – such a place was definitely hard to forget….

Observant and calculated as she always was, the Warrior Princess carefully scanned the premises before she took one single step amongst those floating waves of grayish mist. She was not the one to get intimidated easily that was for sure, but this time, her flawless instinct appeared to be literally screaming at her just how unwelcoming and dangerous that accursed area was and that she was clearly not supposed to be there …..How on earth she even got there to begin with, now that was an entirely different problem…..

After the first few hesitant steps - that proved to be harmless after all- deeper into that nightmarish land- once she finally managed to focus her attention on something else apart from the visual impact of that horrid location- she came to realize that a very familiar smell could be detected into the air….a smell she knew far too well and that she hated with every fiber of her being despite the fact that, in her line of work, it was definitely way more frequent than cheap Roman perfumes….

''Rotten flesh …'' she muttered under her breath, totally displeased with her conclusion….

Maybe this was a battlefield of some kind, or a graveyard….Heck , for all she knew, those could as well be the very gates of the Underworld….As she advanced, the stench only became gradually more and more unbearable…

''What is this place ?" she couldn't help wondering , but just as the words left her lips, she could faintly distinguish the edge of a forest not far away from where she now was …

Looking behind her, struggling to pierce through the darkness one more time as if anxiously expecting for something or someone to brutally attack her right out of nowhere, she slowly walked towards the half burnt tress in front of her …Most of them had the trunks and the remaining branches covered in a thin layer of ash, and as she cautiously touched the rough surface of one of them, she immediately noticed that the bark was still burning hot…..

''What in Tartarus happened here …..? '' she voiced, concern painted on her face while silently looking for an explanation.

Whatever it was though, it gave the place an almost demonic appearance, and the muffled wails that she could now distinctly hear coming from deep inside the forest only made her think that whatever had been the force that had sucked the life out of everything around her, it had to be something that she had never witnessed before …..

As a number or very far-fetched scenarios began whirling inside her natively curious mind, the overly realistic part of her brain took over, making an actual effort to feverishly look for a plausible enough explanation- most likely something having to do with some rare, natural phenomenon ( as if by some well perfected self defense mechanism, trying to protect his owner by anything related to supernatural interventions …..).

And yet, way before that complicated process reached its end, a very distinct scream slashed the air along with the lacy waves of fog, pure horror and desperation reverberating from that unmistakable voice …..

''Xenaaaaaaa! Xenaaaaaaaaaaaaa!''

''Ares ?...'' she barely breathed out, strangled by the distressing pain she could swear he was feeling …''Aressssssssssssssssss!'' she yelled in response , so loud that she thought her lungs were going to burst. ''Aresssssssssss! Where are you ?" she once again shouted, without actually waiting for an answer- dashing into the woods as fast as her legs could carry her, taking no more precautions, fearing nothing. She simply didn't care anymore about her own safety. The only thing that mattered was to get to him- to get to him in time ….

''Princessssssss!'' she once again heard him, and this time, the panic in his voice stopped her dead in her tracks. For the love of Gaia herself, even though she was usually able to sense a deer from miles away, this time, not for all the dinars in the world could she tell the direction from which the sound came from. It simply appeared to be present everywhere, just like the sudden drops of rain now falling from the gloomy skies.

''Aressssss….Aressssssss?! Can you hear me ?! '' she answered back, torn apart by not knowing what exactly was happening to him. Whatever it was, it must have been serious – his life was at stake judging by those urgent pleas.

''I'm here ! Xenaaaaa…..I'm here…..!''

This time, the scream definitely lacked its previous force, and that only sent Xena's troubled soul flying straight into the claws of despair.

''What does ''here'' mean… ?"she murmured, while hectically looking around her, scrutinizing the space between the tress for a clue, something, anything to lead her to him …It didn't last long before her efforts paid off . Just a short distance somewhere to her left, she spotted something- something that had a particular shine to it. She rushed in that direction of course, and there it was, his sword …..

''Has he been into a fight ? Is he injured ? Will he live ….?"

These questions and many more, began a ferocious assault on her alarmed mind, almost pinning her in place , but it didn't last long, for , summoning all her remaining strength she started running again in what she now hoped to be the right direction….

''Aresssssssss! Hang on! I'm coming!''

The mad race through that damned forest proved to be by far as challenging as the task to find her patron God. Countless bushes of wild roses- the stems of which were full of thousands of sharp thorns, as sharp as blades-seemed to appear right out of the blue, piercing the soft, mushy ground, and, had she paid enough attention to what was happening around her, the sickened with worry raven beauty, would have indubitably noticed that the petals of those bewildering flowers were black…pitch black….

By the time she got closer and closer to the terror-stricken voice calling out her name, her body was covered in blood, crimson threads flowing languidly out of each and every one of those hundreds of scratches marking her skin.

Focused as she was on reaching him, she didn't even feel the pain. She only noticed the deep cuts on her forearms the moment she stopped for a second to draw her breath, and feeling something dripping down her cheek- something she had initially associated with sweat- she used the back of her hand to wipe her face….

Blood or no blood, completely ignoring her condition she kept running like a lunatic of course, until she suddenly found herself in a clearing- one as equally disturbing as all the rest of the landscape…..It is here that she finally understood everything related to the source of that nauseating stench she had initially detected…..Chopped up soldiers- all of them missing vital body parts- were hanging from the nearby trees, like rag dolls , all of them carrying her banner, every single one of them having an X carved on their own forehead…..Her own men….She was speechless- so stunned that she almost missed the fact that in a dank and pestilential swamp, the War God was barely struggling to stay alive …

''Xenaaaa…..!'' he once again yelled, desperate to get her attention . His throat was raw from all that endless screaming…..

''Ares ….. ! What are you doing there …..? How did you…? ''

''My leg is trapped…..I can't get out….!'' he urgently responded, fighting with everything he had to stay afloat…..

Her stomach twisted instantly into a knot at the realization that there was nothing around her that could help- only a few fallen braches that nearly disintegrated at her touch, turning into the same grayish ash that was hauntingly clothing what was left of the trees.

'' Don't wanna pressure you or something but, do you think you could ….?''

He didn't get the chance to finish that line though, for, by the time he got to the middle of it, something pulled him abruptly towards the bottom, leaving him no time to inhale.

In a split second, the Warrior Princess was jumping in the dark, death announcing waters of the swamp….She was a good swimmer though- she had been swimming for as long as she could remember. She had to be able to save him.

''Aresssss!'' she called right before she dived beneath the muddy surface, certain that he was supposed to be there, in that very spot she had seen him earlier…..As much as she struggled to reach him though, it was to no avail, it was as if he had never even been there, and there was no way she could see anything through that filthy marsh…..

''Aressssssssssss!'' her strangled voice could be heard seconds later, carelessly disturbing the blood freezing silence dominating the surroundings.

One more desperate attempt , followed by another one and another one, ended with the same heart wrenching conclusion ….He was nowhere to be found,regardless of how much she had struggled to get to him ( to the point where, during her last try she nearly drowned, the air leaving her lungs way before she had the chance to reach the surface….)

Needless to say, tears began welling up in her irritated eyes the moment she came to the realization that he was not coming back, and that she had actually let him die…He had asked her for help, and somehow she had proven to be of an unpardonable uselessness.

Just as the guilt and the paralyzing pain were ready to take over her every cell, with a loud, impossible to miss splash, the War God resurfaced, hungrily filling his lungs with air, coughing convulsively all the water and the mud he had swallowed .

''Ares! …..'' she incredulously exclaimed, rushing by his side, slashing through the water that was still separating them . ''Are you ok …?'' she tenderly asked, sweetly caressing his face, her heart pounding with joy at the miracle she was witnessing- for it was indeed a miracle….he had been under water for minutes…

''Ares …..?'' she repeated, suddenly worried when no response came, even though he appeared to have calmed down and his breathing sounded close to normal now….''Ares…look at me …..''

The instant their eyes met though, she became literally petrified with fear …..A set of devious, emerald green moons, were staring back at her, piercing through her soul, through her mind, through her very will…..

''Dear Xena…You never learn, do you ? ''

The last thing the Warrior Princess heard before she was brutally dragged underwater by what she felt to be a number of greasy, disgusting tentacles, was a contemptuous laughter that she knew far too well…

''Aresssssssssssssss! Aresssssssssssssss!'' she screamed inside her mind, as loud as she could, finally aware of the danger she was in….

The moment she opened her glassy blue eyes, the only detail that appeared to register into her awfully confused brain, was the image of the War God's boots- filled with vomit- and the agonizing need to breathe. The fact that she was almost spilling her lungs at about the same time, coughing both blood and a disgusting dark muddy liquid didn't help much …..What she did realize was that she was freezing- an unusual coldness that she could sense creeping deeper and deeper inside her bones…Every single organ, she could feel it like an unbreakable block of ice…It was torture.