Chapter 3:

            Her white horse felt warm under her. She was riding her hard, even if she knew that one more moment, one more minute wouldn't make a difference, if another tragedy had wiped even more of her remaining family from the world. She thundered past the buildings huddled around the town wall and passed through the very busy gate. Suddenly she was forced to slow down as the mass of people milling around on the market square would barely even allow for one person pulling her horse. Frustrated she jumped of the horse and petted it thankfully as she looked around.

The last time she had been in Poteidaia, they had never made it past the outskirts and had instead gone directly to the farm. The square had been widened slightly by the removal some of stables and now many stalls lined the outside of the entire square, while the centre of the square was taken up by a large market of vegetables, grain and the like. It looked like she had caught Poteidaia only a short time before the beginning of the main harvest. Soon there would be a large festival and many families would use the happy times to hold festivities like marriages and the like. Here the dress style was also a little less drab and much of the colorful nature of the Poteidaia she remembered lay before her. In one corner a group of musicians were busying themselves by playing a jaunty tune. Unwillingly she allowed herself a nostalgic smile even if she had more urgent business than her personal enjoyment. She looked at her horse; she would need to get it stabled, while she began looking for someone, who knew about Lila or Sarah. She looked around again, this time looking for the sign of an inn as the building that had held the old one now looked like it served as a stall for a merchant selling many different wares. There just at the beginning of an alley she saw the clear sign of a proper inn. It didn't look big, but the stables were readily apparent and that was hopefully all she needed for now. She navigated the crowds with her horse.

Gabrielle walked into the taproom and was pleasantly surprised by the quiet atmosphere in the place. The tables looked clean and the smells coming from the kitchen was pleasant enough. She lifted her saddle and many bags easily and walked over to the innkeeper, who seemed to be busying himself with cleaning off some mugs. "Excuse me. I need a room and a stable for my horse", she asked.

The man lifted his eyes from his work and smiled with a mouth full of broken teeth. "Of course… For how long", he asked eyeing her greedily.

"We'll take it one day at a time for now. How much for that, feed for my mare and some mead", Gabrielle asked again.

"4 dinar", he demanded.

Gabrielle stared at him with sullen eyes, and then said: "3 dinar! I don't feel like paying extra dinar because I am a woman". She slapped the 3 coins on the counter and gave him the brilliant and winsome smile she knew would help the man to come to the right decision.

The man seemed to consider it for a moment and then took the money. He handed her a key and said: "It's up those stairs and the third room on the right. I'll get one of my stable hands to take care of your horse. Your mead will be ready, when you return".

Gabrielle headed to her room and put all the least important stuff on the floor by the small bed, and then packed all her important possessions into the smallest saddle bag, which she carried as a satchel as she went back down stairs. Years of habit with taprooms and bar fights made her not even think about leaving any of her weapons. She walked into the room and strode to a table, while catching the eye of the innkeeper. He nodded; her mead would soon be on its way. Her stomach suddenly growled informing her that she should eat rather soon. Sniffing the air again, she decided on eating here, before she headed out into the town looking for Lila.

Gabrielle hoped her body felt content for a while, she had scarfed down a large portion of some mutton stew and some great fresh bread along with her mead and now she could search through the town, looking for people she could recognize or at least ask around for Lila and Sarah.

Hours later as the chariot of Apollo was glowing redder by the minute she stood back at the very same spot outside the Inn and she was none the wiser. She looked around the rapidly emptying square. She nearly growled with frustration. She had spent the entire afternoon running around in Poteidaia and everywhere she had gone, she had been treated like either a complete stranger or a potential customer and all the time she had been seen as a complete outsider. None had been willing to give her an answer and she knew it. Their feigned ignorance was just typical of villagers such as all the others she and Xena had encountered over the long years. She was not one of them anymore. For a few seconds she stopped and found herself contemplating, who she was then and where she really belonged. She decided on heading back to the inn, while she contemplated her next move instead of the weightier examination of her life that she would have to postpone until she had found her family.

Gabrielle sat down at an empty table after ordering ale for herself. Years of life with Xena and coming into places many times rowdier than the village inn of a backwater like Poteidaia made her careful. She carefully watched the crowd sitting in the taproom. There were a few locals, probably farmhands and farmers enjoying a drink before turning in. There were groups of travelers, which she judged to be traders from Athens; they were probably headed towards Thrace. To her surprise the strangers in the room also included two roman nobles and a few of slaves as well as a group of what looked like a few traveling mercenaries from somewhere close to Macedonia judging from their armor and weapons. No one seemed drunk enough to start a fight or looked to be spoiling for one, so she focused on drinking her ale. Soon after she ordered a chicken for dinner and sat down again to enjoy her meal, which reminded her of her ancestral home with its taste and texture. It was probably just her nostalgia over being home for once. She was learning why Xena had been heading for Amphipolis after passing through the gauntlet. Whatever you did in life, there were certain people or places that could never be abandoned or left behind forever.

Suddenly one of the farmers and the leader of the mercenaries began discussing over who had bumped the other while leaning back to drink. She followed it out of the corner of her eyes, but again her experience told her that she didn't need to involve herself into every fight that broke out around her. Sometimes these things had to happen and as long as it didn't escalate and weapons were drawn, she wouldn't get involved. She bent over her chicken and tore of a large portion of the chest just as the first punch was thrown.

However destiny had other things in mind. The friends of the dazed farmer rose and attacked the mercenary. That provoked his friends and the innkeeper also stepped forward, yelling for them all to take it outside or suffer the consequences. However all hell broke loose, when one of the mercenaries punched one of the romans in the mouth, because of a snide comment on the smell of the mercenary as he passed the noble to join the fight evolving with the farmers. Gabrielle looked up; when she heard the distinct sound of roman short swords being drawn from leather scabbards. She turned her head to see that the two slaves, who she had carelessly ignored before, were attacking the mercenary with their weapons. It was quite obvious that they were gladiators or former ones at least. She cursed and rose from her seat, just as one of the milling crowd of farmers and mercenaries managed to put the bartender to sleep with a thrown clay jug full of ale. Gabrielle shook her head and quickly walked towards the advancing slaves, while drawing up her Sais. The mercenary also drew his wide bladed sword.

"Stop fighting! Please there is no reason for anyone to get hurt", she yelled out over noise of the room. But that only earned her a scornful look from a few of the farmers and mercenaries involved in the fist fight, which continued on unabated. The mercenary threatened by the two slaves carefully backed away from the advancing slaves. Gabrielle could see the ease and familiarity of the slaves with their weapons, and the relatively nervous and unschooled way the mercenary held his sword. He was outclassed and knew it. He was probably some man out for adventure with very little real battle experience and a big mouth, she judged, but kept that opinion from showing in her expression. She walked quickly up to the impending battle, drawing breath to speak, when suddenly the voice of the roman noble, who had been hit, rang out in the mass of growls, pained yells and cracking of wood: "Kill him". Gabrielle winced as she saw the faces of the slaves showing their intent to carry out the order. There was even a certain amount of glee in their eyes, like they were happy about their chance to finally slaughter someone.

Suddenly the slaves lunged forward, attacking the mercenary from both sides. The mercenary desperately swung his sword to the right, while scrambling backwards. The other sword dove for his leather armored back.

A sai intercepted the other sword and Gabrielle stepped forward to stand at the left side of the beleaguered mercenary. The two slaves slowed their attack and carefully studied her. Suddenly the slave opposite Gabrielle struck out with his short sword. She quickly parried the skilled and hard blow with her left sai, turning with the move of her arm and kicked the man in the chest with her heavy boot. He flew backwards onto the table, but immediately jumped back onto his feet.

Gabrielle forced her senses out to make her aware of the movements of not only her enemy, but also of the mercenary, his enemy and all the other things that could be a danger to her. The slave charged her, lunging forward with a move that she had seen made by hundreds of legionnaires before. Quickly she jumped back and to the left. She hit some chairs and the back of a table and immediately rolled onto it to stand over her opponent. He walked forward slashing at her feet. She simply jumped over the oncoming sword. Then as he returned for another slash in a slightly higher curve, she vaulted forward, hitting the man hard in the chest with both her feet and knocking him to the ground. She finished him with a quick one-two punch to his forehead with her Sais' pummels.

Meanwhile the mercenary and the other slave had fought each other to a wary standstill of thrust and parry. Gabrielle walked towards them and did something she had seen Xena do many times before. She hit the two men on their arms with her Sais, numbing their arms and making them both drop their swords.

Suddenly her senses screamed a warning and reflexes painstakingly trained over the years made her hand move up and around catching the throwing knife before it hit her heart. Her sai swan dived to the floor. She felt the sharp edge of the blade cut slightly across the surface of her hand, but she ignored the pain easily. Instead she looked icily at her attacker. The roman noble, who had been hit, was standing with a big red bruise on his eyebrow and his mouth open with absolute astonishment. Gabrielle didn't even contemplate throwing it back at him, but she made a grand show of throwing the knife back at his head, planting it inches from his right ear in a wooden support, while commenting: "I think you lost something".

The still standing slave had used the opportunity to get his sword and attacked her, just as Gabrielle managed to the same with her sai.

Gabrielle was ready, however and parried the thrust towards her stomach. She pressed to sword out to her right and stepped forward to deliver a hard blow with her other sai. The slave staggered a step back and swirled his sword out and down, trying to slash her on her blind side.

Gabrielle quickly parried the thrust and tried to follow up, when her opponent used her momentary distraction to punch her hard in the chest, seeking to punch the wind out of her. Gabrielle staggered back and to the right. He followed up with another hard thrust, seeking to impale her on his sword. His face seemed set in anger.

This time however Gabrielle had the footing to make another of the combat moves she had learned in her time as a warrior. She caught his short sword with one of her sai, moved it so that it was no longer aimed at her belly, while ramming her other sai into the now exposed arm. The slave immediately dropped his weapon and screamed in pain as the sai left a large round and profoundly bleeding wound in his arm. Gabrielle finished up charging an elbow into his now exposed chin, dropping him like a stone thrown into a river.

The fight was ebbing out, when suddenly a thunderous voice yelled: "Everybody stop! Or we will kill you where you stand and let your gods sort you out". Gabrielle turned with a smile to see a huge bearded man with beautiful and well kept brass armor and axes clearly of Spartan make as well as the young man who had welcomed her this afternoon standing with several other guards in the door to the street. The fighting stopped instantly. Gabrielle carefully backed away from the still angry roman nobles, while looking around for any other dangers. She stopped at her table and remained standing as the militia took a tour of the room and began questioning people with the big man clearly in charge, while one of the men tried to bandage the wound she had caused.

Suddenly person with curly blond hair came dashing out of the door to the kitchen and ran to the young subcommander of the militia. "Pavlos I am so glad you came", the woman said part with fear, part with love tingeing her voice. Gabrielle gasped as she recognized the face of her niece as the woman ran to embrace the man.

"So what happened here?" The huge militia leader asked and eyed the disheveled looking farmers and mercenaries.

"A bar fight happened", one of the farmers supplied in a meek voice.

"Right and why was there a bar fight?" The man was quickly dispensing justice, so she focused instead on Sarah. She casually walked over to greet her.

"Hello my dear niece", she teased as she came to a stop behind her.

"What", the girl squealed and turned around. Surprise and happiness was written across the beautiful face, which seemed made for such haughty expressions and which had born an arrogant scowl for many years in the harem of Gurkhan. "Gabrielle", she breathed and gave her a warm embrace.

At least her time in Poteidaia seemed to have returned some measure of human warmth to her niece, Gabrielle mused as she felt the welcome warmth of a part of her remaining family pressed against her.

"When did you come? Have you seen mother?" The young woman asked breathlessly.

Gabrielle fell silent for a moment then said: "How could I? I have no idea, where your mother is. I went to the farm, but another man claims to live there now".

Sarah looked confused for a few moments then seemingly realized something. "Oh, I forgot. You haven't heard about what happened. Of course not, you were off to travel the world as soon as I, Virgil and Eve left the ship and we haven't heard anything from you since", she paused as if to emphasize that point. Gabrielle winced at what Lila would say if this was how angry her niece felt. "Mother and I couldn't manage the farm, so we sold it and all the jewelry and stuff I brought home from Gurkhan to buy this place. We own this inn now", she explained, while it dawned on Gabrielle why the food had been so good and familiar. Lila was probably responsible for the kitchen.

"It is so good to see you Sarah, but you'll have to let go of me, before the Romans tell too many lies about how I got involved this little brawl", Gabrielle explained and freed herself from the grasp of her niece, who again held her in an iron embrace.

"I'll go get mother. Pavlos, couldn't you help my aunt explain herself?" She added and dashed off in the direction of the kitchen, while Gabrielle explained to the man, what had happened, what she had done and why.

"Gabrielle!" Her sister's voice pierced the veil of noise in the room just as Pavlos and the militia commander Dareios were herding the assorted mercenaries, farmers and roman arrested towards the prison.

She whirled about and once again looked upon the aged visage of her sister. She was always shaken by the fact that her formerly younger sister, who had inherited so much of her father's dark looks, had become her senior in age, had been married to a man she had never met and that she had missed all that. She hadn't been there to save her sister's child and that had cost her family so much. "Don't go there Gabrielle. You can't blame yourself for something you neither knew about. Nor should you punish yourself for a nonexistent crime, created from the good intentions of Ares after he thought you had died a pointless death in battle", she berated herself, while she ran smiling to her sister and embraced her now unfamiliar form.