A thick fog obscured her sight and made her leather coat and recently cut hair damp. All around her the world seemed more silent than ever. Only once in a while did she hear the slight song of a lone bird greeting the early morning sun completely hidden from her sight by the thick layer of white, which pervaded the wide clearing in the forest. Gabrielle stayed completely still and let her ability to listen for what lay behind the sounds guide her through the thick fog as she made a careful and almost soundless step forward.
Far away she heard Ghost chewing on some grass, while the remaining embers of her fire sizzled from the fog. No wind rustled the leaves of the trees and grasses around. Gabrielle focused on hearing what lay beyond her. She heard another animal walking carefully through the knee height grass. From the sound of it she knew it was her prey. Carefully keeping her senses focused on finding her target she lifted her bow and slowly drew the blue fletched arrow that had rested there back towards her chin, while closing her useless eyes. The bowstring creaked slightly as it was pulled back to its full extent by her strength. Her target stopped, probably sniffing the still air for any foreign scents. Trusting her aim Gabrielle released the arrow, which soared forward into the obscuring fog. She heard it sink into flesh and something tumbled to the ground. Slowly the warrior bard advanced, while slipping her bow over the shoulder to hang opposite her quiver.
The small roe deer lay twisting in the grass mortally wounded by her arrow. Gabrielle felt a twinge of compassion. Quickly she drew her hunting knife, a recent addition to her arsenal, and slit its throat in a quick move. She set about draining the blood, cutting out the innards and getting her fill of flesh from the dead beast. She was happy that she had only caught a small one or she'd be forced to leave much more of the good flesh here to rot. That would have felt like a waste of the gift by nature to her this deer was.
Gabrielle walked back towards her camp. She regretted slightly that she didn't have time to dry or smoke the flesh of the roe deer properly. She was heading towards the mountains near the Roman borders. There were reports of some kind of highway robbers making life miserable for all travelers without an armed guard. She was on the way to Rome to look for more amazon slaves anyway so she figured that she might just spent a little time breaking up some marauding bastards little empire of crime before it became a real problem. She rebuilt her fire and set about grilling the flesh thoroughly adding a lot of seasoning for flavor when it was cold.
Ahh you've grown more skilled at hunting than I ever was, my sad friend, a disembodied voice whispered through the fog. Gabrielle felt no danger and instead only turned her head in the direction of the voice. She had gotten used to people appearing and disappearing all the time these last few years. Still it chilled her a little, when the voice became the strangely transparent image of the curly haired amazon Ephiny. A woman dead many years ago, who she could see courtesy of whatever queenly gift it was that allowed her to see the spirits of dead amazons.
"Ephiny… Is Xenan in danger?" Gabrielle clearly remembered their last horrible outing, where Borias' oldest son had slaughtered most of the remaining Centaurs and only a last minute change of heart had saved them from a terrible battle. She still felt a little shame at the thought that she had advocating putting Borias' son into the ground like he had done to the Centaurs. She remembered the stare she had gotten from Xena and it had hurt. She had learned a valuable lesson from that adventure as she had analyzed it in her mind on their way to her birthday party. She had learned to think more carefully before speaking her mind and let her emotions guide her opinions less. Of course she still failed ever so often, but it was important to try.
"No Xenan and his family are fine. It is not why I am here now. Gabrielle the amazons need your help now. Their existence is hanging in a thin thread and only their wisest leader can save them", Ephiny's face smiled reassuringly at her friend.
"Yeah, well you and Xena are dead, so I think they'll have to make do with me", Gabrielle jibed and looked down at the grilling meat. Her stomach growled. She looked hopefully up at Ephiny.
Ephiny laughed and nodded. "Some things never change. Yeah you can eat breakfast first. But hurry to the Amazon Nation. If you don't make there in time, there will be no amazons alive". Ephiny's image slowly began to fade.
"And I am sorry for your loss, Gabrielle, but remember what I told you years ago. You need to let her go or it will continue to haunt you", her disembodied voice added before she disappeared from view leaving Gabrielle alone with her horse and the roasting meat.
Gabrielle fell silent for a few moments then walked over to her saddle and grabbed her latest scroll. She was out of new scrolls and had planned to get some new ones for her continued attempts at poetry as well as her journal in the next town she found. Now she would have to wait until she reached the amazon lands. She quickly scribbled an addition to her travel journal that now carried her thoughts about her life. She no longer wrote stories about her and Xena's adventures and she had even stopped making new ones for her performances. Still out of habit she recorded her life in a way writing it like she would have liked to tell it to Xena, writing it like she was speaking to her.
Remembering that the dead heard the thoughts of the living she sent her love to Xena and all the others that had meant something in her life as she once again stowed away her crackling scroll in her scroll bag. Sometimes she felt like she was the only thing left of her life with Xena. She was one of the last remnants of the old order of heroes in some way. Only Hercules would last longer and even he now spent his time quietly at a farm. She would have to go see him and Iolaus soon. It had been at least 27 years since she had seen them if you looked at it from their point of view. Joxer was dead and she had no idea what had become of Autolycus, Iolaus, Salmoneus or even good old Meleager. They had been rather a lot older than Joxer and he had been so very old, when they had met again. In a way she was very much alone and unique in this evolving world.
Soon her breakfast was finished and Gabrielle greedily ate a large slab of meat together with a few boiled roots downing it with a portion of the wine she had bought in the last village. Then she took down her professionally set up camp and saddled Ghost. Soon she set off into the slowly disappearing fog her leather coat whirling around her as she rode off.
Gabrielle kept Ghost at a steady pace, which would allow her to get to the amazon nations without having to get a new horse. On the way she only stopped to rest and to eat when she had too or Ghost needed it. Still it took her several days to get near the amazon lands.
A few days later…
The amazon forest rustled with the sound of leaves being moved by the wind. A pair of eyes stared out from a hideout amongst the branches of a large tree.
Their enemy was moving troops through the woods where Ares' army had once burnt a large scar in their homelands. Slowly she lowered the branch obscuring her view of the road they had made up to the camp of their forward position, while absently flicking a black strand of hair out of her eyes. She looked at her warriors hidden amongst the trees. The enemy hadn't dared come into their dominion yet. They still feared the strength of the amazons in the forests, the strength of the amazons in their home. Suddenly there was a slight movement along the branches of her tree and Cyane the blond amazon queen from the north appeared on the branch next to her.
"Varia, you have no right to attack them. The queen's council hasn't decided, what our answer to the Romans ultimatum will be", she said with authority.
Varia regarded the younger woman for a moment then snorted and looked back at her intended enemy. "I have decided that those pretentious bastards should be cast out from our ancestral lands", she said with finality and once again began contemplating her attack on her enemy.
"Have you forgotten that you are no longer queen of the amazons or even a member of the queen's council? You don't have the right to command a squadron of warriors, yet you decide to take those few who still trust you on a suicide mission. Varia! If you attack them their massive armies would surely come marching from Rome and subjugate us like they did Gaul. We are fiercer than them yes, but they already outnumber us at least 5 to 1 and they have an entire empire to back them up. We only have our forests", Cyane pleaded.
Varia turned towards the blonde woman with anger flashing in her eyes. "Exactly, we only have these forests left. Ever since the great council of queens were slaughtered in the ancient past our numbers, our strengths and our lands have dwindled. Now we stand alone in the world without Artemis to guide us. I will not stand by and let the amazons disappear like ghosts into history. I won't let the weaklings who rule get us all killed if I can do anything…", however the blonde woman interrupted her.
"You're confusing anger and will with strength and wisdom again. Haven't Xena and Queen Gabrielle taught you anything? Didn't you do enough wrong when you nearly lead us to serve Ares or when you tried to kill one of our own sisters? Another queen no less" Cyane's blue eyes flashed with anger, when suddenly a yell rang across the valley.
"It seems the decision had been made for us", Varia turned and commented as the forward scouts of the Roman legion marched towards them and the heartlands of the amazon nations.
"I have only brought a few of my sisters, but we will have to stop them here, if the rest of our army is to stand a chance against the legion that is coming to our lands after these dogs, we mustn't allow them to wander our forest indiscriminately", Cyane said, knowing that the decisions and wisdom of the council would no longer be able to stop this war. The Romans had decided not to await their answer to their ultimatum. Now they would have to be the first to defeat the Romans in a prolonged war or end up enslaved like the Egyptians and the Israelites.
Unseen by Cyane Varia smiled a feral smile. Maybe now she would be able to find redemption amongst her sisters. If she was able to lead them to victory, if she excelled in this battle then maybe they would forgive her mistake at Helicon. With quickly whistled bird calls and hand signals she readied the few warriors, who still looked to her as a leader, for the coming battle. None of them had much real combat experience but she hoped their training would suffice to keep them alive. She had been left with only these loyal few, who had come to know her as their teacher in the art of war. Everyone who had been at Helicon or believed the stories about what had happened there despised her for threatening the life of the heroic leader of the otherwise disastrous battle at Helicon. An action which in hindsight could have cost them the war as Bellopheron had surely known. The army would have disintegrated at the loss of its leader. Varia pushed conflicting emotions of friendship as well as bitterness and jealousy associated with the images of Gabrielle and Xena to the back of her mind and readied herself for the coming battle.
At the same time…
Gabrielle slowed her pace as she approached the Amazon lands, where she had originally met the black haired Varia and reconnected with the Amazon Nation after her 25 year sleepover in the ice. Funnily enough compared with much of the rest of the world the amazons had seemed to the same as when she had left them. They had even been able to remember her and Xena, they had welcomed them immediately even if there had been problems with Eve's past. It had been like coming home to her. At least until all the trouble with Ares had erupted, but then she hadn't really had any prolonged happy times with the amazons. There had been moments of happiness with Ephiny and later when she had gone to Cyane's tribe to give Eve her right of caste. But if she really thought about it most of her times visiting with the amazons had sooner or later gotten down to gritty battles and warfare. She had gotten her first weapon and formal training as a warrior from them. It was slightly astounding even to her that she only five years later with a slight 25 year snooze in between had been able to lead an amazon army in a successful war against the fortress at Helicon. But then she had been blessed with a great and very patient teacher.
As she came closer she saw the large encampment of at least a full legion with artillery sitting just outside the reach of the amazon lands in what looked like a hastily erected town of tents surrounded by the beginnings of a wooden palisade. Supply wagons were rolling towards the large army in droves, while Gabrielle sighed.
Again and again in her life she had been forced to deal with the Romans. They had been the reason for her crucifixion and many of her martial skills had been learned while disrupting another cruel Roman plot or power grab. Like Xena had her archenemies in Alti and Ares, Gabrielle felt like the Romans were hers in a way especially considering her more recent history with them. Gabrielle saw that the hills were crawling with scouts and spies, but she knew that none would penetrate the amazon lands without putting themselves in peril. The Amazons greatest strength lay in their complete and absolute control of their forest. It was said that an amazon army could appear out of the forest like ghosts and she knew it was true.
She also knew that she would have to cross into the forest and make her way towards the amazon main village before any major battle broke out. She needed to know what was up, if she was to stand any chance of keeping her sisters safe and alive. So she lingered for a few minutes taking account of the troops and noting the standard of the army commander. It was not someone she knew or had heard of before. She decided to do something about that and decided to await the coming of nightfall. Overhead clouds began to collect.
A couple of hours later…
A half finished wooden palisade surrounded the roman encampment. The side facing towards the amazon forests was fully finished and guard towers were manned by vigilant legionnaires. However the rest of the battlements of the camp were mostly made up of ditches filled with sharpened wooden stakes and a low earth wall were the rest of the palisade would be built on top of in just a few days. Patrols of four legionnaires apiece walked along the top of the wall carefully watching for enemies in the pitch black night.
Gabrielle sniffed the air and looked up at the overcast sky. It would pour on the camp within minutes the dampening of the sounds of nature that rode in front of the bad weather already apparent. A cold wind had been blowing against her leather coat for most of the evening now. She lay hidden in the high grass slightly less than twenty paces from the ditch surrounding the roman camp. Ghost remained tied to a tree back at the outcropping of trees that had served as her hideout most of the day. Suddenly the rain began to pour down from the pitch black night sky. Now only the lights of the fires in the roman camp provided any illumination in the overcast night.
Gabrielle smiled as her eyes and ears caught the passing of the torch carrying patrol. Quickly she got out and dashed through the tall grass towards the wide and dangerous ditch. Just as the ground dropped into the ditch filled with glistening wooden spikes she launched herself into the air, flipped several times in the air and landed on top of the already muddy earth wall with only the slight squishy sound of her boots impacting on mud revealing her actions. The sound easily was drowned out by the wind and rain. She sent a proud thought to Xena feeling boastful at her increasing mobility.
A peal of thunder rolled through the small valley, as she jumped down between the many tents set up in nearly exact rows with military precision. Gabrielle took no chances and moved as stealthily as she could towards the section where the officers' tents were. Somewhere around there she would be able to find the commander of the legion and maybe the reason for this act of war on the Amazons.
Slowly she edged towards the most lavishly embroidered and massive tent in the middle of the officer's camp. Outside a legionnaire stood guard getting drenched to the skin just like Gabrielle by the rain that seemed to have slowed to a more or less constant pelting that her experienced weather sense told her would probably last most of the night. A cold wind reminded her that she also was wet all the way through. But she knew that there would be no comfort or warmth for her until she reached her amazon sisters.
Slowly she made her way around the tent and hid besides a series of empty wooden box propped up against the large tent. She quickly drew out her knife and cut a tiny hole in the canvas, where the boxes covered for the worst of the rain. Gabrielle peered inside. The tent was separated in two areas it seemed. One area was set aside for day to day matters of leading an army and another looked like it was a kind of private bedchamber complete with a large stack of comfortable looking pillows. A roman commander was seated at a wooden table looking over a map, while a very familiar man was standing in front of him explaining a plan of attack on the Amazon nation like it was a command instead of a suggestion. Gabrielle couldn't help smiling in a wry and knowing way. This was exactly what she had come to expect of the God of War. It didn't even help getting angry at him. It was just who he was and at least he was honest about that.
Ares was getting impatient with his latest warlord. Not only had he chosen to remain in the relative safety afforded to him by his main army, but he had left the work of attacking the Amazon Nation into the hands of this man sitting in front of him. An uncreative, stubborn and arrogant Roman noble called Gaius, who seemed to persist in thinking that he actually had any choice in the way he had to attack the Amazons. They had to burn the woods, remove the forest from the Amazons or any kind of battle was lost before hand. Artillery would never suffice; the warrior women would just melt into their forest like ghosts and slaughter the Romans by the patrol.
He was about to explain this to Gaius once again, when he by chance dedicated a little of his awareness to his surroundings and felt a presence almost as familiar and loved as the presence of his dead beloved. Gabrielle was spying on them. Last he had looked in on his current favorite warrior woman; she had just fooled a bunch of Roman nobles into turning their intrigue and interest against each other instead of pressing the money out the Athenian citizens. She had even managed to con a full pardon for all her previous acts against Rome out of the governor even if he had actually later ended up as the patsy for her manipulations and had lost both his position and his fortune just after she had skipped town. Suddenly he felt like loosing interest in making the Romans grab the land of the Amazon Nation, while they worked their way towards the riches of India. Smiling in anticipation he looked at the military midget sitting in front of him and thought of the prowess of the woman sitting outside the tent in the pouring rain.
"I think you're right Gaius. Your legions are more than enough to destroy the fragile remainders of the once great Amazon nation. Back in the glory days of Caesar no single legion could have taken them, but today your legion alone can do it. The Amazons are much weaker now. I am sure your master will be very pleased, when you defeat them. In fact you could do it even without the artillery should you lose it", he said in his most convincing tone, while he in his immense mind saw all the opportunities for creative warfare that this battle could come to offer.
The arrogant man sneered and looked at the god standing in front of him. "There is no chance of me losing my artillery... Of course I can defeat them. I could do it with half my men. I heard that those weak women's military strength has been steadily dropping over the years and let's not forget the most important thing here. They are only women. After their near defeat at Helicon last year I am sure to crush the few remaining weaklings into dust. If it wasn't for my emperor's command I wouldn't even have bothered. However I have been ordered to sell all captives like the ones we got from that skirmish this morning as slaves. They should bring a great price down in the warm countries. Somehow the independence of these women provokes most of the men down there deeply. Now do you think I can follow the plan I have laid out for the attack", he asked and looked over the jumble of papers on his desk.
"Sure. If you wait for the last of your supplies you should be ready the day after tomorrow. Then you can wander straight from here up that valley my army made a year ago go through the cliff passes and fall upon their village before they can even come close to stopping you", Ares assured him knowing well that every word he spoke was being noted and remembered by a well trained military mind.
Deciding that he had evened the odds enough for a fair battle his eyes drilled into the eyes of the Roman. "However this is no game Gaius. I want this victory! You don't dare fail in this! I have the word of your master that my name will be glorified by your victory both here and in Persia", with those words he disappeared in a blue flash as the man gulped under his baleful glare.
She knew that he had known she was there. He would only have revealed so much of the Romans' plans if he had wanted her to know about them. That meant that he either had a reserve plan up his sleeve or that he had wanted to give her a slight chance of defeating the Romans. Probably the latter as he had always seen the most glory in great open battles where anything could happen and only the warriors' fighting prowess decided the outcome. At least that was what she thought he liked. She decided to trust her instincts.
However the words of that pompous bastard leading this army had told her that some of her precious sisters were in this camp held captive and were already sentenced to be the slaves in some place far from their home. That gave her a more pressing mission. Seething with anger she did however refrain from following its suggestions, it told her to go into the tent of the commander and slit his throat from ear to ear. As it was now the chaos this would generate was nowhere near enough to stop the planned assault on her sisters and would probably only lead to more trouble. She stalked into the rain looking for the amazon captives instead.
"I seem to be rescuing people from camps a lot these days. I wonder if Xena ever found her life a bit trivial", Gabrielle mused as she cast an eye on the amazons, who were being kept in a cage near the edge of the camp. Three guards were guarding the cage full of angry women, who as far as Gabrielle could make out included a few wounded warriors amongst their number. After considering her options Gabrielle grimly drew one of her Sais in her left hand and put the Chakram into the other and stalked over to stand behind one of the guards.
She carefully aimed the Chakram and tossed it hard past the guard. The sound of its passing made him turn towards her. Gabrielle hammered the butt end of her Sai into his throat and kneed him in his groin. The man fell to his knees in pain and bent his head forward. She quickly brought down the Sai and he fell unconscious into the mud. Almost without thinking she caught the blood red glistening Chakram and returned her Sai to her boot. Two men fell into the deepening mud thick streams of blood coming from their cut throats. Gabrielle walked towards the cage signing for the suddenly stirred amazons to remain silent.
Quickly she hacked the Chakram down onto the lock. As always the incredible weapon destroyed the weaker metal and the lock fell into her waiting hand. Gabrielle swung the cage open. "Two or more people help carry the wounded. We are getting out of here. Arm yourselves if you can, but make no noise. You're all needed to defend your homeland", she explained and stepped away to look out for any approaching guards as her sisters made their way over the wall and slowly navigated the dangerous ditch in groups between the oblivious patrols. Finally only Gabrielle and a black haired amazon remained.
"Run to the forest! I have something else I must do before I join you out in the forest await me there", Gabrielle commanded without hesitation.
"Yes", the astounded amazon girl said and disappeared into the raining night.
Later the amazons were huddled in a group near a large tree. Thick droplets of rain collected by the tree fell upon them regularly. "Why are we waiting here? We should return to the village and report", one of the girl asked.
"Because that woman who saved us asked us to wait for her", the black haired amazon warrior, who had guarded their retreat with Gabrielle, explained. She was the most veteran warrior amongst the survivors of Varia's ill-fated followers and stemmed from the warriors brought to the village by the now deceased Queen Gwyn-Teir.
"We need to report everything we saw to the Queens. They need the information", the first girl, who had spoken, explained, while her teeth chattered from the cold.
"No! That woman saved our lives. The least we can do is to wait for her here", the black haired girl demanded.
"Why? She could be a spy trying to gain our trust or…" Another girl joined the discussion.
"Are you blind? Didn't you see her weapon? It had to be the legendary Chakram", another angry amazon had found her voice.
"Now you're stupid. Everyone knows from the scrolls of the wandering queen that Xena is tall and black haired dressed in leather and armor. That woman was neither armored, tall or black haired", the black haired girl added. Suddenly she paused in realization and looked over her shoulder towards the camp in thought. "I'll stay here. The rest of you go home and report. I'll meet with our rescuer", she whispered a tone of respect and disbelief in her voice. Soon she was standing below the huge tree in silence.
It was nearly morning and the rain was letting up as she heard a horse approaching. Suddenly a white shape appeared before her and the voice of their rescuer greeted her: "Hi. So where are the rest of you?" The very tired sounding voice asked.
"I sent them home, when you didn't show up. I was about to go see if you had been captured", the black haired amazon admitted.
"That won't be necessary I can take care of myself. But I am glad you cared", the blond woman said with a smile and slid down of her horse. "Gabrielle", she said and held out her hand after making the traditional amazon greeting by touching her fist to her heart.
"Deirdre", the girl whispered in surprise as she returned the salute. She paused as if she wanted to look the woman that had rescued her over in the weak light of the dawn. She had a compact and muscled form yet had a kind of inner shine of health apparent in every aspect of her body and presence. The woman felt so alive to her even if her eyes had a very sad cast. "You're Queen Gabrielle right?" Deirdre couldn't help asking.
"Yes, I am. Deirdre we can't stand around here anymore. It won't be to long before the false trail I laid for all those angry legionnaires, who are looking for me, runs out and they go looking for me around here. I need to see the Queen's council and you look like you need a rest", Gabrielle explained and took the reins of her horse. They set out towards the central village.
"Why are the legionnaires angry?" Deirdre couldn't help asking. "My Queen", she quickly added.
"I kind of set fire to their artillery and a few tents, when I was leaving. I really should cut back on the fire setting. It is a bad habit I've been developing over the last few months, but I swear I won't do it to those catapults ever again", Gabrielle explained with a smile.
"Now Deirdre could you tell me what this war is about? I haven't really had the time to get the full story?" Gabrielle asked as they disappeared into the deep green of the forest carefully concealing their route as they went.