Gabrielle stood looking out over the beautiful valley covered in a forest of bamboo trees rustling in the gentle but moist mountain wind. Her eyes slowly glided upwards to fall upon the stone structure, which nestled against the top of the next mountain. The temple was ancient and obviously built in several stages and at different times judging from the various architectures apparent in the buildings. She almost sighed at the thought of having to travel through at least one valley and a village before getting to it. It looked like a grand place and if the stories of this place were true, it could hold the answers to the questions still plaguing her after nearly half a year of traveling the Far East.
She had over the time after her breakdown in the woods of the new amazon lands come to terms with her horrible act of violence that day, what worried her was her potential to repeat such an act. Would she one day do the bidding of evil forces instead of good? Even more important what was her purpose, her path in life? She had always thought that her path lay with Xena in their friendship, but she was not so sure anymore. Xena had died and life had gone on. She had found no one in any of the places she had visited, who been able to help her find the answers to her questions. Some had tried but most had just preached their religion to her.
This place that she was approaching would be her last attempt. Maybe they could help her find answers to the darkness plaguing her dreams, tell her why a person, who had always wanted to heal and help the poor and the innocent around her, was even capable of the acts of violence she had committed. Maybe even tell her why her heart and mind seemed to be drawn towards being a warrior and fighting the forces of evil rather than the blissful calm of just settling down in Poteidaia or Amphipolis as a healer. She should have outgrown her wanderlust and the dreams of adventure of her youth, she should have moved beyond any guilt driven continuation of Xena's mission in life. But somehow she felt she couldn't, it was like she needed to be out here helping people even now in her time of doubt. She had little guilt to redeem and none of it was of the same magnitude as Xena's.
The temple was told to be the home of an order of wise and peaceful monks, but they were also said to be amongst the greatest and wisest martial artists in all of Chin. Their wisdom and enlightenment supposedly enabling them to perform feat such as those she had seen Xena do many times, while being renowned as wise and good. They could be the ones to help her. Gabrielle walked back from the edge of the road towards Ghost awaiting her patiently like always.
Gabrielle smiled and nuzzled her white horse's mane. "Be patient my friend I am sure, I'll be able to find us a warm place to stay for the night," she said knowing very well that she was mirroring how Xena had been around Argo, but these days she finally understood. You could bond with an animal on such a level that you understood each other. At first Ghost had just been another horse to her, but over time they had bonded and now they could work together like a team.
Ghost whinnied and snorted. "Yeah and I will see about a couple of apples as well," Gabrielle answered with a smile and gently tapped her feet against Ghost's flanks her sais rattling slightly as they set out towards the village set at the bottom of the mountain on top of which the legendary temple awaited her.
Gabrielle rode calmly into the small farming village. She was dressed in one of the many royal-blue samurai kimono and hakama sets that the grateful people of Higuchi had given her as a replacement for some of her amazon clothing and other possessions that she had lost in her battle against the leftovers of Yodoshi's army and its dishonorable leader. She knew very well that it made her look exotic, but Gabrielle was well aware that her mere looks were enough to do that in Chin and so she kept wearing the comfortable and warmer clothing that she had gotten so used to wearing during her busy times on the eastern islands.
She noticed how the people in the village looked upon her with surprise, doubt and maybe a little fear. Gabrielle knew from her own life experience both as a peasant and as a traveler why. She was a foreigner and even worse she was an armed foreigner. She rode into town on a warhorse, wearing foreign clothes, carrying sai in her boots as well as a large amazon bow with a full quiver of arrows and a katana on her horse. The katana was been another gift from Japan forged for her to use in the final duel against the treacherous warlord that had been ravaging the lands after Yodoshi's destruction. The samurai made a great deal out of their most prized weapon type and she had been taught the proper ways of using and treating it, finishing the teachings she had been given by Xena and Kenji on their first trip to Japan. She had been named a samurai and given the honors afforded to one just to gain her chance to fight him, but they had taken neither the title nor the weapon back after she had defeated the warlord. Anyway that all added up to her being an unwelcome sight here even if she thought of herself as no threat.
It came as no surprise to her that the village didn't have an inn or tavern. The people around here didn't need one so far from any trade routes and so she found herself having to try to make some kind of arrangement with one of the locals for a place to sleep dry and for Ghost to stay. She was running low on resources just as they had done a lot in the early days of her and Xena traveling together, but there were probably no one around here, who would give her what she needed just for some story of Xena... She could of course tell of one of their adventures in Chin. She set out speaking the local dialect to the best of her ability trying to find someone in the mood for a few stories.
The stars were twinkling in the sky, before she could slip away from the party the nice family had arranged for her. The villagers had been so excited, when they had learned she was a storyteller that they had immediately put her and Ghost up in the richest family's house and stables, while arranging for a large party, where she could tell her tales and she had talked herself hoarse not just telling about Lao Ma and Xena, but also about her own adventures and how the world beyond the valley was like. It had been a pleasant evening and it had filled her with a warm joy to find such humanity and familiarity in people so far away from Greece or the Amazon nation.
She felt a pang of home sickness for Greece, until she realized that next to nothing awaited her there. There was no place to return to, no one who awaited her there except maybe the daughter of her best friend, whose mere presence was a constant painful reminder what had been lost and an estranged sister, who should have been younger than her, but who now looked a lot like their mother had, when she had last seen her. The amazons she herself had moved to a land far to the north and east of Greece. Still Greece would always be home in some way even if it was in the feel of the land and the myriads of memories that nearly every back road, village and tavern brought forth in her mind. Shaking her head out of the contemplative thoughts that she always had at night before going to sleep the short haired blonde reached out with a muscled arm and closed the shutters of the window. Tomorrow was supposed to be a busy day and she would probably be more diplomatic towards the monks if she was rested.
Gabrielle rode towards the archway leading into a large courtyard. Before her the painted stone façade of the monastery towered like the battlements of Troy. The horseshoes of Ghost made loud echoes as she rode through the unguarded opening and into the large court on the other side. The inside looked completely deserted. Slowly Gabrielle dismounted and asked Ghost to wait, while she scouted around.
In the end of the court opposite the entrance a large stone staircase led to a huge and heavy looking set of iron shod double doors. Gabrielle walked up to them and looked from side to side. On the right hand door some kind of door hammer was mounted. She grabbed the heavy bronze dragon figure, lifted it and let go. The hammer hit a metal plate on the door and an echoing bang was heard all over the courtyard. Gabrielle stepped back from the door and waited.
A small hatch opened besides the metal plate after nearly a minute. A bald Chinese man's face appeared and asked with irritation apparent in his voice: "Yes, what do you want?"
"I seek answers to what troubles me," Gabrielle answered having beckoned entry in several temples and monasteries over the course of her recent tour of the East and now knew that a certain amount of formality was expected.
"We don't train women to be warriors. Go back to your home and do what is expected of women there," the man said in a very insulting tone of voice.
Gabrielle asked what ever gods there were for patience and counted to three inside before she answered him. "I am not here to become a warrior. I am one already. I hoped you might have wisdom to offer that could stop me from choosing the wrong path in life," she explained trying to remain civil taking her mind of his insult by imagining what Xena would have done to the annoying little monk.
"I said go away, lying won't get you anywhere. The rules say that only warriors may enter this temple seeking wisdom," he explained patiently as if talking to a village idiot.
"I am a warrior," Gabrielle protested.
"You are not. You are a foolish woman. I have never seen a woman capable of wielding much more than a knitting needle. And I know I never will. Go! Away!" He seemed about to close the small hatch.
"Why don't you come out here, then I can prove my abilities to you," Gabrielle said in honeyed tones, while her recalcitrant mind was filled with images of beating the crap out of the chauvinistic bastard.
"Bah," he said and slammed the hatch shut in disgust.
Gabrielle fumed for a few seconds, but fully realized that attacking the door was pointless. Still she was not about to give up. That simply wasn't in her character. Gabrielle stepped back from the gate and took a good look at the building and immediately, like both Xena and Autolycus had indirectly taught her, saw the best way into the fortified temple. She jogged back to Ghost and got her katana of the horse in case of any serious problems arising. She told Ghost to be patient a little longer then jogged up to where the façade of the inner gatehouse and the wall met. Using the decorations and edges she slowly crawled up the sheer surface making her way up onto the slanted tile roof and then quite easily ran over the top of the gatehouse.
Her eyes fell upon the courtyard on the other side of the gatehouse. Hundreds of acolytes and monks where sitting in quiet meditation before a centrally raised dais, where several much older men were sitting in the very same meditative positions. Gabrielle saw and heard a smaller puffy monk, wearing the same yellow orange flowing robes as many of the people sitting in the courtyard, run out of the gatehouse and to join the ranks of the meditating monks. With a quirky smile she decided to be polite and await the end of their meditation before she would present her case again. She seated herself on the edge of the roof with her feet playfully dangling over the edge and waited.
A gong rang somewhere in the many buildings Gabrielle had yet to enter and with a collective bow the monks rose almost as one and separated into disorderly groups walking towards their assigned tasks or what it was they did here. Gabrielle shook all her many muscles awake and vaulted off the roof landing quite elegantly on the stone floor of the inner courtyard. Several alarmed yells told her that her entrance had gotten noticed. "You insolent woman," a by now familiar voice rang across the courtyard.
Gabrielle so hoped that the bigoted monk would be amongst those she would end up proving her skill against. Of course, she almost had to remind herself, she would try solving this with talking first. "I ask for permission to sample the wisdom of this temple. I am a veteran warrior and did not come here to learn of the art of war, I came to learn the fabled wisdom of this place. I hope to learn how a warrior may control her dangerous abilities and avoid stepping on a path leading to darkness," she explained loudly allowing almost everyone in the courtyard to hear her words.
"Women have no place here. Leave now or will we remove you," the bigoted monk and a group of what probably were his students by their youthful looks approached threateningly. He was brandishing an iron staff, while his students looked like they were about to attack her unarmed. Gabrielle decided to take the safe route and unsheathed her Sai.
"Listen there is no reason for us to fight over this," Gabrielle said and almost couldn't stop herself from sounding insincere.
"No you are right. You have realized your mistake. We will escort you out," the monk said and smiled at her again like she was a complete idiot.
"You're not listening. I just want to talk a little with the masters of this place, hear if they have a few words of wisdom for me, then I will be gone," she suggested presuming and hoping that the irritating monk was not one of the leaders of this place.
Suddenly the voice of an elderly man called out over the court. "Shu, I think this woman should have the chance to prove her worth. If she is a warrior, as she says she is, then we won't break any rules, if we let her stay," the man smiled encouragingly at the questioning look shot at him by the younger monk.
"Good then we will test her," he mumbled and looked at the girl appraisingly.
"This is rather simple," he explained, "You called for the right to prove yourself. Now you can. You will fight three challenges against opponents of our choice with weapons and rules that we choose as well. Understood?"
Gabrielle nodded and studied the old man, who had stopped their confrontation. He was a tall and thin man, who was bald with a long white beard. He nodded at her querying glance as if to greet her. His eyes seemed full of merriment.
"Gather around," the monk called Shu commanded. "Notice the ring set in the floor. If you leave it you have forfeited the battle. The first challenge is to fight without weapons and the one who asks for mercy, leaves the ring or is knocked out has lost," he explained to her and looked pointedly at her weapons. She nodded and put down the Sais and the katana before stepping into the ring awaiting her opponent.
One of the larger students of the bigoted monk stepped into the ring and assumed a position directly opposite to her. Gabrielle fell into her customary battle stance and suddenly all thoughts and doubts left her mind. The bigoted monk smiled as he looked from the small woman to his large muscular student not knowing what lay hidden beneath Gabrielle's blue clothing.
Master Fong stared down upon the battle from the dais. The only other master still left outside in the hot midday sun was his friend Master Li. He watched with great interest how the blonde foreigner claiming to be a warrior fared against the best hand to hand fighter amongst the young students. They watched how the young woman easily ducked below the kicks of her opponent. She danced playfully around her opponent avoiding most of his attacks; ignoring those she couldn't avoid like they were but stings of a bug, but making only a few feinted attacks herself.
"She has a great defense. I wonder why she isn't attacking," his friend mused.
"I think she is looking for a way to put down her opponent without hurting him too much. From her speech earlier I think we are dealing with a reluctant warrior, who is grown afraid of her own abilities and maybe doubts her decisions. Oh, see," he commented as the woman ducked another one of the young student's telegraphed punches then suddenly stepped forward placing one of her legs behind him, put a hand on his chest and threw him over her hip down on the hard stone surface. He landed hard enough to be temporarily winded.
Gabrielle saw how the young man fought to get back up and continue the fight. She decided to end it was and as painless as possible. "I'm sorry," she said, stepped up besides his head and kicked him hard in the head with her heavy boots. He went out as a snuffed candle and stayed still, blood pooled on the stones. She immediately fell to her knees and checked him out, but it looked like he had only broken his nose. She rose and turned to look at the red faced monk.
"We shouldn't have to do this. Can't we just agree that I am a warrior?" She asked the fuming monk.
His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. "You still have two more challenges to conquer"; he stalked off to find her next opponent. Gabrielle knew that the monk would probably try to find someone dangerous or pick something he figured she couldn't do. Soon he returned with a smug smile and a man carrying a bow and a quiver.
"Your next challenge is to hit several targets with this weapon," he said and handed her the bow. Gabrielle suspecting trickery examined the bow, which was a good deal smaller but was made of harder wood than the amazon model hanging on Ghost's saddle right now. She felt a little unbalanced with this smaller model.
"Can I use a different bow?" She asked.
"Of course, but this is the most powerful bow known to all of Chin," he said with a superior smile.
"Yeah I am sure it is, but I am used to an amazon bow. Can I go fetch it?" She asked and glanced up at two man still standing on the dais. They nodded.
Gabrielle reentered the courtyard with her very different amazon bow and green fletched arrows. She walked up to the monk and asked what he wanted her to fire at. He looked a little disappointed for a moment, as if he had wished for her to have had no knowledge of using a bow or maybe his secret wish, that she had run away while she was outside, had been dashed.
"You must hit three targets, while remaining standing on that mark over there," he pointed at a worn white mark on the stones, "That wooden plank over there is your first target." He pointed at a typical archery target standing almost fifty paces away from the white mark. "Then you must hit the dove that I am going to release after my count of three and finally you must repeat the same thing with your eyes blindfolded," he smiled harshly as he told her of her final task. A soft murmur went through the crowd of students that had gathered and Gabrielle guessed that her final challenge was a small gift from the monk that was outside the normal scope of the challenges, but the two masters on the dais seemed to accept it after a short series of comments.
"Let him do it. I bet you that she will hit all three targets even with Shu's little refinement," Master Fong said to his friend, who had been about that to interrupt the proceedings and point out that the third challenge was usually to hit a target thrown along the ground almost out of sight of the challenger. He stopped and said after watching the reaction of the woman warrior: "No, I won't take that bet. I can see on her face that she considers herself up to the challenge. Now we will see if she is as good as she thinks she is." They watched intently as the woman, whom they realized was rather young for all her skill, placed an arrow dead in the center of both the wooden target and the first dove. Shu approached her with the blindfold.
Gabrielle let the bigoted monk slip on the black and thick cloth blindfold and had to stop herself from dodging as he tested if it obscured her vision by punching towards her. Her instincts screamed to her to roll to the ground and jam her Sais into her attacker. Gabrielle instead listened intently letting her soul tell her what lay behind the sounds as he walked away. Slowly she filtered all the noise of the courtyard, the students and finally the entire temple out of her awareness. She focused on the sound of the monk and the dove he was picking out of the same cage as the other one. She heard how he tried to fool her senses by stalking and jumping from place to place in the courtyard, while she drew and cocked an arrow onto her bow. Inside the blindfold she closed her eyes and focused entirely on the dove. She heard him let go. The sound of the monk's voice counting to three and the wing beats of the free dove mixed. She heard the rush of air through the weave of the bird's grey wings as it soared towards the sky. She let her soul guide her hands as it flew across the courtyard, the people around her marveling as her aim followed the course of the dove in the sky.
"Three," the monk's voice said. An arrow was loosened and flew into sky, but it flew off to the left of the course of the bird through the sky. Suddenly the wind drew the bird to the left and the arrow pierced it. Gabrielle heard the thud of the dead bird's body and the shattering of her arrow as it hit the ground, before she drew off the blindfold and looked into the gaping faces of all the students and monks in the courtyard.
"Fine, you are an archer," the monk grudgingly conceded after he as one of the first shook off his awe. He looked around steaming with anger at everyone's seaming acceptance of the woman's presence and acted on that anger. "Now you must face your final test. You must defeat me in combat. You may fight with whatever weapon you like. I'll be using this," he said and used his foot to flip his massive iron staff up into his hands.
"I will be using my Sais," Gabrielle said and thanked the gods around here for the chance to give this monk a beating he deserved. The ring was cleared again, while she went to gather her weapons.
"Shouldn't we stop him now, before anyone gets seriously hurt? I have this feeling that Shu is letting his anger guide him instead of any kind of wisdom taught to him here. I fear that either this woman is good enough to defeat him or we'll have to bury her tonight. Shu is a master with that ghastly iron staff of his and I fear that the woman could be just as bad with her Sais as well. This has disaster written all over it," Master Li cautioned his friend.
"No, my dear friend, I fear that we must allow this to run to the end, unless we want to injure the pride of both the contestants and I must again ask you to not underestimate this woman. I realized after her shot a masterful feat, which I admit, I've never seen before, that she truly is what she claims to be: a veteran warrior seeking to reconcile her abilities and her life. We will step in if this begins to threaten the life of either of the fighters, but otherwise I think we should let it run its course. I doubt that a veteran warrior will underestimate an opponent she has never faced before," Master Fong decided and stared again as the two fighters began to circle.
They had fought nearly half a minute. Gabrielle had realized going into this battle that her opponent would have the superior reach and so had adjusted her fighting style accordingly opting for a fast hit-hard-and-run tactic that would wear down her opponent hopefully opening him up for some kind of fast finishing move. The monk however had planned a very defensive style whirling his staff around a lot and made her original plan too dangerous. It had already earned her a couple of deep bruises.
Gabrielle shifted over to a feinting technique, which looked like her original plan, but which if successful would open up wide gaps for her to exploit in his defenses. She was barely thinking about her actions as she naturally changed patterns.
Gabrielle feinted towards a side block with her right arm and sai making it look like she was about to follow up with a stab or punch with her left hand, but her feet were moving towards a different goal than a straight forward one-two attack.
Just as Shu stepped forward meeting her right sai with his staff and planning on making a similar attack combination supposed to catch her unaware, Gabrielle whirled down and to the right in a full circle and made a very low circle kick sending the monk to the ground, while she returned to a ready fighting stance.
Shu had however landed badly and as he delayed slightly in getting up, Gabrielle jumped into the air, stretched out her body and put down her elbow. She and her full weight behind the elbow landed with a loud crack on the solar plexus of the monk. He took a wheezing gasp, cried out in pain and let go of his iron staff. Its metal clatter was joined by the pained gasping for mercy by the downed monk. The entire courtyard was resoundingly silent for a few moments.
"Would someone snap out of it and fetch a healer! He is seriously hurt," Gabrielle commanded in a tone she had gotten used to using on panicked soldiers and desperate amazons over the years. She had learned it from Xena and with her skills to back it up; she now used it for situations like this. Several startled students ran into the inner temple, while the two masters left the dais and walked towards her. Gabrielle sheathed her sai and waited them almost defiantly.
"You are truly a marvelous warrior. What is your name?" He asked.
"I'm Gabrielle of Poteidaia. Just call me Gabrielle," she presented herself without adding one or more the pretentious sounding titles she had been given over the years.
"Well met Gabrielle. I welcome you to our temple. You seek learning and wisdom. Let's see if we can help you find some," the white bearded man said and his eyes twinkled roguishly for a moment before he motioned for her to walk with him.