Chapter 2:

"Hey Xena, I'm going to go over to that pond and get some fish for our dinner."

"Remember the technique I showed you, Gabrielle?"

"Of course, how could I forget?" Gabrielle laughed to hide her disgust. Sticking her hands around swarms of smelly fish in an even smellier pond wasn't exactly at the top of her to-do list. But, she tried to be brave. Gabrielle took a big, deep breath and stuck her hands in the water, feeling around for any fish. It was an unpleasant feeling. It almost felt like cold, slimy, slippery goo gliding between your fingertips and leaving its unpleasant leftovers behind.

"Hey!"

Gabrielle heard a voice. She looked around, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. She went back to fishing.

"What are you doing?"

This time, Gabrielle knew she heard a voice. "Who's there," she called out. "Show yourself!" She picked up her staff, just in case. Slowly, Gabrielle edged towards the bushes.

"YAH!" She took a big swing of her staff, and conked something in the head.

"Oww…"

To Gabrielle's surprise, a small boy with dark, spiky hair and big brown eyes stepped out of the wilderness. He was visibly trying to hold back tears. "What did you do that for," he whined. Gabrielle was shocked. She wasn't expecting a boy.

"I'm so sorry! Here, are you okay?"

"I'm fine! Get away from me!"

"Oh… okay. Hey, what's your name?"

The boy looked suspicious. "Myojin," he exclaimed. "Yahiko Myojin."

"Well, Yahiko," Gabrielle said, "can you fish?"

"Is that what you were trying to do? Well, don't worry about it… I can fish okay…" Yahiko shed his clothes down to his underpants and dived into the pond. About two minutes later, Yahiko tossed five big fish out of the water, each one of them slapping Gabrielle in the face. "Is that good?" Yahiko asked, stepping out of the pond. He didn't seem to care much that he was practically naked. "I'm not normally this generous, you know…"

"Really? I wouldn't know."

Yahiko looked up at Gabrielle. "Really?"

Gabrielle just smiled at him. Yahiko stared at her intently until he felt a big hand smacking him across the back of the head.

"Hey, kid! Who are you, and why are you… naked? Gabrielle, c'mon," Xena ordered.

"Relax, Xena," Gabrielle said. "His name's Yahiko. He caught our dinner for us. I think that the least we can do is give him something to eat. It's already dark anyway."

Xena frowned, visibly annoyed. Her icy blue eyes practically turned into cold, sharp knives. Not an unusual thing in her case. "Fine… he can stay and eat. Give me those fish," Xena grumbled as she snatched the fish from Gabrielle.

"Don't mind Xena," Gabrielle smiled. "She gets cranky when we fall behind her schedule. Be thankful she didn't pull the pinch on you."

"Pull the… what?" Yahiko looked confused as he put his clothes back on.

"It's a move she uses on warlords and guys like that to interrogate them. Basically, she cuts off the flow of blood to their brain by pinching a nerve, and they have only a few seconds before they end up dead."

"Wow… did she ever teach you that?"

Gabrielle laughed. "I wish! It would make my life so much easier…" Yahiko and Gabrielle both laughed.

"Hey," Gabrielle began, "you didn't tell me yet why you snuck up on me."

Yahiko was blushing. "Oh… uh… well… I…"

At that moment, Kenshin sprang out of nowhere and knocked Gabrielle to her feet. His blade was at her throat. "If you have any intention to hurt Yahiko, I advise you to avoid a fight you cannot win and leave right now."

"AY-YI-YI-YI-YI-YI-YI-YI!"

Kenshin's eyes narrowed. "That shriek…"

Xena, coming to Gabrielle's rescue yet again, flipped through the air and drew her sword. "Gee, and I thought this day couldn't get any worse!"