Chapter 4
Xena searched throughout the village for awhile looking for Gabrielle and couldn't find her anywhere. She tried not to cause alarm but it was unnerving the way people were looking at her. She felt like she was spending more time worrying about Gabrielle than trying to solve the situation in this village. Two days wasted in this place.
She and Argo went back to the inn and approached the bar. Xena snapped her fingers to grab the innkeeper's attention and he finished chatting with a customer and made his way over with a smile on his face.
"Xena, what can I do for you? More port?" he offered and smiled at the tall blonde behind her.
"I'm looking for my friend. She's about this tall," she measures her hand up to her breastplate, "blonde hair, short skirt. Have you seen her?"
The innkeeper pursed his mouth. "Ah, yes. She did not have nice things to say about you."
Xena raised an eyebrow and Argo's eyes wandered around, pretending not to listen to the conversation. "Have you seen her or not?" her patience wore thin.
"Yeah, I saw her alright," he chuckled. "She left awhile ago with a guy."
"A guy?"
The innkeeper pointed to his head, "he wore some stupid pasta strainer on his head."
Argo's attention was quenched and she let out a big smile then blurts out, "oh, Joxer!"
Xena spun around, questionably staring at her tag-along guest. She really didn't have time to argue and now that Joxer was in the mix that was never good. Also, she hated the fact that Gabrielle was angry at her and it wasn't even her fault.
"Where did they go?" she asked him.
"How should I know?" he threw his hands in the air, frustrated by the amount of questions. "They left and that was the last I saw of them."
She grumbled. "Thanks." She grabbed Argo's arm and scurried out of the inn, bypassing the onlookers at the tables.
They roamed outside of the village square and while Xena was looking for traces of Gabrielle and Joxer, Argo kept blabbering on and on about what a great time she was having so far. She felt so proud of herself for finding the animal prints in the ground and even though Xena was focused on finding the bard, she couldn't help but overhear Argo's not so subtle way of insulting Gabrielle with light teasing jabs.
The warrior whipped out her blade and pointed it at Argo to shut her up. "Gabrielle was right. Something is off about you. How come you know so much about me and my friends? And why are you always making fun of Gabrielle? Maybe she's not the 'jealous type' but it is you who is jealous."
Argo felt her heart had been run through and she frowned sadly. "Jealous? How can you say that about me? You're my friend."
"I don't even know you!" she lowered her sword and wagged her head. "Forget it. You're staying back in the village while I go look for Gabrielle."
"But Xena!"
"Go!"
She turned and walked off then bumped into the god of war. "Ares," she snarls. Drawing her sword she held it dangerously close to his chest and he raised his eyebrow. He grabbed the tip of the blade with his fingertips and pushed it aside.
He looked over her shoulder at the tall lithe blonde waiting in the field. "You found another blonde to keep you company, Xena? You move on quickly."
"What have you done with Gabrielle? I know you're behind all of this."
He folded his arms over his broad chest. "And what am I behind exactly?"
"Gabrielle told me."
"How could she do that?"
"You spoke to her earlier!" she looked at him as if he was stupid and he continued to have a dumbfounded expression. "Ares, what kind of sick game are you trying to pull?"
Ares knitted his brows. "You tell me, Xena. I just spoke to Gabrielle and –"
"Isn't that what I just said?" she scoffed and sheathed her weapon then shoved him out of her path. "I don't have time for this."
He turned and eyed the blonde lingering with a grimace. "Don't you want to know where the annoying blonde is? That is, if you still care as I can see you already replaced the bard."
Xena's eyes widened and she marched back over to the war god and punched him in the jaw. He stumbled back only a couple of steps and smiled, nodding his head. She could see he was enjoying feeding off her anger and decided to pull back.
"You're the mastermind behind this conspiracy in the village and now you want to take me to Gabrielle after you kidnapped her…" she says and he cocked his head. "Are you listening to yourself?"
He stood back, compiling all of the misconstrued information and put the pieces together. It all made sense to him now. He let out a loud laugh and Argo cringed at the sight of his hysterics and Xena shared the same expression. Both of them were confused at the war god's hearty laughter.
"Oh, I see what's going on." He wagged his finger and sauntered over to the warrior princess. "You think I kidnapped Gabrielle."
"We're really going to go over this again…" she muttered and walked off. "I'll go find her by myself. I don't need to be bothered by your riddles."
He raced over and grabbed her shoulders from behind, pulling her back. She clenched her jaw and prayed that she'd have the patience to remain calm and keep focus with his grimy hands upon her.
"I'm here to help you," he whispered in her ear. "I'll take you to Gabrielle."
"What's the catch, Ares?"
"I do something nice for you; you do something nice for me. It's a win-win situation. Don't you trust me?"
She smirked and looked over her shoulder, locking his eyes with him. "I don't see any flying pigs."
Aphrodite appeared and looked rather disgruntled and annoyed. Her hair was a disaster and her pink flowing gown was filthy and ripped at the trim. Ares looked at his sister and stepped back, fearful of her dreaded appearance.
Then Damian ran out from behind the goddess with a big eager smile on his face. Xena put a hand on her hip and gawked at the little brunette child. Her eyes went from Aphrodite to Ares and back to the mischievous little boy who seemed to be the cause of the love goddess' irritated state.
"That is the last time I babysit for you, bro!" she poked her finger in Ares' chest.
"Babysit?" Xena curiously said.
Ares groaned and grabbed his son's arm and pulled him far away from Aphrodite. A smile crept up on Xena's lips when she was clued into everything and he caught her smugness out of the corner of his peripheral vision.
"Is this boy your son, Ares?" the warrior raised her eyebrows and widened her malicious smile. He rolled his eyes and refused to answer. She bent down to the boy's eye level. "What's your name?"
"Damian…" he frowned and narrowed his brown eyes.
Aphrodite picked out a piece of wood debris from her wild blonde locks and whined. "Don't get too close to the brat, Xena. He might turn you into a toad."
Damian looked up at his aunt and stuck his tongue out at her. She crinkled her nose and did just the same to annoy him and made an ugly mocking face while she was at it.
"I don't want to stay here anymore. I don't like mortals," the boy eyed Xena and she rose slowly and glanced at Ares who completely blocked the entire situation out and ignored everyone around him. "I want to go home!"
"Send the little monster back where he came from. Maybe he and Medusa can have a party on the River Styx together!" Aphrodite spat. "He's your problem now, Ares. You made that thing. You take care of it." She folded her arms and disappeared.
Argo hesitantly walked towards them and Xena looked her way and held up her hand, signaling her to stay back. Damian tugged on his father's leg and when he wasn't given the proper attention he inhaled deeply and let out an ear piercing scream.
Xena covered her ears and Argo bent over, hands over ears. Birds flew from the trees and animals scattered out of the woods, running into several directions from the boy's screeching echo.
Gabrielle sat in a human sized cage inside the cave and stared at the witch as she kept talking to the large black panther as if it were some small house cat. She cringed in disgust and Circe turned to her with a glimmering smile.
"How long are you going to keep me in here? Indefinitely? What do you do with the humans once you turn them into animals? Do you eat them?"
The sorceress laughed and knelt down. Her arm slithered through the iron bars and pinched the bard's chin and Gabrielle yanked her face away and scooted as far back as she could go.
"What a waste. Eat my precious slaves? What kind of awful tales have you been reading?"
"You're only doing this for attention. You're not even an Olympian," Gabrielle teased the witch. "You're nothing to them."
Circe ruffled her long dark hair and sauntered back over to sit down on a throne she conjured up earlier. Her companion, Jafas, sat beside her, snarling at Gabrielle. She grazed her long fingernails in between his ears to soothe him.
"Watch your mouth, little one. You are lucky that Jafas is a vegetarian."
"A vegetarian." Gabrielle deadpanned and the witch winked. "You're a fool if you think Ares is going to hand over Xena to you. He would never do that."
She sighed and picked at her nails. "He owes me a couple of favors."
Damian's loud piercing scream entered the cave and stalactites fell from the ceiling and all of the animals squawked, roared and hissed at the noise. Circe stood up at the sound of her son's echoing cries and knew that he was not far and she also knew that he was on mortal ground.
She raised her hand and said a dark incantation and Gabrielle could feel her ears burning, although she didn't know if that was from that horrid scream or Circe's sinister spell. Once Circe finished reciting the spell Damian, Ares, Xena and Argo were all present in the cave.
Gabrielle smiled. "Xena!" she yelled and reached through the bars.
The warrior turned and she was quick to unsheathe her sword. Seeing her friend in a cage was not something she was expecting and she certainly wasn't expecting a cave full of animals either.
Damian smiled and ran over to Circe and hugged her legs tightly. "Mother, why did you leave me?"
She grimaced and her eyes turned bright red, glaring at Ares. "What is he doing here?"
Ares looked around at the cave and crossed his arms. "If you could just transport us here why did you send me to get Xena?"
"You did what?" Xena spun around. "What is going on? And who in Tartarus is that?" she nudged her head at the witch.
Gabrielle banged her fists on the cage. "Xena! Less talking, more helping!"
Circe spotted the warrior attempting to aid Gabrielle and she grabbed her scepter and smiled, pointing it directly at her. Xena banged her chakram against the lock repeatedly and Gabrielle urged her to continue until she saw the witch's scepter.
"Xena!"
Spinning around, Xena looked dead straight into the witch's point of view and shielded her eyes from the bright light. Gabrielle closed her eyes and seconds later she heard the chakram hit the stone ground. Slowly, she opened one eye, afraid to look, and then opened the other. She was horrified at what she saw.
"Xena…gods…" she whispered, staring at her friend who was now a black wolf.
Ares' mouth was left ajar, staring at his warrior woman and now she was a canine with long fangs and piercing blue eyes. He whipped his head around to Circe who was cackling loudly and Damian grinned, relishing in the moment with his mother.
Argo balled her fists up seeing her master trapped in an animal's body and glared at the cackling sorceress. Before the war god could get his hands on Circe, Argo raced forward and rammed her onto the ground. The scepter slipped out of Circe's grip and slid against the ground and the orb shattered as soon as it hit the cave wall.
While the two were rolling around on the ground, Gabrielle grabbed the chakram and sawed it against the lock. She felt bad for using Xena's weapon in this way but she couldn't think of a better plan. She got a glare from Xena's wolf eyes and grinned sheepishly.
"I'm sorry for this…" she said and furrowed her eyebrows. "What am I saying? I'm talking to an animal!" she banged the chakram on the lock after she sawed the chain halfway through and then she received a deep scratch from her friend's claws.
"Ow! Okay…I'm sorry." She mumbled and kicked open the cage door and heard squeaking from a cage hanging from the cave ceiling. "Oh, right." She jumped up and grabbed Joxer from the cage and he wrapped his body around her shoulders.
Circe kicked Argo off her and she slid across the ground. She got to her feet and turned, coddling her broken scepter as if it were a baby. She held the scepter laden in her arms and felt hands wrap around her throat.
Ares lifted her off the ground, tightening his grip around her throat. She choked and coughed. "Circe! You promised to turn Athena's women back and now you've turned Xena into another one of your sick games!"
Gabrielle snatched her staff and looked at the cave exit which was no longer sealed with the witch's magic. She smiled and looked down at Xena who kept eyeing Argo and refused to leave without her.
The bard sighed and yelled, "Ambrosia, let's go!"
Argo rubbed her head and saw Ares choking the life out of the sorceress and quickly made a break for the exit.
By nightfall they reached the woods far from the village and the cave. Gabrielle hoped that they were far enough from Circe but given that her scepter was no longer operational, perhaps her powers weakened without it. She could only hope.
She and Argo stared at the warrior sitting down by the campfire. Xena stared up at them with her canine eyes and Gabrielle folded her arms, unsure of what to say or what to think.
"My friend is a wolf," she stated. "This is insanity!"
"Poor Xena. What are we going to do now?" Argo asked.
The bard slowly turned and glared at the tall blonde. She saw the look in her eyes. This woman was obviously smitten with Xena, whether she was a human or beast. "This is all your fault."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You heard me! If you hadn't picked a fight with me I would've never gone to the cave with Joxer and now look what happened! They're both animals!"
Argo raised an eyebrow. "I didn't make you go into that cave, Gabrielle. You did that by yourself. You're always so impulsive."
"Impulsive? How would you know? You don't even know me!"
"I know enough."
Gabrielle growled and plopped down onto the ground and Xena walked over on all fours and sat next to her. The bard could barely look at her friend in this state and slapped a hand over her eyes. "Don't look at me like that. It's too weird."
Xena nudged her long nose against the blonde's arm.
Opening her eyes, she stared at Argo who seemed to be just as distressed. She also finally looked at the warrior's blue eyes and pursed her lips. "Looks like…we'll have to work together to fix this somehow," she says unconvincingly.
Argo nodded and sat down by the fire. "I'll do anything to turn Xena back! Oh and…Joxer too."
"Can I ask a question?"
"Sure, Gabby –Gabrielle," she corrected.
"Why do you like Xena so much?"
Argo emits a soft smile. "Why do you?"