Chapter 30

The sun had made its descent well over an hour ago as the warriors trudged along the trail back to Athens. The battle had lasted longer then they originally thought it would have and now they were hoping to make it back before it got even later in the night. It wouldn't take much longer now given that they had already come along the road that leads into Athens and they were supposed to be arriving any moment. Xena couldn't wait to take off the rest of her blood soaked armor and just take a nice long relaxing bath to unwind from this lengthy strenuous day. She had a lot on her mind and she needed to take some time and figure out what it was exactly that she was going to do.

She glanced around at all the other warriors and could see how tired each and every one of them looked. This last battle was a taxing one on them. Once she realized that she could use her original plan of attack she sent them all to their tasks to make sure that it would go off well and that everything would be ready just in case Marcus had decided to leave early from the last town. She didn't want to be caught off guard and they had already lost enough time with Athena's slow reaction.

"Hey Xena!" Flora called out from beside her.

She swiftly turned to where her name had been called, not realizing that her comrade had started to ride next to her. She could clearly see that she had something on her mind but was hesitant to ask. She had always liked Flora, she was a good warrior and she considered the girl her friend- probably one of the few from the others that she would actually want to have around her. She wasn't quick to judge and she didn't take criticism too serious like some of the others. She was willing to accept advice, any advice that might have helped her become a better warrior. If anyone told her she was doing something wrong she would try and work on it. She even came to Xena a few times to spar so she could show her what she was doing wrong and help her correct the problem.

"What's on your mind Flora?" she asked while turning her head back forward, to keep an eye on her surroundings.

The road to Athens wasn't usually a dangerous one but one could never be too careful, you never knew when an attack was going to come or when the fight was truly over. And someone once told her that to let your guard down too early will get you killed. They might have defeated Marcus' army but she knew he was still out there somewhere. None of those men on that battle field had showed any inclining to being the commander and he more than likely left his men to die when he realized that he was losing the battle. She figured that it was when they started the fire that he fled, after that their ranks just seemed to crumble without the proper command to keep them focused. She wasn't sure if he had more men stationed elsewhere and if they were waiting to ambush them on the way back to Athens.

"It's just... I just don't know how you do it."

"Do what?"

"The way you make up your plans. I mean how did you know that the army was going to be delayed for a day? You just seem to have such a knack for this stuff. That ridge... I don't think anyone would of thought of that."

"Just lucky I guess." Xena replied cautiously. She knew the real reason why she had changed her plans at the last moment. There was no other way for her to have known if Ares hadn't told her about it.

"That's another thing, all this just seems to come so natural to you. It's like you were born for war... Do you know what I mean? I can see it in your eyes when we are about to head into battle. It is like something... I'm not sure how to describe it but it is like if the spirit of war is inside you….as if you have been marked by the God of War himself "

Xena listened to her words carefully, thinking that it was strange since Ares had just said something similar to her before. Was it always that obvious? She always felt a pull towards the War God, even before she decided to join Athena. The years before she joined Athena she would stare at his dark looming temple in the distance from Amphipolis for hours. It was as if something was calling to her from that temple and she would get hypnotized by it. She had spent plenty of days ignoring her chores and going through her sword drills in a small clearing that was the closest to his temple thinking of ways of how she was going to get the War God's attention.

"I'm surprised you never tried to become a warrior for him and decided to become a warrior for Athena instead." she said while laughing a little at her own comment.

"Yeah.." Xena replied, chuckling lightly at her words and more at her for having failed to realize just how many times she had thought about it, "...funny how things work out."

"It was for the best though. Could you imagine being a warrior for him?"

Xena shot her a look for her comment. "What do you mean?"

"You must have heard the stories! He is such a savage and brutal God. Who knows what he makes his followers do, probably some really dark stuff with human blood sacrifices. I heard that once he made one of his warlords slaughter his family and forced him drink their blood in order for him to gain his favor." she said with disgust.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear. Half of those rumors are probably made up." Xena said with irritation for her being so narrow minded.

"Every rumor has some truth behind it. He is the God of War after all and he deals with nothing but destruction and death all the time. I've heard that his thirst for blood is unquenchable, it must be horrible to worship such a dark God. He must be such a monster, it's a good thing you decided to ally yourself with Athena or who knows what type of dark rituals he would make you do." she said, shivering in her saddle at her last comment, thinking about what dark stuff was in store for the people who chose him as their God.

"Things are not always as they seem Flora and you shouldn't be so quick to judge someone without having all of the facts." she said harshly to her, not liking that she had already made an opinion on someone that she didn't even know. She could see that she had been wrong about her with not judging someone based on stories that might have been said about them.

Flora could see that she had upset her a little with her comments about the War God and was a little confused about her reaction. She would have thought that she thought the same thing about him and would agree with her. He was after all Athena's biggest adversary and therefore he was their enemy also, but then again she could see all the ways that the two of them might be alike. She knew for instance that once Xena got into a battle she was acting like a completely different person, as if someone completely different would come out of her and she would cut her way through their enemies brutally. She always thought it was strange that she seemed to like what she was doing, maybe her and the War God weren't that different after all. They fell into an uncomfortable silence after that and then Flora decided to just let her be and moved her horse away from her companion.

Xena watched her leave out of the corner of her eye, she didn't mean to sound so unkind to her but she was going on about something that she really knew nothing about. She wasn't an expert on the War God either but the few dealings she did have with him told her that there was more there then what the stories about him were saying. Seeing that they had finally reached Athens she tried to put the whole ordeal out of her mind. She quickly led her horse over to the stables and dismounted. She rubbed her muzzle for a few moments and then moved to take off her saddle and harness. She brushed her down for a while until she was sure that she was completely relaxed and when she was done she found an apple for her and feed it to her.

Leaving the stables, she made her way to her bed chamber and went to gather something to take with her when she headed to the baths. Finding a suitable enough shift- it was nothing fancy but it would do for the trip back to her bedroom- she made her way in the intended direction.. When she got there the place was completely empty, all that time she spent brushing down her horse and everyone else had already turned in for the night. She didn't mind though, she liked it better when she was alone, it gave her time to think and she didn't have to deal with all the drama of the others

She quickly prepared her bath and then started to peel the blood soaked armor off of herself. She let her armor clang to the floor without another thought and then slowly lowered herself into the bath. The warm water felt great against her tired muscles and she let out a relaxed breath as she rested against the side of the wall for a moment. After a while she picked up a sponge and began to wash herself clean from the rest of the dirt that covered her body. She took her time as she glided the sponge over her skin, thinking about the events of earlier that day and how a certain leather clad God had practically washed the blood from her hands. She was having a hard time figuring him out, he was not at all what she thought he would be like.

Xena knew that he could be vicious and cruel, she had seen that first hand during his fight against Apollo. He had attacked the Sun God with a ferocious brutality and even though she didn't get to see how it ended, she knew that Apollo was most likely looking a little worse for wear, not that the bastard didn't deserve it anyway. That side of the God of War was what people feared the most about him but she also knew that there was a side of him that not many if any had ever seen before. It was his gentler side that would throw her through a loop, she expected him to be hard and uncaring and those few times when he wasn't, confused her. She had heard all the tales about the War God, how dangerous he was, his ruthlessness and how he would manipulate people into getting what he wanted…..strangely enough though, she didn't perceive him as being dangerous…

It was that last part that always made her wonder what his true intentions with her were. Did he have some scheme worked out just to use her? She knew how to read people and could always tell when they were lying and she never detected any dishonesty when the War God would visit her. To top it all, he never came with a pitch about how she could help him but how he could help her, how he could improve her skills and turn her into the warrior she always wanted to be, to let her do what she wanted with an army of her own. Sure, she led Athena's warriors but she only had a limited control over them, at the end of the day it was the Goddess' final decision when it came to any type of battle. At first it didn't really bother her but now it was just annoying to have to run everything over to someone who more than likely was going to disagree with everything and just end up stopping them from doing anything at all.

She sighed deeply and then shivered a little, the water had turned cold. She got out and made her way over to her clothes that she had placed on a nearby bench. She dried herself off a little and then put her shift on. She went back over to the edge of the bath and retrieved her dirty armor, making sure not to get it that close to herself so she wouldn't get dirty again. She left the bath chamber and headed back to her room. Once inside, she walked over to a chair and placed her armor on it, she would work on getting the blood out of it tomorrow; right now all she wanted to do was crawl under the covers of her bed and rest. With her sword still in her hand she made her way over to the hooks she had on the wall and hung it from it. Turning around and making her way over to her bed, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a red rose lying on her pillow.

She glanced over to the table that was next to her bed thinking that maybe she had moved the rose she had put there two days ago and not remember that she had done so, but she noticed that the first one was still there. Only now it was in a small vase with water and it looked like it was fresh since it appeared just as vibrant as the one that was laying on her pillow, like it hadn't been wilting for the last couple of days. She closed in the rest of the distance to her bed and saw that underneath the rose there was a folded piece of parchment. She sat down on the bed and picked up the rose and held it in her hand for a moment.

A bit taken aback by the whole situation, Xena looked from one rose to the other, wondering who had dared enter in her bed chamber while she was away. She reached over and placed the second rose with the other one in the small vase. She looked back at the piece of parchment on her pillow and picked it up and moved to settle herself more into the bed.

Having found a comfortable position she held the parchment in her hands. She could see that it was sealed with a crest that she didn't quite recognize but it was familiar to her and she couldn't place where she had seen it before. She broke the seal and unfolded the parchment and out tumbled something from it and fell on her lap. She picked up the object and saw that it was a small sword pendant attached to a leather string. Xena knew that she had seen this pendant somewhere before and she looked at it more closely and could see the ruin of war carved into it towards the top. That's when it hit her, it was the same pendant that Ares wore around his neck only this one was a little smaller in size.

She brought the parchment up and began to read it:

X,

It appears that this business is going to last longer then I originally thought it would.. Apparently this agreement is going to take a lot more than a few trusted words of a God and Zeus wants us to stay here for seven days to show them that we are interested in building a strong alliance yadda, yadda, yadda. Trust me, there are a lot of other things I would much rather be doing for seven days than this treaty. Training you my dear is the first thing that comes to mind and we will do exactly that once this is over. I have a temple nearby and you can meet me there once these days are over.

Until next time…

As Xena put the piece of parchment on the table next to the roses, still holding the pendant in her hand, she brought it up and looked at it again. She softly ran her fingertip over the contours of it for a moment, then she grabbed the string and undid the clasp and placed it around her neck. The pendant came to rest between her breasts and she looked down at it with the enthusiasm of a child receiving a gift on a Christmas day. She had made her choice, she was done performing all the unnecessary duties that Athena would set them out to do. She was going to see what the God of War had to offer her, she knew that there was a lot that he could still teach her and she was going to accept his offer to become his Chosen.

She moved to lay down on the bed completely and closed her eyes to finally get some sleep but her mind was reeling with all that laid ahead. She didn't know what to fully expect once she started down her new path but one thing she knew for sure, her life was never going to be the same again.