PART 4

Tricca was a small town in the middle of nowhere west of Iolcus and north of Larissa. Not much happened here and very little happened, but fate had set it on the road heading north out of Thessaly and up into Macedonia. It had nothing to offer to warlords and it was rumored that there was nothing here for thieves to steal. The townsfolk were friendly to travelers traveling north into Dacia and Gaul, but they were often riled by the simplest of annoyances.

"Alright, alright..." The would-be warrior Joxer stood on a chair in the tavern. "You want to hear the song. Here it is..." The skinny geek cleared his voice. "I'm Joxer the mighty, I travel through the... ACK!" Someone's hand stopped the air in his throat.

"I am going to kill you personally..." Autolycus glared at him as only he could. "If you sing that song again." Both he and Joxer had something in common as friends and erstwhile allies of both Xena and Hercules. Autolycus was the self-proclaimed king of thieves, and reputedly the son of the god Hermes, but he wasn't sure of that legend. He didn't feel like he had god blood in him; all his gifts of thievery had been developed through years of trial and error.

"Why are we here?" Salmoneus sat with them. He was another acquaintance of the two, but of the two, he much more preferred trying to get rich through Autolycus than dealing with Joxer's idiocy. "Where's Xena? I'm tired of waiting for her to show up to tell us what she wanted."

"Oh yeah," Joxer grinned embarrassingly. "About that," He grinned even more nervously. "Xena didn't really call for you guys. I did. I thought you guys would like to be my partners as we..."

"Forget the song." Salmoneus looked at Autolycus. "Kill him now!"

"Not a problem." The king of thieves stood up and pushed his chair out of the way as Joxer leapt up and out the door screaming for help. He knocked the goat out of someone's hands and jumped over some kids in his way with Autolycus coming after him with his rope being tied into a noose.

"Come on, Autolycus," Joxer tried to reason with him while backing from him. "You can't kill me. We're buddies!"

"Since when?"

"Good point." Joxer turned to run and heard hoof beats bearing down on him as he whirled around on one foot. Gabrielle gave him a nasty look as her horse snorted and pounded the ground under him. She reined her horse stomping the ground and looked around the mountains around her trying to figure out where she was then looked at Joxer and tried to figure out what to do next.

"Gabby!!" Joxer realized Xena had to be near and turned round bravely knowing where Gabrielle was that Xena was not far behind, and she would not let him get hurt. "Okay, Autolycus try and do something. Xena won't let you hurt me." He challenged Autolycus to lay one finger on him.

"Oh yeah," Autolycus reigned the horse. "Gabrielle, where's Xena?"

"What?" She looked at them both. She acted as if she didn't recognize them for a minute. "Is there anyone who doesn't know… Oh yeah, uh, Xena... she's behind me… trying to kill me."

"What?!" Salmoneus came up behind Joxer being strangled by Autolycus. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"We were in Cynthus with Hercules and... oh, what was his name?"

"Iolaus?" Joxer knew the heroes as well.

"Yeah, Iolaus." The bard continued her deception. "And they became possessed by evil spirits, yeah, and they're trying to kill me. I'm the only one who can stop them. I'm traveling to get an amulet to save their lives."

"Cynthus." Salmoneus had heard of the place. "I've heard of it. That cemetery there is bad news."

"You need an amulet to save them." Autolycus stroked his goatee and looked up to her. "I'll help. I am after all the King of Thieves..."

"Really." Gabrielle beamed with that new accumulated knowledge.

"Friends..." Joxer stood on a cart to address the townsfolk of Tricca as Autolycus pushed him off and took his place.

"People of Tricca." He began calling out to the people around him. "Our good friends Hercules, Xena and Iolaus need our help. Evil forces from beyond this world have possessed them and are forcing them into evil." A few people stopped to listen. "Let us repay them for making our roads and villages safe from bandits, brigands and warlords..."

"And thieves..." Salmoneus added as Joxer folded his arms and nodded along with the announcement.

"Well, let's not go crazy here." Autolycus whispered to him. "Don't we owe it to them." He called back out to the growing crowd of concerned Triccans cheering back to his noble deed.

"Right." Salmoneus raised his hand in agreement then turned up to Gabrielle on the black horse. "Where is this amulet?"

"Still north." Gabrielle added still on her horse. "In Antequeria."

"Never heard of it." Joxer looked puzzled.

"Worse yet," Gabrielle continued to the throngs of people gathering en masse to listen. "They're telling everyone that I'm the one who is possessed." She grinned as if it couldn't possibly be true. "Can you believe that??!"

"Why you're just as normal as the rest of us." Autolycus noticed Joxer nose mining. "Well, most of us." He mounted the horse with her. "Salmoneus, round up the villagers to take Xena, Hercules and Iolaus alive. We need to find a way to hold them until we return with the amulet. Joxer, stay out of the way. We are off to Anti...Ante..."

"Antequeria."

"That's Greek to me." He mused at the name of the unknown village. "Let's ride!" Gabrielle kicked at her horse as it bolted out the other end of town with her and the king of thieves riding upon it.

"For Hercules!!" Someone yelled as the town banded together to plan an onslaught to take the heroes alive.