With her staff in hand, Gabrielle struck a soldier-in-training on the arm harshly, and he dropped his sword almost immediately.
"Again," the bard said flatly, and touched the end of her weapon to the ground as her trainee went to retrieve his. He collected himself and stood before her, ready. But Gabrielle held up a hand, nodding once slowly, before making eye contact with him. "In a war, what just happened might cost you your life. No questions. No second chances. You always have to keep your weapon with you, as if it is a part of your arm." The blonde went at the soldier again, attempting a strike from the side. The blow was blocked, and Gabrielle smiled at her student's quick adaptation, but when she spun around and struck from up high and was able to knock the soldier's sword out of his hand again, her face easily went flat once more. She touched the end of her staff to the ground for the second time, leaning on it as the soldier collected his weapon again. "Okay," she began, "when in combat, it's important to keep eye contact. This will help you anticipate your opponent's next move so that you can block or otherwise counter the attack. Again." Gabrielle came at the soldier another time, this time aiming low. The soldier blocked the strike, pushing Gabrielle away from him, and came at her with good strength. She blocked his attack but with a smile, glad he was catching on, and when she twisted her wrist to whip her staff around and disarm the young man, he was ready, and kept his weapon firm in his hand. Gabrielle backed away out of his range swiftly, signaling for him to cease drilling. "Very good. I'm glad to see you learn quickly."
"Thanks," he said. He stood up straight, putting his sword away. "You know, you're not as harsh as Xena is with this." At this statement, Gabrielle smiled a small smile.
"Yeah… That might not be too good of a thing, though. The soldier's we'll be up against will all be like Xena and worse. So don't get too comfortable with me." She wasn't out to make Xena look like the bad guy, but rather to give a reality check. In fact, even Xena was probably being too nice to the soldiers… Not that any of the trainees would really agree or know any better. "Now, I think you've had enough sword training for the day. I want you to go to Xena to work on archery. There should be at least 30 soldiers there already. You won't be in trouble, though for being late; Xena knows I've had you."
The day was long and hard, but after all the matching ones before it Gabrielle wasn't too phased. She met with countless individual soldiers, fighting with them one-on-one, and also instructed large groups of thirty to forty soldiers. When the two weren't together, Gabrielle and Xena switched and traded soldiers periodically throughout the day to make sure the training was even and thorough, but also to not exhaust the men and women by keeping at one exercise for too many consecutive hours. Fatiguing them to ruin was not the goal. Instead it was to build up endurance… Zeus knew they'd need it. But there were times, too, specific days within the week, when Gabrielle and Xena would train their soldiers together. Sometimes their partnered training was physical, direct combat with the men and women, and other times it was simple demonstration followed by execution. Different soldiers preferred different instructors, naturally, as Gabrielle had learned directly or happened to overhear, but the most popular among the army in general seemed to be the combination of the two.
"They like us, you know," Gabrielle said to her friend one night in their tent. "When you and I train them together, they like it." Xena looked at Gabrielle.
"What do you mean? How do you know?" Gabrielle smiled.
"They tell me. When you and I work together on Demonstration Days, things click for some of them better. They pay attention more, the men and women… They say it boosts their morale."
"Huh… Well that's interesting."
"Yeah, it is, isn't it? You know, they say we compliment each other. They say that there's a balance when we work together with them."
"I'm not really surprised."
"Hrm?"
"Well, think about it, Gabrielle; You and I… We're a team. We have been for a long time. Our soldiers obviously can sense that. And what better way to lift spirits and reinforce focus than to have a strong unit leading the army?" Gabrielle thought for a moment about Xena's words, a small smile creeping onto her face. She laid herself down.
"You're right," she said softly. Then she grinned, an impish look on her face. "You know, they think I'm nicer than you."
"Oh, they do not-"
"No no, they do. Some of them even like me better."
"Don't flatter yourself, Gabrielle-"
"No, it's true! Ask them."
"You know, sometime you make it real difficult for me to like you when you're acting like a son of a Bac-"
"Thaaaaaaat's not really necessary now, is it?