~II~

The sound of ringing interrupted her dream and as she stood on the mountaintop, the man of her dreams beside her pulled out a cell phone and started to chat. This in itself was strange as he was clad head to toe in black leather and the nokia just didn't go with the sword. It was then that she realised it was a dream and her phone was ringing rather loudly and very close to her ear. Xena attempted to bolt upright but there was something heavy on her chest restricting movement. For a moment she panicked before taking a breath and opening her eyes slowly. She came face to face with her roommate's evil persian cat which looked her straight in the eye and refused to move.

"Come on, Alti, move it!"

When the cat simply yawned and swished its tail. Xena made a mental note to stop Gabrielle from going within a ten block radius of the pound ever again. She loved her best friend and flatmate dearly; however when it came to pet saving Gabrielle tended to save the ones that no one else wanted, generally because they were evil.

There was Hope the budgie who conducted weird ceremonies in her cage, Alti of course with a tendency to torture anything, Callisto the maltese terrier who constantly fought with Buffy the terrier down the hall, Draco the goldfish who had formed an army of sorts with the other fish and last but not least Gabrielle's beloved hermit crabs Caesar and Brutus who appeared to be building an empire out of shells.

Xena grabbed the phone and hit 'talk' at the same time as getting swiped by Alti for moving too much.

"Hel...Damn Cat!"

"And a good morning to you sister dear", Lyceus cackled.

"You sound happy - too happy for this time of the morning."

"It's noon."

"It's Sunday."

Point taken. Meet me for lunch in fifteen minutes

That means moving Ly!

Bella Costa in fifteen Xe and trust me it'll be worth it.