FOR A TRULY SIMPLE THING

Gabrielle opened one eye painfully she could feel the cold tiles of a floor she watched as everything blurred in front of her before slowly coming back in to focus. She was lying on a decoratively tiled floor on her front, she groaned painfully putting a hand on her face only to pull it away as saw the dirt which was all over her fingers and palm. She blinked pulling herself up on to her knees only to feel the ice cold air on her naked body, causing her to shiver. She eyed her hand then the other seeing the dirt all over it. There was also a metallic almost bloody taste in her mouth, she eyed the room again it was a decorative bathroom with the image of Aphrodite tiled in to the floor.

There was a huge deep set tub made of marble along with a sunken in wash basin and a large round silver mirror which was lined in weaving dolphins all made of gold. All the marble was white which gave the wash room an almost heavenly feel. There were white fluffy towels and a thick heavy sheep wool robe on a hanger close to the door. She stood up slowly ignoring the pain as it pulsated through every muscle in her body. She could see again as clearly as crystal yet the joy of that was tarnished by her body which felt like it had been run over by a chariot. She put her hand on her aching jaw what in Ouroboros's name had she done last night?

She looked up slowly watching as her reflection came in to view for the first time. She could see a woman in her late twenties looking back at her with forest green eyes and short blonde hair which looked a mess. On her right eye was a deep scar which cut through her eyebrow and had clearly been made by a blade. She blinked seeing a dried blood steam which was running down from her mouth. She eyed her dirty hands again as she looked down at her naked body which she hadn't seen since she'd been pulled out of the pit. Though she had felt it when the maid had helped her put on her clothes. She could see thin scars on her shoulders and arms unlike the one of her eye they had healed up better.

Around her neck hung her godly symbol of Ouroboros on a very long chain which was slightly too long. She slowly turned gold tap watching as steaming hot water ran in to the sunken bowl. She had no idea what had happened last night the last thing she remembered was the healer's helper giving her a sedative to make her go to sleep and then nothing but darkness. She turned the tap off slowly using the warm water to clean her face and hands, as well as her feet which were also covered in dirt. She shook her head she felt awful it wasn't just the pain in her body. She felt like she wanted to be sick right now, her stomach felt so full, like it was at bursting point.

She grabbed the cloth opposite as cleaning herself fully of the dirt trying to ignore the feeling. She grabbed the thick robe opposite putting it around her body catching sight of the dirty marks on the floor. She slowly opened the door to main bed room seeing the bed along with more dirty marks which led up to balcony. She breathed in as she carefully got down on her knees cleaning them up, she had no idea what she'd done last night or even how she'd ended up in the bathroom but there was something so familiar about it. Only she couldn't place it in her mind it was far too distant for her to grasp, but it was there. Everything felt confusing yet almost with in her reach, there was something about this event that mattered. She was someone who had once had purpose but she couldn't remember what that purpose was. It was something that mattered to others, but strangely it didn't matter to her for some reason.

8

Xena slowly wrote her name on one of the documents in the study, she was bored and tired she'd had a very restless nights sleep. The constant need to visit the bathroom had not helped but then that was the price she'd paid for drinking so much. She adjusted her decorative silver plated shoulder guard frankly she wanted to go back to bed. Instead she had to sign papers and requests most of which she denied anyway as they were ether to costly or just plain stupid. She looked up as a banging hit her door breaking her from her thoughts. Gods what now? She lowered her gaze back to the scrolls. "Come in!" She looked up watching as Demetrius burst in through her door.

She looked at him for a long moment seeing the uncertainty in his eyes. "Yes?" Demetrius adjusted his armour why did he have to be the one to do this, why couldn't Iona bring the Empress the bad news? She brought her everything else. He took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry to disturb you Empress, but I have some bad news." He slowly eased up a long peacock feather. "One of your male peacocks was killed last night." Xena looked up sharply a part of her wanted to smile she loathed those stupid birds, but it was in her best interest to show some kind of sadness. She slowly placed down her quill. "Did one of the royal guards shoot it by mistake?"

She knew full well the stupid over grown birds liked to display on the palace's shooting range at times. Demetrius looked at the feather in his hand. "No Empress, it was eaten by something, there was nothing left, no bones, no body parts only the tail feathers and a lot of blood staining the grass." Xena put her hands together. "That's most unfortunate." Demetrius breathed in deeply this was where this subject was about to turn strange. He slowly eased up a set of tattered white robes which were now no more than rags covered in blood and dirt so she could see them. "We found these in the royal garden opposite the feathers."

Xena stood up sharply feeling her gaze dart. "Is everyone accounted for?" Demetrius breathed in deeply seeing the flicker of uncertainty in her eyes for a second. "Yes I've just had the guard's do a head count everyone is still alive." He turned just in time to see Iona walk past him she ignored him as she turned to the Empress. "Apologise Empress for interrupting you, I had my unit search the royal gardens and one of them just found this." She slowly eased up the item in her hand which was a thick razor edged tooth which had come off the thing in question. "We have a very serious problem."

Xena walked towards her taking the tooth from her hand it was longer than her longest finger and looked unhealthy. Iona breathed in deeply. "There's a werewolf hiding here in the palace, the tooth matches the profile." She breathed in sharply. "We've also found large heavy tracks in the wet area of the gardens, its clearly large, which is to its disadvantage as we won't miss it if we find it." She folded her arms. "From what we know werewolves hide during the day and sleep, they only come out at night, so it must be here right now sleeping." Xena looked at them both feeling the anger take over instantly how had one of these monsters got in to her palace with out her knowing? How had it killed something in her garden without anyone seeing it?

She leaned over taking her sword along with the scabbard as she spoke feeling her teeth grind together. "Have the royal guard search every room in the palace and leave nothing unturned check, cellars, food and wine stores and any where else it could hide." She looked up slightly. "I'll be coming with you Demetrius I want to search for this monster personally." Demetrius lowered his head respectfully. "Yes Empress." He knew better than to argue with her on this matter despite dangerous it was for her. Xena didn't like werewolves and nether did he, they were violent monsters and the thought of having one hiding in this palace turned his stomach and the sooner they found it and killed it the better.

8

Gabrielle adjusted the blue patterned dress which she'd found in the tall wooden cupboard of her room, she couldn't remember what had happened to the clothes she'd been wearing. Frankly though a part of her didn't care all she cared about was seeing everything around her and taking in all the sights which had denied to her over these past three weeks due to her eyes not being able to see. Her gaze shifted to the largest of the rooms along the corridor. She'd ignored the surprised looks of the servants as she walked past them taking every sight and sound. She stopped looking in to the large room which was filled with hundreds of scrolls all in tucked away in pigeon hole caps on a huge curved book case which went from one end of the room to the other.

Two desks were at ether side of the room complete with chairs each was filled with empty and half written scrolls both have quills in their ink wells as well as other more personal items like wooden figurines and metal godly symbols. In the middle of the room was a huge decorative scroll which was laid out over two tables. The room its self was empty she opened the door wider walking inside looking around her there was the familiar smell that someone had been smoking. She moved towards the two tables seeing the wooden pipe on one of the desks. The action was automatic as her hand moved putting the pipe in her mouth.

She eased up the lit candle of the desk lighting the end watching as dark smoke penetrated the air all around her. It was a familiar sensation to her so familiar in fact that it felt natural. She breathed in deeply enjoying the flavour before breathing out the smoke as she looked down seeing the huge decorative scroll which someone was working on. It was filled with beautiful imagery and writing there were large parchment pieces laid out on top of it with writing on them. She breathed in the pipe again eyeing the huge scrolls text. She eased her fingers slowly over the image of one of the big standing wolves with antlers all of this seemed so familiar. Her gaze shifted to a piece of text which was written down on a piece of parchment close by which the person was struggling to translate.

She moved over to it slowly taking the quill from the well on the desk feeling her hand move making the corrections to the text which she knew were wrong, the person had the translations completely backwards. She turned to the huge scroll looking at it for a long moment before turning back to the parchment fixing the rest of the errors.

"What in Tartarus are you doing in here!?"

Phrixus watched as the short blonde haired woman bolted up right the quill in her hand. He grunted seeing that his pipe was in her mouth as well, he felt his teeth grind together as he walked towards her. "This is important work!" He moved towards her watching as her green eyes darted. "How dare you write on one of my research scrolls, who do you think you are!?" Gabrielle eyed him for a long moment she didn't care for his outburst of anger, she felt a wide smile form. "My name is Gabrielle." Phrixus raised an eyebrow he didn't think as eased up his hand. "Well Gabrielle, give me back my pipe now, didn't your mother ever teach you that it's bad manners to borrow things with out asking?"

Gabrielle eyed him in disgust as she pulled the pipe out of her mouth breathing the smoke in his direction not caring for the sarcasm in her tone as she spoke. "Your mother should have told you that it helps to label your things." Phrixus grabbed his pipe from her hand. "Its time for you to leave…now get out of this room!" He watched as she stepped away the anger in her eyes as she put the quill in her other hand down on the desk. She walked out closing the door behind her. He snorted in disgust what a rude little servant, he should talk to Tiara about her choice of cleaning staff, because clearly this one was lacking in manners. He turned grabbing the document she'd been writing on.

He turned watching as Chara come in through the door she sniffed the air as she spoke. "Gods Phrixus I wish you wouldn't smoke its bad for your health." Phrixus grunted aloud eyeing her. "For once it wasn't me, it was one of the staff I came in here and she was smoking my pipe and writing on one of my scrolls." Chara raised an eyebrow. "Which one we have three women who come in here and clean." Phrixus eyed her. "It was this short blonde haired woman, who has green eyes." He paused seeing the confusion in her face. "You can't miss her she's got this dirty great scar across her right eye." Chara stared at him for a long moment as his words sunk in. "Phrixus that woman is not part of the cleaning staff."

Phrixus looked up sharply. "What?" Chara shook her head. "That's the woman the Empress pulled out of the pit five weeks ago she supposed to be blind. Last I heard there was an incident with one of the maids and she was bed ridden again." Phrixus pointed to the door. "You're telling me the woman who was smoking on my pipe and being rude was her?" Chara sighed aloud. "Yes." Phrixus put a hand on his face in frustration. "Oh great I just insulted a guest." He eyed his scroll. "Well clearly she's not blind anymore." He felt his gaze dart as he started to read her corrections only to freeze on the spot as what she had changed hit home. He pulled the scroll closer rereading again to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Chara moved over putting a hand on his arm. "Are you okay?" Phrixus eased the scroll up so she could see it. "I don't believe it, that rude young woman has just corrected my mistakes and her corrections make perfect sense." He watched as she took the scroll reading it the shock spreading across her face. "She fixed the transaction and she wrote down the corrections for the letters I was struggling with." He turned pointing at the huge scroll. "This means only one thing and I can't believe I'm saying this." He stepped over putting both his hands on the table, the thought was shocking him, he'd spent so long trying to work this mystery scroll out. "She must be able to some how read this damn scroll!"

End of part 7

Silvermoonlight

I'm not really in to self plugs, but for anyone who's interested all book covers for my Xena Fanfiction can be found at Deviant art, which can be found by going to homepage in my Fanfiction profile.