TO KNOW ONLY ANGER AND PAIN

Gabrielle felt the force as she was shoved in to the study by Iona once more. The bitch had killed her Wood Pigeon she wanted nothing more than to break her face, it was taking all of her restraint not to do so. By Ouroboros she was getting so sick of these talks if you could call them that anymore, at this moment in time it was more like being in prison and the Empress was her master. Even the dark off the pit was better than this! She looked up realizing that the study was empty and the Empress wasn't present. She breathed in adjusting her shirt as she pushed her long blonde fringe out of her eyes. She eyed Iona who stepped back easing out her sword blade so she could see it. "You think you're really funny don't you? Cooking up my pet, like that and serving it to me!" Iona raised an eyebrow. "Oh the scrawny little pigeon, that was your pet? You see I had this idea that you brought it for your lunch so I took it down to Kalika and she was more than happy to hack of its little head and have it cooked up for you." Gabrielle narrowed her gaze. "I hate you." Iona smirked. "Oh I'm flattered by the sentiment."

Gabrielle sneered slightly keeping her eye on her as felt an evil smile form. "I hope you don't have a pet because if you do I'll find it kill it and eat it tonight mark my words." Iona shook her head enjoying the moment. "Your not allowed out to night remember? It's the royal banquet no animals allowed, that includes you." Gabrielle eyed her in disgust. "You're going to pay for what you did to my bird." Iona raised an eyebrow. "So much anger over a scrawny little pigeon, it stuns me." Gabrielle felt her teeth grind together. "It was my bird I brought it! I was going to look after it and you had no right to do what you did to it, it wasn't yours."

Iona laughed slightly. "It isn't yours ether, you forget your place Gabrielle you are not a guest here, you're a prisoner and prisoners don't have the right to own anything, it's about time you realized that." Gabrielle turned away painfully looking at the floor. "I realized that truth a long time ago Iona, I have no delusions about why I'm being kept here." She looked up as the door was opened and the Empress walked in to the room she was dressed in a thick velvet red robe. She looked tired and there was the faint smell of alcohol in the air. She watched as the dark haired woman seated herself at her desk, she was starting to realize something the Empress liked to drink a lot.

The other staff never said anything or may be it was that they just liked to pretend that they didn't notice. She had nothing against alcoholics she'd met a few in her life time. Everyone had their weakness hers was opium clearly the Empress's was drink which had caught up with her today. It was clear that she had a hangover a very bad one and it was early morning. She breathed in deeply before speaking. "You know if you drink some water it might ease your headache." Xena looked up sharply eyeing the short haired blonde woman she wasn't in the mood for her smart ass mouth today. "Shut up! I'm not in the mood for your mouthy little comments today, is that understood?"

Gabrielle raised her hand. "Oh I understand Empress." Xena turned yanking open a draw pulling out a small wooden box she opened it eyeing the white powder which she spooned in to a goblet of water which was sitting on the desk watching as it bubbled. The best headache powder in Rome and she hated drinking it. She took a slow drink trying not to gag because of how truly vile it tasted she looked up licking her lips as she put the goblet down. "Tonight the royals are coming and you aren't to show yourself." Gabrielle breathed in deeply. "So everyone keeps on telling me." Xena looked at her for a long moment. "Well then you know your place."

Gabrielle looked at her in disgust. "Oh yes my place that is becoming very clear now." Xena looked up catching the slightly vindictive tone as she took another drink from her goblet trying to ignore the vile flavour. "You said the werewolves had cities so did they take you to one?" Gabrielle looked at her hand. "Yes." Xena looked up slightly. "Then tell me what they did with you when you got there?" Gabrielle breathed in deeply she could feel the memory echoing in the back of her mind deeply and painfully She could hear the sound of the sword hitting the wooden post ever echoing the pain of her lost childhood among other things.

8

Gabrielle smashed the light weight Xiphos sword against the wooden post then brought the other one up hitting the post with it. She was so tired her and the other ten new recruits had done nothing but hit the posts all day. She'd been here for two months and her life felt more like a surreal dream than reality. She'd been led to place in the middle of a forest where there was an abandoned wooden settlement.

The settlement wasn't the werewolf city there was an opening to underground city which was in a store house which led down to a vast underground net work filled with rooms and huge open areas. All of these tunnels were coated in white cement and so large you could stand up and walk through them there was everything a market an armour workshop and living areas. All in all it was three levels deep and had special tunnels that led to the surface to bring in clean fresh air. The highest levels were lived in by the scribes the book makers and the highest ranking warriors. The middle level was for the working class, the builders, sellers and craftsman as well as the middle ranked warriors and the lowest level was for the trainees and new recruits.

She'd been taken to a scribe who had written down her name, age and her history. Then she'd been given a small room on the lowest level which had a bed and an area for cooking as well as a very small bathing area. It wasn't a very wide room in fact it was very small and cramped not that she really cared though it had been so long since she'd slept in a warm bed. She'd been given food, new clothes and a few trinket games and been allowed to sleep as well as regain all of the weight she'd lost. Then a high ranking warrior had appeared telling her to come with him, she'd then been given a leather armour and told that she would be trained as warrior in the name of the Imperial Council, as her twelve month ordeal meant that she was the just right. She tried to contest this by saying she didn't want to fight or kill as she'd already killed a man by mistake and that she was a carpenter by trade.

Her plea had been ignored and she'd been told to shut up and do as she was told as she was a half breed and didn't have the right to choose and that it was the job of the great Imperial Council to choose what each half bleeds job was. Apparently half breed was a cruel term for some one who wasn't born a werewolf and had been bitten to turn them in to one.

To top it off they didn't have the same rights as werewolves born from werewolf parents, they had their occupations chosen for them. Normally based on their back grounds unlike the natural born werewolves who could pick any profession they wished. Her history for some reason meant that she was best suited to kill. They had not lied about that the first day of training the general who was teaching them, had made it very clear. The aim was to kill quickly in both forms and turn anyone who seemed like good material for the werewolf community. In essence it was all about expanding the werewolf race by any means necessary and anyone who got in their way was to be killed.

Some hunting law had been passed by the Empress of Greece who was now living in Rome with her husband Julius Caesar and that was that all werewolves should be hunted down and killed, each head was worth twenty dinars apparently. Now she was being trained in two sword combat to carry out this mission in the name of her race. She was in a large room which was filled with weapons and training items, she just wasn't any good at this though and she didn't want to kill people she'd already killed the shop keeper and she didn't want to go through that again. She slammed her sword in to the post again followed by the other, she had the morning off to rest during this time she could do as she pleased, then at noon her training in human form had started and it would end until nightfall.

Then she had to change forms and carry on her training in werewolf form where she learnt how to use her strength to break things. She'd also carry huge weights to strengthen her muscles and this training went on until early morning. The only good thing about this was she was getting money, as being a warrior meant she got paid a small salary.

"No Gabrielle you're not trying hard enough!"

Gabrielle turned as the fifty year old grey haired man named of Titus walked up to her he was their trainer and he wasn't always kind. He grabbed her hand forcing her to swing harder in to the wood as he spoke. "Do you want someone to kill you? Put your back in to it, you're not sweeping up hey on a farm, when you strike you have to mean it!"

He stepped away from her eyeing her long mattered hair. "And cut your hair shorter it being down to your waist is to long it needs so be half that length, I'm not going to tell you again!" Gabrielle looked at the weapons blade. "I don't like killing people." Titus breathed in deeply he eyed her as he stroking his long white beard. "Yet out of all of the young recruits here you've the only one who's already killed." Gabrielle eyed the other young men and women who were the same age as her she hadn't really gotten to know any off them so far. All she did know was that like her they'd been bitten by werewolves although unlike her their families had been killed by werewolves. Deep down in her heart it was comforting to know that her family was safe and still alive.

She looked up at Titus who had many scars on his face. "I didn't mean to kill that man…it was a mistake." She lowered her gaze sadly. "I can still see his face staring back at me." Titus laughed slightly seeing the confusion on the face of the other recruits. "Still clinging to that last thread of humanity I see." He turned easing out his long dagger from his belt as he towering over her. He smiled raising the point so it was close to the scar on her right eye. "Tell me something was it not a dagger just like this one which gave you that scar?" Gabrielle looked at the raised blade. "Yes it was."

Titus felt his smile widen. "Was it a human who scared your face?" Gabrielle breathed in painfully as she spoke. "Yes it was the leader of the slavers who captured me." Titus grabbed her face as he pulled the dagger away. "Humanity isn't kind Gabrielle, it isn't noble and you are no longer a part of it so unless you want another scar like it, you should wise up." He let go of her face. "Or you're going to die human's don't like werewolves there's a hunting order to kill us all. So you have two choices fail and die and become a pelt on someone's mantel piece or you kill them and live and bite those who are worthy making them like us." He turned to Gabrielle. "That last thread of humanity makes you weak, it also makes you venerable! So let it go!"

He turned pointing at the post. "Now hit that post and envision it as that person who scared your face with his dagger blade." Gabrielle turned swinging the sword full force feeling her anger took over, she watched as the blade hit its mark, his voice came again. "Harder!" Gabrielle swung both blades watching as splinters flew as she let the rage take over, his voice echoed through her rage filled haze. "That's it much better!"

Gabrielle watched as Titus walked away she ignored her boiling anger as she put one of her swords down digging it in to the ground. She took hold of her long hair which was still slightly mattered at the end pulling it over her shoulder so it was lying over her chest. She'd been trying since she'd come here to un-mat it but her attempts hadn't been very successful. She took hold of it gripping it tightly as she ran the blade across it slicing a clean cut watching as the long mattered hair fell away.

She felt her new hair length which was just over her shoulders. She looked at the hair in her hands which was in essence her childhood locks which had been ruined from her twelve month stay in the wilderness. She wasn't a child anymore though and she couldn't understand why in all that time in the wideness living of animals and sleeping under the stars that she'd kept it long when she couldn't maintain it. Maybe the truth was that she'd been clutching on to the notion of going home again. She turned throwing her mattered hair in to the fire close by which was there to keep the room warm. She was no longer a child anymore and she couldn't return to that life. Her life was now that of a warrior in training and she had to go with it despite how she felt. She had what she needed right now she had a bed, warm clothes and that was enough.

8

Xena looked up from the desk. "So they trained to be a killer fascinating." She paused ignoring the cold look the blonde woman was giving her. "How does marriage work for werewolves and what are the rules on genders?" Gabrielle folded her arms. "Werewolves are very strict when it comes to age of consent. You can't sleep with other members of your race until you're eighteen and if you have sex under age you'll get ten lashes for doing so. Though when you reach eighteen there's are no rules about who you choose to be with, be it man or woman and this applies to both genders."

She breathed in deeply. "You can do completely as you please for how ever long you want. It's a very free community in that sense werewolves believe that the freedom to choose your partner is the most important thing of all. As when werewolves choose it should be someone they truly love and the bound should be for life." Xena raised an eyebrow. "So you can only breed among your own race?" Gabrielle tensed sharply. "Yes, breeding with humans is forbidden regardless of gender and doing so means serious punishment, namely your ears are tattered and if your caught doing it again it will mean your death. If you're a half breed you can only sleep with other half breeds not full werewolves. The punishment for that is death for the half breed involved the full werewolf only gets his or her ears tattered."

She sneered slightly. "The Imperial Council believes that half breed blood taints the pure blood line despite that in werewolf form there's no difference between ether, in any way, shape or form." Xena finished off her goblet. "Not so free then." Gabrielle narrowed her gaze. "No where is free, every place has its price." Xena looked up feeling a cold smile form. "My, my, we are in a cryptic mood today, aren't we?"

Gabrielle took in a deep breath feeling the rage start to boil deep with in the pit of her stomach. "That happens when you're in a palace like this one and the staff treat you in the way they do." Xena looked up sharply. "All of my staff have treated you with respect." Gabrielle felt her hand slowly form a fist. "No they haven't most of your staff have done nothing but bully me, ever since they found out I wasn't human!"

She felt her teeth grind together. "I've had a heretic symbol painted on my door, my foods been laid on the floor out side my room. My room has not been cleaned in ages, my list has been completely ignored and I've sent it three times. I've been beaten for going outside even though I had permission! Then to top it all of Iona killed my pet Wood Pigeon and had the cooking staff serve it to me!" Iona breathed in deeply. "All of this is lies Empress none of what the beast is saying is true!" Xena eased herself up slowly ignoring her raging headache as she eyed Gabrielle. "You know something I am getting sick of you, ever since I found you've been nothing but a thorn in my side. I've given you everything a room, food and comforts, which is much more than you deserve!"

Gabrielle looked up painfully. "Much more than I deserve what do I deserve, a cage? Because so far this palace has been close enough to one, I can't leave not even to go to the market and I can't even buy a pet with out it being taken away from me and killed." Xena sneered slightly feeling the anger start to burn. "You will be silent!" Gabrielle narrowed her gaze. "No I won't be silent, I hate this palace I've lived in better places than this and they didn't have comfortable beds! I'm nothing to you I'm just a thing at your beck and call, you hate me and you loath what I am. You stopped respecting me the moment you realized that I wasn't human despite that I've always respected you."

Xena slammed her fist down hard on the desk ignoring the pain in her fingers from the blow. "You will do as I command and be silent!" Gabrielle breathed in painfully. "Is that the reason you drink Empress? Because you like to ignore the bad things that happen around your palace and pretend they aren't happening?" Xena felt her body tense as the blinding rage took over. "Get out!" Gabrielle sneered in direction as Iona grabbed her shoulder moving her towards the door. "No wonder you don't sleep well at night, you find pleasure in allowing harm to come to those who have done you no wrong other than be different from you." Xena snarled as she looked at Iona. "I said get her out of here!" She watched as Iona led Gabrielle out of the room closing the door behind her, she sat back trying to ignore her headache which had just gotten worse. How dare that little bitch say that to her she was the Empress of Greece! She sneered slightly she didn't have to answer to her for anything, Gabrielle was the one who was lying and she doubted now that anything she'd said about her staff was true in anyway.

End of part 24

Silvermoonlight

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