Silent As Stone
Xena stepped forward eyeing the small huts she had arrived here as a guest and after a long rest she'd found herself walking around in the early mornings light. The camp was quite apart from the Amazon guard and a few members who were early risers walking around. The burnt out smell of the central fire was floating through the air. She carried on moving seeing Ephiny look up the head guard was leaning against the hut, she gave her a wide grin. "You can't sleep ether?" Ephiny shrugged her shoulders. "No, I always find myself rising at dawn." She winked. "Glad to know I'm not the only one." Xena adjusted her leathers watching as a small woman walked out of her hut in the distance. She was very young eighteen if that with long blonde hair and green eyes she seemed to look back distantly before moving away very quickly. Xena blinked turning to the guard. "Who's that? I didn't see her at your celebration last night." Ephiny shook her head watching as the young blonde girl made her way over to the large lake opposite the village and then sat down to stare at it.
She'd done it every morning ever since she'd been brought here two seasons ago and no one really knew why. Saying that though no one knew much about this young woman since no one could really speak to her. She didn't talk, all people really knew was that her name was Gabrielle and that she was from Potidaea and that she had been a slave. She wasn't going to lie, the girl was good at fighting but she didn't socialize and she could become very afraid very quickly which meant that she couldn't fight along side the other Amazons. The truth was that the healers had no idea how to get in to her mind or break her emotional walls. They were at the point of giving up and had said that she wasn't going to come out of her shell and no amount of forcing would make her open up. She shook her head sadly meeting Xena's curious gaze. "Her names Gabrielle, she was a slave we picked her up about a league from here two seasons ago." Xena looked up slightly watching the sitting woman intensely. "You saved her from the slavers?" Ephiny shook here head. "No we didn't in fact we I don't much at all. All I know is that she was covered in blood and had a bloody sword in her hand when our scouts found her."
She shook her head. "We found an upturned carriage and four dead men including her master, we think that the carriage had an accident and crashed and that she took advantage of the situation and killed all four men and her master, but we don't know for sure. We can't get her to talk and she won't socialize with us, so we just let her be." She watched as Xena moved forward she grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?" Xena eyed her freeing her arm. "I'm going to speak to her." Ephiny stepped back. "You can try but I wouldn't make her unhappy Melosa has a soft spot for her, she sees her as a daughter." Xena eyed her for a long moment. "Look I just want to say hello I'm not going to make her unhappy I promise you that." Ephiny felt a smile form. "Well I wish you well then but I think she'll give you cold shoulder it's what she does." Xena turned walking forward. "Thanks I'll keep that in mind."
8
Gabrielle looked at the flower in her hand she moved her fingers over its delicate petals. She stopped realizing that the light was being blocked out by someone who was now towering over her. She turned very slowly seeing the tall woman with dark hair and black leathers standing over her imposing frame blocking out the light. She turned away people always blocked out her light, the only reason she never said how anything, was because that everyone was bigger and stronger than her. Xena looked at the young girl whose lush green eyes turned to her before looking back to the flower. She coughed realizing her mistake as she side stepped. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to block your light." She could see a long thin faded scar on the young woman's face going through, her eyebrow and her right eye. Obviously she had been punished by her master at some point and he'd tried to destroy her face. Frankly he hadn't done that great of a job because she could still see a very beautiful young woman looking back at her.
Gabrielle blinked turning to eye the taller woman well that was a first, no one ever cared when they normally came over to speak to her. Xena breathed in deeply she slowly sat down next to the young girl hoping that if she was on her level she wouldn't be so frightening. She could see the slight fear in the young woman's eyes. She seemed very tense she turned giving her a wide smile ignoring Ephiny and number of other Amazons who had just woken up and were staring that them both. She turned back smiling again "I can see why you want to get away from them they love to gather like vultures." Gabrielle looked at the flower the woman had no idea how true her statement was. She hated that they gathered around her and tried to force her to speak to them, when she didn't want to. She turned back to the woman this was the first time any person had just talked to her in a long time. "I guess they do." Xena looked up sharply realizing that the young woman had spoken it was a silky voice but very small.
She looked at the lake. "Is this why you come up here? To get away from them." Gabrielle looked at the flower before meeting the woman's blue eyes fully for the first time. "Yes, they don't talk to me anyway they just talk at me." Xena felt her smile widen. "That's a shame because if for once they realized that they were stopping you from seeing your flowers in the sun light then they might see that they were being rude." Gabrielle looked up sharply blinking in shock. "You, how did you know that?" Xena inched a little closer. "Because unlike them I prefer to look in to persons face so I know what there thinking and your face told me that you wanted me to move so you could see your flower." Gabrielle looked at her flower for a long moment. She looked up not really thinking about her next action as she raised the flower putting it in the tall dark haired warrior's hand. "Thank you." Xena blinked eyeing the blue flower. "You're giving this to me why?" Gabrielle felt the beginning of a smile form and it felt so long since she had smiled. "Because you let me see it in the light, I thought you might want to see it now."
Xena raised the flower ignoring the commotion behind her in the huts obviously they'd worked out that she'd gotten this young frightened woman talking. She turned to the young woman who had an almost smile on her face. "What's your name?" True they had said Gabrielle but she wanted to hear it from the young woman's lips. Gabrielle looked up slightly. "Gabrielle." She paused trying to ignore the sudden commotion and gathering in the village behind them as well as the stunned eyes. "What do they call you?" Xena looked at the flower again. "Xena." She turned rolling her eyes as she eased out her hand. "Well Gabrielle would you like to go somewhere quieter?" She eyed the gathering Amazons. "Away from the peanut gallery, so to speak?" she watched as the young woman slowly took hold off her hand as they both stood up. She ignored the utter commotion from behind them, no wonder this young beautiful woman liked her own company. It seemed that everyone loved to gather when any little thing happened.
Silvermoonlight
Idea never used but the scar concept was carried over to Shattering Of The Silver Light.
Peanut Gallery refers to annoying people in the crowd, historically they were people who used to throw peanuts at the entertainer and shout out rude things to him or her to put them off.