Gabrielle and Joxer made their way into a busy tavern, where they found an empty table to sit at as a server came to take their order. The bard then smiled as she wrote something on the scroll as their food was brought to the table.

TAVERN OWNER

Here you go.

JOXER

How much will that be?

The tavern owner smiled.

TAVERN OWNER

Don't be silly, your meal is completely free.

The tavern owner then turned to address the rest of the patrons with a smile.

TAVERN OWNER

And all drinks are on the house.

The bard smiled at her handy work until the ceiling began to leak heavily.

PATRON 1

What the?

PATRON 2

Wait a minute, it's mead.

The tavern erupted in cheers as most of the patrons began filling their mugs with the free-flowing drink, while Jover took a more direct approach and just leaned back with his mouth open to drink straight from the source.

GABRIELLE

(Thinking to herself) I think I'm gonna have to be a bit more careful with my wording from now on.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Some time later, the roof had stopped leaking booze, and most of the tavern goers had drunk themselves into an inebriated state. Gabrielle and Joxer had eaten and drank their fill and the blonde stood from her seat.

GABRIELLE

Well, time's a-wasting. We've got a lot of good to do today, Joxer, a lot of good.

Joxer smiled before downing the last of his drink and getting up to follow the bard toward the door. But as they were just about to leave, they heard a commotion behind them. The two turn around to see that in their drunken state, some of the patrons had begun to cause trouble.

GABRIELLE

You know? There's always one drunk who spoils

it for everyone.

JOXER

One drunk?

Before Gabrielle knew what happened, an all out fight had broken out across the whole tavern.

GABRIELLE

Wait, this wasn't supposed to happen.

The bard ducked out of the way of a chair that was thrown her way, as one man was slammed onto the bar and another smashed a full mug onto someone else's head.

GABRIELLE

This is chaos!

The fighting continued to escalate when a small unseen light flashed and Aphrodite materialized sitting casually on the bar and smiled to herself as she kept her presence hidden and watched the mayhem unfolding around her.

JOXER

Well at least it can't get any worse, right?

?

(Angry tone) Where are they?!

Hearing the sudden shout, Joxer and Gabrielle turned their attention to the door as they saw the barbarians they had encountered earlier storm into the tavern.

JOXER

I take that back. It just got so much worse.

The barbarian leader scanned the chaotic scene before spotting the bard and her friend.

BARBARIAN LEADER

(Angry tone) You! You think you can make fools of us?!

Joxer put his hands up defensively as the barbarian leader walked toward them.

JOXER

(Nervous tone) Hey now. I'm sure this is just one, big misunderstanding.

BARBARIAN LEADER

(Angry tone) Do you know who you're dealing with?!

The man drew his sword as he and his men closed in. Meanwhile Gabrielle quickly got her scroll.

BARBARIAN LEADER

(Angry tone) We are barbarians! And we will…

The young woman hastily began to write, finishing just as the leader of the barbarians raised his weapon to strike Joxer down.

BARBARIAN LEADER

...go west. Yes. We will go west.

Joxer felt a rush of relief and slight disbelief as the leader of the barbarians suddenly lowered his weapon and left the tavern with his men to head west. The problem appeared solved until Gabrielle heard someone shout that the barbarians were headed toward the orphanage and the young woman hastily wrote for them to change direction. She again hoped to have gotten anyone out of harm's way of the group, when she heard someone else yell that a village was now in the barbarian's path.

GABRIELLE

Okay. Minor setback.

She wrote again.

GABRIELLE

"They turned east."

Elsewhere, the barbarians did just that, and shortly after, Gabrielle heard another person in the tavern yell.

MAN

Now they're heading for Akanacia!

The bard sat back in her seat in frustration.

GABRIELLE

(Talking to herself annoyed) Oh, come on. How are you people even getting this information?

Aphrodite laughed as she watched the young woman try to come up with a way to move the barbarians somewhere that wouldn't put any innocent people in danger. She tried writing several other ways of getting rid of them, but each time found an unintentional flaw with what she had written, Until out of desperation she wrote them into a cave where they all fell into a deep sleep which finally seemed to do the trick.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

GABRIELLE

(Exasperated tone) Finally!

The bard slouched forward over the table.

JOXER

(Sarcasm) So, this is all the good you wanted to do, huh?

GABRIELLE

(Annoyed tone) Don't start with me. I am not writing another word.

Aphrodite laughed in triumph as she disappeared, leaving a very disheartened bard in her wake.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

GABRIELLE

I don't get it. I mean sure, my writing has always been really vivid.

Some time later Gabrielle and Joxer walked through the town as the bard tried to figure out why everything she was writing seemed to be going wrong.

GABRIELLE

I must be missing something.

JOXER

Well, maybe it needs a little work. You know, like editing, or something.

GABRIELLE

That's it, Joxer. I'm not editing my work. All I have to do is be more careful before I actually write something down.

The woman smiled as she found a renewed sense of hope in her new power.

GABRIELLE

Now that I understand the true power of this scroll, I can end hunger, disease. And even… war.

She smiled as a new, wonderful idea filled her mind and she began to write once again.

GABRIELLE

"The will of mortals won out and war lost all its power."

Suddenly, Gabrielle and Joxer heard a loud scream as a figure fell from the sky and landed flat on the ground in front of them.

GABRIELLE

Ares?

The god of war scurried to his feet as he looked at his hands in a panic.

ARES

My powers! What happened to my powers?!

The god then saw Gabrielle and scowled.

ARES

(Angry tone) You! I don't know how but this is your fault.

GABRIELLE

Wait a minute.

Ares glared at the bard as she quickly tried to fix yet another problem she had inadvertently created.

GABRIELLE

Just give me a minute. I can fix this. Um, let's try, "The force that enchanted the scroll lost its powers."

The young woman finished writing and she, Joxer, and Ares heard another scream before the god of war felt something drop on top of him, knocking him to the ground as the bard began to piece together what had happened.

GABRIELLE

Aphrodite.

TO BE CONTINUED…