Summary: As an evil force arises, it's up to the Warrior Princess and the God of War to fight it.

"Oh..." she whined, "Not another one! Can't those ugly barbarians stay away form my beautiful temples?" The Love Goddess was quite upset. This was the third of her temples to be destroyed in only a few weeks! This ruthless band of smelly raiders seemed to have taken a taste for the offerings that mortals left in Aphrodite's temples; not only they'd steal every valuable thing, but they would tear the whole place apart!

She'd have to put an end to it, but how? With a love bolt? She'd been here in Olympus for two whole days, squeezing up her brains to see if something came out, but so far, all she could think of was throwing a love spell on them that would make them care for nothing but each others' affections, but Zeus had already warned her not to because recently she'd done just that to a whole caravan of traders, for no particular reason of course and the thing had gone sour when the traders caused all sorts of havoc wherever they went. So now, she was kinda grounded - no love spells for a while. 'Bummer!' So what was she to do to save her temples?

All this worrying was keeping her from her beauty sleep! And what if she got - gasp - frown lines?! Those barbarians definitely had to go!

A small flash of blueish light sparkled across the room getting the blond Goddess' attention. She was getting a visitor.

"Hello, sis." the warrior God commented.

"Ares… What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?" She was usually friendlier to her dark brother, but right now she was in a lousy mood. Aphrodite turned her back on the leather-clad God and returned to the pond through which she could peek into the lands of mortals; she wanted to check on her temples again. "Not again." the beautiful Goddess said in a whimpering sigh.

Ares approached with large steps and looked over her shoulder to get a glimpse of what she was seeing. "Problems, sis?" he asked with a half hidden mock in his tone.

"Those brutes!" the Goddess pointed at the images in the pond. "They have another of my temples in their path! Darn! I can't lose another one! I don't want Artemis to have more than I do!" She sounded like a little spoiled child as she kept whining about her three lost temples and stomping her feet.

"Now we couldn't have that, could we?" He stepped away from the revealing pond and sprawled himself on one of his sister's silk cushioned long chairs. "You seem to be in a nasty kind of a jam." the War God said. "But maybe I can help."

"Could you?" She spun on her heels to face him and ran over to kneel against the chair and remained only a few inches away from his face. "Would you? Thank you, thank you bro!" She began covering his jaw line with little kisses. "I'm so grateful to you, bro. You're so great! Thank…"

"Whoa…sis…" he interrupted, sitting up straight to get away from his sister's exaggerated attentions. "I didn't say I would."

"Oh?" she questioned him with an unpleased expression stamped on her beautiful face.

"Maybe I will." he went on. "You know nothing's for free, sis…" He reached out to play with her hair, curling a little silky lock around his finger. "I'll want something in return."

She wondered what the God of War could want from the Goddess of Love - perhaps her support on some matter to take up to the Olympian council? Surely not her own favors, because she'd always given him that gladly and for free. "What do you want, Ares?"

"Well, you're the Goddess of Love, right?" She nodded. "What I want from you is just a favor… something small… I want you to make a certain mortal mine!" He closed his hand to a tight fist, capturing the delicate blond lock of hair in it, as he desired to do with a certain mortal's heart.

"What? Ares, why would you want that?"

He didn't answer.

"You know, dad has me on a probation sort of thing… I can't just go around throwing spells right now. Not at just anyone. Who's the mortal?"

He looked her straight in the eye. "Xena, my Warrior Princess."

"What?!" the scantly dressed Goddess jumped to her feet and turned her back on him, roughly crossing her arms. The jealousy she felt over the attentions that Ares and mortals paid to Xena made her sulk like a spoiled brat. "Never! That one will never be yours as long as you try to force her!"

"As you wish, sis…" he calmly said, getting up and walking pass the moody Goddess, to the revealing pond. "We can just stay here and watch the show." He turned to her, "Come on, another of your temples is going up in smoke, very soon…"

"No!"

"Oh, yes. Very soon…"

Aphrodite walked forward and looked into the magical waters, only to see the barbarian raiders approaching her temple. She didn't want to give in to him but she didn't know what else to do - losing more temples would compromise her position before the rest of the Gods, but she was powerless to stop those monsters. However, Ares wasn't. He always had a mighty mortal army at his command led by a warrior personally chosen by him. One word from Ares and her temples would be safe. She didn't see another way out. "Ares, I'll give you a limited spell, only for a few days, maybe hours, since it's Xena we're talking about. Just make them stop," she sighed, "before they destroy anything else."

"A few hours will be enough. I just need her to let down her guard for a while and I'll remind her she wants to come back to me. She just can't see it right now. Do we have a deal?" He wanted to be sure.

Aphrodite merely nodded in response, her eyes still set on the image of her temple in peril.

"I didn't hear you sis…" He placed both large hands on the Goddess' delicate shoulders and forced her to face him.

"Yes, yes…" she said. "I'll make your Xena want you like roses want the rain… for a while…"

"Good. See you later, sis!" With a flash of the same light, Ares vanished from Olympus and transported himself to the warrior who was currently leading one of his armies, quite close to the temple of Aphrodite that was being threatened by the barbarians.

The God of War gave a few harsh orders to Klonus, his warrior, and watched nearby as the army easily slayed the band of raiders that had been worrying Aphrodite.

The battle, if you could call it that, had lasted less than half an hour, and with his task finished, Klonus headed for his Lord, hoping for some appreciation. "My Lord Ares," he bowed his head in respect for the God. "Are you pleased with my work?" he asked.

Ares didn't even look at him, running his eyes instead over the bodies of the dead barbarians. "You did alright…"

"Alright? Not great or something? Am I not the best warrior to have led your army? My Lord?"

The mortal's insolence got to him. Ares moved his eyes from the corpses to the man before him, and with a strong hand grabbed him by the neck, choking him slightly. "Great? You're nothing but a petty little warlord. A bully. A scumbag. Greatness is a lot more than that! Nothing you've done for me could ever be compared to the power of the Warrior Princess. She is the best warrior in the world. To see her lead her army in battle, showing no mercy to the enemy is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. You, Klonus," the God went on, "you're not even worthy of licking her boots…"

The God of War pushed his servant to the ground and disappeared in a burst of lightning.

**********

In her quarters, Aphrodite used her powers to create a magical dust to be used on the Warrior Princess. She didn't want to do it, but she had no choice - Ares was so clueless - If he could only see how easy it would be to win Xena's love for real…

She just hoped that Zeus didn't find out about this.

**********

Legend had it that just over three centuries ago a strange deity came to the lands of Greece. He was called the Shadow-God, the name coming from the fact that he was rarely seen, and when he was actually sighted, it was in the form of a strange smoke being. No one really knew…

The Shadow-God was supposed to gain material form by taking possession of a female body - the witch, the followers of this God called her. It was through her that the God spoke and interacted with those devoted to him.

He settled, or his witch did, in Thessaly, building a strong and prosperous community. But this community was based on values that did not please the Olympian Gods. The Shadow-God demanded daily human sacrifices of people not devoted to him and ordered their flesh to be consumed by his followers. He ordered his people to burn the villages of those who refused to accept and worship him and he had their babies and pregnant women killed and their hearts removed to put an end to the race of those he called infidel. Or so legend said…

At first, the Olympian Gods didn't pay much attention to him, but as his cult began to grow and spread around the Thessalyan land, they became concerned. They got together in a council and after long deliberation, came up with a unanimous decision.

With the joined powers of several Gods, punishment was delivered.

All the villages of the followers of the Shadow-God were burned to the ground with giant fireballs and thunderbolts, which killed most of his people. Next, a series of diseases consumed the ones that were left, leaving only a few survivors.

To these people, Zeus sent a punishment under the form of immortality, or better said, the impossibility of dying of natural causes, so they'd have to end taking their own lives - and to make sure their numbers would not increase, he cursed them with infertility.

It was also said that the Gods had underestimated the Shadow-God. With his preternatural presence in her body, the witch had been able to survive the attack on the villages and the plagues sent down on her and through her, the Shadow-God survived as well. He was weakened, that was true, but he was not destroyed and he did plan to make a come back.

So, the witch had ordered those who were left of his once numerous people to follow her into the Sand Stone towers of Meteora, in the heart of Thessaly. There, they went into a prolonged hiding, living in the caves.

According to the legend, the Shadow-God used his weakened powers to gift his people with eternal youth, so that they wouldn't age into living carcasses and commit the suicide the Olympians expected.

Still in the body of his witch, he went into a three hundred years hibernation to recover his lost strength.

And now he was back.

Awaken from his long sleep and with his godly powers somewhat restored, the Shadow-God set his plan in motion. The witch informed his worshipers that the first stage would be to find descendents for his people. As the Olympian Gods had cursed them with the incapacity to procreate, the Shadow-God ordered that they steal babies from the villages near their lair and keep them as their own.

So they began; they initially stole the children from those who lived near Meteora, but the Shadow-God wanted more. He was never satisfied and the witch made sure the worshippers knew that.

The kidnappers then decided to go afar to find another infant, a different one, and they chose the son of a King…

**********

It was late one moonless night when the two cursed men reached the castle of King Gregor. With cat like skills they developed over the past three centuries, the men climbed the steep stone walls until they reached the window that lead directly to the room where the child slept.

While one of the men stood on guard at the window, the other one walked into the room. From his dirty worn out shirt pocket he removed a small flask with a potion prepared by the witch and forced it down the child's throat. This would put him to sleep and make it easier to carry him out of his father's castle, all the way to the caves of Meteora and his new family: the witch and the Shadow-God who lived within her.

Together the two men and the drugged child left the castle, the city and the kingdom and fled through the night, back to their sinister home.

**********

"No!" the blond woman cried out in despair. "Gregor! Gregor!" she called.

The King ran into his son's room and laid his arms around the crying hysterical woman. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, looking around for his child. "Where is Gabriel?"

Trembling, Pandora didn't answer, just pointed to the open bedroom window where the marks of the muddy footprints from the child's kidnappers were still well visible.

"Guards!" the King called, holding the sobbing woman to his chest.

**********

For days , the King's men searched and asked if anyone knew anything at all about the missing little Prince, but they had no luck. All they had was the testimony of a tramp who'd been out on the street at that late hour of the night and saw two men running away with a bundle that might have been a child in their arms. The woman claimed the two men had the backs of their hands tattooed with a black snake but that was all she could remember.

The King sent messages East and West, trying to get any information about the meaning of this black snake the tramp claimed to have seen but no fruitful answers came; he found nothing.

They hoped that a ransom demand would come, which the King was more than willing to pay, but it never did…

King Gregor kept himself busy, both with the usual affairs of the kingdom, which he could not neglect, and coordinating the search for his son. It was Pandora who suffered the most with Prince Gabriel's disappearance. Since she discovered that the box she'd been carrying all those years was nothing more than a mere wooden case, she'd transferred all her attentions and affections to her son. To have him taken away from her like that and having very little hope of ever seeing him again was destroying her.

As the days of searching became weeks, she became like a living-dead, as she did nothing more than stare at the walls, got out of bed only when Ophelia moved her, and ate only when she was spoon-fed.

The King didn't know what to do to bring her back to this world, so when his servant, Ophelia, requested his permission to go find the Warrior Princess, he immediately granted it. Maybe Xena could bring little Gabriel back…

The red-haired servant packed a bag with supplies for her journey and left in the middle of the night on the back of one of the King's horses. Gregor insisted she tell no one of her journey and who it was she was trying to find. He was so desperate in his search that he no longer laid aside the possibility of a traitor inside the castle having taken his beloved son.

**********

It took Ophelia ten whole days, traveling from village to village, asking in inns and taverns, before she heard anything of the Warrior Princess.

The chubby stable keeper had seen her three days ago. "Yeah, I saw Xena." he told her, as she paid him to tend to her mount. "Her golden mare stayed right here, in my establishment. She stayed in town over night, with her two friends."

Ophelia remembered Gabrielle clearly, but she didn't recall anyone else traveling with Xena - unless the man meant the horse. "Two friends?" she inquired.

"Yes." the stable keeper answered. "A young woman with a big mouth, called Gabrielle, and a warrior calling himself Joxer the Mighty." He leaned near the woman and told her in secrecy, "He doesn't look that mighty to me…"

"Really? And do you happen to know where they were headed?" King Gregor's servant asked.

"I don't know about the Warrior Princess and Gabrielle, but that Joxer character is still at the inn. Maybe you should ask him." the man suggested.

"Thank you, I will." Ophelia said goodbye to the helpful stable keeper and headed for the inn situated in the center of the small town.

She asked the nice old woman who ran the inn for a room and then asked her about Joxer.

"That adorable boy," the old woman said, "He said he was going to dine in the tavern. He'll come back later."

"Uhm… I'd like to speak to him as soon as possible." the red-haired woman said. "Can you please direct me to the tavern?"

The nice old woman walked with Ophelia to the door and gave her directions to the place where Joxer was supposed to be.

After leaving her belongings in the rented room, Ophelia headed out for the tavern. She planned to find out where Xena was going as fast as possible and also get a good hot meal while she was at it.

The woman crossed the threshold of the tavern and swept her eyes across the room. She wasn't quite sure what she was looking for, after talking with both the stable keeper and the owner of the inn. If she was to believe the former, she summarized that Joxer would be some kind of a buffoon with illusions of grandeur and who thought he was as good a fighter as the amazing Warrior Princess, although, he was probably nothing more than a harmless jester. Now, if she followed the opinion of the nice old woman at the inn, Joxer was a kind and brave soul, always ready to help others; the kind of a man a woman would hope her son would become and her daughter to marry. Maybe he was just something in between.

Across the room, the tension began to build, as a warrior who had more than his share of red wine tried to treat the young servant girl as if she was one of the desserts listed on the menu. The girl obviously resisted and was struggling against his advances. Then her old father joined in, asking first, then demanding that the drunken brute released his daughter immediately. That's when things got ugly…

"Get lost, you old carcass!" the drunken warrior grunted, pushing the old man to the ground as he tightened his grip around the girl's slim waist.

"Father!" the girl shouted, as the old man fell down and cut his head on the corner of the table.

Like Ophelia, everyone in the tavern watched, saying that the drunken man was an idiot, that he should leave, that someone should stop him, but no one lifted a finger to do anything about it. They merely watched and criticized.

Until a good soul did step forward. Moving noisily through the tables, he approached the drunken warrior and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

The drunk turned and faced the oddly armored man. "What do you want?" he spat out.

The man straightened his strange helmet. "I think the lady would like to be left alone."

"Oh yeah? Well I don't!" and the drunk returned his attentions to the girl in his arms, until another tap bothered him. "What?"

The man now laid both hands on the hilt of his sword and looked the drunk straight in the eye. "Let the lady go, friend…"

"Friend?" The drunk was now really annoyed. This weirdo was spoiling his dessert! He let go of the girl and got to his feet, stumbling from his drunkenness. "I am not your friend!" he said, as he stuck face into the other man's, bombarding him with his breath.

The man twitched with the fowl stench, but tried to keep his cool. "I think you've had enough to drink tonight," he said, "and maybe you should go…"

The drunken warrior unshedded his sword and flashed it in front of the other man. "And who are you to tell me what to do?"

The man placed both hands on his hips. "I'm Joxer, the Mighty." he proudly informed the drunk. "And, you better put away your weapon if you want to go home in one piece. You're obviously no match for a warrior of my skills…" he bragged.

But the drunk wasn't fooling around. "Oh yeah? Let's just see how mighty you really are! Ah!" He slashed at Joxer with his sword but Joxer dodged the blade that ended up smashing the wooden table.

The people in the tavern moved to get away from the fighting men. Ophelia made sure she could see what was going on. It was this strange looking man, she hoped, that could take her to the Warrior Princess…

Joxer backed up and put another table between himself and the drunken warrior as he desperately tried to pull out his sword that stubbornly refused to leave its scabbard. 'Why do these things always happen to me?'

The drunk grimaced and kicked the table aside, trying to bring his clumsy opponent within reach. And he slashed again and again as Joxer parried the blade with a chair that slowly fell to pieces.

"What are you gonna do now, oh Mighty one?" the drunk said, as the last piece of the chair fell from his opponent's hands.

Joxer swallowed the knot on his throat. "Run!" he replied, as he hurried to the back of the tavern.

But the drunk was not willing to leave things unfinished, so he chased Joxer into the kitchen. Once in there, the fat cook screamed, waved her huge arms in the air and ran out, leaving the two warriors alone in the hot room.

The drunken-warrior quickly cornered Joxer. "Let's see what your guts look like, shall we?" he said, showing his darkened, rotted teeth.

With sweat rolling down his face, Joxer backed away as much as he could until he felt wood shelves against his back.

"Aaahh!" the drunken man shouted, lifting his sword and striking down at the trembling warrior before him.

In despair, Joxer reached back and pulled out the first thing his hands landed on, blocking the attacker's sword with a large cooking pot.

"What?!" The drunken warrior was caught by surprise and a moment later fell to the ground unconscious after being knocked on the head with the heavy pot by Joxer.

The clumsy guy sighed in relief and returned the pot back to its place on the shelf. He took a deep breath, brushed the beads of sweat off his forehead and then, when he felt he no longer looked so scared, walked out.

The young girl ran across the room and threw herself against Joxer, nearly knocking him down. "Joxer, you're alright! Thank the Gods!" she said, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "And, you defeated him without even shedding a single drop of blood!"

"Uhm… Right… No blood… That's why I didn't pull out my sword." he lied. "Xena always says that you should only use weapons when it's strictly necessary, and as her best companion, I did just that." He went on, "That gutter breath was obviously no match for me."

To hear the man mention the Warrior Princess reassured Ophelia that he was the one she needed to talk to. Slowly, she crossed the room and approached him as two men dragged the unconscious drunk out of the tavern. "Joxer," she called, touching the man's shoulder lightly.

"Yes?" he turned to the woman, as the servant girl released him and returned to her work.

Ophelia got the strange warrior to sit with her after offering to buy him dinner. While they shared a hot meal, she elucidated her problem. She explained to him how Queen Pandora had found her baby missing and how all of King Gregor's attempts to find him had failed. Now, they wanted to contact the Warrior Princess because she'd helped them in the past. Joxer carefully listened to how the woman had tried, and so far failed, to find Xena and how she'd been finally directed to him. She was told he could take her to the warrior woman.

Fortunately for Ophelia, Joxer was a helpful guy. He told her that he'd been with Xena and Gabrielle only a few days ago and that he knew where they were headed. He said he'd be glad t take her to them, and Ophelia accepted his kind offer. They decided to depart the next morning, after breakfast. When their meal was finished, Joxer accompanied the red-haired servant to her room and they agreed to meet at daybreak.

After meeting the man, Ophelia had her mind made up; the old woman from the inn was right, the stable keeper was wrong.

**********

A sparkling light announced his entrance in his sister's temple. "So, where is it?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

The blond Goddess threw back her long hair and turned to face the Warrior God. "Ares, I'm not sure about this…"

His face flushed with anger. "If you think you can back down on our deal just because the barbarians are dead, you can forget it sis!" he nearly shouted. "I can get Klonus himself to finish the job, and you can bet…"

"Whoa!" she said, placing a hand on his leather clad chest. "Chill out Ares! That's not what I'm saying…"

He took in a deep breath and stared at her with his dark brows furrowed together in annoyance. "Then what? Have you got it or not?"

"Aren't we eager…" she teased him. "I've got something - it's just I'm not sure if it'll work - if it'll make Xena your play thing."

He placed his hands on his hips and fixed his piercing eyes on her. "And why not?"

"Why not?" She began pacing through her temple, circling around the God of War as she spoke. "This is Xena we're talking about! Doesn't she always manage to break enchantings? And how many times do they not work at all?"

He scratched his beard and considered Aphrodite's words. She was right, if it were as easy as that, Xena would be his already.

"Anyways…" she went on, "I've got something for you." She stretched out her hand and with a ray of light, a tiny bottle materialized on her palm. "It's a love potion."

The God took it and stared at the tiny bottle. "What do I do with it?" he asked.

"Simple." Aphrodite walked closer to him. "You just pour it in her water - just a drop each day. When it's over she'll be… let's say… more open to you, bro. Then, make your move! After that, it's up to you to convince her that she belongs with you."

Ares stored the tiny bottle inside his leather vest. "Just a drop each day, right?"

"Right." she nodded. "And good luck, bro…"

"You're gonna need it…" Aphrodite added, after the God of War vanished from her temple.

**********

Xena had decided to make camp in a small clearing near the stream, not too far from the temple of Aphrodite. She went into deeper woods to hunt for their supper while Gabrielle collected firewood and fixed their bedrolls for the night.

The Warrior Princess always tried to do the hunting away from Gabrielle as she knew that the bard didn't like to see her killing some poor animal and was nearly incapable of eating something that moments before was alive and now was dead just to feed her. That evening she was lucky enough to catch two fat hares with traps made of thin ropes. She killed, skinned and cut up the two animals before turning back to camp to give them to Gabrielle. Cooking was the Amazon's department.

As she approach the clearing where Gabrielle had started a fire, Xena heard someone else in the woods. She laid the meat on a flat rock and soundlessly walked through the forest, sneaking up behind the rider that was nearing the campsite.

Xena flexed her legs for impulse and jumped up to the horse, throwing its two riders and her to the ground as the spooked animal bolted away through the trees. The warrior woman turned the first victim around, pinning her to the ground under her weight. "Who are you? What do you want?" she asked the hooded person.

"Xena?"

At the sound of her name the Warrior Princess pulled the hood away from her victim's face. "Ophelia? What are you doing here?" she asked, recognizing King Gregor's servant. She got off the woman and helped her up. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you."

Xena's second victim got up as well. "Hi, Xena!" Joxer greeted, straightening up his armor.

Ophelia brushed the dust and leaves off her clothes with the palms of her hands. "I really need to talk to you, Xena. King Gregor needs your help."

Xena caught Ophelia's horse and guided him back to her little camp, retrieving the meat on the way. Joxer and Gregor's servant followed right behind her waiting until Gabrielle too was around before she told her story.

While Gabrielle cooked dinner, Xena groomed the two horses and Joxer gave moral support, Ophelia told them how Gabriel had been taken in the night and all about the searches the King had already made. "The only person who actually saw the kidnappers was this… uhm… lady of the night… who only remembers that the two men had black snakes tattooed on the back of their hands. " the woman said. "The Queen is desperate and the King has no clue as to where little Gabriel is."

Gabrielle, though, was still hanging on something Ophelia had said earlier. "Did you say black snakes?" the bard asked.

"Yes. Do you know anything about that?" Gregor's servant asked, hoping that Xena's friend knew something that would help find the child.

"Well…" Gabrielle started, under the watching eyes of Ophelia, Xena and Joxer, "When I was little, my aunt Selena used to tell stories about strange people who lived in caves, in Meteora I think, and all had such a mark - but she also told me that on the other side of the Ionian Sea pigs were taller than people and could speak four different tongues, so…"

"Sounds like my uncle Brock." Joxer said.

"Still, maybe I should tell the King to check it out. No one else seems to have heard about this tattooed mark." Ophelia said, as Gabrielle served the roast meat with bread and baked roots.

"We'll check it out." the Warrior Princess said. "Joxer will take you back to King Gregor and help with the investigations there, won't you Joxer?"

"Yes, of course." he agreed, happy that Xena trusted him with such an important task.

"Thank you, Xena." Ophelia said.

**********

Xena was the first to awaken. The day was still dawning as she got out of her blanket and walked silently down to the river. She got far enough away from them so she could make some noise and yet remained close enough to keep an eye on them in case trouble found them.

The Warrior Princess slipped out of her dark shift and slowly walked in the small stream. The water level reached no higher than her knees but its coolness against her warm body made her skin crawl…

Then she realized it was more than the water that was making her body tingle. 'Ares!' she thought. She realized that the son of a Bacchae was watching as she stood there naked. She felt like hurrying out of the water, getting dressed and then confronting him but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of embarrassing her. Instead, she did her best to pretend she didn't know he was there. Carefully, so as not to make any noise, she bathed quickly and walked out of the water, putting her clothes back on. Since the day was promising to be another hot one, she didn't even bother to dry herself before getting dressed.

After she was finished, she looked straight to where the invisible God was standing, "Have your fun, you bastard?"

And with the same silent steps, she returned to the small campsite. She petted Argo good morning and put on her leathers.

By now, she was more than ready for breakfast, but the others were still sleeping so she kept herself busy by giving Argo and Ophelia's horse a good brushing. After that, she went a little deeper into the woods and practiced with her custom made sword, sending imaginary enemies to Hades - still feeling Ares' eyes watching her every move…

**********

Gabrielle was slowly awakened by the increasing intensity of the sun's rays on her eyes. ' How annoying!' she thought. She pushed down the wool blanket, sat up, yawned then stretched out her arms to drive away some of the numbness of sleep.

"Hey, sleepyhead!" she heard her best friend say, even before she had a chance to open her eyes. Now that Xena knew she was awake there was no way she'd be allowed to sleep some more. She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles and got up.

"Good morning, Xena." Gabrielle said with a groggy voice, as she passed by the warrior and headed for the stream to bathe.

Xena waited for the bard, fixing breakfast, always with an eye set on her friend. She knew that although the Amazon was up and walking around she wouldn't be fully awake until she got something in her stomach.

Gabrielle quickly finished her washing and returned to camp. Without saying a word, she sat at Xena's side and started her breakfast. Bread, cheese and a juicy apple were neatly laid down for her. As the grumbling of the bard's stomach subsided she became aware that something was missing. ´Wasn't someone else here last night?´ she thought. Then she finally remembered. "Xena, where are Ophelia and Joxer?" she asked.

Xena couldn't hold back a smile because Gabrielle had only now noticed they were gone. "They left about an hour ago." she answered.

"So early?"

"It's not that early, Gabrielle." Xena stated. "Look at the sun," she pointed at the brightness of the star that already hung high over their heads. "You just slept in again."

Gabrielle shrugged her shoulders "Sorry."

"Never mind that. I told Ophelia to return to King Gregor and let him know that the two of us are going to check out your aunt's story about Meteora." the raven-haired woman said. "I told her that if it leads nowhere, as it probably will, we'll go back to his kingdom and help with the search."

"You really think there's nothing in Meteora, don't you?" the blond bard inquired.

"I dunno. I also heard stories about some weird people living out there. I just never heard about the black snakes tattooed - who knows?"

As soon as Gabrielle finished her breakfast, the two women broke camp and got on their way.

The Amazon walked along side the golden mare, cheerfully telling her friend the story of a slave named Spartakus that she'd learned during her time in the Academy in Athens and marking the rhythm of her steps with little taps of her war staff on the ground. High on her powerful mount, Xena divided her attention between the bard's tale and the road they traveled.

**********

For a few days, the two friends traveled the roads to the heart of Thessaly. It was an unusually uneventful journey, when compared to most of their adventurous days, where they just lived their routine of making and breaking camp, moving to their destination. They didn't run into any God-caused trouble or evil thugs, or even some of Xena's old acquaintances. Xena was even glad to realize that Ares was no longer stalking her. She'd been afraid that he was setting another of his schemes in motion, but that didn't seem to be the case. It was a good thing that she hadn't told the bard about their encounter in the stream; Gabrielle would make such a big deal out of it! After all, he'd done no harm…

**********

It was late afternoon when they sighted a village further down the green grass covered valley. Between them and the large group of wooden houses were only a long pasture and a shepherd with his flock.

"So," Gabrielle said, looking up at the taller black-haired woman on horseback. "What do you want to do? Do you want to make camp out here or try to get a room in that village?" she asked, leaning on her staff.

"I think I'd prefer a soft warm bed tonight. What do you say?" The warrior looked down, smiling at her friend, knowing this was the answer the bard was hoping to hear.

"All right!" the Amazon took her friend's outstretched helping hand, the stirrup she offered and climbed on Argo's back, settling behind Xena. She wasn't very good at the horse thing and didn't like riding at all but she knew that in order to get to the village before dark she'd have to do it. So, she just closed her eyes and held on tight to the leather-clad woman's waist.

In the village, Gabrielle followed Xena as she settled Argo in the stables and asked the boy there for directions to the inn. Apparently, the inn and the tavern were both settled in the same two-storied building, the inn on the top floor and the tavern on the ground floor. Xena paid the boy with a golden dinar to make sure that Argo would be thoroughly pampered and then the two friends went off to the inn.

Entering through the tavern, the Warrior Princess and her bard headed for the well kept bar and ordered wine. Neither of them tried to ask for a room for the night because they both immediately became interested in what was going on in the establishment that evening.

Some kind of council meeting involving people from the village and five others from the surrounding area was being held. The subject being discussed was the kidnapping of babies and small children by the men bearing the mark of the black snake: the worshippers of the Shadow-God. This definitely got the two women's attention. It was to get information about the two men that they'd traveled this far. Now they knew they belonged to a religious cult, the cult of the Shadow-God.

There was an elderly man speaking, scratching his long gray beard whenever he made a pause in his oration. He said that, overall, the Shadow-God's people had taken twenty-nine babies and kids, from the total of the six villages. So far they had recovered none. According to the old man, the kidnappers had come down from the sandstone towers and made a settlement in the nearby valley. In record time they built a two storied rock temple to their evil God, some huts for them to live in, a huge wood round building where they apparently kept the stolen children, an outdoor altar for sacrifices, a well and a high palisade to protect the whole place. Any attempts the villagers had made so far to recover their sons and daughters ended up in a deadly tragedy. They never got past the palisade and always lost men to the evildoers. "Those who didn't die in battle were taken prisoners and met the worse fate." the old man said, describing to his audience how the prisoners were taken to the outdoor altar where their hearts, as well as their heads were removed. He told how those barbaric people ate the raw flesh of their prisoners, burned the bones and the hearts and placed the heads on poles to discourage any further attempts of recovering the little ones.

This last part sounded terribly familiar to the Warrior Princess, who poured the remaining wine down her throat, trying to wash away the memory of whole roads lined by poles with much the same sinister decorations; a memory she'd left behind not so very long ago.

"And what do we do now?" a young brown-haired woman asked, getting up from the seat she'd been taking. "It's been over six weeks since they took my little girl."

"Well," the old man said, once again scratching the gray hair growing from his face. "I think we should gather our money and hire a warrior to lead our next attack. Maybe then we'll succeed, if we have some professional guidance. Shall we take a vote on that?"

The representatives of the six villages stood up and cast their votes. They unanimously agreed with the old man's suggestion. Apparently they were all against trying another attack by themselves, which would probably end up like the previous ones.

"And where are we going to find a warrior that is good enough, that's willing to work for the little pay we can offer and who will challenge those monsters?" the same young woman asked.

Gabrielle saw the perfect opportunity for Xena to make her grand entrance - something like a hero-to-the-rescue sort of thing, like she'd seen Meleager the Mighty do in her home town, Poteidaia, minus the drunken thing, of course. She elbowed her friend's arm to get her attention and when Xena shifted her eyes to look into hers, she gave her a significant nod. The Warrior Princess merely sighed at the light-haired bard. She knew what she meant.

"I volunteer." the warrior woman said in a loud, clear, confident voice, laying her empty mug on the counter and rising to her full height. "I will lead the attack."

Gabrielle happily noticed that most people were impressed with her friend. Xena's height, armor, beauty and blazing blue eyes usually had that effect on folks.

"And who might you be, lady?" the old man with the long beard, the one who had been talking before, asked the tall woman.

"My name is Xena." she said, watching as the usual whispering started amongst the people who stared at her. "Some of you might know me as the Warrior Princess."

"The Warrior Princess? And why would a blood thirsty warlord like you want to help people like us?" the old man inquired, now looking at the raven-haired woman in disgust.

The same young woman as before spoke up in Xena's defense. "Wait!" she said to the elderly man. "Don't be so quick to judge her." she turned around to face the Warrior Princess. "I heard you've changed, you fight for good and against those like you used to be. Is that true?"

Xena was going to say something, but the bard stepped forward and beat her to it. "Of course it's true." she said. "I can guarantee it, because I've seen the Warrior Princess do the bravest things for good and justice! Like the time when…"

Xena turned back to the bar and ordered a refill of her drink while her friend told the villagers the short version of a few of their adventures.

It seemed to have been enough to convince them…

"We can't pay you much, Warrior Princess." the elderly who'd insulted her only moments before said with a hero worship look in his eyes. "We are poor people and…"

"I don't want anything. Just the same thing you want - to recover the children."

**********

After spending the night in the room the innkeeper had offered them, the best in the house by the looks of it, Xena and Gabrielle gathered the people who would participate in the attack in the wide square in front of the tavern, around the town well.

The Warrior Princess made a first selection, separating those who were too young, too old or in any way not fit for battle. They then spent the remainder of the day learning basic moves and how to handle the weapons they'd gathered. They weren't very skilled, but they were all she had to work with.

In the evening, Xena and Gabrielle had supper in the tavern, always under the admiring eyes of the Warrior Princess' new pupils. "They think I have the key, the solution to all their problems." she let out with a sigh, as her discomfort increased under the new attention she was getting.

"Well, not all their problems." the green-eyed bard said. "But at least to this one. They have a lot of faith in you, you know."

"Yes, I know." she said, looking at the younger woman. "I just hope I don't let them down."

"You? Never!" Gabrielle said, smiling. Then she rose from her seat at the table. "I'm going up to bed, alright?" she asked.

"Alright… Good night." the dark hair woman replied, taking her friend's small hand in hers and kissing it good night.

"Will you be long?"

"No, I'll be up soon." Xena watched as Gabrielle crossed the room and began climbing up the stairs. It wasn't until her friend got out of sight that she got up and walked to a table where a man was sitting alone finishing his dinner. She knew that he was one of the survivors of the last attack to the settlement of the Shadow-God's worshippers and one of the witnesses to the atrocities they committed with the prisoners, in the name of their faith. "May I join you?" she asked.

The man wiped the meat sauce from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Of course." he said, offering her the chair that stood next to his table. "I'd be honored. My name is Dolan." he introduced himself.

"I'm Xena."

The man signaled to the servant girl to bring some wine for the warrior. "Oh, I know who you are." he said. "You're the one who's gonna help us to get our children back!"

Xena thanked the girl who brought her the drink and turned back to Dolan. "Well, that's what I need to talk to you about. I understand you're one of the men who's seen the enemy's settlement."

"Yes, that's right." he said, a little surprised to hear the word enemy in there. 'I never really thought about it from that angle,' he thought 'but I guess that's what they are.'

"I want you to tell me all you know about the place." she said, pushing a stray strand of black hair away from her face.

The man was happy he could be of some assistance and told her all he knew.

Dolan said that a high strong palisade surrounded the whole settlement, and as far as he knew, it only had one entrance: the large gate in the front. In the back of the settlement, a large rocky hill cut off the possibility of any attack from that side. He figured that inside the palisade there should be about ten to fifteen huts which, in his opinion, weren't enough to give shelter to all the people he'd seen there. Beside the huts there was a large round wooden building where they kept the children safely. Apparently, their God didn't want the infants harmed. At least that! A two story high temple occupied the center of the settlement Dolan said, and on it's right they had a large well. Next to that, and between the gate and the temple, there was the outdoor stone altar where they performed their human sacrifices to their evil God.

And that was all Dolan knew.

With the new information, Xena thanked the man for his time, left the tavern and went up to her room where Gabrielle was already sleeping peacefully.

Silently, the Warrior Princess took off her armored leathers and gently laid in the other bed. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

**********

During the next three days, Xena and Gabrielle worked with the villagers in the preparation of the attack.

They practiced combat skills, sparring with their pupils, teaching them how to use everyday tools as weapons, built firebombs and worked out their strategy.

Xena also took the time to make a little scouting trip to the enemy settlement to confirm the information she'd gotten from Dolan. She was pleased to see that his report had been quite accurate. From all she'd seen in the settlement of the people marked with the black snake, only one thing was bothering her; there were too many non-combatants, women, some of whom were not far from being children and the elderly. All of them would be caught in the middle. According to the Warrior Princess' code, these people were not to be harmed and she'd made that clear to all who would accompany her in the attack, but she'd been in battle often enough to know better - war was war. A tense situation where accidents were likely to and sometimes did, happen. Then the wrong people got killed; the innocent and helpless. But thinking about this would get in the way of getting the job done and for the sake of King Gregor, Pandora and little Gabriel, she pushed her worries aside and concentrated on the task at hand.

In the meantime, one more child had been kidnapped from a village a little to the west. They could wait no longer. The attack would take place the next dawn.

**********

When the moon slowly began to give way to the sun, the villagers' armed group led by the warrior woman and the young Amazon was in place - outside the palisade that protected the settlement of the ones who worshipped the evil Shadow-God.

Invisible to their eyes and known only to the Warrior Princess, the God watched, eager to see her in action, even if only against these infidels and not a great army.

Xena checked the groups at her left and right. They were ready. With one short whistle she gave the signal to light up the firebombs. She waited a few moments and whistled again. This time the sound was longer.

As they heard the Warrior Princess' signal, the villagers got up from cover and threw the incendiary blobs at the palisade. It was only now, with small fires erupting all around their protection, that the people marked with the black snake of the Shadow-God realized they were under attack.

They searched for the attackers but they couldn't spot them. Right after throwing the small bombs, the villagers had gotten back under cover as the Warrior Princess had instructed.

In the enemy settlement everybody was getting busy carrying buckets of water from the well to try and put out the fires. But they weren't too successful; the palisade was built from dry wood stakes and was burning up like a scroll, especially at the front door where the number of apparently spontaneous small fires had been much greater.

Hidden behind a thick green bush, Xena waited for the right moment to launch the attack. She watched the small fires spread throughout the palisade and the flames shoot higher over the gate. 'There!' The doors fell from the hinges, leaving an open gate to her little army.

The Warrior Princess got out of her hiding place, removed her iron sword from the scabbard and with her piercing battle cry, charged on the open gate. Right behind her, Gabrielle and the villagers followed. With the gate open wide, they broke into the settlement and the combat began.

The villagers weren't very skilled but they outnumbered their opponents so they were managing to push them back and gain ground. Following the lead of the Amazon and the Warrior Princess they began to sweep across the settlement in a tight formation wall that left the enemy with no place to run to, until they were forced to join their women and the elderly who ran away to seek safety against the back of the palisade. They were trapped in the cage they'd built, between the angry armed peasants and the palisade with no back door.

The battle was won in no time and with practically no bloodshed. The element of surprise had worked in their favor, just as Xena had hoped for and it had been a very easy victory. Now, all they had to do was take their weapons and secure them as prisoners, which shouldn't be much of a challenge. The Shadow-God's people were defeated and they knew it. Xena didn't expect them to have much fight left in them. After that, all she had to do was find the weak link from the group and get the location of the stolen babies. Xena was sure no one could resist her persuasion skills.

But as it often did when inexperienced armies were at work, the unexpected happened.

"My baby! The babies are here!" a woman's voice shouted out form somewhere behind the tight line the villagers were forming to trap their prisoners against the high palisade. "Come!" the woman kept shouting, "Come see the babies!"

"Stay in formation! Stay in your place!" Xena yelled, to be heard over the rising wave of the peasants' voices. "Do not abandon your post!"

But the Warrior Princess knew that now, her orders were of little or no use at all. Her improvised army paid its leader no attention and in the blink of an eye, dissolved its tight wall and ran to where the woman was calling.

'Damn you!' Xena managed to keep as a thought and not a spoken curse.

Naturally, the followers of the Shadow-God didn't waste the good opportunity when it came knocking at their door. Just as the villagers ran to their children, the ones marked with the black snake followed right behind, detouring towards the front gate that held their only hope of escape.

"Stop them!" Xena said, still shouting at her dissolved army. "They're getting away!" She shook her head in disappointment and looked at the Amazon at her side. "Guess I'll just have to handle this myself." she said to her younger friend, tightening her grip on the hilt of her sword and preparing to follow the Shadow-God's people. The bard's hand on her shoulder made her stop. "What is it Gabrielle?" she questioned, an annoyed look beginning to form on her bronzed face. Didn't the bard realize they were wasting time?

"Just let them go, Xena," she said, bringing the end of her Amazon staff to rest on the ground next to her feet.

"What? Are you nuts?" This time Gabrielle must have really lost her mind! She wanted to let those filthy people go free? After they kidnapped all those children? No way! Then again… "Why should we?"

"Please." Gabrielle went on, looking into her friend's blue eyes with a pleading glare. "We've got what we came here for. Please."

"But Gabrielle," the warrior looked at the gate that the Shadow-God's people had already passed through and then back at her friend. "We can't. They…"

"Please, Xena. These villagers are angry, and…"

"With reason!"

"I'm not arguing with that. But if we imprison those people, they'll be slaughtered, Xena. All of them! There'll be no trial, no mercy, not even for the women and elderly. You know that. Let them go."

The bard did have a point. 'I know what even the most peaceful people are capable of when their loved ones have been endangered.' the Warrior Princess thought. 'I've witnessed and felt that before - the rage. If I bring them in for trial they'll all be killed, with no possibility of defense. They'll be stoned to death, or worse. Besides, they're probably already far away, no point in pursuing them as long as all the babies are here. I will not be responsible for all those deaths and a fair trial would never happen here.' She stroked her friend's hair and put her arm around the shorter woman's shoulder. "Alright. You win. As long as all the children are here..."

"Thanks!" Gabrielle said, smiling at her friend as they both began to walk towards the round building where the villagers had gathered. Even before reaching it, they could already hear the sounds of the babies' cries.

Once they were inside the place - it was a strange sight, this bunch of cribs and little beds, all piled together. 'And the sound is maddening!' Gabrielle thought, "Let's find Gabriel." she said to the taller woman.

The two friends began to check each child in the beds and in people's arms, looking for King Gregor's son.

Xena was beginning to despair as she checked the last of the little beds and didn't find Gabriel in it, when, feeling a small tap on her shoulder, she turned around to see who was trying to get her attention. "Gabrielle? You found him?" Xena asked as she saw that her friend was carrying a small child in her arms.

The bard turned the child so that Xena could see his face. "Yep." she answered. "And he's just fine. King Gregor and Pandora are gonna be so happy!"

All around them the small children were being reunited with their birth families, which slowly started to leave the strange settlement and return home.

"Another successful mission carried out by the great Warrior Princess!" Gabrielle laughed, as she and Xena followed the villagers on their way out of that evil place.

**********

At mid-day the place was deserted. The only movement came from the rising smoke that came from the burnt palisade and huts and from the flies that began to gather over the abandoned corpses of the few worshippers of the Shadow-God that had been killed. Among the debris the God's witch appeared, coming out of hiding. The place was desolate. Even the temple to her God had been severely damaged by the rage of the peasants. She walked around, examining all, grieving for her lost community, at first. But then, the grief turned into rage and then into the desire for revenge, revenge against the one who'd lead the attack. "You'll regret this, Warrior Princess!"

But the God inside her had other plans for the raven-haired Greek beauty.

**********

The next morning, Xena, Gabrielle, Argo and little Gabriel left the Thessalyan village and started on their way to King Gregor’s land. The night before Xena had packed extra food and clothes for the small child making sure that the little Prince would lack nothing on his journey home.

That day, Gabrielle traveled on Argo’s back with the child in her arms while the warrior woman walked beside them, leading the mare with a long rein. During the morning they made two short stops to make sure the Prince was doing well and moved slowly but steadily for the rest of the time.

And now they were stopping again. With the sun at its highest point in the sky, Xena decided it was time to have lunch. ‘The child must be hungry by now.’ had been a great excuse to stop without admitting to Gabrielle that it was she who was already starving! The taller woman took the baby from Gabrielle’s arms to allow the bard to get down from the horse.

“Hold him for a bit, will you?” Gabrielle asked.

“What? Why?” Xena said, a little uneasy about the task. It was like holding an egg in her hands, so fragile. So much care was needed to keep it whole that it gave her urges to smash it and let it slip through her fingers.

“I… need to go to the bushes.” the bard lied, turning her back and hiding behind a thick wall of dark green leaves. The truth was she just wanted to see how Xena handled herself with a baby in her arms. So much had happened with Xena’s son and her own evil daughter that she’d neglected to picture Xena as a mother, holding her little baby.

From behind her little hiding place, the Amazon watched as her friend rocked the child in her protective embrace and sang him a lullaby in some strange language she didn’t know. ‘She would have been a great mother to Solan, if she’d given herself a chance. And that song, I wonder if Cyrene used to sing it to Xena or if she learned it in one of her trips to some strange land.’

The journey on horseback had really worn out little Gabriel and he slept soundly in the warrior’s arms. And Xena was loving it. Children could make her terribly uncomfortable when they were in her care, because of her lack of experience, but she did love them. There was something truly wonderful - and scary - about having a little helpless life in her arms, trusting her completely to provide for all his needs, to protect him, to love him. She wiped the lonely tear that had rolled down her cheek to the back of her hand and buried deeper in her heart the pain of the loss of her only son.

Gabrielle was so absorbed in her observation of the Warrior Princess with the child that it wasn’t until her friend’s expression changed into a worried frown did she realize she was taking too long. She got out of hiding and returned to Xena’s side.

“Is everything alright?” the dark-haired woman asked, passing the sleeping kid to Gabrielle’s arms and gently sighing in relief. ‘She’s fine.’

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“Good.” Xena grabbed her golden mare’s reins and pulled her into the woods. “We better get some cover.”

“Cover? Why?” the bard asked, following her friend, holding the little Prince tight to her chest. “Is something wrong, Xena?” she inquired.

“No, but if we don’t want to get soaked, we better get to cover.” she pointed up to the darkening skies, to show her friend that a storm was coming.

“Where did that come from? The day was so beautiful.”

Xena didn’t answer. She had no idea and she didn’t like it. It was the middle of summer and storms like this weren’t supposed to occur. And the clouds were so dark - that - they almost looked unnatural. She could also swear that there was a funny smell in the air. The animals were strangely quiet; Argo too had felt something strange going on.

“Where are we going?” Gabrielle asked, rushing after her friend as the first lightning tore up the sky and thundered all around them.

“Just across the river there’s a cave. My army used it a few times. We can stay there.”

**********

The God of War sat on the throne of his fortress with the tiny glass bottle dancing in the palm of his hand. He tried to get Xena back so many different ways in the last few years and she’d only gotten further and further away from him. How had that happened? Well, maybe getting the Furies to curse her and becoming Dahok’s ally for a while might have something to do with it, but everyone knew that he and Xena were bonded together. Even she knew it - and hated it. Maybe Aphrodite’s potion would change that. A drop at a time, and Xena would sweeten up to him. Just a drop, or the effects might be strange and play with her passions too much, or affect her memory or her health, or even kill her! That was the last thing he wanted! What would he do without his Warrior Princess? He’d forgotten how life was before she showed up. She was a truly special mortal. All the Gods could feel that, but none cherished her as much as he did. He wasn’t quite sure why, she was just… It didn’t matter, he wanted her and she’d be his. Just one drop at a time. But wasn’t this an unfair way of getting her? It would be Aphrodite’s doing, not his…

As he stared at the tiny bottle in his hand, his Priestess Cassandra walked in the room, bowed before her God and then spoke. “My Lord Ares, I bring you a message.”

But the God didn’t reply. He was too far in his own thoughts to even notice the woman’s presence.

Cassandra smiled, knowing exactly who was in his thoughts and walked closer to him. She’d been a Priestess to the God of War since the age of twelve and had been for the last thirty years now. Her father had given her to the God as an offering for his help in battle and although he had no use for her, the God had taken her in. First as a helper to his Priest in Amphipolis, then as a head Priestess in Macedonia and finally he’d taken her, of her own accord, to his lair in the mortals’ land where she’d been living for the past fifteen years. He’d always been kind to her, treated her with dignity and respect so that she could almost call him a friend - as much as you could be friends with a God. And, she was very familiar with his obsession with Xena, since the very first time he’d laid eyes on her. Almost anything he did was related to the beauty with blue eyes. Cassandra liked Xena and she’d like to see her at her master’s side, for she knew it would make them both happy and complete. But his methods; Xena was as stubborn as he was and his attempts to force her back had only pushed her away.

She neared the pensive God and touched him on the shoulder, startling him out of his thoughts. “My Lord.”

Ares sat up straight and realized he was no longer alone. “Cassandra. Yes, what is it?”

The woman smiled at his surprised look. “Another plan to get the beautiful Xena back?” she teased him.

Ares slipped the tiny bottle in his vest and stood up, walking away from his throne, into another room where iron swords and shields decorated the walls and a huge hot tub took the center. A gift from Aphrodite who believed bubble baths made everyone feel better. Cassandra followed and watched as the God made the image of the Warrior Princess appear over the steaming water. “Don’t be amused, Cassandra,” he said as he watched Xena and Gabrielle settle the small child in the cave. “This time I’ll have her back. My sister…”

“Which one?” the Priestess interrupted.

“Aphrodite.” He replied, before continuing. “My sister has given me a potion, in exchange for a small favor. This thing will mellow out Xena for me. Then I only have to tempt her and she’ll give in, right?”

The woman sighed and shook her head. “Oh, my Lord…”

“What?”

“You’re gonna try to force her back again!” she said, walking closer to him. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have Xena running through these halls again, but your methods…”

“What about my methods?” he never moved his eyes from the image of the warrior woman, who was grooming her golden mare now, whispering sweet nothings into her ears.

“The more you tighten your grip, the more she’ll slip through your fingers.”

The woman’s words were beginning to irritate him, especially because so far she’d been right. If it had been any other Priestess speaking those truths to him, Ares would knock her into the walls as a lesson not to question him. But Cassandra was different. She served him well for a long time and not because she worshipped him as a God or feared him for his power. She liked him, that was all. She always liked him, especially since he agreed to keep her and free her from her cruel father. She liked him and he liked her back. “We’ll see, but I’ll take your opinion under consideration.” he said, and actually meant it. “But what brought you to me, Cassandra? Just chit-chat?”

“No, my Lord.” the woman replied with a smile. “A message. Your father, Zeus, wishes to see you.”

His face changed instantly from the relaxed one who’d been watching his temptress to a completely hard expression. “What can that old jerk want?”

“Careful, my Lord. He is still the King of the Gods.”

“Yeah, yeah…” He turned and vanished into thin air.

Cassandra watched Xena’s image until it too disappeared into thin air.

**********

“The Gods are really acting up tonight.” the bard commented, as another loud thunder echoed making the very ground under their feet tremble.

“Yup.” Xena replied, trying not to let it show that she was beginning to be a little worried about that strange storm. It had come out of nowhere on a perfectly normal summer day. The sky was so dark that by the time they finished their lunch it looked as if night had already fallen. And the storm itself - a lot of wind and thunder, but so little rain - and still no sign of it abating. It was really weird. At least little Gabriel was tired enough to sleep, even with the noise of the thunder.

They got undressed and laid down to sleep.

And then Warrior Princess heard something - or at least she thought she did. She got to her feet and walked to the entrance of the cave, tilting her head slightly to the side as she made an effort to listen to the sounds of the night over the thundering storm.

Gabrielle noticed the concern written on her friend’s face. “What’s the matter, Xena?” she asked, as she tucked the blanket under the little Prince’s chin. “Is something wrong?”

“Shh! Listen.”

The bard stood quiet, but she heard nothing beyond the loud rumbling of the thunder but the warrior obviously did.

Xena ran back in and picked up her sword from where it lay on the ground. “Someone is coming over the bridge!” she announced. The noise she heard had been the cracking of the wood and ropes as several people tried to cross over the river in silence. Before turning her back, she looked at the bard. “You protect Gabriel! I’m going to try and stop them at the bridge.” With that she ran out.

Gabrielle didn’t even know how Xena had figured out that the people coming were enemies, but she didn’t even bothered to ask - not that she had the time to. She knew the answer would be something enigmatic like… “I just know.” Or close to that. That was the truth. She just knew…

The young Amazon quickly got dressed, picked up the child and made sure he was well wrapped in his blanket before getting hold of her war staff and going out to the same place as her friend.

When she got to the bridge, the battle was already in full swing. Xena in her undershirt, sword in hand, had already managed to make the eight armored warriors back all the way out of the bridge to the other side of the river.

And she wasn’t taking any chances. She knew that the trembling structure of rope and wood was the only way the enemy had of getting to Gabrielle and Gabriel, so she decided to simply eliminate it. She knew she could just jump over the distance between the two sides of the river, but no other mortal could do the same thing - not even the mighty Hercules himself!

At the first chance she got, her blade cut through the ropes of the bridge and sent it flying down, destroying the passage.

“Xena!” Gabrielle shouted from the other side, as yet another lightning bolt lit up the dark night. She didn’t like the looks of that. She had no way to get to her friend now, and she had an awful feeling about it. “Xena look out! No!”

The warrior had been busy fighting two men in front of her and had not paid attention to the one coming from the back. She made a stupid mistake and would come to pay a high price for it. The man coming from the back got close, very close and hit her on the back of the head with the hilt of his iron sword.

On the other side of the river, with the little crying Prince in her arms, Gabrielle watched powerless as the men tied her friend’s hands and feet. They still took the time to throw the warrior’s sword to the bard’s feet, calling her an infidel and a demon in disguise, before they carried Xena away and melted into the dark night.

“Xena!” she still called. “Xena!”

But no answer was heard. Gabrielle wanted to go after the men who had taken her friend, men marked with the black snake of the evil Shadow-God, but with the bridge gone there was nothing she could do.

Alone in the dark with the quieting child, the young Amazon just stood there for a long time, looking at the place where she last saw the Warrior Princess until cold rain drops once again started to fall down the black sky and hit her face, startling her back to reality.

“Come on, Gabriel.” she said to the small child as she turned around, picked up the sword and started to walk back to the cave. “We’re going to pack up and we’re going to find Xena. We have to help her! I know we can’t take this bridge, so we’ll have to walk along the banks until we find a place where we can cross, okay?”

The child didn’t answer but merely watched the bard with sleepy eyes as she began to pack their belongings into the golden mare’s saddlebags. “We’re gonna find her and help her and she’ll be fine, right?” the young woman went on talking, more to reassure herself than to chat with the little boy, who probably knew nothing of what was going on.

‘I do hope you’re okay, Xena.’ she was thinking to herself as she left the cave with the Prince in her arms and guiding Argo to follow behind. ‘I could never forgive myself if something happened to you because I didn’t let you kill those monsters. All because I asked you to let them go.’

Dawn came and gave way to the day, and yet another night and dawn. The whole time the bard kept making her way along the river banks, looking for a place where she could cross, making as little stops as possible to allow the child and herself to get some much needed rest.

**********

“Father! We’ve been here for hours and hours beating around the bush!” Ares was losing his patience. The old geezer had nothing but his despise and also fear. If he didn’t think that Zeus was still more powerful than him, he would have already dispatched him, but that time would come. “I got it. You don’t want me to act against this Shadow-Jerk yet, because he’s gonna get himself a new witch and you think that it’ll be easier to take him as he enters the new body. I don’t agree, but I got it the first time you said it.”

The King of the Gods paced slowly around the tall figure of his son. “I just want to make sure you understand, Ares. I don’t want you to act on silly impulses.” the other God sighed, “You see, the Shadow-God has already chosen the mortal woman that will be his new host. First, he has to enter her body by force and prepare her to receive him. It’s like… like poisoning her body and mind so it will lose its resistance to the next entrance, when he takes over her body for good. It is after he does this, when he definitely leaves the body of his current witch and passes on to the new one that I, personally, will attack. They will both be weak and disoriented, the witch and the God. It should be easy enough.”

“Fine. As I said, I got it the first time you explained all this crap to me. Wanna tell me why in Tartarus are you telling me this repeatedly? Because I think it’s a completely stupid thing to do and we should act as fast as we can!”

“You’ll do as you’re told!” the King of the Gods ordered, stopping in front of Ares and pointing an accusing finger. “No matter how much you dislike it Ares, I am still the King of the Olympians and you’ll do as I command!”

“Fine.”

The other God eased his stance. “Good. The reason why I’m keeping you here is because the Shadow-God is already preparing the woman who will be his. He’s finishing now, as we speak. And I didn’t want you to interfere.”

“Interfere?” he raised an eyebrow at his old father. “And why would I do that?”

“Well, the Shadow-God was quite impressed with a certain mortal that faced him recently - a mortal that…”

“Xena!” the God interrupted. “He wants Xena? Damn you father!” and he vanished in a flash…

**********

It wasn’t until the following morning that Gabrielle sighted a spot where she could cross. “Look Gabriel! Up ahead, the water is calm and shallow. We can cross and we will get to Xena.” The bard stood in silence when she saw someone in the waters. “Shh!” she said to the mare and child. She walked silently to a high bush that grew near the river and crouched behind it, so she’d be under cover but in a way that she could see the one bathing in the now calm water.

The woman bathing didn’t notice she was being watched. She just remained kneeling on the cold boulders of the waterbed pouring the crystal clear water over her face, arms, and white linen shift.

Blue and purple bruises marred her face, her shoulders and arms, and the flesh on her ankles and wrists was turned raw by the ropes that had bound her. There were bloodstains on the white fabric she was wearing as well. All of it showed the bard that the warrior woman had been through a rough time but at least she didn’t seem to have any life threatening wounds.

She just wanted to race to her best friend and hold her and kiss her; tell her it would be okay, that the pain was over but Xena seemed to want to be left alone, otherwise she would have come to meet her and Gabriel. Could she be putting on the mean Warrior Princess act again? It didn’t look like it; it looked like she needed to be alone. ‘No way!’

The light-haired Amazon turned around, retrieved a blanket from Argo’s saddle and rushed back to the river and her friend.

**********

Xena was happy when her younger friend finally fell to sleep and stopped fussing over her. She knew Gabrielle meant well, that she wanted to make her feel better but why couldn’t she understand that all she wanted was to be left alone?

She peeked over the burning fire to check if the bard was still sleeping soundly under the warm blanket with the young Prince next to her. ‘Good.’ the Warrior Princess thought. She got up quietly and with cat-like soundless steps, crossed the small camp and walked to the calm river. There, she knelt on the shallow bottom and for the hundredth time she poured the cleansing liquid over herself. She felt as if she’d been raped, but that wasn’t the case. The people marked with the black snake had beaten her senseless and taken her someplace where she woke up already tied up. Then that strange ceremony began - screaming and yelling with drums so loud they almost deafened her. Then there was the blood, spread over her face and arms and legs, and smoke that filled the room so thick it clouded her vision and made breathing difficult. That’s when she began to feel this strange, awful sensation, which had brought her to the river once more. When she managed to escape, to flee the strange torture she fought harder, more vicious than she knew she could and she broke free from the ropes, busted some heads and ran through the woods.

So why didn’t this feeling go away, now that she was safely back with Gabrielle? She rubbed her skin with the palms of her hands, over and over again, until she was turning red, and stopped only when real pain began to rise as a warning she might seriously hurt herself. ‘Get a hold of yourself, Xena, hurting yourself any more isn’t going to make it go away. And neither is this stupid river!’

Once again in silence, shivering as the night air rolled around her soaked body, the warrior returned to her camp. She checked on her friend and the child and returned to the fire, poking it to get warmer.

She didn’t really want to sleep because she felt the nightmares were just waiting for her if she closed her eyes, but she was so, so tired. Instead, she just rolled herself in her wool blanket and sat down near the flickering flames with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

Morpheus soon took over her worn out body and made her enter the land of nightmares. Soon after closing her eyes she was tossing and sweating in her blanket as the worshippers of the Shadow-God performed the same ceremony over and over again, using her trapped body as an offering to their Lord.

**********

The Warrior Princess was up before dawn. She knew the sunrise was approaching with giant steps and when it reached her, she’d have to be strong again. She’d have to be strong for Gabrielle and little Gabriel. They’d have to double back to the place where they were on that night when the ones marked with the black snake had gotten her and then continue on their way to King Gregor, to reunite the child with his family. She’d have to be strong again…

**********

Cassandra stood against the wall of the throne room in Ares’ fortress as the God screamed and railed against Zeus for keeping him busy while this stupid Shadow-God tried to steal his Warrior Princess. She knew that when the War God got this infuriated the best thing to do was stay out of his way until he calmed down - and that’s exactly what she did. He cursed, kicked the furniture upside down, threw thunder bolts to the air and screamed some more.

When he finally finished letting off some steam, Cassandra neared him. She laid her dark hands on his shoulders and massaged some of his tenseness away. “Do you mind fixing up the room again, my Lord?” she asked with a slight hint of play in her voice.

“This is not funny, Cassandra!” he nearly shouted, jumping up from the woman’s reach. “My father wants to sacrifice Xena to this Shadow-Jerk, just to make his job easier!” he said, restoring the entire room to its original shape with the simple snapping of his fingers.

“You should calm yourself, my Lord.” the Priestess said, “Xena is a very strong girl.”

“Yes.” He turned to face the dark skin woman. “But is she strong enough to resist the Gods?”

“By now you should know she is.” A sparkling light at the corner of the room revealed the owner of the voice.

“Discord.” He was not pleased to see her. “What do you want?” he bluntly asked.

“Are we having a bad day?” she teased him.

Ares merely looked at her with anger showing through his dark eyes. It was Cassandra who spoke. “My Lord would prefer if you left his fortress and returned some other time.” she said, standing between the two Gods.

“Get lost, mortal!” Discord said, pushing the Priestess aside. “I heard you blackmailed Aphrodite into giving you a love potion to make the warrior babe your play thing. This I gotta see!” the Goddess grinned at her brother, walked pass him and sat in his throne.

Ares was too angry at recent events to put up with her little games. He walked to his throne, grabbed the young Goddess by the wrist and pulled her out so strongly that she fell down on her hands and knees before him. “I did not blackmail her. We made a deal.” he explained, as he kept his sister at his feet with the grip of his hand on the back of her neck. “And the potion would only… make her more sensitive to my cause. It was nothing that strong.”

“Let go of me!” Discord protested, struggling in vain to release herself from the more powerful God as Cassandra watched.

“Besides, my Priestess here,” he said, shifting his eyes to the woman and then back to Discord “…has persuaded me not to use the potion.” he stated, finally releasing the Goddess.

Discord stepped away from him.

Cassandra smiled as she heard her Lord’s words. Maybe this time he’d show some sense; by force or deceit he would never reconquer the Warrior Princess. She was too wild for that, too much like him. Now, it seemed, he showing some sense.

But the young Goddess didn’t have the same opinion. “What? You get the opportunity to take Xena and you’re not gonna take it? I mean, I thought you were gonna try - and fail.”

He gave her an angry warning look.

“But not try at all?” Discord went on. “Are you nuts, Ares? Maybe you’re just spending too much time with your stupid mortal Priestess.” she spat out, looking at the dark skinned woman.

Ares closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm himself before he looked back at his sister. He had to be patient with her because she was young and still in training. “Discord,” he said, in a slightly calmer tone, “I’m in the middle of something here.”

“Another plan to do with your obsession?”

He was trying very hard not to beat the crap out of her, but she wasn’t making it very easy. “That’s really not your concern sis but as Cassandra told you as soon as you got here, I’d prefer if you return some other time.”

Cassandra noticed the tensing of his muscles and the tight grip he had on the hilt of his sword, showing her just how angry he was but Discord did not seem to notice and pressed on. “Oh, now you’re not just Xena’s lap dog but Cassandra’s too?”

That was the last straw. “Get lost!” the God of War shouted, forcing his sister to disappear with a fireball and making the walls tremble and Cassandra fall with the power of his voice.

Then he too vanished from his fortress to check on his Chosen mortal.

**********

From inside the cave where they’d taken shelter days before, the Amazon Queen looked at her friend as she watched the high mid-day sky in silence.

Xena hadn’t said much since she found her in the river and Gabrielle wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She knew Xena’s wounds were healing but she seemed incredibly down since those men had taken her. She also knew she was having terrible nightmares not even the bard could chase away.

What she didn’t know was if she should insist with Xena to talk about it. She already tried to make her share what had happened to cause such horrible dreams, but the warrior’s answer was a blunt “Nothing.”

The blond bard sat the child on the wool blanket and gave him a small wood horse Xena had made for him the day before. “Stay here, Gabriel.” She walked out the cave and over to her quiet friend. “Xena,” she said, laying a comforting hand on the taller woman’s well-muscled shoulder. “Aren’t you going to have lunch?” she asked, staring at her friend’s expressionless face.

No answer.

“Xena!” she called again.

Then the warrior seemed almost to awake from a trance. She rose to her feet, turned to look beyond Gabrielle and answered. “No. You eat, and feed the Prince.” she said, “Then pack the stuff. I’m gonna get Argo ready and we’ll get on the move as soon as you’re done.”

“But Xena,” Gabrielle didn’t finish her sentence. There was no point in saying anything else. Her friend had already turned her back and left to groom the golden mare. ‘It’s almost like when we first started traveling together and she wouldn’t talk straight to me but now I don’t understand why.’

Xena pulled the brush out of the saddlebag and begun her ministrations on Argo’s coat but her mind was someplace else, lost between the memories of that awful ceremony of the people of the Shadow-God and the recollections of her nightmares with the line between the two becoming thinner, as if her mind could no longer tell the difference. Even the memories of the past came to haunt her, the death of Lyceus, her self-given mission to protect Amphipolis, the warlording days; it was all becoming a great torment. ‘This has to stop.’

**********

Gabrielle tucked the blanket around the child’s neck and moved away, so she could see Xena beyond the tree line in the next clearing. The bard was becoming incredibly worried about her friend.

The day she found her, Xena had indeed allowed herself to be pampered and comforted by Gabrielle. She wouldn’t say what was bothering her beyond the wounds, but she let her friend help her to recover and that was okay. She knew that Xena wasn’t much for mushy talk.

But in the following days, it was as if the warrior was shutting the whole world out and becoming lost in her own mind. She hardly talked at all and wouldn’t let Gabrielle near her. What worried Gabrielle the most were her eyes - the liquid blue reflection of pain was mostly gone. In its place she often found a lifeless glassy stare, like she was shutting out all emotions, except when she had those nightmares… The Amazon had tried to talk to Xena, to comfort her but the raven-haired beauty would just move away and with Gregor’s son to look after, Gabrielle could not properly give chase.

So the bard just watched as her friend performed complicated sword drills with astonishing accuracy. Then, helplessly, Gabrielle turned her back and lay down on her own blanket. Xena would keep practicing if not all, at least most of the night.

**********

The day was almost dawning when the Warrior Princess finally laid her sword down. She’d been working her moves all night and now she was truly exhausted. ‘Now I should be able to get some dreamless sleep.’ she thought as she lifted the water skin to her lips and drank. When her thirst was satisfied, she laid it down, wiped the sweat that rolled down her forehead with the back of her hand and prepared for bed.

Fortunately sleep came immediately after she laid the blanket over her sweat drenched body, but it didn’t last long.

“No!” she found herself trying to scream the word that somehow couldn’t find its way out of her throat, as she awoke and sprang up to a sitting position. ‘Another nightmare!’ she realized as she watched the wool covers rolled like a trap around her legs and waist. She wiped away a stray salty tear and got to her feet. She didn’t want to take the chance of falling into another nightmare.

Quietly, the Warrior Princess walked away into the woods where she didn’t have to stay on her toes not to awake Gabrielle or Gregor’s child.

She let herself slide down against a tree until she was sitting on the leafy ground and leaned her head against the wide trunk. ‘I can’t go on like this. I can’t allow this strange feeling take over me but how do I stop this? How do I move on? And how do I stop this from hurting Gabrielle? The last thing I want to do is disappoint her, to let her down, not to live up to her expectations of me and that’s exactly what I’m doing! I have to make it stop! I have to make it go away, but how?’

As another undisciplined tear managed to escape, something happened. Other people wouldn’t even notice it, but to Xena was as clear as water.

An exciting chill ran through her body from head to toe, triggering every nerve ending she possessed - danger and passion. She immediately recognized the presence. “Ares. What do you want?” she asked in a harsh tone before she even saw him and without giving to the trouble of standing up. ‘I’m really not in the mood for this.’

The God revealed himself, appearing right in front of his Princess. “And must I want something? Can’t your greatest fan simply pay you a visit?”

She shifted her gaze from his dark eyes to the ground beneath him in a display of defeat he wasn’t used to see in her, causing the arousal of deeply mixed feelings within. On one hand he was worried. It wasn’t a good sign to see her so down, she wasn’t handling this very well. He was furious with his father for keeping him busy while the Shadow-Jerk tried to steal his favorite! On the other hand, catching her while she was down might be just what he needed to get her back to his side.

She sighed before she spoke. “Cut the crap! You always want something. Just tell me what it is, because I’m really not in the mood for your stupid games.”

Ares knelt on the ground next to her and gently pushed a strand of raven hair away from her damp eyes. “I’m worried about you, my dear.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Really. This is not like you, Xena. My Warrior Princess does not let herself be defeated by some weird nightmares. You’re letting this eat you up. You’ve got to react, Xena! Or you’ll lose yourself!”

She raised her head to again look into his heart melting dark eyes. “And why do you care about that? Uhm?”

He shook his head and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. He was quite pleased when she didn’t shake him off immediately. “You can be so unreasonable some times, my dear. You and me, we might have different plans for your future, but none of us wants to see you lose yourself in the present, so let me give you some friendly advice: get over it! Anyway you like, but do it! And I think you know the right way.” With this said, he faded into the darkness of the dawn.

She did know a way, now if it was right… But what if she lost herself in the anger not to lose herself in the pain?

**********

‘Another night, another nightmare.’ the dark beauty thought as she paced back and forth near the fire, while her friend and their charge peacefully slept. ‘I can’t go on like this or I’ll end up hurting Gabrielle. I have to do what must be done and hope she’ll understand.’

**********

“Gabby!” little Gabriel called, pulling the blanket down from the bard’s face. When the young woman didn’t reply, he decided to be a little more persistent and squeezed her nose. “Gaaaabbyyyy…” he called again.

“Uhm… What? Joxer?” Gabrielle sat up and rubbed her eyes. She could have sworn she heard someone call her that little pet name she hated. Xena would never call her that so maybe the idiot had returned. “Gabriel, what are you doing up?” she asked as she opened her eyes and saw the small Prince. “Where’s Xena?”

As an answer, the little boy just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know.

The bard had a bad feeling about that. “Xena!” she called, as she laced her boots with her stomach already curling up with concern. She put the child in her arms and got up to look around their small campsite. “Xena!” she called again.

Nothing. ‘Xena, what have you done?’ she noticed all her friend’s belongings were gone, and so was Argo. “Xena!” she desperately called once more, this time almost shouting the name, but the answer was still the same: none. Only a few birds flew away, spooked by her scream.

Desperately, the bard looked around the outer limits of their camp, trying to find any sign of her friend. Nothing. Xena had been careful not to leave any traces, clues or tracks behind.

“What? Stop it Gabriel!” she ordered as the Prince kept struggling to free himself from her arms. “Stop it!” she ordered again but he wouldn’t give up so she set him down on the ground, as it seemed to be his wish. “Happy now?” the Amazon asked, unwillingly showing some anger in her voice.

She followed the child with her eyes when he appeared to have in mind a particular place to go. Clumsily, he stumbled across the camp until he reached Gabrielle’s sleeping blanket. He slipped his little hand under the covers and pulled out a yellowish piece of parchment. “Gabby…” he said, showing off his little treasure to the green-eyed woman.

Gabrielle breezed over the camp and landed next to the little Prince. She pulled the parchment from his hand and unfolded it.

There, in Xena’s unmistakable perfect handwriting, was a message addressed to her:

“Gabrielle,” the bard read out loud, “I prefer to say goodbye to you this way because I know you will not agree with what I’m going to do. But I must go and chase the people of the Shadow-God, both to find out what they did to me and to finally free myself of this strange pain. Maybe you’re right and I should just give it time, but that’s not what my heart calls for. I know you’re capable of taking the child safely to Gregor’s kingdom, so do it. After that, you’re on your own. Go home, go to the Amazons, to the Academy - just don’t follow me! I mean it Gabrielle. I have no wish to meet with you and you would not like what you’d see. I’ll find you when I’m done. Do know that I love you. Goodbye. Xena.”

“Damn you, Xena!” Gabrielle shouted, crushing the parchment in her closed fist.

She ate breakfast with the child and packed. In no time she was on the road. Her mind was made up and her goal was clear. She was going to take the child back to King Gregor and Pandora and then find Xena. She’d have to stop her friend before she did something foolish.

**********

With Xena and Argo gone the journey became considerably slower, but as soon as she reached the outer limits of King Gregor’s land, it also became much easier. Gabrielle got herself an armed escort and a cart to lead her and the little Prince to the royal home.

Right at the front door, waiting for Gabrielle, stood the King, his Queen Pandora and in the back, the loyal servant Ophelia.

“Gabriel, my little Gabriel!” the blond Queen said, running down the steps as she saw the Amazon bard get down from the cart holding her lost son in her arms. She took the child from the smaller woman and held him tightly to her bosom. “My son! Thank you, Gabrielle.”

The King pulled his wife and son to his arms and held them in silence for a moment. It was a wonderful thing Xena and her friend had done for him. Again. Not only did they bring his only son back from the clutches of some evil kidnapper but also they restored Queen Pandora’s health in the process. Truly, they were good friends. “Thank you Gabrielle.” the King said, releasing his family from his strong embrace. “You and Xena ask for anything you want in this kingdom and it’s yours. I can never thank you enough for returning my little Gabriel to me.” Finally he noticed the worried look on the young woman’s face and the fact that she was alone. “By the way, where’s Xena?”

Gabrielle had to make an effort to stay calm and not break down in front of the royal couple. “Xena couldn’t come. She has,” Gabrielle paused, “another matter to take care of at the moment. That’s why I have to leave immediately. I have to go and meet her.” she added.

“But she’s alright, isn’t she?” Pandora asked, still holding little Gabriel in her loving arms.

“Oh, yes. She’s fine.” the blond bard lied, knowing that her best friend was all but fine. “She’s just doing all her hero stuff, you know.” she said, faking a half smile. “And I gotta go too. Bye.” she turned her back on the King and Queen and rushed down the main street.

“Wait! Gabrielle!” Gregor called. “Don’t you even want to stay for the night?”

“No!” she shouted from down the street. “I’ve got to go!”

Gregor and Pandora found the young woman’s behavior a little odd but they were too lost in the happiness of having their son back to make anything of it.

**********

Argo snorted as she watched her mistress trashing in her sleep, haunted by terrible nightmares once more. It had been little over a week since the two had left the Amazon Gabrielle behind, leaving stealthily at dawn. They roamed through seldom used trails and crossed thick woods at hard gallop as Xena tried to purge herself from whatever was invading her dreams and unsettling her feelings.

Xena wanted desperately to be rid of the terrible power that was making her feel such distress, such pain, but how? She felt that her body and soul were being violated more often by whatever this thing was and she didn’t have a clue as to the way to make it stop. ‘Kill it!’ - that was her first instinct. But kill what? The worshipers of the Shadow-God? If she gave in to her murderous urges, she knew she would lose herself to Ares. Besides, the people who had hurt her were long gone and she didn’t even know if they had anything to do with this.

Argo pinned her ears back as her mistress let out a loud cry and woke herself up from her torment.

She was breathing rapidly and her heart was pounding as she sat up on her bed roll and wiped the sticky sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. She looked around and realized where she was and that she was safe. She tried to calm herself by breathing deeply and staring at the stars above.

“It was just another nightmare.” Xena whispered. “Just another nightmare.” She got up and headed for the sound of running water, scratching Argo between the ears as she passed her by.

Xena walked by a few rows of thick trees and neared the water. It was only a thin stream, but it was incredibly beautiful, lined with lush green plants and miniscule yellow and white flowers. It made a whole lot more noise than one would expect from such a small stream of water, but that was because its bed was so irregular that it was full of tiny currents and water falls that gave it such an enchanting look.

The Warrior Princess knelt down on the soft green plants and cupped fresh water in both her hands, splashing it over her face and letting it run down her bronzed skin, soaking the dark shift she’d been sleeping in. The moon above was full and bright, so she could see her reflection in the water that ran below, and it was… horrible. Her eyes looked glassy and robbed of their usual glow and deep dark circles widened under them. Her hair, usually bright and silky, was tangled in knots and soaked in her sweat.

As she stared into the figure reflected in the water, she saw someone materializing behind it and turned to face the dark God that stood too close. “Ares. What do you want?”

The God got even closer and pulled the woman to her feet. “Why do you always ask me that, my dear?” he said, following behind her as she returned to her camp.

Quickly, she put on her leather and armor and became uneasy when she looked for her weapons and found then to be in the God’s hands. “Ares…” she hissed at him. “I am not in the mood to play your little games, so go away!”

He merely smiled and walked to stand behind her. “Such aggression, my dear.” He placed her iron sword in the scabbard at her back. “I don’t think your annoying little friend would approve.” he teased her, talking into her ear, making her heart race with the feel of his warm breath over her skin.

Xena stepped away, turned to face him and pulled the chakram out of his hands. He offered no resistance and merely watched as the troubled woman placed the weapon he’d given her so long ago at her hip.

“My dear.” he went on, “I’ve come to help you.”

“I don’t want your help!”

“Right, you’re doing so well by yourself!” he said, regretting it instantly. Xena wasn’t herself. She wasn’t well. She was being sucked away by the evil Shadow-Jerk. He had to go easy on her. “Listen…”

“I have no interest in anything you might have to say.” she said. “Just leave me alone!” She turned to walk to her golden mare and prepare to ride out but two strong hands held her by the shoulders and spun her around.

“You are going to stay!” Ares shouted with a harsh voice that Xena wasn’t used to. “You’re gonna stay and you’re gonna sit and you’re gonna listen!” the God ordered, forcing the woman to sit on the dirt.

Xena was taken by surprise by his attitude and didn’t know if she should pull her sword and kick his butt, run away or obey. As he sat next to her and placed his hands over hers, she looked into his dark appealing eyes and there was an unusual urgency in them so she decided to give him a chance.

“What is it this time?” she said with a sigh, pulling her hands away from his and putting a few more inches between their bodies, lest the closeness cloud her better judgment.

“The Shadow-God,” he started, watching as her muscles stiffened at the mention of the name. “he wants you to be his new witch.”

“What?” Xena faced him with a puzzled look in her tired blue eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

“He saw you in that fight, when you went to save King Gregor’s child.” he said, letting her know that he was aware of everything she’d been up to. “And, well, he wants you. He was impressed with you. Can’t say that I blame him.” he added with a smirk.

The Warrior Princess shook her head. “No. He has a witch. One that believes in him and worships him.”

“So will you…”

“Never!” the woman shouted.

“Xena, Xena. You are always so stubborn, my dear. What do you think happened while you were imprisoned by those worshipers of the Shadow-Jerk?” Ares asked, watching the pain and confusion in her eyes as she tried to recall that time.

“They took me someplace… and… I think…”

“Never mind. I’ll tell you what happened.” he said, taking her hands in his once more, surprised at how cold they were because of the grim memories he’d brought to her mind.

And this time she didn’t pull away. His warmth and strength made her feel safe. Safe from the nightmares and memories and from whatever dark revelation he was going to make.

“That ceremony that frightened you.” he went on, feeling her hands tightly grasp his. “It was some weird preparation to make you right to host the Shadow-Jerk. I’m not quite sure what happened. But that’s what it was. That’s why you feel like this. He was in you - in your body, your mind. He wants you, Xena!” As the woman remained quiet with her eyes downcast and her hands wrapped around his, the God went on. “While I was away,” he’d been watching her, but he decided not to mention that “the Olympians held a council, and they decided by majority to allow the Shadow-Jerk to prepare you, and destroy him as he enters your body - killing you.”

Again, she didn’t react. “Needless to say, I disagree.” Ares stated. “Not only I think that it will be a lot harder to destroy him in you, because you’re a lot stronger than his current witch, but I don’t want to lose my great Warrior Princess. Not to the Shadow-Jerk and not to my family. Are you listening, Xena?” he asked, because she still sat motionless and quiet.

The woman nodded in return. “I don’t want him in me again.” she whispered as she trembled at the thought of the experience and the repeated nightmares.

“Neither do I, my dear, neither do I.” The God released one hand from the woman’s grip and lifted up her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes. “That’s why you have to stop him now.”

Xena took in a deep breath and tried to shake away the images in her mind. Ares was making sense - and that was scary. But he was right, she had to put an end to it. “But how?” she asked him, managing to settle herself and concentrate in the task at hand.

The God used his free hand to reach his leather belt and pull out a dagger, which he handed to his Warrior Princess.

She released his hand and held the weapon.

“What’s this?” she asked, staring him with blue eyes that were regaining some of their brightness.

Ares pointed at the dagger in the woman’s hands. “That, my dear, is freedom. My father used that dagger last century to kill a northern God. No, it won’t work on Olympians.” he added, as he realized that the thought of killing him was crossing Xena’s mind. “But if it worked on the northern trespasser, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work on the Shadow-Jerk. Just sink it in the witch’s heart and that’ll be the end of it!”

The dark woman stood up and paced near the God. A moment later she turned to face him as he still sat on the dirt. “So I should kill the witch and all the worshipers, right?”

“Right.”

“And this God will die?”

“Right.”

“And I’ll be free?”

“Right.”

“Forget it, Ares!” she shouted, turning away from him and marched to her waiting golden mare. “You will not use me as a tool to do the Gods’ dirty work!”

The War God stood up shaking his head in exasperation. Xena could be so… “You have a lot more to gain in this than I do, Xena. Think!” he insisted, as she mounted up on Argo and turned her to face him once more.

“Yeah, right! For all I know, you’re the one who’s tormenting me, trying to get me back. Just stay away from me!”

And Xena galloped away, disappearing in the darkness of the night.

“Stubborn woman!” Ares shouted, kicking a rock all the way to Ithaca in his fury. “Why can’t she listen to reason?”

Just at that moment a flash of sparkling light momentarily cleared the night, as another God arrived at the place where Xena had been sleeping. “She dumped you again, brother?”

“Discord. What do you want?” he asked ‘Uhg… I’m starting to sound like Xena.’ he thought.

The Goddess strolled around to face him and curled a strand of his black hair around her finger. “Oh, nothing. Just came to visit.”

“Well, you did. Now get lost!”

“Ooooh… Meany, are we?” she teased him, curling the hair tighter. “You want privacy while you feed her Aphrodite’s potion?”

The God slapped his sister’s hand away from his hair looking angrily into her dark eyes. “I told you, I’m not going to use it! I merely came to tell Xena to kill the witch of the Shadow-Jerk, before it’s too late.”

Discord placed her hands on her hips. “Ares, you’re doing it again! Zeus told you to stay out of it. You’re gonna get in trouble!” she predicted, pointing a slim accusing finger to his chest.

“Dear dad and I have been on opposite sides before.” he said, caressing the hilt of his sword as he recalled many occasions where he had disagreed with the King of the Gods over the last millennia. “Don’t worry, I can handle it.”

“Ares, you’ll get in trouble!” she repeated, despairing with her brother’s lack of sense.

“It’s nice of you to worry, but I know what I’m doing.”

“All of this to use an enchanting on some mortal bitch, that…ugh!”

The God of War’s hand tightened around his sister’s neck and lifted her a few inches off the ground. “Xena,” he said, staring her with menacing eyes “is not some mortal bitch!” he harshly said before releasing her. “And I told you, I gave up that love potion idea, it wouldn’t be sporting.”

Discord stepped away from the more powerful God to get some distance between tem and rubbed her sore neck. “Yeah, right… If you have no intention of using it, why do you still carry it with you?”

“No reason.”

“Admit it!” she shouted accusingly. “You can’t conquer Xena by yourself so you plan to use Aphrodite’s thing and then gloat about it, as if it was your own doing!”

Ares tried to be patient with his pupil but she had the amazing gift to arise in him such anger. “Quiet!” he snarled between clenched teeth. ”If I say I’m not gonna use it, I’m not gonna use it!”

“Liar!”

“Discord,” he warned, “you’re getting on my nerves…”

“Well, if you’re not gonna use it, prove it!” the young Goddess challenged.

The God crossed his arms and turned his back on his sister. “I don’t have to prove anything to you.” he stated.

Discord materialized in front of him once more. “No, you don’t, but the reason you refuse to do it is because you intend to use it and then tell that pet Priestess of yours, Cassandra, that Xena is back on your side and that your charms alone did it.”

“Cassandra? What does she have to do with this?”

“You like to please her, don’t you?”

“If it doesn’t collide with my interests, yes, but…”

Discord didn’t let him finish “And she is against you using that potion!”

“Cassandra does not rule my life!” the God angrily said. “There are a lot of things I do she doesn’t approve of. Who cares?” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“You do!” Discord replied, again with an accusing finger on the older God’s chest. “So you’ll use the potion in secrecy.”

“I will not!”

“Then prove it! Give me the bottle.” she said, holding out her hand in front of Ares.

“No!”

“Because you intend to use it.”

“No!”

“Then give it to me.” she repeated.

Ares sighed. “Will that get you off my back?”

“Yes.” she said with a grin.

“Fine.” The God of War reached inside his black leather vest and retrieved the tiny bottle, placing it on Discord’s outstretched hand. “Happy?”

“Very.” she said, closing her slim fingers over the glass.

“Good. Now get off my case!” Ares ordered, disappearing in a flash of bright light.

Discord smiled as she looked at the tiny bottle in her hand. ‘You’ll come begging for it when your precious Warrior Princess tells you to take a hike! And then I’ll make you pay a high price for it. Just wait and see!’ The young Goddess hid the magic bottle in her cleavage and vanished, thinking of the million things she could demand from her powerful mentor, when the right time came…

**********

Xena laid on her bedroll while Argo grazed lazily near by. It had been two nights since the God of War had appeared to her and told her to kill the Shadow-God. She doubted his words and his intentions. How could she believe him after all the pain he caused her? After all the schemes he thought up to win her back? But he had sounded sincere to her. She knew him better then anyone else, God or mortal, so she should be able to tell, right? Still, she doubted him yet her own instincts told her to trust him this time, and now, in the middle of the night, after awaking from yet another nightmare, she decided he was right. Her torment was caused by the Shadow-God and she had to destroy him and his witch.

The Warrior Princess turned to her side and reached inside the saddlebags that lay next to her bedroll. She felt her way through the contents until she came across the cold metal. She grabbed the object and brought it out for a closer inspection.

Xena rolled on her back and held the dagger up in front of her to see it in the light of her campfire. ‘So, this can kill Gods…’ she thought, as she imagined the battles that Zeus might have had to fight in the past to maintain the Olympian domain.

The dagger wasn’t that big or look that dangerous. It was made of two different types of metal, bronze on the hilt and some light slivery metal that Xena could not identify on the blade. ‘And it’s not that sharp either.’ the woman thought, as she ran a finger along the cutting edge and no blood was drawn. It had quite an amount of artwork on it as the hilt was carefully shaped in the form of a griffon with its mouth open and wings turned upwards. The creature seemed to have something on its back, some sort of a saddle or coat, she couldn’t quite tell what it was, but the detail was such that even the claws and a curled tail had not been neglected. As for the blade itself, it was carved with a seven-petal flower at the center and hordes of little leaves crawling up and down. It looked more like a display piece than a lethal weapon and yet, it could kill a God.

‘Looks can be deceiving.’ the black haired woman thought, as she tested the weapon cutting through the air, imagining what it would feel like when she finally killed the witch.

As the warrior woman felt a strong presence, she jumped to her feet and looked around for the only one who alerted her senses in such a manner. “Come on out, Ares, I know you’re here…”

With a flash of light the God appeared in front of his Princess, only inches away from the blade of the dagger she still held tightly in her hand. “You never cease to amaze me with that gift, my dear.” he said, a smile covering his full lips. “You’re the only mortal who can do that, you know.”

The woman nonchalantly turned her back on the God and moved to Argo’s saddlebags and put the dagger back. “I know, Ares, you told me.”

The Warrior God was happy to see that the anger she showed towards him on his last visit seemed to be gone. Now she was just treating him with the usual despise. “So, you finally saw reason, my dear?” he asked, watching as she sat on the ground, close to the fire.

“I decided to take your advice and kill the witch.” she said, as she stirred up the flames. “But…” the woman’s eyes fixed on his. “Don’t think I’m doing this for you or the Olympian Gods or any other reason other than to rid myself of this torture!”

“I know.” he stated, sitting across the fire. “But I’m still glad you and not my father, are handling the Shadow-Jerk . The old geezer is pretty clumsy.” he said, and as the woman made no comment, he went on. “So, my dear…”

“I am not your dear!” she interrupted.

“Oh, yes you are. As I was saying, my dear,” he repeated with a teasing grin. “You don’t believe that I’m responsible for this torment anymore.”

“Nah…” she replied, shaking her head. “It’s just not your style.” she said, picking up a brush and beginning to untangle the knots of her hair. “Your plans Ares,” Xena went on, looking back at the God “…are usually… simpler.” she added with a sly grin. “It would just be too elaborate for you.”

“Ah, so now you think I’m dumb?” he said, as he watched the woman grooming her lovely black hair to its usual shine. “I can still remember when a certain young female warrior thought I was the smartest one in the Universe.”

“That’s because you have a very good memory…Now leave. I have things to do.”

Xena was the only mortal who spoke to him in such a manner, ordering him to do this and that. She’d always done so… “Just one thing…” he said, before he obeyed the woman, “Tell me your plan… Please.” he asked, with a fake pleading tone.

She smiled and laid the hairbrush down beside her. “I’m going to round up a few men, track down the followers of the Shadow-God, I mean Shadow-Jerk and… kill’em all!”

“Yeah! That’s my girl!”

“Don’t get too excited, Ares. As soon as this is over, I’ll get rid of the men. This doesn’t mean that I’m coming back to you.” she warned him.

“I know, but it’ll be so much fun!” and with a loud laugh, the God vanished.

**********

It was nearly mid-day when Argo and her rider arrived at the front gate of Kryton, a small walled city, which resembled Trachis. Xena dismounted and walked over the stomped grass to reach the golden mare’s ears. She whispered some words and then smacked the animal on the side. She watched while her four-legged friend strolled away and then entered the wide-open gates.

‘This place hasn’t changed much since the last time I was here.’ the Warrior Princess thought to herself as she let her eyes drift over the blacksmiths’ shops, packed with warriors and thugs, fixing their weapons and the arms dealers that peeked in every corner, scouting for potential customers. Xena moved along the filthy paved street, between ugly whores and drunken warriors, heading for the most popular tavern of the place. She knew she was likely to find some familiar faces there.

The woman entered the crowded building and headed straight for the bar, trying hard not to let the stench of bad wine mixed with sweat and vomit bother her too much. “Wine.” she demanded of the dirty keeper, flipping a coin on the counter.

Her order was carried out immediately. Taking a sip of her drink, Xena leaned her back against the counter and watched the creatures that populated the establishment, looking for one of her former warriors.

The people in the tavern remained oblivious to the blue eyes that studied them. Xena blended completely in the crowds of warriors that came in and out of Kryton at all hours of the day, so she was able to watch unobtrusively. Some were passed out drunk and sprawled across tables or against the thick wood walls. At one of the center tables, two men were arm wresting and had a small circle of people cheering one or the other contender while no winner was found. At one of the ends of the room, two men were throwing darts at a worn out round target and under a table occupied by four men gambling with dice, a warrior lay dead with a slit throat. The giggling of the whores filled the room as they sat on the laps of armored soldiers, hoping to take one of them home that night and squeeze every last dinar out of him. Just the usual stuff…

‘Charming environment.’ the raven-haired woman thought, as she downed the rest of her drink.

A tap on her shoulder diverted her attention and she turned to face the warrior who smiled at her. “Princess! Long time no see.” the man said, as he greeted her with a strong warrior handshake.

Xena returned the smile. “Lothar!”

Lothar had ridden with Xena many years ago, shortly after Solan was born and the Warrior Princess had good memories of him. An excellent fighter and a man loyal to his commander.

“So, Xena. What brings you to this rat hole?” the man asked, as he ordered drinks for himself and his female company.

“I need to round up an army for a mission.”

**********

Cassandra stood behind her Lord while he watched his Princess in her restless sleep through an enchanted mirror. He saw her gather fifty men around her in only one afternoon as she prepared to chase the people marked with the black snake. Then, she’d gotten a room at the only inn in Kryton and lay down to sleep.

“She’s having nightmares again?” the Priestess asked, startling the dark God.

“Uhm, yes. I think so.” he said, never shifting his eyes from the sleeping beauty. “The Shadow-Jerk doesn’t leave her alone.” he added.

Cassandra walked closer to the God and looked at the image of the troubled woman she liked so much. “My Lord,” she said “Xena is exhausted. She doesn’t have a good night’s sleep in ages.”

“I know.”

“My Lord, she’ll be in no shape to face the witch!” the woman said, concern evident in her voice. “My Lord,” she pulled the God by the arm and turned him to face her.

Ares moved his eyes from Xena to Cassandra. “What is it?”

“Please, give her the rest she needs.” she pleaded. ”If you go to her, you can keep the nightmares away.”

The God shook his head. “Xena wouldn’t want me to, you know that.” he said, looking into Cassandra’s eyes, even darker than his own. “She doesn’t want me any near her and I don’t want to do anything that will drive her away from the task at hand.”

Cassandra held one of the God’s large hands in her own. “You’re wrong, my Lord.” she said. “Xena doesn’t mind having you around her. She just doesn’t want you to try to force her back to her old ways, that’s all.”

“You think?” He moved his eyes back to the mirror where the woman was trashing in her nightmares while her raven hair clung to forehead in damp sticky tendrils.

“Yes, please go to her. Make it alright.”

With a flash of light, Ares disappeared from his fortress and Cassandra watched through the mirror as he materialized in the Warrior Princess’ room and laid a hand over her head.

Immediately, the woman’s sleep was soothed, the nightmare was gone and she fell into a deep peaceful slumber.

**********

Taja’s sword parried another blow. ‘How do I get into this things?’ the young Amazon wondered as she kept defending herself the best she could.

After Velasca had somehow managed to free herself from the lava pit and became, Goddess forbid - a Goddess herself - she had attacked the Amazon village a bunch of times. A few warriors had been killed and most of the survivors were injured. Taja heard that the only reason Velasca didn’t destroy the entire village was because her godly powers were weakened, probably because she’d been in the lava prison for so long. After a few days of attacks, the Goddess of Chaos, that’s what Velasca called herself now, said she was tired of playing with the Amazons and she was going to kill her two greatest enemies: Gabrielle and Xena. The acting Queen, Ephiny, said it was urgent that Queen Gabrielle be warned of the danger, and the task had fallen to Taja.

Ephiny would never have sent such a young warrior, whose training wasn’t even finished yet, but the desperate situation had forced her to take that decision. With most of the Amazon warriors hurt and a warlord named Klonus wondering about, she was left with no choice.

Taja had gladly accepted her assignment and departed immediately. After a few days, she knew she was very close to Gabrielle since she talked to a farmer who remembered seeing the Amazon Queen just the day before.

But with her nose for trouble, Taja had managed to stumble into a band of thugs who were desecrating the temple of the Huntress, protector of the Amazons. She’d taken the decision to interfere, but the three men appeared to be more than she could handle.

‘This seems so easy when Ephiny does it!’ she thought as she battled them.

**********

From behind the woods’ cover, Gabrielle peeked to see the source of the noise that had made her leave the main road. It was the sound of a fight, recognizable by the loud clashing coming from the iron swords. Looking to the clearing ahead, she immediately recognized the statue of the Goddess that guarded the entrance of the temple: Artemis. In front of the building, three men dressed in old armor fought against a very young woman with long silky blond hair and eyes with the lightest shade of blue she’d ever seen. The bard immediately recognized the girl as an Amazon of her own tribe by the amulet she was wearing hanging from a leather string around her neck.

Gabrielle watched as the fight took a turn when one of the men managed to make the young Amazon drop her sword to the ground.

Taja backed away from her ugly attacker, fearing his intentions toward her, but bumped into another thug. The three men had her surrounded, pinning her still with iron swords aimed at her chest.

‘This wasn’t such a great idea.’ the Amazon thought.

The apparent leader of the trio, the one who made her lose her weapon, now dropped his sword and stepped menacingly closer to her while flashing his rotted teeth, relishing the fear that was now showing in the blonde’s eyes.

“Look at what we caught today, boys!” the man said in an unpleasant voice. “A pretty Amazon. Bet she’ll be worth a bundle of money at the slave market!”

Taja swallowed the knot in her throat as she heard the other two men laughing behind her.

“But we get to taste her first!” the leader said, reaching for the girl’s creamy breasts with his calloused hands but she slapped him away.

“Hey!” he protested “You better behave, you harlot! Or you won’t make it alive to the slave market!” he threatened, and again he reached for the girl but this time it was the end of Gabrielle’s staff slammed roughly against the back of his head that made him stop. He fell to the dirt unconscious.

The other two thugs looked in surprise at the small woman who had attacked him as she held her war staff in a defensive stance.

As the men’s eyes shifted momentarily from her, Taja picked up her sword from where it was still laying at her feet.

With sword in hand, one of the thugs moved to Gabrielle, as she waited with a tight grip on the staff she held in front of her body. The man sliced at her and she parried the blow with her weapon, letting out a small cry. And it was her turn to counter-attack; flipping the staff over, she caught the back of the man’s left shin and knocked his leg out under him.

The surprised man stumbled and fell, grunting an ugly word as he hit the ground. The Amazon Queen wasted no time and knocked him out by hitting him with the tip of the staff on the side of his head, as Xena had once shown her.

With her opponent defeated, Gabrielle took in a deep breath and turned around to see how the blond girl was doing. She saw as Taja pulled her bloody sword off the man’s limp body. ‘Damn, she killed him.’

Now that her job was done, Taja placed her sword back in the scabbard and rushed near the bard, kneeling at her feet. “My Queen,” the girl said, still grasping for breath. “I bring you an urgent message from the Regent, Ephiny.”

Gabrielle helped the girl up. “Yes, what is it?” she asked, as she made sure the girl was not wounded.

“It’s Velasca, she’s free.”

“What?” Gabrielle’s eyes were wide as she looked into Taja’s pale orbs, still remembering how it had felt being hunted by the newly born Goddess. “How?”

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.” the young Amazon said, shaking her head. “The point is, she’s coming after you and Xena - by the way, where is Xena?”

At the mention of the Warrior Princess’ name, concern once again returned to Gabrielle’s normally soft features. “She’s not here. I’m going to meet her.” she said.

“Oh, okay. My name is Taja, by the way.”

Gabrielle felt ashamed for not having asked that before. “Taja. What a pretty name.” she complimented, bringing a smile to the girl’s face. “So, Taja, what happened back there?”

The girl explained to her Queen the events of the day and then listened carefully as the bard told her the full story of what had happened with Xena. She decided to go with Gabrielle, who didn’t want her to, but finally agreed since the girl was very insistent. It was hard being alone and Taja’s refreshing presence would be a welcome change.

**********

Gabrielle stopped at dusk to make camp. She and Taja got far enough off the road into the woods as to be out of sight of any nocturnal travelers.

After checking for rocks, the bard laid her bedroll neatly on the ground as Taja collected some firewood. Because neither Amazon was really good at hunting and Xena wasn’t around to provide the meat, dinner consisted of bread and cheese.

Even though the food had not required cooking, Gabrielle was happy to hear Taja say she was going to start a fire. Maybe the hot flickering light would bring her some comfort; if nothing else, it would keep her warm and keep away undesirable forest animals. ‘All advantages.’ the bard thought.

The younger Amazon retrieved two small stones from a leather pouch, moved her long hair away from danger then got the fire going. “Much better.” she said in her sweet voice, smiling at the Queen.

They each sat on their bedrolls then, mostly in silence, ate. When they were finished, both Amazons got under the covers.

‘Camping without Xena feels so strange.’ Gabrielle thought, as Taja’s soft rhythmic breathing told her that she was already in Morpheus’ land. She wondered how her dear friend was doing. Considering the last few days they spent together, it was a scary thought. One more reason, she realized, to reach Xena as fast as she could.