Among Friends

The following is a bit of alternative fiction based on certain characters from the Xenaverse. It is not meant to infringe on anyone else's rights. If you don't agree or disapprove, please go read something else.

Electra was trapped, caught between the freedom of the sky, the freedom of the wild green and the camp. The band on her neck yanked her away from the forest trail and buzzed a compulsion to return to the war camp. She hated the camp , for a variety of reasons. Two of which were important to her. First, it smelled. It smelled of every kind of refuse. Human, garbage. Electra snorted even as she stumbled. Humangarbage. ....Second.....She spotted him waving that damnable rod. He smiled, as if he were her friend. She knew he wasn't.

"Ardan, What do you want?" she rasped out hostilely. When she was in the skies or the wild, she could sing. She would sing to the wind and the wind would sing back, telling her things, whispering and sometimes shouting. They were friends, the wind and she, who was newly made. They hated her enslavement as much as she did and cried for her. When she was with him, it was as if her voice disappeared. It wasn't as if he noticed the difference.

"I want you to remember where you belong," the self proclaimed General said. There was a reason the Goddess of Chaos put the collar on the elemental slave. Well two. Electra kept smiting him. He'd objected to it mightily. Being stung by lightening hurt. Even if it wasn't the decimating power she used would use to strike the flocks of Amazons that were gathering. He was looking forward to that battle. Meanwhile, he demanded the Goddess do something. She'd smirked at him, finding some humor in his charred condition. But still, that last time Electra had run away, she'd finally grown tired of her wily uncontrollable pet.

Electra carefully covered the sneer with a passive expression. The things he did to her with the collar hurt, "I know where I belong." It certainly wasn't in Ardan's camp.

Jacosta's brother raised his eyebrows, "And to whom?" He moved the rod threateningly, as if to hit her with it.

The elemental woman didn't flinch, but she closed her eyes lest she give the dreaming away. An image of red gold hair, soft skin and portions of a name that eluded her skimmed through her heart. She opened them again and nodded curtly, "Yes." Let him make his assumptions.

Ardan smiled a handsome smile and tucked the rod back in his belt. "Well then, let's go. Word is the Amazons are gathering and I want to talk plans with Velaska." Electra straightened her posture. Ardan grinned happily, "Yes. At last I'll be free of them." He reached to grab Electra's arm, but the white haired woman moved from away from his grasp and started forward on her own. He said something afterward, but all she heard echoing in her mind, for some unknown reason, was the word, "Amazon."

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They used runners to send messages to gather volunteers from the tribes. Despite the fact that Gabrielle hated war as a concept, she understood the necessity of defending her people. So she prepared for her Amazons for War, not just a skirmish. Purchases of supplies were made on the other side of Amazon lands, from their allies. Weapons were forged to Xena and Jacostas' specification. Skula and other outlying villages bustled with activity. Ephiny sent word to Queen Gabrielle that her party would be arriving soon. There were several judges among them.

The Centaurs volunteered some of their best warriors. They snuck into the boundary lands at night, and hid in the deep forest with the Amazons, near the sacred grounds. Solan stayed in Centaur lands with the other children, much to Xena's relief.

Gabrielle, despite Xena's wishes, began practicing with the sword. "I am Obligated to defend my people," she said. "Either you help me, Or I will find someone else." The Queen had stared defiantly at the warrior and then, when it seemed Xena was going to turn away, had broken into mournfully stressed tears that made her shoulders rock with their ache. There was no more need to convince, but Xena was determined that if Gabrielle practiced with the sword, she also practiced with the shield and her staff.

It would be days before Ephiny's arrival, so Arete, Kalai and Iovene began the search for the young earth elemental. They knew it had to be fairly close to Skula, but distance to the elementals could mean anything. Plus the land was hilly and cavernous and there was an awful lot of it. They started close and moved out in an ever widening circle. They always came home at night, and so their search was limited to the distance they could travel by horse. Jacosta's dreaming was almost entirely of the battle to come, so she saw nothing involving the earth elemental. There were only disturbing premonitions about danger from the skies and dreams of bloody battle, clashing steel, thunder from the sky, and smoggy mayhem that always left her screaming awake.

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These pages were last updated: June 1, 1998

ŠJune 1998