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These pages were last updated: November 24, 1997
ŠNovember 1997
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.
SQUICK alert: This Tartarus for Hell's sake! Expect grodities.
Xex Alert: Yep there will be. Sizzling Hot, but later.
Izzy didn't bother with the hallways.
Who wanted to travel down miles of hallway, past millions and millions of doors? Her logic was instantly appreciated the adventurers. They took the shortcut, which involved opening the first door to the right and stepping through.
"Lot of doorways you have here," quipped Salmoneus as he stepped carefully into the grainy yellow sand, "the carpenters must make a killing." His foot sunk deep, before encountering a harder, more solid surface. Ah that felt better. Then he realized that the bottom of his shoe felt incredibly warm. His eyes grew wide. Then it felt incredibly hot. He stalled a moment, letting his brain catch up with the sensation, not quite grasping the implications.
Izzy shrugged indifferently, her broad shoulders sweeping up attractively, her arrowtipped tail weaving hypnotically. Perdicus stopped for a moment to stare, before being prompted by Marcus. "They keep busy." She grinned evilly and pushed the merchant forward, "Better keep moving. Your boots'll melt and the water's a good ways away yet." Tok bounded out front causing the sand to fly out in a fan pattern where it landed.
The others were quickly becoming aware of the heat of the ground too. They began shifting on their feet, moving forward quickly. Salmoneus lifted his head at the sound of the word, "water." Gods, he hoped they didn't have to swim.
Xena, ever practical, stated, as she strode quickly towards the demoness, who looked unaffected by the heat of the desert, "Which way?" She felt the fiery warmth in her boots and figured she'd take advantage of the compulsion to move. She felt an urgency building, an anticipation. She'd be seeing Gabrielle soon. The sooner the better.
Izzy pointed a long red finger towards the horizon, where a faint streak of blue seemed to waver in the line of sight. "Straight ahead, warrior, till you reach the water line. Two miles at least. Wait there for the stragglers." Xena knew she meant Salmoneus, although, with the way she was feeling it could be any of them. "It will be cooler," the redskinned female affirmed. Xena looked determinedly in the direction indicated, shifting on her feet, and she nodded in response. Izzy tapped the canister on Xena's hip and cautioned in a soft voice, "Drink when you're thirsty. Don't stint. It's too hot here to deny your body's needs. You can refill later at the beach. The water is sweet there."
The warrior looked up at demoness in startlement. Why would she care? The note of concern in the creature's voice placed a puzzle piece in Xena's head, but she settled it in the back of her thoughts. Time enough to figure it out later. The warrior nodded assent and the greenfire eyes looked at her approvingly. Xena felt a warmth build on her cheeks that had nothing to do with the heat. The ex warlord force herself to turn her gaze away.
Then she started jogging away with Melosa and Oriena following right after. They were feeling an urgency to run too, for similar, but not the same reason. Izzy called out, bringing her hand to cup her mouth, "Ignore the guy with the map. You can't help him. He won't take directions!" Xena waved her hand up in acknowledgement and she and the Amazons made tracks.
Izzy and Tok took their time, unaffected by the heat. Tok would bound ahead and then run back to get a pat on the head, smiling its daggite smile. Izzy let her fool around because she knew the spiky creature would be on task when the she needed.
The boots the horned female wore were tanned from the leathery hide of a striger and were not going burn so Izzy didn't feel any sort of need to put a hurry up in her step. Actually, she was keeping Salmoneus company. Marcus and Perdicus had moved ahead, far ahead, prompted by the burn in their shoes and the need to put some distance between themselves and the sensual creature behind them. They also wanted to see if they could catch up with Xena. She smiled almost mirthfully, fully aware of the effect she was having on the humans.
It wasn't that Salmoneus was unaffected by Izzy's presence. He was very affected. He was also, however, not cut out for marathons. So he just walked fast, high stepping to keep his feet from suffering (though his thighs were feeling the effort). She didn't rush him and kept pace, pausing when he paused to step side to side and rest. Izzy let him talk, since that was his nature and he found her much easier to talk to than he expected.
"If any room would have done, Izzy, why'd you choose this one?" He hissed forward. For some reason, despite the fact he knew he was scared spitless of her, the merchant also felt a comfort around the statuesque female. It was a bizarre, confusing sensation.
Izzy grinned. He couldn't see it, so he wasn't frightened by her display of teeth. Her gentle sexy voice rippled through the screamingly hot air. Tok had finally settled into walking at their pace, and padded silently to her left (which made Salmoneus feel better). "It was closest, Sal, and this was the shortest stretch of desert." She shrugged and he didn't see that either, since he was looking down at his feet. The glare on the sand hurt his eyes. Mental note: something to cover the eyes. Maybe a gauzy kerchief? "The were other places we could have taken shortcuts at, but we'd've had to go down several miles of hallway. More than what we're doing here. I wanted to get you and your friends to Gabrielle's space before night falls."
Sal nodded. She saw him. Her peripheral vision was beyond excellent and her eyes had slit and covered to compensate for the heat and light. "That makes sense, but maybe next time when you're. . ."
His foot caught on the edge of something. He stumbled and fell. His hands extended forward to stop the fall and he realized in a flash how much this was going to hurt. He could already smell the burned flesh of his palms in his mind.
His hands never even touched the surface of the sand, but he felt himself lifted from the back and settled back on his feet. Sort of. He immediately began the shifting hot foot dance. "Better watch your step." Her tone was friendly, not mocking. He looked down to see what caught his foot and instantly regretted it. The scream came out of his mouth before he could stop it, and he leaped back and somehow fell into her arms.
Izzy held his quivering body and the weighty load of his supplies easily. She raised her eyes to the blue sky above and sighed. "Humans."
She waited until his grip on her shoulders loosened and awareness came back to his eyes. He looked up at her, suddenly cognizant that he was pressed against her uncovered chest, feeling the warmth of her left breast against his arm. He blushed and felt an immediate throbbing down below. She rolled her eyes again, her sense of smell picked up the change in his scent, and set the man carefully in the sand. He looked at the mass in front of him and backed up a step.
"Wha. .wha. .what's. . ." he stammered. He gulped and placed a hand on his heart, clenching at his light shirt. He closed his eyes briefly, even as he shifted his weight. Gods, he was not meant for this.
"That's Hidad, the lost man. This is the one I warned them about." She stepped around Salmoneus and knelt by the body. She rolled it over with one hand, firmly clasping its shoulder. A horribly blistered face greeted the sun. There was a map crumpled in the body's hands. "He must have got tired early today." The demoness gently wiped the hair from the body's face, and began carefully rearranging the its position. Tok began sniffing at Hidad curiously. "Tok, go stand by Salmoneus. Go on." The daggite whuffled at her in disappointment, blowing air at the hand that was straightening out the map, then obediently went to stand by the shifting form of the merchant.
Salmoneus watched in amazement, as the demoness, a supposedly heartless creature, seemed to tenderly lay out the body in a position of immortal rest. He felt the presence of the daggite assert itself, but found his attention riveted by what was being performed in front of him. He forgot to be scared. Izzy placed the flattened map carefully under folded hands. She held the body up by its ragged brown shirt. Then passed a hand underneath the body. When she set it down, the body remained on the surface of the sand.
Then she stood up, a toweringly beautiful frightening creature and turned to Salmoneus. The smile, which he now realized had been there, was gone from her eyes. He found that he missed it. A lot. "Come on Sal, let's go. Your friends are waiting."
The bearded man didn't say anything the rest of the way.
Xenite Temple | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
These pages were last updated: November 24, 1997
ŠNovember 1997