WARNINGS AND DISCLAMERS

The next morning Gabrielle was just as quiet as ever and couldn’t or wouldn’t look the warrior in the eye. While Xena was getting them some breakfast, Gabrielle set about breaking camp and getting things ready to start following the raiders once again.

When Xena returned to the camp everything was already packed. They ate their breakfast in absolute silence. Xena watched the bard out of the corner of her eye while the bard sat and just stared off into space, not really seeing anything but seemingly deep in thought.

Gabrielle had thought Xena invincible, but her death had proven that wrong. Gabrielle was more than glad to have the warrior return, she’d felt so lost when Xena died. Now the bard worried that she would again have to suffer through the death of her best friend, especially after the attack by the bounty hunters and it just seemed to create fuel for the nightmares. And there was Callisto… this woman just kept popping back into her life and now she was immortal and a god. As if Callisto wasn’t enough of a threat all by herself, now there was Velasca who also happened to be immortal and a god. They might be trapped in a lava pit, but there was no telling how long that would hold them. Was there never to be any end to all those trying to kill Xena and now herself?

The attempts on the bard’s life had only caused the warrior to even be more protective toward her. It made the bard feel that she was being treated like even more of a child. The bard wondered how she was ever going to get Xena to quit being so overly protective of her. She’d worked harder than ever with her staff trying to show the Princess that she could indeed take care of herself, but Xena only returned indulgent smiles and went right on treating her like a child. If she could some how work things out for herself this time it would serve to prove that she was a woman and no longer a mere ‘child’.

"Gabrielle are you ready to go now?" the warrior asked.

The bard only nodded without even looking in Xena’s direction.

Gabrielle walked down the dusty road following behind Argo still deeply lost in her own thoughts. Those damn nightmares were only getting worse and causing no end of problems and embarrassment. It just seemed that ever since Xena had returned from the dead, things just hadn’t been the same and had gotten a lot more complicated.

Gabrielle was still deeply lost in her own thoughts when they suddenly could hear shouting and sword clashes coming from over the next rise. Xena turned and looked at the bard.

Gabrielle shouted, "Go on I'll catch up with you."

Xena kicked Argo into a full run and disappeared over the rise in seconds. The bard broke into a dead run trying her best to get to the trouble as quickly as possible.

As Gabrielle topped the rise she could see the small village ahead and people were running in every direction screaming. A few buildings were already smoking and some of the villagers were using farm implements trying to protect themselves, their homes and families.

Gabrielle started down the rise into the village and caught sight of Xena still mounted on Argo and swinging wildly at some of the raiders who were trying to pull her from the mare. Xena had already left ten of the raiders laying in the village either dead or badly wounded. Gabrielle got into the fray just as the raiders had decided they'd had enough of the warrior and that it was time to move on.

Xena would have liked to go after the raider's immediately, but the villagers were in need of her medical skills.

Since Xena and Gabrielle had managed to get there soon enough there wasn’t as much damage as usual and the raiders hadn’t managed to get away with very much.

The warrior was more contented to know that they were finally getting close to the raiders. Maybe by tomorrow or the next day they would catch up with the rest of them and put an end to their reign of terror.

When Gabrielle and Xena were finished helping the villagers it was getting late, but they again left following the trail of the raiders during the daylight they had left.

As it started to get dark Xena again found a place for them to bed down for the night.

Xena went to the nearby stream to do some fishing for dinner and Gabrielle again set up camp and got a fire going.

Gabrielle had seen some berry bushes a short ways back and went to pick some to have with their dinner. She also collected a few herbs and other plants to have as spices and seasoning for the fish that Xena had gone after.

When Gabrielle returned to camp Xena hadn’t returned yet. She decided that the warrior might have decided to bathe while she was at the stream fishing and as much as the bard loved looking at the warrior's beautifully sculptured body, she decided it was better to stay in camp and make herself busy. Gabrielle did some more work on sitting up the camp and then laid out the bedrolls with Xena’s on one side of the fire and hers on the other. Gabrielle then sat down on her bedroll and pulled out her journal and started to write.

At this point Xena returned to camp with two good sized trout for dinner. Xena’s hair was indeed wet confirming the bard’s suspicions of her bathing while she was gone. "I hope you don’t mind the water felt so good I stayed long enough to clean up a little and rinse out my hair." The warrior said with a grin on her face.

Gabrielle only glanced in her direction and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good." And again fell silent as the bard's mind filled with images of the warrior’s nude body.

Gabrielle tried to clear her mind as she stood and took the fish from the warrior's hand and put them on the fire. The bard added some seasonings and then returned to her bedroll. She rolled up her parchment she’d been writing on and put it back in her bag.

Gabrielle pulled out a clean shift and started to head in the direction of the stream without saying a word. Gabrielle felt like she needed some space between her and the warrior. The images of the nude warrior in her mind was starting to cause a slow burning fire in her body and being near the warrior was only fanning the flames.

"Gabrielle aren’t you going to wait and eat first?" the warrior questioned, puzzled by Gabrielle's actions.

"I’ll be back in a few minutes." The bard turned and walked away without saying another word.

Ó Copyrighted December 1997 by DelShannon