WARNINGS AND DISCLAMERS

Gabrielle immediately started to set up camp, so it’d all be ready when Xena came back. There wasn’t any sense in making the warrior any angrier than she was already. Finally the bard felt that she had everything arranged just the way the warrior always like them.

Gabrielle knew that things between her and the warrior were fast coming to the boiling point. The bard figured that they'd really have it out when Xena returned and had the time to tongue-lash the her properly.

The bard laid out her bedroll, got out her journal and quill and decided she'd spend, at least, some of her time waiting on the warrior by writing in her journal.

The honey-blonde was no closer to a solution to her problems, but decided to keep writing. Maybe something would eventually occur to her while she wrote. At least she couldn’t see where it would hurt anything at this point.

It was nearly sundown and Xena still hadn’t returned. It was also getting hard for the bard to see what she was writing without some effort, so Gabrielle laid her quill down.

The bard decided she could pass some of the time waiting for the warrior by going down to the stream and getting some of the trail dust washed off. Gabrielle grabbed a clean shift, some soap, cloth to dry off with and started off. The bard abruptly stopped remembering she'd forgotten to pick up her staff. With her staff in hand she again headed off to the stream.

Xena had gotten to the village ahead of the raiders this time and had got the villagers organized. They sat up an ambush and were waiting for the raiders when they arrived. With a little help from the villagers Xena managed to down all the raiders but two who had managed to get away. One of those was injured, but no one wanted them to return for vengeance.

Xena knew neither one of the raider's were in very good shape and didn’t figure it would take her very long to catch up and deal with them. But it did take her longer than she’d figured and it was about three or four candlemarks after sun down before she made it back to the camp where she’d left Gabrielle.

As she got close to the campsite she could smell a campfire. Her anger started rising because she’d told Gabrielle not to start a fire until she’d returned, because it wasn't safe. She rode into camp ready to have it out with the bard and was determined to finally get some answers.

Upon seeing the campsite, Xena immediately forgot how angry she was. It looked like the camp had been torn apart by wild crazed animals looking for something.

Xena drew her sword as she dismounted Argo looking around quickly trying to take everything in at once. She started shouting for Gabrielle, but she saw nothing and heard only silence.

Xena checked all around the camp for anything, which might help explain what had happened to Gabrielle. Xena covered the ground around the campsite several times and still couldn't find any footprints except for those of the bard.

The camp was totally trashed and there was blood splattered around. The bard’s scrolls were scattered everywhere and some were in tatters and pieces of others were still burning in the campfire. Xena pulled some of the pieces out of the fire and put the fire out.

She continued looking for clues and found a small pool of blood on a rock with what looked like some of the bard’s honey-blonde hair stuck in it. Now the warrior knew her bard was hurt.

Xena continued to call out Gabrielle’s name in hopes that the bard would hear her and respond. Xena knew the bard couldn’t have been gone long because none of the blood had dried yet.

The sky was cloudy blocking any moon or starlight, which might have aided in her search. She cut a branch from one of the trees and made a torch so she could see better along the edges of the campsite where the campfire just wasn’t bright enough to do any good. Xena continued to go over all the footprints trying to decide in which direction Gabrielle had left the camp.

It was nearly impossible to track Gabrielle with only a torch to see with. But Xena knew that Gabrielle was hurt and had no idea how badly. The warrior just couldn’t wait until morning to start searching for the bard. As Xena searched she continued to call for Gabrielle hoping that even if she was too weak to get back to camp on her own maybe she could make some kind of noise that would help Xena find her.

Gabrielle had bathed and then spent some time just lounging around in the water. The sun had finally gone down and the bard started to get chilled and decided it was time to get out any way. She dried off, dressed and headed back to camp.

About half way back she stumbled and fell. Gods it’s dark out here… I should have brought a torch or candle with me… or paid more attention and started back sooner. Gabrielle slowly felt her way back to the campsite without any further incidents.

Gabrielle sat in total darkness for what seemed like an eternity, but figured it had actually been about two candlemarks. She was tired and had thought of lying down and going to sleep. But as quickly as the thought came to mind she pushed it away remembering only too vividly the nightmares that sleep brought.

Gabrielle was starting to worry about why the warrior hadn’t returned yet. The raiders had been right behind them when Xena left her here and they should have passed by and into the village several candlemarks age. Xena should have returned herself long ago… she should have been back by sun down or shortly after.

In the darkness Gabrielle’s mind had started to paint its own pictures even if she wasn’t asleep. She started shivering and got a blanket to put around her, but she continued to shiver. She wasn’t sure if the shivering was from the coolness of the evening or from the thoughts that were racing unbidden through her mind. Her mind was going from thinking that Xena had left her for good because of the way that things had been going lately to seeing the warrior lying injured or dead.

Gabrielle had already gathered the wood for a fire and had it ready to light when Xena returned. The bard didn’t want to light the fire… Xena had told her not to, but she just couldn’t stand the tricks her mind was playing on her. Gabrielle picked up the flint and started the fire.

Gabrielle went to her bedroll and got her scrolls out and sat down to write while she waited some more for Xena to return. The bard was totally exhausted and it wasn’t long before the bard’s head was resting on the parchment as she fell into a fitful sleep.

Xena had followed Gabrielle tracks for about half a candlemark and then lost them in some real dense brush. She’d even found part of Gabrielle clothing caught in the brush were it had caught and ripped. Xena continued to call out the bard’s name as she searched hoping that sooner or later she would respond.

The warrior might have believed that Gabrielle had just run off again, if it hadn't been for the blood scattered over the camp. Xena spent over a candlemark scanning the area trying to pick up the trail again without any luck.

Reluctantly Xena had to give up and return to camp, her torch was starting to burn low and it was just too dark to track without it. She’d already used all the extra cloth that she’d brought for bandages on the torch to try and keep it burning. Even if she wanted to continue searching she’d have to go back to camp for more cloth.

When Xena got back to camp she started to clean up the area some still looking for any more clues that might tell her what had happened to Gabrielle. Close to Gabrielle bedroll Xena found one of Gabrielle scrolls. It was very tattered and had a boning knife sticking through it pinning it to the ground. Xena pulled the knife out and looked at the scroll. It had been stabbed several times and then left with the knife sticking out of it. It looked like Gabrielle had taken her anger out on the piece of parchment.

Xena took the fragment and moved closer to the fire to try to read it.

Unshed tears were starting to brim in the warrior’s eyes as she tried to read the fragment. The fragment seemed to be part of some kind of diary or journal. At least with what Xena could make out written on the parchment it seemed that Gabrielle had planned to stay here at least until morning. But with all the rips and tears in the parchment it was all but impossible to get very much out of it. It also seemed that the bard had decided to lay down and sleep and with the nightmares… the warrior realized that could have been a dangerous mistake on the bard’s part.

Ó Copyrighted December 1997 by DelShannon