STANDARD DISCLAMER - These characters, most of them, belong to Universal, and Renaissance Pictures, and whoever else has a stake in Xena: Warrior Princess. This is written just in fun, non-profit and no copyright infringement is intended.

WARNINGS are included with this story to enable the reader to judge whether each piece is of interest to them. They are intended to be taken seriously as a warning about the nature of this story. If you choose to ignore these warnings, you do so at your own risk.

VIOLENCE WARNING: This story depicts scenes of violence and/or their aftermath.

EXTREME VIOLENCE WARNING: This story depicts scenes of extreme violence and/or their aftermath.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE WARNING: This story depicts scenes of sexual violence and/or their aftermath.

HURT/COMFORT WARNING: This story may be best classified as a Hurt/Comfort Story involving the characters Xena: Warrior Princess and Gabrielle.

LOVE/SEX WARNING: This story depicts a love/sexual relationship between two consenting adult women. If you are under 18 years of age or if this type of story is illegal in the state or country in which you live, please do not read it. If depictions of this nature disturb you, you may wish to read something other than this story.

Prologue

Xena had always been a private person for the most part and the bard had found that it just wasn't easy talking to the warrior about some things. Gabrielle got a new insight into the private life of Xena while the warrior was dead. Gabrielle found Xena's personal effects most illuminating to the warrior's personal and private life.

Some of the things she found in the warrior's effects she thought that she could guess their use, but there were other's that she had no idea about. Since she wasn't sure what they were, she had no idea if she should keep them, throw them away or give them to Xena's mother when she returned Xena's remains.

She finally decided that Ephiny was probably the best person to ask about the questionable items. She felt like they had grown close enough as friends that maybe the Amazon Regent would give her the answers without hysterically laughing at her lack of knowledge about such things.

Some of the things she'd found out were for sexual gratification. They could be used on others as well as oneself. It seemed as though every time the bard got an answer to a question, it brought up at least two more. Ephiny had gotten redder as the questions continued. Some of the questions Ephiny had found just too embarrassing to explain and demonstrations were definitely out of the question, so she had just told Gabrielle that some things were better discovered on one's own and she might try employing her imagination.

Gabrielle had always satisfied her own physical yearnings by using her own touch. This was somewhat successful and seemed to help take the edge off, but didn't always completely relieve the feelings. She wasn't aware there was any other way until she'd seen Xena's things and gotten some answers from Ephiny.

Gabrielle figured that everyone had the same feelings she did from time to time, but had never found a time that she felt was appropriate to discuss it with the warrior. That part of Xena's life the warrior seemed to prefer to keep private. Besides Gabrielle figured she took care of it the same way she did anyway... not leaving much to really talk about.

Gabrielle's imagination wasn't lacking; after all she was a bard. There was one object that Ephiny had called a phallus and simply put was used in place of a certain part of a male's anatomy. Gabrielle thought she might experiment a little and found it too painful in the extreme for any further experiments. One factor the bard had failed to consider was the fact that since her and Perdicus had never consummated their marriage she was still a virgin. Although she had felt that she had missed an important part of married life, her experiments made her kind of glad that they hadn't quite gotten around to that part of married life that first night. It was beyond her how anyone could tolerate that kind of pain to have sex.

Gabrielle's nightmares that she had after Xena's death had all but disappeared with the warrior's return. Unfortunately the warrior's return had brought other complications.

² Copyrighted January 1998 by DelShannon