Warlord Daze

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.

Xex Alert: Oh Boy Is There. .This is a Prurient Piece with a Bit of Kink (If you hear the crack of the whip then you'll be in the neighborhood) Proceed at your own risk. :)

Typical bard. The question made Xena smile and she settled back. "She healed me." Gentle hands began their careful shaving and the cool strokes sent pleasant shivers through Xena's skin. She could feel the pulse begin. "My body would have healed quickly enough on my own I suppose, but I was a broken woman." There was a pause and Xena wondered if she should go on, but the bard made the decision and continued after taking another breath. "She fed me, dressed me, crooned me to sleep, loved me." Xena let her body respond to the memory and to Gabrielle's attentive scrapings.

The bard spoke up, unable to hold her tongue, "She loved you?" Her mind strove to wrap herself around the idea and didn't find it difficult at all. Xena was a beautiful woman. Of course the woman loved her.

"Yes." Tenderly, passionately, with more fire in her aged bones than some of Xena's later lovers. She looked down at Gabrielle's fiery hair. She had as much enthusiasm as this one, almost. A memory orgasm flushed through her body. Gabrielle either didn't notice or ignored the resulting shivers.

"How did. . ." The bard noticed the way the muscles flexed in Xena's sex and realized that she'd just had a moment of ecstasy. She ignored the urge to stop what she was doing and start lapping and forced her attention to the present.

"I'm getting to that."

"Sorry." She wasn't that sorry. She'd needed the distraction.

Xena laughed. "You're fine."

Gabrielle blushed and continued revealing the intricate details of the tattoo with care. Xena's voice was soft, "The going was slow and I was as ornery then as I am today." The bard laughed softly, "Only I was convinced I wasn't worth anything. I had failed you know. Failed my men, failed myself." Xena shook her head with regret, "I didn't realize that it came with the territory. A body can't win every battle." Gabrielle looked up.

"If anyone can come close though, you do. That's one thing I love about you. Your determination. Your drive." Gabrielle emphasized this with one perfect downward scrape.

Xena smiled an acknowledgement and continued speaking, as she watched the bard carefully clean and freshen the blade. "One day, she told me, 'You've got to reclaim yourself, Xena. You've got to reclaim your power." The warrior laughed, "You see, I believed them. I believed those bastards and blamed myself and my womanhood." She smirked, "It made sense at the time." Gentle fingers touched her inner thigh, caressing. There was a kiss and then the sensuous slide of the blade. Xena's nipples rose to greet the air.

Gabrielle mmhmmed. Halfway. All those lovely curls. . .

"She said she would help me. She would prove to me that being a woman was a powerful force. She said *I* would be a force to contend with. Men would surrender to me, bend to my will. And I listened because there was a part of me that wanted revenge and thought she was talking magic. So I agreed."

The tattoo, though only revealed three fourths of the way, was a wonder indeed. It was intricately looped and detailed. These weren't the blocky patterns like Gabrielle saw on other warriors. Gabrielle could see why she hadn't noticed it before, because it was designed to blend in, to appear as if the marks were themselves Xena's dark curls, but forming small images, like miniature paintings. "There are pictures. . ." Gabrielle's voice was filled with awe. The artisan must have been talented indeed.

"Yes. They all form differently to the eye. If you look at them one way, you see one thing, another, a different image."

Gabrielle tilted her head and gasped. It seemed to her that she saw a young woman's face this way. "That's you."

"Yes." Xena had noticed that one a long time ago. She was in awe of the woman's skill.

The bard looked up. "I've never seen anything like it. It's magic."

"Of a sort. It was to me then." Xena tapped Gabrielle's hand, "Better finish up, I'd hate to be half done." Gabrielle laughed and apologized.

"Did it hurt?" This was an important question to Gabrielle.

"A little, but like getting a pinch." Oh. The bard thought she could handle that.

"Did it take a long time?" Another important question.

There was a pause, "It took long enough." Xena looked thoughtful. "I had to sit still and it gave her a chance to talk and talk and talk. Kind of like you." Xena grinned wickedly at the bard.

"Hey. Remember who's holding the knife here." Hazel eyes flashed a humorous warning.

Xena smirked, "Oh I remember well enough, thank you." As if she'd ever let anyone else wield a knife that close.

"What did she talk about?" Gabrielle was almost finished with her work and was well pleased. Not one scratch. Not one cut. Just a fine shave.

"Everything I think. She talked about her lover back home," Xena saw the question coming before it was asked, "a warrior she refused to name. She said it wasn't important." Gabrielle groaned. Damn it. Names were important. Xena grinned, practically able to read the bard's mind. "She talked about herself some. Nothing revealing, like where she came from. Just things that interested her. Some stories. She told a lot of stories. Then we talked philosophy some. She was like you, an optimist." Gabrielle grinned and set the knife aside. "She talked about power and where it came from."

"Where does it come from?" Gabrielle was afraid Xena was going to say it came from the tattoo.

Xena knew where power came from. Over time, she'd learned how right the woman had been. The tattoo was the reminder, a kind of focus for her to think about, meditate on. It was at the seat of power, reminding her that her womanhood was enough and was a power of its own, but all power originated one place, "Inside." She meditated a lot on this, mentally following all the lines, like a mandala. It had been awhile since she'd seen the tattoo. It would be good to refresh her memory.

Gabrielle nodded. "I've always thought so. Real power, that is. That's what drew me to you. You practically reek of it." She was beginning to like this woman who she'd never met and probably never would. She felt a deep sense of gratitude. Because of her, Xena was alive. Because of her, she and her village were free.

"Yes, well. I try to stay daisy fresh, but you can't always." Gabrielle laughed and began the cleansing procedure.

"What else?" The bard observantly rinsed Xena's sex, taking in every response. Her fingers brushed against the warriors skin and Gabrielle had to smile at the resulting goosebumps. It was good to know she had this affect on her lover. Empowering.

"A lot of things, I guess, but it all kind of blends, you know. I don't remember it all. I remember how I felt though, by the time she was done. I felt. . .capable again. Confident. I guess, because while she was giving me these marks a little at a time, she also had me out practicing, getting really strong again. She told me, 'dark times come and go, but they never stay. Love always stays and I love you.' Then she left."

Gabrielle figured something like that had happened, but wondered at the neutrality with which Xena spoke. "Why?"

"She had to go home. I had hoped. . ."

"She'd stay with you. . ."

"But she said she couldn't. She said she had to return and had no choice. She said I had a destiny to fulfill. That I would understand someday." The parting had been bittersweet. Vows of love had been exchanged and Xena had waited an hour, letting the woman get a head start down the road, intending to track her home. She'd been willing to do almost anything to be with her, even live as a servant (though she'd not told her that). So she'd followed a ways until the tracks were joined by another set and then they simply vanished. Gone. Just like that. It had been the Gods, she'd decided, but since she didn't know which ones she'd simply had to say thank you into the air and let it go. She'd thought out a plan to help Amphipolis. This one she was sure would work. And then, not long after she'd met Caesar (That RAT BASTARD. She'd see him in Tartarus someday.) and M'lila (Gods she missed her and her Gaelic ways. Xena remembered how the dark lovely woman had traced and retraced all the patterns of the mark. Many a strange look had passed between them) and everything changed.

"They always say that to you, don't they?" Xena gasped as fingers lightly played, stroking slickly in her cleft. Just when had Gabrielle started doing that?

Xena tried to focus. "They?"

"The one's who leave." Gabrielle's eyes spoke of a deep understanding. She had her own love who'd left. Xena opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. The warrior shrugged. "She's right though," Gabrielle continued.

"Right about what?"

"Love stays."

Xena laughed. "How can you say that? I just told you she left."

"I can say it because, "Gabrielle looked quietly up at her warrior, moved her fingers and wetly traced one of the patterns on Xena's skin, "she wrote it." The warrior gasped and looked down.