Disclaimer - I'd actually stopped writing these for stories, but given that this is a continuation of the storyline of season six - AS WRITTEN by TPTB, I though y'all might like a warning that it follows Friend in Need, without changing the status quo.  Flames will be passed on to Missy for distribution of key lime pie.
 
 

Twenty five summers I have seen, longer still is the span I've walked upon the earth.  Tonight seems longer than all that have gone before.
I had but seen the full change of seasons sixteen times when first I saw her, and now I have seen three moonrises more than I would have chosen to see without her.
But I was given no choice.
And she had none.

Gabrielle put down the scroll and laid the quill aside.  The fire caught her attention and she added to wood fueling the blaze.  She hated the fire.  Fire had changed her life over and over again.

Velaska

Callisto

Dahok.

Hope.

Xena.

She hadn't needed a fire on the ship which had brought her from the cursed rim of fire to Eygpt's sands, and she had resisted one the first night of her landing, but tonight was too cold to do without.  The desert air carried cold in ways that mere clothing could not guard against and that the soul was powerless to block.

Was it only ten moons ago that they had bathed here?  Ten moons since she'd come to accept the dark possibilities of her own soul?

Xena had told her that sacrificing herself to make reparations for the killing of a young boy would serve no purpose.  Now she was supposed to accept that Xena's self sacrifice was worth the pain.  Was worth the empty aching silence that stretched beyond the dunes only to be swallowed by the noises of the night as though it had never been.

She had to.  There wasn't a choice.  It was done.

The fire sparked, sending a rush of glowing cinders upward, the brush of air over the coals igniting the flame to a new height and Gabrielle tensed, listening to the air and for the sounds behind the silence.  She smiled.

Along her left leg, the tattoo tingled and she knew that she was not alone.  Not right now at least.  Under the berber, the dragon itched in response to the new presence.

'You should put some salve on that.'

Gabrielle heard the words as clearly as if they'd been spoken aloud.  "I can't reach the center."  One more thing to be angry about, one more thing to miss.

'At least soak it.'

She'd thought about it.  Thought about sinking into the warm waters where they'd played the last time they'd visited the people of the desert.  Somehow, she just hadn't been able to face the memories.

Standing, Gabrielle unfastened her tunic and let it drop to the ground.  "Join me?"

The air at her back was warm, and Gabrielle knew that she was not the only one sliding into the water.

'C'mere.'

Gabrielle laughed.

A familiar, gentle touch traced the swirling lines of Akimi's gift.  'I love you.'

There was no distance between them now.  Every hair on her arms and legs responded to the dancing contact, and she parted her lips, anticipating the touch to come.

The water in the pool slapped against the tiled sides, the motion of her back driving the waves, as she herself was being driven by the sure hands of a lover that knew her body intimately.
She came in a rush, effortlessly gathering in the rising energy and releasing it suddenly.  "I love you too."

Gabrielle let herself float, relaxed and enjoying the drowsiness that was her reward.  She no longer felt buoyed by Xena's almost intangible presence; the warrior had slipped away on a breeze, gone in search of those who might present a danger to a sleeping mortal.  It was no cause for concern.

She'd be back.

Gabrielle smiled again.  With a Champion who knew no earthly bounds, a girl with a chakrum just might stand a ghost of a chance against Alexander the Great.
 
 

End chapter one.
Reader's you now have a choice - You can tune in to this story to for the rest of a grand adventure, or go gently, like Xena's
 
 
 

Return to Main Page