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Love's Test by Wolfsword Chapter Five "So what was all that about anyway?" Xena called as they galloped along the road. "Ah, nothing important. He and I were just discussing a slight misunderstanding about his girlfriend," Kaelin called back. After two candlemarks of
hard riding, they made camp on the edge of a wood. They were three-quarters of
the way to the Amazon village already, and the sun was beginning to set. They
worked in silence to build the campsite, Xena leaving to hunt for their food,
while Gabrielle started the fire and set up the bedrolls. Kaelin fetched the
water from a nearby stream, thinking about the stupidity of her situation. Two
grown women, who obviously love each other, too scared to take the plunge and
taking it out on each other! She wished she could knock some sense into
them, but that wouldn’t have been wise. I can’t just stand by and watch
them kill each other she thought. So what do I do? Kaelin returned
from the stream, still pondering her problem, to find two dead, skinned hares
about to be roasted near the fire already. “That was quick,” she
commented, raising an eyebrow at the speed with which Xena had caught their
dinner. Silence greeted her. Kaelin was rapidly realising how stubborn the Amazon Queen could be, and remembering how determined Xena could be when she wanted to. She unhooked her swords and placed them on the ground next to her before sitting down in front of the fire, leaning back against a large log. Xena was sitting opposite, resting against the large stone that they had built the fire in front of to reflect the heat. She was cleaning her dagger that she had skinned her hares with. After Gabrielle had tended to the hares, and they were roasting nicely, she sat down as well. For a few minutes all that could be heard was the crackle and pop of the fire and the scrape of Xena sharpening her dagger. Then Kaelin spoke. Xena eventually looked up
at Kaelin then turned her gaze to Gabrielle. Feeling Xena’s eyes on her caused
Gabrielle to look up from where she was staring at the fire. “What?” she asked,
impatiently at Xena’s meaningful stare. Xena’s jaw muscle tensed. “Oh, that makes a
difference,” she replied sarcastically. Gabrielle turned her
attention to an uneasy Kaelin, ignoring the glowering warrior. “She had laminitis,”
interrupted Xena. “I thought I was telling
the story here?” “Well, I just thought she
should know the details,” she replied, nonchalantly returning her attention to
her weapon. “Anyway, we
left her with the Farrier for a few days to take care of her. Meanwhile, we
heard about a village that was having a few problems with a warlord.” “Torikus.” “Yes, Torikus,”
Gabrielle allowed, glaring at Xena. “So naturally, we planned to go there to
see if we could help. We set off the next morning, Xena deciding to take the
long route around the forest and mountain range.” “That was
because the innkeeper told me it would only be a few candlemarks. And it was
safer.” “Well,
whatever. We ended up reaching Pothanc at sunset, having walked the whole day.
All I wanted was a nice, hot bath. But it wasn’t to be. No sooner had we got
there, Torikus decided to attack the town, since they had refused to pay his
tribute earlier in the day.” “Never was a
patient guy that Torikus,” commented Xena, absently. Gabrielle ignored
her. “Yeah and a
right ugly bunch they were,” sniffed Xena. Gabrielle ignored
her again. “You have a
stupid leader, you get stupid soldiers,” remarked Xena. Kaelin could see
that Gabrielle was becoming irritated with the constant interrupting, but she
knew that Xena was doing it just because she knew it would have that effect on
the bard. “So I guess the
villagers let you in and gave you a feast of thanks, huh?” smiled Kaelin. “Nope. No one
would come to the gates to open them for us. They all thought that we were the
enemy trying to trick them into letting us in. We slept outside the city walls
that night, with only a few strips of beef jerky to eat.” “Damn idiots.
Who would stand outside for a full candlemark asking to be let in? No
warlord would wait that long, or even be that polite. I should have just rammed
the gates down,” cut in Xena, exchanging her dagger for her sword to sharpen. Kaelin heard the
sharp intake of breath that signalled that Gabrielle was coming to the end of
her tether with Xena. The Amazon warrior couldn’t help thinking that she was
dealing with a couple of teenagers. “So… what
happened the next day?” Kaelin tried to steer the bard back to the story,
before another argument erupted. “Hm, I dunno.
Maybe Miss Warrior ‘I like to butt in’ Princess over there would like to
tell you.” Xena stared
moodily at her sword as she honed it, but stayed silent. Gabrielle turned to
look at Kaelin. Gabrielle glanced
at Xena, but she seemed to be staring off into the distance, not paying
attention to what was being said. “The old woman
answered with “Pah.” But then she looked her in the eyes and said, “What
are you afraid of?” like she was challenging her.” “It was
strange. Anyway, our little shortcut, turned out to be a nightmare. We got
caught near the top of the mountain as we were descending, with no shelter, by a
torrential downpour. We wandered for a long time and I don’t remember much,
but Xena managed to find us a cave before I collapsed.” Gabrielle paused
and glanced at Xena, who had stopped sharpening her sword and appeared now to be
lost in her thoughts as she stared at the ground in front of the fire.
Kaelin’s keen eyes had been watching Xena as Gabrielle recounted what
happened, and now she could have sworn that she saw Xena flinch. Kaelin’s brow
furrowed and she made a mental note to ask her about it later. Gabrielle resumed
her tale again, and this time, Kaelin thought she heard a subtle change in the
bard’s voice, like it had lost an edge to it. “We slept in
the cave until almost midday the next day. I guess the previous days had
exhausted us. We started the journey down the mountain and we reached the bottom
without any further problems. In fact, it was wonderful. The view from that
height was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. The land stretched for miles
in front of us and I just felt like the land was reaching out to touch me in
some way.” Kaelin saw the
faraway look in Gabrielle’s eyes and wondered at the girl who sat before her. So
innocent she thought. It made Kaelin realised that in a world full of
violence and hatred, you had to hold on to something, or you would get lost in
the madness. Words from her past, came unexpectedly into her mind. “Life goes on,
as it never ends Eyes
of stone observe the trends They
never say, forever gaze, “If only…” Guilty
roads through an endless love There’s
no control, are you with me now? Your
every wish will be done.” “That’s
beautiful. What is it? Where did you learn it?” Gabrielle asked Kaelin. “I don’t
know. I think I heard it somewhere, when I was young, but I can’t it remember
now,” replied Kaelin. “Wait, let me
get some parchment. I need to write that down. Maybe I can use it in one of my
poems.” Kaelin looked
over at the silent warrior, wishing that they would at least talk to each other.
What good will it do if they don’t speak! she wondered, anxiously. Then
she heard Gabrielle’s voice again. “Sure, but I
can’t really sing it that well and its meant to be sung. That’s Xena’s
department,” Kaelin said, grinning as Xena shot her a mock scowl. “Maybe we
can get Xena to sing it later.” “Yeah, that
would be nice,” Gabrielle said, quietly. Kaelin repeated
the words to Gabrielle to write down “The words are
really nice and they have a lot of meaning behind them,” Gabrielle said. “Yeah, it's sort
of like saying that the same things happen in everyone’s lives and they wish
they could go back in time and change things because they regret what they did
or didn’t do,” Kaelin responded. Both Gabrielle,
and Xena, who had been listening to their conversation, wondered if the Amazon
was hinting something to them. “Oh yeah, erm,
where was I?” “You were just
describing the view when you were coming down the mountain.” “Oh yes. It was
a shame that we had to come down from there. At the bottom of the mountain, we
found ourselves in the forest that had most of the people in Cularis scared. I
even think it was actually forbidden for the children to enter it, which is
obviously a bit ridiculous, because everyone knows that children always do the
exact opposite to what they are told. Anyway, we found that it was not as bad as
they made it out to be. It reminded me of Amazonia actually and I honestly
thought that at any moment I would hear the call of an Amazon.” Gabrielle
laughed, causing Kaelin to grin and Xena to look up. Kaelin thought she saw a
faint crinkle around Xena’s eyes as she watched Gabrielle’s face, before she
looked away. “Yeah, I know
what you mean. It felt as if the forest was alive somehow,” said Kaelin. “Well, that’s
basically what happened before we ran into you,” finished Gabrielle, “Now
what I would like to know is what those things were that we killed. It’s been
nagging me for ages. I mean at first I just assumed they were animals, but they
seemed to have intelligence and they looked almost human. Do you know what they
were?” “No. I was
warned about creatures of the forest being unnatural, though. I heard some
villagers saying something about man-beasts, which they called Tulans. But I
never believed their stories,” Kaelin said, regretfully. Xena had the
distinct feeling that Kaelin wasn’t telling them everything. It puzzled her,
but she pushed it to the back of her mind. “It would seem
like it. I came to Cularis a few years ago, and I heard nothing about them then.
But even so, no one went into the woods. I know there were still tales about the
creatures from Tartarus, who dwelt there. But I had used the route through there
and over Mount Akkas as a quicker way to the other towns before, and I had never
seen anything,” replied Kaelin, “I put it down to the people being afraid of
the unknown and making up accounts of frightening occurrences.” “I wonder where
they came from. It could be that they were there before and just never revealed
themselves to anyone. Or it could be that someone created them and put them
there for a purpose,” Xena thought aloud. “There’s no
obvious purpose, though. Also, someone should have seen something. They
couldn’t have been that clever, to hide all their tracks,” said Gabrielle. “Well, they
certainly weren’t dumb creatures,” replied Xena. “They had a ranking
order, that silverback was evidently their leader and they could communicate
their thoughts very well. I’m guessing telepathic or something like that. That
in itself indicates that they are very intelligent. Maybe their minds are even
more developed than ours.” “Creatures,
smarter, stronger, faster and bigger than humans. Not a very nice picture if you
think about what would happen if there were more than a few,” said Gabrielle,
voicing a particularly unpleasant thought. “They didn’t seem particularly
interested in talking, only killing.” Xena was quiet,
Gabrielle’s vision sinking in. Gabrielle looked
at Kaelin, indicating her blades next to her. Kaelin just shrugged. “My chakram was
given to me by Ares. He had Hephaestus forge it,” Xena said, explaining her
weapon. "And I would guess Gabrielle's staff had been blessed by Artemis,
since she is her chosen so that explains her staff being able to break a
few ribs." “Artemis gave
them to me,” Kaelin replied, curtly. “That’s
it?” Xena asked, obviously expecting Kaelin to elaborate. “That’s
it,” Kaelin replied, looking at Xena. There was a short
pause as Xena and Kaelin’s gazes clashed. There was definitely something that Kaelin was holding back, and Xena intended to find out what that was. But she would have to wait until her friend was ready, before she could push the subject. Otherwise, she knew from past experience that Kaelin could react very badly, even violently, to people probing for information. Xena didn’t know what had made her like that, but she guessed it had something to do with her childhood, which she had never spoken about to Xena. It suddenly struck her that she knew nothing about Kaelin’s past before she came to Amphipolis or what had happened to her after the battle with Cortese. Xena recalled a scene from younger days, when she and Kaelin had been sitting in the upper boughs of the white tree, talking. “I’m
really glad you appeared when you did. It was becoming a bit irritating to be
the only girl in the family,” said a young Xena. “I’m happy
to be in Amphipolis,” said a young girl, her gray eyes shining in the bright
sunlight. “It feels so safe.” Xena smiled. Kaelin looked
up at her, and the 15 year old Xena was shocked to see tears in her friend’s
eyes. After a while,
Kaelin spoke again. Kaelin
faltered, unwilling to carry on. Xena watched as she took a deep breath. Xena saw the
pain in her eyes, and realised that Kaelin was waiting to see what her reaction
was. “I understand.” Xena knew that
she had seen the same look in Kaelin’s eyes that she had seen all those years
ago, when they were younger. “Xena? Did you
say something?” The warrior focused
on Gabrielle, and realised she must have spoken her last thoughts aloud. Their eyes met
and Xena had the strangest feeling that Kaelin was reading her thoughts, because
she saw a slight hint of realisation enter Kaelin’s eyes. “Dinner is
served,” came Gabrielle’s voice, jerking Xena out of her thoughts again. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In the dead of
the night nothing stirred in the forest. Thin beams of moonlight were spearing
through the leaf canopy, casting spotlights on the ground below. A shadowy
figure rose from beside the glowing embers of a campfire, making its way further
into the trees, leaving a small, blonde woman fast asleep behind her. Dressed only in
her leathers with her sword slung over her back, Xena made her way stealthily
through the underbrush of the forest. Soon, her keen hearing picked up signs of
heavy breathing and she headed towards the noise. She crouched down at the edge
of a clearing, watching curiously as another tall figure practiced smooth
movements with twin swords. The moonlight glinted slightly off the blades as
they swirled in a rhythmic pattern around the woman, with deft skill. She’s good, Xena
thought, impressed. Suddenly, Xena
heard a change in the sword pattern, from the slice of the air to a whistling
sound, and immediately she threw herself to the side as a flash of a sword blade
barely skimmed past her ear. She heard the point of the blade thud into the tree
trunk behind her and she glanced at it, watching it quiver from side to side
from the force of the impact, realising that she had come very close to being
killed. She stood up
quickly, before Kaelin could release the other deadly sword, which Xena was sure
would not miss its mark the next time. “It’s me,”
Xena whispered, loudly. “Shit Xena,
don’t do that,” Kaelin replied, whispering as well. “I could have killed
you!” “Sorry, I
didn’t think you heard me.” “Yeah, I
didn’t. Not until I heard someone take in a breath just on the edge of the
clearing. For all I knew, it was someone who had followed us and was trying to
murder us.” "So, what happened on Mount Akkas?" Kaelin asked, pointedly. Xena sighed. "Gabrielle nearly died. I don't think she knows just how close she came to entering the Elysian fields." Kaelin studied the dark warrior as she warmed up her muscles. "What else happened?" pressed Kaelin, knowing there was something else. She was still for a moment before she answered. "I realised I wouldn't be able to go on without her," she said finally. Kaelin nodded. "So, you gonna tell me why and where you ran off to after the battle?" It was Kaelin's turn to sigh, sadness gracing her features. "I was messed up. I... didn't know what else to do, so I took off. I saw Ly go down, and I.. just couldn't go back," she said quietly, remembering Xena's brother. "I travelled, saw the world. Learned how to fight, how to kill. I came back, worked as an assassin for a while, joined a few armies, experienced war first hand. I've done pretty much everything possible." "What about this Amazon business?" Kaelin avoided Xena's gaze, unwilling to answer the whole
truth. "Yeah, I stayed there for a bit too. What are you doing out here anyway?” asked
Kaelin changed the subject. “Me? I was
looking for you. I woke to see an empty bedroll on the other side of the fire
and I thought something had happened. I got up and then I saw that your swords
had also gone, and I figured since I was up anyway, a real person to spar
against would be better than drills.” Kaelin cocked her
head to one-side, grinning mischievously. “I can kick
your butt from here to Tartarus,” Xena shot back, raising an eyebrow “Really? Well,
I thought it was me doing the butt-kicking back in Amphipolis.” “That was then.
This is now, my friend. Or haven’t you heard of the Warrior Princess on your
travels?” “Yeah, but all
I heard was that she was some stuck up teenager, who couldn’t even hold a
sword,” Kaelin joked. “Well, we’ll
have to see about that, won’t we,” Xena retorted, drawing her sword and
advancing, an evil smirk on her face. “Come and get
me, Warrior Princess,” Kaelin taunted, sarcastically. With that, Xena
attacked, her first strike being parried by a sword that she didn’t even see
being drawn. They started off slowly, trading blows, each one easily deflected,
Kaelin allowing for Xena to warm up. Gradually, they began to speed up, their
attacks becoming swifter, their swords clashing with more power. As each fighter
became aware of the other’s ability, they realised that they were very evenly
matched and were able to go full out without the danger of harming one another.
The warriors jumped, punched, blocked, thrust and parried, but neither one able
to gain an advantage. By this time,
they had both lost track of time, and didn’t see the dawn breaking over them.
Kaelin blocked a thrust from Xena, spinning her sword in an arc and forcing
Xena’s sword away to expose her midriff. Quickly, Kaelin swung a punch but
Xena grabbed her arm as it headed towards its target and twisted it behind the
woman’s back. Before Xena could get an advantage though, Kaelin had rotated
her body and flipped Xena over her back. The leather-clad warrior landed
smoothly, turning just in time to avoid the edge of Kaelin’s sword coming down
on her. Xena feinted to the right, snaking her sword out to Kaelin’s exposed
right, but found herself connecting with thin air as Kaelin dropped to the
ground, rolling backwards and coming to a standing position a few paces away
from Xena. Both of them were breathing very heavily as they regarded each other
with a mixture of awe and new-found respect. “Ready to yield
to the better warrior, Princess?” Kaelin teased. “Over my dead
body!” laughed Xena. “That can be
arranged.” Kaelin
grinned at Xena, as she launched herself into the air. A split second later Xena
was in the air as well, meeting Kaelin’s blade and blocking a few strikes,
before they landed again. They were about
to tackle each other again, when suddenly, they both faltered and looked at each
other in confusion. “Did you hear
that?” Xena asked. Kaelin nodded,
and flicked her eyes up to the tree canopy. There was silence for a few minutes
as the two warriors stood as still as statues, listening intently. “Must have been
an animal, I guess,” said Kaelin, unconcerned.
“Hm, maybe,”
Xena said, thoughtfully. “Gods, wasn’t
it night when we started?” Kaelin exclaimed, looking at the rising sun. “Yeah. It was a
good workout, though. I’ve never let myself go like that for a long time.
Feels good to be able to do that now,” replied Xena, warming her muscles down. “Good point,”
replied Kaelin, nodding and moving towards the campsite. “You know,
you’re pretty good with those blades of yours,” commented Xena. “Ah, you’re
not so bad. I guess some of the stories that I did hear about you were true,”
Kaelin laughed. “You know Kae, you've given me a brief summary of what happened to you after... the battle, but you can tell me if there's something on your mind.” Xena remarked. “Yeah, I
know.” “Look, I know I
was angry at you for leaving so suddenly, without any warning. But I’m not
anymore. I realise people do things that I won’t like sometimes and that
there's probably a good reason behind it.” “I…” Kaelin
faltered, looking at Xena intently, as if searching for something. “What is it,
Kaelin? You can tell me,” Xena asked, gently. “No, no I
can't,” she replied, quietly, shaking her head helplessly. Xena watched as her friend quickened her pace to reach the campsite. She sighed at her friend’s evasive ways. As if you’re not like that, she thought to herself. She wondered how many times she had done the very same thing to Gabrielle, realising how it would have made the bard feel and cursing herself. She really did have to have a talk with that bard and sort things out once and for all. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ |
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