Disclaimer: The characters in this story are copyright MCA/Universal/RenPic. The story is mine

Warnings: There are no warnings.

Bard's Boring Bits: Thanks to Harpy who said I should write another campfire scene. Thanks to Murphy for the nibbles and the virgins. Hi to Nagypapi, who is translating some of my stories into Hungarian!

Note: This isn’t my next story, this is just a little piece of nonsense.

by Claire Withercross

Gabrielle was just coming back to the campfire after answering a call of nature and saw the warrior writing in one of her scrolls. She coughed to announce her presence and Xena put the scroll down and picked up her sword to sharpen.

The bard sat down and picked up the scroll, she studied what the warrior had written. A quizzical glance at Xena was successfully ignored by the warrior, who continued tending her weapon. Gabrielle turned her attention back to the scroll.

After several seconds the bard spoke. "A city?"

"That's what I wrote," explained the warrior with a hint of irritation.

Gabrielle concentrated on the scroll once more. After nearly a minute of silence the warrior let out a small exasperated sigh. This caused the bard to smile.

"For Zeus' sake," muttered Xena.

"Eta," said Gabrielle.

"Why do you do it?" asked Xena. "Every time you do it. Every time! You spend an age looking at it and you always start with eta." The warrior took the scroll and picked up a quill.

"That's because you always chose a word with it in," replied Gabrielle.

Xena wrote the letter eta above two of the nine dashes she had previously drawn on the scroll.

"Alpha," said Gabrielle.

"Ah-ha!" the warrior cried triumphantly and drew an upright line next to the dashes.