I'm very pleased to welcome a new bard to the Bard's Corner. Her name is Link and her first story "From A Dark Wood Rising" is the first in a trilogy of stories.
From A Dark Wood Rising (Classic / Alt)
by Link
This story is one of a series of three; the first two take place within about five years of each other, and the third spans almost thirty years. The stories build on each other but the first one doesn't have to be read to understand the second and so on. This particular tale is - generally - no more graphic than any of the X:WP episodes, however there are a couple of scenes of violence - the passionate, physical destruction of a body, which is specifically what constitutes an act of violence. The ancient world was just as gory as our own modern one, and while I don't try to tell it all like it was (like I'd know), I did try to insert what I thought was some truth in the way of life those two thousand years ago (including a lurid sprinkling of fantasy... Hey, if Rob and Sam can do it, why not me, right?).
Xenaverse chronology-wise, this story takes place somewhere around the middle of the third season - Gabrielle's Hope has been killed as a child, but she and Xena have recovered from their rift; semi-happily roaming the world again for adventure and lack of anything better to do.