They stood outside the temple as Gabrielle looked up at the full moon.
"Tell me again why we are here?" Gabrielle asked revealing her edginess recalling the results of her last encounter with the God. Xena put a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder and smiled.
"If you can use your words to stop an army from attacking, how hard can it be to convince Hermes to change you back?" Gabrielle looked up at her friend. After another minute, Gabrielle stepped forward but put her hand out to stop Xena.
"Xena, I think I need to do this alone." She said softly. Xena looked at her unapprovingly, ready to engage in yet another argument. "Besides, if things go really bad in there, can you promise you won't say anything that would cause him get mad at you?" Gabrielle's comment made Xena pause. She couldn't promise.
"What if YOU were turned into a man? As if you aren't aggressive enough as it is..." Gabrielle added with a grin.
"Gabrielle..." Xena responded not appreciating her humor at the moment.
"Xena, if I need help, I'll yell...trust me...I'll yell." She smiled.
Gabrielle entered Hermes' temple in Zemal alone. It was made of simple grey marble, lit only by the moonlight shining through the openings in the ceiling. Although plain, it was still aesthetically pleasing, she concluded. She looked around finding no person or God, in this place. Approaching the alter, she wondered how she would accomplish her first task. Getting Hermes to show up.
"Gabrielle?" Xena questioned her friend who returned quickly from the temple. "What's wrong?" Xena asked. She saw Gabrielle route through the saddle bags.
"I hope you still have....there it is!" Gabrielle pulls out the object and sees her friend's confusion. "I can't just go in there empty handed..that would be impolite wouldn't it?" Gabrielle grinned at her friend. Entering the temple a second time, with a gift in hand, Gabrielle hoped that would be enough. Laying the object on the alter, she looked around.
"Oh, Great Hermes, I offer you this..." Gabrielle looked down at the object, still not knowing what it was. "this gift." She waited. No sign of him. Gabrielle tried again.
"Oh great and WISE Hermes, I offer you this SMALL gift." Still no sign of the God. Gabrielle sighed, getting an audience with a God when you wanted one wasn't such an easy task.
"Oh Great, Wise and POWERFUL Hermes, I offer you this most humble token to speak with the God known for his compassion and..." Gabrielle's reverent speech was interrupted.
"I heard you the first time Gabrielle. " Hermes appeared behind her and approached the alter. He laced his bag and helmet on the alter as if he came home from work.
"You do realize you are in the wrong temple don't you?" He eyed her. Gabrielle knew the real work was just beginning.
"No I'm not" She responded innocently. He looked at her amazed. He then smiled wondering what this bard was up to.
"I told you Athens" He countered, distinctly recalling he said Athens.
"At first, you did mention your temple in Athens..." She started.
"Ah ha!" He blurted thinking she just admitted he was right.
"...but when you formally declared your conditions..." She continued with increasing confidence. "...you never specifically mentioned Athens." Hermes looked confused as he remembered his conditions, not believing he could have messed that up.
"So I really didn't specify Athens?" He scratched his head, asking himself more than Gabrielle. Sensing victory, Gabrielle held back a grin and just shook her head no. "Hmm, alright Gabrielle, this temple is satisfactory...though the one in Athens IS much nicer...." He acknowledged, making Gabrielle breath a little easier for the moment.
"Unfortunately, you failed to meet the other condition of not discussing this change with anyone." Hermes spoke matter-of-factly.
"I never told anyone of my change." Gabrielle countered carefully. He laughed at her statement.
"Oh come on Gabrielle, Xena's been calling you Gabrielle, Malosa knows and now Esther knows." Hermes walked around her shaking his head.
"I never told anyone of my change. And that WAS the condition, wasn't it?" Gabrielle responded nervously. Hermes silently listened. "I met the condition...I never told anyone..." Gabrielle repeated hollowly, noting his expressionless face. Her heart sank. Having Xena know was what got her through the experience with the Sunmoon, she realized. There was no way she was going to feel that was a mistake.
Whatever condition she was in, Xena would be there for her, Gabrielle reminded herself as her frustration and anger with Hermes grew. That was it! She had been through enough! She tried, like Xena wanted her to, but she wasn't going to allow herself to be manipulated any longer.
"If you'll excuse me, I have a life to live..." Gabrielle abruptly turned around and started to leave. Hermes was surprised by this bard's actions and appeared in front of her, blocking her exit.
"So you don't want me to turn you back?" She eyed him and walked around, only to have him reappear in front of her again. "I guess you DO think men have it easier and want to remain as one" He asked with interest and some playfulness. This bard was certainly an unusual mortal.
"I would LOVE it if you changed me back to my old self but I am tired of this game. I am tired of having to deal with ALL of this. I am sorry I snapped at you before when you were trying to be kind to me. That was wrong - but I didn't deserve everything you put me through Hermes." Hermes found himself listening to the bard again. He definitely found this person bold, if not incredibly stupid to be so bold to a God. Gabrielle didn't realize she was venting again. Had she, she would have stopped before she started.
"In addition to making everyone see me as a man, did you have to make women so...so...attracted to me? Gods!" She walked around him shaking her head. He laughed loudly holding his stomach.
"You are cruel, you know that?" She responded to his laughter, turning to face him.
"The least you could do is lift that part of the spell." Gabrielle blurted, obviously annoyed with the laughing God. After a few minutes, Hermes regained his composure and stood before the angry mortal with a smile.
"Gabrielle, I only made everyone see you as a man. That's all. Nothing else." He lifted his hands up in the air shrugging. Gabrielle looked at him disbelieving. Then she remembered the details of what happened every time she blamed him for an uncomfortable situation. Finally considering his words the truth, she turned beet red.
"You didn't even know your kindness could and would be so easily interpreted as flirting? Gods help the person you actually set your sights on." He laughed loudly then added triumphantly, "I guess you have learned it isn't so easy to be a man." He grinned at the stunned and embarrassed bard. He hopped up on his alter staring at Gabrielle, waiting.
Gabrielle knew he wanted her to relay what she had learned. Perhaps the longer they spoke, the better her chances were of getting things returned to normal, she considered. Sighing, not thrilled at being his amusement, she sat on the steps to the alter.
"Yea." She exhaled the admission. "I was wrong about many things Hermes. Blaming my frustrations on being a woman in a man's world was...well easy...and wrong. " Gabrielle sat back against the alter.
"So would you now agree men have it harder?" Hermes suggested playfully. Gabrielle sat straight up and looked back at him.
"Absolutely not." She responded honestly and forcefully to his challenge. He laughed at her readiness to engage him in an argument. An interesting mortal indeed.
"Good, I really hate it when mortals become yes men...or women..." He hopped off the table. "So what WOULD you say then?" He stretched his godly legs walking around the temple.
"Are you looking for something general or specific?" Gabrielle asked not knowing what to say.
"Whatever...what have you learned?" He looked at her.
"Not to mouth off to a God..." Gabrielle muttered. He shook his head with a smile.
"Well that's a start..." He walked over to Gabrielle's offering which still rested on the alter. He inspected it curiously, waiting. Gabrielle shifted uneasily then answered.
"When I was viewed as a woman, I did things...made choices, that some people didn't consider right. Becoming proficient with a staff, leaving home and seeing the world, traveling with the Warrior Princess.... " Gabrielle smiled, valuing that above all, then continued.
"When I was seen as a man...I still did things that some people didn't agree with...Preferring water over wine, being a pacifist, a bard, being associated with the Warrior Princess..." Gabrielle smiled. "I guess I really relearned what I already knew." She got up from the steps. "If I am happy with my choices, which I know in my heart are right for me, I shouldn't let people with their differing opinions bother me or affect my choices....It's not how others see me, that is important, but how I see myself." Hermes nodded thoughtfully and spoke sadly.
"Unfortunately, you will struggle your entire life with this." The words hit Gabrielle hard. He was not going to accept her argument that she didn't tell anyone of her condition, she panicked.
"Hermes...please...I didn't TELL anyone." She spoke out of desperation. He disappeared, his final words rang hollowly throughout the dark temple.
"Remember this lesson...Peace and Harmony Brother Gabriel."
"Hermes!" She yelled out loudly. Her voice carried outside the walls of the temple. Within a second, Xena was inside the temple.
"Gabrielle!" She called with concern, then stopped dead in her tracks. "Gabrielle" She uttered softly. Gabrielle sighed at the stunned look on her friend's face.
"I know..." Gabrielle's eyes fell to the floor as she responded with great depression. Xena looked at her friend oddly.
"Know what?" Xena questioned with smile. Gabrielle began to hope but was cautious.
"What do you see Xena?" She spoke slowly and deliberately, stepping closer to her friend. Xena smiled broadly, seeing a face she had missed. Not getting an answer, Gabrielle repeated her question,
"What do you see Xena? I need to hear the words." Gabrielle grabbed her friend's arms and looked her in the eyes. Words are indeed important to her friend, Xena scolded herself for not answering quickly.
"I see...a young woman who's face I have missed." Xena said simply. At times, Xena wished she had Gabrielle's way with words. Now was one of those times. Gabrielle repeated the words "young woman" closing her eyes. When she opened them, she looked up at her friend with a relieved grin and hugged her with a laugh.
Xena returned the embrace, knowing it for what it was - a precious moment. To finally see the face of her friend after such a long time, to see her smile, hear her laugh and to hold her so close, these were all very precious things to the Warrior Princess.
"Thank you." Gabrielle told her friend as she stepped back.
"For what?" Xena asked.
"For not letting me give up." Gabrielle's voice cracked, betraying more emotion than she intended. The two looked at each other, each fighting back tears.
"Your welcome." Xena responded bluntly, causing them to laugh.
"Well I guess I won't have to worry about you changing careers and becoming a bard " Gabrielle responded sarcastically. Xena raised an eyebrow. "Please Xena, I know you have many skills but for both our sakes....keep your day job." They walk outside the temple and Gabrielle looks up at the moon.
"Boy am I glad all that is over with." Xena eyes her friend with a grin.
"What about your staff?"
"Are you ever going to tell me?" Xena asked breaking the silence as they departed the Amazon camp. Gabrielle slowed her pace a little.
"Tell you what?" She looked nervously into her friends unreadable face. After a moment of silence, Xena sighs and reaches in her saddle bags and pulls out the mystery object.
"What IS this?" Xena remarked with annoyance she couldn't figure it out.
"How did you get that back? I thought Hermes accepted it." Gabrielle was immediately relieved then grinned widely, amazed and amused.
"I found it the saddlebags while you were having your discussion with Malosa. I guess Hermes didn't know what it was either..." Xena responded, still bothered by not knowing what the object was.
"Huh! What do you THINK it is?" Gabrielle asked with a sly grin.
"I don't know." Xena answered with frustration. "Alletus thought it might be a really bad sculpture of something." Xena offered, eyeing her friend to see if that was close.
"You asked Alletus?" Gabrielle was more amused finding that Xena had enlisted the aid of someone else so she wouldn't have to ask her. Xena looked at her silently.
"Did you ask anyone else?" Gabrielle questioned her. There was no way to avoid this, Xena concluded.
"Yes." Xena responded with some embarrassment.
"Who?" Gabrielle found this very interesting.
"Burell" Xena answered. Seeing Gabrielle not familiar with the name, Xena offered more information. "The man I went to see, before Hermes became annoyed with you. Amazing how much Hermes and I have in common." Xena added.
"What does Burell think it is?" Gabrielle asked, ignoring her friend's sarcasm.
"Gabrielle." Xena was irritated. "Xena, I really would like to know what people's thoughts on this were. Please?" Gabrielle asked sincerely. Xena sighed.
"All right." Xena's agreement brought a broad smile to Gabrielle's face. Xena laughed at how quickly Gabrielle was able to change her mood from being annoyed with her to happy to please her. "Burell said he would gladly tell me - for a price." Xena relayed eyeing her. "He had no clue either." She added.
"Anyone else?" Gabrielle asked. Xena nodded, this was more embarrassing by the moment.
"Trayla and Sustra." Gabrielle looked over at her friend.
"Let me guess...they didn't know either." Xena held the object up.
"No, but Sustra kept coming up with interesting suggestions on how to kill people with it." Gabrielle looked at her friend but thought better of asking for some examples.
"Neither Esther nor her father knew. They wanted to know why I would be traveling around with something if I didn't know what it was." Xena laughed wondering the same thing. Gabrielle looked perplexed.
"Do you LIKE it?" She asked a surprising question. Xena shrugged.
"Gabrielle, I don't even know what it is." Xena didn't understand the distinction Gabrielle was making. Gabrielle didn't try to explain. She nodded and sighed. Xena thought her friend was saddened by the answer.
After walking a few minutes, Xena took the time and really looked at the mystery object in her hand. Xena found it really was pleasing to look at.
"The wood is rich looking and the surface is very smooth." Xena described what she liked about it. "I like the way the dark and light woods wind together throughout the piece. It looks like someone put a lot of effort in making it this way...even though it would have been much easier if it was made from one piece of wood...." Xena relayed not understanding why her friend appeared so pleased with her comments.
Gabrielle looked at the object as well, but responded more philosophically.
"A definition really isn't necessary to appreciate something, is it?" Gabrielle asked rhetorically, or at least Xena thought so. "I think people sometimes spend too much time trying to define things." Gabrielle added. Xena thought a moment about what her friend just said.
"There ARE benefits to knowing what something is." Xena looked into Gabrielle's eyes then quickly down at the object again as if she was studying it.
"Are you ever going to tell e?" Xena asked, then looked up from the object.
"Well, uh....actually." Gabrielle rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"You don't know what it is do you?" Xena said flatly, the truth finally hitting her.
"Well no. But we'll find out...together." Gabrielle said with resolve and proceeded down the path.
"I can't believe you don't know." Xena responded. Gabrielle stopped and looked back at Xena, who was still standing and staring in amazement.
"Xena" Gabrielle called to her, not getting her to move.
"You made me go through ALL that...and you don't know." Xena remarked. Gabrielle walked back and took Xena's hand in hers. Xena glanced down at their hands then back at Gabrielle with a raised eyebrow.
"Come on Xena, we are wasting daylight." Gabrielle smiled and started down the road again, with Xena in hand.