The warrior couldn't keep the small look of pride flickering through her eyes. "Probably picked it up with the children's pack," Xena answered, hands finally settling quietly on the blonde's shoulders.

"But she was only with them for a few days. Surely she didn't learn that fast?"

"Like Eponin told us, show her something once and she has it down. Shayna's just at that age when everything comes easily, unlike slow, old bodies like you and me," Xena grinned. The warrior couldn't help remembering trying to teach the bard how to move through the tree branches the way the other Amazons did. Gabrielle had been so terrified of falling at first, Xena had been forced to tie a rope around her middle to catch her if she misplaced her feet somehow. The bard had picked up the trick in the end, but it had been a long, slow and occasionally very painful experience for both of them.

Swinging her head around, so she could see the fire-lit profile of the woman above her, Gabrielle asked gently, "You knew she was going to follow us, didn't you?"

"No, Gabrielle. I was sure I had explained everything to her so she understood," Xena replied. "I mean, she seemed to accept the fact we can't take her with us on the road and that we would be back as often as we could."

There was something in the tone of the warrior's voice alerting the bard that perhaps Xena wasn't quite so sure about the child's acceptance of their leaving. "Xena, look at me. Remember this nosy bard? The one person who probably knows you better than anyone else alive?"

The warrior tried to keep her gaze fixed on the fire in front of them but her own love for the gentle bard compelled her to look into those blue-green eyes.

"Shayna followed us because you were still hesitating over the decision to leave her with Amaran and Eponin. Kids can sense that kind of hesitation. She probably figures if she hangs around long enough, you'll let her stay," Gabrielle said quietly.

"Wonder where she got that idea?" Xena asked, a soft light filling her eyes as she looked down on the stubborn and persistent bard she had fallen in love with.

Gabrielle kissed the knee closest to her before continuing. "You'd love to find a reason to let her stay with us, wouldn't you?" she asked.

Closing her eyes, Xena nodded. "I can't lie to myself, anymore than I could lie to you, Gabrielle. If there was some safe way for Shayna to be with us, I'd think of it." Opening her eyes again, she looked down at the blonde sitting between her knees. "But there is no safe way, so as soon as we find her again, I simply have to hand her over to Eponin. She can take Shayna back to the village when this is over."

"Hurts, though, doesn't it?"

Xena wrapped her arms around the other woman's shoulders, dropping her head until her mouth was level with the bard's ear. Whispering quietly, as though to admit to the pain aloud would somehow give her enemies a weapon to use against her, she said, "Yes, it hurts, but it is the best thing I can do for her."

Gabrielle felt the first tear drop softly into her bare shoulder. Lifting her hands, she hugged the warrior's arms around her. "It's all right, Xena. I'm here. We'll get through this together, somehow."

The warrior gave in to the heart-ache and wept silently for a long time afterwards, the gentle hands of her bard keeping her safe and secure as she grieved. It was a grieving of which Xena was not sure she would ever see the end, it seemed to run so deeply through her.

Close by in the darkness, a pair of flashing jade green eyes watched from a hidden hollow at the base of a large tree. Covered by the debris from last cycle's season of falling leaves, the child had taken refuge almost in plain sight. She had arrived at the clearing shortly after Jadaxious had gasped out her message. Moving through the woods with all the silence of a hunted animal, the child had crept closer and closer to the campsite, looking for the now familiar features of the woman she thought of as her mother. Remaining undetected as she had scurried through the trees had been quite easy for her, having done it countless times in the past when she had hidden from travellers she stumbled upon over the cycles. Tucking herself further into the piled leaves, she prepared herself for sleep, knowing her mother was near by.

Eponin and Gabrielle squatted together by the fire, drinking a warming mug of tea, watching the dawn light slowly bringing the colours of the forest alive around them. The last party of trainee warriors had returned long after moonset with no word on the wild forest child. Xena had stalked off into the dark woods, remaining alone for the rest of the night. The bard tried not to worry too much, but the warrior's obvious anxiety had rubbed off on her a little, and the bard had not slept well as a result.

"Do you think she'll show herself?" Gabrielle asked, taking a piece of flatbread from the bag being passed around.

"If she is anywhere near us, sooner or later, she will have to come out of hiding, if only to glue herself to Xena's side again," Eponin replied. "I'm just about willing to bet Shayna is watching us right now. Probably knows she has done the wrong thing too. Kids are good at that, for some reason."

"Something you learned from Amaran's daughter, I suppose," Gabrielle observed, a tiny smile easing the worry lines etching themselves into her face.

"Only about a hundred times over, is all," the Amazon laughed back. Sensing movement on the edge of the clearing, she spotted a tall, dark-haired figure striding into the camp. "Seems like Xena's finally had enough of wandering the forest. Doesn't look like she got a lot of sleep last night, judging from those deep shadows I can see under her eyes from here."

"Probably spent the rest of the night searching for Shayna herself. Go easy on her, Eponin. This isn't a walk in the Elysian Fields for her," Gabrielle said a little testily as she stood up, moving off in the direction of the taller woman.

Eponin allowed an injured 'Who? Me?' expression to cross her face before the bard turned away. The Amazon warrior let the other woman's mood pass without comment. She knew from experience Gabrielle was not a morning person, and tied to her lack of sleep, Eponin was surprised the bard hadn't snapped her head off completely.

"You all right, Xena?" the bard asked as she drew level with the other woman. She could see the dark circles under the warrior's eyes and the faint redness that said she had been crying yet again.

"Yea, I'm fine. Little tired, maybe. I couldn't find her, Gabrielle," she said, her voice a little ragged. "Must have looked everywhere. How can she have managed to disappear like that?"

"Here, drink this," the bard said, handing over her tea mug. "Eponin thinks she might be really close to the camp and we just keep overlooking her."

"Thanks," the other woman said, taking a deep swallow of the herbal tea. Xena dropped one arm across the shoulders of the blonde, letting Eponin's words filter through her tired mind. She had spent most of the night simply worrying and not really thinking, covering as many of the paths and tracks as she could find. Some kind of warrior you are, she snorted silently to herself. I've out-witted warlords, kings and giants in the past, surely I can do the same with one small child. Okay, time to start using this brain someone gave me and see if I can't figure this out logically.

"Hmmmm, close by. Like maybe, almost in plain sight, perhaps?" she wondered aloud.

Gabrielle caught on to what the other woman was contemplating fairly quickly, having done this sort of thinking-out-loud routine with the warrior many times before. Adding her thoughts to those of the blue eyed woman, she said, "If I was a small child, used to running wild in the woods like some forest creature and hiding from anyone I came across, just where would I hide myself?"

"In the last place they would expect to find me. Right under their very noses," Xena continued. She lifted her arm off Gabrielle and began to slowly turn on the spot, scanning the very edge of the clearing for anything the child might use as a hidey hole. In several places, the undergrowth was quite thick but possibly not enough for someone, even a small youngster, wanting to stay hidden from one hundred and seventy fully trained Amazon warriors and fifty curious-about-everything trainees. The tree tops were, more or less, out of the question as the sentries had been using those most of the night as they patrolled the area where they were camped. Xena spotted two hollow logs lying on the edge of the clearing, several of the Amazons using one as a backrest. Possible sites for a child to hide. And a partially concealed opening at the bottom of a large tree just back from the open space of the glade.

Pointing to the logs first, Gabrielle and Xena approached each one, peering in from opposite ends. The first, being used as a backrest, was completely empty, save a few vacated spider-webs. The second contained a sleeping porcupine who didn't even twitch a whisker when the two women looked in from the open ends of the log. That just left the opening at the bottom of the tree to investigate.

Xena and Gabrielle approached the opening as silently as possible, Eponin wandering closer, intrigued with the odd movements of the pair. The bard used her staff to push the prickly bushes to one side as Xena squatted down, shuffling forward a little, to peer inside the tree. The warrior turned her head, smiling up at the other woman. "I do believe we have found the home of a sleeping, red-headed village escapee," she whispered happily.

Xena and Gabrielle stood together just under the edge of the tree-line. If they moved suddenly, they would be spotted, but standing still they were hardly noticeable. Hidden all around them, in the trees and in the dark undergrowth, were the rest of the Amazons, and a little further back the trainees. Shortly after they had found Shayna, now in the care of the young warriors until the battle was over, Xena had handed her over to Eponin, who in turn had placed her with the mopping up party with the instructions to keep her safe during the fight. Xena had taken the child aside and spoken with her sternly for some time before sending Shayna to Eponin. The child was very subdued afterwards but had gone along with the Amazon with surprising willingness.

One of the look-outs had returned to the camp to inform everyone she had seen the first sign of the slaver's army, the advance scouting party, struggling their way through the muck and mud. That had been three candlemarks earlier and the two travellers could now see the main bulk of the army as they dragged the wagons across the water towards the drier land.

"How many made it?" Gabrielle asked quietly, her eyes roving over what was left of the mud-splattered and fatigued army.

"Two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty. 'Bout what I thought," Xena replied, quickly estimating the numbers of actual fighters she could see. There were probably another seventy or so people with them, but most appeared to be various camp followers and would most likely not be part of the fight unless someone directly threatened them. The trainees could round most of them up without too much trouble.

"I can't believe anyone was insane enough to try to get that many people through the swamp," the bard observed as the first of the army slowly pulled itself onto the less water-logged earth on the blurred boundary of the morass.

"Sometimes dinars speak louder than common sense, but we've seen that too many times to count, haven't we?" the warrior replied, looking over at the woman by her side. She knew Gabrielle never could understand that kind of greedy sickness, but Xena did, having suffered from the fever herself at one time in her life. Sometimes, it had only been the thought of the gold and dinars at the end of a journey which made the trip tolerable at all.

"I could almost feel sorry for this lot," the blonde said, as Xena raised a quizzical eyebrow. "If it wasn't for the fact they are nothing but slavers and scum."

The warrior pointed her chin slightly at several of the men as they collapsed onto the ground exhausted. "Not all of them, Gabrielle. Some may not have been able to find any other kind of work, and most probably have families to support. And what about the women with them? Are they scum too because circumstances forced them into a life of selling their bodies?"

The bard thought deeply for several heartbeats, watching as people dragged their filthy bodies from the bog. "You're probably right," she said. "Hey! When did you get so smart at seeing the good in people? I thought that was my job."

"Had me a great teacher," Xena smiled. "If I can decide to change, maybe they can too." Placing a gentle hand on the other woman's shoulder, she slowly moved them back until they were completely hidden from the view of the slave army. "They will probably set up camp now that they are out of the swamp. We'll give them a chance to get settled before we show ourselves."

"Got an idea?" Gabrielle asked wickedly. The warrior's tactics so far had been frighteningly effective and the bard was curious to see what she would do next.

"I just want to avoid an all-out battle, if possible. It's not like the Amazons are my own private army, and I don't want to see any of them getting hurt unnecessarily," Xena replied, moving along the tree-line towards a small rise near the water.

She briefly spoke with Eponin, explaining what everyone was to do if the slavers decided to fight it out instead of showing some sense. Though the Amazons were slightly out-numbered, they were fresh and had not spent days pulling over-loaded wagons though leagues of filth and fever-ridden marshland. Xena quickly pointed out where the various groups of forest women were to enter from and in what order they were to appear. Glancing through the trees, the warrior could see the two healers they had brought with them were completely set up and ready to deal with any injuries the slavers might inflict on the Amazons. She fervently hoped their services would not be needed by the end of the day. Indicating to the bard to stay close to her side, she carefully made her way to the flanking side of the army.

Artalus leaned against the side of a wagon, staring down sightlessly at his mud-caked boots and legs, unaware he and the rest of the army were being watched from hidden positions less than five hundred paces away. Never had he been so tired in his life, and there were still the Amazons to deal with. Part of him hoped it would be a full day, at least, before they got close enough to even think about them. He had lost almost half of Viper's army to the Tartarus-damned swamp, something the slave leader would be very displeased about, if he had the wit to understand, that was. Drownings, quicksand, strange fevers and fights among the men had seriously thinned their ranks. He had also lost over half the camp followers, but he didn't concern himself overly much with them. Most were survivors anyway, somehow always managing to land on their feet. If he hadn't been so obsessed with capturing the forest women, he would have been tempted to simply leave them be and go after easier pickings.

The tall scout leader appeared at his side, looking just as filthy and worn as the second felt himself. "Get the men settled. We'll camp here and rest for a day before moving any further," Artalus said, wearily. "Make sure everyone has a hot meal in them, too. And for the love of the gods, don't let anyone drink that blasted water." He pointed back at the mire, already sure someone wouldn't get the message, as always.

The tall scout nodded and turned away, somehow finding the energy to shout orders around the camp. Artalus sighed to himself. Regardless of being told repeatedly not to drink the swamp water, nearly everyone had at some point during the last five days. Most of the time, it had been from slipping under unexpectedly, but several of the men had deliberately drunk the slimy liquid, thinking they would be safe for some reason. Those who had purposely slaked their thirsts from the waters of the bog had died painfully from some flux in bowels. Artalus shuddered. It had looked to be a very unpleasant way to die. For those who had gotten the water into them by accident, the worst they had suffered was painful stomach cramps and some vomiting. He had managed to avoid it himself by rationing out the liquid in his waterskin, but it was a close thing. One more day and everyone would have been forced into drinking from the morass.

Pushing himself off the cart, he tried to find a little energy to walk over and climb into the healer's wagon to see how Viper was doing. In many ways, he liked this Viper much more than the cruel and savage slaver he had been following for cycles. The slave leader may have lost his mind to the Assassin's beetles but there was now a real child-like gentleness about him Artalus found he enjoyed. No matter how desperate he was to have the old Viper back, a candlemark spent simply playing with this man-child was enough to relax him and ease many of the worries from his mind. It brought out the softer side of the second, and for the first time in his life he saw it as something he might just want to hang on to.

The two travellers squatted in the dense undergrowth with several Amazons. Immediately behind them were another twenty or so, ready to move as soon as the command was given. From their vantage point, they could look down the edge of the swamp on their right, the tree-line on their left and the army spread out between the two. There weren't a lot of trees on the bog's wide 'beach,' and those that stood were twisted and diseased-looking from having their roots deeply embedded in the muck. Some four hundred paces from the mire's boundary, the forest quickly thickened into a healthier and more substantial growth. Just to the right of their position was a small rise, a hillock of hard, dry mud that would give the camp a good view of the warrior when she finally chose her moment.

"Xena? I can understand your stepping out there alone at first. You're usual 'surrender or die' routine. Right?" Gabrielle asked, in a whisper.

The warrior nodded, carefully watching to see how many sentries were being placed and just what state they were in. From the look of it, they were in no better shape than anyone else she could see.

"So, why are we coming from the end of the beach and not closer to the main camp? A more frontal kind of approach?" the bard asked. "I know you usually don't explain this sort of stuff to me, but I can generally see what you are doing. This time I can't."

Xena pulled her attention back to the questions the bard was asking, thinking carefully of the easiest way to explain it. Pointing to the edge of the dank swamp, she said, "They have just spent five days in that quagmire, and if we come out of the woods using a frontal assault, we back them straight into it. It's the last place most of them will want to go, so they'll fight all the harder to avoid it." Holding her hand flat against her chest and pushing it away slowly, she explained further, "I want to sort of nudge them down the beach, forcing them together. Trying to fight in such close quarters will be that much harder for them but easier for us. See," she said, pointing to several of the men. "Nothing but long-swords. The Amazon warriors use short-swords and bows. We'll have the room to move they don't."

Gabrielle nodded in understanding. She knew Xena preferred a long-sword because of her height, but she was so amazingly skilled with her weapon of choice she could have used it in just about any amount of space, however small. Then, of course, there was her chakram which had the reach, and usually better accuracy, than any bow-man could have ever hoped for.

"They won't move backwards into the water, and with each group of Amazon warriors coming out of the forest one after the other, the slavers won't want to go into the trees because they will be afraid of what they might find there. And then, right at the other end of the beach, when they are all nicely clumped together, we have a large group of warriors to attack them on the flanking side, hitting them on two fronts, if they last that long," Xena said, pointing to an area of forest right at the other end of the beach.

Now the bard could see what Xena had planned, it looked relatively simple, but she knew from other battles that most plans could go awry for any number of reasons. Gabrielle found herself hoping this would not be one of those times. The group they were hiding with would be the first to enter the fight and once they had moved the men down the beach a little, the next group would pop out of the undergrowth, right at their feet, forcing them to retreat further again. And so on, and so on, until they reached the large group at the other end.

Xena looked over to the bard squatted beside her, quickly leaning over to kiss her on the side of the face. "Gabrielle, don't try to throw yourself into the thick of it, please," Xena said with quiet intensity. "Stay behind the line of fighters and pick off anyone who might try to stab one of us in the back."

The bard grinned in reply. "You know me. Always protecting your back. As far as I'm concerned, you're the warrior and I'm just a simple bard."

"You stopped being 'just a simple bard' a long time ago, Gabrielle. Takes a lot for anyone to beat you with that staff nowadays," Xena said quickly, rising to her feet and heading for the hillock before the blonde had a chance to say anything.

"Well, I'll be damned," the bard muttered to herself. "I didn't think she'd even noticed."

Xena took the couple of paces needed to reach the hillock, stepping up onto it easily. Then she simply waited for someone in the camp to notice her. It didn't take long.

A woman dragging a bucket of clean water to a small fire looked over and saw the tall warrior standing patiently on the rise, her highly shined armour sending off brilliant flashes of sunlight as she breathed. A soft breeze blew the raven hair off her face, and the camp-woman was almost pinned to the spot by an ice-cold blue gaze. Standing with her sword sheathed and her hands relaxed by her sides, Xena looked as beautiful and as deadly as any warrior legend the woman had ever heard. Dropping the bucket, she ran screaming back towards the main encampment.

Within moments, a small knot of men appeared, their swords drawn, edging forward uncertainly. Xena waited until they were close enough so she didn't have to shout her words at them. Dropping her rich voice to its most menacing intensity, a little smile teasing its way across her lips, she said, "I'll give you one chance. Surrender immediately, or I start feeding all of you to the harpies in Tartarus, one tiny piece at a time."

For several heartbeats, there was a stand-off, the men not quite sure how to deal with the woman standing completely unafraid on the hillock and Xena already knowing what their answer was going to be. Some of the men were ready to swear it was Artemis poised on the little hill, preparing to wreak her vengeance on them for even thinking about capturing the Amazons. One man stepped forward, raising his sword in front of him. "I don't know who you are, bitch, but the only one going to Tartarus is you," he snarled.

He started to run forward but barely got four paces when Xena's hand flicked out and her chakram flew from her fingers. With unerring accuracy, it sliced through the man's throat before banking steeply in the sky, returning to her outstretched hand once more. "Guess I got my answer," she said to no one in particular. Drawing her sword, the signal to the warriors still hidden there was about to be some serious bloodshed, she bounced down the rise and into combat. Behind the warrior, twenty-five or more Amazons suddenly broke cover, roaring in to join her.

The first group of Amazons slowly forced the men back step by step until they were almost level with the second group. They jumped from the bushes, spreading themselves quickly along the line of advance. More men from the camp were running forward, but as Xena had planned, there was little room for them to swing their long-swords. By the time several more bands had backed the men up to the main part of the camp, the beach was littered with the dead and dying.

Xena felt completely in her element, her blood singing with the fire of battle, her blade becoming an extension of her power and her body. She was almost laughing with joy as she kicked yet another dead man from the end of her sword. Bloodlust rose up in the warrior, speaking seductively to her, her heart and soul answering the call without hesitation. Feeling as though she could never be stopped, she waded further into the fight, moving slightly in advance of the line behind her.

Even reaching the haphazardly laid out wagons did little to slow the forward movement of the Amazons, many of the exhausted slavers having trouble finding the strength to continue fighting. Some had already turned from the battle, running down the beach and onto the swords of the trainees who were waiting for them. Pale-faced, they grimly set about the task they had been set, taking the life of another human being for the first time.

Behind them, in the trees, a small child struggled against the restraining hands of two young warriors, desperate to join the battle and fight by her mother's side. She suddenly bit down on the hand of one, wriggled from the grasp of the other and dashed off through the line of trainees, headed for the heart of the conflict.

Artalus had heard the battle long before it reached the main part of the camp. Popping his head out of the healer's wagon, he watched as a tall, dark-haired, blue eyed warrior woman led the fight from the front. For one brief moment, he couldn't believe the story told to him by the survivors of the Amazon escape was actually true. But he couldn't deny the evidence right in front of his eyes. There really was a beautiful woman warrior, and it took him a bare heartbeat to realise she could fight better than any man he had ever seen before.

He felt himself being torn in two totally different directions. Part of him said he should be up with the rest of the army fighting the Amazon warriors, but another part, a quiet voice he was having trouble ignoring, was saying he had to protect the man he had followed for most of his adult life. Artalus tried to talk himself out of such a suicidal choice. The most important thing should be the saving of his own worthless hide. Viper was completely mind-shattered and of no use to anyone; the second would be better off letting the Amazons simply kill the man. Glancing back at the slave leader still propped up in bed, he felt his heart making the decision for him. He would stay, even if that meant giving up his own life. Convinced he was about to die, Artalus pulled the sword from its sheath by his side and stood waiting on the steps of the wagon.

Xena recognised the man standing on the wagon's steps as the same one who had led Eponin back to the cage after her meeting with the slave leader. The same man who had dragged a healer from his bed in the middle of the night. She guessed, correctly, he had to be the second in charge of the army. Judging from where he was, she assumed it was the healer's wagon and the leader must still be inside, incapable of defending himself. Bloodlust had her firmly in its grip, and she fought her way towards the wagon and the man standing on the steps. If she could kill the leader, like a snake with its head removed, the main body of the army would wither and die. She bounded up the few steps to the wagon-bed, her sword connecting solidly against Artalus's.

Artalus backed up, ducking into the wagon itself, the warrior woman following him in. He could see the blazing light of uncontrolled bloodlust in her eyes, knowing he had no chance at all against her but he felt he had to try to protect the man-child lying on the pallet.

Shayna ducked around a loaded cart, taking a moment to hamstring yet another man as he ran from the conflict. The man had fallen writhing to the ground, grasping at the open gash at the back of his thigh, the blood seeping through his fingers. The child had felt no pity at all as she quickly drew her knife across his throat. It was what she had been taught to do, and so long as she did as she remembered, her mother might let her stay with her after all. Shayna spotted the advancing figure of her mother as she stepped into a wagon. Figuring that was where she wanted to be, she scrambled up the short flight of steps and into the healer's wagon behind Xena.

The warrior stood with her sword-tip just crossing the blade of the second. She could feel the fire of battle burning along her veins and through her body, blinding her to the pain of the cuts and minor gashes she had gotten in combat against the slaver's men. The smell of death was everywhere, clinging to her leathers, soaking its way into her skin. She revelled in the familiar odour, something she had not allowed herself to do for the past three cycles. The lust to kill flowed through her with a sensual power so like sex Xena knew she would probably orgasm at the moment her blade slid into the body of the man in front of her.

A noise behind her had Xena spinning on the spot, only her trained and honed reflexes saving the child from a painless death. The blade stopped a hairsbreadth from the side of Shayna's neck, the youngster never flinching, her trust in Xena so complete. The warrior could feel her mind scrabbling to regain control again, now the spell of the bloodlust had been temporarily broken. Keeping one eye on man in front of her, she questioned the child. "Shayna, you were supposed to stay in the forest where it was safe. What are you doing here?"

"Mama fight. Shayna fight," the child grinned up at the tall warrior.

"I think you and I need to have a really long talk the first chance we get," Xena replied, turning back to the second, who hadn't moved a muscle.

With the haze of bloodlust lifted from her mind, she was finally able to take in the details of the wagon, and the man lying on the bed. Xena saw the leader would never again take an army of slavers into the countryside. In fact, the man might be lucky to live at all, if left to his own devices. He sat propped up in the bed, naked but covered with a light blanket. On his lap were some crudely carved blocks, the type she knew children often played with. Looking into the eyes of the second, she saw in them something she recognised, having seen it in her own eyes every time she looked into the mirrored surface of a pond.

"I am going to give you a choice," she said without fanfare. "You can either fight with me now, knowing I will probably kill you and he," flicking her eyes at Viper as he watched everything with childish interest, "will most likely not survive another moon out here. Or you can lay down the sword forever and take care of him. The choice is yours."

Artalus licked his lips. Letting his eyes drop to the man on the bed, he didn't have to think long. Artalus had followed Viper for most of his life, doing whatever the man had asked of him and more. The past couple of seven-days had allowed him to see a part of himself he might get to like, like very much. And the gentle, child-like mind now living inside the body of a man he loved like a brother helped bring that out in him. Carefully placing his sword on a bench beside him, he dropped his hand on Viper's broad shoulder. "The Amazons won't kill us?" he asked.

"No. I'll ask them to get you both safely to the other side of the forest. There is a village about four days further along, next to a river. Introduce yourself to the village elders. Tell them Xena sent you. They'll see you get settled and find some honest work. By the way, I hope you like sheep," she replied.

"They'll help me?" he asked incredulously, not believing his luck. "You'll do that for me?" Artalus could hardly believe it was possible to finally give away his life as a slaver and actually settle down in a place where he wasn't feared or reviled.

"That particular village owes me. I think this is a good way to collect, don't you?" the warrior said, a genuine smile lifting the corners of her mouth. "But if I hear of you going back to your slaver ways, I swear, I'll come after you and rip your heart out with my bare hands," she snarled. Xena's face softened again, her own hand dropping onto the youngster's shoulder by her side. Her eyes shifted from the child standing next to her, to the man lying on the bed and back again before she continued. "We all need the chance to make the right choices in life. This is simply yours. You won't get another, so make the most of it."

"Xena!" Gabrielle's familiar voice called from the door. "You all right?"

In the time it had taken for Xena to give Artalus his choices, the battle had raged past the healer's wagon and was all but over. Gabrielle brought up the rear with some of the trainees, attending to the wounded and making sure any men still left alive were bound tightly. They would probably be handed over to the nearest magistrate for judgment. The bard had seen Xena enter the wagon and then not come back out again. Concerned for the other woman, she had gotten there as soon as she could. Aside from some minor injuries the warrior appeared okay, until the bard had looked into her eyes. Bubbling just beneath the surface was the bloodlust Gabrielle had seen in the warrior's eyes many times before. Only this time, it had not been released in battle.

"I'll meet you back at the campsite then. I'm sure you could do with a long bath," the bard said, the sensual undertones in her voice telling the warrior the other woman had read her correctly again and a long, exhausting session was already being planned in the agile mind of the blonde. Well, Xena hoped it would be long and exhausting, anyway.

Xena lay stretched out on her bedroll, Gabrielle on top of her like she was some kind of muscular pallet. The smile on the bard's face was so broad and self-satisfied, the warrior was sure her jaw would crack off at any moment. In the short space of time it had taken Xena to organise a small party of Amazons to escort Artalus and Viper safely through the forest, the blonde had managed to perform a minor miracle. Gabrielle had strapped their bedrolls together, gathered some flatbread, cheese, olives and a wineskin from somewhere and was waiting patiently for the warrior to finish up her few post-battle chores. They had walked together for half a candlemark, getting far enough away from the Amazon campsite to be completely out of earshot, coming across a tiny clearing beside a shallow stream.

It hadn't been as deep as the warrior would have liked, but it served its purpose by allowing the bard to scrub the blood and the stench of death from Xena's body. Her leathers were still airing on a low branch on the edge of the little glade. It would probably be morning before they were fit to wear again, not that she saw them moving anywhere until first light, at least. She also didn't see them moving until dawn because both women now had several bruises Xena didn't want to have to explain to Gabrielle's sister Amazons. Admittedly, some had been garnered during the battle but others, well, others they had done themselves. Thankfully, most were in inconspicuous places, easily covered by their clothing.

Xena couldn't help smiling herself. She had gotten to see a whole new side of her bard she never knew was there before. Gabrielle may have faced down the warlord in the past, but she had never been presented with Xena's bloodlust, the warrior usually managing to ease the fire in her veins during battle. It had been a love making experience she was not going to forget any time soon. Somehow, the little bard had fed on the lust coursing through Xena's body and returned it as pure, mind-blowing passion, pouring it through the other woman's center until she was certain she would explode across the sky. And of course, Xena had returned the favour until Gabrielle couldn't even moan out her pleasure any longer, just shuddering violently as each release tore through her body. They were both going to ache in the morning after that, but the warrior just didn't care anymore.

"I wonder how you got to know me so well," Xena mumbled aloud to herself, her arms tightening briefly around the woman lying comfortably on top of her.

"Huh?" the bard muttered, lifting her head from the pillow of Xena's naked breasts. "Wad ya say?"

"Oh, I was just wondering how you got to know me as well as you do," the warrior replied.

"I'm a bard. We're very observant most of the time."

"I lost count about the fifth time, but I will say I do like this bloodlust of yours when it comes home to my bedroll and isn't wasted in some battle," the bard answered wickedly.

Xena grunted at the other woman, then blushed deeply. "I'll see what I can do in the future," she muttered a little self-consciously.

"You just do that," Gabrielle said teasingly, kissing the end of the warrior's chin. "I kind of like you when you're that out of control," she paused for a heartbeat. "In bed."

The blonde reached over for the wineskin, taking several deep swallows before handing it to Xena. "Where's Shayna? I've been expecting her to pop out of the bushes at any moment," the shorter woman said, glancing about the undergrowth surrounding the tiny glade.

"She's with Eponin. Made her promise to stay put until we get back tomorrow," Xena answered, wiping a drop of wine from her chin, before placing the skin back on the ground beside them.

"Bribed her, you mean," Gabrielle stated. She knew how the mind of the warrior worked, most of the time, and she was sure the only promising going on was the warrior's promise to the child.

The flush suddenly appearing on Xena's face let the bard know she had hit the target dead on. "What did you bribe her with? A new knife? Lessons with the sword? The curious want to know here," she smiled

"My presence for most of the day tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get her to understand why I want her to live with the Amazons and not out on the road with us," Xena said.

Gabrielle sighed melodramatically, the back of one hand against her forehead. "Guess I'll just have to make do with the company of my sister Amazons, I suppose. Oh, I am a poorly done by lover and bard," she said, trying to stop herself from giggling.

"Poorly done by, my behind," Xena said, long fingers reaching in the direction of some very ticklish ribs.

The bard quickly rolled away, coming to rest a Xena's arm's length from the warrior. She had made the mistake once before of underestimating just how far the other woman could reach, when she wanted to, and wasn't going to make the same mistake again. Besides, Xena had the maddening tendency of continuing to tickle her until Gabrielle almost wet herself with laughter. The frantic, wild-eyed dash into the bushes after something like that was never a good look as far as the bard was concerned. She had some semblance of dignity to maintain, after all.

Turning on her side, Xena lifted one arm, inviting the bard back again. "Promise. I won't tickle you, so long as you don't do the oh-woe-is-me act anymore," she said, smiling. Gabrielle crawled up against the warm skin of the other woman, sighing with pleasure. "Seriously though. The Amazons won't be moving on for three or four days. Not until some of the warriors have had a chance to heal a little."

The heads of both women turned automatically towards the large clearing where the Amazons were camped. Most of the injuries had been fairly minor, well, by warrior standards anyway. But several of the forest women would be returning to the village on stretchers. At least they were alive, and the two travellers were grateful for that much. There had been no deaths among the Amazons, but it was a close thing.

"So we'll have a few days to get Shayna used to the idea of living with them?" Gabrielle asked, something in her heart telling her they would not have quite that much time.

"No," Xena said simply, her gaze firmly locked on the bushes around them. "We're leaving at dawn, day after tomorrow. I don't want her getting the idea we're going to hang around. And she might, if we stay until the Amazons are ready to return to the village."

"You think she'll follow us again?"

Xena thought for a moment. "Not this time. I'll make sure of it. She's old enough to understand my reasons," she said.

"No. I won't hurt her, Gabrielle. But I will make it very clear I want her in the village and not with us. That's going to be painful enough for her to accept," Xena replied, looking into the blue-green eyes of her lover and life-mate. "But we'll be back as often as we can. I'll make that clear to her as well."

Gabrielle could see the pain and heartache still written in broad strokes through those impossibly blue eyes, but she could also see the determination to do what was right by the child, regardless of the cost to herself. This was the Xena the bard had grown to know and love so dearly. Wrapping her arms around the tall warrior, she held her close, offering all the love and support she could find in her very big heart.

The bard watched Xena disappearing into the woods, Shayna already dancing ahead of her. Trying not to worry about the possible emotional state the tall woman would be in by the time they got back to the campsite, she turned her attention to the wounded Amazons lying grouped together in a makeshift hospital. She had volunteered to help keep them occupied for a while so no one would try getting up before the healers thought they were ready. Thinking for a moment, she began to recite, "I sing a song of Xena; Warrior Princess. A woman who stepped from the dark path of destruction to become an honourable warrior." The Amazons listened attentively. The bard did not tell this story often, but today it just felt right.

"Slow down, Shayna. You're moving too fast for me to keep up," Xena said. She wasn't really having trouble keeping up at all, but she did want the youngster to be a bit more careful as they wandered through the trees. One never knew what could be lurking in the bushes sometimes.

They had already spent most of the morning simply playing together, Shayna showing the tall warrior some of the things she had learned in the short space of time she had been with the children's pack back at the village. Xena had soon joined her in the tree branches, their laughter echoing through the forest around them, playing a kind of tag game popular with the Amazon youngsters, though the child was much better. She was able to climb out onto limbs too slight to hold the warrior's greater weight. At times, she was sure the girl was standing on nothing more than a twig before bouncing into the next tree.

Having exhausted themselves in the branches, they had swum together in a small pond, washing the sweat and tree bark from their bodies. Xena had caught several small fish for their nooning, Shayna fascinated with the warrior's unorthodox technique. She also watched carefully as the woman had quickly built a small, hot fire to cook their meal. Shayna had come to like campfires because they always reminded her of the fire her Mama said burned in her. She was determined never to be without one again, so she watched everything the warrior did, hoping to catch the trick of making sparks with a flint.

After their nooning, they had wandered through the forest, heading for an outcropping of rocks where they would have a good view of the surrounding countryside. Shayna's boundless childhood energy soon had her bouncing ahead of the warrior, and Xena had to pick up her pace a little to stay abreast the youngster, not a hard thing for her, really, with legs as long and powerful as hers. Clambering up the rocks had turned into a race to see who could get to the top first. Shayna won by a mere hand-span, but only because Xena secretly let her. The child had danced around the top of the rocks gleefully, elated at beating her mother.

They had finally settled quietly together, shaded by an overhang, the child seated between Xena's outspread knees, the warrior's muscular arms wrapped comfortingly about her slight body. The tall woman pointed out features they could see, explaining how water always dropped to the lowest point on the land and naming the various trees, describing what they were good for. She pointed to some of the birds wheeling in the clear blue sky, telling the child how they could often show you were to find water fit to drink or berries you could safely eat. They had watched silently as several small deer wandered through the woods near the bottom of the rocks. Xena whispered in the child's ear as they passed some of the secrets of hunting them, which parts were good to make the best jerky from and how tendons and sinews could be used to sew up clothes or wounds.

This was how the child remembered spending countless days with her mother, before she had slipped beneath the water and disappeared so long ago. Her mother told her or showed her all the things she would need to know if Shayna wanted to survive in the forest. They were lessons the child had used over and over during the long cycles she had been alone. She didn't understand why her mother had left her standing distraught by the side of the stream that stormy night, other than she must have been so naughty her mother couldn't bear to have the child near anymore. Now, Shayna thought it must have been some kind of test, like so many others her mother had played with her, only this one had lasted a great deal longer.

And now her Mama wanted to leave her alone again. It wasn't as alone as before, true. Shayna liked the village, with women who took care of her and other girls to play with, but her mother wasn't going to be there, and that meant Shayna didn't want to stay. She needed to understand why her mother simply didn't settle in the village with everyone else. The other girls had told her how Aabriel was the Queen and the Queen should live in the village, but as long as her mother remained on the road, then Aabriel would too and many of the girls were not sure that was right somehow. Shayna had even grown a little fond of the woman with the fiery red-blonde hair, listening to her tell exciting stories about what her mother had done during the cycles they had been separated. Thinking about it, the child was sure she might even get to love the little bard-Queen because it was clear how much her mother adored the other woman, from all the little touches and glances they shared and the way her mother slept with Aabriel protected in her strong arms each night.

"Mama?" Shayna asked shyly. "Why you and Aabriel no live in village with everyone? Isn't Aabriel Queen? Lias say Queen should live in village all time." In her child-like mind, Shayna had connected Gabrielle's living in the village to her mother's presence there as well. If the bard stayed, then Xena would too.

Xena laughed quietly, kissing the top of Shayna's rapidly growing out red hair. "Yes, Gabrielle is the Queen of the Amazon Nation, but she has chosen to travel with me," she explained.

"Why?" the child asked.

The warrior had to stop and think about that for a bit. She didn't really understand why the bard still travelled with the ex-warlord, knowing how hard she was to be around occasionally, especially when her own memories were recking havoc on her heart and soul. "I think, because she loves me enough to endure the bad things I sometimes do," she said quietly.

"Mama bad?" the child questioned, not believing it. "Bad like bad men?" It was the only point of reference Shayna had, the descriptions of the bad men her mother had told her about long ago, and some of the things she had seen herself as well.

Xena knew better than to try to lie to the child. Even if she simply temporised, the youngster would pick it up. She sighed deeply. "I was worse, Shayna. I used to do a lot of very bad things and hurt a lot of people. But one day I decided to be good again. That's why I am on the road all the time, making up for all the bad I did. Can you understand that?"

Shayna's mind grappled to get a grip on the idea of her mother doing bad things and now having to make up for them. "Like Shayna give Lias pie for making Lias eat Shayna's green stuff?" she offered.

Xena laughed. "You're a smart one, aren't you? But yes, kind of like that, only much bigger," she said, opening her hands widely in front of the child's face.

"Mama good all time now?" Shayna asked.

Xena knew she had to be truthful here so the child would understand. "No, Shayna. I try, but sometimes, well, " the warrior sighed deeply again. "Sometimes it is hard. I'm so used to doing things my own way, never questioning it. Now and then I slip and do something that hurts another person." Most often Gabrielle, she finished the thought.

"Like Shayna coming here instead of staying with Amaran and Lias like Mama say," The child asked, guilt sounding clearly in her voice. "I hurt Mama coming here?"

Strong arms embraced the youngster powerfully. "No, you didn't hurt me by following us, but you did worry me," she said. Thinking for a moment, she continued, "And I guess that is a kind of hurt too."

The warrior and the child sat together, each thinking their own thoughts and drawing comfort from the closeness of the other. Shayna was starting to see why Xena wanted her to remain with the Amazons, but she still wanted to understand the reasoning behind her staying at the village while Xena was on the road.

"Shayna hurt Mama if Shayna on road with Mama and Aabriel?" she asked very quietly.

Kissing the top of the girl's head, Xena tried to explain herself. "It's not that I don't want you with us," she said, watching the light of hope fill the child's jade green eyes. "But I would worry about you all the time. There are a lot of bad men who want to hurt me and the easiest way of doing that would be to hurt you. Do you see that?"

"Mama worry about Aabriel too the same way? If Aabriel stay, why not Shayna?"

"You're as stubborn as the bard, aren't you? Okay, lets see if I can explain this for you," Xena smiled. "I do worry about Gabrielle -- all the time, in fact -- but she is a woman grown and can defend herself with her staff. You saw her fighting yesterday during the battle. I'm sure no one could get near her."

Shayna nodded. She had seen the bard fighting, awe-struck with the deadly grace of such a simple weapon. It had been totally different to watching her fight a handful of thugs on the side of the road. She just seemed to work in natural tandem with whoever had been around her at the time, protecting the fighter's back, yet managing to defend herself very effectively.

"I still worry about her, afraid she will be hurt by someone who really only wants to hurt me. But I know I can leave her alone somewhere and no one can really harm her. That makes it easier for me. You're just not big enough yet to be left alone while I do something else," Xena continued.

The child thought about the explanation before speaking again. "Mama need Shayna to be a woman grown before Shayna stay with her?" she asked, using the same expression as the warrior.

"Yes," the tall woman said, feeling the child was reaching the point were she would stay in the village and not try to follow them again. "And the safest place for you to grow up is with the Amazons. They can take good care of you and teach you all kinds of things I may not have time to show you if we were on the road. I get pretty busy there sometimes. I've even neglected Gabrielle now and then," she said a little ruefully, mentally promising not to let that happen any more.

Shayna nodded her head as though finally making a decision. "Shayna stay with Amaran and Eponin and Lias. Grow up big like Mama. Learn fight like Mama. Then travel on road with Mama and Aabriel," she stated.

"You'll probably just do that too," Xena said gently, hugging the girl close to her chest. "But I promise, Gabrielle and I will come to the village as often as we can and stay for a few days when we have time. And I give you my word of honour as a warrior, we will both be there for every winter Solstice, no matter what else is going on."

The child smiled happily. She didn't understand what this honour thing was, but that kind of promise seemed to mean a great deal to the warrior, which probably meant it had more weight.

"Ummm, what Solstice, Mama?" Shayna queried.

Laughing aloud, Xena began to explain what winter Solstice was all about, using the same stories she had heard Gabrielle tell many, many groups of youngsters in the past.

An explosion of stars lit the sky over the meadow where the two travellers were camped for the night. The pale light they cast dimmed by the fire the women lay beside. The warrior had been unusually quiet for the past few days and that was going some, considering she was not very talkative at the best of times. The bard let the other woman grieve silently, knowing that when the moment was right she would talk. Gabrielle would simply tuck herself close to the tall warrior each night as they slept, ignoring the soundless tears falling from those blue eyes, yet offering as much support as Xena would accept from her.

"You've been very patient with me, Gabrielle. Thank you," Xena said unexpectedly, gentle fingers brushing the side of the bard's face.

"It was easy, really. You just needed a little time. I can give you that much," the blonde replied, tightening her arms about Xena's leather-clad body. "Feeling a bit better now?" she asked, concerned.

"A bit. Leaving her with the Amazons was hard, but I know it is the best thing for her. And we will be back. They have Harvest Festival coming up next season. We might stop by for a couple of days, if we're in the area," Xena said.

The bard started to giggle, burying her face into the other woman's leathers until she had brought herself back under control again. Lifting her head, looking into the slightly bemused expression on the warrior's face, she chuckled, "If we're in the area, she says. Oh Xena, don't give me that. You and I both know not only we will be in the area but it might be a really messy death to anyone who tries to keep us from getting there in time."

"Gods, I didn't think I was quite that transparent," the warrior grumped.

"Read you like a scroll, Xena of Amphipolis. Read you like a scroll," Gabrielle replied, tapping Xena's chest with each word.

The two women snuggled quietly together for a time, the bard occasionally giggling to herself, much to the warrior's chagrin.

"You know, if we stay on this road for another day, instead of turning off, we could pay a visit to the Centaurs. Just for a day or two," Xena said innocently into the near-silence.

"You're being transparent again, Xena," Gabrielle laughed aloud. "Look, if you want to see Solon, just say so. I do understand, you know. I mean, Xena: Warrior Princess, destroyer of nations, has become Xena: Mother of Two, creator of unusual families." Gabrielle rolled over to enjoy a good hearty belly laugh at the look on the tall woman's face.

Eventually, the laughter subsided into chuckles and then into silence. Gabrielle propped herself up on one elbow, looking down on the woman she loved. "You're feeling a bit guilty, aren't you? Why?" she asked.

Xena turned her head, letting her gaze rest on the loving eyes of the bard. "Yea, I'm feeling guilty. Why? I'm not really sure," she evaded.

"Might it have something to do with you not feeling like you're being the sort of mother you could be to those two youngsters?" Gabrielle asked.

"More like, I am not being the sort of mother I know I should be. By the gods, Solon doesn't even know I AM his mother." The warrior replied, thumping her fist into the bedroll beside her.

The bard lay a gentle hand on the cheek of the warrior, feeling the other woman turn a fraction to nestle into her cupped palm. "You helped me understand why he couldn't know just yet. When the time is right and he will be safe, you'll tell him. I know you will. In the meantime, he might as well get used to seeing you, well, seeing us, actually, a bit more often than he has."

The warrior raised a quizzical eyebrow at the other woman.

"Well, you're not going to tell me we are travelling all the way to see Shayna and then NOT go that little bit extra to visit Solon, are you? Cause if you are, I'd never believe it anyway," Gabrielle stated confidently.

Sweeping the blonde into her powerful arms, Xena asked, "And since when did I come with a scroll of instructions, eh? You're getting a bit too good at knowing what's on my mind lately. Come on, bard, give. What's your secret?"

Gabrielle laughed helplessly, adapting herself to the warrior's quick mood changes, something she had gotten very, very good at over the cycles. "Practise, oh great and mighty Warrior Princess. Lots and lots and lots of mind-blowing, sometimes exasperating, usually impossible, always rewarding practise. You were so unbelievably scary all that first cycle, it was either get to understand you or go crazy."

"Surely I wasn't that bad?" Xena asked, trying to put a hurt expression on her face. It must have succeeded, because the bard immediately relented.

"Well, you were kinda frightening, being so silent and everything. After all, you had been the baddest thing to ever walk into a tavern. Usually still are, most of the time," Gabrielle said quietly.

Xena smiled at the mental image of her coming innocently into some tavern and the way people quickly moved to avoid her. Yea, that still felt good, even though she knew it shouldn't.

"But seeing Solon that time did help me understand you, though."

That brought Xena back into the here and now in a hurry. "How did seeing him help you understand me?"

"I understood that back when you left him with the Centaurs, you weren't ready to be a mother. It was more than simply wanting to keep him safe from your enemies. You just plain weren't ready for that kind of responsibility. To have someone, anyone, that close to your soul," the bard explained. "Now, you are but you have to put it off for a little while because you have a promise to keep. A promise you made to yourself to make good on the wrongs you did." She paused. "Xena, I know you well enough to realise, regardless of how much you love Solon and Shayna, even me, you are going to keep that promise no matter what."

"When did you get to be so damned wise, Gabrielle?" Xena asked, drawing the other woman down into a soul-searing and passionate kiss.

"Don't know. Guess it musta grew on me," mumbled the bard as soft lips wiped all concept of time and place from her mind and insistent hands tugged impatiently at her clothing.

A young Amazon warrior, maybe twenty and five or twenty and six summers old, with flaming red hair and flashing, jade green eyes slowly shook her head, bringing herself back into the present. She stood to stretch out muscles made tight from sitting still in one place for so long. Walking back and forth in front of the grave, she remembered little things, occasionally dashing a tear from her cheek. The sound of movement behind her had the young woman quickly spinning to see who was coming. She relaxed as she recognised a familiar figure dropping from the trees.

"I found them, Shayna," her companion called, holding out two objects for the other woman to see. "Just where you said they would be, too. How'd you know they were there?"

Shayna smiled, as though imparting a great secret. "Remember that really awful bard we listened to a couple of seven-days back, Lias? I talked with him later and he told me he'd seen them with his own eyes," she answered.

"You and your bards. I think we have listened to every story-teller for a thousand leagues around the Nation, sometimes," Lias laughed. "And how many ales did it take to get the story out of him?"

The red-haired warrior blushed the colour of a ruddy summer's sunset before answering. "Only six, but he got this idea that he might get lucky with me, if you know what I mean," she said finally. She watched as her companion dissolved into helpless laughter, Shayna trying not to look embarrassed.

"I have no idea what you mean at all. You probably didn't do a THING to foster the impression either," Lias said when she could draw enough air into her lungs to speak. "Another one of those tricks your mother taught you, I suppose. How to tease men, gather information and escape, without having to break any of their bones. Sweet Artemis, I wish I had been around for that one." The warrior bent over in uncontrollable laughter again, this time not stopping until there were tears rolling freely down her cheeks.

"Oh, stop it, will you, Lias. She taught all of us a lot of stuff when she and Gabrielle came to visit," Shayna snorted. "Just give 'em here, if you can stop giggling long enough," she said a little grumpily.

"I'm sorry, Shayna. I just can't help teasing you sometimes. You always take the bait," Lias replied, starting to hand over the two objects she had almost removed someone's head to get. "The elder wasn't too happy about giving these to me; they're almost sacred relics now, you know, but when I told them who they were for, he relented."

"Don't suppose the drawn sword would have had anything to do with his sudden desire to be rid of them?" the other woman teased back, her grumps easing at the look of surprise on Lias's face.

Once the warrior had stopped spluttering; Shayna was closer to the truth than Lias was willing to admit, she handed over the first of the two objects with great reverence. Shayna carefully took the staff in her hands, examining it. The white leather sleeve on one end was a little charred and covered with soot, the wood darkened with sweat where Gabrielle's hands had held it for so many cycles, but the red-head was sure this was the weapon belonging to the woman she saw as her guard-mother.

"I never saw anyone, aside from Mother, that is, who was more deadly with one of these than Gabrielle," Shayna said. "She could do things with it that just made the hair stand up on the back of your neck sometimes. Still hard to believe she got her first lessons from Eponin, though," thinking of the aging woman back at the Amazon village.

"Better believe it, Shayna. My guard-mother can still give you a run for your dinars, don't ever doubt that," Lias replied quietly.

Shayna smiled gently, remembering the staff lessons Gabrielle had given her. Things she still used even now. "You know, in all the cycles they spent on the road, she never took a life. Not once. I still find that pretty amazing. Yea, she was something special."

Passing the staff back to the other woman, she held out her hand for the weapons she had really wanted to find, Xena's sword and chakram. Lias juggled the staff against her side, so she could use both hands to give the red-head the sword. It just seemed more fitting that way. The chakram, patches of rust eating into the metal, had been firmly tied to the sheath of the weapon so it wouldn't be lost. Shayna carefully drew the blade from its leather sheath, noting the tiny bits of charcoal still lodged between the swirls of the armour-work. Xena's finely wrought sword was rusting from lack of care, its razor-sharp edge long gone, but the green eyed warrior knew this weapon like she knew her mother. With tear-filled eyes, she looked up at the other woman. "Did you find out what happened?" she asked.

"That's what took me so long. Everyone wanted to tell me their bit of the story and I had to listen to all of them to make sure I got everything," Lias replied. "Seems the little orphanage they run down at the village went up in flames one night, maybe three seasons ago now."

"Mmmm, happens sometimes. Candle, perhaps?" Shayna queried.

The other woman nodded before continuing. "Xena and Gabrielle came out of nowhere. Or at least, that is how the villagers tell it anyway. My guess is they were camped really close by, maybe at that stream we stopped at last night."

"Probably. It's the sort of place Mother liked to stop. The kind of place I like to stop at too," Shayna said sadly.

"Anyway, the two of them just ran inside the burning building, not thinking about the danger for a heartbeat, and started tossing the kids through the door into the arms of the villagers waiting outside. The elder told me they were shouting at them to come out because the roof was about to give way. Well, Xena just wouldn't hear of it until the last kid was safe, so she simply stood up and braced the roof with her hands. Gabrielle just kept tossing kids out until she couldn't find any more. Guess she must have got them all because no one said anything about any of the kids not making it."

In her mind's eye, the red-head could see it herself. Flames leaping grotesquely in all directions against the night sky, villagers shouting and screaming in fear and confusion, Gabrielle scurrying through the blinding smoke looking for survivors, and her mother standing like a determined statue, holding that roof up until everyone was safely outside.

"Do you want me to go on?" Lias asked compassionately. Hearing all the different impressions of the villagers had been hard enough for Lias to listen to, but to hear the whole thing, and knowing it was her own mother, must have been tearing the other woman to pieces.

Shayna nodded. She needed to know what happened that night.

"When the last kid was safe, Xena started shouting at Gabrielle to get out of the building. You know how stubborn the Queen could be sometimes. Must have known as well as Xena that the roof was going to collapse at any moment. Instead of leaving, she walked up to Xena's side and just wrapped her arms around her waist like they had all the time in the world to simply stand there. Then the roof just fell in on them." Lias stopped, unable to continue.

"Finish it, Lias. Please," Shayna asked, her voice strangled with the tears she knew she would not shed until she felt able to bear the pain of both her mothers passing.

The other woman took a deep breath, wiping the tears from her face before ending the story the villagers had told her. "The elder said it was quick. They probably didn't feel a thing. When they finally dug them out, the beam over Xena's head, the one she used to hold the roof up, had broken both their necks as it came down. They were hardly burned at all. One of the villagers told me when they did find their bodies, Xena was all wrapped around Gabrielle like she was trying to protect her or something."

Silently thanking Artemis for the quickness of their deaths, Shayna spoke softly, "That would be Mother all over. She was forever trying to protect Gabrielle from all kinds of things, even the sniffles." The warrior smiled the tiniest bit, remembering all the times Xena had tried doing that.

"No one in the village knew where to send the bodies afterwards. I guess they didn't really believe Gabrielle was the Amazon Queen. So they brought them up here and buried them together, still wrapped in each others arms they way they had died. They just didn't have the heart to even try breaking them apart."

"Gabrielle used to complain all the time about that. Never did think she looked like the rest of us," Shayna said. "But I'm glad they buried them together. If they couldn't have an Amazon funeral fire, then that would have been their next choice." The red-head slid the sword back into the sheath she still held in one hand and turned towards the grave. Standing next to it, she felt Lias move up beside her, one hand resting on her back.

"Do you ever wonder if, well, you know, if Xena made the best decision leaving you with us?" Lias asked a little uncertainly.

"No. It wasn't the best decision," Shayna stated flatly.

"SHAYNA!" Lias said, shocked at the other woman's reply. "They were always visiting for festivals and stuff. And I know they alway turned up for your rite of passage ceremonies. Your Pleasures of Womanhood ceremony and when you were ready to go out for your Challenges cycle. They never once missed a winter Solstice. After you came back from your Challenge, Xena even let you travel with them for a while. How can you say it wasn't the best decision after all that?"

"Because it wasn't the best one. The best decision would have been for all of us to be together at the village, with Gabrielle as our Queen and Mother and I as her family. It would have been the best decision because that is what everyone else felt she should to do. Didn't make it right though," Shayna looked at the woman standing by her side. "I know Mother had a hard time making that decision because she still had a promise to keep," she said.

"So, instead of doing what was best, what everyone simply expected her to do, she did what was right. She found the courage to listen to her heart and decided to keep me safe, see that I got a good education, surrounded by people who loved and cared about me and she made as much time for me as she possibly could and still managed to keep that promise to herself. I think another five or six cycles, she might have even come home and finally settled down with us. But this way, she died knowing she had done the right thing. I don't think she ever regretted making her decision the way she did. And I know she never wondered how things might have been if she has just gone ahead and made the best decision either."

"I guess when you explain it like that, it makes sense. You're not angry about it, are you?" Lias asked.

"No, I got over being angry a long time ago when I finally figured out the difference between best decisions and right decisions. I just hope I always have the courage to listen to my heart and make the right decisions. Somehow, I think that's what made Mother such a great warrior. She always made the right decisions, no matter what it might have cost her personally," Shayna said quietly, the pride she felt for the warrior giving her voice a richness reminiscent of the woman she called Mother.

The Amazon warrior with jade green eyes lay the staff and sheathed sword with the chakram tied to it on the pile of stones covering the grave. She paused to brush her hand over the carefully carved words on the headstone before reaching for something in her belt-pouch. Placing her little offering on top of the weapons, she tried to turn away.

"Is that what I think it is, Shayna?" Lias asked, pointing to the object the young Amazon had laid on the grave.

"Yea, it's a flint," she replied.

"Ummmm, mind telling me why you put a flint, of all things, on your mothers grave?"

"A long time ago, Mother told me I had a fire burning inside me, just like the one inside Gabrielle. So, I thought I would leave a flint here to let her know that I still remember those words," the warrior answered.

"Anything else you remember?"

"Yea. Gabrielle said life on the road has a rhythm to it, just like a heartbeat. Once you start walking to that rhythm, you just can't seem to stop," Shayna answered, a slow smile easing away the sadness in her eyes.

"Is that a hint?" Lias prodded.

"Yep. We've got a long way to go before we get home again and the sooner we are started, the sooner we are there."

As they walked back towards the trees, Lias asked one last question. "Do you think they both made it to the Elysian Fields?"

Shayna couldn't help laughing. "Not only do I think they made it there, I am willing to bet dinars Mother is probably running the place by now."

Two young Amazon warriors took to the trees at the edge of the clearing, all sight of them soon lost in the dense branches. On the grave, where a staff, a sword, a chakram and a flint now lay, a soft golden glow hovered briefly over them before settling against the stones. When the glow had finally faded away, the weapons and the flint were gone. A warm, gentle breeze, sounding for all the world like a woman sighing, moved through the clearing, the leaves rustling for a moment and then becoming still.

In a sunlit clearing, hidden deep in the center of an unnamed stretch of forest, far from the usual tracks and paths other travellers might have taken, rested the piled stones of a single large grave. The headstone was mostly rough-hewn, though someone had taken special care to smooth the one side where an inscription had been engraved by the hand of some master stone-smith. There was no name or date of passing carved into the stone, just some simple words.

If a lone traveller were to stumble upon this place and allow themselves to rest in the peaceful tranquillity of the dappled glade, they might just hear the happy laughter of two women echoing through the trees. One, light and carefree, reflecting their purity of soul, causing the heart of the traveller to bubble with joy, though they had never met. The other, lush and rich, filled with all the experiences that life can bring, the traveller perhaps saddened they could not pose their questions to such a wise soul.

If the traveller were to sit quietly for a time, their mind empty of troubling thoughts, and the light slanted through the leaves just right, they might even see two bright shadows dancing around the tree trunks, skipping gaily through the branches overhead, chasing and catching and chasing again. Two golden shades playing together as two people may have played in life.

Even if the traveller was not to hear the gentle laughter, nor see the bright shadows in the glade, the simple words carved into the headstone would tell them everything they needed to know about the grave's occupants, if only they thought about it for long enough.

Simple words, carved with care and love, expressing the lives of two women who cared more for others than they did themselves. Who fought for what was right, no matter the personal cost to their own hearts and souls. Who had died as they had lived, together.

Simple words.

THERE IS NO STRENGTH WHERE THERE IS NO STRUGGLE.

The End.