Chapter 2 – Naxos
by Caina Fuller
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Gabrielle disembarked at the dock in Naxos, her bag with spare clothes and food slung over her shoulder, and a cloak bound tightly about her as cold wind and rain lashed about her, seeming to be determined to shove her off the plank and into the churning water below the dock.

Before Xena and Gabrielle’s twenty-five year hiatus from life, Naxos had enjoyed a reputation as being a den for cutthroat thieves, rapists, and murderers. From the rough and tumble look of the men and women hurrying through the lashing rain to the run down hovels and haphazardly planned streets, time had changed nothing.

Gabrielle hurried forward, glad to be back on solid ground, but from the tall waves bombarding the shore she wondered how long it would be before the storm washed all evidence of human civilization from the island.

"If it’s this bad at Naxos," Theon yelled over the din of wind and lashing rain, "how bad must it be in Greece? Does Athens even exist anymore?"

That was a good question as far as Gabrielle was concerned. She spotted an inn ahead and rushed forward, squeezing between two rather large men who eyed her with open appreciation as she passed them.

The interior of the inn was blissfully dry and warm. The smell of roasting meat and vegetables wafted out of the dining hall to her left, which was filled nearly to capacity with men, women, and children. The adults wore expressions of deep wariness, while some children cried in their parents’ arms.

Coming to a halt at the top of the steps that led into the room, Gabrielle noted that many of the faces had turned in her direction to give her a cursory glance before returning to whispered situations. Two big men near the bar were leaning in close, whispering, tense, a barely controlled argument. Gabrielle could sense a fight coming between them.

"You’d think it was the end of the world," Theon said. He was still behind her, and Gabrielle bit down on an annoyed response.

"Why are you following me?"

"I’m not," he said. "We just happen to be moving in the same direction."

Gabrielle sighed audibly, but she didn’t insist he pursue a direction that didn’t have her in it at some point, and stopped at the bar, leaning on it next to a young woman sipping a cup of mead.

"Do you know where I can find a ship going inland? I need to get to Athens."

The barkeep looked at her is if she’d grown an extra head. "Why on earth would any captain risk his ship and life in this mess to get closer to the storm?

"In case you didn’t notice," Theon suddenly said, "this is Gabrielle, the Battling Bard of Potidaea, best friend to the late Xena, the Warrior Princess, bearer of the-"

"Thank you, Theon," Gabrielle snapped, but the barkeep was looking at her with renewed interest.

"You’re the Battling Bard?"

"Yes."

"Prove it."

"No," Gabrielle snapped, wishing Theon would go away. He was making things worse. "I have to get to Amphipolis to try and stop what’s going on."

But the woman wasn’t listening. She was clearly interested in the Chakram on Gabrielle’s hip. "Sirius, look at this."

A beefy man with a bushy black mustache, no neck to speak of, and a large belly looked around. He was one of the men in the argument that Gabrielle had noted upon entering the tavern. His face was red and shining with a thin film of sweat. He was clearly angry and he stood from a nearby table that had water dripping from the ceiling onto the chipped and scarred surface of the table.

"Trouble, ‘Lecto?" the man named Sirius asked aggressively, though Gabrielle thought he looked relieved to have a reason to be away from his interlocutor.

"This braggart claims his woman is the Battling Bard. You met Xena once. This her little sidekick?"

"I’m not his woman," Gabrielle said testily.

"And I’m not a braggart," Theon said, indignant. "I was just giving her credentials."

"That looks like the weapon Xena wore when I saw her. The Battling Bard wasn’t with Xena, so I don’t know if this is her or not."

"I really wish people would quit calling me the Battling Bard," said Gabrielle through gritted teeth. Time was wasting and she knew she couldn’t swim to Athens.

Theon snorted from behind Gabrielle. "Xena’s been dead for five years and people are still calling you her sidekick. That’s gotta suck."

"I don’t mind that at all," Gabrielle said truthfully. "Now, about a boat to-"

"This woman may have stolen the weapon from Xena’s body," Sirius suddenly said. A flash of anger swept through Gabrielle. She was losing patients with these people. "Throw it. If you can control it, I’ll believe you’re the Batt-"

"Gabrielle," Gabrielle interrupted. "Just, Gabrielle, please."

"I’ll believe you’re Gabrielle," Sirius finished.

"Just prove it," Theon said anxiously, leaning in to whisper to her. She had the feeling he’d been itching to see the Chakram in action all his life, which would explain why he was so keen to see her use it.

"I don’t need to prove myself to you or anyone else," Gabrielle finally said. "Theon, stay here."

"Where are you going?"

"Anywhere you’re not."

Gabrielle started for the door as Sirius said, "The magistrate is getting ready to evacuate Naxos, and you want to head toward the trouble? You’re either a hero or a fool."

Gabrielle kept walking. She’d almost reached the door.

"I’ve got a boat."

She stopped, contemplating whether or not she should just keep going, but a feeling prickled at the back of her neck. It was what she called her sixth sense. It’d been happening since Xena’s death, but with each passing year it had refined. Trouble was coming, somewhere close.

The bar had gone silent as she’d made her exit, the nosy patrons having decided to abandon rehashed speculation about the fate of Greece to listen to this new debate between the alleged Battling Bard and Sirius, the boat man.

Even with this level of vocal silence, with the only sound being that of the churning waves of the sea beyond the docks, she shouldn’t have been able to hear a blade being drawn from its scabbard but she could.

Letting go of conscious thought, Gabrielle let go of conscious thought, grabbed the Chakram, and gave Theon, Sirius, and the barmaid Alecto exactly what they wanted. She hurled the Chakram at the sound of the drawn blade, willing it to find its target.

Gabrielle turned and watched Sirius’ eyes widen in horror as the Chakram sped toward him. As though it were alive, and knew what it’s mistress demanded of it, the Chakram turned up in mid air, so that it was no longer flying flat. It veered away from Sirius, striking a knife midpoint between the man Sirius had been speaking with at the table and Sirius himself. Had the Chakram not found its target, the knife would have gone right through Sirius’ neck.

Bouncing off the bar beside a startled Alecto’s head, the Chakram zoomed back to Gabrielle. She caught it and deftly hung it on her hip.

"That was incredible," Theon said, his voice barely a whisper. "Just…incredible. I’d cry if it wouldn’t make me look girly."

Aside from Theon, the bar was as silent as a tomb, but Sirius looked transported, his face glowing with awe, his eyes bright with admiration. "You are Xena’s companion!"

"I was," Gabrielle said.

Sirius clapped a fist over his heart and bowed low. "You saved my life."

"Is that worth a ride to Athens?"

"Well, gods, I’d hope so," Sirius said, grinning. "You know we’ll probably break up on the rocks and die horrible deaths. If we even make it that far."

"I’m willing to take that chance."

"I’ll go wherever you go," he said. "Have something to eat and drink, on me. I’ve gotta arm twist my crew into agreeing to this suicide mission."

"What about him?" Theon asked, nodding at the man who’d tried to kill Sirius moments ago.

"Oh, him?" Sirius said. "He’s my ex brother-in-law. Come on Dolius."

Sirius grabbed him by the arm and pulled him past Gabrielle.

"Go on, eat, drink, enjoy it. It’ll probably be your last meal."

"What about me?" Theon asked, looking hopefully at Sirius.

"I couldn’t feed the Great Gabrielle without feeding her man, could I?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "He’s not my man!"

~

~

The sea seemed to have been transformed, rebirthed from water into a single living entity that heaved and thrashed in an effort to rip itself free from the solid earth to which it covered. The crew that had bravely, or perhaps foolishly, dared to man the ship with Sirius fought a near loosing battle with the masts, which seemed determined to give and allow the violent winds that roared against Gabrielle’s ears to flap uselessly.

Feet slipping on the wet deck which was repeatedly washed over with waves of icy water, Gabrielle fought her way to the safety of the lower deck where she found a bucket and heaved Alecto’s free meal into it. She wasn’t sorry to see it go. It had been so bland going down that it had more flavor coming back up.

"So it’s true."

Theon was watching her from further in. He was holding on to a meat hook, amazingly steady on his feet considering the rolling, pitching deck beneath his feet that seemed determined to throw everyone and everything out of place.

"What’s true?"

"You’re prone to sea sickness. Is it true there’s a pinch you can do on your wrist to settle your stomach?"

"Yes," Gabrielle said wearily. "But it dulls the taste buds."

She stumbled toward another meat hook and hung on, listening to waves batter the vessel. Theon watched her closely.

"Regretting your decision to come?" she asked. Theon readily shook his head no. "Then why the long face?"

He shrugged and said, "I don’t want Greece to be destroyed. I still think of it as home."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Do you think we’ll make it? I mean, without Poseidon to control the seas-"

"You give Poseidon too much credit," Gabrielle said, thinking back on her run-ins with the god of the sea. "He’d just as soon see you drown and claim your ship’s treasures than lift a finger to save you."

Theon looked down. "He was a part of home."

"I know," Gabrielle said softly.

It was true. She did think of Greece as home, and she always would. She wished she were coming back to find her family safe and happy, but she didn’t know if that would be the truth. She wasn’t even sure of what kind of homecoming she would get.

Sara had asked her to stay for Lila’s sake. She hadn’t been able to understand why Gabrielle was in such a hurry to leave, after having been apart from her sister for so many years. The letters had stopped two years after she’d arrived in Egypt, and though she wrote home regularly, neither Lila nor Sara replied.

Now she wished she’d put aside her own selfish desire not to see reminders of Xena in the landscapes of her homeland and had stayed. Lila had looked so frail before she’d left, and Gabrielle knew her sister wasn’t long for this world.

Swallowing the sour taste of guilt along with the equally bitter taste of bile, Gabrielle moaned as her stomach dropped out from under her, along with her feet, on a particularly vicious wave.

Someone above yelled out in a panicked voice, "We’re coming up on dock! Hard to port! Hard to port! Watch out!"

The creaking of the ship suddenly stopped. As a matter of fact, everything seemed to stop. The ship had been on a steady rise on the back of a wave, and Gabrielle dreaded the moment it sank again. The quiet seemed to stretch for an eternity before the ship dropped again.

Only this time it didn’t hit the relative softness of the sea. This time it hit water. Gabrielle watched in horror as the deck broke apart, wood jutting up to allow sharp, black stones to penetrate the lower deck. Icy water flooded the room, and something hard struck Gabrielle in the chest, sending her flying back almost ten feet. The last thing she saw before she struck the wall and succumbed to darkness was a wall of water washing over Theon’s fearful face.