FINAL DRAFT: 010400; 6P
Disclaimers: Uber SAME SEX angst and LOVING AHEAD.
She didn't run.
Even though she felt the hate of the creature pulsing at her and the long tentacles slithering near her ankles, she didn't flee.
It had always been Xena's nature to stand strong. She clutched the sword with a firmer grip and let her lips curl upward in an evil taunting smile. Then with one crook of the finger she summoned the sinister creature to battle.
They fought hard.
The vicious beast's moans set the hairs on her neck and arms to standing. The warrior felt fear dribble sweat down her spine. Her feet wanted to freeze to the ground, but she forced herself to leap and jump, slicing a path for herself. Gore dripped from her blade, landing on the ground with salty hisses.
She barely avoided the creature's gnashing teeth by ducking and jerking away from its chilling grasp. They struggled until her muscles screamed with the agony of moving and every little twitch was toil. She felt like surrendering right then. Xena resisted the compulsion to throw herself off the cliff into a bleak darkness. Still, she despaired that her efforts were in vain. She was on the brink of darkness' precipice. She groaned with the feebleness she felt. Resistance to the black path melted from her and she succumbed.
Then, as if on the whisper of the wind itself, brisk and comforting, she heard her name being called.
The warrior shuddered to a new awareness of her surroundings. Everything brightened, clarified. Her heightened senses returned as she recognized the voice.
The beast felt her distraction and fought for her attention.
It lunged and she threw her sword arm up with the blade still firm in her grasp, instinctively protecting her face.
It was a lucky move.
The obsidian creature impaled itself upon her sword with a shriek. Its weighty mass caused her knees to buckle. She shook with the effort to support herself. The blood that spilled from the slithery beast burned the skin of her hands and arms and splattered her body as she thrust it away.
The nightmare thing fell with a mighty groan, grunting out its pain as it landed at her feet. The creature lashed once more at her, trying for a final grab. Its maw opened wide as if to devour her whole.
The warrior didn't feel nimble enough to even step out of the way, but she felt comforting hands behind her, pulling.
There was a light behind her. She let herself be pulled, but looked backwards to watch, grimly, as the dark thing shook itself apart. The baleful creature wailed in anger at its death, until it was nothing but dust. She was gratified to see it go, deeply and intensely relieved.
The warrior turned towards the light, smiling and ready to embrace the one who called to her and saved her. Gabrielle shone like the perfect sun and opened her arms. Xena stepped forward, still proud, but shaky.
Then, with an arcing wail, she cramped over as slippery tentacles of darkness abruptly erupted from her sides spattering her blood on her savior's feet.
Before Gabrielle could react, Xena gasped as her skin turned black and supple like a lizard's. Her hands folded in surprise against her chest. It felt jagged and bloody, as if a rip were forming. She pressed against it, pushing, trying to stop the bloody wound from growing, but the tentacles pulled her hands away.
She forgot about the bard as she felt herself lifted.
Something hard, thick and bony grew from her tailbone and penetrated the ground below her. Her hands were folded back and away, as if she were on the cross again. Then two tentacles pointedly drove themselves into her palms, making her cry out bitterly even as she fought to free herself. The head of the monster, larger and smaller than she remembered, chewed its way out from the wound over her heart.
Alti's mocking smoky black-painted face turned so she could see it and laughed with glee. "Monster, Remember who made you," she said. Her long snakelike tongue seared against Xena's cheek, though the warrior turned her face.
That only let Alti have the last word. She whispered, "You are mine, Destroyer of Nations."
Xena sat up abruptly, gasping as if she were in pain. Her body was cold in its sweat. Gabrielle was still clinging to her.
The bard's hands covered the warrior's shoulders, as if she'd been trying to shake the Empress awake. At first, still reeling from the dream's harshness, Xena thought her bard's green eyes were filled with the usual weariness from the sickness that had overtaken her on their voyage. But, Gabrielle had been recovering now that she'd been on the boat for awhile.
The brief thought almost broke through the dark mood that permeated the Empress' heart to make Xena smile. The pressure points helped, but it made the young woman undiscriminating in her appetites. The Conqueror kept close watch to make sure the storyteller ate what was nourishing, rather than not. And, as for the other desires her bard held, Xena had no problem with matching them.
The current concern in her gaze drowned out any indication of the young woman's recent incapacity and reflected the deep worry that filled the storyteller's soul.
"I couldn't wake you. I tried."
Xena could feel the bruises where the bard's fingers had pressed, evidence of the bard's desperation. Slowly, deliberately, the Destroyer of Nations turned away from Gabrielle, whom she had crippled. Her blue eyes grayed, desolate. She tried to pull away, but her lover held to her with a fierce determination. The Empress felt the tears that wouldn't flow stop her throat.
"It was that dream again, wasn't it?" the bard queried gently.
Gabrielle held the bulk of her curiosity back, knowing Xena wouldn't tell her the contents of the vision. There was a discomfort in Xena's gaze that forbade the questions that the bard would have asked. Gabrielle's knowledge of the dream was held only in her cognizance of the way the Warrior Queen contorted upon the silks during those awful candlemarks. It was the same, every time. It had been, since the time they'd first loved.
At first, Gabrielle blamed herself, believing that she was the cause.
Xena had made the mistake of telling her that she'd never had the dreams until *after* they'd met.
Gabrielle thought perhaps it was the guilt in Xena's soul and wished that the Conqueror would say something, anything, to let her know the cause. She could have helped then. But the Warrior Queen tightened her lips against the words that might have healed her. There was something that she did not wish to reveal. She did not yet trust the bard loved her enough.
So, the storyteller attempted to leave, thinking it would be for the better. The Conqueror was adamant, however, that no matter what the content of the dream, the bard was her salvation and Xena ordered her to stay.
When the ordering didn't work, the Macedonian pleaded, but only once and without tears. Her stoic demeanor, however, could not hide the desperation in her voice.
Despite the sturdiness her painful lameness had taught her, Gabrielle's heart softened at the look upon Xena's face, and she remained.
"It was," the Conqueror had owned as she clung tightly to the bard and blinked back the near tears, "just a bad dream. That's all. It will pass."
But it hadn't.
Now the frightful dream sneaked up on them, disturbing their nights so randomly that it made it all the more upsetting.
If, perchance, it happened night after night, they might have become used to it. However, there were days and nights of peace. Then, against all reason, there was a night like this one, where the potency of the vision seemed worse than ever.
Xena didn't need to say anything in answer to Gabrielle's question. Her body shuddered the response.
The spacious cabin suddenly seemed much too cramped, even with Gabrielle's comforting presence.
Carefully, the Empress removed herself from Gabrielle's grasp and reached for a filmy robe. "I need some air," Xena said roughly. The sound of her voice grated in her own ears. The Conqueror's face was as stone, but the expression softened when she looked at her beloved Gabrielle.
She kissed the bard, barely pressing her dry lips to the honeyblonde's. Then to reassure the storyteller Xena said, "I'll be back later. Get some sleep." She took the bard's silence as an agreement and escaped into the cool of the night.
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