Xenite Temple | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
These pages were last updated: November 25, 1997
ŠNovember 1997
The following is a bit of alternative fiction based on certain characters from the Xenaverse. It is not meant to infringe on anyone else's rights. If you don't agree or disapprove, please go read something else.
SQUICK alert: This Tartarus for Hell's sake! Expect grodities.
Xex Alert: Yep there will be. Sizzling Hot, but later.
"You knew!" Xena accused, stealthing foward only out of long habit. Her long steps were still angry. Her voice rasped in the noisy silence of the woods. Melosa followed queitly, a knife held firmly in one hand and the long ears of the dumbunny in the other. She ignored the pain from the patched up bite on her calf. That had been very close, but now that she knew what signs to watch for, she wouldn't be caught out again.
Izzy didn't look at the warrior, but whistled Tok back from whatever it was she was teasing. She wanted the daggite where she could see it. Dark was coming all too soon. "It was not my job to tell you." She sounded calm, reasonable. She flashed a nasty grin, "I'm just a tour guide. I thought you might want to meet some locals."
The red female stopped abruptly and the slurring sound of a knife could be heard whizzing into the underbrush at her side. There was a loud squeal. "Tok, Fetch!" The daggite scrambled down on its belly and dragged out the kill. The dumbunny's jaw hung open and revealed long sliver like teeth. The small pointy tail still twitched. The six greyfurred legs hung limp. Tok dropped the creature from its mouth at Izzy's feet.
"Besides," she said as she retrieved the knife, "You didn't ask for my help. You still haven't." The fiery haired one seemed to pull a packet out of her skirt, but where it was hidden Xena couldn't tell. She cut the bunny in several places, poured the dried leaf-like substance in the open wounds and pushed the kill towards the daggite, "There you go Tok, have a bit of dinner." The bunny would help push that other nasty bit of flesh through. The herbs would take some of the pain away. She hoped.
Xena felt the stillness grow in her soul. No, she hadn't asked, had she. She looked at the demoness, who was staring affectionately at the daggite. It was as if the warrior were seeing her for the first time. The blue eyed woman took a deep breath and pulled herself together. "Thank you." She said it genuinely. Tok grabbed the bunny and scampered ahead, before Izzy could change her mind.
Fiery green eyes looked up and captured Xena's ice blue regard, "You're welcome."
They were more than halfway to the camp when Melosa asked. The dumbunny was now looped to her belt. Izzy had promised to show her how to cure the meat. Xena had fallen back. Her expression was both pained and thoughtful and unrevealing. The Amazon could appreciate the state of mind. "You've been to all the levels. Is there a portal Izzy?"
The demoness didn't stop her slow walking. She looked to the side and then back at Tok. The sky was beginning to dark and the daggite looked a bit peaked. It's enthusiastic lope was now a determined stroll. The stomach bulged. The whining was gonna start any moment now.
Izzy nodded, "Yes."
Melosa took a breath and held her thought for a moment before letting it out, "You saw it."
Izzy's lips quirked up, though her gaze remained concerned, "I stepped through it."
Melosa stopped abruptly. "*YOU* were in Elysia?!" Her shock carried through the forest and out into the Tartarus hinterlands. Izzy rolled her eyes and didn't stop moving. Tok was starting to sniff around the trees a bit desperately.
Xena caught up, passed Melosa and strode besides the demoness for a moment, "You were in Elysia?" She asked, not out of shock, but with a different kind of question in mind.
Izzy nodded. "I was." She smiled softly. It made her face look very lovely, "Several times." Her hands moved in demonstration, "I kept stepping back and forth, back and forth. I couldn't believe my good fortune. It was so miraculous to me." Her eyes were gentle.
"But you didn't stay," the warrior pressed. They walked quietly for a moment. Melosa caught up to hear the rest of the conversation.
"No." Izzy spoke very softly, "I didn't stay." Tok whimpered and the demoness' red ears flicked. Poor baby.
Xena took a deep breath. "Why?" Izzy nearly laughed, but didn't. Instead she chose to explain.
"Elysia is beautiful." Melosa nodded, listening. "Broad blue sky, the color of your eyes," Izzy pointed at a startled Xena and smiled, "Fields so lush they hold every hope in them. I was in love with the place as soon as I saw it. Delighted with it." The demoness looked forward again. Her hands were still animated. "After I teased myself with the in and out bit, I finally started looking at where I was. I could hear every sweet sound there was, smell every scent." The demoness' lips quirked, "Or so I thought. There was this pool. It was so still you could see the world in it." She took a sighing breath, "I knelt down, only meaning to taste the coolness of the water, but I caught sight of a reflection. I don't know how long I stared."
"What did you see?" Melosa asked.
Izzy grinned widely, shook her head, and dragged her hand as if drawing the horizon line, "The Truth. My self. Everything."
It was at that moment that Tok began to whine.
Xenite Temple | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
These pages were last updated: November 25, 1997
ŠNovember 1997