Summer Dreams

Chapter 30
In the Presence of Mine Army, Second Path

by Katrina and Joseph Connell

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.

Somewhere else:

"Trust me," he said.

The needle slid long and deep under her skin. Again. The patient hardly felt it at all. "All better soon. All better soon," he crooned. His voice was gentle and seductive. It lulled the prone figure past the first count. His eyes were a perfect sky blue, just like *hers*. The mask hid his roman nose and the cap his bowlcut hair.

The drug hid the highpitched whine of the saw. The noise was an odd kind of tinkling music in that backed and forthed in deep gradient waves. The patient chased after the sound, trying to figure it out and got lost. The glory halleluiah of the drug didn't really hide the striking coldness of the pain, but Gabrielle was too far away to scream anymore.

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We rode into the body of the camp. The flickering of the torches lit our way and gave me eyes to see. Feral masks made of bone, hide, feather and bead stared back at me, some from posts, some from human hosts. Sturdy looking painted amazons paused in their doings long enough to make bowed salutes to the Goddess. "Hail Xena," were sometimes whispered, sometimes almost shouted. Always there was a robust respect in the greetings. They were a barely tamed people. That much I could tell. There were human skulls among the trophies presented on the camp paths. Dozens of them, both human and animal, stuck on pikes on either side of the path Callisto led our mount along. This might have been manageable, even in my confused half-dream state, if not for the fact it wasn't just men's heads that sat atop those spears, and not all of them were adults. There were human teeth and fingerbones mixed with other more common items on the necklaces. The weapons were so well cared for,that I knew they had definitely been blooded. These amazons were not to be trifled with.

I groaned aloud, feeling myself slip further away the deeper we went into this ocean of black tents and flickering torches. Only Callisto's arm, snug around my middle, burning fingers tantalizingly close to my center, kept me from drifting into the etheric undertow now pulling at my mental toes.

I didn't remember writing them this way...It was as if the program had taken the specs of several different tribes and mixed them together. The amazon courtesies were there, but their manner...One amazon lifted an ax in salute. It's curved handle made me want to leap off the horse and snatch it away from the curly blonde's hands.

My stomach lurched again, and not simply because Callisto brought our horse to a sudden stop. It wouldn't stop churning, nor would my bones stop their humming. I was aching like mad all over...except it wasn't really pain I was suffering.

"Hail Xena," she said, as she stepped in front of the horse,looking too tough for words. "Not your usual method of travel, but on you, it looks good." The seductive slide of her voice wasn't lost on me.

Nor was it lost on my lover. Callisto's voice sounded a little off as she returned the greeting, "Ephiny..." The blonde Amazon didn't smile and she didn't give way. She acted as if she were waiting for something. Her eyes and hair glittered with the yellow of the torchlight. The dark backdrop of the sky made her seem almost surreal.

How did Ephiny get here?

There was a gentle reassuring squeeze on my abdomen, then I felt Callisto slide away from me. It was a tangible loss, but one that didn't last too long, because I felt her hand on my thigh. I looked quietly at the Goddess. "Get down," she said. Her voice sounded hard, like I was a captive of some sort.

I knew the game and was willing to play.

I slid away from leather that seemed to want to stick to my bare skin. I tried not to make too much noise. I tried to be graceful.

Blood and bone and earth and fire. My feet hit the ground with a scream. My fingers latched painfully to the stirrup as I fought to hold myself up.