Disclaimer- This is a fantasy story in which the main characters may follow the archetypes represented by Xena and Gabrielle . Some may not consider it an actual piece of fan fiction. Xena, Gabrielle and Cyrene are characterizations that are owned by Renaissance/ Universal and the author of this story is merely borrowing them and their personalities . This story depicts a loving relationship between characters of the same sex. Violence occurs within the context of good fighting evil.
Thanks as always go to my editor and friend "Wishes". And to those who encouraged me to write and offered feed-back to me with this different piece of fiction.
Comments are welcome and appreciated. I can be reached at TammyPell@aol.com
Characters and there "Xena Warrior Princess" Counterparts:
A shadow in the moonlight I cry into the night
I stalk my prey and bare my teeth and feast upon my rage
Snared by greater purpose, I look upon your face
The call you make is greater than nature's timeless way
Confusion melds into tenderness , love the greater drive
Your needs and mine are the same now, together now as one
Chapter 6
The black she -wolf raced through the forest. A group of six male wolves bounded at her heels. The she-wolf could see the moon cast its shadowed gaze through the large pine branches. "Stay sharp!" she projected to her brothers. She let her blue eyes work as a back-up to her ears for any unwanted surprises. The she-wolf was not sure what had sent her back to the cursed Nadirean encampment this night. She had told herself it was to check for further Nadirean presence in the area. Kern and the other brothers had admitted the need to mark the area as their own before the reds returned. Zya knew though, deep down inside her the crimson blood of Brielle was the reason she had returned. The fair headed one would wonder of her villageís fate. Zya shifted to her human form long enough to bury what she thought were the bones of Brielleís parents while her brothers scoured the immediate area for any presence of humans or reds. The bushes and trees surrounding the destruction marked, Zya and her group started home.
Zya's fur on the back of her neck bristled, as she entered the outer perimeters of their encampment. Zya reached into her mind and sighed thankfully. Brielle still slept peacefully. Zya could feel her breaths come deep and even. "Mother? Mother?" she called next as her mind reached to her mother. The black she-wolf took off with long stretches of her legs towards her encampment. Her motherís only response had been a long, sharp growl that Zya knew meant one thing, trouble.
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Zya landed with a thump next to the equally dark she-wolf, whose protective blue gaze bore who bore into an intruder, a ragged eared male. Reina launched an attack as her daughter landed at her side. The male wrestled with equal fervor. Zya could only watch helplessly as the two wolves fought. She knew to step into this challenge could dishonor her mother. Zya knew that this male Nalek had questioned the ruling authority of the blue eyed she-wolves many times. But never so directly, Zya thought, as she moved backward a few paces to stand in front of her Nadirean mate.
Zya looked up her mother proudly as she used the rage filled maleís irrational advances against him. Zya looked with equal pride at the group of brothers who lined the caveís entranceway. Zya ruled the family now, but Reina had ruled before her. Reina still fought with the same prowess as when Zyaís grand mother had stepped down to allow her daughter to wield power.
Zya snorted a chuckle as she saw Reina clamp her jaws around the intruderís neck and bear down with a victorís wrath. Older blue eyes melded with younger as Zya stepped forward at her motherís invitation.
"You invade my home, threaten my mother and my family," Zya projected as she moved to stand over the fallen maleís body. He looked up into two pairs of blue eyes. "This is a serious offense, Nalek." Zya nodded her black muzzle at her mother, who instantly released her strong hold. Kern and two other brothers moved on either side of the fallen male, surrounding him in a circle of angry stares
"The Nadirean threatens the entire family of Ulfr," Nalek projected weakly. "Someone has to be brave enough to stand up to you blue eyed bitches who have dominated our society for generations."
"So you attack my older mother and my mate after I leave the encampment?" Zya projected letting her warm breath surge into the maleís brown eyes causing him to blink.
"The girl must be killed. Donít you see how she already undermines our way?" Nalek projected his voice, getting louder with every word.
"Anyone who challenges me can meet me on the sacred rock in open combat." Zya bellowed loud enough for the whole encampment to hear. "You, Nalek, follow a path of dishonor and cowardice." Zya raised her head fully and stared at her first in command. "Since our brother dislikes the way of our people and leadership of the blue, let the brown eyes decide his fate."
Kern looked at his superior in momentary astonishment before giving his head a slight nod and trotting out of the cave to call all the brown hunters and fighters. Zya looked at her third in command and cocked her ears in a nonverbal command to remove Nalek from her home to just outside the cave. The ragged eared male pushed himself up voluntarily and limped toward the entrance. Zya snorted angrily, trying to control her emotions. The trial moved to the moonlit night, she and her mother moved off to the side.
Zya took a long protective look at Brielle. Zya knew it was mostly to reassure herself but also knew that she would never admit it aloud. All she wanted to do now was to gather Brielle in her arms and hold her. Only her sense of honor had kept her from killing Nalek on the spot. Zya had seen the blazing in Reinaís eyes when she bit down on the ragged eared brother. Her mother had fought to control her inner fire also.
The younger she-wolf walked to where she could see the moonlight and lifted her brilliant blue eyes to the moon. Then she closed her eyes and allowed her body to change shape to human form.
"At last," Nalek thought as he watched Zya move away from the Nadirean and into the moonlight. Strike when they are at their weakest , Nalek thought as he allowed a surge of energy to pump through him. He broke through the brown bodies and leaped for the form on the bear skin.
"Nooooooooooo!" Zya yelled aloud. She wrapped her long human arms around the wolfís back legs and pulled with all her might. Zya angrily threw the wolf into the gathering of brothers, making them scatter with the forceful impact. "Kern, take the meeting to the campfire, please," Zya spat loudly. She watched the group of twenty or so males move a hundred or so paces away. Nalek was being dragged by a clamp hold to the neck. Nalek just sealed his fate, Zya mumbled, kicking the dirt with her bare toes in disgust.
"Zya?" the young blue eyed woman mentally heard along with a verbal gasp. Zyaís eyes were drawn like magnets to eyes that were green as the sacred trees, and she swallowed in response. "Mother, I think you better go," Zya projected astutely as she saw the green eyes wildly focus on the large blue eyed wolf the standing beside the side wall. "Iíll call you shortly," Zya projected a promise as she watched her mother trot silently away.
"Easy, Brielle, easy," Zya murmured in her deep voiceís mantra as she stepped forward she noted the quickened breathing as the young woman struggled to get up despite her obvious pain.
"You know me, Brielle; look into my eyes," the large woman projected. Zya pushed her long ebony hair off of her chest and crooned her request to the womanís mind once more.
"Yes, thatís it; relax.. you know my eyes, Brielle , donít you?" Zya said aloud as she lowered her naked frame to the edge of the pelts.
"Be still, Brielle, thatís it," Zya projected, noting her new mateís slower breathing and stopped struggles. "Look at me," Zya whispered. "Look at all of me," the ebony haired woman added as she displayed her body and proudly waited for her to see the mark on her own body.
With the first tear that fell, Zya was reaching out her bronze hand. "It will be okay, Brielle come to me," Zya projected. She did not know how, but it was obvious that this Nadirean heard her. A shaky hand reached forward, and the intensity of the touch caused this seasoned hunter and fighter to shake herself.
"Her spirit calls to you. Let yours answer back." Zya remembered her motherís words and she instinctively moved forward till both women were enveloped in a gentle embrace. Tired green eyes peered upwards into the blue. Zya marveled at how her mate settled the moment their bodies connected.
"I answered back." She sent a private projection to her mother who she felt, stood a few yards outside her cave. Zya looked down into the smaller womanís sleeping face, which she held against her own mark, and smiled. "I answered back."
Chapter 7
"You canít be with her all the time." Reina spoke in a whispered tone as she noted that Brielleís hand that tightly clasped to her daughterís larger one even as she slept.
Zya nodded in acknowledgment. Her mind carried her to the proceedings that continued even as the moon cycle neared end. The pack still had not agreed on Nalekís fate, she thought to herself.
"Mother, unless he is killed, he will always be a threat to her," Zya projected. She blinked back an anxious tear . "There are some brothers who sympathize some with Nalek. Some that feel threatened by Brielle."
Zya loosened the fingers that gripped her hand and kissed them before tucking them under the bear skin. " How could I let her live, share blood with her just to see her attacked, mauled? She is not one of us. If she were challengedÖ. Even under the letter of the law in an honorable fightÖ her human form is weak and useless against even one as young as say Nerri" The younger she-wolf stood up and walked to the edge of the cave to peer over to the proceedings . The eyes, blue with emotion, now hazed over with a wall of stoicism.
Reina gave a passing look at the sleeping Nadirean before padding silently on bare feet to the entranceway of the cave .With the love of a mother, she put her hand on her daughterís cheek before letting it fall to her childís broad right shoulder. I must tell her, Reina thought, as she opened her mouth to speak.
"Mother, Mother, look; Here comes Kern and Uncle Teldar. At last! " she exclaimed aloud. She watched the two wolves, the moon to their backs, trot slowly up towards the leaders cave. Given a reprieve, Reina closed her mouth. Zyaís eyebrows arched as she realized no one but Kern and Teldar had left the meeting. She took a deep breath to calm herself as her Uncleís gaze met her own in formal acknowledgment.
"The pack has agreed to severely punish Nalek for his insubordination and attack on your mate," Kern projected in a unfeeling official emotion. "Two possible choices have been proposed. But the vote is dead-locked. If we are to finish the proceedings by sun cycle, the blue must break the tie."
"No, Zya," Teldar spoke up as he saw his niece take two steps toward them. "You cannot go this time. Not with another blue female still in our family."
"But, Uncle," Zya spoke with exasperation. The hand that still lay on her shoulder move to cradle her back in loving agreement.
"Daughter, your uncle speaks the law. You are too personally involved in this situation. Your judgment would be biased, " Reina projected to all that stood there. "Letís go, I will need to start cooking soon." Giving her daughterís shoulders one last squeeze, she looked at the moon, blinked, and arched into her beautiful black form. Her blue eyes meeting Zyaís one last time, the older blue eyed she wolf ran down the hill.
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Zya 's tired eyes opened to full wakefulness when the stirrings had started beside her. Zya let out a mental call to her mother as she grabbed the small blonde's limbs. Zya had seen convulsions before amongst injured Nadireans she had encountered in fights. Limbs thrashing. Bodies jumping up and down as if posessed by a wildness unknown. Brielle's chest heaved as her eyes rolled back and her limbs flailed erratically. The she-wolf grasped the rocking body to her own naked chest and held tightly. Nalek's threat was replaced in her mind by the turn in Brielle's condition.
"Mother?" she whispered mentally, knowing her mother's presence would have to wait till after judgment was executed on Nalek. Why has it taken so long anyway, she thought. She let her eyes dart quickly to the rising sun before going back to Brielle's jerky movements. Fever, is this due to fever? she asked herself . She cursed those unseen differences between Brielle's kind and her own.
Though trained in the healing arts by her Mother, Zya had already stumbled upon differences between this Nadirean and her brothers and sisters. These differences had caused the she-wolf a string of petitions to the gods above and many a mental consultation with her more experienced mother. The Ulfr did not experience fever such as this young one fought. Reina had explained that this was a result of the milk the Ulfr young drank from their mothers for around 8 seasonal cycles
The she-wolf tried to wet her dry mouth. "Steady, Brielle, steady," she entreated her mate aloud. Zya ignored the sharp jabs Brielle's body landed on her bare chest and legs and pulled her even closer. Zya groaned as a warm burst of energy hit her in her chest. Zya fought to keep her eyes open and her arms steady on Brielle's twitching form. "She groaned, too," Zya realized as her mind fell out of a mental haze. Zya's pain was now replaced by a strange but painless feeling in her breasts. The dark haired woman shook her head trying to clear her mind.
"Oh, Holy Wonders!" Zya whispered aloud as the throbbing in her breasts moved in quiet rhythm with new information that pulsed into her mind. Instinctively, Zya lowered the twitching girls face from her shoulder, careful to keep Brielle's and her own marks of Ulfr touching. Zya watched with anxious eyes as Brielle's mouth grabbed hold of Zya's burning nipple and began to suckle. Her eyes softened as Brielle swallowed and the burning in her chest lessened. Brielle 's body relaxed, and her right hand cradled Zya's other nipple protectively. Through closed eyes, she reflexively sucked and swallowed.
"How am I going to explain this to Mother?" Zya whispered, looking down at Brielleís mouth firmly clasped to her breast.
As her logical mind drowned itself in the peace and closeness that permeated her soul, she whispered again, "How am I going to explain this to myself?"
Chapter 8
Brielle let her green eyes open to tiny slits. Her nose burrowed closer to the warm skin, and she inhaled the familiar scent. A smell thatís unique fragrance seemed to mean safety to her. And for the first time in her life, love. Her ear took comfort in the mantra of soft beats that echoed dependably and steadily below skinís warmth. Sounds with a reliability her own life had never known. Each beat a promise that this other one was there. The one whose smell she knew.
Brielle let the warm liquid run down her throat and into her stomach. She wanted more, needed more. Her mouth innately fastened itself on the warm, full piece of tissue, and she swallowed again and again. The liquid warmed her whole body soothingly as if tucking her mental thoughts under a blanket. Only instincts were left to peak out from under the mental covers. As the gnawing pangs lessened, she suckled more deeply. Her mouth and mind memorizing the feel of the liquidís source.
Brielle hiccuped as her stomach grew full. Then the hands were there . The gentle hands with calluses that now tickled her cheek. "Let go. Thatís enough," the strong deep voice echoed in her mind and teased her unconscious to obey. And she did, allowing her cheek to lie on the soft milk source as she took deep, healing breaths.
Brielle whimpered aloud as she fought to open her tired green eyes. She had to see. She wanted to see the source of the smell, the taste, the warm soft feeling.
"Shhhhhh, go to sleep. Shhhh," the voice spoke in her mind
She let out a sigh and gave up the struggle.
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©April 1998