Gladiator, Bard, Warrior - Awakening 6
Ms. Hunter Ash
Disclaimer: I don't own Xena, Gabrielle, Hercules, etc. etc. etc. This story is for entertainment purposes and it helps keep me sane (sort of).
Sex/Subtext/Alt Fiction: This story is a continuing story of two women in love and they have sex together but not in this one. Violence: the mention of rape concerning one of the major characters, several deaths, one graphic sword strike, ax blows and no bad language. This one puts X&G through some rough stuff.
Seriously - character trauma and injuries.
Storyline: I hope this story could stand on it's own. It is also part of a series I've ended up writing. I started out with one story in mind and who knows where this thing will end up at this point. You might want to read the other stories to get the entire picture.
A Visit Home, An Awakening
Discovery, An Awakening
Amazon Bonding
Healing
Trial of a Roman
Gladiator, Bard, Warrior, Mother
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ore he could answer most of the women from the two long houses had come out to greet him and Eddval's wife, Thora, offered him a drinking horn in a traditional gesture of welcome. He toasted the well being of everyone in the steadying and drank deeply, appreciating the good ale of the north.
Ketli moved to take his horse to the stable and the women parted to let the men walk towards the long house. Hercules answered his friend.
"I lost track of her. The slavers the Romans sold her to sold her again to another set of traders heading into Italia. The Romans told the slavers that she was Germanic and, somehow, Gabrielle has kept quiet and the slavers sold her as Germanic. All I could find from the second slavers was that a lot of females were sold to villas in Italia. I couldn't even find out what province she's in."
"Damn! Xena says she's alive, that she can feel Gabrielle is alive."
"I believe it. They have that kind of connection."
"You'd better tell Xena this one. The baby is fine but Xena isn't. She spends a lot of time alone and she hasn't slept an entire night through since." Iolaus frowned.
Hercules stopped his friend and raised Iolaus chin to look in his friend's eyes. "Neither have you." the demi-god commented and lifted the cloak aside to get a look at his friend and frowned at the sling holding Iolaus' arm.
Iolaus shrugged and continued into the long house. "I have some strength in the hand but not much. The arm is useless."
"You're alive, I didn't think you'd make it from those wounds," Hercules said softly.
"Neither did anyone else," Iolaus grinned a sad smile. "What happens now?"
"I tell Xena the miserable news and I leave at the end of the week back for Italia. I'm not giving up."
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Hercules met Xena at the barn as she rode in on Argo. Her eyes were hopeful until she met his and he shook his head. The warrior clenched her jaw and climbed down slowly off her beloved horse.
The tall Greek repeated what he had told Iolaus as she unsaddled the horse and began brushing the mare.
"I'm going with you this time!" she snapped.
"No, you're not. You're due in two moons with a child and shouldn't be traveling, let along traveling into Italia. It's just what Caesar is expecting. He's got all of the Roman Empire looking for you and Gabrielle. He's learned that Gabrielle is missing in Italia and has everyone looking for her. He won't say why but we both know he wants to use her as bait to get to you. The only thing saving her life right now is that they probably think she's a German slave and not your bard," he argued.
Xena growled, clenching her fists tightly.
"Xena, I'm not going to stop until we have her back," he promised.
"I can feel her, I can almost see her and I can't reach her!" she hissed, throwing the brush across the stall. Argo danced a couple of steps away from her friend, picking up on the dangerous energy growing in the warrior.
"She's still alive," he tried to comfort her but Xena shook his hand off.
"She's had to kill, Hercules. I saw it, a dagger in her hands and then blood. I wasn't there to protect her or comfort her! Damnit!"
Xena spun around, eyes flashing angrily and darting around. The demi-god held up a hand, palm forward.
"Come on, Xena. You can't hurt me, you know," he urged.
"I wouldn't chance that right now!" she warned. "Do you know what they did to her? What Iolaus saw?!"
Hercules gritted his own teeth and shoved the warrior, hard. The demi-god got the reaction he expected and found himself sitting on his tailbone from a well placed punch along the jawline. He quickly jumped up and held out his hands as sparring targets as Xena screamed in rage and let loose.
"Ivar, what's happening?" Ketli asked, running up to the barn door. Iolaus held up his good hand, holding the boy back.
"Hercules is helping her work out some frustration."
When the red finally cleared from Xena's eyes she was breathing heavy and Hercules was picking himself up from a hay pile, nursing a bloody nose. He grinned at his friend, feeling his jaw.
"Feel better?" he asked.
"Some," she admitted as she examined her skinned and bruised knuckles.
"I'm just glad you didn't go for your weapons, my friend. I take it back, you can hurt me," he grinned and then held his arms open as the rest of her pent up emotions broke and she began to cry.
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The third and fourth month of Gabrielle's training saw a new focus. Nikki made a rough wooden figure and used it to demonstrate moves that she wanted the little fighter to try.
"Lycrassis was right, you are a natural dancer and we should use that to our advantage. A typical match is between two fighters who are matched but in different areas. Naked Retiarii fight with nets and a trident against heavily armored fighters. Neither side has an overwhelming advantage. The naked fighter is quick and hard to hit, the heavily amour one is hard to get decent hits on. Both having different skills but an even fight. Your opponents will probably be heavily armed, because of your smallness, I don't see Lycrassis weighing you down with armor. I want to train you to be able to get past that armor and hit deadly points quickly. A dance under the sword and amour of your opponent, a deadly dance."
Gabrielle caught Lycrassis watching them discussing movements and his grin as he saw Nikki's bruised neck. The tall blond Viking Amazon blushed and went back to her descriptions with the little Greek.
"How do you get under the sword and shield without getting killed?" Gabrielle questioned, taking up a typical amour fighter stance. Nikki began plotting out steps, one by one for the little bard.
# # #
In the fourth month Gabrielle found herself at one of the local games of the month. Scheduled for a fight in the morning with another new recruit, this one a big, strong and heavily armed fighter.
Nikki rubbed the smaller woman's shoulders as they waited in the dark and stuffy cells before the match. Gabrielle's hands couldn't keep still.
"Relax, it'll be over before you know it's begun. The hardest part is the waiting for your match," Nikki urged.
"How did you handle it?" Gabrielle asked as Nikki began helping her strap on the leather arm protector.
"Who says I ever did? I typically lost my breakfast just before going out there," Nikki grinned and Gabrielle turned pale.
"Thanks for the encouragement," the bard whispered and Nikki laughed.
"You're welcome, little one."
A guard opened the cell door and motioned the bard out. Nikki leaned heavily on the bars as he closed the door.
"Be safe."
Gabrielle attempted a grin but wasn't very successful.
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The bard was grateful that the sun wasn't on her side of the Arena when she walked out. Fighters were trained to ignore the sun but they always found themselves blinking in the bright sunlight after spending all morning in the dark cells. Gabrielle shifted her sword belt slightly and followed the guard to the center of the Arena. She quickly bounced on her toes a few times and shifted the shield on her left arm.
She barely glanced at the heavily armed Myrmillo type fighter. Heavy plate and chain mail armor covered his chest and arms and half metal cylinders, called ocreae, covered his upper thighs and he was armed with a heavy sword, dagger and a large shield.
Gabrielle wasn't amused with her chances. She closed her eyes and began a breathing exercise she had learned from Xena and let the tension drain from her body and let the bard slip away from her and let the Dancer take her place.
When Dancer opened her eyes, they were without emotion and alert. She spotted Lycrassis in one of the royal boxes and he grinned at her. She bowed slightly and then turned towards her opponent.
One thing in the back of Dancer's mind, the bard part still thinking, the school normally didn't fight to the death. Lycrassis preferred to develop his fighters rather than just provide blood sport and lose fighters before they had developed enough skills to survive professional encounters.
Dancer dismissed any thoughts and concentrated as the flag signaling the beginning of the match dropped from Lycrassis' hand.
Anticipating the Myrmillo's rush, Dancer simply spun on one heel and let her shield scrape against his, carrying his momentum around. She ducked his defensive round slash of his sword and slashed his calf, below the ocreae. Dancer quickly dived out of reach of his sword as he attempted to slam his shield down on the crouched fighter and bring his sword back around and down. She came up behind him and slashed across his lower back with her sword, just where the armor didn't protect.
He roared and went to his knees, dropping his shield. Dancer parried a sword swing with her shield and danced out the way of a second thrust as he regained his feet. Her opponent didn't dare reach for his shield so he pulled out his dagger to compliment his sword.
Dancer kept out of his reach, barely turning his sword strikes aside with her shield while dancing out of reach of the dagger. The Myrmillo was breathing heavily and sweating while Dancer kept her breathing as normal as possible. The Myrmillo type fighter let his anger give him a flash of energy and charged the smaller woman and she stood her ground until the last moment and dived forward into him, rolling his legs out from under him. As he fell on his face and lost his breath the small woman scrambled out from under his legs and jumped on his back, sword poised over his neck.
The fighter dropped the sword and held out his arms to his sides.
"Surrender!" he cried out and Dancer looked to her owner's box.
Lycrassis seemed to consider for a moment and then gave a thumbs up, signifying life. Dancer breathed a sigh of relief and slowly rose off the man. She bowed to Lycrassis and began to walk back towards her end of the Arena when she felt the pounding of running feet and let instinct take over, dropping into a crouch and swinging her leg out as the Myrmillo type fighter charged her from behind. She swept his leg out from under him and he hit the ground hard again. The small woman was on top of him before he could even blink and her dagger was sticking out of his throat.
Shaking, Dancer rose to her feet and looked to her master, wondering what his reaction would be. The Roman rose to his feet and began applauding, everyone else in the spectator seats rising to applaud.
Dancer bowed slightly and retrieved her dagger and walked back towards the cells, shaking all over and wondering if she could make it out of sight before she threw up.
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Summer had finally reached the northern lands and so did some of the German tribes friendly with the Romans. Small battles broke out among the different families, clans, tribes and provinces. Sometimes it was over disputed land, sometimes over stolen cattle or raids, other times it was because one tribe wouldn’t sign a treaty with the Romans and the Romans were adding pressure.
Caesar, personally, had come to the north and had driven back an incursion of Goths into the northern provinces and was attempting to drive a wedge between other tribes and take the Roman Empire further north.
Xena was worried about Hercules scouring Italia for a “Germanic slave” with everyone’s emotions running high towards war and she was worried for Gabrielle, mostly.
It didn’t help that she was feeling herself getting close to welcoming a baby into her life. Her body was screaming in frustration, she was uncomfortable all the time and irritable. Sasha and the other women just smiled, remembering their own due times and reassured her that it was normal.
Having been irritable most of the time before Solan was born the warrior hadn’t noticed the changes in her mood swings. Now she did and wanted nothing more than to have Gabrielle there at her side.
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“Yrsa! Quick, raiders are coming!” Ketli yelled as he dashed into the long house. Sasha quickly grabbed up a pack and began throwing containers of herbs, bandages and other things in it.
“Ivar, grab several blankets and get them to the stable. Ketli, hitch up the wagon and throw the blankets in the back and bring the wagon to the back! Hurry!” Sasha ordered.
Xena/Yrsa, struggled to sit up. “What are you doing, Sasha, hand me my sword,” she ordered.
“No, warrior friend, I’ve been timing your pains and you are very close. I am not going to deliver your child in the middle of a battle! Get out and into that wagon. We’ll go to the hunting cabin a couple of miles from here. Move!”
“I can fight!”
“In an hour or so you’ll be doing nothing but screaming, now move!”
Within minutes the warrior found herself being bounced almost out of the speeding wagon as it dashed across the countryside and up an old trail to the hunting cabin that the men used along a trap line in the winter. Xena wasn’t sure if she was going to deliver her baby right then and there with all the bouncing and hung on for dear life as Ketli yelped and Iolaus held tight to the seat next to Sasha.
The raiders had hit quick but Ketli had gotten word to the men working the field and the battle had been going well for Xena’s adopted family when they left and she had tried to convince Sasha to stay and wait it out but the stubborn Northerner had refused.
Sasha had been right though about the timing, the pains were getting closer and more intense. Xena bit her lip and then cried out as a wave hit her. Ketli looked concerned and touched the warrior’s tanned arm. She tried to smile but gritted her teeth as they hit another bump.
The small boy had taken to the Greeks and had kinda adopted them. The dark haired boy’s mother had died in childbirth and his father had been killed on a raid when he was 5 summers old. He stayed close to Iolaus, helping the Greek with the little things, like getting dressed and things that the Greek had problems with now that his arm was barely useful and he liked the strong warrior woman as well and the Northerners has accepted his adoption of their new friends with a smile and shrug. Xena knew the seven year old would soon begin training for his life as a man but in this in-between stage he seemed to be their shadow.
Inside the cabin the warrior couldn’t help but cry out now, with the pains coming closer and closer.
Iolaus sat next to her, wiping her forehead with a wet cloth, smiling his encouragement.
“Gabrielle,” Xena whispered and closed her eyes and he gently brushed away the tears escaping her closed eyes.
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Everyone in the cabin jumped when someone began pounding on the door. Iolaus quickly drew his sword and went to the door and listened.
“Go away,” he shouted.
“Please, a small band of raiders are headed this way and I seek shelter!” a voice called.
“No,” he said frowning.
“I invoke the right of hospitality, damnit!” the voice demanded and Sasha walked to the door.
“Do you swear no harm to anyone in this room?” she yelled.
“I will swear a blood oath to it before all the gods,” the voice answered and Sasha opened the door.
Xena, sitting up on the bed with her sword in hand, took in the visitor. A tall Viking woman, dressed in male clothing and carrying a bow and arrow in her hand with a sword and ax on either hip. She quickly entered the cabin and closed the door behind her. She lowered the bow and drew out a dagger from behind her belt. She made a small slice across her palm and let the blood drip onto the floor.
“I swear by my blood and that of my kin that I mean no harm to anyone in this room and will fight to protect them to the death,” she invoked. Sasha nodded welcome and returned to Xena’s side as another contraction hit and Xena moaned, gritting her teeth.
“The Norns picked a strange place and time for your little one to be born, friend,” the newcomer smiled and went to the boarded up window and opened the narrow slit.
Iolaus went to the other window and could see movement in the trees.
“Warriors approaching, I see maybe six, probably more in the shadows and behind us,” he said.
“There were at least fifteen when I made it here,” the stranger answered.
“Fifteen, that’s not a small band. They’re looking for us,” Sasha frowned and Xena screamed with another contraction.
“Well, there’s no leaving here now,” the stranger grinned.
“I am Sasha, wife of Axel. This is Ivar the one handed, Yrsa the Vigilant and Ketli the Mouse.”
“I am Grimhild Thornfinndottir. Traveling messenger to the King of the Russ to the East.”
“Welcome Grimhild to possibly your last day,” Sasha said with a smile.
Grimhild grinned back. “It’s a small thing. A good day for it, I think.”
She turned back and let an arrow fly, hitting a raider in the eye. She notched another arrow and let it fly, dropping another raider.
“How many of those have you got?” Iolaus asked with admiration.
“Not enough and they’ll be on the roof and at the door before I can drop all of them.”
Xena screamed again, gripping the bed sheets tightly as Ketli wiped her forehead.
Sasha, helping the warrior, looked over Xena’s legs with a grin.
“Well, timing may not be great but you are about to have your child, my friend.”
Xena cursed in Greek at the timing and at Ares for getting her in the mess in the first place. Sasha grinned, not understanding the language but the sentiment. She had assisted at births before. The mothers always got really pissed, usually at the men who didn’t have to go through all of this.
“Ivar, some of them have torches,” Grimhild said with a growl.
Sasha looked up with something Xena had never seen on the woman’s face, fear.
“They want to burn us?” she asked no one in particular.
“Looks that way. Ivar, you and me outside the door, Ketli - keep an eye out back for any men with torches and yell if they try and fire the back,” Grimhild ordered.
Iolaus nodded and readied his sword as the Viking woman grabbed the door and quickly opened it and dived outside with a Viking war cry. Iolaus followed, sword flashing in the sunlight.
Xena cursed every god she could think of for the timing of this mess, especially Ares and screamed with another contraction. Ketli quickly shut the door behind the warriors and went to the window.
The sounds of the battle faded for the warrior as her body demanded all of her attention and the only sounds she could hear were her own screams of pain and Sasha’s reassuring voice. Ketli yelled several times and grabbed up an ax from beside the door.
In between one of the contractions Xena saw the small boy bury the hatchet in a raider’s skull as he tried to climb in a window. Ketli yelled an imitation of Grimhild yell and tried to yank the ax out of the man’s skull. Sasha jumped up and ran over to help him and handed him the ax.
“Leave the body, it’ll block the others,” she said simply as she looked in his bright eyes.
“Oh gods, he’s so young,” Xena whispered as Sasha rejoined her.
“Yes,” Sasha agreed and then Xena screamed again.
The world disappeared for the warrior as her screams mingled with those outside and inside the cabin.
Then the pain passed like a wave as tears streamed down the warrior’s face. Sasha was grinning at her and wrapping a small bundle in a clean cloth.
“You have a daughter, my friend.”
Sasha and Xena both jumped as the door crashed inward and Iolaus fell into the room, a gash on his head, bleeding down the side of his face. He shook his head growling and flipped up to his feet and charged the doorway as two raiders attempted to enter.
Sasha quickly handed the crying infant to Xena and grabbed the warrior’s sword and joined Iolaus at the door.
Xena watched with horror, unable to move, as she cradled her new daughter and her friends fought the raiders. Iolaus fell under another blow to the head and Sasha was forced back into the room. She grabbed Ketli by the collar and threw him behind her when he attempted to rush in front of her and protect her.
“Ketli, throw me the ax!” she yelled and the boy quickly ran over to her and handed over the ax.
“Sasha, duck!” she called and let the small hatchet fly when the woman ducked at her command. The raider about to cleave the Northerner’s skull found his open with an ax in the face. Sasha grinned and ran her friend’s sword through the chest of another raider but the sword stuck in the ribs.
Xena screamed as a battle ax met Sasha’s neck and collarbone. Xena pulled out her dagger and placed her daughter next to the wall.
Ketli dived forward and grabbed a fallen sword and impaled it through the foot of another warrior and as that warrior dropped his battle ax the little boy grabbed the ax and, dodging the raider’s angry attempts to grab him, scurried back to the warrior and handed her the ax.
The raider pulled the sword out of his foot with a scream and started to limp towards the warrior woman and children when Iolaus’ wrist snapped out and he slashed the back of the raider’s knees. When the man hit the floor Iolaus sat up and decapitated him with one stroke.
Then everything went strangely silent except for the cries of a newborn infant.
Xena looked up with tears in her eyes as Grimhild stood in the doorway, taking in the carnage. She nodded with satisfaction as Xena grabbed up her daughter, cradling and holding her new one.
“I think your friend would be honored if you named her Sasha,” Grimhild smiled.
“I think so too,” Xena agreed, looking up with tears in her eyes. She took in the sight of the blood covered warrior, the massive wounds in the shoulder, stomach and legs and frowned.
“Don’t worry, warrior. You’ll see me again,” Grimhild promised and disappeared out the door.
“What in Tartarus was that about?” Iolaus asked as he dragged himself to his feet, meeting his new godchild.
“I don’t know but I have a feeling that wasn’t totally a normal occurrence, even for here.”
“Valkyrie,” Ketli whispered, his eyes wide.
“Valkyrie?” Xena asked.
“She’s your Valkyrie, wow!” then he looked at Sasha’s body and ran into Iolaus’ arms, weeping.
“So much blood, Iolaus,” Xena whispered and he simply nodded, sitting on the bed, taking up one of the cloths and holding it against his head.
“I wish Herc and Gabby were here,” he complained and Xena merely nodded as her daughter, Sasha, began feeding.
“Gabrielle, come back to us,” Xena whispered.
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