"THE PRINCESS & THE QUEEN" series -SCROLL VII: SACRAMENTS FOR SUBSTANTIATION

pt.16

The next number of days went by without incident for everyone the village. Including Xena and Gabrielle who waited to find out when they were going ro start the final stage of their tests before they would be confirmed to be joined. Once they saw her, their friends and may others in the village complimented Gabrielle on her new look. Things finally seemed to have gotten less tense between Xena and Gabrielle. Xena thought that perhaps whatever had been bothering Gabrielle, she had managed to work out on her own. Though she still wished that Gabrielle had told her about it but Xena decided that if she was fine now then it didn't really matter. But just to be safe Xena made sure to still keep an eye out for anything that seemed out of place when it came to Gabrielle. Just in case Gabrielle had become better at hiding her odd behavior. Of which she had as during the day she was just normal old Gabrielle who along with Xena would go about their daily routines and all was good between them. But at night Gabrielle was silently sneaking out of the house to practice with her new sai's in a quiet, secluded spot she had found within the village. And after her vigorous practice sessions, Gabrielle would return home, clean up, hide away her weapons, get undressed and ease back into bed beside Xena who seemed non the wiser that Gabrielle had ever even left.

XENA
Hey you feeling okay? I've noticed you've been looking awfully tired for the past few days.

GABRIELLE
Huh?

Gabrielle came out of the semi sleep trance she had unknowingly fallen into while packing her bag. She then shook her head to try and clear out the mental cobwebs that were beginning to form due to the lack of decent sleep. Then she smiled at Xena.

GABRIELLE
Yeah I'm fine. I guess I just didn't get much sleep last night. I was up thinking about what the next few days are gonna be like. Plus we're up even earlier then when you usually wake up.

XENA
I figured it would be smarter to get an early start.

Gabrielle continued putting the things in front of her into her pack as Xena watched, noticing that Gabrielle wasn't wearing her new amazon clothes. Instead she had a reddish top and skirt on.

XENA
Did you get that outfit while you were out the other day too?

Gabrielle glanced up at Xena for a moment as she kept packing.

GABRIELLE
Oh, yeah I thought it looked nice so I got it. I figured it might be better for me not to have my Amazon stuff on while we're out there. You know how weird alot of people get about Amazon's for some reason.

XENA
True.

GABRIELLE
You know it's been a long time since we've really been out on the road.

Xena smiled as she learned against the wall on the opposite side of the bed that Gabrielle had her things for the trip spread out on.

XENA
Yeah I guess it has. I think it's been about over a year and a half going on two soon. I can't remember the last time I've even stayed this long in one place. Might not be since I was a kid. Not that I'm complaining. It's a nice change to actually have a physical place that I can consider home.

Gabrielle smiled.

GABRIELLE
Yeah I understand the feeling. I know it won't be forever, but I'll be happy to call this village our home for as long as we're here. Though I do gotta admit it will be nice to be back out there. I mean every other time we've taken any kind of extended trip outside the village it hasn't really been in the best circumstances.