"THE PRINCESS & THE QUEEN" series -SCROLL VIII: CONQUERING A BYGONE ERA

pt.20

There was a sharp pain and then a panicked yell that rang out in the distance.

GABRIELLE
XENA!!

And then it all fell dark and fairly quiet. Only the sounds of distant, muffled voices could faintly be heard. But before long that too faded into nothing. No sound, no light, no physical feeling. It was all just gone. Nothing but a small flame of a once raging fire remained. Though it too fought to stay lit. Slowly it began to flicker as it shrunk little by little until only a dull red glowing ember remained that too grew dull as it threatened to soon go out completely. As it faded a small voice broke through the silence. It was faint but something about it called to the flame. Though weak the embers began to fight to stay lit. But as the embers fought suddenly a drop of rain fell next to the dull light. And then another, and another. As the rain began to come down it hit the small, struggling cinders. Little by little, unable to withstand the onslaught, the dying embers grew weaker and weaker until they were nearly completely extinguished. But just as all seemed lost the dulling cinders suddenly found themselves being shielded from the drizzle that was gearing up to become a full downpour. A silhouette had appeared and crouched down. Using itself to protect the embers from the rain. The rain continued and the silhouette remained over the small cinders. Through the long downpour, the silhouette stayed as the small voice continued to speak softly in the distance. Though the voice would leave for a bit every so often before always returning a short time later, the silhouette never moved from its guarded vigil over the tiny flickering embers. As even through those long silent moments it remained. Time passed and gradually the rain stopped as the struggling cinders began to grow hotter as the silhouette watched and began to slowly fan the fighting embers until a tiny flame was finally lit once more. It was small but strong as the silhouette sat back and watched as the small fire slowly grew.

?
(slight groan)

Eyes opened and shut slowly a few times as the surrounding world gradually came into focus. A gentle movement stirred another pair of tired green eyes to flutter open as the rest of the body felt the movement. A blonde head raised as Gabrielle yawned and casually ran her fingers through her short hair as she sat up straight from leaning forward in her chair. She stretched out the stiffness in her back and shoulders from the unnatural position of sitting in a chair and falling asleep while leaning forward and laying her head over her folded arms as they rested on the edge of the bed where Xena layed. Not knowing that anything particular had woken her, Gabrielle sighed as she looked down at Xena to check on her before being about to get up to stretch out and walk around a bit. But her plans abruptly changed when she saw the set of blue eyes looking up at her along with the small, gentle smile that quickly appeared as a still tired voice spoke.

XENA
(tired tone) Hey.

Gabrielle smiled as an incredible feeling of joy and relief washed over her and she softly placed her hand against Xena's cheek and smiled as Xena's hand reached up and covered hers.

GABRIELLE
I was so scared I was gonna lose you.

Apart from when Aurora had been kidnapped, the days following the standoff and ultimate retreat of Alti had been some of the longest in Gabrielle's life as she sat by Xena's bedside waiting and hoping that she would survive. After the barely living Xena was brought to the village healers, it had taken hours of hard work and skill for the women to get both the external and internal bleeding to stop thanks to the damage Xena had sustained at Alti's hand when she was impaled with the multiple jagged pieces of a broken building. Xena's injuries had been so severe that even after the healers had done their best, it was still very uncertain whether or not Xena would live. So Gabrielle's next few days were spent taking care of Aurora and staying by Xena's side as she waited and hoped that Xena would once again do the seemingly impossible and pull through something that would have killed any other normal person. So seeing Xena awake made Gabrielle feel like the weight of everything that had been looming over her since shortly before Xena had left on that hunting trip just a relatively short time ago finally being lifted off of her.