JUST ONE BITE

pt.24

Everyone within the temple stood looking around for a moment after hearing an unfamiliar voice ring out, bringing the chaos that had been going on just a moment before to a stop. After a moment of confusion, a bright flash of light suddenly appeared within the temple. As a result, everyone there either closed their eyes, shielded them in some way or looked away entirely until the light faded. Afterward Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer, Ira and the other priestess' turned their gaze towards where the bright light had come from, which was right near the temple's altar and saw an unfamiliar woman standing before then as she casually leaned back slightly against the altar while looking at them all. She then gave a small smile and a quick wave of her hand to greet the group.

?
Hi.

The priestess were stunned for a moment until the head priestess was the first to regain her senses and quickly knelt to the ground and bowed her head before the newly arrived woman.

HEAD PRIESTESS
My goddess, please forgive us for causing a disturbance within your temple.

The woman smiled at the priestess before encouraging her to stand as she looked at the others in the room. Her face went serious as she addressed everyone there.

?
So does someone wanna tell me why you seemed to think that it was okay for you to have yourselves a brawl within one of my temples?

GABRIELLE
Your temple? Xena did you hear her? That means...

XENA
Yes. We finally found her. Demeter.

As Ira noted that this might very well be the goddess she served, she looked at the woman with a wide-eyed wonder. She had never actually seen the goddess, so she really didn't know what she might look like. Both Xena and Gabrielle were somewhat surprised by the goddess's appearance as well-being that she didn't look anything like Bacchus at all, but then again Bacchus seemed to be the odd one in that reguard as all the other gods they had seen looked very human. Which was also the case for Demeter as well, which made Gabrielle briefly wonder why Bacchus looked so different from the others. A question that she would likely never know the answer to, so she didn't ponder it any further. Instead, she kept her attention on the situation before her as the goddess stepped forward.

DEMETER
Well? Does anyone want to start talking?

The goddess stood there, tall with long blonde hair, slightly lighter than Gabrielle's that even though slightly wavy reached the middle of her back. On her head, she wore a circlet of different colored leaves and small berries. Her eyes were dark brown that was in contrast compared to her lighter hair and fair skin. She wore a long, sleeveless dress which was primarily a medium shade of orange with thin golden shoulder straps that went into the gold trim along the top of the dress. A golden sash also came down across half of her chest and flowed do at an angle to her waist as it wrapped behind her. The golden sash stopped just below her waist, with a small point in the front that went down. As Gabrielle looked closer, she noticed that the golden colored wrap had a number of intricate patterns and designs throughout it that looked to be various types of leaves and other small shapes. All in all though very stunning, compared to most of the other gods Gabrielle had seen, Demeter looked fairly ordinary. Perhaps a bit wealthy, but ordinary nonetheless. Gabrielle was then pulled from her brief assessment of the goddess when she heard the head priestess speak.

HEAD PRIESTESS
My goddess these women are the remnants of Bacchus's Bacchae. They say they're searching for a cure, but I'm certain that they're just more loyalist who blame you for his demise.