"Borias?!" Xena popped up from her sleep and she clutched her stomach.
"What is it?" he swiftly slid his arm around her, his fingertips grazing over the surface of her skin. He pressed his lips to her head and he waited.
She then kicked the fur off of her legs and she walked over to grab her wineskin. "It was a premonition..." she sighed and gulped her water down. "I was-- I was delivering the baby and I was screaming for you, there was a woman and you were fighting somebody outside our hut."
"Who?"
"I'm not sure yet," she started writing things down on a scroll so that she could map what happened. "You died..."
"I didn't know you cared that much about me," he came around and he kissed her neck.
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"Don't get carried away... This is part of the curse. If I'm right, I've got Alti right where I want her," she clenched her fist.
"How is that? The men you sent are still searching for her."
"I give it till sundown. She's inflicting pain of the past, present and future on me through my dreams because she can't hurt me physically. If she does, she would be messing up her own curse."
"And this curse... What is it?"
"That our son never know the love of either of his parents..."
He grunted. "I will kill her..."
"No, no, allow me," she smirked and stood. "Send word out to our men hunting her---I want her in this hut by sundown or it'll be their heads."
He nodded and then walked away to get a man to do as asked.
Xena then pursed her lips and she looked at the ink on her scroll; remaining calm about the situation because she knew she had the shamaness by the fur of her coat. She was sure of it.
···
"Xena, we did as you commanded," her fellow army member saluted her alongside his partner.
"You did..." she grinned devilishly when they kicked the tied woman to the ground. "Go get Borias and leave us..." she never took her eyes off.
"As you wish."
They then left and did as ordered.
Once they were gone, Xena knelt down. "Alti..."
"Xena... It's been awhile, don't you think?" she asked, a smile on her lips while her raspy voice filled the air in which they were breathing.
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