SquidgeWorld Archive

Gabrielle scowled. She had been scowling most of the week. She should have been happy to have Xena back, pleased that the magic spell had worked. She was, except she knew where they were heading now and she didn't want to go there. They were on the way to Lakawan Valley and Xena's grandparents' farm.

"I don't have to wear those silly shorts, and -- what were they called --'polka dots' again do I, Xena? I don't want to be a farmer again."

"No, Gabrielle, when we are home, you don't have to be anything you don't want to be. You just have to be there!" She put her arm around Gabrielle's shoulder and gave he a "please smile for me" hug.

"There is good, as long as you are here, too." Gabrielle looked up at her taller friend and tried to hide the fact that she was lying. It was so good to see Xena again, touch her again; the last few months had been horrible. It should be good to be home -- even if home was going to be on that terrible farm. She forced a smile, so that the scowl didn't come back.

"We know it is a good place to hide. We know it is safe. I bet even Ares will stay away. He hated it so much."

That was a good thing. "But what are we going to do there?"

"I am going to just take off my boots, hang up my leathers, slip into something comfortable and sit on the porch for . . . I don't know, until I think of something to do."

"Well, if you sit too long, I may have to come through and dust you." As soon as she said it Gabrielle realized that it wasn't funny. Xena had been dust. Even now the memory of the ashes in the little black pot were too real, too intense. She just had to learn to think of her friend alive and with her again.

Xena seemed to be content to do exactly what she had said, just sit. She pulled her grandmother's rocking chair out on the porch and watched what Gabrielle saw as a never changing landscape. Sure animals and birds moved in and out, flowers bloomed, the wind blew in the trees, but if Gabrielle had wanted to sit and watch that kind of world go by, she never would have left Potedia.

In the days and weeks that passed, Xena noticed a change in her friend. Not once had Gabrielle even read one of the many scrolls she had carried with her all over the world, and she had written nothing.

"What's happened to my bard? " Xena asked tussling Gabrielle's short blond hair, " I thought you would love to have this free time, edit your old works, write new ones. What's the matter? Writer's block?"

"I can't write any more Xena. I won't write. The things I wrote about. They were, when you finally looked at them in perspective, awful. They scare me now when I think about them. Maybe time and space will dull the memories, but right now I want to stay as far away from my scrolls as possible. I've even thought about burning them."

'Gods' thought Gabrielle. 'I've said the wrong thing again. Not only have I told her our life together had been awful, but I brought up the burning thing again.' Since their return Xena had had problems burning anything but dry wood -- and that only after carefully searching the pieces for insects and worms. Fire, while necessary for warmth, and maybe for cooking, was not Xena's friend.

"Well, you have to find something to do, Gabrielle. I can't see all that talent inside you just sitting there, not coming out in some way. I know you are never happy unless you are creating."

"I'm creating a home, for us together, here. I don't see you worrying too much about your talents not being used."

"My talents involve war, Gabrielle. I am happy that I am not using them. You should be, too."

"I am, but there must be something we can do together. Something we can create."

"Think about it Gabrielle."

"Well, if we could find Hercules, perhaps we could have him teach us to crochet. We could make Afghans and sell them in the market." That one, Gabrielle thought, was almost funny, except they hadn't seen Hercules in almost thirty years. He probably would be old while they were still young. It would not be a comfortable scene.

Xena's thoughts of Hercules produced a crooked smile on her face. She too realized that her old friends today were no longer the images which crossed her mind when she thought of them. She wondered if Hercules, like Joxer and Borias now had a handsome adult son. She thought about Iolaus, who had always feared growing old, and wondered about how the hunter looked with white hair and if he had ever found that woman to share his life.

Weeks passed, the leaves of the trees turned color, fell, and blew away. Xena still seemed content to sit, now wrapped in a heavy fur blanket, and watch the world. Gabrielle, it seemed, spent most of her time watching Xena. Two women who had traveled to the ends of the earth and back again, now lived their lives in the confines of a small farmhouse, on a small farm, outside a small village . . .

"Gods, Xena, this place gets smaller every day. There is nothing to do."

"I'm not the one not doing something I could be doing here. I am doing what I want to do; I am relaxing. I am being thankful I am alive. I am being thankful we are together. I just don't understand why you don't find an outlet for your energy."

"Yea, I could start new scroll. I could call it 'Xena and Gabrielle Do Nothing.' See the tree. See Xena. See Xena see the tree. See Gabrielle see Xena see the tree."

"I get it Gabrielle, you're bored. I'm sorry. Don't you have any hobbies?"

"Hobbies. You mean like collecting coins or stamps?. Or how about leaves? I could collect a lot of leaves here. Or bugs?"

"I was thinking more about creating than collecting. You could learn to weave, or maybe make jewelry."

"Weaving, I don't think so. After what I did to the fate's loom, I don't think they would let me anywhere near another one. Jewelry though, I've always liked jewelry. Have to think about that one."

In the next few weeks, Gabrielle seemed to be thinking a lot. Xena even saw her, pen in hand, making a few notes on a scroll. She did not appear to be writing prose; it was more like drawing and sketching. She was formulating a plan. One spring morning she came out, sat down beside Xena, and informed her that she had it all worked out.

"It was really difficult, but I think I have it figured out. Don't think we would be really good at making jewelry -- that ring you made out of Rhinegold could have doubled as a doorknob. Sorry Xena, but it's true." Making jewelry would also involve working with fire, something she was not yet ready to suggest to Xena.

"But I think I know good jewelry, so I could buy works of artists in small towns and then sell them in urban markets."

"That would give us a chance to travel. I know you are bored here."

"Travel is good, as long as we don't go to dangerous places. There are artists who live in 'notdangerous places', right Xena?"

"If you say so."

"Most women like jewelry, but most of the money is controlled by men. I've thought about that a lot, too. We need to find some way to sell jewelry to men."

"Like Iolaus's earrings? Wrist bracelets?" Xena asked.

"No, not men's jewelry, women's jewelry bought by men. My first thought is to sell it to men while they are away from home to take back to their wives. A seaport would be a natural place. What better way to say 'Honey I'm home' than with a lovely necklace."

"Most men have what they think is a better way of saying that, Gabrielle, and they don't have to go to a jewelry store for it."

"Well, I was thinking about that, too. We could also sell amulets. You know magical things to lure men into the store. For those who want more children we could sell fertility amulets; for those who want more money, we could sell wealth amulets."

"And for those who just want more, we could sell potency amulets." Xena laughed, for the first time in a long time.

"Then while the men were buying the amulets, we could convince them to get a little ring or necklace to take home to the wife."

"And where are you going to get amulets that work?"

"If we sell them at a seaport to outgoing ships, they don't have to work. By the time the men find out they don't work they will be on the other side of the sea. The fertility and wealth ones we could tell them take time. But that potency one, Xena. . .

"Gabrielle, think about it, what man is going to come in and say he wants a refund on his potency amulet because it didn't' work. No one will admit that!"

"Right!! We could even give a guarantee on that one."

"If you must!" Xena was convinced Gabrielle would tire of this plan and they could get back to the easy life on the farm. She did not see her soulmate riding around collecting jewelry and amulets to sell at seaports. "How are you going to get the money to buy the things we are going to sell, to buy a booth, or rent a storefront. You need some money to start this up."

"Well, I thought about that too. The amulets can be pretty simple at first. Most of them could be just stones with a hole drilled in them. If I get a lot of these amulets together, I could find someone with some money, convince him they work, and use the money he lends us to go out and purchase some real jewelry."

"Yes, but your amulets don't work. They won't work."

"That was where my plan had bogged down, but after talking today, I think I have to start by selling the potency amulets."

Gabrielle grabbed a basket and ran down to the creek that ran through the farm supplying them with water and fish. She began immediately sifting through the small pebbles looking for anything that could be easily transformed into an amulet. Xena was convinced that she would soon tire of sorting rocks and pebbles and get back to her writing.

Gabrielle returned a few hours later with the basket heavy with stones and began sorting them into separate piles. She spent a lot of time with each stone, as if she was trying to divine its true meaning. She did this for several days and the piles not only covered most of the table, but were beginning to fill up empty corners. Xena was becoming worried that Gabrielle was becoming "one with the rocks" and that if she didn't put a stop to this foolishness soon, both of them would be sorry.

"OK, Gabrielle," she asked. "Are you going to tell me what you have?"

"A large assortment, Xena. A rock for every need." She began to recite to her friend. "The flat ones that look like coins, they are your common, everyday, wealth amulets. You carry them in your pocket and you always feel like you have more money than you have."

"Could work," Xena muttered.

"The ones with gold flecks, and I am fairly certain it is not real gold, are your super wealth amulets. Fools gold. But they might make us wealthy."

Xena wasn't too sure about that. How many people would pay good money, for a rock, to get more money? "Go on, Gabrielle."

"These round ones are fertility amulets. They look like pregnant women."

Xena squinted and looked at the rocks carefully. They looked like pebbles to her.

"I could do a little carving on them, if you think they might sell better. A couple of lines here and there."

"Better try it, Gabrielle."

"And these are my potency amulets." She spread out a group of five red rocks, each long and thin with one end wider than the other. Xena looked at them and blushed.

"They do look like. . ."

"Actually, I thought they looked like hot peppers." Gabrielle commented. Xena held her thought.

"Now you got the rocks, you have to get someone to loan you money based on them. It's not going to be easy, Gabrielle. Are you sure you are going to go through with this?"

"No problem m m m. I am just going to find the village usurers and talk to all of them. When I find the one who looks the most desperate, the one who looks like a woman hasn't smiled at him for years, I will sell him a potency amulet. Then you will come through and flirt with him. I can stay and watch and no man in the world will say he wasn't excited by you."

"I'm not going to be a part of this plan. This is your baby, Gabrielle. I am very, very content to just sit here and watch the seasons change. I can take your damn rocks back to the creek and throw them in one-by-one, but I am not going to go out and flirt with money-lenders. Gabrielle, what do you think I am?"

Gabrielle didn't answer but went back to her rocks. "These clear ones," she indicated some quartz pebbles,"are sobriety amulets. They keep the wine from doing too much damage. I also have a few health amulets. If you think of anything people might want a charm for, let me know, I have lots of rocks. I figure if I have a large inventory, chances are I will get better financing rates."

Xena shook her head, and refrained from suggesting that Gabrielle had a better chance for success if she sold the pebbles from the stream bed as a coating for roads to keep them from getting muddy when it rained.

* * *

Despite her written marketing plan, projected income charts, and large sample inventory, Gabrielle was unable to convince the money-lender who had his office just off the main market square of the value of her project. The items she passed off as amulets looked to him very much like river rocks. He was also concerned about her lack of any start-up money and the fact that she had no jewelry inventory. She stressed the fact that the amulets worked, and that only she could divine the powers each rock contained. He shook his head and sent her on to another lender who operated in a small back room down an alley.

Gabrielle made her presentation with the same enthusiasm, despite the fact that the man seemed much more interested in staring at her body than at her merchandise. She was not sure that she would want to be indebted to this creepy man, and considered it her good fortunate when he suggested she go elsewhere.

After showing her rocks to three more lenders, she began to feel desperate. Maybe Xena was right. Maybe no one would loan her money. She really wasn't a very good credit risk. She and Xena didn't exactly have a clean credit record. She just had to improve her presentation, and keep giving it, until she found someone who was interested.

* * * * *

"But look. Have you ever seen such wonderful amulets? Each one of them has a hand carved hole in them to wear on a cord around your neck."

"I think you are missing a sale here, you should be selling a chain to hang the amulet from." The middle-aged man across from her said with a caring smile.

"I will have chains in my inventory. Chains are good." She had explained the plan in depth and he definitely had been listening. "Jewelry chains, of course, that is what we were talking about."

"But you are certain, 100% sure that these amulets will work. Who did you say had placed the spells on them?"

"I did. I have traveled the world. I know charms from gods and goddesses from many, many different lands. There is no way that these amulets will not work." The loan seemed so close. Sure she was puffing a bit, but she had just about run out of potential lenders.

"Well, let me see. He doesn't need the wealth amulet, he has more money than he knows what to do with it. So give me a potency amulet, a health amulet, and a fertility amulet, I'll give you five denars for them. I'll take them to King Araios. Give me six weeks, and if they work, I will be back with all the money you need to start your business. But if they don't work, don't ever expect to open a store anywhere near here. You understand?"

Gabrielle shuddered. Stories about King Araios of Sparta and his six wives, none of which had produced an heir, had been circulating around the area for years. She thought about not selling him the "fake" amulets, but really didn't want to go back and tell Xena she had been completely unsuccessful. She searched through each of the piles and selected what she thought would be the best of the amulets. She could buy something for Xena with the five dinars and it would not be a completely wasted trip.

She felt a slight tingle as the rocks passed from her hand to that of the money-lender. She vowed not to tell Xena the details of this transaction.

* * * * *

Gabrielle was even glad to be back at the farm. She had had her fill of the noise of the village. She was tired of people telling her that her plan would not work. She was grateful to put on comfortable clothes and low heeled boots. She pulled a chair up next to Xena, gave her a small sack containing a bottle of orange blossom oil she had purchased for her with the proceeds of the sale of the amulets, and watched the wind blow the leaves on the trees.

Gabrielle never returned to the village to meet with the money-lender. During the next few months she did write a bit, mostly an analysis of what she had done wrong in her attempt to start a business. She figured that if she knew then what she knew now things would have worked out differently. Between the two of them, she and Xena had enough jewelry pieces that she could have put together a mock inventory. Even though she would never have sold them, she could have used them for the collateral to get a loan to buy more pieces. However, now because of the bogus promises she had made, she would never be able to start a store anywhere in the area. She had certainly learned her lesson. She took all the rocks in her bag and returned them to the stream bed.

One afternoon the unchanging horizon was broken. Gabrielle noticed a white horse ridden by a tall man in a dark blue cape approaching the house. As he got closer she noticed his long straight blonde hair, almost white, and his blue eyes. His eyes were even bluer than Iolaus'.

"My name is Kyros " he announced himself. "I come as an emissary of King Araios."

Gabrielle felt a shudder travel down her spine. She couldn't believe that the King had been so angry he had actually sent someone out to find her.

"King Araios," was all she could eke out.

"The king has sent me to find the woman who sold the amulets to a money lender in town. He was most pleased with the results. His queen has delivered a healthy baby boy."

Gabrielle gasped. It had worked. Her amulets had done their job.

"I come as his representative to buy your remaining stock, request that you grant the king the exclusive right to sell your amulets, and to pay you handsomely for that."

Now she was in a panic. All of her "amulets" had again become "one with the creek." She would either tell this man that she was not interested or go back out and find them again.

* * * * *

"I am sorry we can't offer you a more substantial meal." Xena said as she presented the man with a plate of bread, goat cheese and olives. "We don't often get visitors here, so all we can offer is our usual daily fare."

"I came here for magic, not sustenance. After all the lavish meals in the palace, it is a joy to eat the food of my childhood, and to share it with two such beautiful ladies."

Xena gave Gabrielle a "watch this guy" tap with her foot under the table.

"I will have the amulets for you tomorrow. There is a chant I have to say over them at sunrise to make them work. I haven't been saying it recently, because quite frankly, I thought I was out of the amulet business. I'll do it tomorrow, and then they will work perfectly."

Xena thought to herself, 'Is she going to remember to give him the chant so that he can reactivate them each morning, or is he too stupid to miss that part.' But she said nothing.

They chatted for a few minutes after the meal, but Gabrielle informed him that she retired early on the farm, because there were chores that needed to be done before sunrise. Xena suggested that the visitor do the same.

'Like finding some of the recycled amulets.' Gabrielle thought. She hoped that they would have a torch that would produce enough light to find at least some of the rocks.

When everyone was safely asleep, Gabrielle slipped out and walked to the stream. Thank goodness there was a full moon, and the torch gave more light than she had expected. She grabbed several handfuls of pebbles and sorted through them one-by-one. It seemed that she had been working for hours, and she had found a dozen at most. She should have told him that the chant needed to be said at the new moon, or solstice, or something that would have given her a little more time. She could have selected some new stones and drilled holes in them.

Gabrielle jumped when she heard footsteps approaching. She assumed Xena had awoken, found her gone from the bed, and knowing where she would find her, come down to help. Two people would be useful in the search. She turned to give her friend a welcoming smile and realized it was Kyros.

"Your friend awoke, and found you gone. She said that she thought you might be here, and I told her I would come and look for you. What are you doing?"

There was no way now she could tell him anything but the truth. "You see, I decided to go out of the amulet business. I took my stock down here and returned them. . .

"You returned them to live with their brothers and sisters in the river bed. How magical." He looked down at the woman on her knees in the creek bed, the moon shining on her hair. She looked like some kind of water nymph.

"Did you find any?" He asked.

"A few. It would be a lot easier in the daylight."

"I can wait. I have all the time in the world." He reached down, took her hand and pulled her to her feet. He did not let go even after she was standing.

"Shall we get back to the house? It's cold here." Gabrielle said.

"But this place, in the moonlight, it is so lovely. Almost as lovely as you. Perhaps we could just sit out here for a few minutes."

Gabrielle shuddered. She was wet from kneeling in the creek. A fire seemed preferable to the moonlight.

"Here. Wrap yourself in this." He removed his cloak and handed it to her. "I don't want you to get cold. I have some wine, too." He indicated that they could sit on a log and opened his wineskin.

"I don't usually drink wine with men I don't know." Gabrielle said.

"You don't have to worry. You have a sobriety amulet don't you." He fingered one of the clear quartz pebbles, and tossed it in the creek.

'It's just a rock.' Gabrielle thought as she took a big slug from the wineskin. The wine did warm her a bit. He reached out and took her hands. They were cold and wrinkled from being in the water. He pressed them to his body to warm them. That seemed to help. She removed one and took another drink of wine. She snuggled a little closer to keep warm.

Months on the farm with Xena had taught her the art of being still. She sat with him close to her and listened to her heart beat, to his heartbeat, to their breaths and she relaxed.

The moves he made to bring her closer to him were incrementally small and gentle; a soft touch, a warming caress, a sharing hug and soft gentle kisses, first on her cheek, then on her eyes, finally on her lips. Refusal to accept the advances would have been seen as selfish and uncaring. Even when he began to undo her clothing, and move his hands to places no man had been in years, she did nothing to stop him. They moved together, from the log to the ground. It was almost as if she was charmed. She thought of the stones she had gathered into the basket. Some of their "brothers and sisters" were under her body right now. She awoke in his arms, naked under the cloak, as the sun began to rise. He kissed her gently on the lips and made some comment she barely understood about a chant.

"Ooo, I almost forgot, " but realized that after you had made love to some one it was very difficult to lie. "I am sorry. I have to tell you. There is no magic charm. These are not real amulets. They are just stones. I drilled a few holes, made a few cuts, but I am not a magician. I am Gabrielle of Potedia. I am a bard, and a used-to-be warrior." She was afraid of what he would do. To her surprise, he spoke to her gently.

"And I am not an emissary of King Araios."

"You're not. You mean there is no baby."

"Oh, there's a baby all right. But not because of your charm. When you passed your amulets to the moneylender, the woman I work for knew you were in big trouble and she substituted her amulets for yours. Hers work."

"The woman you work for?"

"I guess I should have said Goddess. I am a priest in the temple of Aphrodite."

"But-t-t-t"

"Aphrodite had felt sorry for the King for some time, but he never asked for her help." He continued, "She wanted him to have a baby, and saw changing the amulets you sold to his emissary as a way of helping both of you. She liked the idea of your selling jewelry."

"But when you never started your business, never even checked up on your amulets, she really got worried. She didn't like your being out here on this farm with nothing to do. So she had me come here with this made up story to buy your amulets so that you and Xena would have some money. I don't know .. maybe she wanted you to travel, or start another business. Anything to get you out of this funk."

Gabrielle wasn't listening too hard. "But aren't the priests in Aphrodite's temple sworn to celibacy?"

"Not just celibacy, Gabrielle, total abstinence." She was still lying naked beside him. He had this silly 'I have no idea what happened' look on his face; she'd seen the same look on Xena a few times.

She went to get up, and her hand came to rest on a small bag, containing stones. The same stones that had been under her shoulder, the small of her back, and ground into her hips at various times during the evening.

"Here, I believe these are yours." She said with a scowl. "I've been on them most of the night. What are they? Some more of Dite's charms. This whole night has been one of her spells, wasn't it."

Kyros looked at the pouch. "No, Gabrielle, these are not Aphrodite's charms, they are yours."

"Mine. Mine are in the basket over there."

"No Xena gave them to me earlier tonight. She said they were with the orange-blossom oil you gave her when you went to the village last year. She kept them to remind her of your crazy plan. I put them in the pocket of my cape. . oh Gods." He spilled the stones into Gabrielle's hand.

He picked up the red phallic shaped rock from her hand and held it to the breaking dawn.

"Well, maybe that explains it. I have always been faithful to Aphrodite and my vows. I haven't been with a woman. I haven't -- well let's say been able to be with a woman -- since I joined her temple. I wondered what happened last night. Obviously I was under the effect of some sort of potency charm."

"Well, that sort of explains it doesn't it." She wondered what she was going to say to Xena, and doubted if she would understand . . 'well if it works on Aphrodite it might work on Xena,' she thought.

"What's that purple one?"

"It's a health amulet. I don't think it will do either of us any harm." Gabrielle thought. Then she looked at the third stone. Round with a few strategically placed carvings.

"Oh, no." They both said at once. What if that "fake" charm had worked, too?

"Well, Kyros, you can tell your boss that she doesn't have to worry about me being bored any more. If this charm works, and I believe it will, Xena and I are going to have our hands full for quite a while."

"Maybe if we threw it back into the stream."

"We could try, but honestly after what happened tonight, I think. . ."

"What are you going to do?"

"I think I am going to have a baby. I'd love to have a baby. Xena has been bugging me for a long time to create something, now I am going to create the best thing possible. OUR DAUGHTER! A daughter that Xena and I could raise together, in peace." She couldn't remember a time when she had felt happier, more at peace.

"Well in that case, Gabrielle, I wish you well. Hurry and tell Xena, and I will tell Aphrodite. I think we all are going to be very, very happy."

"Even though. . . your vow."

"I am sure Aphrodite will forgive me, when she hears the whole story."

"Not sure I will tell Xena, maybe I ought to keep her guessing."

He kissed her gently and held her to him. "Just testing. Think the magic -- wherever it came from -- is gone now."

"Good, I wouldn't want to see crowds coming her looking for the rocks.. . ." she sighed as he walked away. Things were certainly going to be different enough down on the farm.

* * * * *

The Greek Gods, even after the twilight, were known for their meddling into the lives of humans. Like the butterfly flapping its wings and causing a hurricane, because of the intervention of Aphrodite into a simple financing transaction, the world learned of Xena the Warrior Princess. Gabrielle hid her scrolls, but Gabrielle and Xena's daughter, Chloe, was the start of a bloodline that in the early twentieth century produced, Janice Covington, who rediscovered these scrolls. The rest is history.

November, 2001

McJude