In a loud clash, a bright flash, Xena and Gabrielle found themselves hurtling backwards through space. Xena tried to draw Gabrielle's body in front and on top of her to cushion the smaller woman's fall, but there was not enough time, and they both landed hard. The sudden stop was not their main problem, the warrior quickly realized, as she drew in a breath of burning, acrid smoke. Coughing, she could see nothing around her but gray.
"Which way -- wind currents?" Struggling to stand up, Gabrielle choked out her question and clung to Xena expectedly.
Xena relaxed and stilled her mind. The gray ethers around her took on shapes, interweaving ribbons that moved in a pattern. Her bearings set, Xena began to lead them towards the exit when suddenly they both tripped over an inert form.
"Joxer!"
Together they managed to get his arms draped around their shoulders, and half-carried, half-dragged the unconscious fellow through the smoky tunnel into daylight. A bit of mouth-to-mouth blowing and back-pounding later, Joxer, yaking and hacking, related his version of what had happened.
"I fought off this Cyclops, see. Once I had him down, I decided to make a break for this cave. He was a big guy, after all!"
In their relief that he was alive, Xena bit back a smile and Gabrielle a snarl. While Gabrielle helped Joxer to his feet, Xena quickly scanned their surroundings. The first piece of bad news was the smoke still billowing out of the cave. No going back there, not for awhile anyway. The next item was the condition of her friends, both shaken. But most disturbing was the landscape itself.
And it was very disturbing. It was different, yet somehow the same. The cave entrance was no longer halfway up the ravine but at its floor, and the ravine, more a gully now, was much grassier. The clearing where Joxer had outran the Cyclops had been replaced by a stand of trees. Most unsettling, the sun was no longer setting but was higher in the sky.
Xena despairingly hoped the afternoon was not repeating itself. Too many fresh starts can wear out a mind and a body, she thought grimly. Deciding to get the others to safety first, Xena could think of no reason not to return to the cave of the ancient drawings.
Following Xena as they headed back, Gabrielle noticed that the previously filled water botas were dry and empty. And the static cling in her hair reminded her of the black mark beneath Joxer's helmet.
"You know, Xena, I think the gods are at work here. Zeus is the most likely candidate, but Ares, well, he's never too far away."
"Please," Joxer let out a groan behind her, "don't add gods to the list of cyclops and bats."
Arriving at the mouth of the cave, Xena slyly winked at Gabrielle. "This is a very shallow cave, Joxer. Bats are the least of our concerns. Set up the best you can, you two, while I go figure out this mystery."
She paused, expecting their usual chorus of complaints and bickering. Neither said a word, just headed towards the entrance. Surprised, Xena made a quick study. The resignation on both their faces was born of fatigue. "But first, I'll get the wood and water. And maybe catch a rabbit."
Never had the routine of providing water, food, and fuel seemed so unusual, Xena discovered as she backtracked through the area. The wet spring had vanished but water could be had at the spring in the cliff, now enlarged to a little waterfall cascading down to a little pond below. As she crouched down behind some bushes, waiting for some ill-fated animal to come to drink, she heard a distant droning, first approaching, then fading away. Another oddity, and Xena hated to feel out of sync with a day.
When she returned to the cave, Xena found her friends sprawled out, talking quietly. Gabrielle, pleased at the nice duck Xena dropped off, giggled at "Quan que quook my quouzin?" Joxer set right to building the fire without comment.
Their quiet cooperation, while unusual, is the only thing halfway understandable, Xena thought, and answers will not ambush me watching duck roast. After constructing a couple of torches, she delivered the usual warnings and reassurances and set out for the `smoking' cave.
The smoke had cleared as she had hoped. Cautiously, she edged down the passageway. The marks on the floor had disappeared. Still sitting on the little ledge was what was left of Joxer's helmet. It was now a rusty frame of metal with a tatter of dried, brittle, leather where the brim had been. Xena reached out to touch it, but her body reacted in a way apart from her intent; her hand began to shake. Startled at such a primal response, she honored it nonetheless and withdrew her hand.
Further investigation of the cave's interior revealed definite signs of human activity, recent human activity. There were several opened but empty wooden crates, a hammer of unsurpassed quality tossed carelessly on the ground besides them. Three blankets of superb craftsmanship were wadded up against the wall. Along the ground were marks that something heavy had been dragged, something heavy like a body.
Xena followed the tracks downwards in a wide, steep passageway until it leveled off and then dead-ended at a large hole in the floor. She tossed in a rock and listened. No sound but the soft crackle of the burning torch. No sound at all.
To dispel the sensation crawling up her back, she said outloud. "You gotta love a bottomless pit for hiding a body. Takes care of the smell. What other surprises does this place hold?"
By the time she got back, it was long dark, and the other two were sound asleep, stretched around the dying fire. Noting that Joxer was sleeping on his stomach and Gabrielle had her bag pulled over her head, Xena was glad to have missed that little exchange. She picked at the bit of meat they had saved for her and pondered again over the events of the day. Too keyed up to sleep, she relit the torch, grabbed a bota, and quietly climbed up the wall to the ledge. At least this cave had remained the same. Or almost the same, she decided later, as she regarded the drawings on a wall of the great room. No circle of torches, no footprints, no body marks, nothing to show that they had been there earlier.
She crossed the room to the corner where she had carved Gabrielle's name next to hers. Well, there they were. So the afternoon was not repeating itself. A bit of luck, that. Nor had Gabrielle given her any grief about the graffiti. Maybe she hadn't noticed. As relieved as she was that she had not been found out, still Xena could not bring herself to mud out the juvenile display of affection. What if such a physical act could somehow set an emotional reality in motion? Out of ideas for the moment, Xena wistfully looked about her. Regretting the loss of the night that was to have been, she made her way back to the fire.
Confident that the campsite was secure, she settled down between her two friends. As she drifted off to sleep, her last conscious thought was that Time would tell what had happened to them, only Time could.
Xena was up long before dawn. She had, as usual, slept fitfully throughout the night, plagued by nightmares. This particular dream had the familiar images of fire and war, disembodied souls, wailing children, screaming soldiers, all dancing their awful choreography on walls of granite in a temple deep in the earth. The only avenue of escape was a tunnel on the other side of a bottomless pit. She could hear Gabrielle's cries for help from deep within the abyss, but try as she might, she could not find a way to scale down its side to rescue her. Periodically, a magical plank would extend briefly from the tunnel over the gorge to wherever she was. She was not about to leave without Gabrielle. Then, somehow, Gabrielle was at her side. It was Joxer who now called from below, only he urged them to go on without him, they were his family, and he had their backs.
Disturbed at the complexity of the nightmare, the sleeping Xena had forced herself to find her hands, a technique taught to her many years before by Lao Ma, an eastern sage with great understanding of such matters. As always, it had given her the power she needed to resolve the challenges in this nether world, her non-physical realm, and she had rescued her dreamworld friends. Awakening had brought her no relief. Getting them to safety in my dreams, she thought ruefully, is not the same as getting them to that reunion in the light of day.
Xena busied herself, reviving the all but dead embers to a blaze so Gabrielle would wake up to a bit of warmth. Quietly gathering up weapons and water bottles, she paused to smile down at a peaceful Gabrielle and wondered, what have we gotten ourselves into now, friend?
Back at camp by sunrise, her morning catch impaled on a stick, she went about the morning chores until she decided that, all things considered, they were burning daylight.
She shook Joxer first. "Rise and shine, hero, rise and shine!" As he wandered off, she plopped down next to her friend and tickled her nose with a leaf. "Morning be coming, Elektra." Opening an eye, Gabrielle smiled up at her.
"Tell me today will be a boring day, eh?" She raised up on her elbows and looked around. "Joxer's back, safe if not quite sound. Tell me I can go puzzle out the stories of my cave dwellers while you two go drink, smoke, and tell lies with all his old pals."
"I'm afraid it's going to be a bit more complicated than that, but first breakfast. I caught your favorite," Xena answered, holding up the stick, "eel."
After breaking camp, Xena decided to retrace their route into this region. Backtracking, the trio found more surprises awaiting them. Everywhere, everything was the same but different. Joxer, in particular, could not get over how yesterday's cliff had turned into today's grassy slope. "I have a bad feeling about this. But don't worry, Gabrielle, I- we will protect you." He was even more dismayed when they reached the spot where they had turned off the high path they had followed all the way along the coast. Instead of a foot-worn trail full of cartwheel ruts, they found a strange road, a dark, hard surface with small rocks lining each side. Tall wooden poles set 20 paces apart, with ropes strung from one to the next, stretched along it as far as the eye could see.
"At least, this view of the sea looks the same as yesterday, but where did this come from?" Joxer kicked a smaller pole that had a strange shiny sign on top of it.
Xena, squatting down on the road, rubbed her hand across it, smelled her fingers, then tasted them, grimacing. "The streets of Athens are brick, but this is unlike anything I have ever walked on. And these poles are taller than any cross I have ever seen, or" she finished under her breath, "been tied to." She peered down the road in both directions, then walked over to one of the larger poles.
Gabrielle joined Joxer to study the shiny sign. "These look like some kind of letters. These two are definitely numbers. Well, that's reassuring anyway." She looked around for Xena who by now was up on top of a pole, listening to the lines.
"These cords are humming," she called down. "Perhaps the gods have put them here to speak to the local folks. Some kind of oracle, maybe. Ares is usually more direct with me. But, of course, he always wants something."
"I hate it when one of the gods meddle with mortals!" Upset, Gabrielle all but stamped her foot.
Joxer chimed in, "Or goddess. Hera is behind this, I just know it."
Gabrielle couldn't resist. "It wasn't Hera who chased you into that cave, was it?"
"Okay, you two. Gods, goddesses, or bad stars, who cares?" Jumping down between them, Xena outlined her strategy. "Now, we need information if we are going to figure this out. Let's split up. Gabrielle, go down by the sea. Maybe there is a fishing village or sailors fire pit. I am going to follow this road." She crouched down to reexamine its surface. "We'll meet up back at last night's cave by sundown."
"Hey, what about me?"
Xena looked up at the young man whose feelings she had obviously hurt. She considered a moment, then straightened up to put a hand on his shoulder. "Joxer, these are your old stomping grounds. Head toward your home village until midday, then double back. Stay out of trouble, if possible, and pay attention! It's important!"
Joxer was not convinced. "Yeah, well, it sounds like `Joxer, go home.' to me."
"Nonsense. Someone has to scout the valley and surrounding mountains. See if you notice anything out of the ordinary, anything different from the last time you were here."
"Nothing will be different, trust me." Joxer protested. "They applaud a new rash around here."
Xena had no time for this. She grabbed his arm, "I guarantee things will be different. Be careful. Don't take anything for granted." She started to shove him on his way, then remembered how worried she had been just yesterday. Straightening up his breastplate and brushing off his cape, she continued, "Remember to come back to the cave by dusk. We'll all compare parchment then."
Watching Joxer take to the hills, Xena grinned at Gabrielle, "Surely he won't get in any trouble in his own backyard. Wanna bet he gets lost?"
Gabrielle laughed, "Gonna track him tomorrow, eh? That ol' tried and true method. You'd think he'd learned and just go with one of us. Oh!" She playfully shook her finger at Xena, "What am I saying! Joxer the Scout is a great plan!"
Xena smiled, "The warnings are genuine. Be careful. If you run across anyone, ask questions but give no answers. Try not to be conspicuous. If anyone does ask, we're just here for the festival."
"Right. Er, what festival?"
"This is Thrace. They are always having a festival."
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