Hello everyone,
Evelyn here,
with segment two of “Resurrection: The Return of Xena Warrior Princess” by Evelyn F. Altheimer-Fain. Enjoy
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Egypt
28 B. C.
Gabrielle riding the mare Argona, a granddaughter of Xena’s Palomino mare Argo, is traveling through Egypt and heading for the coastland of North Africa to board a ship that will take her home to Greece and then Potedia. For days, all she has seen is hot white sand and she is now amazed that the tiny dark spate she spotted far ahead a few hours ago was now becoming a familiar face. A familiar face that is riding at a neck breaking pace from what seem to be the desert itself, Gabrielle thought. As she watches the approaching figure, she halts Argona. She is soon confronted by Hoshi, the monk who sought Xena’s help in ridding the city of Higuchi of Yodoshi, the Lord of the Dark Land.
Five years have passed since the death of Xena, and Gabrielle emotions are mixed. On the one hand, she is saddened by Hoshi appearance and the memories he represents, but on the other hand, she is curious and excited to see her old friend. She decides that excitement is the better of the two emotions and pushes the bad memories away. Hoshi was very helpful to her in those last days within the city of Higuchi when she had to prepare Xena’s body for resurrection up on the peak of mount Fiji and her eventual trip to Egypt. The fire of Xena’s body burnt for hours before it was finally drenched by a heavy rain. During those last days before her departure, Gabrielle budding friendship with Hoshi helped to console some her grief.
Gabrielle five years journey through Egypt had turned her into a proven warrior who took her responsible as defender of those “in need of a girl with a chakram” seriously when seriousness was needed. Yet, she also relished the lighter and sometimes funny campaigns. Although her adventures are many as well as fruitful (a girl has to eat and feed her horse) she saw within the mundane, the horrors of human nature and bent of this god or that god on the people of the land which sometimes disturbed her dreams.
Now Gabrielle was ready to return home and face Lila, her sister, and Sara, her niece who she, Xena, Eve, and Virgil rescued from the evil raider Gurkhan. She was also ready to confront the others pieces her past that she left behind. Fortunately, Gabrielle has not traveled alone all those years. She has Virgil as a companion. Virgil traveled with her, Xena and Eve at Amphipolis where Xena refused to become the Queen of Hell after killing the demon who was responsible for her mother’s death and the death of other villagers. The demon had been the ruler of Hell, and the usual way of succession was that by killing the rightful ruler you took his place. Xena did not want to rule hell and any other place for that matter. So while battling her own growing darkness, she tricked the errant archangel Lucifer into revealing his true demonist self and then cased him down into the abyss to rule from throne of Hell.
Being a good fighter, Virgil tries to protect Gabrielle, much to her annoyance. In the three years in which they have traveled together, he has earned a place of warmth in her heart. There were many nights when she was startled from her nightmares. Later she was grateful for the embrace of his arms and his solid shoulders.
The worst of her dreams occurred on the nights when she woke thinking that Xena was reaching out to her and failing to do it. Gabrielle believed this to be true, and that the shrouded person she saw in the darkness of some foreboding land within her dreams was her lost friend. This only served to add to her distress because the dreams were to beginning to have its effects in her awaking world.
When Hoshi finally reach them he was covered in a in a fury of desert dust and sand, Gabrielle said,
“Are my coming and going so regular that even friends that I have not seen in years can easily find me in the Egyptian desert?”
“Hello Gabrielle, I have come a long way to find you and that way was not easy”, said Hoshi breaking into a smile that lit the little monk’s face up.
“Hello my friend.” said Gabrielle, “What bring you so far away from Japan to find me?”
“I bring hope for the return of the one you lost, my friend. After all these years, an answer has revealed itself in a secret which that has been carried inside the breasts of three evil men. One, Yodoshi, who was destroyed by our departed friend, Xena, and his ...”
“Wait, wait Hoshi”, said Gabrielle, “what do you mean by, ‘hope for the return of Xena’?”
“Ah, that is a long story, my friend and not one to be told here in the desert heat”, said Hoshi, but I have found an oasis not far for here were we can all rest and refresh ourselves. There is where I can tell you what you need to know”
“Sounds great”, said Gabrielle turning to her companion, “Hoshi this is myfriend Virgil who had been traveling with me since he found me in Cairo three years ago.
The two men exchanged greeting.
“Virgil and I just recently found the daughter of Egyptian’s merchant. When we found her, we discovered that she was neither lost nor stolen but that she had married a man who her father thought too poor to marry her. Later he was told that the man he had refused to give his daughter to could buy his house and all that he has in it a hundred times over.”
There was a round of good nature laughter and the three turned their mounts in the direction of the little monk’s oasis.
Upon seeing Hoshi’s promised oasis that was picture perfect with its tall, shady palm and fruit trees surrounding a large crystal blue pool of water, Gabrielle declared that she would be the first to bathe the grit and sand from her body. Hoshi assured her that she would find the water a cool and pleasant change from riding for weeks in the gritty desert sand.
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Resurrection: The Return of Xena Warrior Princes
Evelyn F. Altheimer-Fain© July 10, 2005
To continue.
Evelyn out.
