By RedPrincess
Chapter One
It was hot, so hot that the searing heat which rose up from the ground created shimmering ripples in the dry acrid air.The sun blazed overhead; not one current of wind blew to break the stillness. The steamy, wet humidity hung about thetwo weary women, close and liquid. Just the simple act of walking caused sticky perspiration to trickle uncomfortablydown their tired bodies. Their clothes clung to them unmercifully, soaked through to the damp skin underneath.
"Xena, can we *please* go sit down under those trees for a while? I can't take this anymore!" The young bard shot her good friend a pathetic look.
"Oh, all right, Gabrielle. We can rest for a while. It certainly is hot today. Too hot!"
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! The gods are being kind today!" The bard looked towards the heavens gratefully.
"You know Gabrielle, you are just *too* dramatic."
The two princesses, Amazon and warrior left the dusty dirt road and headed toward some near-by shade trees. "Well, this is better, but not much."
Gabrielle sank down wearily, propped her back up against the large, rough tree trunk and put her hands behind her headin a vain attempt to cool off. She watched lethargically as Xena tied Argo's rein to one of the thick branches. Thewarrior removed several things from the saddlebags, handing one, a full goat skin, to the bard who tipped it to her lipsand squeezed, drinking greedily.
"Hey! Leave some for me!"
"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry."
The Amazon princess passed the water to her thirsty friend. In exchange, Xena gave Gabrielle one of her scrollparchments.
"You want me to write?"
"Ha ha ha. Gabrielle, you are so funny sometimes. No. I want to show you a trick I learned many years ago when Iwas in China. It will help to cool you off. Now watch me. If you hold the parchment from the side and wave it back andforth in front of your face like this you may feel better. It's not much of a breeze but it should help a little."
Xena smiled affectionately at her overheated friend. Gabrielle shook the make-shift fan back and forth furiously. "No, no! Not like that, a bit slower will work much better." The Warrior Princess demonstrated the technique. Gabrielle watched intently and then mimicked her best friend.
"Ahhhhh. Yes, this is much better. Now let me show *you* a trick." She picked up the leather thong which had held her parchment roll together, pulled back her long reddish blonde hairinto a tight pony tail and tied it with the leather strip.
"Why don't you tie up your hair too, Xena?"
"Nah."
"Why not?"
"Bad for my image."
The bard put her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun and scanned the surrounding area. "Nobody here now. You're image is safe. C'mon, I promise. I won't laugh!"
After considering her increasing discomfort caused by the muggy temperature, the Warrior Princess began to fumblewith the leather thong. Each time she tied it a few strands of her long, dark hair would escape from the knot. Shebecame increasingly annoyed with herself for being unable to perform this simple task. Gabrielle could see thefrustration building up in her friend. 'She can defeat an army, but she can't tie her hair up in a simple knot' the bardthought with amusement. Realizing that Xena had missed out on some of the more feminine pleasures in life, Gabrielletook pity on her and stood up.
"Here, let me do it. Obviously, you haven't had much practice at this. I guess Warrior Princesses don't care much abouthow their hair looks!"
"Very funny, Gabrielle."
"Yeah, that's me, Gabrielle the comedian. There, all done." Xena reached up, feeling the strands of hair which were smoothly tucked into the tightly wound knot.
"How do I look?" Her eyes danced coquettishly.
"Gaaawgus, daahling, simply divoooon. Hee hee!!" The two women giggled merrily like two little girls playing dress up for the first time.
Gabrielle returned to her comfortable position lounging against the tree and Xena joined her, sitting down heavily nextto her friend. The heat had taken it's toll on her too. All of a sudden Xena jumped up rubbing the side of her thigh.
"Ouch!!"
"Hey! You big klutz! Watch out! You almost sat on me!!!"
The Warrior Princess looked around for the source of the tiny voice, but there was nobody else present.
"Gabrielle?"
"Yeah, I heard it too."
Gently massaging her stinging thigh, Xena's gaze drifted down toward the ground. She stared, transfixed by theincredible site before her. For there stood a tiny lady, no bigger than her ring finger. She wore a delicate tunic of thewhitest silk, and her pale skin contrasted against her shortly cropped ebony colored hair. The lilliputian sized creaturefluttered up to eye level, using her gossamer wings to ride the air. Hovering in front of the Warrior Princess' nose shelooked at her, with fury sparking from her tiny violet colored irises. Her little arms were crossed tightly and sheappeared to be tapping her bare toes in mid air. In her pint-sized hand she held a long, thin pointy splinter of dry wood.
"You big lug! You almost crushed me to death!"
"I-I'm sorry. Xena's eyes began to cross as she stared at the tiny creature.
"Who are you?"
"Namora."
"Namora? You're kinda short, ya know."
"Yeah, duh, I'm a fairy!"
"Um....pleased to meet you. I've never met one of you, uh, little people before."
"Well, you almost made this one a little *flat* person, you big oaf!"
"Gee Namora, all ya had to do was holler. I would have found you. Ya didn't have to stab me with that splinter. Oooohthat smarts."
As the Warrior Princess bent down and examined the resulting red spot, caused by the splinter prick, Gabrielle studiedthe diminutive pixie with great interest. She stood up and slowly approached her. Bending closer to get a better look,she realized that the vindictive creature was preparing for another sneak attack against her best friend. Quickly, shereached out and snatched her out of the air, holding her tightly. Only Namora's head could be seen popping up from thebard's fist. Namora struggled inside of Gabrielle's hand pushing and prodding her fingers and kicking the inside of herpalm with her minuscule feet.
"Oh no you don't. You're not gonna get a second chance you little dwarf harpie from Hades!"
"Sooo, you think you're tough just cause you're bigger than me, huh? You're just lucky I lost my magic wand or elseI'd......."
"Now wait just a minute. Calm down you little wood sprite. *You're* the one who started this. We were just mindingour business, trying to cool off and *you*, you start yappin' at us! How did we know you were here, you're so smallwe didn't even see ya! I oughta squash your little......"
"Gabrielle!"
Namora and the bard both snapped their heads around in the direction of that distinctive voice.
"Put her down."
"Why? She's just gonna start trouble again."
"I said put her down."
"Oh, okay."
Reluctantly, Gabrielle set the fairy gently down on a nearby tree branch. Namora shook herself, smoothing her clothesback down and straightening her wings. Then, she defiantly stuck her tongue out at the bard. When she turned aroundto face front she found herself staring into Xena's steel blue eyes. Caught by surprise, Namora was struck by the auraof true leadership radiated by the Warrior Princess. For just a moment, this noble lady reminded her very much ofsomeone from her past. Another commander who she admired, respected and considered a great friend. Someone shemissed very much. Almost by habit, she waited to hear what the dark haired woman had to say.
"Now, it seems we all got started off on the wrong foot here. Let's start this again. I'm Xena, and this is my friendGabrielle. Nice to meet you Namora."
Xena elbowed Gabrielle in the ribs. "Hey! Oh all right. Nice to meet you, Sprite."
The clearly apparent sarcasm in the bard's voice shattered the nostalgic memory, and Namora snapped back to reality. "Yeah, yeah nice to meet you too and all of that." The pixie's eyes rolled around in her head clearly showing her displeasure at this utter waste of nonsense.
"Well, gotta go. See ya."
She began to flap her wings and rose several inches from the branch when suddenly she was halted in mid air. The fairyturned around to see what had stopped her take-off. The muscular thumb and forefinger of the Warrior Princess held herwings tightly as if she were a butterfly attempting escape.
"Where ya going? Ya just got here?"
"Now what?"
"Why don't you stay awhile?"
"Naah."
"Why not?"
"Gotta run!"
"Got someplace special to go?"
"Nope."
"Then why not stick around for a while?"
"Can't."
"Boy you sure don't say much do ya?"
"Nope."
"Well, gee, you are a fairy right?"
"Yup."
"Well do something fairy-like."
"Like what?"
"How about making a pond for us to jump into so we can cool off?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
'Told ya, no magic wand."
"So?"
"Can't do it without my wand. Those are the rules."
"Give it a shot anyway.......please?"
Xena looked at the little sprite imploringly. Her eyes betrayed her fatigue and the tiny beads of sweat on her nose werean all too obvious indication of her discomfort. Namora felt sorry for the warrior. She knew how hot it was. She herselfwas feeling a bit woozy from the combination of the blazing sun and thick humidity. She reasoned that the twoAmazons were in fact nice people and that it was the acrid heat that had caused the sarcastic retorts from the smaller one.She relented.
"Ok, I'll give it a try. No promises though."
Namora raised her tiny arms straight out in front of her and closed her eyes. She began to go into a trance, head lollingback and forth and rocking ever so slightly.
"Mermaid nymph of aqua sea
Hear me now, please grant my plea
Conjure up a liquid pool
To soothe our forms and make us cool."
The tiny creature then quickly raised her hands up and tilted her face toward the sky. She held that position for amoment and still maintaining it, she opened up one eye for a quick peek. Xena and Gabrielle were holding their handsover their mouths trying to control their laughter. But Namora could see the merriment in their eyes.
"Hey! What's so funny?"
Unable to control her emotions any longer, Gabrielle erupted into hearty laughter. She pointed to a spot on the groundimmediately in front of the shade tree. Namora looked down at the ground and froze. Her embarrassment was clearlyevident as slowly her ivory colored face turned a shade of bright pink. For there stood the result of her magic, a puddleno bigger than a large bowl. She glared at the two women in anger.
"Told you it wouldn't work right. There's a reason for having rules, ya know! See ya!" The winged sprite shot up into the air and flew away in a flurry of fury.
"Aw Gabrielle, why did ya do that? You got the poor little thing all upset."
"Sorry, just couldn't help myself." Gabrielle was still giggling.
"Oh well, the sun will be setting soon. We might as well camp here for the night."