Children of the Moon  

By Rocky Macelli

Chapter IV

The pale blue face of the moon was setting in the west and soon the first slim rays of dawn would soon be peeking pinkly in the east.  Hand in hand Xena and Gabrielle tip-toed over the prone bodies of slumbering amazons, careful not to draw the attention of the guards who hooted softly to each other from the trees surrounding the village. 

"What the…" Xena sputtered when she lit the candle on the table inside the entrance of their lodgings.  The two plain cots that had been there when they had left for the celebration were gone.  In their place was a large double pallet that had a small wineskin sitting at its middle.  The warrior walked around the new furniture warily and pulled the skin from center of the bed.  Sniffing the stopper she smiled.  "It's a skin of Pony's shine."

The smaller woman lost no time tugging off her boots and hopping up on to the bed.  "Gods Xena!  A real bed.  I can't remember the last time we slept in a real bed."  Gabrielle said happily, running her hand over the soft wool of the coverlet.  "I wasn't looking forward to trying to squeeze together on one of those skinny little cots."

Dropping down on the other side, Xena sat and pulled at the fastenings of her own boots.  "Bugger!" She muttered under her breath when she found the laces of the second boot had tightened into a snug knot.

Gabrielle sighed and rose to walk around to the warrior's side of the bed.  "Here, let me…" She bent and patiently worried the knot loose.  "There."  The little blonde announced, drawing off the boot and leaned forward to drop a kiss on a scarred kneecap.  "Xena?"

"Hmm?"  Xena answered distractedly as she unlaced and tugged the worn leather off over her head.

"If you always wear knee high armor, why do you have scars on your knees?"

The tall woman chuckled and pulled Gabrielle up into her lap.  "You promise not to laugh?"  Xena asked playing with the ties on the smaller woman's top.

"I hate when you do that.  You know I can't keep a straight face when something's funny."  Gabrielle pouted, and slapped at the busy fingers.

"Fine…" Suddenly, the ceiling of the hut was an attractive thing indeed.  "When I was little, I was in a hurry to get out back, I dropped my pants a bit too soon and landed on my knees."  Xena rubbed at the white lines of the scars on her knees.  "Although I will have you know that I managed to take care of business in spite of being wounded."

Looking horrified Gabrielle bit her bottom lip.  "Honey that's awful!  Who in the world would find that funny?"

"My whole family thought it was hilarious, but then of course, they knew the reason I was it such a hurry."

"…And that was?"

Xena bent down so that their brows were touching and spent a few moments getting lost in the serious green eyes of her love.  "How do you manage to get me to tell you these things?"  She asked rhetorically, and then sighed in resignation.  "The truth is I had stolen a jar of fruit juice from the cool room, to take with me when I snuck out on my chores to go fishing."  She closed her eyes in embarrassment. "The jar was full of prune juice that my mom kept for old Silas when he came in, in the mornings."

Gabrielle chewed the inside of her cheek to keep from giggling.  "You drank the whole thing?"

"Yeah, afraid so.  It was cool and sweet and it was a really hot day."

She honestly tried not to laugh, but the smirk on the warrior's face set Gabrielle off on a series of giggles that erupted into helpless laughter.  Slowly she managed to compose herself.  "I'm sorry honey it probably really hurt."

"It hurt almost as much as my wounded pride when my Mom found me out there.  When she put two and two together she didn't even have the heart to say anything.  She figured that the Gods had seen fit to punish me enough already."  Xena's fingers used the distraction to good advantage and had the bard's laces undone and the top half off before their wearer even noticed.

"Oh."  The conversation was lost for a moment as the Queen relished the press of warm flesh.  "Ohhhh… Mmm."

Xena grinned into the soft skin at the nape of Gabrielle's neck.  She placed a flock of feather soft kisses there.  "It's nice that you've finally relaxed."  She murmured, as she followed the hairline up to a tasty earlobe.

"Huh?"

It was too late to back up.  Xena winced, knowing that she should have kept the thought to herself.  "Well it's been a while, we haven't really had a chance to be close lately, …with all the attempts on your life and everything."  Mentally she crossed her fingers and hoped for the best.

"Xena, I'm feeling a lot of things lately but relaxed is not the definition I would give it.  Why do you think I came up to the loft the other night?  I'm so frustrated I could scream."

"Well then how come you said you were too tired last night?"  The warrior's face turned with a very uncharacteristic pout.

Gabrielle leaned back in Xena's arms and brought her free hand up to brush the raven hair back out of her lover's face.  "Xena, honey, I was tired and I said I was frustrated; that calls for far more than a short, half dressed, grope where I have only part of your attention."  She plucked at the cloth ties of the worn and stained linen liner that Xena wore next to her skin.  "I want to see and feel all of you."  With that she stood and tugged the material over the mop of dark hair, leaving Xena sitting on the edge of the bed in nothing but a brief loincloth, and soon the strings holding it in place were loosened and that garment hit the floor also. Placing the flat of her palm in the middle of the warrior's chest she pushed her lover back on the new big bed.

Grinning Xena scooted up on the bed and cupped her hands behind her head, crossing her feet at the ankles.  "Well you certainly have all of my attention now."

In very 'un-Queen-like' form, the Amazon Queen crawled on all fours up beside the prone body on the bed, shedding the last of her clothing on the way, and flopped down in a sprawl.  "Yes I do don't I?"  Gabrielle murmured as she drew one finger along the muscled length of her lover and moved in for long sweet kiss, only to find herself rolled onto her back, where she became the subject of a fully undressed exploration that far exceeded any 'grope.'

Chapter V

Spiro cursed and forced the bar deeper into the tangle of roots beneath the stump he was trying to remove.  Grunting and heaving he managed to twist the unruly obstacle further over in the depression where he had been digging.  He left the bar in place and reached over for the small hand axe beside him and began to wage war on the newly exposed roots. 

"Papa!  Where are you Papa?"  Came from the distance.

"Here!"  Spiro shouted over his shoulder, his arm still swinging, fully focused on the task at hand.

The tall young man followed the sound of chopping and finally noted the flash of the sun off the arcing movement.  "There you are."  Crouching down beside the small hole that held his father, he watched until the last of the exposed roots were cut.  "Mother says ta' come."

The older man squinted upwards and frowned at finding the sun not fully high in the sky.  "Why?  It's too early for the midday meal.  I have work to do."

"There's a woman at the house."

"What woman?"

"I think it is one who brought us Kinay"

Spiro didn't know what to think.  He hurriedly gathered his tools and handed them to his son.  'Why was she here?'  She had promised him that once she bore a daughter, she would not return. It had been more than fifteen years since he had even seen the wild woman.  The thing that truly troubled the farmer more was that Demmy remembered anything of his birth mother.  "Where is Kinay now?"  He asked and climbed out from beside the stump.

Demmy held out his hand and help his father to stand.  "He's probably still at the mill.  He has a crush on the miller's daughter."  Demmy grinned.  "Something about big blue eyes like mother's."

The farmer nodded.  "Go find him and both of you meet me back at the house.  I'll need both of you to help me remove the rest of this stump after we eat."

"Okay Papa."  Setting the axe and the bar into the nearby barrow, Demmy took off at a run.  Just wait until he told Kinay about the strange woman.

The sight that greeted Spiro when he entered the kitchen was of a very carefully guarded truce.  In one corner stood the wild woman who had given him his sons, and by the fireplace stood his wife, the woman who had helped him raise them to manhood.  Surely his wife resented that the wild woman who could give her husband sons when she could not.  Whereas, the Amazon stood and stared at the woman, to whom she had given over her first two children.  Both jealous, neither envious.

"Eponin."  Spiro said with a nod to the Amazon, as he crossed the room to the washbasin.  He scrubbed the dust and soil from his face and hands and took an offered towel from his wife before he addressed the woman who has borne his children.  "I hardly expected to see you again."

"Nor I."  The Amazon replied with a shrug.  "…But I have a problem that only you can solve."  Eponin looked uncomfortably over at the tall blonde woman.  'Almost as tall as me,' she noted.  "Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Anything that needs to be; can be said in front Linnah."  Spiro said putting one arm around his wife, who in turn settled her arm around the shoulders of her small dark mate.

"I have a daughter, Estrian, who's fifteen summers."

So, it was true, he had given the woman the girl child she wanted.  "I fail to see what this has to do with my family."

"Estrian has become a talented scout.  She has made me very proud and there is nothing in my power I would not do out of love for her."  Eponin bit her lip and stretched out her hands to convey her inefficacy.  "She wishes to meet her sire."  There.  It was out.  She stood and waited for the farmer to turn the request over in his mind.

'Mad.  The wild woman must be mad.'  The first thought sprang forward.  Yet at the back of his mind, Spiro had to admit that he had, on occasion, pondered if he had fathered a girl child for the Amazon.  It would explaining why she had never returned after the last time when she had given him his youngest son in return for more of his service.  He also knew that she was taking a great risk of losing face with her tribe, by coming to him.

The silence that had hovered in the kitchen was broken as two young men tumbled in, happily talking and wrestling each other for space in the doorway.  They grew quiet when they saw the tall woman standing in the corner of the room.

Tightening her jaw, Eponin fought to keep an impassive semblance.  Both of the boys had dark curly hair like their father but the youngest looked so much like her little sister, who had been killed many years before, that it nearly stopped her heart.  The sorrow she thought she had buried deep down; swooped up and threatened to carry her away.  

"I am camped at the river, Spiro.  I will await your answer there."  She turned and walked calmly out the door, leaving the farmer and his family to silently watch her retreating back.  It wasn't until she judged that she was well out of sight, that she ran, running in long flowing strides, away from the piercing pain in her heart.

She ran until she reached her camp, pitched that morning, collapsing into an unexpected flood of tears that she no longer had the strength to fight.  Memories she was sure that had been purged and forgotten, of her first two children, hit her like a closed fist.

Eponin hadn't been much older than Estrian was now, when she had captured the small dark man who rode with a group of raiders intent on encroaching tribal hunting grounds.  She remembered how intrigued she had been with his dark skin and black shining eyes, and mostly how small he was.     

He was perfect.  She felt none of the intimidation that was usually present around men.  In the time-honored fashion of her tribe, she offered him his freedom in return for stud services to produce her heir.  It was also agreed that she was to give up to him any boy child after it had been weaned. 

The arrangement worked well for Spiro and his new wife, since they had been unable to have children.  Great Hera, Goddess of childbirth, knew how heavy her heart had been, when she had arrived at their farm with a two-year old boy child on her hip.  She almost didn't breed with the small man the second time because of the pain of parting from her son had caused. 

The image of the chubby little boy clinging to his mother's skirts when she arrived with yet another boy-child, still appeared in the nightmares that she refused to acknowledge.  She had been so emotionally lost that night, that she cried the entire time the man had mounted her, laying there unmoving until long after the farmer had finished and left. 

Joyfully she bore Estrian that next summer and never again had to know the pain of giving away her children.  It was no wonder that children of the tribe were so loved and cared for; they were produced from far more than the simple pain of labor.  She loved her daughter, so much so, that she now tore open long scarred wounds, simply to see her happy. 

Spiro's wife approached the small campfire.  Tugging her shawl tighter around her shoulders, she stepped from the shadows into the flickering glow of the firelight.  Eponin looked up, surprised to see the tall blonde woman standing there instead of her small dark husband.  "Linnah."  She stated, acknowledging her with a nod.

The farmer's wife made her way around to the far side of the fire to sit on a large rock.  Taking a moment to study the tall Amazon through the flames, she could see the trace evidence of sorrow, in the form of shiny red-rimmed eyes.  "I wanted to talk to you."  She said, finally forcing herself to keep eye contact rather than look down at her hands that were twisting the material of her skirt.  "I couldn't love my boys more if they had come from my own body, and I feel the need to thank you for that.  I should have said something back in the kitchen but this fool's tongue refused to speak.  I can't imagine the pain of giving up a child, much less two of them.  Yet because of your pain I have two beautiful sons that I would not -- could not give up, even if the Gods demanded it of me."

Eponin knew that she should keep her own council, but the words come tumbling out from betraying lips.  "Your sons, …they are good boys?"

A sad sympathetic smile spread on Linnah's face and she moved one hand to cover it.  "Yes, my sons are good boys.  Demmy, the eldest, is very much like a taller version of his father, sober but loving.  Kinay, on the other hand is a good boy, but he has a wild side that sometimes lures him into trouble."

The Amazon's lips and jaw drew tight and a large round tear started to slide down her cheek, she turned quickly to wipe it away.  Running one knuckle under her nose and sniffing quietly, Eponin swallowed so her words wouldn't begin with a choke.  'Amazons did not have sons,' she reminded herself.  "It is good to hear that you and your husband have good boys." She said with a smile of gratitude.  Most Amazons never knew what became of their male children after they were weaned, so Linnah's words were a kind gift to her aching heart.

"Your daughter, Estrian, she is a good girl?"  Linnah asked softly.

Eponin laughed.  "Yes, she's a little scamp but she has earned the title of 'Scout' when most girls are still learning to use their first bow properly."  Then looking up the Amazon saw the real question in the blonde woman's eyes.  "She's short and dark like her father, and has his black eyes and hair but people say that she looks a lot like me."

Linnah nodded and smiled.  She rose up from her seat on the rock, gathering her shawl back about her shoulders.  "Spiro will be here at moon rise.  He tells me that you can't bring Estrian here, so he will go with you."  She turned and started walking away into the night.

"Linnah?"

The farmer's wife turned back to the light of the fire.  "Yes?"

Eponin's voice was quiet and firm.  "You are a good mother."

The firelight reflected off of Linnah's full smile.  "So are you."  She was about to turn again but she stopped.  "Is there no way that Estrian could get to meet her brothers?"

The tall Amazon sighed.  "Estrian has no brothers."

"I see."  Linnah answered in a low tone, and walked away into the gathering darkness.

Chapter VI

Gabrielle slowly woke to a warm sunny afternoon spilling through the half open shutter in the window above the door.  Much to her surprise she was still wrapped around the slumbering form of her warrior.  'Heh!  I must have worn her out.'  She thought amused, indulging herself in a smug grin, tracing one finger along the bow of the full, ruddy lips.  "Honey…" She called in a low voice, and kissed the ear she was whispering into.  "Honey, wake up."  Dropping her hand lower, she allowed her fingers to splay over Xena's ribs and then further down to rub in slow circles on a firm abdomen. 

"Mmm…" One blue eye opened and swiveled over sleepily to look at the source of her disturbance.  "Good Morning." A small smile curled one corner of her lip.  "It would seem that someone wore me out."

"Good afternoon."  The Queen chuckled merrily and claimed a full warm kiss of greeting.  Retreating for air she mused, "This is nice.  Do you think we could pack this bed up on Argo?  I could like waking up like this every day."

"Um…  I think Argo might have something to say about that."  Xena replied grinning and rolled over on to her back.  She gathered the young blonde woman close, rejoicing in her nearness with a deep, sumptuous hug.  "I would, however, hazard a guess that if we know this bed is waiting here for us, that we will be visiting the village a little more often."  Her teasing tone sobered a bit when she saw her love reflected back in her Gabrielle's eyes.  "It's good to see those dark rings are gone from under your eyes."  Reaching out with her index fingers she traced Gabrielle's brows and then tapped her gently on the end of the nose.  "So are you relaxed yet?"

Gabrielle made a disgusted little noise.  "I recall being loved very thoroughly earlier this morning by a very athletic and resourceful dark haired warrior.  What I don't remember is completely returning the favor before I fell asleep."

"It's okay Honey, you were exhausted.  And besides, I always experience a little 'O' just by making you come."

The disgusted noise happened again in a slightly higher volume.  "Little 'O's' don't count, at least not as far as I'm concerned."  The Queen growled and assumed a very aggressive posture over the long lean body and began applying lips and tongue to Xena's throat and shoulders, as her right hand moved to encompass a full round breast.

Since the two women had eased into a comfortable physical relationship, Xena had discovered that there were times when her partner felt the need to be assertive.  Also the warrior had quickly learned absolutely nothing was to be done about it, except to hang on for dear life and enjoy the ride.

Gabrielle was busily employing the wide opportunities that the large bed offered.  She draped herself loosely on top of Xena, allowing every possible section of skin come in contact.  Using her face, her hands, her elbows, knees, even her toes, she moved over the bronzed skin leaving a healthy rose of arousal.  She knew that the tall woman was reciprocating in the form of large hands that moved over her back and buttocks, but that only registered on the lower levels of her consciousness.  All focus lay in touching and tasting and feeling the soul beneath her.  The ultimate goal was to cause a volcanic meltdown at the center of Mount Xena, to be followed by a prolonged and loud explosion.

'Suck this…  Rub that…  Taste this, and then rub the other one--OH yeah!'  Gabrielle's train of thought didn't raise much above the visceral at this point.  The small piece of her brain that was keeping track of things noted that her partner was growing closer to the big event and she backed off 'just a little' and allowed the pressure to start building again.

"Gods Honey!"  Xena gasped and then tried in vain to draw in a full breath.  "Please!  …Please!   …PLEASE!"  She panted.  "They're gonna…" Pant.  "…have'ta…" Pant.  "…clean me offa'…" Pant. "…the walls of this hut!" 

Solari, the head of the Royal Guard, was walking up to the path to Gabrielle's hut to call on the Queen, when she heard Xena's voice spewing a long string of curses and blessings all in one breath, followed by a very, very, long, low orgasmic groan.  Wide-eyed she grinned and decided that she had other pressing duties elsewhere and that she would return later  …much later.

"So do you think that 'Her Highness' is awake yet?"  The dark haired Amazon asked the Regent with a snicker and a grin, as she entered their hut.

Ephiny raised one brow at her shield sister.  "Why do you ask, Solari?  You've got that little 'I know something you don't know' grin plastered all over your face again."

Solari danced around the Regent and playfully tugged at the front of her leathers, earning a halfhearted backhanded slap to the arm, as the two women teased and flirted with each other.  "I was sworn to secrecy by Pony, but I can give you a little hint."  She winked, stole a kiss, and then quickly jumped away from a swat on the behind.  "Pony got me to rearrange the furniture in Gabrielle's hut, last night."

Looking the other direction and watching out of the corner of her eye, Ephiny managed to snag the bobbing brunette and pulled her close until they were nose to nose.  "Ah ha!  That's how those two cots wound up behind the kitchen.  Does this mean that our Queen slept on the floor of her hut?"

"Um…  Not quite." Solari bit her lower lip.  "You know that big bed that Pony was building for us?"

"Yeah, so?" Then understanding dawned.  "…Oh!"  Ephiny just shook her head as all the pieces fell together.  "Fine, but you are not allowed to bitch about the size of the bed anymore."  She teased with a little growl and squeezed a handful of prime, leather-covered, Amazon rump.

"Don't worry."  Solari murmured burying her nose in fragrant curly blonde hair.  "She says that she'll start on another one just as soon as she gets back."

"Huh?  What?"  Ephiny paused from trying to pull out the small silver pin that held the front of Solari's top together.  "Where did she go?"

"I don'no, Estrian is supposed to meet her at the patrol hut on the Southwest border tonight."

"Those two!"  Ephiny tsked.  "They're more like sisters than mother and daughter, always taking off for parts unknown." 

The Regent pulled her shield sister in close for a long kiss and then pulled away, grabbing her by the hand, she lead the way out the door.  "C'mon let's go see if the Queen liked my…  I mean, 'her' new bed."

They tiptoed up to the Queen's hut, and then paused at the door wordlessly daring each other to be the one to knock.  Finally Ephiny took the initiative and raised a fist to the surface of the door, only to have it swing open to the amused face of the tall Warrior Princess.

"Hey Ephiny, we were just headed out to find something to eat.  Would you care to join us?"

The blonde regent tried not to stare at the string of small love bites that started at the warrior's collarbone and disappeared under the bronze armor.  She hastily covered her inability to speak by coughing into her fist, breaking the spell. "Sure, that would be fine.  I wanted to go over this threat to the Queen, and doing it over a meal sounds great."

"It started at the beginning of the season," Xena began while she reached for the tall ewer across the table.  "We were helping to negotiate a small feud between two reigning families several days north of here."  She paused and filled her tankard with the sweet mild mead that the Amazons were so famous for.  "I managed to snatch an arrow that was meant for Gabrielle."

Holding up a small tumbler, Gabrielle received a portion of mead as well and flashed a smile of thanks to her tall lover.  "What Xena forgot to mention, in her very brief account of the event, is that she caught the arrow while driving down from the balcony above the talks.  She nearly broke her arm and we never did find out who shot the arrow."  She paused to wet her tongue.  "Then it seemed like assassins were coming out of the wood-work, a man tried to stab me in the market place, another tried to garrote me outside our room in Athens. So we stayed away from towns and villages when ever possible.  As it was Xena caught two more arrows meant for me.  After that we didn't even travel on the roads; sticking to game trails instead."

Gabrielle paused for a moment staring into her cup and remembering the most recent attack, and the pain it had caused.  "We learned the most of what we know, from last assassin; who chose to thrust himself onto Xena's sword, rather than answer her questions." 

"When was this last attack?"  The Regent asked.

Xena dropped one arm around Gabrielle in a comforting gesture.  She could feel the smaller woman tensing up as she recalled the last attempt on her life, and the painful argument with her family immediately after. "The night before last, just after moon rise."  Xena answered saving Gabrielle from saying more until she was ready.  "We were visiting Gabrielle's family.  No one should have even known that we were there."

"Did you recognize the assassin?" 

"No but when I searched the body I found this tattoo."  The warrior pulled out the rendering and spread it out between her hands on the table.

Ephiny frowned and shook her head.  "The crescent moon is a common symbol for our Goddess but I have no idea what the fist means."

"We know for certain that whoever is behind this has some kind of vendetta against the Amazons because of his last words… 'Death to the Harlot Queen'." Xena's anger was barely held in check, belied by the twitching muscles in her neck and jaw. 

"…And there was the other thing."  Gabrielle's voice was a quiet shadow, as she was loathe to bring up the unusual state of the assassin's genitals.  Her eyes turned to the warrior pleading silently to explain, so she wouldn't have to.

"Oh yeah, the dung eater's pecker was cropped too." The warrior added without batting an eye.

The Regent frowned even more deeply and chewed on her bottom lip, but she shook her head deliberately.  "No, I would guess that only means that the man was a pervert of some kind."

Xena was troubled as she watched Ephiny's posture tighten and change ever so slightly, 'She's lying… I wonder why?' the thought disturbed her, but she chose to keep it to herself for the time being.  "You're probably right.  In the mean time, we've come to the one place where I know that Gabrielle will be safe."

Solari brightened, "Yeah!  No man will ever get close enough to hurt you here, not even with an arrow."  She was glad that the Queen had chosen to come home to the security of the nation and began to discuss in earnest the various actions she could take to ensure Gabrielle's safety.  Usually she was in charge of the Regent's personal guard and the opportunity to protect her Queen was a challenge she accepted readily.  Not that she didn't think that Gabrielle wasn't safe in Xena watchful care, it was more like something she would do for any dear friend in jeopardy.

Part 3

(c) 2002 S. Day

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