Sneak preview of a short-ish WIP Xena ficlet
Really going back to my roots lately. First Buffy, now Xena. Here's a bite-sized preview of what I've been tinkering on in my spare time lately. I have about 2 k words done, and maybe another 4 or 5 k words to go based on my outline vague-ishest impressions.
So here are 418 words of... something.
For all the incredible sights afforded to her on her journeys since she left her village, Gabrielle had no idea amphisbaena actually existed. This monster, it turns out, is a boat-sized fire-and-smoke-spitting dragon with not only one but two scaly heads, the second at the end of its long tail. In old stories Gabrielle half-remembers from her days in Athens, these creatures were called amphisbaena.
She spends her first ten seconds picking her jaw off the ground, from the hidden perch Xena found to observe the hideous creature. Xena, for her part, almost turns them both straight around when she realises exactly what they’re dealing with. But, unfortunately, the creature will eventually get bold and start roaming outside its blood-and-wine-soaked nest in the cellars of the old vineyard.
So, Xena begrudgingly accepts — to Gabrielle’s indomitable glee — that the creature does present a significant danger to the nearby village. It’s time to go be damn heroes. After a little surveillance, the two of them work out a straightforward ambush, right where the creature carved out its nauseating little nest in the dug-out cellars beneath the main house of the vineyard.
It isn’t long before they seize the opportunity to spring their ambush.
“Xena, it’s been so long since we’ve fought a monster like this!” Gabrielle exclaims, the metal of her blades glinting red from the beast’s fire. “It makes me … not homesick. Adventure-sick? Can you be sick for your older adventures when you’re still technically on an adventure?”
“By the gods, would you please focus,” Xena articulates through clenched teeth as she bashes one of the creature’s heads with a solid kick. “Talking to death was not the strategy we agreed on.”
“Lighten up,” Gabrielle dodges another breath of fire, eyes glittering, “I’m having fun.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Xena has to admit to herself that Gabrielle does look incredible, especially with the sweat and ash and monster blood clinging to her skin and red clothes. Gabrielle — beautiful, witty Gabrielle, sparkling in the dark of this destroyed wine cellar transformed into a monster’s lair — has long-since proven to the world that she is as home in a fight as any of the Mediterranean’s greatest warriors.
The beast, however, is not one to be distracted by Gabrielle’s beauty. Hissing in fury, it manages to crack one of its neck-tails against a beam holding up the cellar ceiling, just above the dark-haired warrior. As the wooden beam collapses into pieces over her skull, Xena goes down hard.
“XENA!”
More to come, soonlyish.