Eclipse
Disclaimer:
I've got no money and no life. Doesn't that mean that I should be
able to keep at least Xena? Oh fine, take your lousy warrior
princess, too.
Rated- PG
Violence- Some references to
blood?
Sex- Nope.
Language- Meh. Pretty clean.
Dedication- To LK: here's to living vicariously
through Ares and Xena.
The voices drifted in the wind.
"Dammit, Xena, I don't see why you have to be so stubborn about this."
"Look, you can see the shadow moving."
"There's no way you could have found out about that seige if some god hadn't told you. You were too far away."
"My mother used to say that when the moon darkened like that, some huge dog in the sky was eating it bite by bite. That's why the dark part is round."
"I just want the name of that god."
"'Course, that story doesn't explain why the light would come back."
"That was direct interference. It's against the rules."
"Did you ever hear the fable about the monkey and the moon?"
"Some god is cheating me, and I want to know who! Are you even listening to me?"
Ares looked down into the carefully blank eyes. She was laughing at him. Her eyes were steady on his, and in her hands spun a seeding blade of grass, its tiny pods whirling in little blurs of green. In the red light of the half-eaten moon, her face had lost all focus, her mouth was a dark smudge that slowly turned up at the corners while he watched.
"What monkey?" he asked.
"The monkey saw the reflection of the moon in a pond, and he wanted it, so he tried to catch it in his paws. He touched the water, and the moon vanished."
The light was bleeding back into the air, and her skin paled, and her eyes deepened.
"I'll give you the moon if you want it," he said. "Artemis still owes me a favour or two."
She only smiled more. "Who're you calling a monkey?"
Gabrielle turned over in her bedroll with a tiny murmur.
Ares sighed. "You're heading to Kalkios tomorrow to intercept those raiders you've been tracking. I'll be watching you."
Xena leaned back to see the last shadows glide off the face of the moon. "I know."