___________________________________________________________________________ Xena: Warrior Princess, Gabrielle, Argo and all other characters who have appeared in the syndicated series Xena: Warrior Princess, together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MCA/Universal and Renaissance Pictures. No copyright infringement was intended in the writing of this fan fiction. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright notices.

NOTE: All works remain the © copyright of the original author. These may not be republished without the author's consent.

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Callisto was bad enough, then came Hope... But now, Xena and Gabrielle face their most challenging opponent ever....

Xena: Warrior Princess

NINE LIVES ARE NOT ENOUGH

by: Fu Bard

fu_bard@hotmail.com

Xena and Gabrielle had been following the fast-flowing river through the dense woods all morning, headed downstream, toward a village called Gylenaea. No army was about to swoop down and destroy it, nor was any giant or other nasty creature about to end it's peaceful existence - for a change. No, they were headed there just to pay a visit to one of Xena's old friends from her youth, who they had heard was getting married soon. Of course, where Xena and Gabrielle are concerned, things never seem to go quite that simply...

"I can't believe that Locera is getting married", Xena said. "She was always such an independent woman - a great fighter too - and she swore no man would ever put her in chains, as she used to say about marriage." Xena laughed as she guided Argo along the edge of the narrow ravine above the swiftly flowing stream. The horse picked her way around boulders and between the great trees growing along the cliffside.

Gabrielle followed behind, frantically swatting at the mosquitoes that were swarming around her and she didn't seem to even notice the warrior princess at all. Xena looked back and saw her friend vainly trying to stop the assault on her tender, young skin. "You know", she began, "If you had rubbed some of those leaves on you, like I told you to, those bugs wouldn't be bothering you now."

"Those things stunk to the heights of Olympus", Gabrielle replied, an annoyed tone in her voice. "There was no way I was smearing that disgusting odor on my body - bugs or no bugs." Another of the little, flying Bacchae began to siphon from her bare, rippled stomach, and she swatted it - leaving a splat of bug juice and blood. "Yuck", she thought, scratching with one hand and wiping guts away with the other. "Maybe the smell wouldn't have been so bad after all..."

Xena stopped Argo, suddenly, and motioned for Gabrielle to be quiet. The bard instantly forgot the annoying insects, and readied her staff for combat, trusting that Xena was aware of something that her own senses had not yet noticed. Xena listened for a second, then got down off of Argo, drew her sword, and slipped ahead through the undergrowth. Gabrielle followed her as they made their way to the edge of a small clearing by the river. The bank fell away steeply here, and right beside it, at the base of a towering tree, stood the source of Xena's alertness. It was a little girl, maybe five or six seasons old, and she was sobbing loudly. Xena sheathed her sword, and Gabrielle let out a slow breath of relief - at least it wasn't another life and death situation this time. They walked out of the woods, toward the little girl.

"Hello", Xena called out, as she walked toward the crying child. "What's the matter with you? Why are you crying?" She leaned down and wiped the tears from the girls face, giving her a reassuring smile.

"It's my kitty", the girl sobbed. "She ran away and went up in this big tree - and now I can't get her to come down." The little girl began to cry again, and Xena took the child in her arms, trying to comfort her, but the wailing continued. Gabrielle noticed how tenderly the warrior princess held the girl and thought, "I can't believe the change in Xena the last few years - from a rampaging warlord, to this." She smiled to herself as she watched Xena comfort the little girl, then she walked up to them. "What's your name?" she asked.

"M... Mylea" she sobbed.

"Well, Mylea, where are your parents?" Xena asked.

"My father is plowing the fields and my mother is in our house, weaving cloth." She pointed away from the river, through a gap in the trees where they could see a small homestead and a man urging his mule on, as he struggled to get his crops planted before the rains began.

"What's your kitty's name?" Gabrielle asked, looking up in the tree and trying to spot it.

"Isis", the girl replied, still sobbing, but not as much. "My brother gave her to me last Solstice when he came back from the wars. He found her in the far eastern areas, and brought her back to me. She's a sweet cat, but she gets into trouble outside - that's why we keep her in the house. This morning, she ran out when I opened the door to go to the well, and she ran away and climbed this tree and now she's..." The girl began to cry again.

"Don't you worry, we'll get her down for you", Gabrielle told her, mussing the girls hair and giving her a smile. "Won't we Xena?" She looked over at her best friend, who had stood up now, and was staring high into the tree. Gabrielle followed her gaze - up, and up... almost to the top of the tree, until she saw the cat. It was only a few yards from the crown of the tree, lying in the fork of several branches - about a hundred feet off of the ground!

"Oh, yeah... We'll get it down, all right." Xena smiled at the young bard. "You go first" she challenged.

"I'm very good at climbing trees", Gabrielle replied, in a defensive tone of voice. "Remember, I wasn't like all the other girls in my village. I played with the boys a lot and I could climb better than any of them." She looked at the cat, lying quite contentedly all those feet up in the air, and her smile faded - a little. "Of course, the trees near our village weren't quite this tall, but I can manage." She moved to the base of the tree, leaned her staff against the trunk, grasped one of the low-hanging branches, and began to make her way up.

"Be careful", Xena told her, as she stood with her arm around the little girl.

"No problem", Gabrielle replied. She looked down at Mylea below her. "I will have your kitty back to you in a minute", she said, flashing a confident smile. She continued her way up the tree, going from branch to branch, and moving around the trunk, picking the best route to climb. By now, she was almost half way to the stranded cat, and moving up quickly.

Isis was dozing, and purring contentedly, perched comfortably among the swaying branches of the tall tree as she soaked up the warm, summer sun. She was enjoying the rocking motion and the freedom of being up here, where she could keep an eye on all the interesting movement throughout the valley - and sleep. She jerked awake as a scraping noise from below caught her attention. Looking down, she saw a human that she didn't recognize coming up the tree toward her. She watched curiously, as the woman made her awkward way up the tree. "Cats are so much better at climbing", she thought. "What is this clumsy human doing up here, interrupting my fun?" She twitched her tail in irritation, as she watched Gabrielle get closer...

Gabrielle had almost reached the branches where the cat lay. Xena watched her from the ground, concerned, but noticing that her young friend really was quite adept at climbing. She put her hand on Mylea's shoulder. "Look", she said, "Gabrielle has almost gotten to her now." The little girl smiled and clapped her hands with joy...

Gabrielle was just below the cat now and was climbing very carefully, grasping the trunk, since the branches were very small this high up. She got a good look at the cat for the first time. It was brownish-tan, with black ears and a black tail. White whiskers sprouted from its face, one side of which was black - the other white, and it's eyes were a bright blue. On the ends of its feet it had white socks, and the belly was a pure white as well. It looked like one of those cats she had seen in China, except for the face and feet, which should be black. "What had they called them?" she thought. "Sia... Siamas... Siamese!" That was it. She locked her legs around the trunk, and clasped her left arm around it as well, then reached out to grab the straying feline...

Isis watched as the human contorted herself clumsily around the tree. "Why don't humans have better claws?" she wondered. "They would climb much better if they did." She noticed that the human had gotten a little too close now, and she tensed her body, ready to move. Just as Gabrielle reached for her, Isis jumped up to the next branch and began to walk out on it, away from the trunk - her claws keeping a firm hold on the slender bow...

"Here kitty, kitty", Gabrielle called out, motioning with her fingers.

"Yeah, right lady", Isis thought, as she walked out and lay down in the fork formed by the junction of three smaller branches. She stared back at Gabrielle, cocking her head to one side, and looking so innocent...

Gabrielle reached out, leaning away from the trunk as far as she could, but the cat remained just out of her grasp. She climbed a little further up, then let go with her left arm and reached out along the branch, stretching out her hand... and the cat backed up, just enough to stay out of range. "Here kitty. Nice kitty", Gabrielle said, trying to maintain a sweet tone of voice. She reached out again - and the cat backed up again. "Come here you rotten cat!" she said, losing her control a bit. Gabrielle grabbed quickly and managed to get a hold on the cats tail, near the base. Isis struggled and dug in her claws, yowling in anger! Gabrielle reached over with her left hand now, balancing her body on the thin branch beneath her...

"No Gabrielle, not that far", Xena yelled up to her. "that branch won't hold..."

Crraaacckkkk...

The branch snapped just as Gabrielle got both hands on the struggling feline, and they both fell down toward the river below, breaking branches and tumbling through the air as they went. They hit the water with a large splash and Gabrielle lost her tenuous hold on the cat as she went under. She plunged almost to the bottom of the deep, fast-moving river, then struggled against the current to reach the surface.

Xena watched them fall, and was moving to mount Argo within seconds. "You stay here until we get back", she said to Mylea, who had begun to cry again when Gabrielle and Isis had fallen from the tree. "I can't get to Gabrielle and your cat from here, so I'm going downstream to catch them. They'll be OK, and we'll be back soon." She vaulted onto Argo's back and spurred her mount downstream, dodging between tree trunks and jumping rocks, following the irregular cliff face while trying to keep Gabrielle in sight...

Gabrielle broke the surface and struggled to keep her head above water. She looked up and saw Xena jump on Argo, then start downstream behind her. The bard looked around for the little girl's cat - there it was, hanging on to the broken limb as it was swept down the river. She swam over toward the branch and grabbed the splintered end...

"That stupid human", thought Isis. "She should have known this branch would never support her weight. No cat would ever make a mistake like that." She was wet and miserable, and couldn't believe that she was being subjected to this horrible indignity - all because she was trying to have some fun - till this foolish human came along. Gabrielle grabbed the branch, and Isis turned to look at her, giving her the best "Oh, you stupid human" look she could muster. "Well, woman - you got me in the water, so you can get me out", Isis thought. She reached over and began to climb up on Gabrielle's shoulders and head. "Owww, you stupid cat - get your claws out of me!" Gabrielle screamed. Isis was sitting with her front feet on the bard's head, and her hind feet braced on Gabrielle's back, keeping as much of herself out of the water as possible, while forcing Gabrielle to struggle hard just to keep her mouth above the surface.

Gabrielle paddled toward the shore, but the current was very swift, and she made slow progress. The sheer sides of the bank were beginning to get lower and lower, and soon she would be able to climb out, if she could just reach the edge. She noticed that the water was picking up speed as the cliffs fell away. She began to hear a strange noise - a low rumbling sound... She turned to look ahead of them. "Oh no..." she said, her eyes wide.

Xena was catching up to her friend quickly now, after falling behind early on. The woods were thinning out as the canyon gave way to a more flattened area near the bottom of the valley. Very shortly, she would be at water level, and she could help Gabrielle out of the river, and return the wayward cat to it's owner - then she saw the plumes of spray up ahead! She crested a small hill and saw the source of the mist and of the roaring noise she now heard - a waterfall! From this angle, she couldn't see how tall it was, but judging by the sound, she knew it must be pretty high. She urged Argo ahead and they moved rapidly, heading straight for the top of the falls...

Gabrielle swam as hard as she could for the shore, her arms aching with exhaustion. She was only one hundred yards from the waterfall... fifty... twenty... She managed to reach the edge, but the bank was still too steep, and the water too swift for her to climb out, especially in her weakened state. She was swept along toward the brink of the falls, the roar growing overpowering in her ears... She reached for a dangling root - and just did catch it, then held on tightly. The current was very strong here, but she knew she could manage to hang on, at least for a short while. "Xena, please hurry", she thought - and then the root snapped!

Xena rode swiftly toward the falls. Argo was covered in sweat from the stress of this all out run, but the horse was in excellent condition, and she kept going without letup. Now they cleared a grove of trees and Xena saw the top of the waterfall, only fifty yards away - and saw Gabrielle going over the edge, the cat still clinging to her back...

AHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

MMMEEEOoooowwwwrrrrrr...

Gabrielle fell for what seemed like forever, though it reality it was less than eighty feet, and plunged deeply into a large pool of water. She was rolled over and over by the force of the water falling above her, and she struggled vainly to break the grip of the powerful currents. Finally, having been swept to an area of lesser turbulence, she was able to break the surface - her lungs sucking in huge gulps of air as she choked and coughed. Blinking away water from her eyes, she looked around the pool trying to get her bearings, and searching for the cat...

Isis had hit the water less than a body length from Gabrielle, but the turbulent current swept her many yards further before she was able to get to the surface. She swam frantically, looking around and trying to determine the closest dry object she could get to. As fate would have it, a recent storm had blown down a large tree on the side of the river that Xena was on, just about a hundred feet from the falls. Isis saw it, and she began swimming through the now sluggish river toward the still living tree. "That human is crazy", she thought. "I have got to get away from her before she gets me killed."

Gabrielle saw the cat swimming ahead of her, and she paddled toward it, grateful that both it, and she, had survived the falls. If the pool, or the river for that matter, had been just a little shallower, they might not have been so lucky. She was gaining on the cat, but it was going to beat her to the tree... that is, if nothing interfered with it...

Black, unblinking eyes reflected Isis' movements as the hungry crocodile watched the swimming cat from the nearby shore. It had been using the falls as a source of food for many years now, since animals and fish were often injured or killed by the drop from above - making them easy prey. Being an expert in the art of patience, the great reptile watched the slow progress of the cat toward it. "Wait... Wait..." It's small, reptilian brain told it. Then it went over a short set of pre-programmed instructions, perfected through millions of years of evolution. "Surprise food in the water. Grab food in the water. Eat food in the water." The crocodile slipped silently into the pool, heading for the unsuspecting cat - then it noticed the human swimming a short distance beyond the hapless feline...

Xena pulled Argo to a halt - perilously close to the edge of the waterfall. She dismounted and stood on the brink, looking down at the pool - her eyes searching for any sign of movement. She waited for several anxious moments, then saw Gabrielle break the surface and, a short distance from her, the cat did as well. She thanked the Fates, and was about to get on Argo to ride down and retrieve her friend and the cat, when a hint of movement caught her eye. She looked down at the shore where the motion had been, and she saw the outline of a huge crocodile, heading first for the cat, then veering toward the unsuspecting bard. "Gabrielle", she screamed. "Gabrielle look out! A crocodile is coming!" It was no use. The roar of the falls drowned out all other sound, and Gabrielle could not hear her. Xena thought for a split second then, finding no other alternative, she leapt from the cliff, jumping far out toward the killer and falling quickly towards it...

Isis was just about to the tree, and Gabrielle had almost caught up with her, when they both heard a loud splash behind them as Xena plunged into the pool! The warrior landed in the water directly over the predator, just as it was about to grab the unsuspecting bard's flailing legs. Xena locked her arms around its snout, knowing her best chance was to keep that mouth closed, as the muscles used to open it were very weak. She knew, however, that if it managed to get that wickedly toothed mouth open, and then close it on something, only death would release the grip of those massive jaws!

Isis responded to the nearby splashing and struggling by swimming even faster and, upon reaching the tree, pulling herself up onto it quickly. "Finally", she thought. "Now I can dry off and, hopefully, get away from these two insane humans." She shook as much of the water off as she could, then sat down and began to give herself a good licking, pausing on occasion to watch the humans doing whatever it was they were up to. She quickly grew bored with watching them playing with that stupid lizard, so she wandered down the trunk toward shore and moved into the woods. Now maybe she could get on with having some fun!

Gabrielle spun around in the water to see what had caused the impact, and she saw Xena break the surface - her arms locked around the jaws of the huge crocodile! "Get out of the water!" she screamed, then she was submerged as the beast began to spin, trying to free its mouth of this tenacious attacker! They broke the surface of the water again, the croc leaping like a fish and splashing down, trying desperately to get rid of its annoying passenger! Xena held on as long as she could, but the giant reptile finally shook her off and then spun around, jaws agape... "Tough prey. Chomp a few times before eating," its primitive brain told it... Xena was beneath the water when she saw the jaws about to clamp on her midsection. She drew her chakram and struck out with it...

Gabrielle pulled herself up on the tree and got to her feet, looking toward the boiling water behind her. She saw Xena's hand break the surface for an instant, then the crocodile's tail a second later - followed by a gout of reddish water! The surface of the pool ceased its churning, and began to calm down again. Gabrielle desperately searched for any sign of movement, or bubbles, or anything - but there was nothing. "XENA!" she screamed. She covered her mouth with her hand, a devastated, unbelieving look on her face - then said, in a muffled tone, "Xena, oh Fates, please... no." She moved out as far on the trunk as she could, then leaned over to try to see into the water, tears beginning to fall from her eyes - when she was grabbed from below the surface!

Xena clamped onto Gabrielle's leg. She was weak and out of breath from her struggle with the crocodile, and was glad for the support. After allowing her friend to catch her breath a moment, Gabrielle reached down and grasped Xena by the shoulders, pulling her up onto the tree. The warrior princess leaned forward, coughing up the water she had inhaled during the frantic fight for her life. "What happened?" Gabrielle asked her. "How did you get away from that horrible thing? I saw blood in the water and thought you were..." Her face took on a look of heart-wrenching loss, as she thought of what might have been. Xena put her hand gently on her friend's arm, giving it a comforting squeeze. "So did I", she replied. "He was just about to bite me in two, when I thrust my chakram into his mouth. I felt some teeth break when he bit down on it, then he was gone. Guess he decided I was too tough to eat." Gabrielle reached down and hugged her friend tightly. That had been too close...

Already several hundred yards down the river by now, the crocodile made a mental note. "Human food bad. Don't eat." He swam slowly away, his mouth very sore from biting down on the chakram, and missing several teeth...

"Where is the cat, anyway?" Xena asked, glancing around the area.

"I don't know", Gabrielle responded, looking along the tree trunk and toward the shore. The feline was nowhere to be seen...

Xena stood up, her hair plastered to her head, water dripping from her soaked clothing, and a tired scowl on her face. She looked down at Gabrielle. "You know", she said, "I am beginning to think this cat must be a curse, sent by Ares, to torment us..."

Isis had walked into the open woodland and down a small animal trail. Her keen sense of smell detected all sorts of exciting possibilities for fun with many different animals to pounce on. She climbed onto a moss-covered boulder and looked around. A flash of movement caught her eye from a flat, rock shelf extending out from a large outcrop of stone. Some creature was moving slowly across the surface of the rock, then it stopped and lay still. Isis watched for a few minutes, but it didn't move again. It just kept lying in the sunshine. "This is no fun", she thought. "I'll just go see if it wants to play." She jumped down from the boulder and ran quickly to the base of the outcrop, then cautiously climbed up and peeked over the edge... There it was. It was the biggest worm she had ever seen! This definitely deserved some investigating! She pulled herself over the edge and crept slowly toward this strange, new creature...

"You go look to the right and I'll go left", Xena said, as they reached the shore. "If you see the cat, yell out and I'll come help you catch it." She started off into the woods, looking around as she did for tracks and signs of the cat's passage. Since the area was mostly solid stone, tracking something the size of a cat would be very difficult.

"Here kitty, kitty", Gabrielle called, as she walked along the rocky path, through the sparse forest. She was beginning to wish that she hadn't been so quick to offer her help in getting the cat down from that tree. Maybe Xena was right, maybe it was some kind of plot... She saw a flash of white up ahead, on a rocky shelf beyond a small clump of stunted trees. "There you are, you rotten cat", she thought. Gabrielle walked slowly toward the outcrop, trying not to frighten the feline away. As she got closer to the rock shelf, the ground lowered into a depression, and she could no longer see Isis. "Good", she thought. "I will slip up there without her seeing me, then grab her by surprise before she can get away." Gabrielle crouched down and walked quietly to the base of the rock. She moved along the bottom until she could hear faint movement right above her, then she jumped up, grabbing for the elusive feline as she did - and came face to face with a viper - fangs protruding from its deadly jaws!

Isis had been playing 'tease the big worm'. She quickly found out that the reptile was still sluggish from the coolness of the shadows and couldn't strike very quickly - at least not by cat standards. She didn't know how deadly the creature was, but Isis sensed that it was no match for her quick reflexes in its torpid state. "Good game", she thought. Every time the snake struck, she dodged - batting it on the head playfully. "This is more like it - fun at last." She was playing and having a great time, when the crazy girl popped up from behind the ledge, and the snake turned away from the cat to face her. "This human is really greedy", thought Isis. "First, she wants my tree, now my fun worm." She cocked her ears back in annoyance, and jumped down from the rock ledge, leaving Gabrielle and the snake staring eye to eye. "Oh, well", Isis thought, "I might as well go home now - it's almost time for my humans to feed me anyway". She began to walk toward home, making her way through the rocky, open woods back up

Gabrielle stayed as still as the rock she was leaning against. The snake, already agitated enough by the cat's game, made motions to strike every time the bard so much as breathed too heavy. She was frozen in an awkward position, and her thigh began to spasm from a cramp, after only a short time. She shifted to adjust the tension on her legs, and the snake almost bit her! She froze again - the deadly reptile only inches from her face! "How are you going to get out of this one?" she thought. "If I yell for Xena, the snake will bite me. If I move, it will bite me. Think Gabrielle." She stayed as still as she could, but then her leg muscle began twitching again, and her faced moved slightly... It was too much for the frightened and angry viper and it struck out for Gabrielle's cheek, its fangs extended...

SNAP...

The snake was jerked to a stop as Xena's whip wrapped around it, and she pulled back, throwing the reptile through the air! It landed thirty feet away, in a grove of ferns, and immediately slithered into a crack between two crumbling boulders. Gabrielle collapsed backwards and Xena moved to help her frightened friend. She cradled Gabrielle in her arms, and the still trembling bard reached around her and squeezed the warrior tightly - tears streaming from her eyes as she buried her face in Xena's shoulder. "It's OK Gabrielle... it's gone now", Xena said, as she stroked her young friend's hair.

"I really hate snakes", Gabrielle said, sniffing back the tears. "I always have", she said, as she let go of Xena and got to her feet. "How did you know I was in trouble?" she asked. Xena began coiling her whip, and then placed it back on her side. "I didn't. I just happened to find a few cat tracks going this way and I figured it must be heading for home." She whistled for Argo and her steed came running from the direction of the falls, stopping in front of them. "Lets get going, and maybe it will just go on home ahead of us." She mounted Argo and pulled Gabrielle up behind her, then started off in the direction of Mylea's home. Somehow Gabrielle didn't think it would be quite that easy...

Up ahead of them, already halfway back home, Isis had found a new thing to play with. A frog hopped along in front of her and she followed it across the damp earth, and down into a large, circular depression. "Jumping toy", she thought. "This is really fun." She batted at the frog, making it hop a little further, and she chased it around the grassy area, having a really great time! She stopped - looking and listening for the humans. Sensing nothing, she thought, "Finally, I get to play without interruptions." Then she went back to her game...

Argo carried the two women toward the little girls home, and they had just passed a marshy area, when Xena caught sight of movement within it. "Look over there", she said, pointing down toward Isis. Gabrielle looked over and saw the cat pawing at a hole in the soggy ground. Apparently, she was unaware of their presence, as of yet. "How are we going to get her?" Gabrielle whispered. "I know one sure way", Xena replied, brandishing her chakram and grinning. "Xena!" the bard whispered, harshly, "No!".

"I was just kidding", Xena said, as she reattached the weapon to her side. From the look on her face, Gabrielle was not sure her friend had really been joking.

"You walk up close to her and distract her", Xena said, "And I'll slip around this low area and get to those rocks back behind her. I can catch her by surprise, then we can take her home and be on our way." They got down quietly from Argo, and Xena moved off to circle behind the unsuspecting cat. Gabrielle walked on down toward it and tried to summon up some more patience. "OK cat, lets not make this any harder than it's already been", she thought.

"This hopping thing just doesn't play fair", Isis was thinking, as she tried to reach down into a wet, slimy hole. The annoyed amphibian had rapidly tired of the game and crawled down into its burrow to outwit the pesky kitty. Isis was just about to give up and move on to find more adventure, when she spotted Gabrielle moving slowly toward her. "Not again", she thought. "Why doesn't she just let me play in peace?" Isis crouched down and watched the bard as she moved closer, extending her hand and calling softly. "Nice kitty. That's a girl. We just want to take you home. That's right..." She slipped up within a few feet of the still motionless cat.

Xena peaked up over the top of the boulder pile, on the rim of the marshy area. She was about twenty feet from the cat, and it's back was to her. She slipped around the boulders and moved silently down towards the unsuspecting animal. Gabrielle had gotten to within inches of the cat, and she reached out... Isis sprang to the side and bounded away, just as Gabrielle tried to grab her. Xena leapt to intercept the agile feline, but she was a split second too late and fell heavily onto the muddy grass. When she did, she felt it sag beneath her and give way. The ground collapsed under she and Gabrielle, and both were plunged into a pool of mud, which had been concealed underneath a thin veneer of grass and drier soil.

For millennia the rock had been eaten away by groundwater, leaving a huge, circular bowl in the limestone. The rains of thousands of years had washed mud and sand down into it, eventually filling it almost completely. Since the ground here stayed saturated with water year round, it remained a pond of wet, liquid mud. As time had passed, and dry and wet seasons alternated, grass had began to cover the top of the mud, eventually forming a thin veil over the quicksand below - the perfect trap for any animal heavy enough to break through the surface. It had happened many times over the eons, as the bones laying at the bottom of the trap could attest. Each time, the top layer dried out just enough, the grass had eventually regrown, and the trap was set again...

The two friends plunged into the slimy, stinking pit of mud, getting covered from head to toe, and sinking quickly up to their chests. Gabrielle spluttered and wiped her face free of mud as best she could, then tried to move toward the unbroken surface. Xena was beside her, about three feet away. "Be still", she said. "If you struggle, you'll only sink faster. This is quicksand." She grabbed the edge of the grass covering, but it broke away as soon as she tried to pull herself towards it. Gabrielle was trying it also, with the same results. They were sinking deeper each second! Gabrielle reached over and touched Xena's shoulder, looking to her mentor for an idea. "What are we going to do?" she asked. "We will be below the surface in minutes at this rate, and we can't move, or we sink faster. How can we escape?"

"I'm working on it", Xena responded. She was looking around for anything that she might be able to snare with her whip. There was nothing, save some tiny bushes - still, she had to try. She freed her whip from her side, sinking a little deeper as she did, and snapped it out, wrapping it around a bush. She pulled back... and it tore out of the ground. Several more attempts ended with the same result. She wrapped the whip around her neck. "Time for plan B", she said.

"What's plan B?" asked Gabrielle. She was already up to her shoulders and sinking quickly.

"I'm working on it", Xena said. She was looking around the pit. Argo stood near the edge, and she began to move toward the women, sensing their distress. "NO, girl", Xena hollered. "You can't help us. Get back." She didn't want the horse falling in too. A flash of white appeared beside Argo.

Isis had jumped onto the boulder beside the horse, looking down at the two struggling women below her. She cocked her head to the side, trying to figure out just what these two strange humans were up to now. She had seen the pigs back at the farm rolling around in mud like this, when her human girl had taken her outside to meet the other animals, but she couldn't imagine why humans would want to do it. Argo bent her head around to sniff of the cat, and Isis sniffed back. She caught scent of something that really got her interest - Food - and nearby too! She kept sniffing and figured out it came from the saddlebag on the horse's back. She jumped up onto the saddle and tried to figure out how to reach the source of the aroma...

"Would you look at that", Gabrielle said. "We chase that cat all over creation, and now she gets up on Argo all by herself."

"It's the jerky we bought back in that last village. She smells it in my saddlebags. Xena had been studying the only large tree near the pit. It was too far away to snare with her whip, but... She raised her chakram and hurled it toward the top of the tree. The weapon sliced through a tough vine hanging from the top of the oak and it fell toward them, stopping about ten feet away...

"Good idea Xena, but it's too short", Gabrielle said. She was up to her neck now.

"I'm not finished", Xena replied. She caught the chakram and hung it on her sword handle, then she unwrapped the whip from her neck and snapped it out. After several attempts, she managed to tangle it around the vine. She pulled hard, and moved toward the tree! "Grab on to me", she told the nearly submerged bard. Gabrielle reached out through the liquid sludge and grabbed Xena's armor straps. The warrior princess pulled as hard as she could and the two began to slowly move toward the vine. After a few minutes, they reached it, and both began to pull themselves toward the roots of the tree. They were standing on solid rock five minutes later, covered from head to toe in stinking, black mud.

Isis watched them walking toward her. She was still sitting on the saddle and sniffing of the bag behind her. "Maybe I can con these weird people into giving me some of that food", she thought. She rubbed her neck on the edge of the saddlebag and gave them her most charming look, purring loudly. "Meow", she said...

Xena, her face and body caked with mud, her hands clenching, reached out toward the cat's neck. "Just one little twist", she thought. "That's all. Then we tell the girl that kitty didn't make it. Yeah... that's it."

"Xena, be nice", Gabrielle said....

They had ridden back to the glade, after removing as much mud as possible, without any water to rinse in. Gabrielle fed the cat jerky as they rode and Isis ate it willingly, but was not too happy with the horse ride - still, she was getting food... They crested a hill and saw Mylea waiting for them in the clearing by the river. Gabrielle got down from Argo and handed Isis to the smiling little girl. "Thank you", she said. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would do without her" She gave her kitty a big squeeze. Isis purred loudly, and rubbed against Mylea's face.

"Probably live a lot longer" thought Xena. But she forced a smile when Mylea looked up at her. "Why are you two so dirty, anyway?" the youngster asked.

"It's a long story", Gabrielle said. "But we really need to go take a bath." She was about to gag on the smell already. "And I thought those bug repelling plants were stinky", she thought. "Yuck!" Gabrielle grabbed her staff and Xena reached down and gave her a hand up, turning Argo back toward the river. "Good-bye, Mylea", she called, as they began to ride away. "Bye Mylea, bye Isis", Gabrielle added. They saw the girl walking toward the farmhouse, holding the cat close, as she moved away.

Just before they got out of earshot, they heard the little girl shouting something, and Xena stopped Argo to listen...

"ISIS... You come back here", they could hear Mylea yelling. She began to cry...

Xena and Gabrielle just buried their faces in their hands...

THE END

* No cats, snakes, frogs, crocodiles, bards, or warrior princesses were harmed during the writing of this story...