Gabrielle's Fantasy - Part I

By Amazon

Gabrielle knew she should be concentrating on her surroundings as she trudged along the dirt track, gazing up at her warrior-love riding ahead astride her powerful warhorse. She should keep her senses alert, listen out for sudden movements of birds or animals, look ahead for potential ambush sites like sharp corners, cliffs, or overhanging branches. If she'd only been gifted with the Warrior's highly sensitive nose, she'd have to flare her nostrils for any whiff of smelly warlords too.

But it was a pleasant sunny afternoon and they were only half a day away from the relative safety of Amazon land. The land Gabrielle ruled as Amazon Queen. This idea still seemed strange to her, a frightening though flattering responsibility. But for now, Gabrielle was enjoying the steady pace of the journey and was content to rely on her Princess for early warnings of trouble.

She let her mind drift. Rooting around in the part of her memory where she kept half-finished and unwritten stories, she found what she was looking for: 'The Amazon Queen's Birthday'.

This was a favorite tale for Gabrielle, one she enjoyed going over and over in her mind, embellishing, adding and removing scenes, tinkering with the dialog and actions of her cast. It was a story she could never commit to paper or perform, she'd decided. It was too personal and it was guaranteed to offend the real-life characters it playfully caricatured. Not that Gabrielle set out to present her friends in a bad light. She just couldn't help seeing through all those tough-girl pretensions to the less flattering motivations that warrior women prefer to keep hidden. If she wanted to use this knowledge for the purposes of her own enjoyment that was her business, she reasoned. What touchy warriors don't know can't hurt them.

"Gabrielle, what are you smirking at?"

"Hey?" Gabrielle started. "Oh nothing, just enjoying the quiet."

The Warrior was unconvinced but chose not to ask about the guilty flush that rose to her lover's face. "Just stay alert will you? Don't trail along with your head in the clouds. I can't look out for you as well, you know?"

"OK, OK. We nearly there yet?"

"Couple of candlemarks. We'd get there quicker if you'd stop dawdling. Why don't you come up here?"

"Oh what's the hurry? I'm quite happy dawdling."

Xena sighed and pressed her horse onward.

After pausing to make sure the warrior had quite finished her familiar lecture, Gabrielle slipped happily back into her reverie.

The Amazon Queen's official birthday - a day of celebration when the tribe's top warriors demonstrate their fighting skills for their esteemed ruler and present her with gifts to show their deepest respect and devotion. In Gabrielle's experience (one birthday so far some six moons ago) the fighting demonstrations were the most enjoyable part of the whole day, even better than the sumptuous meal and drinking that carried on late into the night. No, the displays were a veritable feast of athletic woman-flesh, flexing and thrusting, wrestling and stretching, warrior sweat tricking down straining legs, arms and backs. And all for her approval.

However, the gift-giving that followed was less engaging, she felt, the gifts having symbolic value rather than being anything a young queen might actually wish for - if she were ever asked. The fresh carcass of a wolf or some other dangerous predator tracked and killed by the warrior; a bull wrestled to the ground in front of the queen; a clutch of the warrior's favorite but worn-out weapons - doubtless a heart-wrenching sacrifice for the devout Amazon but of questionable use to Gabrielle.

She didn't want to appear ungrateful - another reason why this particular creative work would never go public - but she liked to speculate what she might demand from her favorite Amazons if she was permitted to decide for herself. And of course, for the purposes of dramatic impact and her own artistic satisfaction, Xena would also be required to take part in the ritual giving, despite her ambivalent feelings - at best - towards the Amazon Nation.

********************

"I want you both to come to my hut tonight and make love to me. All night," declared the Queen from the imperial height of her queenly throne.

Ephiny and Xena didn't look at each other but froze in open-mouthed horror looking up at their ruler in disbelief.

Xena broke the spell first, in her husky, warm voice. "Now just hang on a moment, Gabrielle..."

The Queen dismissed her with an impatient wave of her hand. "I want a hot bath to start with, then a deep tissue, all-over body massage with warm, aromatic oils. Then I want you both to show me the best, the very best, of your sexy skills. I want orgasm after orgasm, climax building on climax. I want toys, I want role-play..." Queen Gabrielle clasped her hands to her chest and paused to steady her breath.

"I think you and Xena need to talk about this first, Gabrielle," Ephiny quickly interjected. The Amazon Regent was faultlessly diplomatic these days about anything that could be considered Xena's territory. Whether discussing battle tactics, hunting techniques, or women, Ephiny was careful not to provoke the warrior's infamous temper. And well she might. Xena had often threatened to "break that short-ass Amazon's neck" in the early days when the two warrior women first became acquainted.

Gabrielle had warmed immediately to Ephiny's generous and gentle spirit, even though they met at the most difficult time of Gabrielle's young life - the apparent death, later reversed, of her adored idol, Xena. So she was perplexed and upset when the newly-vibrant Xena continually baited her new friend almost as soon as the two had been introduced. And the Amazon Regent was no better behaved. If the two women were within sight of each other anywhere in the Amazon village it would seem to the casual bystander that they were unaware or uninterested in each other's presence. But Gabrielle learned to read the danger signs. A twitching cheek muscle, a tightly clenched jaw, then without warning, fisticuffs would break out. Blood and threats then furniture would fly, along with any unfortunate Amazons caught standing too close.

"Outside, you Amphipolian slag!"

"Don't make me laugh, you Amazon midget. I'll snap your neck with one hand."

"Xena stop it!" Gabrielle would try to intercede as the other Amazons jeered them on while judiciously backing away.

"Let her get on with it, Gabrielle. I'm not afraid to deal with her." Ephiny's bluster was obviously for the benefit of her tribe. The diminutive Regent was clearly terrified that the warrior would be let loose to tear her apart. As the Amazons' second-in-command, Ephiny had to be seen to respond to threats with unshakable courage - even it meant sacrificing herself in a pointless brawl with a moody stranger. Gabrielle could see the slight pallor in Ephiny's cheeks and knew she was relying on her queen to call Xena off.

"Pack it in both of you. I'm queen here and I won't have you two fighting, do you hear me?"

Honors conveniently even, the two warriors backed away from each other, still growling promises of the dire harm that would follow if only they didn't have such high respect for Gabrielle's wishes.

"What is it with those two?" Gabrielle asked later with exasperation and anger in her voice.

Her military commander Eponin replied: "Have you ever seen two stallions with a group of mares, my queen?"

"No, I haven't. There's only ever one stallion with a group of mares."

"Well, that's because he's had to chase off interlopers," Eponin explained patiently. "This Amazon tribe is under Ephiny's control. She owns us, in a way. Then Xena comes along, all six foot of muscle and..." Eponin looks wistful and trails off before remembering who she was talking to. "Anyway, the younger Amazons, with respect my queen, they all fawn after Xena and would love to join her in her bedroll at night. It undermines Ephiny's command. She has to respond."

"Well, it's got to stop and I'm going to stop it," declared the queen.

A quiet but firm word with her Warrior would be the first step towards calming the situation, she decided.

********************

"Oh, alright, but you know she always starts it," insisted Xena, kneeling restlessly at her lover's feet.

"No she doesn't, Xena, you know exactly what you're doing. You know you provoke her by swaggering about. You don't have to prove anything and you're a guest on her territory. And besides," Gabrielle added softly, lifting Xena's chin so she could no longer avoid direct eye contact, "I'd like it if you'd at least pretend to get on."

"OK. For you." Xena kissed the top of Gabrielle's head briskly, got to her feet and walked out of the Queen's hut to join some besotted young Amazons for more weapons practice. Gabrielle sighed at her retreating back, but she knew the promise she'd won from the Warrior did not come easily. And thank Artemis Xena still had no idea that her Amazon rival had shared Gabrielle's bed even before she'd seduced her herself...

It wasn't sex, strictly speaking, of course. But there was no way Xena would ever understand or care about that. If she even suspected that Ephiny had made a move on her - and Gabrielle was sure she did not - the Amazon would immediately become Xena's Enemy Number One. Gabrielle knew it and Ephiny knew it. So when her turn came to kneel at her Queen's feet, the golden-haired Regent blurted out the question almost straight away.

"My queen, forgive me for even asking, but I, I mean, Xena doesn't know, does she? That we, that I.."

"Do you think you would still be breathing if she did?"

"I suppose not."

"I don't think there's any need to mention it. It was before Xena and I got together and she loves to think she was my first. I don't see any need to cause trouble."

"And, anyway, we didn't do very much," agreed Ephiny eagerly, "I mean.." she frowned.

"What we did was good, Ephiny," Gabrielle repeated the chin-lifting technique she'd earlier used on Xena. "I loved what you did to me. It wasn't inappropriate at all. You saved me from despair and I'll always be grateful to you for that."

Ephiny bowed her head. "Thank you, my queen."

Gabrielle reached down and took the Amazon's hand, pressing it to her lips. Ephiny looked up and, not for the first time, Gabrielle saw the sadness in those kind, hazel eyes.

********************

When the Amazon had left, Gabrielle couldn't stop her thoughts returning against her will to that painful time. Her warrior, the beautiful, tall, mysterious woman she'd somehow convinced to take her on never-ending travels and adventures, lay dead. Gabrielle had been no more than a village girl then, love-sick as a puppy and too young to even recognize her feelings as the first signs of a blooming passion. Everything had been so new, so exciting. She adored her taciturn companion more and more each day, never realizing that her incessant questioning and girlish chatter was driving the warrior to distraction. Then it had all gone wrong so fast. She could not even invoke the memory of that particular agony, only that she'd accepted responsibility for fulfilling Xena's dying wish - to take her body back to Amphipolis to be buried next to her younger brother.

She'd arrived at the Amazon village in a state bordering on complete breakdown. With as much strength as she could muster she'd explained to the Amazons that she was taking the great Warrior Princess to her last resting place. Ephiny, who had troubles enough herself, showed her nothing but kindness, especially considering Xena had killed many Amazons in cold blood in her earlier days as a ruthless warlord.

Later that night Gabrielle lay in the Amazon hut with Xena's casket on the ground next to the bed. She lay awake, eyes wide-open but unseeing, unable to think, sleep or feel. She felt numbness and cold all the way from the ends of her fingers to the depth of her soul. She hoped she could draw on the last of her courage for the journey to Amphipolis. She knew when she got there she would find the quickest way - whether by rope or blade - to join her love in the cold earth. Life held no more meaning, all that kept her going was her dream of joining Xena in Tartarus.

Sometime in the middle of the night - time also came and went without attracting much of Gabrielle's notice - she heard soft footsteps enter the hut. Not quiet enough to frighten her, but quiet enough to suggest stealth.

"Gabrielle?" The voice of her Amazon host. In her madness, Gabrielle had imagined her warrior come to gather her in her powerful arms and take her to their new underworld home. Instead she felt the covers pulled partly back and small, soft hands touch her shoulders, then an arm slowly sliding around her waist.

"Don't be frightened. I want to help you. We Amazons know all there is to know about the pain of losing a loved one." Ephiny reached out her hand to stroke Gabrielle's cheek and found it soaked with hot tears. "Come, turn around to me."

In a daze, Gabrielle slowly turned over, uncaring whether her visitor was Artimis herself or Hades come to steal her last breath. The naked Amazon gently pressed the back of Gabrielle's head, pushing her face down towards her chest. "Take me in your mouth, my child. It is the Amazon way to give comfort. Suckle at my breast and it will ease your suffering."

Gabrielle took the offered nipple and sucked cautiously. The Amazon sighed with relief or pleasure and bade her "do it a little harder." She did as she was told and soon settled to a regular pulsing motion. She did not know how long she lay cradled in the woman's arms, but gradually, with agonizing slowness, feeling and warmth began to return to Gabrielle's body. The Amazon made no demands but simply stroked her brow and made soothing noises as a woman might to her suckling baby.

In time, Gabrielle was able to gather some of her former sanity. She continued to suck at the stranger's breast, aware now of the woman's slow, deep breathing in her ear. The nights she'd spent dreaming of such tender moments with Xena! Visions she'd hardly allowed herself to picture, pleasures her young, untutored heart could scarcely imagine. Formless sensations of writhing bodies, enveloped in softness, framed by hard, hungry kisses... And now here she was, experiencing the beginnings of these forbidden feelings with a stranger. Her love dead and cold beside them.

Ephiny must have sensed Gabrielle's sudden confusion. "Hush, my sweet. You need strength, don't fret." Gabrielle felt warm lips press against her cheek. She looked up from the soft bosom where she'd been nestled and met the woman's mouth with her own. Instinctively she took the Amazon's tongue and welcomed it. The woman might not know it, but this was Gabrielle's first intimate act with one of her own kind. While her conscious mind still screamed in silent agony, fragmented by grief, her body acted to satisfy its desperate need for comfort.

They lay for candlemarks pressed against each other, touching gently and exchanging long, deep kisses. Gradually Gabrielle became aware that she was whimpering, though she had no idea why. The older Amazon held her more tightly and pushed her hand firmly between Gabrielle's legs. She tried to pull away from the uncomfortable feeling of fingers brushing a very sensitive, intimate place, but Ephiny just gripped her tighter. Then she felt waves of almost unbearable sensation starting in her belly. A tingly, searing heat flowed out to her toes and fingers, up her spine and her neck, to the very tip of her nose. She shook violently for what seemed like a whole candlemark then fell to sobbing against the woman's shoulder.

"Good girl, that's right, let it go now." Ephiny murmured sweet encouragement against Gabrielle's neck until her crying subsided and she finally rested exhausted against the Amazon's chest. She lay drifting in and out of a shallow sleep until she became aware that Ephiny was reaching between her own legs. "It's OK, go back to sleep." Ephiny lifted her and rolled her gently onto the bed beside her. When Gabrielle lay still, she replaced her hand in its former position. Gabrielle listened while the Amazon sighed and then moaned softly. She could feel Ephiny's arm moving in a regular rhythm and was curious to know what ritual her hand was performing beneath the covers. Before she could gather her courage to investigate, she heard Ephiny's breathing take up a new beat, hard and quick, matched by a vigorous stroking movement of her hand.

Gabrielle listened intently to the cries of ecstasy from deep within Ephiny's throat as she brought herself to climax. She'd never heard a sound like it and she resolved to hold that memory in her head forever. Forever. With a start, Gabrielle realized she'd thought of the future for the first time since Xena's death.

"You alright, Bri?" Xena looked back at the bard, a genuinely concerned expression on her face.

"Huh? Oh! Yes, yes, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something sad, that's all." Gabrielle reassured her quickly.

"Why were you doing that?"

"Oh, it's for this story I'm working on. It's got a sad scene."

"Why do you want to make up sad stuff? Life is sad enough. Don't people want excitement, adventure, sex, a bit of a laugh?"

"Oh yes, it's got all that too." Gabrielle always brightened when the warrior asked her about her work. "But it needs the tragedy too, all life's colors, you know."

"I worry about you."

"I know you do. There's no need really. It's just the creative process."

"Alright. Gods, I'm glad I'm a simple fighting woman.." Xena laughed and turned back around, urging her horse onward once more.

********************

"How did that happen?" Gabrielle wondered to herself. "One moment I'm building up to a sexy orgy scene the next I'm reliving that dreadful time.." Still, she knew her feelings for Ephiny would always be linked with that suffering she would never be able to forget. A tragedy and a blessing for Ephiny - having shared her pain and helped her in her darkest hours, she would always have a place, scarred and forever raw, in Gabrielle's heart.

Despite herself, Gabrielle smiled as she allowed herself to imagine the torrents of Amphipolian fury if Xena ever found out.

"She did what!!? When you were so vulnerable?" Xena illustrated her disgust with a string of unspeakable curses. "I'll rip her to shreds. I'll flay her alive in front of her precious Amazon bitches..I'll.."

"Xena, Xena, don't! Please! You don't understand, it wasn't like that.." Gabrielle tried to calm her livid lover and realized her mistake too late.

"Oh really? What was it like then? 'Oh well, guess old Xena's dead then, I'll just have to make do with this short one..'" the warrior paced back and forth, out of control and frightening in a way Gabrielle had never witnessed before.

"Xena, stop it! You know how devastated I was."

"Oh yeh, devastated! Oh, Ephiny, Ephiny, I'm so upset, please fuck me."

"Xen.."

"Well, Xena, y'know she was OK, but she's a corpse in bed.."

"Stop!"

"Just lays there and expects me to do all the work.."

"This isn't fair and you know it!"

"Gods," Xena suddenly turned to face Gabrielle. "I was there in the room wasn't I? You didn't let her take you over-my-dead-body, did you?"

Gabrielle pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips, unwilling to look at her furious lover until the stream of sarcasm ceased.

"Not over the casket?"

Gabrielle looked up in disbelief, realizing Xena was serious. They locked eyes for a few seconds before Xena looked away. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "I didn't mean that."

They both stood in silence for what seemed a long while. Then Xena turned and swung up onto her horse. "I'm going away. I need to think."

"OK, don't take too long. Promise?"

"Maybe."

********************

Gabrielle shuddered at the very idea of ever losing her Beloved, whether by the hands of the Gods or because of an all-too-mortal indiscretion. Then she mentally shook herself out of her melancholy and returned to more pleasant thoughts. "I love you Xena," she mouthed silently to her lover's back.

"Now where was I..?"

The Amazons were settling into a night of drinking themselves silly, so Gabrielle quietly made her excuses and walked to her hut. Nodding to the young Amazon on guard at her door, she ducked through the curtained entrance. Straightening up, she realized her room had been prepared by the tribe juniors according to her instructions, but even so the sight made her gasp with delight.

A multitude of candles lit her queen-sized bed which had been hung with sheer red and orange curtains of a material some Amazon must surely have stolen from a passing eastern merchant. A small fire glowed in the grate and a hot-tub steamed invitingly before it. Aromatic oils warmed in dishes over the candle flames, wafting scents of forest and fern around the room. The effect was of a high-class bordello fit for an Amazon monarch, Gabrielle mused.

Her attention was drawn to the table by the bed, illuminated by a single large candle and laden with the offerings she'd requested from her suitors. She ran her fingers over the objects displayed for her, lingering over their texture and promise. Xena's whip lay coiled and flaccid, ready to unfurl at the first command of its mistress's hand. Next to it lay Xena's phallus. Gabrielle noted with a small swell of pride that it was slightly larger and thicker than Ephiny's, although either would surely deliver her to the Elysian Fields if used with skill and care.

Overall, the Amazon's sex-weapons were more varied than Xena's traveling pack, which was restricted to the basics out of necessity. Ephiny embellished her collection with the tools of her trade as tribe disciplinarian. Gabrielle lingered with approval, and with more than a slight shiver in her groin, over the riding crop, the thick leather strap, the viciously thin rod, and..well..what looked like a necklace of large black beads. Whatever. She would likely find out at some point during the night... The last item was familiar to her but not yet to that intimate part of her body where it was designed to fit. She reprimanded herself for her self-centeredness - of course the small, stunted phallus could find an equally snug place inside either of her warrior-playmates.

Lost in wishful thinking, Gabrielle idly fingered Ephiny's strap and allowed herself a small fantasy.

"A fantasy within a fantasy!" marveled Gabrielle as she trotted along behind Argo. "What a shame the critics will never get the chance to review this.."

As the queen ran her palm over the stiff leather she wondered what it must be like to be a young junior Amazon waiting patiently to be reprimanded by the Regent for some misdemeanor. She sat on the edge of the bed and imagined being pulled over Ephiny's lap, held down by small but strong hands..

"Keep still, Amazon, or you'll be taking your punishment in front of your peers," Ephiny threatened. "Now, I'm going to teach you not to smoke henbane behind the sweat lodge."

Gabrielle nearly gasped out loud as she could almost feel the Regent's strap brought down sharply across her exposed rear. Oops! Perhaps she had, she thought, as Xena turned around yet again to check on her companion. Something about Gabrielle's expression made the warrior smirk and she said nothing, just turned around again and rubbed Argo's neck affectionately.

The queen put the strap back on the table and inspected Ephiny's phallus instead. The design was identical to Xena's - a heavy wooden cock, lovingly shaped from a fig-tree branch and covered with a soft leather sheath. The sheath was tightly bound with minute, careful stitching before being turned inside out and stretched over the wood. Both sheaths looked new, she noted. Gabrielle was sure the last time she'd guided a wildly flailing Xena into her channel, the leather cock she'd grabbed had a lighter hue.

Gabrielle was startled out of her day-dreaming by a small cough from outside. She quickly put the phallus back on the table. "Yes, who is it?"

A gangly young Amazon guard stepped through the curtained door into the room. "The Amazon Regent Ephiny and Xena of Amphipolis to see you, my queen," the girl announced with studied formality.

"Thank you. Let them in, and you can go join your friends at the party now."

The girl nodded. "Thank you, my queen."