Prophecy of Darkness

The small fire crackled and popped, sending tiny sparks into the gathering night. Dark trees bowed and swayed in the mild, early summer breeze, the air rich with the scent of pine and sun-warmed earth.

Gabrielle sat back from her efforts, watching the tiny flames lick against the twigs and branches she had gathered. The fire had to burn down before they could cook anything, at least another twenty minutesâand then it would still take time to roast the rabbit Xena had found for dinner. Gabrielle sighed, then glanced over at her companion. Xena sat cross-legged behind her, her back against a stone, her sword in her lap. The dark-haired warrior was inspecting the blade carefully, her sharp, icy eyes searching for nicks and dull spots.

“I'm starving,” said Gabrielle, then she sighed again. “I wish we still had some of that jerky from the last village.”

Xena didn't look up from her examination. The blade was fine, as it had been the night beforeâbut she never neglected her daily check; the quality of a sword would often decide the outcome of a battle, and a blade could never be too sharp. She'd learned a long time ago that if she took care of her weapons, they would take care of her.

“If I remember correctly,” said Xena, “there's no more jerky because someone ate it all this afternoon.”

She smiled slightly, looking up at her young friend. Gabrielle opened her eyes wide, giving her best innocent look, her light eyes catching reflections from the crackling flames.

“There was hardly any left! And besides, I was hungry.”

Xena set her sword aside and reached for her bedroll. “You're always hungry.”

“I am not. I'm a growing girl, that's all, and I have to keep my strength up. Even you say so.”

Xena nodded. “True. But if you keep eating all of our supplies, you'll break our horse's back.”

“That's notâ” Gabrielle started, but then grinned. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether Xena was kidding or not, she could keep such a straight faceâobviously, this was a joke. Especially since Xena rode the horse most of the time. And there really
hadn't
been that much left . . .

Gabrielle turned back to the fire, hugging her knees to her chest. She never got tired of staring into the flames, watching the way they danced and shimmered against the darkness. Nearby, Argo was only a pale shape grazing quietly in the shadows of the trees.

It was really a nice spot that Xena had found for camping, a perfect resting place for weary travelers. The ground was flat and even, lightly covered with a scattering of clover and a few large stones. A tiny creek bur; bled nearby, just past a thick stand of pine trees. Compared to a lot of their camps, this was like a vacation . . .

Gabrielle yawned, the magical dance of the fire lulling her, making her sleepy in spite of her hunger. Having started out right after breakfast, they had ridden and walked all day to get to this comfortable spot. Xena liked to be on the move, even when there was nowhere in particular they had to be; she said that it was too easy to just stop and stay put, to let the days turn into weeks and then months of sitting still. No good if you wanted to get things done . . .

Xena looked up and then smiled fondly as she watched Gabrielle's head nod down to her knees then jerk up, only to droop again. Dozing in front of a fire, one of the simple but wonderful pleasures of lifeâone that Xena hadn't allowed herself in a long, long time. It was rare indeed that she felt she could let her guard down so completely, and trust that there was someone else to watch for trouble.

Xena sighed inwardly, then shrugged. No matter. In life, there were always trade-offs, true, she wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping soundly in front of a warming blaze, but there was pleasure to be found in watching over a good friend while she rested. It was nice that Gabrielle still had the faith of the innocent in these troubled times, even after all they'd been through together.

Xena decided to let her sleep a little longer and went about preparing their dinner herself, sharpening a stick to spit the rabbit she'd caught with her chakra; the metal hoop was quite handy for bringing down small game swiftly and efficiently.

That done, she tended to the horse and then laid out their things for bed, her sword always within easy reach, her hearing trained for any unusual sounds in the forest or from the road. She wasn't well traveled in the western regions and the extra caution didn't cost her anything.

Gabrielle slept on, oblivious to the world around herâthough, thought Xena wryly, if the scent of roasting meat didn't wake her, nothing would.

It was dark where Gabrielle was, dark and as silent as a tomb. She looked around, tried to get her bearings, but the blackness was so deep that she could see nothing. It was cold, too, and there was a strange scent in the air, like burning . . .

“Xena?” Her voice seemed to echo, a hollow, ringing sound, as if she were inside a huge room. “
Xena!
”

The only answer was her own voice, sounding strange and lonely as it echoed back at her.

She reached out with both arms, groping in the dark for a wall, a chair,
somethingâ
but her fingers grasped only cold air and nothingness.

She started to feel the first gnawings of panic in her stomach. Where was she? Where was Xena? For that matter, where was
anythingâ
the fire, the camp, Argo?

And then, in the cool black silence, she heard something. A low, deep rumbling, a growling sound, soft and barely there at firstâbut it grew, rose up into a horrible roar that filled the air and pounded her senses.

A creature, a monster! It would have to be enormous, judging by the sound of it, and angry to the point of insanity, the pitch of its fury matched and surpassed only by her terror.

Gabrielle wanted to run, but she didn't know where the monster was, couldn't tell with the way it was echoing all around her. She needed a weapon, but she couldn't even find a
wall,
let alone anything to chase away a creature of this ferocity.

The smell of burning was stronger now, the roar of the animal closer. If only Xena were here! Gabrielle opened her mouth, screamed out her friend's nameâ

âbut it emerged as a strangled whisper, the scream stuck in her throat.

Too late. The invisible thing had her, had laid its cold talons on her shoulder-strange, such a tiny claw, and it was shaking her now, and suddenly, instead of its mighty roar, it spoke her name in a firm tone of voice.

“Gabrielle.”

All of a sudden, there was no monster, no coldness, no roar.

“Gabrielle!”

“Huh? What!”

Xena's concerned face hovered in front of her, the warrior's gentle hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake.

“You were having a nightmare. I thought you were going to roll yourself right into the fire, the way you were thrashing around.”

Gabrielle shook herself, the last remnants of the dream fading away. She had fallen asleep, that was all; the burning smell had been wood smoke. And the creature . . .

“Oh, Xena! I had a horrible dream! It was so
real,
too, more likeâlike a vision!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah! I was all alone, inside this giant roomâand there was aâthere was this
thing,
but I couldn't see it, I could only hear it, and it was
huge,
as big as the world, and I couldn't get awayâ”

Xena frowned, but her eyes sparkled with amusement. “That's quite a vision. I guess that means we should avoid big rooms for a while . . .”

Gabrielle glared at her, but she wasn't really angry. Now that she'd said it out loud, it sounded less like a vision and more like a bad dream. Still, Xena didn't need to know that.

“I
do
have the gift of second sight,” she mumbled, and then even quieter, “sometimes.”

Xena grinned at her. “Of course. And sometimes, when you're hungry and tired and you fall asleep next to a hot fire, you have nightmares. But who can say? At least we can fix the hungry partâthat is, unless your vision scared away your appetite.”

Gabrielle's senses finally picked up the delicious scent of the cooked rabbit over the low flames, and she realized that Xena had already made dinnerâfor a change, it looked like something worth eating, too. Xena's cooking was usually pretty awful, unless you liked burnt stew and uncooked root mash.

Gabrielle's stomach suddenly let out a growl that almost rivaled the creature's screaming roar from her dream, she hoped that the flush of the fire hid the sudden redness she felt creeping up her neck. “Well . . . having visions really drains you, you know? I'm always hungry after one.”

Xena nodded, all seriousness, but her eyes still sparkled. “We should eat, then. I wouldn't want you to lose your gift.”

Gabrielle smiled and reached for her plate. “Exactly.”

Just to make sure, she had several helpings.

Xena was already asleep, although Gabrielle knew that she'd awake at the slightest sound, so she lay on her bedroll quietly, careful not to make any noise. As always, she wondered how Xena did itâwhen
she
slept, it practically took a parade to wake her up; Xena, on the other hand, was up and fully alert if so much as a twig broke the wrong way.

She was tired, but she couldn't get the dream out of her head. It had to mean
something.
Perhaps not a literal creatureâbut she had a definite feeling that it had something to do with their future, and that it was something unpleasant. She sighed. An unsettling thought, to say the least.

It could have just been a nightmare. Gabrielle had made that mistake before, more than once. One time, she'd had a vision that a great eagle was going to swoop down out of the sky and carry off her family's milk cow, and
that
had seemed very real. Except that the cow had died of old age two years later, right in the barn.

But then, you never could tell with the gift of prophecy, it
could
have happened, but maybe she had changed the outcome somehow and saved the cow . . .

Still thinking of monsters and milk cows, Gabrielle finally slipped off into a deep and peaceful sleep.

Something in the woods.

Xena snapped awake, snatched up her sword, and stood, not questioning her instincts. Her sleeping ear had detected a sound that didn't belong; that was enough.

She crouched, ready, and waited. The fire had melted down to glowing embers, and the moon was low in the sky; it was late. After a moment, there was the unmistakable sound of footsteps through the woods, a clumsy crashing that let her relax a little bit; there were only two of them, whoever they were, and if they had trouble in mind, they probably would at least have tried to be quieter. Still, she stayed in a crouch; unexpected company in the middle of the night was not something to take lightly.

Gabrielle stirred and sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking around in confusion. Xena jerked her head at the sleepy girl, motioning her to hide behind one of the large stones near their beds. Gabrielle quickly crawled out of sight, making almost as much noise as their coming visitors; they would have to work on her stealth abilities.

For now, thoughâXena raised her sword as the crashing came closer.

Out of the darkness, a young man stepped into the dim glow of the dying embers, his face dirty and tired. Right behind him was a much older man, dressed in the same simple clothes and wearing the same exhausted look. They had the air of villagers, peasant folkâ and for a weapon, each carried only a staff. The younger of the two had a sling around his waist, probably for huntingâall in all, they looked about as threatening as a pair of woodchucks.

Xena lowered her sword slightly. “Who are you?”

The two men turned at the sound of her voice, and their expressions changed dramatically, both at the same time, in a way that Xena did not expect at all, that caused her to lower her weapon even further.

Huge, unaffected smiles of joyous relief.

The older man spoke first. “Thank the Gods! We've found you!”

The younger man actually laughed out loud, a shaky sound of weary amazement. “Oh, she knew, she
knew
! Maybe there's still time!”

Xena frowned and stepped closer to the two men, curious now. “Time for what?”

Their smiles melted away, again as one, and the older man's voice became hoarse and frightened as he spoke again.

“Time to stop the end of the world,” he whispered. “You are the only hope there is to stop it before it's too late.”