DISCLAIMER:
The characters in this story are the property of MCA/Universal and Renaissance Pictures. This is not for profit and is not intended to infringe anyone's copyright. It's just a bit of fun.

WARNING:
Explicit scenes of fem-sex follow, so if you are under 18 years, or this sort of material is illegal where you live, please give this story a miss. This story also contains references to sexual activity between male and female characters.

You can find more stories by Amazon at her site VixenNet

Send feedback to amazon@flashmail.com

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

A First Time for Everything
By Amazon

Chapter One

Gabrielle smiled to herself as she listened to the unfamiliar sound of Xena softly snoring. Like a little puppy, she thought, a low growling followed by an adorable snuffle, repeated at regular intervals on slow deep breaths.

She had never heard Xena snore before, never even seen her asleep. The warrior princess always awoke before Gabrielle and fell asleep after her, and the slightest sound or movement in the night would instantly shake her to wakefulness. On several occasions Gabrielle had rolled over, disturbed by some animal's foraging, to find Xena sitting up in her bedroll across the other side of the fire, sword in hand, eyes and ears alert for any villains unwise enough to intrude on their camp.

One particularly warm starry night, she had woken with a start, with no idea what had drawn her so abruptly from slumber. Her eyes flew open and she saw Xena leaning over her, propped on one elbow, smiling and holding a long blade of grass over Gabrielle's face.

"Wha.. what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Why did I wake up?"

"I was tickling your nose."

"Oh. Why?"

"You were keeping me awake."

Gabrielle's heart started pounding. Had her dreams betrayed her? She had long since come to terms with her desire for her warrior companion, an unstaunchable lust buried deep in her young heart that first shocked her in its torrid detail. But she would rather die than have Xena suspect her of such inappropriate feelings. She should be grateful enough that the great warrior princess had overcome her misgivings and allowed her to join her travels. After all, Gabrielle was just a simple farm-girl with no skills or experience to offer in return, aside from her passable cooking.

After two moons or so of traveling, Gabrielle had learned to keep her wandering thoughts in check during the day. But at night, in her dreams, her most vivid fantasies took control, tormenting her with disturbing visions of naked, writhing bodies and deep, conquering kisses.

"Was... was I talking in my sleep?" Gabrielle asked quickly.

"You were giggling. You often do. You must have very amusing dreams."

"Do I?"

"It's so sweet. I've never heard anyone else do that. You just giggle away to yourself like someone in a tavern just told you a dirty joke."

Gabrielle had blushed at her involuntary indiscretion and with guilt at what she could so easily have revealed. Xena just shook her head and laughed before retreating back to her own bedroll.

That had been just a few nights ago. Back then, Gabrielle had only experienced Xena's body in tantalizing glimpses as she entered a cold lake to bathe, or in the curves suggested by her short, leather slip on the rare occasions when she felt safe enough to discard her armor. Back then, Gabrielle could only imagine what it might be like to be held in the warrior's strong arms, to feel her hot, wet mouth claim her own.

But tonight was different. From now on everything would be different, Gabrielle knew. Tonight the warrior was lying face down next to her, naked under their shared fur with one arm flung over her head, hair still damp with sweat, apparently exhausted and deeply relaxed in sleep.

This fighting woman lying so trusting next to her, could she dare call her a lover? This fearsome, murderous warrior had so tenderly and patiently coaxed Gabrielle to surrender, before sweeping her up into a terrifying ride of passion and lust beyond the village-girl's wildest imaginings. Gabrielle's young body ached with fatigue and need. Every part of her carried the imprint of Xena's touch where by turns she'd been caressed and cajoled, used, stretched and finally, for precious moments, gently lifted and held outside her body.

Gabrielle felt she'd aged ten years this past day. It had all started so brutally, when her most cherished ideals about her companion were cruelly crushed. In her naiveté, she had imagined the great warrior princess as a lonely and noble fighter, burdened by an indescribably tragic past and starving herself of love in recompense for her previous crimes. Lost in fantasy, Gabrielle imagined only she could lift this burden from Xena's shoulders, healing her suffering with patience, understanding and love.

How could she have been so dense? Gabrielle now cursed her stupidity. Of course Xena had many lovers, could pick and chose them at will, abandoning them along the way as her journeying took her where she pleased. What need did she have for an innocent young girl, ignorant of the ways of life, death and sex?

Ever since they left Poteidaia, Gabrielle had willingly dedicated her days and nights to following Xena's every instruction. In her foolishness, she had interpreted Xena's threats to take her back to her village as a playful challenge, believing the taciturn warrior woman truly enjoyed her company, her lively chatter and endless questions.

But today had been different. They'd spent nearly the whole time walking through the hills in silence, Xena striding ahead, leading her horse by the reins. With great difficulty, Gabrielle had uttered not a word, heeding Xena's warning that the area was dangerous, with brigands' hide-outs behind every rock. It was only when the warrior had casually started singing to herself, seemingly having forgotten all about the young woman obediently trailing behind her, that it occurred to Gabrielle that her silence had come as a welcome respite.

"Xena, I thought we had to be quiet?"

"Hmm?" the warrior turned around, frowning.

"You said it was too dangerous here to make any noise."

Xena looked at her blankly. "Oh, oh well, yeh, that was back there." She nodded vaguely back down the path behind them, then coughed and turned back round to take the reins of her horse. "We're safe enough in these parts."

Gabrielle was stunned, the realization suddenly hit her between the eyes: Xena wasn't lonely at all, on the contrary she was clearly wondering how she ever got saddled with this irritating farm-girl. Dejected, Gabrielle brooded in silence for the rest of the day and into evening as they sat around the campfire munching joylessly on an over-cooked rabbit stew.

"Are you alright? You've been very quiet today."

"You told me to be quiet, remember?"

"Well, yes, but that was candlemarks ago. I didn't mean all day."

"Xena."

"What?"

"If you don't want me to travel with you. I mean you'd tell me, wouldn't you? You won't just leave me in the middle of nowhere. You'd take me to a town first, wouldn't you?"

"Gabrielle!" the warrior said softly.

Despite herself Gabrielle shivered as a strange tingling warmth grew in the pit of her stomach. Xena hardly ever said her name, and she'd begun to think she'd forgotten it.

The warrior crossed the campsite and crouched in front of her young companion, her bowl of stew still in her hand. "Gabrielle, of course I like traveling with you. I wasn't sure at first, but... now I like having you with me. I just don't, er, talk as much as you, that's all."

"Wouldn't you rather travel alone if you had the choice? Isn't that how you usually travel?" Gabrielle was determined to pick at the sore until it bled.

"No, not really." Xena frowned. "In the past I always traveled with my army. These days, I usually have a lover or two with me. I've hardly traveled alone at all yet." Her tone betrayed the truth that she had, in fact, been looking forward to some rare and precious solitude before this young girl had insisted on joining her.

Gabrielle felt she would start to cry if the warrior didn't go back to her side of the fire right now.

"Hey!" Puzzled, Xena put her bowl down and awkwardly reached out a hand to rest on Gabrielle's knee. "It's nice to have a pretty face around my campfire for once, instead of some belching, farting piss-head of a soldier."

Gabrielle looked up tearfully, not much reassured by this comparison.

Xena would later confess that she'd had no idea what to do next. She had clearly upset her young companion and anything she said just seemed to deepen the sadness in those pretty, green eyes. So she did the first thing that came into her head. Leaning slowly towards the girl, Xena kissed her softly, full on her mouth.

Gabrielle froze in disbelief as the warrior she idolized pressed her lips against her own. Then she heard an involuntary moan escape her throat as she felt herself slipping over the edge of sanity and into an abyss of new sensations and pleasure...

Gabrielle sighed as she gazed at her warrior-love peacefully stretched out next to her. Xena had turned away in her sleep and Gabrielle wondered if she was trying to distance herself from what she'd done. Their bodies now touched only where their calves rested next to each other. Hardly daring to breathe, Gabrielle inched close enough to feel the heat from the Xena's back against her face and chest, to smell the ripe scent of mingled sex and sweat. It occurred to her that this was what people meant by being in love.

Blinking back sudden tears, Gabrielle let her eyes follow Xena's carelessly draped arm up towards her fingers, still stained with dried blood. Her blood...

"What's the matter?"

The warrior had stopped abruptly just as she prepared to claim the young woman's body.

"You... you're a virgin!"

"Xena, I told you that."

"I thought you meant you hadn't done it with women. I didn't know you hadn't done it ever with anyone."

"Well, I haven't. Is that a problem?" Gabrielle asked quietly.

"Er, no, no, sorry." Xena only half-succeeded in hiding a smirk. "It's just that, well, there's something in our way here and it has to be, er, got rid of, y'know?"

"Oh. Can you do it?"

"I haven't done that before. It might hurt."

"Really? What kind of warlord are you?" Gabrielle retorted sharply. "I would have thought you'd pillaged plenty of virgins in your time."

Xena didn't respond and Gabrielle cursed herself for so carelessly alluding to a past she could barely begin to understand. The life of a warrior, she knew, must be so much more brutal than her innocent mind could conceive.

"Gabrielle, in your village, do you have to be a virgin to get married?" Xena asked solemnly.

"Well, everyone pretends the bride's a virgin."

"But the husband, would he send you back to your family if you weren't, y'know, intact?"

"Oh Xena, let's not worry about that. If I get married it won't be for ages yet, and if someone doesn't want to marry me because of that then I don't want to marry them in the first place."

"OK, if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

Xena steadied herself and Gabrielle felt powerful arm muscles brace.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she whispered.

"It's ok, trust me. I'll make this as painless as possible."

Gabrielle blanched.

"Now, don't tense up on me." Xena pressed her two fingers further into the young farm-girl, testing the resistance of the barrier. "Remember why you want this," she murmured in her deep, seductive voice as she shifted her weight on top of Gabrielle. "Remember how much you want me inside you."

Xena pressed her tongue into Gabrielle's mouth until she felt the young woman's body melt into acquiesce. Then suddenly she pulled her mouth away and ploughed her fingers into the tight channel, twisting and tearing her way through in one cruel thrust.

"Oww! Gods! Fuck!!" Gabrielle gasped.

"Are you ok?" Xena grinned, genuinely concerned but pleased with herself nonetheless. "I've never heard you cuss like that before."

"Oh! Oh, it's fine now, it just hurt when you did it." She slowly relaxed her body and tried to regain control over her breath.

Xena gently pulled out and wiped her bloody fingers against a patch of grass beside them. "It's not the tearing that hurts, it's the strain just before it breaks."

"Am I bleeding a lot?"

"Let's have a look." Xena pulled back the fur bedroll. Two small patches of dark red lay on the young woman's thighs. To Gabrielle's horror, Xena ducked her head and started licking the sticky marks.

"Xena! Don't!" she tried to push her head away but Xena caught her by the wrist.

"My first blood...!"

When Xena looked up red stained her lips, turning her grin into a frighteningly feral look that made Gabrielle think of the child's story about the girl in red who put her trust in a wolf...

**********

Gabrielle sighed. Even if her first love decided to abandon her at the next village, she felt she could survive on her own now. She would cherish the memories of this night, and relive them in her mind whenever her craving shook her from sleep. At the very least, 'My Night of Passion with the Destroyer of Nations' would make an excellent story to launch her career as a bard, she thought, smiling to herself. Gabrielle was sad but not despondent. She resolved to ensure that every sigh, every taste and pleasure of this night would be etched in her mind forever...

Chapter Two

"It's your first time, Gabrielle. I want it to be good for you."

The warrior had certainly delivered on her promise, Gabrielle mused. It had started with a kiss, warm and wet, an unfamiliar and almost disturbing sensation as Xena's tongue invaded her mouth, coaxing her own to respond. The great Warrior Princess knelt at the feet of the farm-girl and pressed one strong hand to the back of Gabrielle's neck, guiding her firmly into the kiss, the other resting on a bare knee, fingers threatening to slip under the hem of the girl's skirt.

Gabrielle struggled to take in what was happening, but she was swept away on rising tides of pleasure, feelings flooding over her in a torrent of sensation. Xena's mouth pushed harder, became more insistent, more demanding. Gabrielle felt like she was drowning. For the first time, she understood the fear instilled in ordinary mortals at the very mention of the Destroyer of Nations.

Suddenly, the warrior broke the kiss and sat back on her heels, an amused twinkle in her eyes. Gabrielle couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her lips at the loss of that delicious contact - and at the sight of those startling azure eyes that betrayed nothing of their owner's dark soul.

From her seat on the fallen tree-trunk, Gabrielle was able for once to look directly into the face of the kneeling warrior. She couldn't help but wonder about the nameless men and women who had been privileged to look into those same eyes, knowing it would be their last vision this side of the Styx. Did their expressions change from fear to wonder, transfixed by that piercing blue framed by the long, dark lashes of a child? Or did they see only the deadly cold stare of a killer?

Xena just regarded the farm-girl thoughtfully, without speaking, as if she had just discovered something unexpected. Something unexpected but good. Gabrielle felt her skin flush under the older woman's scrutiny.

Without shifting her gaze, Xena started unbuckling her armor.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"I'm stripping for you. So you can get a good look at me." Xena smirked at her young companion. "So you don't have to steal one out of the corner of your eye."

Gabrielle adopted what she hoped was an affronted expression.

"Come on, girl. I've seen you trying to sneak an eyeful when I'm getting undressed to bathe. Don't try to deny it now." Suddenly, Gabrielle's hero was down to her leather dress, the ties at her chest straining tightly against her full breasts.

"I-I..." Gabrielle's usually reliable store of words failed her as she tried to protest her innocence. How could her carefully concealed desires have been so visible? Her half-formed words trailed off and Xena ignored her discomfort and started unlacing the leather slip. Gabrielle's mouth hung open at the display before her - the dress was pulled down to the warrior's waist, exposing naked breasts to the night air. She swallowed and watched the firelight turn Xena's skin a burnished copper, tongues of flame licking her dark red nipples.

"Here." Smiling, Xena took one of the girl's hands and placed a soft, warm kiss in the palm. Then she gently pressed it to one breast, urging Gabrielle to explore its fullness. Amazed, Gabrielle watched as her own hand began fondling, grasping and squeezing, even though she hardly knew what she was doing.

"Oh yesss..." With a sigh of satisfaction, Xena closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

Some deeper urge gave the village-girl a rush of courage. Her hands shaking, Gabrielle took a breast in each hand, pressing them together and rubbing her palms against the soft flesh, feeling nipples tighten into hard buds.

"Yesss..." Xena sighed again, her head thrown back, her eyes still tightly closed. Gabrielle marveled at the finely muscled torso, the long neck, the strong jaw-line.

Xena leaned forward again and Gabrielle's head was pushed down towards the warrior's naked chest. A warm voice cut through the cool night. "Here... suck me." Gabrielle heard Xena cry out as her lips closed on the offered teat and suddenly she was crushed to the older woman's bosom.

"Oh, that's right," Xena muttered. "Harder!" The warrior kissed and stroked the village-girls' long blonde hair as if she'd never felt such a lush, silken texture. "Oh, Gabrielle. You've been dreaming about doing this for me, haven't you, sweet girl?"

Gabrielle couldn't hide her eagerness as her nascent passion bloomed. Her answer was a muffled groan. Sucking hard, she tugged at the nipple like a new-born.

"Ohh! Yesss! Good girl!."

Xena suddenly decided the girl should share her nakedness and in one smooth movement she reached her fingers inside Gabrielle's top and ripped the laces, pulling the flimsy garment open and exposing surprisingly large, firm breasts. Her eyes glowed with excitement as she took in the sight.

"Beautiful." With difficulty, the warrior prised Gabrielle's mouth away, so she could bury her face between those luscious breasts. "Oh, your skin.. Your skin, it's so soft..."

Gabrielle cradled Xena's head now nuzzled deep into her bosom and listened to the muffled groans that came from the warrior's throat. She smiled to herself at the very idea that her body could be such a source of pleasure. For years, her well-developed breasts had been nothing but an embarrassment. The local boys had teased her mercilessly while the other girls had playfully grabbed at them, jealous and fascinated at the same time. Now she began to understand, having savored the sweet taste of a grown woman's breasts in her mouth, just how much joy they could give.

"Gods!" a shocking thought broke through Gabrielle's contented reverie. "If anyone from the village could see me now!" Sitting in the open by the camp-fire, offering her naked breasts to the mouth of a renown warlord and murderer of innocents - her mother would die of shame, her father would disown her. And that without even considering that the lover so ardently worshipping her young body was a woman.

It was not exactly a shock that the Warrior Princess would seek pleasure from a young girl. Everyone knew that warrior women often took their own kind as lovers, and parents were well advised to hide their daughters from raiders of any kind. And then there were the Amazons - a fierce tribe of women, if the stories were to be believed, who got up to gods-knew-what in the forests to the south of their land. Gabrielle remembered there had been quite a commotion when a young girl from a neighboring village had run off to join them. Gabrielle's father, never a demonstratively affectionate man, had been in a particularly foul mood for the few days while that scandal dominated village gossip. Nothing his two daughters did seemed to please him and any excited chatter or misdemeanor, however slight, would set him off in a rage.

Gabrielle had listened to the stories and rumors with great interest but without comment. Somehow she couldn't reconcile the love between mythical fighting-women and savages with her own indistinct visions and sensations - the secret passions that woke her nightly and which she tried in vain to calm with a hand pressed firmly between her thighs.

"Come here!"

Xena surfaced from between Gabrielle's breasts to issue an order. Pulling the girl up from her seat she led her over to her bedroll conveniently already laid out by the fire. They sat together and Xena slipped her arms around the smaller woman, folding her in her embrace until Gabrielle was cocooned, wrapped safely in strong arms and legs, Xena's long mane of black hair tumbling over both their shoulders. Xena was everywhere and everywhere was Xena.

Gabrielle flinched as she felt strong white teeth nip at her flesh between kisses trailed down her neck.

"Ohh! That's exquisite!" she breathed. Sensing a moment's hesitation in the warrior's movements, she added quickly: "I mean... it feels great." Smoothing her hands over Xena's muscled shoulders and down her naked back, Gabrielle felt a wet tongue trace a path along her jaw-line.

Then the lesson began in earnest.

Chapter Three

"Hungry?"

Xena lay back on the fur rug and spread her legs open, her dress, boots and britches now abandoned next to the camp-fire.

Gabrielle froze, gripped by nothing less than terror at the sight of the naked warrior sprawled in front of her. In all her nocturnal fantasizing, she'd scarcely dared imagine what her own body might look like from this angle, let alone another woman's. If she'd expected a discreet opening, partly hidden in its tidy nest of curls, she was mistaken. Xena's sex was exposed and open, glistening with wetness, lips swollen and slightly parted. Unmistakably aroused.

The warrior was looking expectantly up at her.

"Xena, I-I haven't done it before."

"Really?" Xena couldn't keep the gleeful tone out of her voice. "Oh! Well, I'll be gentle. Promise. Now come here. I'll show you how I want you to pleasure me. Here." She indicated that Gabrielle should kneel between her outstretched legs. "Now, just lay your head on my belly to start with. Get used to it first."

Gabrielle did as she was told, not really understanding what 'it' was that she was supposed to get used to. She stretched out and rested her cheek against Xena's soft belly, the dark triangle of hairs above her sex tickling her nose. Then a familiar scent suddenly hit her in the face. Gabrielle half sat up in a bid to escape the unbearably strong sensation, but a firm hand pushed her back.

"Steady. Take it slowly."

Gabrielle obediently lay back down, breathing cautiously now, determined to do whatever was demanded of her. This time the delicious scent began to call her, urging her downwards to take a full draught of the sweet nectar she knew must be dripping from the warrior's sex. She would soon get used to this alright. Taking the older woman's advice, she resisted the temptation to follow the trail immediately. Instead she let her lungs take their fill until she felt she could bear to wait no longer.

"Let me?"

Xena removed her hand from Gabrielle's neck and let her wriggle down the blanket. The innocent village-girl took one last look at that fascinating vision before closing her eyes and pressing her mouth and nose between the folds of Xena's sex.

All coherent thought left Gabrielle's mind, as taste, touch and smell overwhelmed her. Acting on instinct alone, she pressed her tongue to Xena's center, lapping and sucking as if her life depended on it. Somewhere above her, she heard a warrior roar and then murmur her name over and over. Gabrielle hardly knew what was expected of her, she just knew she never wanted to stop pleasuring this woman she adored.

"Hades teeth!" Xena's body bucked and tensed and arched upwards, but never escaping the girl's attentive tongue. The warrior called on and then cursed every god in Olympia, including several Gabrielle had never heard of. She swore and blasphemed in languages from lands Gabrielle never knew existed, and promised sexual favors in return that, if Gabrielle had but understood them, she would have dismissed as physically impossible.

Finally, the great Warrior Princess had to admit defeat at the hands of the young farm-girl. "Ohhh! Oh! Oh, stop for a second! Let me get my breath."

Gabrielle reluctantly halted her relentless lapping, amazed that she could have tired Xena out. The warrior smiled down at the flushed, eager face between her legs.

"Ok, now listen. I'm too excited now, I need release. But it's alright, I'll soon be ready again, ok? I promise." Xena gripped Gabrielle by her hair and abruptly pulled her down to resume licking.

Gabrielle had no idea what she meant. "Do you want me to stop?" she tried to lift her head but Xena's tight grip prevented her.

"No, no! Just keep doing what you were doing. It's great," Xena panted. "Gods, you're so good at it. Must have some amazon blood in you, eh? Oh, yesssss..." with that Xena slipped back to indecipherable moans.

It didn't take long. A few more well-placed laps and Gabrielle was surprised by the kiss returned against her mouth by the spasms deep within Xena's body. The warrior half sat up, gripped by tension as waves of release washed over her. A scream echoed into the forest, startling the dozing wildlife and making Gabrielle's ears ring.

Xena lay back on the rug almost sobbing, her legs still spread and knees bent, one arm shielding her face. Gabrielle sat up and looked into the tear-stained face of her beloved, not sure quite what to do. Gazing down in wonder at the naked beauty laid out before her, she rested her small hands on the warrior's long, muscled thighs and placed a kiss on one bended knee. A hand reached up for hers and gripped it tightly.

"That was very good, Gabrielle. I'm very pleased with you," the warrior said breathlessly, without opening her eyes....

**********

Even after giving herself so completely to her young companion, Xena somehow managed to maintain her natural authority and dignity, Gabrielle thought to herself as she watched the still and sleeping form next to her. She wondered what she would have to do to break through that arrogant and distant manner.

Another part of her worried that she had lost more than just her virginity this long night. Was she becoming the kind of girl she so disdained in myth and legend, rescued or abandoned at the whim of the great hero, her only purpose to please her lover? The thought disturbed her, but more so because she knew she would discard any dearly-held principle in a moment if it meant she could lie like this, next to Xena, for the rest of her life.

Idiot girl! There she was again - romantic fantasies worthy of a child. How many times had she lectured other girls in the village about how important it was to be independent, not to rely on anyone for food, shelter or money? Or love. Love was an irrational goal, the evidence was everywhere to be seen. Sex held people enthralled for a year, maybe two then you could see the resentment and loneliness in married eyes. And yet here she was, dreaming of a life dedicated to this cruel and dangerous killer and of being fucked daily like a common whore. Hypocrite!

Xena stirred in her sleep, as if disturbed by the ferocity of Gabrielle's thoughts. The warrior stretched and rolled over, gathering her young lover up in her arms as she did so, making Gabrielle whimper as she was clasped to that warm body in a powerful embrace. Suddenly Xena's eyes were open and the blue orbs made mockery of the darkness of the night.

Sensing a frisson of fear, she pulled Gabrielle under her chin and tenderly stroked her hand through the girl's thick, blonde hair. "Ok?"

"Yes," replied a small voice as Gabrielle reached around Xena's torso and did her best to squeeze the breath from her lover's body.

Xena planted a kiss on the top of her head. "Want some more?"

Gabrielle smiled and dropped one hand to rest between Xena's moist thighs. "Mmmm. This is nice enough. For now."

"'Kay," the warrior's reply was already sleepy again.

"Xena?"

"Hmmm?."

"Can I just keep my hand down here?" Gabrielle daringly pushed her small hand between the warrior's legs, up against that dark, wet place.

Xena's answer was to roll over on her back and let her legs fall open, her eyes now closed as she resumed her charming snore.

Gabrielle could feel that wondrous tightness start again in her belly. Just from touching her companion's naked sex! Checking Xena was asleep, she guiltily brought her hand up to her nose and inhaled the musky-sweet scent deep into her lungs.

Chapter Four

Gabrielle would never know it, but the first thing Xena did every morning was listen for her young companion's breathing. If she concentrated hard enough, if she stilled her own breath to silence, she could just pick out the low regular sound from among the clatter of the awakening forest. Even from her bedroll positioned several horse-lengths away, the warrior could focus in on that sweet rhythm. Closing out all other distractions, she almost believed she could hear the steady pulse of Gabrielle's heartbeat.

It was a natural concern, Xena told herself, an understandable paranoia since that sickening morning a few years ago. She'd awoken after an unusually deep, peaceful sleep to find the elite soldiers of her small raiding party had been slaughtered in the night while they slept - torn and twisted bodies scattered around her camp, steaming like so much dead meat. She knew immediately this was Ares' idea of a joke. Not even the stealthiest footfall of warlord or brigand could have approached them without awakening her. It was the God of War's subtle way to remind her who pulled the strings.

Boredom was the Gods' most persistent foe, and there was no telling when Ares would try that one again - or whether some other deity with an interest in tormenting the warrior princess would get a similar idea. And Xena knew this trusting young woman would be an especially amusing target, once the Gods realized the great Destroyer of Nations was traveling with someone she actually cared for.

Cared for! Xena snorted to herself, as she led her horse along the steep path. What do I know about caring? Everyone I've even thought of that way has ended up dead, mostly by my own hand. The horse snorted back as if in agreement, and Xena smiled despite her dark thoughts and placed a kiss on the mare's muzzle.

Pausing to look out over the rocky ridge to the valley below, Xena wondered for the umpteenth time where they were headed. She had no idea, any more than she knew why the young girl was still obediently following behind day after day, trusting in her companion's unspoken plan. A plan which did not exist. Gabrielle seemed unaware of their aimlessness or untroubled by it.

Overhead, Apollo's chariot arced across the sky and Xena sighed as the heat generated by its spinning wheels pleasantly warmed her back.

"Xena?" Gabrielle broke the silence Xena had enforced some candlemarks ago.

"Hmmm?" the warrior replied without looking round.

"Can we stop and eat something soon?"

"Eat what? There's nothing to hunt now until we get over the other side of this hill. And no fruit trees for half a day after that, probably."

"I'm hungry," Gabrielle informed her.

"Well, you should've thought of that when you had that rabbit in your sights this morning."

"It ducked. I told you," she replied sulkily.

Xena snorted and shook her head. Gabrielle's obvious reluctance to kill had reminded her just how young the girl really was. And yet so disobedient - daring to grant the furry creature another day rather than feed their stomachs. Xena couldn't help but laugh at her protests of innocence.

"Gabrielle! What are you doing?"

"It moved, it did! Just as I let go of the arrow!"

"You angled it upwards, you fool. What's wrong with you, girl? Your practice shots were fine."

Crouching behind Gabrielle and holding her hands steady on the bow, Xena had done her best to give sage shooting advice - even as her senses threatened to overpower all rational thought. The musk of the girl's sex was unmistakable and so alluring, mingled with the softer scent of her sun-warmed hair that tumbled over her shoulders and brushed against Xena's arm. The warrior judged the girl's last menses had finished some four or maybe five days ago. Well, that answered one question at least. It took all of Xena's famed strength of will not to throw Gabrielle on her back and take her right there in the secluded copse.

Gabrielle, Gabrielle. Xena turned the name over in her mind, imagined the form of it shaping her tongue. Was she falling in love with this village girl? Was she losing her fucking mind?

Xena had first feared for her sanity a few nights ago when she'd found herself perched in a tree high above their camp. Straining her eyes in the darkness, she'd looked down, fascinated to see what her young companion would do when she imagined she was alone.

Xena had hoped to convince Gabrielle that she would be gone for at least a candlemark, declaring her mission to hunt nocturnal creatures on the other side of a lake some distance from their camp. Having doubled back from her 'hunt' and sneaked up into the tree, Xena was at first perplexed to see the girl retrieve a parchment from her bag and start frantically scratching away with a quill. She'd no idea the girl could read, or that she carried writing materials. Was she a spy? For whom, for Hera's sake? Xena resolved to take a look at that scroll the next time Gabrielle went for a swim.

The girl continued with her infernal scratching, stretched out on her stomach on the bed-roll, chewing the end of her quill and pausing from time to time to look into the middle distance. This was not proving much of a spectator sport and Xena was ready to slide back down the tree to reemerge clutching the clutch of dead game she'd hidden earlier that day. The girl was so dim she wouldn't even notice that the birds had been killed candlemarks ago. Then just as Xena gathered herself for a silent descent, Gabrielle tossed her quill and scroll to one side and rolled over on the bedroll.

Laying on her back, the girl at first simply looked up at the canopy of stars above her, one arm tucked under her head, a picture of deep contentment. Then Xena noticed the path the other hand was taking. The warrior had to acknowledge this was exactly what she'd hoped for all along. "I just want to know if she'll call out my name," she justified to herself.

In the event, Gabrielle's technique was perfunctory, a few quick and vigorous thrusts ending in a short series of wordless grunts.

"Well, I'm sure we can do better than that," the warrior had thought before cursing herself. "Don't even think it, warrior-slag! That girl has a right to live long enough to marry some village dimwit and bear his dimwit children. She'd run screaming from you anyway, at the first idea of what you're into."

**********

Letting go of her horse as they came to a flatter section of the path, Xena reaffirmed her earlier decision to leave the girl in peace. Yes, she resolved, they would take the north road to Athens. Gabrielle would soon find a boyfriend in one of the many taverns teaming with worthy young Athenians.

And as for herself, well, she could get reacquainted with that Corinthian prostitute who worked the upscale brothel behind the courthouse. It must be nearly a year now since the last shameless episode with her. By the gods, that had been two days and nights of debauchery to cherish! And worth every dinar. Xena cursed her stupidity yet again. How could she even imagine that this sweet village girl...

"Yes, a detour to Athens, that's the solution. Release some tension. Mmm, yes, ni-iice idea."

With that reassuring thought, Xena relaxed and started softly singing an Amphipolian tune to herself.

Chapter Five

In all her secret night-time fantasies Gabrielle could hardly have imagined some of the activities Xena would enjoy. Her fascination with Gabrielle's thick blonde hair, the way she buried her face in it and moaned as she inhaled the fragrance. Her eulogies to the softness of her skin.

And the other thing.

Gabrielle tensed as Xena whispered almost shyly: "There's something I'd like you to do for me."

"Tell me."

Xena had answered by laying down on her front next to Gabrielle and spreading her legs open. "Kneel between my legs and lean over me."

Puzzled, Gabrielle did as she was asked and hovered over the naked warrior. "Like that?"

"Now, just lean forward until... until I can feel your breasts against my back. Oh Gods! Yes! Yes, like that..."

Gabrielle couldn't help smiling to herself at this unlikely proposition. Trying to meet the woman's needs, she let the full weight of her naked breasts rest against Xena's muscled shoulders. To her astonishment, the warrior went wild, writhing with undisguised delight.

"Ohh, yeh. Mmmm! Oh! Now rub them over my back, that's it!"

Gabrielle obediently dragged her breasts down Xena's spine to the small of her back, over the twin hills of her naked buttocks and back up again. Pleasantly amused at the reaction she was causing, she was taken with a mischievous need to test this extraordinary power.

"Does that feel good, warrior?"

"Mmm!" a low moan.

"How does it feel? Tell me why it feels good." Gabrielle kept up the apparently delicious torture.

"Mmm. It's-I- I can, I can feel your nipples, hard, hard against my skin. Getting harder. And the weight of your breasts, so soft, soft but so heavy..."

Gabrielle raised an eyebrow. This was the most expressiveness she'd heard from her companion in all their days traveling together.

"You like that, don't you?"

"Hmm?" the warrior's back stiffened slightly as she suspected she was being mocked.

"You like the feel of a woman's breasts..." Gabrielle timed her words to match the stroking of her hard points against her willing victim. "The way my nipples are brushing against your skin. Brushing all the way along the length of your back." Gabrielle began to gain confidence. Words were her domain and she suddenly realized she could use them to torment the warrior lying so helpless at her mercy.

"Oh yeh." Xena sank once more beneath waves of pleasure. "Love your titties..."

Feeling bolder now, Gabrielle let her breasts slap loudly against Xena's butt.

"Grrr!"

Gabrielle had to concentrate to stop herself giggling. Xena was growling. Leaning on her elbows, she lowered her weight onto the woman beneath her, squashing her firm young breasts against the warrior's muscular frame. Xena endured this torture for a while then quickly turned, lifting Gabrielle bodily and twisting beneath her until she rested on her back.

They kissed with renewed passion and Gabrielle marveled at the sensation of Xena's quickened heartbeat she could clearly feel thumping against her own chest. This was all due to her!

Then she jumped as long fingers slipped inside her britches.

"Hush, hush," Xena murmured trying to calm her. "Gods, you're wet, girl!"

Gabrielle squirmed away from the direct sensation of the warrior's fingers. She'd never been touched like this before. She'd hardly even dared to touch herself inside in that way.

Picking up on her nervousness, Xena decided to take a slower course. "Would you like me to lick you? Like you did for me?"

"Oh, yes!"

"Ok, take your panties off and sit on my face." Gabrielle quickly ripped off her britches. "No, the other way round. That's it."

Facing Xena's feet, Gabrielle straddled Xena's head and closing her eyes to help quell her shyness, she lowered herself slowly onto the warrior's mouth. Suddenly she cried out as she felt strong fingers grip her thighs and a warm, wet tongue start lapping at her sex.

"Oh, gods.. oh..." Gabrielle wriggled in ecstasy, making the warrior grip her tightly to keep her in reach of her tongue. Then she noticed Xena had stretched open her legs to draw attention to something - of course, Gabrielle realized, she could pleasure Xena in the same way, even while her own pussy was receiving such loving treatment.

Soon they were both slurping hungrily and Gabrielle couldn't help a smile as she imagined Aphrodite herself would blush to see such shameless lust.

"OWWW!" Suddenly she was shocked by a sharp slap across her rear. "Wha.. what's the matter?" she looked back over her shoulder in consternation.

"Nothing," Xena grinned. ""You were offering your pretty butt to me, so I thought I'd give it a smack, that's all."

"Oh!"

"Did you like it, hmm?"

"Don't know," Gabrielle frowned. "Not sure. Do it again."

She turned back round and braced herself. "OWW!!" This time there was no mistaking the tingling warmth of pleasure as anticipation gave way to the pain of another stinging blow. Gabrielle couldn't help her hips writhing and bucking to redistribute the heat that suddenly gathered in her lower half. "Ohhh. Oh! I'm still not quite... OWW!"

Xena settled into a regular rhythm and Gabrielle's cries were muffled in Xena's crotch as the girl tried in vain to resume licking her partner. Soon they both collapsed in laughter as the task had obviously become impossible.

"Here." Xena took on a solemn expression as she motioned for Gabrielle to turn around and lay alongside her.

They kissed and rolled together until Xena tentatively resumed the probing of her fingers.

Gabrielle's virgin channel put up only short-lived resistance to Xena's determined thrusts. After the initial pain, the warrior withdrew, concerned not to hurt her young lover any more than necessary.

"I need it now." Gabrielle urged shyly.

Xena sat up and pulled Gabrielle into her arms to sit in her lap. Cradling her in the crock of one arm, the warrior gently pressed her fingers back inside.

"Are you still sore? Does it hurt?"

"Oh, no. No, it feels good. So good." Gabrielle slumped against the warrior's shoulder.

Gradually, agonizingly slowly, the pumping got harder.

"Oh g-gods, Xena! It's s-so g-good, it h-hurts."

"Hush. Just relax. Calm down for a while."

"Don't stop, Xena! Please! I like it."

"I know you do, my sweet, but just take your time. Savor it. I'm not going anywhere 'til you've had your fill."

Gabrielle could not imagine ever having enough of this feeling, but this time she knew exactly what the warrior meant. Eventually this pleasure would build and grip her belly, sending her soaring in ecstasy just as Xena had done earlier. Gabrielle daringly opened her legs wider and was rewarded by a moan from her lover and deeper, more powerful thrusts that almost lifted her off the ground.

"Oh Gods! I didn't know it could feel this good. Oh Hera's tits, it feels good, Xena..." she gripped Xena's arm and without noticing what she was doing, drew blood as she scratched her short nails along the hard bicep.

"Gabrielle, Gabrielle, you're so wet. I want you Gabrielle." The warrior murmured the village girl's name over and over, muttering praise to her body, calling her favorite places by names a sailor might use.

Something about the desperation in Xena's passion, the way her strong hands ran over Gabrielle's body, through her hair, had been almost frightening. But Gabrielle wouldn't give in to fear. Not now, while Xena's fingers thrust into her, twisting and probing, deep inside and stretching her until she thought the warrior would force her whole hand inside.

Oh, gods! Gabrielle couldn't speak but she knew what was coming. When it came, she heard a voice shriek, a voice that she didn't recognize but knew must be her own. She thought it would never stop. "OHH! OHHH! XENNAAA!"

When it was over she stayed like that, cradled naked in the arms of the former Destroyer of Nations, her legs spread open, her thighs glistening wet. Behind her, Xena quietly licked her fingers clean.

Chapter Six

"Let me see those nails. Hmmm, not bad, but they could be better," Xena examined the farm girl's hands with a frown, turning them to catch the light from the dying embers of the camp-fire.

They had been making love for several candlemarks and Gabrielle was both deeply sated and yet eager to give and receive more pleasure, and to learn from her more worldly lover. But she was puzzled that Xena should find something amiss with her nails, of all things. She prided herself on keeping them neat and trim, despite a lifetime spent gathering crops and tending animals in the fields of her village. Had she accidentally scratched her lover, she worried.

"They should be shorter," Xena declared.

"Oh, really? If you think so," Gabrielle replied doubtfully.

Xena took one hand and brought each finger to her lips, skillfully blunting the ends that she deemed needed attention. She smiled and winked up at the girl as she worked her way through one hand then the other, making Gabrielle giggle at the odd sensation of tiny nibbles from strong white teeth.

When she was satisfied with the results, Xena got up, unselfconscious in her nakedness, and strode over to her saddlebag returning with a small sack and what looked like a bottle of oil. She knelt beside Gabrielle on the bedroll and flung the sack on the ground, placing the bottle by the girl's knees.

Seeing her confused look, Xena said in a low, husky voice: "Gabrielle, I want you to fuck me. Ok?"

"Ok," Gabrielle replied in barely more than a whisper.

Without further explanation, Xena stretched out her full naked length on the fur rug and reached out her arms. "Cm'ere."

Gabrielle scooted down to lay at Xena's side, aware suddenly of how small she felt next to this powerful creature, her lover. Tilting her head to meet Xena's lips with her own, she initiated a slow, deep kiss and pressed her tongue into the warrior's hot mouth.

Tongues slid over each other in a complex dance until Gabrielle broke free and eagerly began exploring the rest of Xena's body with her mouth and hands. Moaning with uncontrolled delight, she ran her palms over every sculpted muscle of Xena's torso, tracing the contours of her shoulders, passing down over her breasts and belly, filling her nose with the sweet, musky scent of aroused warrior. Moving further down, she anointed the long thigh muscles with her teeth and tongue, biting and licking until every touch was echoed in her lover's sighs.

Gabrielle noticed that this time, unlike their earlier coupling, she was being allowed to wander freely. Now there was no cajoling, no subtle and not-so-subtle instruction. Xena was waiting for something. Gabrielle could sense it in the change of her breathing, the quicker, shallower breaths that signaled the warrior's growing excitement. She was waiting for the young novice to take the lead and Gabrielle would not let her down. Gathering her courage, she pushed the raven-haired beauty onto her back and mounted her.

"MMmmm!"

"Please." Xena's voice was quiet, almost shy, making the plea sound more like a question.

"Xena, show me how...."

The warrior answered by grabbing the bottle and quickly smothering Gabrielle's right hand in the strangely warm oil before pressing the palm firmly between her legs. The village girl understood and rubbed her wet fingers through the folds of the warrior's heated center.

"Oh! You're ready for it aren't you?" Gabrielle purred daringly.

Xena just gripped the girl's wrist, imploring her to enter.

Tentatively, Gabrielle pressed two fingers into the entrance and was greeted by a flood of heat and silky wetness that made her gasp with pleasure. Sensing her lover's urgency, she withdrew half-way and pushed back in, beginning a slow thrusting motion that came to her instinctively.

"You... can... put... more fingers.... in me," Xena urged between breaths.

"Is that right?" Gabrielle teased her lover with the tender stroking, but still refused her direct request. "You want some more, do you?"

Xena laughed. "Yes please, mistress," she pouted. "I'd like another finger. Please."

Gabrielle smiled down at those startling blue eyes and that wicked grin that made her insides flip every time. Biting her lip, she ploughed three then four fingers into Xena's soaking wet pussy, keeping to her steady, slow beat.

The warrior groaned in gratitude and spread her legs wider. Then she seized Gabrielle's wrist and abruptly stopped her movement. "Clench your fist. Here, like this." Xena showed Gabrielle the exact movement she should make, then screamed as her protégé responded by demonstrating just what she'd learned.

"Ohhh! Yesss!! OH GODS!! Deeper, deeper, that's it. OHHH!"

Gabrielle couldn't believe she had her whole hand buried inside her warrior. She watched fascinated as the woman beneath her - this feared leader and warlord who always kept her emotions under such icy control - writhed in helpless ecstasy, gasping and cursing, her hair slick with sweat. Gabrielle saw her wrist and then part of her forearm disappear ever deeper into that dark, wet netherworld. It frightened her. She wanted to stop, to ask if this was a 'Xena' thing or something else, but maybe this wasn't the best time. She realized she had a responsibility now - to take control of Xena's pleasure. With the slightest change of pace or intensity, she could trigger a matching spasm in her lover's innermost muscles; the slightest pressure could push her towards climax or leave her hanging on the edge, begging for release.

"Oh... sweet... Artemis!... HARDER!!" Xena arched her back, lifting her torso off the ground, her legs bent and spread open, her weight on her hands and feet digging into the earth. "Gods, use your shoulder. Fuck!" Xena could hear herself becoming unintelligible, so she lowered her body back to the ground, gripped Gabrielle's forearm with one hand and simply tugged.

"Let me do it, Xena! I know what you want."

Persuaded by the conviction in Gabrielle's voice, the warrior let go. She arched her body backwards again, her head nearly touching the ground, then cursed and screamed as she felt the novice begin pounding her fist in vigorous, relentless thrusts.

"OHH! GODS! YESSS! LIKE THAT! Oh, yes. You know what I like, don't you? OHH GODS!! Fuck me, please!! Gabrielle, fuck me!"

Gabrielle could hear herself grunting, as surely as if she was receiving every thrust inside her own body. She could feel Xena's muscles pulling back, making more space to fill with her fist and arm. Gabrielle plunged deeper until she felt powerful contractions beginning deep inside her lover. Scared that her fingers would be broken, she quickly tucked her thumb into her palm.

At first Xena was eerily quiet, her entire body clenched with tension, arched and rigid. Then without warning she sat up, screaming and bucking violently, gripping her attentive young lover by the hair and sinking her teeth into her shoulder.

"OHH! FUUUCK! AAH, AHH, AAAHHH!" with a final shriek, Xena rode out the last wave of climax as her body gave itself up to the bliss of exhaustion.

The two lovers slumped to the blanket and into each other's arms.

"Wow! Wow, that was amazing. Xena I could feel everything, I felt it when you came, when you were getting closer, everything..." Gabrielle babbled in excitement.

"I need you out, baby. Now." Xena's eyes were closed, one arm shielding her face.

"Huh? Oh," suddenly Gabrielle realized she was outstaying her welcome. "Oh, I..how do I...?"

"I'll push, and just slip out as fast as you can, ok?" Xena mumbled, her eyes still closed. Without waiting for an answer, Xena squeezed her inner muscles and tugged on Gabrielle's arm as the girl hastily withdrew her fist.

"OW!! Shit!"

"Sorry, did I.. did I hurt you?"

"No, no, it's fine," Xena exhaled as if she'd been underwater for a candlemark. "It always hurts a bit when you come out. You did good, Gabrielle," the warrior sighed. "Very good. I need water. We both do."

Gabrielle quickly fetched the skin and passed it to her lover. "Hey, Xena, are you crying? Hey, what are these tears for? Have I hurt you?"

Xena collapsed back on the fur, breathless and exhausted. "No, no... It's fine, my love. It's a good thing... Really... Don't worry."

Gabrielle frowned in consternation. Sensing that Xena would not offer any further explanation, she ducked her head and started kissing the salty tears from the older woman's cheeks.

"What are you doing?" Xena laughed, her eyes still closed.

"I don't like to see you upset..."

"I'm not upset, soft girl." Xena laughed again and pulled the young blonde on top of her and into a warm embrace.

**********

A half a candlemark later and gentle kisses had started to become urgent again.

"Xena?"

"Hmm?"

"I think I'm getting, um, y'know, excited again."

"Mmm, s'that right? Insatiable little minx you are."

"Are you too tired?"

"Tired!?" Xena laughed then threw the little blonde on her back to illustrate her point.

"Want some more, Little Minx? Want to be fucked again?"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, great Warrior Princess, I want to be fucked." Gabrielle half-swallowed the last word, still shy of using what her mother would call 'crude language'.

Xena looked down at the young novice, curiosity and amusement in her clear, blue eyes. Then she seemed to make a silent decision. She pulled herself off her lover and reached over for the sack, forgotten until now, lying beside them in the grass.

Chapter Seven

Gabrielle tried to peer around the warrior to see just what she was doing, but Xena modestly turned her back while she adjusted the leather straps around her waist. Slowly realization dawned, but Gabrielle's mouth still dropped open when Xena finally turned back to face her.

The warrior's appendage was frighteningly large, not overly long perhaps, but easily making up for that in girth. Xena sat with one leg bent, the other tucked under her, a posture that only served to emphasize her nakedness and the big black cock strapped to her body. Pointing upwards and reaching well beyond the warrior's belly-button, it curved slightly in Gabrielle's direction.

The village girl had heard enough amazon 'strap-on' jokes to identify the thing sticking out from Xena's crotch. Until now, she'd doubted that such a thing really existed, but there was no denying that one was now pointed directly and rather menacingly towards her.

"Will you let me?" Xena had noticed Gabrielle's doubtful expression and cobalt eyes bored into hers. "Just for me? I like it."

"Xena, I-I mean," Gabrielle swallowed, "I liked what you did with your hands..."

"I know, love. I can be good with this too. You'll like it, I promise."

Gabrielle didn't quite know where to look. Having heard all the jokes, she had no desire to become one herself.

"Here," Xena reached out one hand and Gabrielle shyly moved to kneel beside her lover. Sheepishly, Xena placed the now half-empty bottle in the girl's hand and motioned her to anoint her cock with the oil. Gabrielle swallowed again, opened the bottle and poured some of the warm fluid into her palm.

**********

Something about her queasy discomfort made Gabrielle think back to an earlier episode in her life. It was a night a year or so ago, one that she would be happy to leave half-forgotten. But at the same time she knew it had been the catalyst that allowed her to imagine a life away from home. That night had given her the courage to follow this warrior into the darkness and to claim a place beside her at her campfire in the wilderness.

It was the Harvest Festival, the one night of the year when hard-working villagers of Poteidaia allowed themselves a celebration. Having successfully brought in the crops, the farmers and growers could safely toast their good fortune. Their animals would be fed well this year and there would be enough left over to sell to neighboring villages, enough to see them comfortably through the rainy winter season.

Poteidaians had little fear of famine - hot weather was predictable most summers and water from the nearby spring was abundant. But the difference between a good and a bad harvest was slim. A poor crop would mean smaller, sicklier animals and less income for vital supplies, the villagers themselves relying on hens, goats, vegetables and fruit for their basic diet.

This year's harvest - the last Gabrielle would help collect as it turned out - was healthy. The villagers sang their grateful praises to the appropriate gods and raised their mugs to Dionysus, before downing their wine and beginning the dances that would last well into the night.

It was a fascinating spectacle for the younger villagers, the sight of their parents and relatives trying to dance while uncharacteristically helpless with drink. But the festival also let the youngsters create their own entertainment: by stealing a couple of flagons of wine and dragging them to the safety of the barn at the top of the furthest field. Hidden from prying adult eyes, here the young men and women of the village could take their first swigs of alcohol and parade their bravado for the enjoyment of the opposite sex.

Gabrielle had previously been considered too proper, and her sister Lila too young, to be invited to the barn by the older boys. But this year - mainly due to Lila's connivance though unbeknown to Gabrielle - they found themselves sitting on a hay-bale passing a mug of wine around the small, intimate group of three girls and two boys.

Gabrielle was confident that their parents would not find out. She'd last seen their mother and father attempting a drunken reel back in the village. Anyway, they trusted Gabrielle to be sensible and all they were doing was enjoying a drink with a few friends.

But as the night drew on the boys' jokes and stories grew more ribald and crude, and Gabrielle would have felt uncomfortable if it wasn't for the pleasant warmth of the wine in her belly that colored her cheeks and put a sparkle in her laugh. To this day, she still could not be certain how it had come about, but one minute they were laughing at some adult's expense, the next one of the boys had his fly undone and was exposing himself to the assembled gathering.

The boy was a short but over-baring youth who Gabrielle generally had little time for. But before she even had time to look away, she was horrified to see her sister Lila get down on her knees between the boy's feet. Paralyzed with shock, she watched as her sister started administering to him in a manner Gabrielle would associate with a common prostitute. She opened her mouth to tell Lila to get to her feet at once, when suddenly the other girl was right there beside her performing the same service on the other boy.

Gabrielle sat in open-mouthed disbelief, which was only compounded when the first boy looked over Lila's shoulder, grinned lasciviously at Gabrielle and winked.

"Lila! What in Zeus' name do you think you're doing?" Gabrielle found her voice. Her sister turned round and grinned, her features slack with drink.

"Oh, put a sock in it, Gabrielle! Why don't you loosen up and have a good time?"

The very idea that Lila considered 'that' to be a good time only added to Gabrielle's confusion. All she could do was turn her head and look at the barn wall while the other girls used their hands and mouths to complete what they had started.

Walking back to the village in the gathering dusk not long after, Gabrielle couldn't even speak to her sister. And she couldn't help but notice that the 'party' seemed to be over just as soon as the girls finished their task.

"Oh come on, Gabrielle!" said Lila, finally exasperated by the silence. "Don't be such a prude!"

"I'm not a prude!"

"Are so!"

"Lila that was disgusting! How can you possibly say you enjoyed that?"

"Gods, Gabrielle! You spend too much time with your head in your scrolls. You'll have to do it some time if you want Perdicus to marry you."

Gabrielle blushed at the mention of her childhood sweetheart. "I'm not.. I mean, he won't, he wouldn't..."

"'Course he will expect you to, stupid. You can't get married unless you agree to do that for your husband," Lila sighed and shook her head theatrically. "Everyone knows that."

Lila was smug and pleased with herself, partly for winning approval from the boy but partly, it seemed, for having got the better of her older sister. Gabrielle was well aware that Lila suffered in the comparison with her smarter, prettier sibling. Their parents both favored Gabrielle with praise and encouragement and seemed to have much lower expectations of Lila. Now the younger sister had stumbled on something she could do better and she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to score points.

"The boys are always asking why you're so snotty all the time. They think it's because you're still a virgin. If you're not careful, you'll end up an old maid," Lila poked Gabrielle in the back. "Boys don't like scroll-worms," she finished triumphantly.

"Well maybe that's because a girl who can read makes them feel stupid."

"There you go again, you see. You're such a snob. It's Dad's fault, he encourages you with those dusty old scrolls. Perhaps he doesn't want you to ever leave and get married."

"Well, you'd better have a wash before Dad sees you."

"Huh? Why?"

Gabrielle indicated with raised eyebrow and a vague wave of her hand that the boy had left something in Lila's hair.

"Urg!" suddenly losing her superior air, Lila rushed off towards the nearest horse-trough.

Gabrielle sniggered to herself as she climbed the gate into their yard. Nonetheless, she was shaken by the events of the evening, and by the hint that perhaps Lila had already lost her virginity to some local clod. Perhaps Lila was right, she was a snob.

"Gabrielle, is that you? Where in Hades' name have you been? Where's your sister?" She was met at the doorstep by her father, swaying slightly in the doorway and peering out into the darkness.

"She's just coming. She's, er, just gone to get a drink from the well."

"You didn't answer me. Where have you both been?" her father repeated sternly.

"Oh, we just went for a walk with some friends," Gabrielle replied, naming one of the boys and their other girlfriend.

Clearly, he was only partly reassured. "Perdicus was looking for you," he said in an accusing tone.

"Oh," said Gabrielle. She was shocked to realize she hadn't even thought about her future husband all night, except in response to Lila's teasing.

Interpreting his daughter's blush as young love's bloom, Gabrielle's father smiled and let her pass into the house, turning his attention to the younger daughter now approaching.

"Lila! Whatever have you been doing, girl? Your hair's all wet!"

Gabrielle didn't wait to hear Lila's excuse but scampered to the back room she shared with her sister and quickly undressed for bed.

Pulling the covers around her shoulders, Gabrielle did her best impression of being fast asleep. But her mind was racing. She realized that the feelings she harbored that so disturbed her - unfocussed passions but nonetheless powerful and often obscene - were common and nothing to feel ashamed of. Except, except... if Lila felt something similar, it was for the boys in the village. Not-for-other-women. Gabrielle made herself face the truth.

Rolling over, she comforted herself with a story she'd heard once from a traveling bard. It was a complicated tale and she hadn't understood much of it, but one part had stood out. It was something about how there used to be three sexes among mortals, male, female and 'androgynous', each having four arms, four legs, two sets of genitals and one head with two faces. Then one day the mortals had angered the gods and Zeus' punishment was to split these beings into two, each with half the number of limbs and organs. Our experience of love and sex, the storyteller said, was the desire to be whole again, to recreate the single being from two males, two females or male and female. Gabrielle for the first time felt able to acknowledge that her soul had most probably been forged from the second kind.

**********

All of which was no help to her now, faced as she was with one very horny warrior and her extra limb. Gabrielle continued to spread the oily lotion over Xena's member, running her palm thoughtfully over the hard but pliant shape, over its warm, undulating curves and smooth surface.

"It feels strange. Kinda hard and soft at the same time. What's it made of?" she asked casually.

"Nothing from this world. I was given it by a love goddess."

Gabrielle raised an eyebrow, but decided not to pursue that line of questioning.

Xena watched as the girl ran her wet hand up and down the length of her tool a few times then stopped and looked up expectantly at her lover.

"Keep doing it, love," the warrior whispered, encouraging Gabrielle to resume the stroking motion.

"But you can't feel it."

"I'm watching. It's hot. Really."

"Oh. Ok."

Xena was perplexed. She was used to her favorite weapon being lavishly praised and worshipped by her female lovers. Gabrielle only eyed it with suspicion. Maybe it was to be expected. Let the village girl experience what it can do first.

Xena kissed Gabrielle tenderly on the top of her head. "Lie down, my sweet."

She obediently lay back on the fur blanket and Xena went to lay on top of her young lover. But something in Gabrielle's expression made her hesitate.

"Gabrielle, did someone... did someone try to do something to you once? Something you didn't like?"

"No," Gabrielle frowned. "I guess, I dunno, I guess I just like pussy that's all." They both laughed at the crude declaration from such a sweet young mouth.

"And this is in the way?"

"Maybe," Gabrielle replied thoughtfully, toying with the wet member. "I guess I just don't think of it as part of you."

"Here, let me show you how it's part of me."

With that, the warrior lowered herself onto Gabrielle's prone form and shifted her weight until her cock was positioned at the girl's entrance. She groaned as she gently eased in her full length and began a slow bump and grind motion with her hips.

"Ohh, yeh!!"

"Mmmm! It's nice," Gabrielle agreed.

"Nice?"

"Mmm. It's just a bit uncomfortable that's all. Perhaps if you don't go all the way in?"

Xena frowned. This wasn't going to plan. "Here, try wrapping your legs round my waist. Cross your feet behind me, that's right."

The warrior restarted her thrusting and grinding move and Gabrielle suddenly cried out in surprise. "Oh Gods!! That's it. Zeus-on-a-bicycle*, that's the right spot. OH FUCK!"

Relieved, Xena grinned her wolfish grin and began working her cock deeper inside Gabrielle's tight channel.

"Just there? Just there, baby?"

Gabrielle could only answer with a moan, pulling the warrior deeper with her legs wrapped tightly around Xena's buttocks.

Soon, they settled into a fierce and constant rhythm, Xena shouting each time she penetrated the girl, Gabrielle now clawing at the warrior's back and screaming in delirious joy with each thrust.

"Oh, gods! Harder, Xena, harder! Fuck me into the ground!"

Xena was muttering in a language she knew Gabrielle didn't understand, punctuated by guttural cries as she pounded into the girl beneath her.

"Xena. Xena? Xena!"

"Uhh! Uhh! Yeh?"

"I'd like to know what you're saying."

The warrior paused, mid-thrust.

"I'm, er, just saying how good it feels to be inside you," she lowered her voice a few tones, "to be fucking you."

"I'd like to hear that," Gabrielle breathed, and Xena thought she would fall into those pretty green eyes.

"'kay," the warrior said doubtfully. "I'm saying... I'm saying how good it feels to have my cock inside you," Xena murmured in her softest seductive voice into Gabrielle's ear, "to pull out and - uhh! - push it back in. All the way up inside you."

Gabrielle arched her back to meet each thrust from her warrior.

"Gods, you're such a beautiful girl," Xena kissed and licked where Gabrielle's neck met her shoulders without missing a beat. "Gods, I swear I'm gonna cum from fucking you."

"Faster, do it fast and hard, please!"

Xena did not hesitate to oblige and worked even harder to deliver her demanding young lover to the Elysian fields.

Gabrielle could only scream her lover's name, as words and sanity escaped her...

**********

When she came to her senses, Gabrielle found she was lying face down on the fur. Then a strange sensation disturbed her, fingers were probing between her buttocks while another hand roughly held them apart. Xena's breath rushed like a river in her ear.

Gabrielle suddenly realized where her lover was headed.

"Xena, no! Please don't!"

"Ok, Ok, some other time maybe," the fingers retreated and the husky voice reassured her. "It's ok, let's go to sleep now."

Gabrielle felt strong, warm arms enfold her body. If she worried that Xena might make another attempt at her most intimate place, her fear was soothed by her suggestion that they would have "other times" together. Gabrielle wanted desperately to find a place for herself in this warrior-woman's passionate heart. Deeply satisfied, but still far too excited to sleep, she snaked her arms around Xena's neck.

*pardon the anachronism

Chapter Eight

It must be nearly dawn, Gabrielle realized as she saw the first pale halo at the horizon signaling the approach of Apollo's chariot. It had been barely a candlemark since they'd stopped. That meant they must have been doing it - that - for at least, she paused to make her calculation, seven candlemarks. Sweet Artemis! She wondered for the umpteenth time how much of the night's wonder was due to Xena's 'many skills', and how much was just a natural part of love-making with anyone. She smiled at the thought that perhaps, from now on, she would always expect too much of her lovers.

Too excited to sleep, Gabrielle had run over and over in her mind every twist and turn of her willing submission to the Warrior Princess. She reveled in each detail as she accounted for every ache and tenderness in her body. She was frankly shocked by her own shameless behavior, but if the warrior was worried that she had a sex maniac in her bed the idea didn't seem to be keeping her awake. She'd fallen asleep almost immediately after her last climax, waking only briefly to pull the heavy fur rugs over both of them and to gather her fidgety young companion into a vice-like embrace.

Even that was a new and wonderful experience for Gabrielle and while the warrior's steely grip prevented her from moving much, it did nothing to quieten her thoughts. She could feel Xena spooned tightly against her, the softness of her breasts pressed against her back, the patch of coarse hairs tickling maddeningly against her bottom. Xena had flung an arm around Gabrielle's waist, seizing one wrist in a fierce but protective hold even in her sleep. Gabrielle hadn't noticed before, but Xena's hands were almost twice the size of her own and feeling her wrist caged in such long, strong fingers was strangely comforting. It also brought the heady scent of sex, seeped into the warrior's skin, close enough to make Gabrielle's nostrils twitch.

She sighed as she felt the first small waves of doziness sweep over her. Wriggling one last time, she focused on the alternating sensations of the cool morning mist and Xena's warm breath against her exposed shoulders. At last, with a small involuntary sigh, she surrendered, exhausted, into the waiting arms of Morpheus.

**********

Xena awoke with a start, stirred by the hooves of Apollo's horses approaching from the east. It was much later than she would usually wake, but as she struggled to collect herself she was immediately assailed by a second sensation - a sudden, familiar urgency between her legs. The girl in her arms had finally fallen asleep, Xena realized. She considered waking her but decided instead to be merciful. Let her sleep, for Aphrodite's sake. Plenty enough time for more of that later.

Slowly and carefully, the warrior reached one hand down under the blankets and cupped her sex. Burying her face in the golden tresses of the sleeping girl, she inhaled the sweet scent of her latest young lover and skillfully teased herself. Years of living cheek-by-jowl with her soldiers had forced the Warrior Princess to learn the art of achieving a quiet and discreet climax and it wasn't long before the warm surge of release pulsed through her.

Oh, yes, that was good. She savored the afterglow of her own love-making, but of course she knew it would do nothing to calm her lust. Xena's body soon ached with renewed need as she let her thoughts drift to memories of the previous night. She longed to run her hands again over Gabrielle's soft flesh, to capture her sweet mouth in a deep, conquering kiss, to take a firm breast in her mouth and suckle like a new-born. And, yes, to coax another surrender from the young virgin and hear her voice cry out in surprise and ecstasy. Well, virgin no more, Xena reminded herself with a self-satisfied smirk. And quite a little vixen as it turned out. You never can tell.

By the Gods, she needed to fuck. Right now. The pressure of mounting desire was almost painful and her body demanded release. Another crafty feel and another climax, harder this time and preceded by a flood of cum that gushed over the warrior-woman's thighs. She couldn't help herself from crying out, quietly but unintentionally right into Gabrielle's ear. The girl was a good sleeper it seemed.

Relatively satisfied now, Xena contemplated getting up to hunt for breakfast. But the warmth of the girl's body pressed against her soon scotched that idea and she decided instead to let Morpheus steal more of her day. Feeling herself slipping away, she nuzzled against Gabrielle's back and said a silent prayer. To any god that might still nurture a soft spot for Ares' bastard daughter, please let this girl come to no harm. Please protect her from my enemies and when I'm done with her, let her find happiness with someone who will cherish and provide for her.

**********

Gabrielle wasn't sure why she'd woken, but the first thing she noticed was a raging thirst in her throat. She remembered Xena encouraging her to take plenty of water in the breaks between their bouts of passion. "Wet pussy, dry mouth," she'd urged with a sparkle of amusement in those cool blue eyes.

Gabrielle lifted her head and caught sight of their waterskin discarded few feet from their bed, but then realized she couldn't move. A few experimental wriggles and she knew she was pinned face-down in the bedroll by a very heavy and soundly sleeping warrior.

The waterskin was a good horse's length away, and despite her attempts to struggle out from underneath Xena's body, Gabrielle could not quite reach it. She was loath to wake her as she knew she'd be annoyed at sleeping so late. And if Xena were to decide that last night was just a bit of fun, something to be quickly forgotten, Gabrielle had no desire to rush towards that conclusion.

"Xena? Xena?" she whimpered quietly.

With a grumble, the warrior stirred in her sleep, and Gabrielle quickly took advantage, slipping out from under her and stretching one arm nearly far enough to hook one finger under the strap of the waterskin.

"Mmmmm, Gabrielle.."

Then just as Gabrielle thought she had it, a powerful arm reached out, curled around her waist and dragged her back under the blankets into an firm embrace. Gabrielle couldn't help giggling at her predicament, despite her frustration and thirst. Well, there was nothing for it. Turning over and nuzzling into soft, warm warrior-breasts, she closed her eyes and drifted off once more.

Chapter Nine

"It didn't suffer."

Gabrielle dropped the dead rabbit on the grass beside the warrior and unhitched the bow and quiver from her shoulders.

"Oh, good. Well done." Xena continued to fan and blow the campfire back to life. Somehow she knew she shouldn't joke about her young companion's childlike reluctance to kill. Of course, if Gabrielle had only asked before stomping off on her hunting mission, Xena would've suggested there might be more appetizing game birds if she looked. Best not to mention that now.

"I'll skin it if you'll cook it," Gabrielle said tersely.

"Sure."

Xena decided to get out of the young hunter's way while she cleaned her kill. Still wearing just her shift, the warrior took her sword and a flint stone and seated herself in the fork of a nearby fallen tree before beginning the familiar sharpening ritual.

Xena watched as Gabrielle efficiently skinned the rabbit. The girl had been in an odd mood ever since she'd woken up. She'd got up from their shared bed almost immediately, announcing her intention to hunt and asking - no ordering - Xena to light the fire to cook breakfast on her return.

She shrugged. So maybe in the cold light of day, the young village girl was appalled by their wild night of passion. She'd certainly taken a lot for her first time - though by Zeus' beard she'd been enthusiastic enough. Maybe she was doubting the wisdom of making any kind of sacrifice to the ruthless Warrior Princess, after all, her virginity was probably pledged to some farmer's boy.

No. Xena resolved not to be so easily discouraged. They'd started making love early in the evening and had slept 'til nearly midday. Obviously, Gabrielle was hungry. She had the appetite of a centurion and would naturally wake up grumpy and taciturn after so many hours without food. Satisfied with her explanation, Xena smiled to herself and let her eyes roam lazily over the pleasing curves of her companion.

Aphrodite be praised! Xena made a mental note to make a suitable offering to the Goddess of Love next time she passed her temple. What had she done to deserve this pretty thing in her bedroll? Well, more than pretty. Beautiful. Stunning green eyes that held you entranced and left you searching for words. And a kind of an 'inner' beauty. A glow or something. Hades' teeth, warrior, is love turning you into a poet or a fool?

"I'll get some water, shall I?" she called over to Gabrielle.

"Yes, that would be helpful."

Xena whistled an Amphipolian tune as she strolled down to the river. Suddenly she felt so overwhelmed by cheerfulness she wanted to do a backward flip. So she did, just for the Tartarus of it.

What was it about this girl? She already knew the answer. Xena had only ever been afflicted with this madness once before, years ago. The young apprentice of an evil shamaness... But Gabrielle couldn't be more different from that girl. All they had in common, apart from their sex, was perhaps their age. Xena shook her head to dislodge an unwelcome vision on the water as she dipped her waterskin. The middle of a battle, flames lighting up the dark night, the Destroyer cradling her dead young lover in her arms.

For years, Xena believed she could never feel so intensely again. These days, she couldn't think of love without thinking first of how she would outwit and defeat it.

And what about Gabrielle? There was her to consider too, remember.

There were certainly benefits to traveling with the Warrior Princess. Free board and lodging, cowering respect and free drink at every tavern. Any companion of the former tyrant could expect a warm and generous welcome, cooled by an undercurrent of fear. But the advantages paled beside the dangers. A blade in the back without warning, or more likely a drawn out kidnap and torture. Xena had so many enemies, she could hardly be expected to recognize them all by sight or smell.

Yes, the best thing would be to take Gabrielle to live with her own kind. The amazons would be delighted with such a pretty and spirited young girl, and she'd enjoy the special care and attention of like-minded women. Of course, Xena could hardly expect a positive reception herself, so she'd have to drop Gabrielle somewhere near the border. The warrior frowned as she retraced her steps back to camp. She'd have to find a way to explain that - some story that wouldn't prompt Gabrielle to ask irritating and intrusive questions.

Back at the campfire, the rabbit was quickly cooked and Xena was relieved, despite herself, to see the girl's sunny nature gradually return.

"Mmmm! So where are we traveling today?" Gabrielle asked brightly, licking juice from her fingers.

Xena finished chewing on a grizzly lump of meat before replying: "We need to go back the way we've come."

"Back the way we've..?" Shocked, Gabrielle looked across the fire her lover. "Whatever for?"

"We should travel to the Amazons' Land. I thought we'd go to Athens, but I've changed my mind."

"Oh, Xena!" suddenly the girl scrambled to her feet and without warning landed practically in the warrior's lap. "I'd love to go to Athens. I've never been. Can we? Please?" Gabrielle pleaded. "We could go to the Academy, see some plays? We could always go to the amazons' village afterwards, couldn't we?"

Xena frowned, reminded again that Gabrielle had barely the faintest notion about the woman who'd shared her bedroll. How could she even imagine the great Warrior Princess squashed into a theater seat alongside the common herd?

"Plays, eh? You like stories?"

"Er, oh, yeh," Gabrielle blushed. "I try to write sometimes. Just little stories, y'know. But I have so much to learn. I need to see the masters' works performed...Socrates, Aristophanes, Sophocles. You see, you can't really feel what a play is all about until you've watched the actors bring it to life..."

So that's what the scroll was for, thought Xena, not listening to Gabrielle as she launched off on one of her prattling monologues. The little village girl wants to be a bard, of all things.

Seeing Xena's blank expression, Gabrielle fretted that she had already made up her mind.

"Please, Xena. Let's go to Athens." She chewed her lip before adding softly, "What about if I... if I let you do things? You know, maybe something you wanted to do last night but I said I didn't want to..."

Xena snorted at the girl's crude attempts to manipulate her and Gabrielle could only watch as the warrior angrily got to her feet and started packing up their camp.

"Or perhaps I've done everything now? Haven't you got anything left to show me?"

Xena picked up her armor and shot a glare at the girl that would've turned a more sensitive mortal to stone.

"Oh, it's that look. Ok, forget I mentioned it." Gabrielle turned away and continued eating, making no effort to prepare to leave.

Gods! The girl's impudence was astounding. Xena stormed around the camp, gathering her clothes, armor, furs and weapons, infuriated that she couldn't seem to find her britches. She was sure they were... Oh, hang on. Xena smirked when she realized her underwear was likely in the bag belonging to a certain wannabe-bard. Inwardly, she laughed to herself - maybe even at herself.

Stupid warrior! Who are you to take offense at a girl trying to use her wiles to get her own way? Like you've never tried that yourself.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle had turned her back and was helping herself to more food, as if she couldn't care less if Xena got on her horse and galloped off to the horizon. Xena shook her head and dropped the bedroll back onto the grass. Silently, she crossed the camp and crouched on her heels behind the girl.

"You know, you still have a lot to learn, Little Bard," Xena purred in what she knew to be deep, seductive tones.

Gabrielle blushed at the reference to her secret ambition.

Lifting the straps of her leather skirt out of the way, Xena moved slowly forward until her sex was pressed up against the small of the girl's naked back.

Gabrielle giggled as she felt the warrior's wet center against the sun-warmed skin between her hastily-repaired bra top and the top of her skirt.

Xena closed her eyes and moaned softly at the contact. A vision suddenly appeared in her mind, a memory from the previous night of Gabrielle calmly tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear as she bent to press her delicious lips to...

"Well, this is something new," Gabrielle murmured shyly.

"Listen well, girl," Xena breathed as she placed a line of soft kisses along Gabrielle's shoulders and neck. "I'm going to make love to you right now....slowly...I will take as long as I like... And you, my sweet... will enjoy the journey just as much... as the destination."

Xena started working her strong fingers through thick, blonde hair, pressing and massaging the points on Gabrielle's scalp that she knew would give the most pleasure.

Gabrielle opened her mouth to speak and then let her jaw fall slack.

"Feel that, hmm? Little Bard, do you feel that?"

"I feel... I feel...Oh!! Mmmm! What are y-you d-doing...?"

Xena just smiled to herself as she recognized the first real signs of the sensual woman emerging from the child. "Hush, now. Husssshh!"

Apollo's' chariot was well into the third quadrant of the sky before Xena began increasing the intensity of the cycle, slowly and deliberately bringing the girl toward climax.

"Ohh! Oh, thatssssooo... oh!..." Gabrielle's words turned to gasps of surprise as a rush of pleasure seized her and seemed to lift her up and out of the warrior's embrace...

Xena wrapped the limp girl in her arms and gently pulled her to the ground. Gabrielle struggled to speak, demanding to know what mysterious spell the warrior had cast with her fingers.

"Hush, my love. Rest now."

"Ok," she agreed, her eyes already closing. "Xena?"

"Hush. It's ok, love. Athens, tomorrow, alright...?"

THE END!