Xena and the cyclops

[print_link]

Disclaimer: Main characters belong to Renaissance/Universal/MCA.
© 1998 Martin Hooper

Writer’s Note: this story takes place sometime between the Hercules episode “Unchained Heart” and the Xena episode “Sins of the Past”.


Xena and Gabrielle were sitting by a camp fire after a hard day’s travelling. Gabrielle was leaning against Xena’s chest.

Gabrielle said. “Xena. when I followed you after you saved my village I came across a Cyclops who said that you blinded him. Tell us the story about how that happened…”

Xena replied, “You want me to tell you a story? That makes a change.”

“Yeah well that it is different, and I have been wondering for a long time what you actually did to that poor cyclops that made him really mad at you. I had to spin him a yarn about wanting to kill you and bring back your legs for him,” Gabrielle replied. “In fact I wonder what he really thinks of me after I haven’t brought your legs back! Although I doubt if I will be going back home very soon anyway…”

“I wonder. Anyway if you want to know what happened I’ll tell you.”

Gabrielle made herself comfortable and got ready to listen to Xena tell her story.

Cue Cheesy flash back effect…

Xena was riding down a road after having the adventure of her life having to kill the commander of her old army with Hercules, and deciding to atone for the things she had done as a warrior, when she suddenly came across a destroyed village. She looked around and found a survivor of the attack.

“What happened here?” she asked the lady who was badly wounded. Xena looked after her wounds and bandaged them while she listened to the answer.

“It was terrible, there was this large thing that was stomping the village and our soldiers could not stop it,” the lady said, sobbing all the time she was talking, “I lost my whole family in the attack, after this thing came an army came down from the hills and destroyed and killed any survivors from the first attack.”

Xena replied, “I’m sorry about your family, I can’t really help you, but there is a village up ahead where you can go and get a room for the night. It sounds like some warlord has got a pet cyclops. I’ll keep my eye out for him and see if I can’t put a stop to the warlord’s plans. Did you see who the warlord was?”

“No I didn’t,” said the lady, There didn’t seem to be a leader but there was what looked like a lady who was sitting on a horse on top of the hill She looked like she had long brown hair, although I couldn’t see exactly what sort of hair colour she had, and was very large and she had a very distinctive blue and yellow cloak and armour. I didn’t catch her name either as her soldiers were calling her name but were very indistinct.”

Xena thought about this and wondered which of the many warlords in the area could have attacked this village.

“Maybe this female warlord is a new warlord in the area,” thought Xena as she jumped into her horse’s saddle. She rode into the valley while looking for clues to where they might strike next.

Xena looked around. She was in a forest which had large trees going up into the sky. There was sunlight filtering in through the trees and making just enough sunlight to see the path that she was going down. She looked at the surrounding trees and wondered whether there would be a trap as it was a very good place for an ambush.

As Xena was riding through the forest another woman warrior was following her at a very long distance away from her. She had long straggling blond-brown hair, was wearing armour, had a long sword strapped to her back and had a cloak with a hood she kept up and wrapped around her to shield her from the cold. She had been following Xena for a very long time as Xena had killed her parents when she was only a teenager and she had vowed to kill her and anyone else who got in her way. She had an army who helped her to become a fearsome warlord and warrior.

Xena came to a rough looking inn on the road. She decided to go into the pub and ask questions about the cyclops and the gang that was destroying villages. As she entered she looked around and saw a few people that were drinking and some had collapsed near the edge of the room.

“Can you fill up my wineskin?” said Xena to the barmaid, while handing a large wineskin over.

As she filled Xena’s wineskin up Xena asked her, “Have there been any new attacks around here lately?”

“Yes there were,” said the barmaid, “apparently a cyclops attacked a small village near here not so long ago. It completely destroyed the village.”

Xena looked curiously at the barmaid. “When did this happen and where is this village?” she asked.

“About two days ago, there were a lot of people whose homes were destroyed. They came here to this village yesterday. When you get to a cross-roads on the road out of the village bear right and you’ll find the remains,” replied the barmaid.

Xena thanked the barmaid, took her wineskin and went to the stable where she had left her horse. She was thinking about this cyclops and why the cyclops was attacking villages around here.

Meanwhile back in the inn a hooded stranger walked into the pub. It was Callisto. She asked the barmaid, “Has a warrior woman come in here? She’s very tall with black hair.”

“Yes she has, she was asking about the cyclops attack on that village that happened a couple of days ago,” said the barmaid. “I think she was heading that way to have a look at the ruins of the village.”

Callisto thanked the barmaid and left the inn.

As Callisto left the inn she saw Xena galloping off down the road. She waited a while so as not to arouse Xena’s suspicion, then galloped off to follow her.

When Xena got to the village she looked around and saw that there were footprints near one of the ruins. She got off her horse to have a look at them. They were very large and could only come from a cyclops. Xena thought that it could be a coincidence that a new warlord had come into the area and that attacks by cyclops were happening all at the same time. Xena wondered where the next attack was going to happen.

As she rode away from the village she stopped. There was a line of refugees passing her on the way to another village. She got off her horse and asked where they were from.

“We are from a village near here. A female warlord came and demanded that we give all our crops, food and horses to her army. She said we would be destroyed if we didn’t give them what they wanted. Some of our men wanted to defend our village from her army. When we didn’t give them what they wanted, one of the soldiers let out a high pitched whistle and a great giant cyclops came up the hill towards our village. It started flattening all the buildings and we were lucky to escape with our lives.”

Xena said nothing as she decided that she was going to stop this cyclops before anymore innocent people got hurt. She followed the refugees for a while and as she got tired she decided to stay in the next village she came to. She hoped that while she was there she could get some rest and also some information about this new female warlord. She had never heard of any female warlords in her time as a warlord, and was curious about her.

As she was riding along the path her keen ears heard a battle ahead. She spurred her horse on and she found a female warrior who was fighting at least four men. It seemed to Xena that the warrior was not having the fight go her own way.

Xena jumped off her horse and did a back flip, all the while shouting her war cry. She landed on the other side of the attacking men and proceeded to attack them from behind. When Xena started to attack two of the men stopped attacking the female warrior and started attacking Xena.

Xena quickly finished off the two men who were attacking her, and watched as the female warrior quickly killed off the two people who were attacking her.

“Thanks,” said the Amazon. “Those bandits must have thought I was a easy target.”

“That’s OK” said Xena. “I’m Xena by the way. I’m looking for a female warlord in the area, it appears that she has befriended a cyclops that she has been using to destroy villages and cities in this area.”

“I’m Cassiopeia,” the Amazon said. “We have heard of this new warlord. We are looking for her ourselves. You must come to our village and meet the Queen and see if you can help us. You are a very good warrior and we need as many warriors as possible.”

“I would like to come and help you,” said Xena, “I’ll help you if your queen will accept my help.”

Xena followed Cassiopeia down a path which led to the Amazon village, and as they did so Callisto followed them down the path. Callisto wondered whether they were going to an Amazon village. If Xena was going to an Amazon village she couldn’t follow her. She knew that trespassing on Amazon territory was inviting trouble. Callisto decided that she would follow her but wait for her outside the Amazon territory.

Meanwhile in a camp not far from the Amazon village, Medusa the warlord had her camp.

She was a tall lady with dark hair. She had armour on and also had a cloak that billowed out behind her, a bit like Xena’s old cloak that she wore when she was a warlord. She was bent on conquering all the lands around the peninsula. She was standing with some of her trusted leaders around a table with lots of maps of the area, which included all the villages around the area including the Amazon village which was their next target.

They were discussing how they were going to attack the next village. They knew that it was Amazon territory and it would be very hard.

“Do you know that Xena is in the area?” said one of the soldiers.

“I have heard,” replied Medusa, “but I don’t think that a warrior with a good a reputation as Xena could stop this cyclops that we have. It should just kill her outright”

“I hope so,” said another soldier that was also in the tent, “I have heard about her reputation, she was the head of a mighty army that plundered and killed in a lot of villages near Amphipolis. It was quite a while ago and I don’t think that she has lost her skills since then… despite the rumours that I have heard, that she has given up being evil and she has starting fighting for the good guys”

“That’s a problem. I have heard of Xena’s reputation. We’ll send out scouts into the Amazon territory and see what we can’t find out” said Medusa as she told her second in command to order the scouts to get ready and to scout near the Amazon village.

Back near the Amazon village Cassiopeia and Xena were walking down a path that lead through a jungle near the Amazon village. They were talking about the attacks on the villages around here and the fact that the Amazon village could be next.

“Cassiopeia, you know that the Amazon village that you live in could be next to be targeted by this warlord. All I know about them is that they have long black hair and they could be female,” said Xena as they were walking along.

Cassiopeia replied, “I feel quite sorry for all those other villages and the fact that they have been destroyed. I hope that we can do something about this cyclops and the people who have him under control.”

Unbeknown to Xena and Cassiopeia one of Medusa’s spies had seen them and was following them very quietly and stealthily at that. When Xena and Cassiopeia were going to enter the Amazon village she decided to go and tell Medusa what happened and where Xena was.

As Xena and Cassiopeia carried on down the path toward the amazon village Xena asked Cassiopeia what an elaborately carved sign was in the tree was.

“That is a sign that means that we are nearing our village,” said Cassiopeia as she followed the path past the sign. “It’s a warning to non-amazons that they are trespassing on our lands.” Cassiopeia then told Xena about the sign of friendship that the Amazons have.

Suddenly, out of the trees, dropped three amazons. Cassiopeia said to Xena, “Follow my lead exactly”. As Cassiopeia said this she clasped her hands over her head and put her sword on the ground. Xena followed her advice and the guards stopped in front of them.

There were three guards who were dressed in warrior garb. One of the guards walked up to Cassiopeia and Xena.

One of the guards said, “Who is it? friend or Foe?”

Cassiopeia said, “It’s Princess Cassiopeia. I have brought a friend who might be able to help us stop this warlord that is attacking villages near here.” When Cassiopeia said that she was a princess Xena looked startled and surprised.

Cassiopeia said to Xena, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t stand on royal protocol. I am the Queen’s daughter, when she hears that you saved me from those bandits she will listen to what you have to say.”

Xena said nothing as the guards led them to the Amazon camp. She listened as Cassiopeia talked.

“We have been having trouble with a warlord named Medusa. She has vowed to destroy our village because we raided a village that she was using as a camp and killed a lot of her army before we had to retreat. It could be her that is attacking all the villages in this area, trying to make the other villages come to us for help. If we did that she would have a good chance of killing us all. We are still licking our wounds after the first attack.”

Xena was wondering what was going to happen and she said to Cassiopeia. “I can’t promise to be able to provide a solution but I will do my best to help you and your family and friends.”

Meanwhile Callisto was waiting near the edge of Amazon territory and heard all that Cassiopeia had told Xena. She decided that if Xena was going to help the Amazons she would help Medusa and possibly kill Xena at the same time.

Callisto followed the path that went away from the amazon village. She thought about where a warlord would place her camp so that she would be well defended. As she was walking through the trees she came across a warrior who seemed to be guarding nothing but a patch of forest.

Callisto decided to hide and see what the guard was guarding. She looked very closely at the trees and the forest where the guard was standing. She wasn’t sure but she could see that the branches near him were piled up as if they were covering something. As she was looking towards the set of trees, she saw a warrior emerge from the pile of trees that she was watching.

She noticed that the guard was walking from one side of the clearing to the other and took a rather long time about it.

She decided to see what was down that hole. As the guard turned his back on where Callisto was she darted out from behind the tree she was hiding behind and sprinted to where she thought that the hole in the ground was.

When she got there she drew her sword and drew back the leaves. She had discovered a hole in the ground that was lit by torches that were attached to the wall by brackets. She wondered where she was. As she followed the lights she heard a voice.

It was Medusa. She was talking to one of her warriors.

“We attack the Amazon village at dawn. Make sure that the cyclops is ready and willing to fight.”

As Callisto looked around she noticed that there were a lot of warriors around the headquarters. There was a large table in the middle of the room which was covered in maps and paper. She said to Medusa, “I have some information that you might need to know about this village.”

Medusa looked surprised and looked at Callisto with a stern look on her face.

“Who are you?” she asked. “What information do you have that I could possibly want?”

“My name is Callisto. I am a warrior and I have information about the village you are going to attack. They are being helped by a warrior called Xena. I have been following her and I know all her strengths and weaknesses.”

Medusa replied, “I have heard about that warrior. What do you want in return for this information?”

All I want is a chance to fight with your army. I want to kill Xena for personal reasons if I get the chance. It won’t interfere with your orders. If I get the chance she will be dead.”

Medusa said, “You will have to go through an initiation test. All the warriors in my army have to go through with it.”

Callisto replied, “I expected as much. What does the initiation test comprise of?”

“You have to fight me with the weapon of my choice. The first person to disarm the other wins. If you win you get into my army as a worthy warrior and if I win you die by my hand.”

Meanwhile Xena and Cassiopeia arrived in the Amazon village. Cassiopeia hurried off to tell the Queen that she had found someone who might be able to help them in their struggle with Medusa.

Xena looked around and saw the deterioration that the attacks on the village had caused. There were burnt down carcasses of houses that were once family homes, the families that were living in them died in the ruins. The bodies were buried according to Amazon custom. There was an air of uselessness in the air and Xena felt it. All these Amazons, although they were warriors and ready to die for their queen, it seemed that they were just waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Xena wondered if this was what a village that she attacked felt like before she came and demolished their villages and killed them.

Just as Xena was wondering about her past Cassiopeia came back to her and said, “The queen will see you know. I have told her about you saving me and she wants to thank you for that and to ask about your plans for helping us defeat Medusa.”

Xena followed Cassiopeia to an ornate house at one side of the village. Cassiopeia went into the house. Xena followed her. She bowed in front of the Queen.

“Welcome to our village. My name is Penthesilea. I am the ruler here. I am glad that you saved my daughter from that band of thieves. She tells me that you are a great warrior and want to help us in the upcoming battle.”

“That is true your majesty. I do want to help you and your tribe. It would be a great honour for me to help you.”

Penthesilea replied, “I’m grateful for any help I can get. This Medusa has a cyclops that she uses to distract our warriors.”

‘That is what’s causing the general feeling of futility around here,’ thought Xena as she listened to Penthesilea talk about the situation and the fact that she thought that Medusa had a headquarters that must be well hidden.

Xena said, “I volunteer to go and find this base. I know the area like the back of my hand. If the queen doesn’t mind I would like Cassiopeia to come with me.”

Cassiopeia smiled to herself as it saved her the trouble of asking her mother about it. She said to Xena, “I would love to come along. We might even cause a bit of trouble to Medusa and her army.”

Xena smiled and said to Penthesilea, “We will get going then, we don’t have much time. They could attack at any moment.”

Penthesilea said, “Take half of my army, they are all trained and they want to do something. I will give the orders. Cassiopeia, I’m putting you in charge of my army. You have my orders and I hope that you can stop this attack before more of our sisters are killed.”

Xena replied, “I hope that I can repay your trust in me.” Penthesilea went and told her army that they were to take orders from Cassiopeia

As she said this she and Cassiopeia walked out of the house and went to their horses. As they were mounting their horses, Cassiopeia said to Xena “There are some caves up in the mountains that could house Medusa’s headquarters. They are up to the south if my memory serves me correctly. We’ll head on that way and see what we can find. Keep your eyes and ears open at all times once we have left the boundaries of our territory. “

As they went on their way one of Medusa’s spies who were watching the Amazon village saw them going and heard what Xena said about the mountains. She hurried to her horse and after making sure that her partner spy had been told that he was watching now, galloped off to tell Medusa the news that Xena and Cassiopeia were looking for the camp.

Back at the camp Callisto, having defeated Medusa in the initiation test, was waiting for a chance to do some mischief when the spy came back. She went straight to Medusa’s map room. After a couple of minutes Medusa came out of her map room and started shouting to the warriors. She came up to Callisto and said, “Xena and the Amazons have been seen leaving their camp. We attack as soon as possible. Mount your horse and we’ll get going.”

Callisto and the others mounted their horses and rode up to the surface. They knew exactly where they were going and what they were going to do. Medusa had explained all her plans to them in a briefing session before they had heard what the spy had to say. It seemed easy enough, just to destroy a village. Callisto had some misgivings because she knew from following Xena just what she was capable of. Still she thought, I might have a chance to get Xena after what she did to my village.

Medusa, Callisto and the rest of the army carried on and went down one of the paths that led to the Amazon village. The cyclops was following them on foot, quite a long way away from the army.

Back in the village Penthesilea was making sure of the village’s defences. She was checking the perimeter when she saw Medusa’s army running up the hill to the south of the village. She sounded the alarm and all the warriors came running to the south end of the village. Penthesilea said to the nearest warrior, “Gabrielle, go as fast as you can down the south road and see if you can find Xena and Cassiopeia and tell them what is happening here, and that they should hurry and return back to the village to help defend it.”

While this was happening Xena and Cassiopeia and their army were riding through the mountains when they came across a cave that lead into the rock. Xena said, “This could be a likely entrance to the caves that could be in this area. Lets leave a guard with the horses and then try and explore this cave.”

One of the Amazons was left on guard duty and as they went into the cave it got darker and darker. Xena and Cassiopeia lighted torches and passed them out to the rest of the army. As they got into the cave Xena said, “I think there is light up ahead. Be careful everyone, we don’t want the enemy to know we are here.”

As they entered this rather large cavern they saw that there were torches attached to the wall and that there were definite signs that there had been someone there at some stage. Xena said, “It looks like there has been someone here and very recently at that.” Cassiopeia said, “If they were Medusa’s army then where are they now?”

Just then they heard a noise coming from one of the other tunnels that radiated out from the chamber that they were in. Xena said, “Split up into sections making sure that there are no less than two of you together to go down each tunnel. Cassiopeia come with me.”

As everyone split up and went down each tunnel, Xena and Cassiopeia could hear what sounded like someone trying to move quietly but not quite succeeding. Xena put her fingers on her lips to tell Cassiopeia to be as quiet as possible. As they crept down the small tunnel they were looking around very cautiously, as they were not sure what they would find in this area.

As they rounded a corner they came face to face with one of Medusa’s soldiers that she had left behind to guard the camp.

Xena was the first to react and she hit the warrior in the chest with a well aimed fist. As the warrior collapsed in a heap on the floor with a loud groan Xena pressed her fingers to certain points on the man’s head.

As she did this Xena said to the man, “I have just cut off the blood to your brain. Unless you want to die I suggest you tell us who was here and what their plans are.”

The warrior spluttered. “Medusa is going to attack the amazon village. When she heard that half the army had gone out looking for her, she decided to attack straight away to take advantage of the lack of defence.”

Xena restarted the flow of blood to the warrior’s brain and stopped for a moment to think what to do next. She said to Cassiopeia, “Let’s hurry back to the village and she what we can do to help.”

As they retraced their path down the tunnel to the main cavern she shouted to all the others, “We are going back to the village in a hurry. I’ll explain on the way.”

As the warriors converged in the main cavern Xena explained what had happened and that if they were quick they could get back to the village and hopefully turn the tide in the battle that was coming up. They went out of the cavern and they saw that a new warrior had joined them. One of the warriors who were on guard duty said, “This is Gabrielle, she has some bad news for us.”

Gabrielle explained to Xena what was happening to the village and that it was under attack. Xena said, “We know that. We found one of the guards and he told us what was happening.”

Xena and the others rode back to the camp at full gallop.

Meanwhile back at the camp the rest of the army were trying to fend off Medusa’s army. The village was on a hill and Medusa’s army was trying to encircle the whole hill and then destroy the village by attacking from all around.

Medusa was sitting on her horse behind the front line. She was watching how the battle was going on. She smiled as she could see her army was attacking the Amazons, and that the battle would end without her having to bring the cyclops into the battle. She hoped that she could win without too many losses and that the Amazon leader would see sense and surrender as she was outnumbered.

What Medusa did not know was that the other half of the Amazon army led by Xena was on its way back to the village.

As the army was riding along Xena said to Cassiopeia, “Is there a way that we could go round your village looking for the point of attack? We might come across Medusa’s army and attack her from the rear.”

Cassiopeia replied, “There could be, our village is built on a hill which Medusa will probably try to surround, and then either she will attack from all points at once or depending on what she wants to do, she might try to starve us out.”

Cassiopeia told the warriors to hurry up and put a bit more effort into riding so that they could protect the village. Cassiopeia was hoping that nothing had happened to Penthesilea but she put that to the back of her mind so that she could have her mind on the coming battle.

Medusa had decided that the time had come to get into the battle herself. She decided that she would try to find the leader of the Amazons and kill her outright. Before she started to ride off she said to one of the warriors near her, “Tell the warriors to let the cyclops attack the village. It’s time we started to get tough as this battle is going on long enough.” As she said this she rode off down into the battle.

As she rode through the village it was burning and there were lots of people running around, and she saw a lone woman standing in the ruins of a house. There were bricks lying around the floor and there were a lot of broken beams sticking out of the ground.

Medusa got off her horse and walked over to the woman. She said, “I’m looking for the leader of the people that live here.”

The woman looked up at Medusa with a real look of hatred and malice on her face. She replied, “I am the leader of the people here.” As she said this Penthesilea drew her sword out and went into a fighting stance ready for Medusa’s attack.

Medusa suddenly swung her sword at Penthesilea and Penthesilea easily parried the blow. They traded sword blows for a couple of seconds and Penthesilea was getting tired and she slipped on one of the bricks that was strewn around the ground. Medusa pounced and put her sword to Penthesilea’s neck and she was just about to plunge her sword into Penthesilea’s throat. Just then Cassiopeia appeared and plunged her own sword into Medusa just in time to save Penthesilea’s life.

“Thanks Cassiopeia,” said Penthesilea, “It was lucky that you arrived here. There is a rather large cyclops that is attacking and flattening the village. Tell Xena, she has to stop it.”

“OK I will” said Cassiopeia, who ran off to look for Xena. As she was looking for Xena she saw that a lot of the houses in her village had been destroyed. It was very depressing for her. She could not be sure if any of her friends were out defending the village from Medusa. Cassiopeia was feeling really depressed as she saw Xena and told her that she had saved Penthesilea and that she was to go and drive off the cyclops that was attacking the village.

As Cassiopeia was telling Xena this the ground suddenly started shaking violently and they were tossed onto the ground by the tremors. The cyclops was lumbering over the horizon bent on destroying the houses that Cassiopeia and Xena had been walking near.

Xena said, “Cassiopeia you run away and save yourself. I’ll take care of this cyclops.”

Xena saw Cassiopeia run away through some houses back towards where she rescued Penthesilea.

Xena stood in the middle of the road gauging up distances and getting ready to throw her chakram at the cyclops’ face. As she was doing this she didn’t see that the cyclops had just stood on a building that she was standing near and the rubble was threatening to bury her. She threw her chakram and it flew up into the air and neatly blinded the cyclops. She caught her chakram as it looped back towards her.

The cyclops let out a howl that could be heard throughout the village and he clutched his hands to his eye. He stumbled around and fell on the building that was right next to where Xena was standing.

Xena saw what had happened to the wall and she screamed as the wall fell on top of her.

When Xena regained her consciousness after the rubble had landed on top she found herself buried in a hole in the rubble which was propped up by a big beam. She wondered how much of this rock and stuff had actually fallen on her and whether she would be able to crawl her way out. As she looked around and her eyes got accustomed to the pitch blackness that she was in, she thought that she could see a patch of light that was glowing like a beacon in the dark.

She tried to crawl on her hands and knees towards the patch of light but found it hard to do because it hurt very much every time she moved one of her arms. She gritted her teeth and decided that if she did not get out of this hole then it would probably be the death of her.

Eventually she managed to get out of the rubble. When she got her breath back she saw this other warrior standing there. It was Callisto.

Callisto waited quietly and said nothing. She held her sword ready just waiting for Xena to make the first move. Xena got up unsteadily to her feet. She got her sword in her unhurt arm. It hurt to move her left arm even a little bit but she was determined to go through with this if this is what this other warrior wanted.

Xena was feeling queasy and not very well do to the fact that she had suffered a slight concussion when the house fell on top of her. She shouted her war cry at the top of her lungs and charged as fast as she could towards Callisto, hoping to take her by surprise and land a telling blow with her sword. As she did this Callisto parried Xena’s sword blow and landed one of her own on Xena’s wounded arm.

Xena collapsed onto the ground. As Xena was writhing about in agony Callisto calmly walked up to her and put the point of her sword onto Xena’s neck. Callisto looked smugly at Xena as if to say that Xena was living only at her sufferance.

Unbeknown to Callisto, Penthesilea and Cassiopeia has seen what had happened and had rounded up a few of the other Amazon warriors. Penthesilea said, “Everyone stand back and make sure that no one interferes, especially no one from Medusa’s army. I have to save Xena’s life.”

Callisto smiled evilly at Xena who was in no shape to battle any more as the pain was really too much for her. Xena really hoped that she would die just so that the pain would go away. As she lay on the floor waiting for the blow that would end her life she saw out of the pain that someone had starting fighting with the other warrior that had been trying to kill her.

Cassiopeia ran up to Xena when Penthesilea attacked Callisto and got her to safety.

Penthesilea parried a blow from Callisto’s sword and landed a blow right on the back of Callisto’s head. Callisto collapsed on the ground having lost consciousness. Penthesilea looked to make sure that she would not cause any more trouble and then moved her body to a place that was as far away as possible.

When Penthesilea got back to her house in the village she saw that Cassiopeia and Xena were safely back. Penthesilea said, “I am grateful that you helped us save our village. Do you want to stay while your arm recovers?”

Xena replied, “Yes if you don’t mind, maybe you could teach me some of your weapons as well, such as the fighting staff?”

Penthesilea said, “Yes, why not, you deserve something for helping us to save our village.”

Cue flash forward effect………

“So that was why that cyclops was after you then, Xena!” said Gabrielle. “That explains why he was