"It IS her!! It’s Xena, I swear to Apollo!! Sweet Heavens, she’ll kill us all!"
"Calm yourself! We won’t let that barbarian win, even if we have to burn everything! We won’t let her win!!"

"I figure some talk or other like that took place, not too long before it happened. I’d seen it before, in other towns, preceding my arrival. Back then, I almost relished it, the fear, the panic. Now, though, it only hurt.
I rode in sometime after midday, though the sun was still high in the sky. I don’t even remember the name of the town…you’d probably know it if I did.
I didn’t really know what I was doing there…I hadn’t figured out yet what I was going to do with my life. All I knew was that I wanted to keep moving, and this was the next town along.
But they had other ideas."

"We need more time, more time!! We’ll all die!"
"Calm down!! If we let that harpy into our town, we WILL all perish! Now take care…here she comes…steady…"
"Sweet Apollo…help me…"
"There she is…there she is! FIRE!!!"

"I had no army backing me, I made no threatening moves, but it didn’t matter. Not to them. They knew my reputation, and they acted on it. I don’t blame them, I really don’t. After the damage I had caused in the previous ten years, the carnage, the death…they acted kindly.
But not very wisely.
It was a wide volley of arrows, and well aimed. I admit I wasn’t expecting attack here, but I still managed to keep myself from getting punctured. My horse wasn’t so lucky. Three arrows hit her square, and she started to fall. I managed to roll off in time, but it was too late for the horse. She was dead by the time she hit the ground.
I barely registered it, however. Instinct took over, and I became enraged. I couldn’t think, and I drew my sword. Even then, after I had supposedly thrown off that anger, and that way of life, it was so easy to fall back into.
The townspeople saw it too. And they became even more afraid than they had been before. They panicked.
That’s when the fire started."

"It didn’t stop her, she’s still coming!! Look at her, she’ll kill us all, she’ll take everything!"
"No, never! I won’t let her take MY village! Light the torches, we’ll raze everything!! Xena won’t take any spoils home THIS day!"

"It was the blaze that snapped me out of my fury. They’d set them intentionally, meaning to burn their own homes to the ground, just to keep me from them. That was the kind of fear I inspired in innocents.
I remember feeling a wave of dread, almost fear, taking over. Half the town hadn’t the slightest clue what was happening, and when the fire started in earnest, they got scared. It was like Cirra…Gods, it was like Cirra…"
"Xena…Xena, if you don’t want to talk about it…"
"Shush Gabrielle, I’m fine. It WASN’T Cirra. Not if I could do anything about it.
I moved as fast as I could, trying to stop the fools before they torched their whole village. Thankfully, actually, most of the villagers ran as soon as they saw me, and didn’t have TIME to play firebug. There were only a couple of really persistent ones.
Before the flames had a chance to spread, I managed to corral one of the town’s leaders, and tried to talk some sense into him."

"Listen to me!! You have to help me put these fires out, or your whole village will go up like kindling!"
"You’re lying…you’re Xena, we know!! You only want spoils for your army, or slaves, or to kill us all!!"
"HELP me, or the fires will kill you anyway!! I don’t have time to argue with you!"

"Thankfully, I think they started to accept the need for self-preservation, and they started work on putting out the blazes. They had started to spread, which at least helped the villagers forget about me for the time being.
I remember finding a small family, who had been trapped inside their home by the flames. They were frozen with fear, so I had to go in and get them, one by one. And just as the roof was collapsing, I started to hear the shouts from the stable. The fire had reached it, and they couldn’t get the horses out."
"Oh my…"
"Yeah. It was pretty bad…"

"Someone help!! The stables are burning, the stables are burning!!"
"I can’t get near, the fire’s too hot! Gods help us…"

"I was still too occupied helping this family out of their home, but I managed to spy the town’s water tower nearby. It was close enough, so I tossed my chakram at it’s forward supports, …"
"I get it! You knocked the tower over, and put the stable fire out!"
"…Gabrielle, I’m telling the story, okay?"
"…sorry."
"Anyways, that WAS what I was trying to do, but my aim must have been slightly off, because the tower was still standing. I had only partially severed the struts. It teetered, but wasn’t falling.
I tried to shout for someone, anyone, to help finish the job by pushing the damn thing over, but it seemed no one could hear me…or was listening. The fire in the stable was just getting worse, and the smell was starting to hit me. I swear, I almost left those people and their family, that smell was so bad. I just had to do SOMETHING!
…And then I saw her.
Gabrielle, it’s hard to describe…she was magnificent. She was young, lean, wonderful. The fire, and the fading sun combined to make her hair shimmer like the rarest gold. She was beautiful, like a vision, almost a mirage. She came in from nowhere, so brave, so strong.
It was love at first sight.
Without hesitation, she started towards the tower, never showing any fear for the flames. And I don’t know if it was because she had heard my shouts, or if she just figured it out herself, but she started pushing. She pushed on that damned tower like a devil, and soon enough, it finally stopped struggling against her and came crashing down. The water exploded out and slammed into the stable, dousing the flames in seconds.
And then, it was over."

"The fires are out! Praise Apollo!"
"The FIRE is out, yes…but what about HER…?"

"I didn’t even notice the villagers for the next few moments. I only had eyes for her, and I slowly made my way over to her. She didn’t try to run, or hide, she just stood her ground and looked at me. As I walked up to her, she looked right at me…no, INTO me. It was like she could look at me with those big eyes of hers and see right down into the heart of me.
It felt...like she knew my soul, and she didn’t care. She wasn’t afraid.
I put my hand, slowly, onto her face, across her cheek, and she seemed so gentle now, though you could feel the fire beneath the skin.
I knew then that I had to have her. Fortunately, things…worked out."

"You want her? Go on, take her!! Take her, and spare our poor lives."
"Idiot! This woman just SAVED our village, are you blind? She deserves a reward, not a bribe!"
"But…but, it’s Xena, the slayer!! She must be…"
"She ‘must be’. Hah! Let’s ask HER what she ‘must’ be. What about it, Warrior? Whether as reward, or bribe, or spoils of combat…do you want her? You seem to fancy her, and I can see that you’re in some…need."

"I didn’t answer. I just jumped on top of her, and it felt right. It felt more right than I had since I parted with Hercules. Whatever path I had set myself upon, I somehow felt that with her, I was heading in the right direction"
"Wow…so that’s how you met Argo…amazing! Did you have any more trouble with those villagers?"
"No…just asked for directions, and left. That’s all."

"Tell me…what’s the next town down the North road?"
"North road? That would be…Potodeia. Yes, that’s it. Nice, quiet little town."
"Potodeia…sounds harmless enough. Come on, girl…let’s ride."

CURTAIN