Just a Little Dream

(Gabrielle's First Dream)

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Wake up! You're dreaming again. You're going to wake up everyone the way you're shouting."

"What? Who? Oh. It's you, Lila. I was shouting? Really? What did I say?"

"The same as you always do, you keep trying to warn someone named Xena to watch out, like they're in some kind of danger."

"I can't believe I keep having the same dream. And it's so REAL!"

"Well, are you EVER going to tell me what it's about? Who is Xena? And what kind of danger is it?"

"No, I really don't want to. You'll just think it's stupid."

"Well so what? Dreams are supposed to be stupid. Come on, Gabrielle, you can tell me. I tell you MY dreams, and I know yours can't be any more stupid than the ones I have!"

"Okay. But you have to promise that you won't tell anyone, and I mean NO ONE!"

"I promise. Honest, I won't tell a soul."

"Well, all right. First of all Xena is a tall, beautiful, dark-haired warrior woman...."

"A warrior WOMAN?! Who ever heard of a woman being a warrior?" Lila said laughing out loud.

"Never mind! Just forget I ever said anything."

"Come on, Gabrielle, I'm sorry. I won't laugh again. Tell me, please?"

"As I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted me, Xena is a tall, beautiful, dark-haired warrior with deep blue eyes. And she carries this really sharp sword in a scabbard strapped to her back so all she has to do is reach over her shoulder to get it. And she has this knife hidden down between her breasts. But her best weapon is her Chakram...."

"A what? A Shock Ran? I never heard of one of those."

"No. It a Chak RAM. It's a metal ring about the size of a dinner plate, but it's made of a secret metal so hard that it never gets dull and it can cut through any other metal - iron, bronze, silver -- ANY metal, even through stone."

"How did you ever dream up something like that? Your dream isn't stupid, it's just plain weird!"

"Do you want to hear the rest of it or not?"

"I'm sorry, go on."

"Anyway, Xena has a beautiful golden horse named Argo...."

"Does she have a dog?"

"NO! No dog! Now will you let me finish?"

"Sorry."

"Now you made me forget what I was going to say!"

"You said she had a horse named Hargo."

"Argo. Her horse's name is Argo. And Xena rides all over Greece helping people out by fighting the bandits and warlords."

"Did she ever come to Poteidaia?"

"Lila, it's only a dream, remember?"

"That's what I meant -- did you ever dream that she came here?"

"Every dream I have. But the best part is that she takes me with her...."

"Now I know what's going on! You're starting to have second thoughts about marrying Perdicus."

"Second and third and fourth thoughts. But that doesn't have anything to do with my dreams."

"It doesn't? It sure sounds like it does to me. You don't want to get married so you keep dreaming about this strong woman coming to save you from Perdicus. Don't you see? Xena is really YOU! She is the kind of woman YOU want to be - strong and powerful and not needing a man around."

"But what about the part where I save her life?"

"Okay. Tell me about that."

"Well, Xena had this really dark past. I mean she was really bad news! But she had this change of heart, and was trying to make up for all the killing and destruction she and her army caused...."

"So now you, I mean, SHE has an army."

"Not in my dreams, that was before. So she comes to Poteidaia, but no one wants her here even though she saves all of us from slavers."

Putting up her had to stop the expected interruption, Gabrielle said, "Let me finish. Everyone seems to know her reputation except me. So everyone wants her to leave except me. I ask her to let me go with her, but she won't. She says she travels alone. And she rides off...."

"I thought you said she takes you with her."

"That's later, now shush, and let me finish. So Xena rides off. And that night after everyone is asleep I try to sneak away, but you wake up. And when I tell you that I want to be a warrior like Xena you say that even you can beat me up...."

"Well, I can!"

"But I go anyway. And I run into this blind Cyclops. But he's so stupid I trick him into believing that I'm going to kill Xena and bring back parts of her so he can eat her."

"Oh, Gabrielle! That's disgusting!"

"I can't help it. That's what Cyclopses do - they eat people."

"How do you know? When did you even SEE a Cyclops?"

"In my dreams!" Gabrielle said smugly. "Anyway, I follow her to another village. But the people in this one just don't want her to leave, they want to kill her."

"What's the name of the village?"

"I'm not really sure. It seems like it was Anphilipees, or Amphlipsis, or...."

"Do you mean Amphipolis?"

"YES! How did you know?"

"If you had been studying like you should have been instead of dreaming about leaving, you'd know that Amphipolis is in Thrace, near the sea coast."

"Well, wherever it was, I had to save Xena."

"And just how did you do that? Talk everyone to sleep so she could get away?"

"You know, you're really funny - ha ha. As a matter of fact, I just gave them the facts about how Xena had changed from bad to good, and that they were mistaken about her army burning their fields...."

"I thought you said she didn't have an army any more."

"That's just it! It wasn't her army. It belonged to an evil warlord who was trying to get the townspeople to get rid of Xena so he and his men could sack the town without having to fight Xena."

"And you saved her."

"That I did. And she was so grateful she took me with her!"

"So what were you yelling about that she had to watch out for?"

"Oh. She was just about to squat down in some stinging nettles."

"Why was she doing that?"

"Because she had to GO! Why else would you squat down in the woods?"

"I was wrong, Gabrielle, and you were right -- Your dream isn't weird. It IS stupid!"