Best Short Story (alternative)

THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR

Disclaimer: Argo, Xena, Gabrielle and other characters mentioned on this story belong to MCA/Universal and Renaissance Pictures. They’re used here just for fun, no profit intended or gained, and no copyright infringement was intended.

Another one: I’m Brazilian, so I speak Portuguese instead of English. This story is my first complete attempt of a XWP fan fiction, you probably will find some mistakes due to not being a native English speaker. Forgive me, please. Any and all comments are welcome, and you can reach me at ventania7@hotmail.com. I’d like very much to know what you think about it.

Gabrielle’s sleeping for good, Xena. What do we do now?

Okay. And, as we walk, would you mind telling me what happened with you two when you’re away?

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But you stood there, just waiting for me to strike you. You knew I wouldn’t hurt you, not if I could see you and trust you as I always did. And it worked, Xena. Again.

Now it’s my turn to tell you something. Do you remember how we got to know each other? I do. It was a wonderful sunny day, a perfect day for a young horse like I was. My mother took me to a beautiful plain field to a bit of fresh food and some exercise after a long while that we couldn’t go there because of the Horse lovers. They had been there chasing new horses for their army, and Mom was not sure it was perfectly safe, but I kept asking and pleading till she finally agreed.

I was very happy chasing butterflies and enjoying the sun and the open field, and never knew from where came the danger. My mother knew, though, and as she screamed to me, we both started running to the bushes on the right side of the field. Before I noticed, the ground was trembling with the footsteps of two armies approaching, the air was vibrating with their screams and arrows flying. Soon we were surrounded by those men and their horses. Mom was stabbed on the belly, but she didn’t stop running and yelling at me to follow her till we got to the bushes. As we did, she managed to put me behind her in order to protect me not only from the arrows but also from the sight.

The smell of blood filled the air, already full of noise and rage. As the day and the battle went on, my Mom’s life was slowly leaving her body, little by little in each drop of seeping blood. I was scared to death, but didn’t understand for sure what was going on. When my Mom fell to the ground, panting and with terror in her eyes, I yelled at her to stand up. Yelled and yelled. I don’t know how long I stared at her till I finally notice she wasn’t breathing anymore. I lay down beside her and put my head on her neck, feeling absolutely lonely and empty.

The battle ended but I didn’t notice. And then you came, surrounded by your honor guard, searching for your wounded soldiers to take back to your army’s camp. That sight is still so clear in my mind, Xena... The sun was setting behind you, a tall dark figure framed against the crimson horizon, covered with blood and with death displayed in the most intense blue eyes I’d ever seen. When you approached the spot where we were, I jumped to my feet in a maddened impulse to protect my Mom. You noticed me and the dead body I was trying to protect and your expression softened with a sad smile. You took a step towards me, and I panicked. The smell of blood coming from you invaded my nostrils and I couldn’t help but running away from you, running away for dear life, a fear so intense overtaking me that I thought nothing on earth would be able to make me stop and look at you again in my entire life. Yet I was wrong.

Your soldiers started to run after me but you ordered them to stop. Your voice sounded loud, clear and icy through the silence of the now dead fields, and your tone was so cold it almost froze my own heart. It was an order, coming from someone who never tolerated to be disobeyed. I could sense that, could sense the threatening danger in your tone, and I stopped too. When I managed to gather the tiny bits of courage I had left, I turned back to look at you. You were going away, focused back on the task at hand. I came back to my Mom’s side, the feeling of loss building inside me as it hadn’t before. Looking back, I can tell it was because not only my mother, but also you, were gone. The emptiness and the loneliness grew inside my heart. I looked to Mom’s body and it was untouched. Cold, lifeless and untouched. I lay down beside her and I guess I should have mourned, then, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know how. I still don’t.

That day was very hard to a child as I was, back then. The night fell down over the landscape and I fell asleep, longing for rest and a safe place to hide. In the dead hours of the night, an urgent sense of awareness made me wake up. I stood up as quick as I could, wiping my eyes from the slumber just to meet your bright blue gaze. I can’t explain why, but that time I wasn’t affraid of you anymore. I knew you wouldn’t touch my Mom. I also knew she couldn’t be hurt anymore. I didn’t trust you yet, then, but I was curious. Why, Xena, did you come back for me that night?

I guess I knew it even back then, my friend, and somehow felt the same about you. But it took me a while till I could trust you entirely. I didn’t know how to understand you coming back, and we stayed there staring at each other for a long time before you started talking to me. Something was different, though. I couldn’t smell blood on you, I couldn’t sense danger on you. When you finally spoke, your tone wasn’t cold. "Beautiful baby horse," you said, "you’re all alone now. Don’t be affraid, I won’t hurt you. Here, I brought you some carrots, I know you must be hungry."

I was. But I didn’t take the carrots you offered me. I didn’t know if I could trust you. We continued to stare at each other and you adressed me a warm yet still sad smile. I couldn’t smile back, not yet, but I started to like you at that very moment. You remained still and silent, and your attitude confused me. So, I turned and walked away from you, because I needed to be by myself a little to think of all the sudden changes that happened in my life, and all the twisting emotions that ran through my soul. You respected my decision and didn’t follow me, and I liked it too.

The next morning was bright, but I wasn’t. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. My absent steps led me back to my Mom’s body. When I got there I saw the trail that death was already making in her once magnificent body and couldn’t help the feel of disgust. The emptiness in my soul grew even more, but I realized it was time for me to leave once and for all my childhood days behind me and go away to see what life had left for me. And that’s when I noticed the carrots.

I do. I decided to play your game and followed the path. But didn’t eat the carrots. The hunger was nothing compared with the curiousity about you. I guess you sensed my arrival to your camp as I’d sensed yours the night before, because you were standing right in the middle of the area, looking towards the way I was coming from. Your men started walking towards me but you ordered them to stop once more. You came slowly close to me and stretched your arms to the sides with your hands open. I stood still, didn’t knowing how to react to your move. You stepped back and aside giving me full sight of your camp, as if you wanted to show me where you were living – and where you intended me to live with you. I looked around trying to capture everything, all the sounds, all the colors, the faces, the scents.

A man brought you a rope and asked if you wanted him to tie me up and lead me to your horses’ tent. "No. This baby here is a very special horse. I can see she’s pretty much like myself. She’ll do whatever she wants to and that’s it. I don’t want anyone messing with her. Do you get it?" They did. No one messed with me, ever. I, on the other hand, didn’t get it. But I do now. If you had restrained me back then you would have got a good horse, even a special one, but just another horse. As you did, you got a friend.

You left me by myself and free to go everywhere. I did so and soon I knew your camp as if I had lived there all my life. It was late at night when I came to your tent’s openning and glanced inside. You were there, a tired look on your face, finishing the planning for the next battle. When you saw me, you gave me a warm smile. "Baby horse! You’re still around, after all. Good girl! Are you hungry?" The softness of your tone warmed my heart. And I was deadly hungry. You exited the tent and gestured me to come with you to your horses’ tent. There you offered me carrots once more and this time I accepted and ate voraciously. "So young and already so proud. I like it, girl. Come, finish that and let’s go take some rest, tomorrow will be a hard day." I slept in your tent that night, and many others after that, till I got too big to do so. I felt safe with you.

The following day brought up a carnage I had never experienced, but I have no clear memories of it, except for one thing. You were riding your huge black stallion and he got stabbed on one leg. The injury was not that bad, but you dismounted, put him aside, and continued fighting on foot. Suddenly, a man came from behind you when you were having a bad time fighting with three other soldiers. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there, watching, let alone go into the battlefield. But I saw the man ready to stab you on the back, and I had to do something. I ran towards him and hit him as hard as I could, then ran after him, biting and hitting the way I could. When I finally stopped, I was in the middle of the battlefield surrounded by armed and rageous people.

I froze, panicked with the consequences of what I had done. Very good, I’ll die like Mom, I thought. Next thing I noticed was you, maddened with anger, coming to me and spreading death and destruction around us. The enemy ran away, your army won the battle, and I heard you say something between your teeth. "Nobody touches my horse", you said, for the first time in our life together. You turned to check on me, gazing into my eyes, sword in hand, covered with blood and with death in your eyes. I took a step away from you, then another, and another. You understood my confusion, my fear, and smiled to me once more. I was scared to death, I could smell the blood and the danger on you, but I could also see the warmth in your smile and the pain your eyes now showed. Did I hurt you?, I thought, overtaken by the confusion, my emotions flashing and shifting inside me. I feared you, Xena. I admired and loved you. I still do.

I think you loved me then, the first thing you had loved in a very long time. You thrust your sword into the dirt, openned your arms and stared at me. I saw the blue cloudless skies of my childhood mirrored in your sparkling eyes and I knew I had found my home again. You beckoned me and I came to shelter in your arms. You touched me for the first time. I liked the feeling of your warm and calused hands on my head, my nose, my body. I still like it, Xena, and I missed it very much when you went away to look for Gabrielle.

I nuzzled your shoulder and up against your chin and cheek. "Good girl", you said, with that tender voice I’ve learned to love. "You don’t need to fear me. I won’t hurt you. I won’t let anyone hurt you, never. I promise. Do you trust me, baby? Good. Wanna come with me? ‘Cause I won’t force you, but I’d like if you decided to do so." I nuzzled you again, enjoying the moment, safe and happy by your side. I had nowhere else to go but, yes, even if I had I would have stayed by your side all the same.

You understood my silent compliance and we started to walk back to the camp. You told a soldier to take your black stallion to the stable healer and walked beside me. That horse never forgave me for that. As we got back to the camp, you gave me some food and left me eating, once more voraciously, while you got cleaned up. When you came back I had already finished my meal, so you bathed and brushed me to clean off the signs of the stressful day. I was delighted with your gentleness, and even more when you started to talk again.

I did. I do. If I once had another name, I can’t remember. I’ve been Argo since then. I nuzzled you again, happily, and you chuckled quietly while finishing the brushing. That day marked the beginning of my nurturing, though I’ve never felt restrained or forced to do anything. You made it all look like fun, with all the races, jumpings, whistlings and learning all kinds of things you could tell me. Besides that, I loved when you talked to me. You told me about the people in your life, the loved and the hated ones, and about your deeds, the good and the bad ones. You used to talk to me about your plans for a new battle or a hunting excursion, or just the next meal. When you were happy, you would share it with me, and when you were not, I would try to comfort and help you. You would do the same with me.

The next two years I had spent growing up happily by your side. Sometimes you would ride me into battle, but not quite often. I must say I’ve been always very thankful because of that, ‘cause I would follow you to wherever you’d like to go, but the smell of blood and death was like embeded inside my nostrils since my mother’s death, and I never got over that feeling. I guess you somehow could see that, and tried to save me the discomfort, the disgust. The other horses in your army mocked me because of that, specially your black stallion. He used to call me a cry-baby and a wuss, but I didn’t care. I knew part of that was just jealousy and envy. When he started to call me your lapdog, then I began to care. It was not only jealousy, not anymore, not in his case, a huge and proud warhorse born to battle. He could notice that you were changing, too, that the sights of the war were embeded inside your mind like the smell of blood inside my nostrils. He noticed you were changing, and he couldn’t understand. He couldn’t bear that.

What bothered me was the fact that, if he already noticed that, your men soon would notice it, too. I was right, unfortunately. There was a day when we got back from an exploration, and it marked your turning point, my friend, but could also have marked your death. I can’t remember much of it, ‘cause Darphus ordered the stable healer to tie me in a spot far from the camp, and I stood till the next morning, just able to hear the shouts and the drums. Darphus himself came to get me in the morning, surrounded by your men in a mocked copy of your honor guard. Someone cut the rope and I can’t say how but I managed to get past them and run away to look for you.

Yes, I found you. And I will always, because you’re my best friend, you’re the only familly I have. And, I must be honest, I love your puzzled face when you think I’m lost and turn just to see me there, staring at you. In fact, I think that the only being that likes it more than me is Gabrielle. She even treats me far better when I do that to you.

You love her. She is almost perfect to you because you love her. I know that. I’ve seen the love starts to grow inside both of you. Do you remember when she got married to that little childhood friend guy ? You spent the rest of the day and all night chasing Callisto and asking yourself why you hadn’t noticed what you really felt for her, then calling yourself chicken because even if you had noticed you wouldn’t have the courage to tell her that you’re in love with her, and then just saying her name out loud. Warrior wuss, you called yourself. I had to laugh, my friend, because it was obvious she was in love with you, too, at least for me. But you had to be close to die to finally admit it to each other. Humans are very complicated.

But I do, Xena. I liked her from the very beginning of your relationship, because she seemed to me exactly the kind of incentive that you needed to become a better person like you wanted to. At that time, I would play with her just for fun, because she seemed so affraid of me. Remember how she used to repeat time after time how tall I am and how scared she was to ride a tall horse? I found it funny, and, even if sometimes I would nag with her, I liked her very much.

What I didn’t like was the way she treated me, like if I was one of your belongings, and, for that matter, one of hers, too. I don’t belong to you and you know that. I’m here because I want to be, not because you own me. It took some time for her to learn that, but as she did, it was okay with me. And, yes, we are a great team, Gabrielle included. More than that, we’re friends, Xena. We’re family.

I wouldn’t say that, Xena. Sure, you sent me away when you were attacked by the Persian army and you thought both of you were going to die. You seemed to die at least two times, and you’re always leaving me somewhere to go away to someplace I can’t go along with you. But I wouldn’t call it "fail me", not till this last adventure.

This is exactly what I wanted to talk about with you. I’ve been at your side for a long time, Xena, I know your bright side and your dark side. I’ve been through everything with you, and it’s been worth the while, the bad times and the good times. That’s what friends are for.

When Gabrielle died, I suffered with her loss, and suffered because you were suffering. I went with you to look for her because I love her, too. As you decided to go to the Amazon’s Land of the Dead, I understood your decision of leaving me behind. I was sure that you thought were going to certain death and didn’t want me to go along because you’d hate to know I died because of you. I respected that and said goodbye to you for the third time in our life together. I wandered about but never left this area because deep in my heart I hoped you’d be back.

Then, when my heart was finally calming down and my hopes were nothing more than a dull pain inside, what do I see? You and Gabrielle, alive and fine, coming from an entirely unexpected direction and, above all, with Joxer! What was I supposed to feel, Xena?

You’re absolutely right. I felt betrayed. Do you remember that time you stabbed me? Yeah, right, I know it was Callisto in your body, I knew it was not you from the beginning, but couldn’t understand how it could be. Being stabbed by the hand and the face I loved so much was so painful it almost killed me instead of the wound. I thought I would never feel that hurt again. But this time it was worse. If you were not going to die, if you were going to bring her back, why didn’t you allow me to go with you? My only answer for this question was "because she doesn’t love you anymore, because she no longer wants you", and it kept playing again and again inside my head.

Now that you’ve told me everything that happened when you’re away, I understand that you had no choice, that you didn’t know she was stil alive, and that you had to run straightly to Poteidaia to avoid that little bastard Hope to bring her father to our world. But I need to tell you how I felt and why I’ve let that Horselover ride me. It was not an apple, it had nothing to do with him, but with me. I felt betrayed. I thought you didn’t want me anymore. I felt that was nothing more for me in my former life and decided to let go.

I could have resisted when the Horselovers came to catch me, but I simply gave in. The leader said that if he rode me into battle he would be invincible. I thought "whatever" and let him work with me and ride me, thinking that he was taming me. As if he could... But I didn’t complain because I was feeling empty and lonely once more. If you and I couldn’t be friends anymore, at least with him I would have been respected and well treated – you saw the tent he got me – and, so, I took his offer, mostly because without your frienship there was nothing else left in the world to me.

It’s true you had come for me and tried to take me back with you. But, as in our first meeting, I didn’t think I could trust you. The smell – by the way, how did you get that smell? Eeeewww!!! – was different, but the feeling was the same. You had betrayed me once, you could do it twice. When you left the camp and the Horselover leader came to ride me, I didn’t understand that the enemy he was willing to attack was you. You could have betrayed me, but I wouldn’t betray you.

And then, when we approached the field where you were, my legs moved absently as my mind rushed through my memories of that day long time ago. I saw you with arms streched and hands open, sword embeded in the ground, telling me you’d never hurt me, you’d never let anyone hurt me. I focused on the target ahead and saw the same image. For the second time in my life, I trusted you. I loved you and let you inside my life once more. I could never hurt you, Xena. We’re friends, and I think you’re right when you say we’re meant to be together. Can you understand this? I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you, but I was pretty hurt, too. Can you forgive me?

Are you kidding? You’re probably the most arrogant person I’ve ever met in my entire life!

Hey, you! Don’t you start with me, warrior, I may be tempted to kick your ass, Warrior Princess or not Warrior Princess.

Ha-ha, my friend! You bet!

THE END