Gabrielle had heard the woman snooping around the camp. At first she lay very still, trying to hear what she was doing. The woman had said something in a tongue that Gabrielle didn't understand. Clearly the woman wasn't from around here. She heard the woman step up closer, and then heard the soft sound of something falling. Must be her blanket she thought to herself. She felt a itch starting between her shoulder blades. The woman was looking at her. Even though Xena had said they probably didn't have anything to worry about this woman, Gabrielle wasn't so sure. The stick she had been carrying could be really dangerous. It seemed it was made of steel, so it was really strong. But the star on top had her puzzled. On the other side, she had been very interested in the book the woman had brought with her.

Xena had caught her reading the book and had told her it wasn’t her book, so she should probably keep her nose out of it. Gabrielle hadn’t really been reading the book. The book was in another language that she couldn’t understand at all. She was trying to decipher the words as much as possible, but she just couldn’t. She would ask the woman when she woke up again. If she spoke their language that is.

Gabrielle turned around and saw the woman was dressing; she had reached down to pick up the blanket again. Gabrielle quickly stood up and raised her staff. The woman had said something else in her tongue. The language she spoke was soft and seemed to role around. Gabrielle lowered her staff a little and tried to understand what the woman was saying. The woman suddenly moved and Gabrielle raised her staff again. She would not let herself be killed because she was so fascinated with the new language. The woman spoke again and pushed her staff a little down. What was she up to? She then motioned to the blanket on the ground and rubber her arms. She must be cold. Well, Gabrielle couldn’t really blame her. The thin clothes she was wearing were hardly to keep you warm in the cold night air. She nodded at the woman. When the woman had covered herself up, Gabrielle looked back at the sleeping figure of her companion.

”Xena, wake up. Our guest is awake and walking around.”

She caught movement in her right eye and quickly turned back towards the tiny blonde. She once more raised her staff up, this time to eye level. If she would move again, Gabrielle would knock her unconscious.

”Xena!”

Xena groaned and rose quickly. She figured the fish Gabrielle had made was a little off. Her stomach recoiled a little. She stood up tall and stretched her body. Surely it wasn’t morning yet. She turned around and saw the two blondes staring at each other. Gabrielle looked ready for a fight, the other one was staring at her as if she saw a monster.

”What’s the matter, Gabrielle?”

Xena was feeling a little paranoid. The blonde woman seemed to ooze some sort of otherworldly energy that raised the hair on the back of her neck. The tiny blonde reached down to grab something. Xena drew her sword and pointed it at the small woman quickly. The woman, in response, seemed shocked that both Xena and Gabrielle thought of her as dangerous. But Xena knew that a sweet looking woman couldn’t be a dangerous monster, like a hydra. She had seen plenty of sweet people turn in to hideous beings as soon as you turn your back on them. She woman suddenly uttered some words and reached past Xena, towards the staff-like weapon she had been holding before. Xena swirled around and raised her sword to the woman’s neck. The woman sighed and turned around to poke Xena in the chest and let of some sort of rant.

Gabrielle looked at the tiny blonde, seeming to fire of one angry sentence after another towards Xena. She stood there, amazed. No one had ever treaded Xena like this. She wasn’t impressed by her looks or her sword. She acted like someone that was used to ordering other people around and getting her way. She acted like a ruler, a queen of a big country. She looked at Xena, who suddenly burst in to laughter. This seemed to irritate the woman even more.

“Xena? What’s going on?”
“I think we’re save Gabrielle, this woman isn’t as dangerous as we thought. I’m not sure what she is, but she’s not dangerous.”

Xena sheathed her sword and saw the tiny blonde look at the movement, as if she had never seen it before. For all Xena knew, she hadn’t. She didn’t look like someone that spends a lot of time outside. The woman looked fragile and pale. She looked like she had spent a lot of time inside, grieving. Gabrielle took Xena’s example and lowered her staff to lean on it. Xena stepped away from the petite woman and stuck out her hand. She offered a truce between them. The woman looked at her hand suspiciously and then placed her in Xena’s. Xena grinned and shook her head. The woman had no idea how they shook hands here. She grabbed the woman’s hand and placed it on her wrist, showing that she trusted the woman to not have any weapons hidden.

“Xena, of Amphipolis.”

Xena pointed at herself to make the introduction clear. She then pointed at Gabrielle.

“Gabrielle, of Poteidaia.”

The woman didn’t seem to understand what either Amphipolis or Poteidaia was, so Gabrielle decided to draw a map on the ground. This seemed to excite the woman, who almost seemed to hunger for the knowledge of where she was. The woman then drew a map on the ground. A circle, which she then divided in four by means of a huge cross. In the middle of the cross she drew a castle and pointed from herself to the castle.

“Glinda, from Oz.”

Gabrielle looked at Xena. Neither of them knew of this place called Oz. Nor did the map look familiar to either of them. The woman then started drawing the castle again. Then a room with a mirror and what looked like a woman falling. Then some swirls that they didn’t understand and at last she drew wavy lines to represent water. She pointed from the lines to the lake. Gabrielle looked at Xena suspiciously; they both understood that this was how the woman ended up here. Glinda then took her cloak and the mysterious book and stood tall and proud before them.

”Magika”

Magika. One word both Gabrielle and Xena understood. It sounded like their word Magic. Glinda waved her stick around and it produced a ray of sparkles and bubbles in the air. Xena and Gabrielle both looked horrified. The woman was a Shamaness. Memories of Alti flooded Xena’s mind as she drew her sword and looked at the woman menacingly. She wasn’t going down that road again. Not if she had anything to say about it. She drew Gabrielle behind her.

”Put the stick down, Glinda and no one gets hurt.”
“Xena, do you really think she’s dangerous?”

Xena wasn’t sure, but if this woman could produce explosions and bubbles from her stick, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what else she could produce.

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