Glinda awoke with a startle. Her eyes flew open and she looked around her wildly. When she realised she wasn’t in the water anymore, she relaxed a little. She felt a texture against her naked skin. Naked skin? She sat up quickly and looked down and saw she was covered by a fur blanket. She lifted up the top and peeked underneath. She was indeed naked.

“Where are my clothes?”

She looked around and a cold fear took to her heart. She wasn’t at home in her bed, or even in the tower. She was outside, in a forest, next to a lake on one side and a fire on the other side. A fire. That meant that there were other people near by, right? She wrapped her blanket more securely around her and stood up. Her legs protested in painful cramps. When she stood straight, dizziness came over her. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing until the dizziness has passed. Carefully she opened her eyes again. When she noticed the world wasn’t spinning anymore, she let out a sigh she didn’t know she was holding.

On the other side of the fire, she could make out two figures. Both taller then her, by the looks of it. She also noticed her clothes hanging on a branch. She sneaked over to the branch and grabbed her belongings. She had just put on her underwear and relished in the fact that they were warm from the fire, when one of the figures moved. A head of tousled blonde hair arose from underneath the blanket. Glinda froze where she was standing. Did she have time to reach for the blanket she had dropped to the ground while she was putting on her underwear?

If the figure would be male, he might get the wrong idea if he saw her in nothing more then a top and underwear. But if he was armed, he might think she was reaching for a weapon. So she decided to just stand there, covering her self as much as possible, and try to look harmless. This in her case wasn’t all that difficult, because she was a female and petite and her facial features were soft and warm.

The figure that rose up was a lot smaller then she had expected. Perhaps it was a Munchkin? It didn’t look like she was in Munchkin country. A groan escaped from the figure. That sounds was too high to be male, so it had to be a woman. Glinda relaxed visibly. Obviously a woman wouldn’t care if she was half naked or not. She reached down to grab the blanket. The cold night air had covered her skin in goose bumps, so the warmth of the blanket would be a welcome thing. When she looked up, she looked at the end of a stick. She let her eyes travel upwards until she was staring at the face of the woman. She looked like a scribe, a gentle woman, but the look in her eyes was not. Glinda swallowed and stood up straight..

“I... hi, I’m Glinda. Who are you?”

She figured that a gentle approach might be best. The woman lowered her stick and cocked her head at her. But when Glinda moved, the stick was once again aimed at her face.

“Could you please lower your stick? I’d like to get covered up. I’m getting cold. I don’t want to be sick.”

The woman looked at her again, as if to read her face. Perhaps she didn’t speak her language. Glinda put her hand on the end of the stick and gently pushed it down. The woman allowed it to lower a fraction. Glinda smiled at her and point at the blanket on the ground and then rubbed her arms, hoping the blonde would understand she was cold. The woman looked at her for a second and nodded her head. Glinda sighed and carefully reached down for the blanket. She wrapped it around her and smiled again.

The blonde looked back at her companion and said something. It sounded like nothing that Glinda had ever heard. She was in shock. Where had the mirror taken her? Thinking of the mirror, she realised that the Grimmerie and her wand were missing. She looked around frantically. When she turned around, she attracted the attention of the blonde again, who quickly brought up her stick to eyelevel with Glinda. The blonde uttered one word.

“Xena!”

A grunt from under the other blanket drew Glinda’s attention. Another woman? Were there no males in this place? Seeing as the blonde had woken first, Glinda thought that her senses were more trained then the other woman’s. So the blonde must be the leader and the most dangerous. The other woman couldn’t be worse, Glinda smiled to herself.

She had been wrong. She had never been so wrong in her live. The other woman was tall, she had never seen any woman taller then her. She had long black hair and was wearing an outfit that looked like a warriors outfit. It was all leather and brass. Clearly this woman was as dangerous as she looked. Where the first woman was, small, blonde and gently looking, her companion was the opposite. Tall, dark and dangerous. Glinda looked the woman in the eyes. The eyes took her breath away; they were the bluest eyes she had ever seen. A striking blue, like a clear sky on a summer day. But they held a world behind them that she couldn’t begin to grasp.

The dark haired warrior said something to the blonde in their language. Glinda listened carefully, trying to decipher anything. The only thing that she could pick up was Gabrielle. This must be the blonde woman’s name. When Glinda reached out to grab the edge of the blanket that was slipping, she was suddenly looking at the wrong end of a sword. Were both women so paranoid or had something about her changed in her appearance that made her look menacing? For Lurline’s sake, she hoped not! All of a sudden a sparkle just beyond the tall woman caught her eye.

“My wand!!”

Glinda threw off her blanket and rushed to her wand. When she almost reached for it, she felt the cold steel of sword against her throat. This was getting ridiculous! Glinda sighed and stood up. She turned towards the warrior woman and poked a finger at the woman’s chest.

“Now listen carefully and listen well. I’m not some warrior woman that you should be careful of. I’m not here to hurt you or your little friend. I don’t even know how I got here! All I know is I stepped through a mirror and I ended up here. I passed out and when I came to, I was naked and ever since I woke up, you and your little friend over here have been treating my like I’m dangerous. Well you haven’t seen me dangerous, lady!”

Her hands were pointing all over the place to emphasise her rant. When she was done she looked at both of the women, her cheeks flushed with anger. The blonde, Gabrielle, looked perplex. It was the dark haired one, Xena, which held her eyes for a moment longer. She expected to see rage in the woman’s eyes, but instead she saw something else. The beginning of laughter.

“Don’t you laugh at me. Don’t you dare laugh at me!”

Those piercing blue eyes sparkled with laughter. And when she laughed it was deep and throaty. She had a good laugh. Gabrielle asked something of Xena and Xena answered her, a huge smile plastered on her face. With the skill of the warrior she seemed to be, Xena put her sword away in her sheath she kept on her back. Glinda tried to look behind the tall woman to see if she cut of a piece of her hair, as she was sure would happen. But nothing was cut. Gabrielle lowered her stick and leaned on it with one hand. It reminded Glinda of a forest traveller. They would use sticks like that to ease the burden of walking long distances.

Xena took a step back and put out her hand. Glinda took it as a sign of kindness and took the woman’s hand to shake it. The warrior woman shook her head and took hold of Glinda’s arm with her other arm. Then with her right hand, she grabbed Glinda’s right wrist in a firm grab, and with her left hand curled Glinda’s right hand around her own wrist. Then they shook. Glinda was fascinated by this hand shake. Or would that be wrist shake? She smiled up at the woman, who seemed to be towering over her from this close.

“Xena a Amphipolis.”

The woman introduced herself by pointing to her self. Glinda understood that Xena was her name. But she didn’t understand a Amphipolis. Was that her last name? The woman then pointed at her companion.

“Gabrielle a Poteidaia.”

Glinda was confused. She shook her head and shrugged, while looking at Xena.

“Amphipolis? Poteidaia?”

She sounded as confused as she looked. Xena glanced at Gabrielle and said something. Gabrielle thought for a second then bend down to the ground. She cleared the ground and drew a figure in the sand. She added wavy lines on one side then drew little houses in the upper part of the shape. She pointed at it.

“Amphipolis.”

Then she drew another set of little houses closer to the left.

“Poteidaia”

Glinda understood now that they didn’t use last names, but used the city they were from. Xena looked at Glinda. She pointed at her and then at the map, as to ask where she was from. Glinda shook her head and drew a large oval in the sand. She put a huge cross trough it. In the middle of the cross she drew a castle and pointed from herself to the castle.

“Glinda, from Oz.”

Gabrielle said something and Xena looked at the map that Glinda had drawn. They both looked confused. How could Glinda explain where she was from? She wiped the maps away and drew the castle but bigger. She pointed at the North Tower.

“I was here in the North tower.”

She then drew a room in the sand. She added the windows, the couch and the mirror with the dragon on top. Next she drew a falling woman next to the mirror. Indicating her.

“I fell through the mirror and ended up in the lake.”

She made a swirl line and drew the wavy lines for the lake. She then pointed at the wavy lines and then behind them to the lake.

“I ended up here, by magic.”

Gabrielle looked at Xena suspiciously, as if to ask the tall woman if she believed the story. Glinda stood up and walked over to her wand. She saw the cloak was there too and quickly put it on. Instantly, she felt the warmth seeping through her body. She grabbed the book and walked back to the other two women. She stood there, tall and proud. Her wand in her right hand, the Grimmerie in her left.

“Magic.”

She repeated the word and waved her wand gently through the air. The next moment a stream of bubbles appeared from her wand. The warrior woman and her sidekick looked at Glinda in plain horror. Glinda got the feeling they weren’t used to magic.

“Oh dear.”

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