Chapter Four

Dry Times

Gabrielle and Xena had finished loading up two freshly killed deer onto Gabrielle’s horse and Xena was about to climb into the saddle of her horse. Xena’s leg wasn’t completely healed, but she knew just how much she could use it without further damage.

“You’re sure about this?” she asked Gabrielle.

“Sure as I’ll ever be. She’s been a good horse, but we need the supplies. Once things get better again I can always get another one.”

“Okay. I should be back in a couple of days; three at the most.”

“I’ll be here. You take care.”

Xena mounted up and over her shoulder as she rode off she yelled back, “Don't forget to fill the water barrel!”

“The water barrel,” Gabrielle muttered. The one job she hated – walking through the woods to the small river carrying two buckets to fill up and then walking back to the cabin. It took four such trips to fill the water barrel. This time only three were needed, but her right shoulder ached constantly since they had acquired the bows and arrows.

Gabrielle was determined she was going to become an expert with them, and all her practicing kept her not-quite-healed shoulder aching all the time.

“I’ll do it tomorrow,” she said to no one. “Or the day after. There’s enough water for me right now.”

As she puttered around the cabin — straightening up, putting away the salted pork and venison, washing the two wooden bowls they had used for breakfast, she decided, for the hundredth time how much she hated it when Xena was gone.

Medlos, the village where the Healer lived,  just didn’t have everything they needed, so Xena was going to the next closest village, upstream of the small river where they had been getting their water, to try to get more supplies.

Xena’s leg was healing, but not as quickly as she had hoped, and they had come to the conclusion that they just might end up spending the winter where they were, and they needed more blankets, more salt, more flour, a couple more water skins, and anything else Xena thought they could use.

The next morning Gabrielle checked the water barrel and concluded she could go one more day without plodding down to the river. She could go the next morning and have the barrel full by the time Xena got back. She spent the day outside, practicing with the bow until her shoulder began to ache. Then she went looking for berries, wild onions, carrots, turnips and other edible greens.