Xena traveled throughout the day and night to reach Amazonia,
stopping only to tend to Gabrielle’s wounds. As she reached
the border, she stopped Argo; cradling Gabrielle as she crossed the
border.

Six Amazons jumped down from the trees as they recognized the
warrior princess. An older Amazon warrior with short brown hair and
stocky built approached. As she quickly assessed the situation, she
turned to one of the younger amazons, "Go! Get a litter
quickly, our Queen is hurt!" The young amazon raced back to
the village as Eponin ran to Xena. "What happened?!?"

Xena did not divulge any of the details. "I'll take her
to the healer’s myself." She nudged Argo, and the horse
headed toward the village, with Eponin following.

As they reached the village, a small crowd had gathered around
the healer’s hut. Up front was Chilapa, the acting queen and
regent of the village. As Xena got off of Argo, Chilapa ordered the
royal guards to keep back the crowd.

Chilapa opened the hut’s door and followed Xena inside.
Garona, the lead healer of the village came into the room as Xena
laid Gabrielle on the bed. Garona looked at the young queen and
then at Xena. "What happened?" Xena shook her head.
Garona turned her attention to Chilapa. "My regent, please
send everyone but Xena out of here. They will be in my way."
Chilapa nodded. Even though she wanted to know what had happened,
she also knew that she would eventually find out. She escorted
everyone out of the hut.

Garona returned her attention back to Xena. She could tell that
exhaustion was taking its toll. "Xena, I don’t need two
patients right now, please have a seat." As Xena sat in one of
the chairs, Garona turned her attention back to the unconscious
Gabrielle as she questioned Xena. "We are alone now, warrior.
Tell me what happened."

Xena lowered her head as she told Garona about the kidnapping
and how she found Gabrielle. She left out the fact that it was
Herodotus, Gabrielle’s father, who had done this. As Xena
told her the events, Garona looked over the stitches and
bruises.

"You did a fine job, Xena."

"Then why isn’t she awake, Garona? I saw the blows to
her head. They are bad, but not bad enough for her to be
unconscious for this long."

"Her body needs time to heal. This may just be the way her
body is reacting. She will come out of it." She walked over to
Xena, "And I suggest that if you want to be awake when she
comes out of this, you need to rest. I’ll tell the guards to
prepare a hut…"