She felt the anger as it started to churn in the pit of her stomach. “Can you lead us there or not?” The soldier nodded Xena looked at him for a moment before taking hold of Argo’s reins. She eased the mare closer then slowly and gently eased Gabrielle’s in to the saddle making sure she was propped up. She watched as the younger woman weakly grabbed the saddles horn. She found herself grabbing hold of as many things from the destroyed camp as she could and pushing them in to the saddlebags then moved over to the tree pulling her Chakram out of its bark. If she was going to get out of this mess it would have to be on foot so as not to draw attention to them selves until they got to the road, she pushed the remaining items in to the saddles bags then began to move Argo forward.

She up her hand gently taking hold of Gabrielle’s the younger woman, didn’t look good at all. She squeezed her hand gently she just needed her to hold up until they got the main road. Gabrielle felt Xena’s hand on hers, she felt awful the whole of her upper shoulder was burning with pain she could feel the bandage that had been wrapped tightly around her shoulder. She could also feel the horse as it moved and she could make out the passing of the trees. Deep down she knew they weren’t safe, and it was the reason Xena hadn’t stitched her wounds and had instead put on a temporary bandage and herb paste. She gripped the horn of the saddle tighter trying to stay focused.

Her lovers hand was squeezing her own, a part of her wanted to speak but it hurt too much. She’d been hurt many times in battle before and the only thing that had hurt as much as this was when she’d been hit by a poisoned arrow. The pain she’d been in had been unbearable it had felt like her chest was turning to rock.  This was just as painful but in a very different way it felt like hot daggers being pushed in and out of her shoulder over and over again. She breathed in deeply trying to slow her breathing. She could see Xena’s face watching her although she was starting to have trouble focusing on it. Her mind kept on wandering and going to other places.