His Amazon Daughter
Copyright 1999
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Xena Warrior Princess
Gabrielle, Amazon Queen and wandering Bard
Ephiny, Amazon Regent and Xenan's mother
Xenan, Ephiny's Centaur son and Jerrina's boyfriend
Joxer, the Mighty, Janna's brother, Jerrina's uncle
Janna, Joxer's sister and Ephiny's second in command
Jerrina, Jett's daughter
Jett, Joxer's twin brother
Malinda, Amazon healer
Maxus, Janna's significant other
Amazon villagers
Ares, God of War
Xian, Jerrina's dead mother
Jerrina dove to one side as her opponent swiped at her with a sword. Her staff tapped his front set of knees.
"Point!" Ephiny shouted.
"Good strike, Jerrina!" someone shouted. It was Maxus standing beside Jerrina's Aunt Janna. Jerrina wasn't finished yet. She rolled under Xenan's belly and tapped his human back. Her staff came back around to tap his throat, but this time his sword was up to catch it.
"All right! You win!" Xenan shouted laughing.
Long and lanky, Jerrina stood tall enough to place her head even with the young blonde Centaur's cheek. "Sure I do! You could have stomped me and don't think I don't know it!" Jerrina swatted his shoulder with the back of her hand. Xenan grinned down at her as he sheathed his sword. The girl grinned back and Xenan remembered how much he wanted to kiss her. But not in front of the entire tribe. He settled on holding her hand.
Janna didn't miss a thing. But then she knew Xenan would never knowingly or willingly hurt Jerrina. Ephiny had raised him well. He was a good boy, make that centaur.
Ephiny and Janna exchanged amused glances. Jerrina and Xenan's feelings for each other were only secret from Gabrielle and Xena, but then the bard and warrior hadn't been back to the village in several months. Joxer had been by a few weeks ago and was pleased to see the two young people together....So maybe it wasn't a secret from them after all. No doubt Joxer had returned to his friends after his visit to the village that was rapidly becoming his home. Especially after Janna and Jerrina's hut had been finished. It even had three extra beds for when Joxer, Xena and Gabrielle came home.
Jerrina's smile widened as that word echoed in her head, and her smile threatened to take in her ears when she caught sight of Gabrielle on the edge of the crowd. She nudged Ephiny and nodded toward their queen.
Ephiny let out a whoop before racing Janna to her. Janna shot passed Ephiny and Gabrielle both to throw her arms around Joxer. Xena was swinging Jerrina around and was actually smiling.
"Our Queen has returned!" Ephiny shouted to the Amazons as the other sparing matches and wagering stopped.
Calls for feasting were heard and heeded. The bonfire was set for the night and as the sun went down the cries of the Amazons rose in the twilight.
Jerrina and Janna lead the first dance, pulling Joxer in with them. Gabrielle watched the three lanky forms as they moved around the blaze, leaping and spinning, dropping to low crouches only to leap higher. She leaned over so that Xena could hear her. "They look happy."
"It was a good idea for Janna to bring Jerrina here." The warrior princess grinned at her younger friend. "You saw when we came in?"
"Jerrina and Xenan or Janna and Maxus?" Gabrielle grinned back.
"Both." Xena chuckled. "It is spring after all."
Gabrielle stared at her friend for a long moment before she burst out laughing. She punched Xena lightly on the shoulder before dragging her out to dance around the fire with the Amazons and Joxer.
The celebration went on all night, so Gabrielle was even grumpier than usual in the morning. Joxer greeted her with a grin and a pastry wrapped around sausage and scrambled eggs. "Janna made breakfast."
Gabrielle took the offered meal with a growl that Joxer decided to interpret as a thanks.
Janna and Jerrina were outside helping Maxus clean his hooves. He didn't look like any more of a morning person that Gabrielle was, in fact, he looked more than half asleep. For once looks weren't deceiving, the Centaur was snoring. A smile tugged at the young bard's lips as she watched Janna tug up Maxus' forehoof and brace it between her long legs. Jerrina was ready with a tool used to scrape dirt away from the iron shoe, then with one that trimmed back the hoof itself. Gabrielle had seen Xena use similar tools on Argo's hooves. She wondered how Maxus could sleep though it, then she heard Janna and Jerrina singing. Gabrielle's lips quirked into a smile has she recognized the tune. They were singing a variation of Joxer's song, and with their lighter voices it was more like a lullaby.
"What a way to keep him calm, huh?" Ephiny asked falling into step along side Gabrielle. "Jerrina sings to Xenan when I'm trimming his hooves. Easiest way to get him to stay still for it."
"And another good reason for the peace treaty between us and the Centaurs." Gabrielle grinned outright. This village of Amazons had the most interaction with the Centaurs, and a lot of it had to do with the fact it's regent had a Centaur son. "How serious are they?"
"You did notice. Good." Ephiny smiled. "I'm not sure, but they're young yet."
"Jerrina looks happy." Gabrielle tilted her head to one side. "So does Janna."
"Ah, that would have to do with Maxus." Ephiny's smile widened. "He asked her to marry him."
Maramis. It stank. It was dark.
It was home. For the moment.
Jett paced his small cell, growling.
Ares appeared with a flash of blue light. The god of war glanced around the room and sneered.
"This is ridiculous." He told Jett. "Do you know what's happening to your brat?"
"Jerrina will survive." Jett snarled at him. "I taught her after all."
"Yeah right." Ares gave a barking laugh. "Little Jerrina can take care of herself all right. The Amazons are making sure of that." Jett's head snapped around. "What?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't anyone tell you?" Ares grinned maliciously at the assassin. "Your idiot brother and sappy little sister found her and took her to the Amazon village three days north of Corinth."
"WHAT?!" Jett roared. His fist slammed into the wall.
"Well, at least she's a warrior." The god chuckled.
Jett's glare burned into Ares. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because, she's getting very friendly with a Centaur." Ares shrugged. "I just thought you might want to do something about that."
Ares could hear Jett's teeth grinding together. "Time to get out of this pit."
The god laughed, then vanished in a silent burst of light.
Jett pressed the palms of his hands against the wall and took a deep slow breath. He did it again. Then again. Eventually he calmed down. Silently he thanked Xian for teaching him some of her native tricks for calming the body to clear the mind. Just has he had thanked her for giving him Jerrina, fourteen years ago.
Jerrina was his, Joxer and Janna had no right to take her. All right so he'd been in prison for the last three years. But she had been safe at the cottage. Xian had taught her how stay silent, just as Jett himself had taught her to use a knife for close work. But there were some things he hadn't taught his little girl, and he didn't want any half horse freak anywhere near her.
Jerrina and Xenan moved quietly through the woods. Jerrina was going back and forth making sure the branches didn't slap at her friend. Well, he was more than a friend, and they weren't exactly hunting.....
Xenan watched Jerrina move in to the clearing they went to when they wanted to get away from the adults. He could see the strong resemblance to her aunt and uncle in her face and build, but there were some things about her that were different from them. Her hair was a glossy black and hung straight down her back when she let it out of the braid she wore it in. And her eyes tilted up slightly, and they were pitch black, not warm brown. There was a more golden glow of to her skin than they had. She had told him that her mother had come from beyond the Kingdom of Chin.
It didn't matter. She was beautiful. Especially when the light hit her like that.
Jerrina turned around and grinned at him. "I set the snares, so we should come back with some rabbits."
"That gives us the rest of the day, doesn't it?" Xenan murmured. He trotted over to her and cupped a hand under her chin. "Jerrina?"
Her eyes glittered when she looked up at him. Her tongue flicked out to touch her lips for a moment.
"I'd never hurt you, Jerrina." Xenan whispered as his lips dropped to meet hers.
The kiss was light, sweet.... And Jerrina's first.
Jett seethed from where he hid in the underbrush. He was going to gut that gods damned colt. They weren't paying attention to anything except each other. He had to strike now.
Jett slipped up behind his daughter. His hand clamped over her slender throat and stabbed the Centaur in the belly.
Jerrina's eyes snapped open as the hand squeezed her windpipe closed. She heard Xenan scream as cold iron slid into his belly. "Don't you dare make a sound, Jerrina," a familiar voice said in her ear. The girl's guts turned icy, and she remained silent as her father's hand left her neck and took her hand. "Just let me finish off this little freak."
"No." Jerrina whispered fiercely. "He hasn't done anything. I'll go, just don't kill him."
Jett looked up at his baby girl and got his first sight of the woman she was going to become. He hesitated, so she continued. "If you kill him, I'll make you kill me too."
Jett nodded and only slammed the hilt of his dagger against Xenan's temple. He didn't have time to argue, the Centaur's scream had roused the Amazons. "Let's go."
Jerrina shot a look to where Xenan had collapsed and could only pray to Artimis that Malinda got to him in time. She slipped into the underbrush after her father. She knew she should fight him....but he was her father. But Xenan was her heart. But the village was her home.
But he was her father, she had to go.
Malinda slid off of Maxus' back. She knelt beside Xenan's still form.
"He's just unconscious. The knife wound isn't serious."
Ephiny's face looked has if it had been carved from stone. She looked up from the tracks she'd been studying. "Who ever did this took Jerrina. Why didn't she put up a fight?"
"These look an awful lot like Joxer's foot prints." One of the younger Amazons said.
"But he was with me." Xena said as she knelt beside Ephiny.
Gabrielle had gone to Xenan as soon as she and the warrior princess had reached the clearing.
"Jett." Joxer said coldly. "Jace wouldn't have done this."
"Jett's in prison." Xena frowned.
Janna shook her head. "He must have gotten out. The question is how did he get here?"
The hairs on the back of Xena's neck stood up. That certain little tingle at the back of her neck told her the answer to that nagging little question. "Ares."
"You called?" The god of war smirked at his favorite warrior woman.
"I'd bet you told Jett where Jerrina was."
"You'd be right."
The Amazons backed away from Ares, more than willing to let Xena handle him. Especially after what happened when Valesca had become a goddess. Most of the tribe had been slaughtered.
"Relax, girls. I don't bite. Much." Ares leered at them.
Janna glared at him. "Where did he take her?"
"Corinth, I suppose." Ares shrugged. "Your mother still lives there doesn't she?"
"Corinth." Joxer said. His voice sounded like breaking ice. "Let's go then."
Ares looked at him, almost curious. "When did jerk boy grow a back bone?"
"He's always had one. He just learned how to use it." Janna snapped. "You're enjoying this aren't you?"
"Of course." Ares winked at the outraged Amazon warrior, then vanished.
"I hate when he does that." Xena growled.
"Let's pack up." Ephiney snarled, she seemed almost as enraged by Jerrina's kidnapping as at Xenan's stabbing. Well, now that he was standing again.
"We're keeping it small." Xena said turning to face the gathered village. "Janna, Joxer, they're going. Gabrielle and me."
"I am coming as well." Maxus said. His voice was a painful angry rasp. He couldn't love Jerrina more that if she was his own daughter, and he fully expected her to be part of his family when he married Janna.
"Me, too." Xenan said, taking a stubborn, unsteady, step forward.
"No you are not." Malinda said firmly. "You've just been stabbed. The only place you're going is back to the village where I can take care of you."
"Don't worry, Xenan." Gabrielle said. "We will bring Jerrina home. She's my heir after all."
Everyone blinked at that.
"Well?" The Amazon Queen demanded.
A cheer rose up from the crowd.
The party set out before the sun had set that day. But Jett and Jerrina were moving fast, although she had tried everything she could think of to slow them down. Now she was bloody and bruised for her efforts.
"I told you to stop that, little one." Jett told his daughter before backhanding her again.
Jerrina spat blood. "I was happy. Why couldn't you have asked me if I wanted to go?"
"You are not an Amazon. You are not going to be a Centaur's whore." Jett said has he dragged her along.
"I'm not just an Amazon! Gabrielle told me she's going to give me the Rite of Caste!" Jerrina snarled. She hurried to catch up, but only to jam her foot between his.
They both went down in a tumble. Jerrina clawed and kicked, she jabbed at her father with her fingers held stiff. The blow connected with his stomach and drove the wind out of him. Jerrina scrambled away. As soon as she was well out of reach, Jerrina broke into a head long run. She only prayed that she was heading back to the Amazon village.
"So help me, if Xenan's dead," she gasped, "I'll kill him."
Jett scrambled to his feet in much the same fashion Jerrina had. After all, he'd taught it to her. She did have one advantage, she could breath easily. He wondered vaguely where she'd learned that blow.
Xian, of course. She'd taught their girl a few things she hadn't shown him. Oh, what a woman she'd been. Jett had only allowed himself to cry once in his entire life, when Xian had died. Jerrina was all he had left in the world and he wasn't about to let the Amazons have her.
Janna and Joxer were mounted on Maxus' broad back with Xena and Gabrielle astride Argo. No one talked, and Xena knew that Maxus was pushing himself harder than he'd ever pushed himself before. But he was up to it.
That's when they saw the lean female shape running toward them in the dim morning light.
"Jerrina?" Janna strained forward to peer over Maxus' shoulder. "Jerrina!"
The teenage Amazon was running toward them with her head down. She knocked right into Maxus' chest. She looked up, eyes wide with anger and fear. "Maxus?!?"
"Little one!" Jett bellowed from behind her.
Jerrina whirled around and planted her foot in his chest before anyone else could react. "Leave me alone!"
Jett landed hard on his back, once more the wind had been knocked out of him by a move he hadn't seen coming. Before he could get up Joxer had one of his light spears pressed against his jugular. "Now, now little brother... That's no way to treat your twin."
"I'm not any smaller than you, Jett." Joxer growled. "We wouldn't let Crasix hurt her. We aren't letting you take her now."
"You don't deserve her, assassin." Maxus said as he wrapped his arms around Jerrina.
"She's my daughter. You can't have her." Jett kicked Joxer's arms away, drawing a line of blood across his own throat.
Jerrina turned in the safe circle of the Centaur's arms and pressed her hands to her ears. "Stop it! Stop it!"
Everything stopped.
"Better?" Ares asked, the sardonic tone in his rich velvet voice penetrated Jerrina's yells.
"What?" Jerrina's head snapped up and her eyes locked on the twin flecks of flint that served as the war god's eyes. Her eyes flicked over her frozen friends and family. "A...Ares?"
"Surprised, little one?"
"Ummm... Yes." Jerrina slipped from the loose circle of Maxus' arms. "Why are you here?"
"I have an offer to make you."
Her eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. "Go on."
"You'll actually listen? I'm surprised now." Ares chuckled. "After Xena has no doubt told you so much about me."
"Just tell me what you want." The girl's voice was very soft. Almost silky, and very adult.
"You." Ares walked around behind her, pulling her braid free until it tumbled like a heavy silk curtain around her shoulders. "Xena's not coming back. I've gotten that by now. I want you to be her replacement."
Jerrina pulled away from him. She didn't want him touching her like that. "Sorry. I've got a job offer. You may have heard. Jerrina, Amazon Princess, has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
"What you can't do both?" Ares taunted her.
"No. I don't want to." Jerrina shook her head. "Please, let them go now."
"All right. Just remember." Ares said, caressing her cheek. "I'll be back." He vanished in a flash of light and time resumed its natural flow.
Jett resumed his lunge for Joxer, but Jerrina was already in motion. She hit him hard and low around the knees.
"I said, stop it!" she growled as all of them went sprawling again. Jerrina came out on top with her boot dagger pressed against her father's throat. "I was happy. Do you have any idea what that means? They love me at the village. Janna, Ephiny, Malinda, all of them."
"And that colt!" Jett snarled, but held very still. She was still his daughter after all, it wouldn't do to underestimate her.
"Yes, and Xenan, too." Jerrina nodded. "And you know what? I love him too. He's my best friend, Daddy. The first friend I've ever had, and you hurt him."
Jett blinked. She had friends. She'd never had friends before, he'd kept her far away from others. "You were happy?" he asked softly.
"We thought she was." Xena said softly.
"I was! And I am!" Jerrina told them fiercely. "I want to go home."
Jett went limp under her. "Then go, little one."
"You'll let her go just like that?" Gabrielle asked softly
"I have to." Jett shrugged as well as he could. "She fights to well for me to control her." His gaze shifted back to his daughter. "You, little one, are entirely to much like your mother."
"What's the catch?" Janna said bitterly. She had to much experience with that brother's treachery.
"That we let him go." Joxer said disgusted.
Jerrina stood up. "Go then. And the next time you come to visit me, try not to gut my friends."
"I do love you, you know that don't you?" Jett brushed the palm of his hand across her cheek.
"I know." Jerrina whispered.
Jett gave a sardonic salute to Xena and the others, then he was gone into the woods.
"And you let him go?" Ephiny asked slowly.
Jerrina shrugged and looked askance from Xenan. "He's my father."
Xenan nodded. "I understand." He opened his arms to her. Jerrina was home, and that's all that mattered to him. Jerrina snuggled against his side, very carefull to avoid touching his wounded side.
"She's home, Momma." He told his mother.
Home.
That sounded so good to Joxer as he listened to Jerrina tell her tribe what had happened. Yes, this village was his home now. The way Potadiea was Gabrielle's, or Amphipolis was Xena's. This was his home, but the road was where he lived. Joxer straightened up and smiled at his sister, he wasn't the bumbling idiot anymore. He'd faced Jett with out making a fool of himself.
Gabrielle watched Joxer from the corner of her eye. He was relaxed here. He wasn't being loud and boasting nonsense. Maybe he was becoming the man he would have been if his family, well except for Janna, hadn't warped him trying to make him something he wasn't.
"What are you thinking about?" Xena asked quietly putting her arms around her friend.
"Joxer. He's really changed since Janna was sick, and even more since they found Jerrina."
"He's growing up." Xena said, she sounded proud of the young man she called her friend. One of her best friends.
"He's becoming a warrior, but I don't think he knows it." Janna said softly from behind them.
Gabrielle raised a hand to touch her short cropped hair. "I think you might be right."
The End
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COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer, Ephiny, and all
other characters who have appeared in the series, together with the names,
titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of StudiosUSA and
Renaissance Pictures. The characters of Janna, Jerrina, Maxus, Malinda,
and Xian were created by Ephiney for use in this story. No infringement
of copyrights or trademarks is intended in the writing of this fan fiction.
This story is copyright © 1999 by Ephiney and is her sole property
along with the story idea. This story cannot be sold or used for profit
in any way. Copies of this story may be made for private use only and must
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