Hero's Song, part 1
Skip to: part two
Copyright 1999
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Joxer, the Mighty
Xena, Warrior Princess
Gabrielle, Amazon Queen
Janna, Joxer's little sister
Talimina, Joxer's mother
Ephiny, Amazon Regent
Xenan, Ephiny's son
Malinda, Amazon healer
Maxus, Amorous Centaur
Rating: PG, due to violence and minor nudity.
Author's Note:
This is a Joxer-centric story; no harm has been done to any perceived
relationship between Xena and Gabrielle or to any perceived relationship
between Joxer and Gabrielle (or Xena). I made up the Centaur Growth Spurt
to make Xenan big enough to pull the cart and carry Malinda around.
Joxer trailed after Xena and Gabrielle on the way to Corinth. He didn't really want to go home, but that was where his friends were going. He looked up as a hired messenger ran up to the two women ahead of him.
"I'm looking... for Joxer." the man huffed. "I have a message from his ...mother."
Joxer came up beside them, "I'm Joxer. What is it?"
"Your sister is very ill. You have to come home immediately." The man's voice was an accurate mimicry of Joxer's mother. He reverted to his own voice. "I've seen her, friend, were I you? I'd hurry."
Joxer wasn't listening anymore but dropping his precious hand pounded armor all over the place.
"Joxer what are you doing?" Gabrielle asked.
"I can run faster without it." Joxer said harshly. His helmet hit the ground has he started running. Long legs pumping, stretching out before and behind the warrior-wanna-be.
"I didn't know he has a sister." Gabrielle murmured has she and Xena gathered up Joxer's strange armor. "Why are we saving this for him?"
"Because it's important to him." Xena said adjusting the chest plate on Argo's saddle. "I wonder why he didn't tell you about Janna?"
Gabrielle blinked. Joxer had told Xena about his sister, but not her? That was strange.
Xena and Gabrielle continued in to the city, far behind their clumsy friend.
"What do you know about Joxer that I don't?" Gabrielle grumbled.
"You'd be surprised."
Joxer slowly opened the door to the small house he had grown up in. He looked around the main room. There was his mother with her head on her arms sitting at the table. "Mom?"
The graying woman looked up, "Joxer?"
He forced a grin, "How'd you tell?"
"Jett's in jail, the gods know where Jase is.." Talimina scrubbed her sleeve across her eyes. "Janna is..."
"She's sick, I know." Joxer crouched beside her and pushed back a loose strand of silver brown hair. "Where is she?"
"Your old room. She refuses to rest anywhere else." Talimina pushed herself to her feet. "She should be awake."
"Rest, Mom. I know where it is."
"It's been so long, Joxer. Why did you stay away?" She said too softly for Joxer to hear.
"Janna?" Joxer whispered as he opened the door to his old room.
"Joxer?" Her voice was a low rasp.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" He sat beside her bed.
"Sing?" A smile flickered across her too thin face. "Please?"
"All right." Joxer picked up his old lute. He ran his fingers over the strings. It was perfectly tuned. Of course, Janna would have kept it tuned; she knew how important it was to him. She was the only one who did. "What do you want to hear?"
"The Song." Janna coughed. "Your hero song."
"If you say so." Joxer shrugged.
"Joxer the Mighty,
Roams through the countryside.
He never needs a place to hide,
With Janna as his sidekick,
Fighting fast and quick.
Singing songs and
Righting wrongs,
Being mighty all day long,
He's Joxer, Joxer the Mighty."
Gabrielle listened to him sing from the doorway. She turned back toward the main room when she heard Xena ask why a healer wasn't there.
"They won't come." Talimina said bitterly. "Not for Janna."
"Why not?" Gabrielle asked.
"Something else you can blame on our father." Joxer said from the door of his old room, his voice was cold and bitter. "And it's going to kill Janna."
"My husband killed the healer who... helped Janna out of a... situation." Talimina wouldn't look at any of them.
"She ended a pregnancy." Joxer said bluntly. "One of Father's soldiers raped her. Granted Janna killed the soldier when he was done."
"And he killed someone for that?" Gabrielle blinked.
Talimina closed her eyes. "They blamed Janna for that."
"I know a healer who'll come." Gabrielle said. "Ephiny and Malinda should be at the palace for the treaty talks."
"That's why Ephiny asked us here, isn't it?" Xena frowned. "I'll get Malinda, Joxer, get your armor off Argo."
Ephiny looked up as a familiar voice bellowed her name. The Amazon Regent saw Xena running toward her. "Xena? Where's Gabrielle?"
"She's at Joxer's house," Xena said. "We need Malinda."
"Is Gabrielle or Joxer hurt?" Ephiny frowned.
"No, his sister's sick and none of the local healers will come." Xena started looking for the amazon healer in the crowd of Corinthians, Centaurs, and Amazons.
"I'll call her." Ephiny threw back her head and let out a piercing shriek. The pounding of hooves signaled the arrival of her son, Xenan, with the crippled healer on his broad back.
"Xena!" The grin across his face told her he was still very much a child, even if he was nearly the size of Argo. "Where's Aunt Gabby?"
"She's at a friend's house, Xenan." The Warrior Princess told her namesake. "Our friend needs Malinda."
"We will come then." Malinda said solemnly.
"Ephiny? Where are you going?" asked a Corinthian official.
"My Queen needs me and our healer. I'll be back." Ephiny turned and ran beside her son and Xena.
Talimina looked up has a centaur ducked into her house. "What the?"
"Oh, sorry," he said. "I'm Xenan. This is Malinda, she's the healer Gabrielle sent for."
"Move, Xenan." Ephiny pushed passed her son to get in the room. "Here, Malinda."
She helped the healer down.
"Where is the patient?" Malinda asked.
"In here," Gabrielle motioned to the other room.
Joxer brushed down Argo. He had just dumped his armor in a corner of the small stable behind the house. He really didn't want to go back in there. Janna was a pale echo of the girl he remembered. She had been a bright active girl who could throw a knife like nobody he had ever seen. And she liked him as he was, however she found him.
Jett was their father's son to the core, Jase was... well Jase was Jase. Janna and he had been total disappointments to him.
Sure she could fight, but she was a girl. He couldn't even fight.
Joxer sighed and leaned against Argo's shoulder. "You know something, girl? Janna is the only one in the world who likes me the way I am."
"No she isn't, Joxer." Xena said from the door.
"Hi, Xena." Joxer closed his eyes. "Did the healer come?"
"She's seeing your sister now."
Malinda limped into Joxer's old room. It wasn't what she'd expected of the would-be-warrior; there were stuffed animals and musical instruments placed neatly on shelves and a bedside table. The only clue that the little boy had wanted to become a warrior was the wooden sword handing off of the rocking horse. Malinda took this all at a glance then turned her attention to Janna.
The girl on the bed was gaunt and pale. Her brown curls clung damply to her face. She didn't stir during the examination. Malinda shook her head. She went back out into the main room.
"It's not good. I need to get her to our village. She needs the hot spring. We should leave in the morning."
"Leave?" Talimina's head came up sharply.
"Janna is very ill," Malinda said gently. "She has a better chance if she under goes the purification ritual."
"I've been through it, Janna will be fine." Gabrielle squeezed the older woman's hand.
"I have to stay for the talks," Ephiny said. "Xenan can go with you."
"You'll need my strength, and I can hunt too." Xenan moved carefully on the wooden floor.
"We'll leave in the morning then." Joxer crossed over to his old room. Janna was still asleep. She looked so fragile. He hated that. Janna was strong, stronger than Jett even. She could have been like Xena, but...
She just had to get better; Malinda had to be able to help her.
They set out in the morning. Ephiny stayed behind for the treaty talks that promised to grant the Amazons and the Centaurs good diplomatic standing with Corinth. Xenan was carefully hauling a small cart with Janna in it while Malinda rode Argo. Xena, Joxer and Gabrielle walked: Xena leading Argo, Gabrielle beside Xenan and Joxer following the cart so that he could watch his sister.
Janna had woken up long enough to eat something, but the only thing she could keep down was thin grain porridge. And that was only if she was lucky.
Joxer saw her eyes flutter open again and she tried to sit up. "Lay still, little bit. You'll only loose your lunch."
"I'm bored." Janna complained.
"Then the fresh air is doing you good." Malinda called back from the front of this odd little troop.
"Gabrielle, Joxer told me you're the greatest bard he's ever heard." Janna said sure that the object of her favorite brother's affections could hear her. "Will you tell me a story, please? One with Joxer in it?"
"Well there was the time when I gave up my memories..." Gabrielle shot a look at Joxer, "But Xenan's too young to hear some of the slop Joxer was telling me."
Janna giggled as Joxer blanched. "I know that one, I want to hear about when Bliss got loose with Cupid's bow and arrows!"
"Oh, brother." Joxer muttered as Gabrielle started the story. When she had finished he stared at her from behind. She hadn't even mentioned what she'd said to him once Cupid had taken the spell off of her. Did she maybe regret it? Nah.
Gabrielle gave Xenan a pat on the flank and dropped back to walk with Joxer, he looked so worried about his kid sister. "Are you all right?"
"Not really, no." Joxer muttered.
"Want to talk about it?" She asked softly, glancing in to the cart to see if Janna was still asleep.
"Janna was the little girl Mom had always wanted, and by then Dad had us boys so he didn't go on and drowned her like he'd threatened to." Joxer grumbled. "She was the only one who never picked on me. Jett and Jase... tried to hard to protect her, but she didn't react well to it."
"Independent was she?"
"A lot like you." Joxer chuckled. "She became something of a pet to Dad. Until she killed that soldier and the thing he left inside her. Uh.... Sorry."
"It's all right," Gabrielle looked anywhere but at Janna or Joxer. "I..."
"It's not all right, Gabrielle. I shouldn't have said that," he shook his head. "I guess I have a recurring case of foot-in-mouth disease."
"Open mouth insert foot?" Gabrielle smiled at him. "I'm fine, really, Joxer. Tell me more."
Joxer chuckled bitterly. "Janna... was a little terror, but she only killed what she had to. Rabbits, deer, things you could eat or were going to kill you."
"Where's your armor? I just noticed it's gone."
"I left it behind. If I make too much noise I might bring bandits down on us. I won't risk Janna right now." Joxer shook his head again. "Janna is a great fighter, I never thought I'd see her like this again."
"How did it happen? The attack." Gabrielle dropped her voice to a level not even Janna would have heard. "You said she's a great fighter..."
"She was thirteen then, Gabrielle, and small for her age. He was a full grown man, and better trained." Joxer matched the soft tone of voice. "She was bathing in the stream behind the house, Jase and Jett were off killing small animals, I was at my music lesson, not that I could have helped. Mom was drunk... and Dad was planning another raid. She couldn't get to her knives fast enough...."
Gabrielle was silent for a long moment. That was so very different from what Dahok had done to her, but still so much the same.
Joxer continued pain filling his low voice. "The so-called healer... butchered her. She nearly bled to death that's why Dad killed him. His army's healer said she'd never have another child."
"Oh." Gabrielle could barely be heard. She looked down and watched her feet on the path. At least she still had the chance to have a real family, even after Hope.
"Janna changed after that. She wouldn't let anyone but me near her for a very long time." Joxer kept talking softly, his eyes never leaving his sister. "And she could always tell me and our brothers apart. Jett startled her once... and she broke his arm."
Janna listened to Joxer talk to Gabrielle about their childhood while she pretended to sleep. It was good that he could tell her about something so painful. She knew he felt guilty about not being able to protect her, add that to not being what their father wanted, well.... Can you say insecure? Joxer had been a good boy; he hadn't deserved a family like theirs. He should have been the son of a poet, a bard, or a scholar. Not a warlord. He should have grown up around people like Gabrielle. Janna wondered how she could possibly miss the fact Joxer was in love with her. Janna sighed silently as she felt awareness floating out of her reach again. This was really starting to irritate her.
Xena called a halt when she found a place for that night's camp. Thanks to Xenan they had covered twice as much ground as she'd thought they would. She, Joxer and Gabrielle set up camp on automatic. Malinda slid off of Argo, she went to check on Janna and found her asleep again. That wasn't good, but it was better. She had woken up, and her voice sounded better. The lung infection was starting to clear up. Better. Much better.
Xenan coughed softly to get her attention. "Could you get this off of me, please?"
"No problem, Xenan." Malinda smiled at him. She reached under him and released the harness catch. She lifted one of the poles slightly, balancing on her one good leg. The other had been crushed years ago in battle with Centaurs, but unlike others, she refused to blame the child she had watched grow for something another did.
Joxer came over and lifted the other pole. Xenan stepped out of the way as they lowered the cart on to its stocky supports. Janna stirred slightly and drifted back to sleep with a mutter. Joxer reached in to brush a curl off of her face.
"You love her very much don't you?" Xenan asked softly. "I wish I had brothers and sisters."
"It's not always what it's cracked up to be." Joxer murmured. "Janna is great, but my brothers.."
"Well, maybe... just a sister then." Xenan said after a moment of contemplation. "I'd like to see an other Amazon to follow Momma."
"That's a nice thought." Janna said softly from her improvised bed. "I didn't know I had the honor of a Centaur escort."
"Escort? I've just been hauling your cart so Argo wouldn't have to." Xenan blushed.
"Thank you." A smile flickered across her face. She drifted back into sleep and whatever dreams caused the mutterings Xenan had heard for the last few miles.
Joxer exchanged a look with Malinda then jerked his head toward the edge of the camp. They walked slowly with her leaning on his arm.
"What is it, Joxer?" Malinda asked softly.
"Is she going to be better?" Joxer asked bluntly.
"Yes." Malinda answered gently, "If we can get her to the village and our spring. Already she is doing better, she wakes more easily, her voice is clearer. She grows stronger, Joxer."
"And you're sure?"
"As sure as any healer can be in this situation." Malinda arched an eyebrow at the younger man.
"Thank you, Healer." Joxer muttered. He sat down as she limped away. Xenan was lifting Janna out of the cart to place her on a improvised chair near the fire. She was limp and still asleep, and no matter what she thought he could still tell when she was faking it.
She was so weak, but the healer said that she would be fine. He trusted Malinda. He had to trust her. Janna was too important to him not to.
Gabrielle sat down next to Joxer when he finally came over to the fire. He shivered and she put his blanket around his shoulders. She left her arm there with the blanket and leaned her head on his shoulder. She hadn't been very nice to him sometimes, but he was still her friend, and right now he needed her. Joxer placed a large hand over her smaller one and squeezed it for a moment. They sat silently that way for a long time watching the fire burn.