Part 2 of the Miracle Child series

Rating: G
Summary: Upon her return to Greece, Eve has to learn how to deal with her own people, whom she is destined to save.

A mounted company rode through the narrow pass across a short, steep hill range. Eve and Lao led the company, the two-year-old filly picking her way competently among the stones. The slight young girl had put away her jacket and trousers for the pants and vested shirt more traditional to her homeland, and beads hung heavy in her hair. Eve the Destroyer had come home.

Behind her trailed the rest of her family, following as best they could. Joxer was in the rear, as usual. He didn't mind, but he would have liked a slower pace to look about him. He hadn't been in Greece for close to twelve years: he was wondering if it had changed much. One couldn't tell, riding so hard.

As the morning wore on, the path leveled and broadened, until it became the main thoroughfare in a small farming village. Eve had seen one or two, on their way into Greece, but she was still unaccustomed to so many people. To the others it was very much the same -- except that their small temple to Demeter was filthy and in need of repair, and no tribute had been laid on its steps for a long, long time. They tied the horses outside the butcher's shop and took a check of stores.

"Gabrielle, Joxer, run see if you can find a good price on bread or fruit," Xena instructed, looking into the empty saddlebag. "I'm going to try to find some salt pork or something. Evie, take the waterskins and refill them."

"Right, Mother."

"Get them really full: we've got a long way to go before the next well."

Eve untied the waterskins . . . two on each horse . . . and slung them over her shoulder.

"Be careful!" Gabrielle called after her, leading Joxer away by the ear.

Eve headed for a fountain in the center of the square, depicting Demeter with an urn pouring water into the pool below. Around the fountain were about a dozen village girls, each bearing a water jug on her head or hip, gossiping merrily.

She quietly walked in among them, studying their faces. Many of them were very pretty girls: all were smiling as they talked with the familiarity and ease of those who have been friends since birth. Their faces were darker than hers, turned brown from the Mediterranean sun.

As she lowered the first of the skins into the pool and let the air bubble out of it, she heard the girls suddenly silence. She looked up.

Every eye in the group was pinned upon her face.

She smiled, trying to be friendly. "Hi."

"Hi," they murmured vaguely.

One, about Eve's own age with thick golden hair falling down her back, spoke up. "What's your name?"

"Eve," said Eve.

"Eve of . . ." the girl prompted.

"Of what?" she asked.

"What village are you from?"

"Oh," said Eve, understanding now. "I'm not really from a village. I travel with my family."

A wave of 'Oh's' swept across the small group.

"That explains it," offered one of the older girls.

"Explains what?" Eve asked.

"Well," the girl said, trying to hold back a giggle, "we just wanted to be sure we never travel to a village where the women dress like men."

This was too much for them. They burst into hysterical laughter, pointing openly at Eve's pants.

She looked down at them, too, then at the clothes of the others. Every one wore a wool skirt to their ankles. Many were barefoot: a few had sandals. None were wearing boots.

"What's wrong with the way I dress?" Eve asked defensively. She felt sick to her stomach.

"What's wrong with it?" another asked. "It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen!"

"And look at her hair! All those beads and shells in it."

"She looks like a Hordegirl."

"Like a Hordesman."

"Are you a gypsy, Eve? Are you a Hordegirl?"

"I'm an Amazon!" Eve shouted, not sure whether she was angry or terrified.

A new round of giggles.

"An Amazon!"

"That explains the pants."

"Have you ever been kissed, Amazon?"

"By a boy?"

"Keep her away from my house: she'll kill my brothers."

"She can kill my brothers and welcome."

"Amazon . . ."

"Amazon . . ."

Eve's temper flared as her face went red with humiliation. Never had she heard the term 'Amazon' used as an insult before. Kissed? Why would she want to be kissed by anyone, except her family? And no one had told her that girls were supposed to wear skirts: how was she to know?

"Go on, get out of our town, Man-Hater."

"I'll bet she eats raw meat and dances naked."

"She does?"

"Do an Amazon dance for us, Eve."

Eve turned her back on them and corked the waterskin, pushing a new one under the surface. Her vision was blurring with unshed tears of rage and shame. How dare they? How dare they talk to her like that, like she was some slimy thing someone had pulled out of a pond, to be goggled and laughed at?

"You okay, Eve?"

"I think she's crying!"

"Amazons don't cry: they're too tough."

"She isn't a real Amazon: she's lying. She's just some homeless loser orphan, probably with fleas."

"Eww!"

"Fleas!"

Eve corked the second skin. "Hey, just get out of here, all right?"

"You get out of here; it's our fountain."

Eve was seething now. How did her mother and Gabrielle always find something clever to say at moments like this? She had no witty retorts to give: no logic to apply to get them to leave her alone. She filled the third skin, imagining as she held it under the water that it was the girl with the long golden hair. The bubbles were very satisfying.

"Get out of here, you homeless beggar, before you give us Plague."

"I'm filling my waterskins."

"Doesn't it make the water taste bad?"

"She's too poor to have a water jar."

"She's too poor to have a skirt!"

"Bet you she stole those clothes."

"I didn't!"

"You did; don't lie."

I just have to fill the waterskins. Then I can leave. Just fill them all. "I didn't."

"Then how can you afford them, if you can't even afford a place to live?"

"They were presents."

"From who?"

"From lots of people. My uncles and aunts." The third skin was filled. One more to go.

"Are they rich?"

"Some are."

"Like who?"

"King Jason of Corinth. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Queen Diana of Trias."

"You are such a filthy liar."

"I am not!"

She wanted to beat them all up like a band of highway men. She wanted to break their pretty noses and blacken their pretty eyes. But she couldn't strike the first blow -- it was one of those things that you just didn't do.

Hit me. Please hit me, so I can hit you back!

But they didn't. Their mocking voices just came faster than ever.

"Do you think you're a princess, to know all these kings and queens?"

"I thought she said she was an Amazon."

"Now she says she's a princess."

"Liar!"

"No kidding she's a liar."

"I bet she makes it up so she doesn't have to believe she's really a beggar."

"A gypsy."

"A bum."

The fourth skin was finally filled. Eve corked it, picked up the other three, and fled the square, her breath coming in trembley gasps as she tried to hold in the torrent of emotion.

"Bye, Eve!" one called after her. "If you ever pass through again, I'll leave some scraps by the back door for you!"

When the company regrouped, Joxer proudly displayed the baklava he'd gotten and passed it around. Eve took none, though she had a new love of the stuff. Confused but unwilling to pry, he ate her portion and saddled up with the rest.

They rode a few more hours before pausing for lunch, under a canopy of oak trees that spread over the road. Eve ate her bread and cheese in silence, then quietly got up and left the camp.

Joxer looked at Xena: Xena looked at Joxer. Xena raised an eyebrow. Joxer got up and followed Eve.

She was huddled at the base of a tree, her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on the mossy bank.

"Evie?"

She sat hurriedly up, blinking away any tears that hung in her eyes. "Joxer?"

"Sweetheart, are you okay? You're kinda quiet."

"I'm fine." She looked at her feet.

Joxer sat down next to her, stretching out his legs. "Don't wanna talk about it, huh?"

"No."

"'Kay." He sat there, quietly but not silently, wiggling his toes, until the silence became too tense to breathe.

"There were these girls . . . by the well . . ."

"M-hm."

"And I went to fill the waterskins, and they . . . and they . . ." She just couldn't get the words out.

Joxer suddenly turned, gathered her up in his arms, and hugged her tight. The dam burst like it had been struck by lightning, and she sobbed hysterically, as she'd wanted to do all morning. She cried in shame, in anger, in frustration, and in bitterness, until she had the hiccoughs so badly that she could hardly breathe.

And Joxer just rocked her back and forth like a baby, letting her cry, letting her cling around his neck and soak his shirt with her tears.

When she'd gotten some of her breath back, she tried to explain her outburst. "They said the most horrible things to me Joxer. I was so *hic* embarrassed . . . and so mad . . . I wanted to *hic* kill 'em. Really really."

"I know, Evie. I know."

"I didn't do anything to them . . . I just wanted some water."

"Shh. Shh, shh, shh."

"I want to go home, Joxer. I hate this place, and I hate these people, and I don't know what I'm doing here . . ."

"Just have to trust your mother, then. She knows what she's doing."

"They called me a beggar, just because I don't have a home village. They called me a thief and a liar."

"You're not, Dear Heart. We both know it."

"Why did they say it?"

"Because people are stupid when they're young. No offense. They say things without thinking about them, without worrying about whether or not they hurt somebody. And there's no reason, except that they're stupid."

Eve sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "It can't be that simple. Gabrielle says people are complicated . . . except for you."

He snorted. "Yeah, she would say that, wouldn't she?" He laid back, leaning on his elbows. "You want to know a secret about your Aunt Gabby, Eve?"

"What?"

"In the years before you were born, and for a long time after, she treated me about like those girls treated you." He said it in a conversational, idle tone, but Eve could hear the pain in his voice.

"Really?" He could hear her unreadiness and shock. As far as she knew, he and Gabrielle had always been friends, kind and comfortable -- Gabrielle a little bossy, but that was Gabrielle's way. A member of her family being cruel was almost more than she could understand.

"But . . . you love her. Did you love her then?"

"Yep."

"Did she know?"

"I told her right after you were born. Or right before. One of the two."

"And she still . . ."

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because she just didn't think. It happens. No one's wise and kind all the time. We've all got that evil streak somewhere. You and me just have to be patient with them, that's all."

"But I don't want to be patient! I wanted to hurt them!"

Joxer kind of smiled. "Yep."

She cocked her head at him. "Aren't you going to tell me that violence should be the last resort?"

"Why should I? You didn't hit anybody. You behaved like your mother's daughter, every inch." He tousled her beautiful bejeweled hair. "Proud of ya, Kiddo."

"But I wanted to."

Joxer rolled his eyes. "Well, of course you wanted to! Who wouldn't? I've wanted to punch Gabrielle for years now. You go on wanting to, and you enjoy it."

He lay back on the moss: she snuggled against his shoulder.

"Evie, Sweetheart, you've got a job to do, and what it is I dunno. But because of it you've got to be here, at least for a while, because all these silly people are counting on you. But it will be over someday. I promise."

"That's the best promise you can give me?"

"Yeah. As Gabrielle'll tell you, I'm a rotten liar, or I'd give you something better. But when it's over, we'll go back to Mongolia or wherever you want, stay with the Khan for the rest of our lives and drink mare's milk every day."

Eve giggled and had a final sniffle, then stood up and combed out her hair. "Mother is going to come looking for us. We'd better go."

Joxer stretched. "I guess you're right." He got to his feet and helped Eve to hers. "I love you, Princess."

"Love you, Joxer."

"EVIE!! JOXER!!"

Joxer flinched. "How does someone that skinny yell that loud? COMING, GABBY!!"

Eve tugged his sleeve. "Come on. We have a long way to go today."

He slung an arm over her shoulders, and together they returned to the road.

Please take the time to write to Seriana at silverhawkwarrior@netzero.com, and let her know how you liked the story!

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer, Eve, 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. No infringement of copyrights or trademarks is intended in the writing of this fan fiction. This story is copyright © 2002 by Seriana Ritani 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 include all disclaimers and copyright notices.