CHARACTERS:

Xena
Gabrielle
Joxer
Narrator
and two others

Rating: G
Summary: She's just a typical 20 year old until the day an old woman gives her a mysterious amulet a week before her birthday. She soon finds out that there's more than meets the eye to the amulet's strange green stone when she is transported to ancient Greece, over 2000 years in the past. There she meets a certain Warrior Princess and her friends.
Timing:This story takes place in very early Season 4 of the Xena series, definitely before the whole India arc episodes.
Written: 4/16/99 - 5/5/99. revised: 5/6/99, 6/12/99, 7/16/99, 9/10/99, 9/15/99, 3/15/00, 9/27/00, 10/4/00, 10/12/00, 10/19/00, 11/24/00, 2/24/01, 2/25/01, 3/2/01, 6/25/01, 9/18/01

6/16/98

It was the second week of June 1998 and I was out of school for the summer. The beautiful sunny morning outside my house in Ocean Pines, Maryland enticed me to take the eight-mile drive into Ocean City to look at the ocean.

Getting to the barrier island was quick. It was still early in the season and traffic wasn't that bad. After crossing the Route 50 bridge, I made a right turn and headed for the inlet parking lot. Once there, I parked the car, put money in the meter, and walked over to the rock jetty that ran along the beach into the sea. I sat on a large rock and leaned back, my arms stretched out behind me. Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply, taking in the warm sun, listening to the pounding surf on the rocks below me, feeling the salt air blow softly against my face and lightly tease my bangs.

I sat this way on the jetty for a few minutes, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and turned my head. An elderly woman, of about sixty, stood over me. Her long gray hair blew in the breeze. Her baggy clothing sagged on her lean, but sturdy frame.

"Nice weather, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes it is." Gazing out over the ocean again, I didn't give it much thought. She's probably just some tourist.

"I treated myself with a trip to Ocean City as a present for my birthday. It's next week."

I was right. She is a tourist. "How 'bout that? My birthday is next week, too." The Eastern Shore is a small and friendly place. It wasn't odd to talk to strangers.

"Do you enjoy living here?" the old woman asked.

"Yeah. I guess so."

"I'm thinking of retiring here."

"Oh. That's nice."

She stood and I sat for a few moments, looking at the water. The only sounds were the lapping of waves against the shore and the cry of an occasional passing seagull.

"I'd like to give you something," the woman said.

"Huh?" I glanced at her. "No, that's okay."

She wasn't listening. She reached into her pocket, producing a beautiful green stone on a gold chain. "This amulet is very old... from ancient Greece. It was given to me when I was about your age and has brought me great joy over the years, but I'm old now. It's time to pass it on to someone else who I know will appreciate it as much as I have."

"But I hardly know you..."

The woman took my right hand in hers, placed the amulet into it, and closed my fingers. "Take good care of it," she whispered to me, "and be careful how you use it." She smiled as she turned and walked away over the sand.

"Umm, thank you?" I called out. Weird.

I turned the amulet around in my hand. It looked very old and it was heavy, weighing a pound or two, at least. The heavily worn, antique chain appeared to be made of gold and I guessed the beautifully cut green stone was an emerald. If it was really from ancient Greece, like the old woman said, then it was probably worth a fortune. I just hoped it wasn't stolen property.

What was the woman doing with it and what had she meant when she told me, 'be careful how you use it'? That was strange. But what could I do with it? I couldn't just leave it on the beach. Having no other choice, I took it home with me.

For the next week, the amulet stayed in the nightstand beside my bed as I wondered what to do with it. It would have certainly been nice to know a little about the unusual jewel. Wondering if it really was from ancient Greece, I checked out a stack of books from the library on ancient Greece and Greek mythology.

I read for hours in my room that warm summer evening, lying on my bed with books sprawled out around me. Grumbling about not having found anything useful, I opened a book entitled, Ancient Greek Myths... Or Are They?.

Thumbing through the book, I stopped on a random page and began to read a passage... "Just another warlord among many, the Warrior Princess Xena and her army once terrorized the land of Greece. After many years and acts of unspeakable torment, Xena was given a new lease on life with the help of the mighty Hercules [See HERCULES]. Consumed with terrible guilt, Xena turned against her dark past, vowing to make amends for her previous misdeeds. With her unforgettable war cry, incredible strength, and amazing stealth, the Warrior Princess proved to be a much more memorable hero than the warlord she started out as. Legend has it that Xena's fighting skills were beyond that of mere mortals. She could run short distances up vertical walls and jump impossible heights into the air, endlessly defying gravity. Xena was also known to battle Ares, the Greek god of war, who continually tried to seduce her into her old ways."

I laughed, closing the book. "Well, you know that story's made up."

Setting the book aside, I reached for the amulet, which had gotten buried under a book called, Ancient Treasures. Pushing a few books out of the way, I rolled onto my back and looked over the stone's glassy surface. "I'll bet you have a lot to talk about, huh?" I said halfheartedly to the stone. "If only stones could talk, you could tell me where you came from."

Suddenly there was a blinding flash and I landed with a thud on my back. Then there was nothing but darkness. For a moment, I thought that my bedside light had burnt out and I had fallen from my bed to the floor. The amulet was still in my hand. I couldn't see a thing so I tried to roll over on my stomach and then get up, but when I did, I felt myself falling... down... down... down...THUNK.

When I awoke, I was lying on my back, staring up at trees. I tried to lift my head, but it throbbed so heavily I moaned a little and had to lie back down.

"She's waking up. Go check on her, Gabrielle." I didn't recognize the voice.

A pretty, young woman, a few years older than me, knelt down by my side. She had long strawberry blonde hair with bangs.

"W- Where, where am I?" I mumbled, somewhat alarmed. "Who are you?"

"Shhh. Don't be afraid," the young woman said softly. "You're safe with us. My name is Gabrielle." She placed a cool damp cloth gently to my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

The cloth brought soothing relief to the horrible throbbing. "My head," I mumbled, "It hurts."

"I'd imagine so," Gabrielle replied. "You have a nasty bump on your head. It appears you fell out of a tree."

Gabrielle's companion knelt down beside me. She had long black hair and bright blue eyes. She slid her hand under my head and lifted it gently. She held out a small wooden cup. "Here, it's water. Can you drink it?"

I took a sip, still thinking about what Gabrielle had said, "A tree?" I made a face. "What was I doing in a tree?"

"We wondered that ourselves," said the woman who had given me the water. Her voice, though speaking quietly, seemed to carry much authority. It was the same voice I had heard when I first opened my eyes.

The young blonde, who had called herself Gabrielle, was dressed in a short brown skirt and an olive green top that was roughly the equivalent of a sports bra. The other woman wore some kind of leather dress garnished with intricate copper armor. I began to wonder if I was dreaming.

"This is Xena," Gabrielle motioned her hand towards the other woman.

Xena, Xena, where had I heard that name before? Oh, that's right! The funny story I'd read about the legendary "warrior princess" of ancient Greece who turned against the dark side in order to fight for truth, justice, and the Appian Way... Wait, that wasn't right. Now I knew I had to be dreaming.

"Where am I?" I muttered, wishing my headache would go away.

"In a stretch of woods a few miles outside of Sparta," said Xena.

Sparta- Sparta?! "Sparta, Greece?"

Xena and Gabrielle nodded.

"You're kidding me, right?” I asked, ignoring the pain in my head and limbs. "You're just a dream I'm having from reading all that stuff about ancient Greece last night, right?"

Gabrielle stared at me.

"You must have hit your head harder than we thought," Xena muttered. "Can you remember what village you're from?"

"Ocean Pines." I replied, deciding to let this thing play out. A dream. It was obviously a dream.

"That's a funny name for a village." Gabrielle looked puzzled. "I've never heard of it."

"I know," I yawned, "That's because I'm from about two thousand years in the future... and this is a dream." I closed my eyes and dozed off.

There was one little problem with my theory. This was a heck of a long dream. Nightfall had crept in and I had yet to awake in my own bed. It had to be a dream, right? I had no better explanation for what was happening. My headache slowly subsiding, I sat up and decided to try and make sense of what had happened so far. I fell from a tree and hit my head, knocking myself out. Bruised, but nothing appeared to be broken. These two women, Xena and Gabrielle, stumbled upon me and decided to play the good Samaritans. I had a hard time explaining anything to them because no matter what I said, the two women blamed the bump on my head. Xena told me I'd stay with her and Gabrielle until I was thinking clearly. That night I fell asleep under a vast blanket of twinkling stars, hoping a new day might bring some answers.

When I opened my eyes, the morning sun welcomed me, shining through tall, leafy trees. A gentle breeze ruffled my bangs as I listened to the distant sounds of birds chirping blissfully. Gabrielle was crouched a few feet away, stoking the embers of the morning fire with a long stick. Sitting up, I watched her for a moment, wondering where Xena might be. I sighed. Nothing had changed from the day before. "Something tells me we're not in Maryland anymore, Toto," I muttered.

Gabrielle grinned as she propped her stoking stick on a rock. "Hey, how do you feel today?"

The first thing I noticed was that my headache was gone. The bruise on my head still smarted when I touched it, but overall, it was a great improvement. "Better," I replied. When I tried to stand, I found that I was able, despite some lingering soreness in my limbs. I walked over to Gabrielle. "Where's Xena?"

"I'm right here."

Startled, I turned in the direction of the voice and saw Xena walking up the path toward us. She carried a bundle in her arms.

Gabrielle stood, greeting her friend with a smile.

"I rode into town to get some supplies."

Glancing up, I saw a cream colored horse standing off in the distance on the edge of the clearing. Ah, rode into town.

Xena set the bundle on the ground and knelt beside it as she sifted through its contents. "Good to see you're doing better today," she told me. "Here," she tossed me a ball of fabric she had removed from the bundle. "Put those clothes on. You'll be much less conspicuous in those than what you're wearing."

Gabrielle fingered the sleeve of the t-shirt I wore. "Where did you get your clothes, anyway?"

I looked down at my outfit: sky blue t-shirt, dark blue shorts, and a pair of sneakers. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try us," said Xena.

I took a deep breath and let it out. Okay. They asked for it. "If this was a dream, I think I would have woken up by now. Since I haven't, this must be real. And all of this weirdness started after some old woman gave me this amulet." I reached into my pockets to show them the stone. "What the-" I muttered, searching a bit more frantically.

"Amulet?" asked Gabrielle looking to Xena, a bit confused.

Xena stood up slowly. "What amulet?"

Tears of frustration formed in the corners of my eyes. "I know I had it right in my hand before I..." I froze, "...before I fell from the tree," my voice trailed off. "The tree! Quick, where'd you guys find me yesterday?"

After Xena and Gabrielle led me a short distance down a winding dirt path though the woods, they pointed out the tree where they had discovered me, unconscious and helpless, the day before. Xena carefully searched the ground around the base of the tree while Gabrielle checked under the surrounding brush.

Using my hand to shield my eyes from the sun, I gazed upward in the hope that the amulet's chain might have snagged a branch on its way down. "Are you sure this is the right tree?" I asked.

"Are you sure you had the amulet with you before you fell?" Gabrielle replied, crawling around under the bushes.

"Yes!"

"It's the right tree," said Xena, pointing up into it. "See those broken branches up there? You did that when you fell." She then pointed to a pile of green leaves and snapped twigs that obviously didn't come to be there naturally. "We found you right here." She directed her finger to a large rock beside the pile of leaves. "And that's probably the rock you hit your head on."

"Well, maybe we're just not looking hard enough," I cried, staring up into the green leafy branches. Wasn't it possible that my amulet was still there? In order to tell, I needed a better view. "I'm gonna try looking in this tree," I announced, feebly attempting to jump high enough to reach the lowest branch.

"Oh no you don't," Gabrielle scolded with a chuckle, crawling out from under the shrubbery. She brushed her hands together as she approached, stopping beside me. "Don't you think you've had your fill of tree climbing for awhile?"

"But the amulet could be up there, stuck on a branch or something."

"Allow me," said Xena. Facing the tree, she took several large steps backwards. She paused a moment to smile at Gabrielle and me, took a deep breath, and raced forward.

"What's she doing!?" I asked in alarm.

Xena leapt onto the large rock and sprang into the air! "Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!!" With more ease than the fittest Olympic gymnast, she performed a midair flip and landed perfectly on a branch about ten feet in the air!

Speechless, I turned to Gabrielle.

Gabrielle shook her head and looked up at her friend with a grin. "Showoff!"

Xena smiled and waved from her perch.

I could only stare as the superhuman feat replayed over and over in my mind. Maybe those mythology books weren't exaggerating as much as I thought!

Several minutes had passed and Xena was still climbing around in the tree.

"Find anything?" Gabrielle called.

"Hold on. I'm coming down." I few seconds later, Xena dropped from the tree to her feet.

"Well?" I asked.

Xena shook her head and looked at me apologetically. "Nada. It had to have fallen to ground with you."

"But..."

"This is a fairly well-traveled path," she continued. "If your amulet was here, anyone could have come along and picked it up."

I shivered. If I'd lost that amulet, how would I... It didn't matter to me anymore whether they believed me. I was going to explain my story to these women again. "All right. Look, I know you think that because I hit my head I have amnesia or something, but I swear to you, I don't. I am not from Greece. I'm from the future... a few thousand years in the future. Back in my own time, I met this old lady one day and she gave me an amulet, a green stone on a gold chain, that she said was from ancient Greece. I read a bunch of Greek mythology and history books trying to learn what I could. I didn't find anything about the amulet, but I did read about a legendary warrior princess named Xena. That's why when I woke up and met you two, I naturally assumed I was dreaming. The old woman told me to be careful with how I used the amulet!" I groaned. "This must've been what she meant. We have to find that amulet! It may be my only way home." Glad to finally get that out in the open, I heaved a sigh of relief, waiting for the skeptical remarks to begin.

"Sounds like you had an enchanted amulet on your hands," Gabrielle remarked with a firm nod.

Xena nodded in agreement as Gabrielle walked over to stand beside her.

"So, you believe me now?"

A sly grin formed on Xena's face. "Trust me, we've heard far crazier." She placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this."

"You're gonna help me?"

"Sure," said Gabrielle with a smile, glancing at her raven-haired friend. "That's what Xena and I do."

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