Ania, Amazon Queen

Prompt 17.6.5 (for writers_muses

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:20:01 GMT

Ania, Amazon Queen
Hercules: The Legendary Journey/Xena: Warrior Princess (OC)
869 words

Alyosha was a big man. He was tall and wide, though his girth made him somewhat less intimidating. Even with his large frame, a noticeable stomach protruded beneath his shirt. Scars across his face told the stories of old battles, and a redness in his cheeks and nose told of a turn to mead and wine to comfort himself once the memories got too harsh for him.

He looked at the young woman in front of him with a sickeningly condescending smile. She could not be a day older than twenty, and she was lithe. Powerful, perhaps, but she could be restrained easily enough. He toyed with the idea for a moment, half-serious. An Amazon concubine, and what an Amazon she was!

Ceyx, however, did not allow the thoughts to remain long. He was as tall as his brother but of a more moderate weight, and his eyes showed strain, and his skin was barely blemished. He had been a scholar while his brother had been a warrior. "You are the Amazon Queen?" Ceyx asked the girl.

"I am Ania, queen of the tribe of Amazons that have come to the forest outside your village," the young woman answered. Her voice was bold, and she stood erect, looking on at the fifty or more men that stood in a half circle around her. A few hooves hit the ground, and she knew that some of the ones standing near the back of the half circle were centaurs.

"Such a tiny thing," Alyosha said with a laugh.

"Sir--" Ania began.

"You wish to use our forests?" Ceyx asked, redirecting the woman's attention.

"They want to take our women, convert them to their ways!" a man shouted from the crowd.

"They'll kill us all in our sleep!" another man volunteered.

"There was a great fire," Ceyx said, and he seemed both amused and annoyed as the young woman's head kept turning to look for each speaker of those accusations. "It burned for three nights, and we rather feared for our lives."

"I explained--" Ania began.

"So noisy," Alyosha interjected, "though very lively, it sounded."

"Let the Amazon speak." The words were said quietly, but they carried a weight to them. "She requested to meet with the people of this town to discuss peace, and yet she has barely been allowed to speak. You will let her speak."

Ania turned to thank the man that had finally spoken sense. Her eyes widened as she looked at him. His head was a foot or more higher than hers, and he carried himself with a quiet dignity. The crowd had parted to let him past, and she saw that it was not a man she had to thank but a centaur. He was probably some twenty years her senior, yet he regarded her with a benign, respectful expression.

"Thank you," she said quietly, looking at him quietly, waiting.

"Dolius," he said, and she nodded.

"Thank you, Dolius."

"Now, Amazon, speak your peace," Dolius smiled just slightly at her.

"My women have traveled here from far away," Ania began. "We traveled for weeks with very little food and no idea where we were going. I believe that it is Artemis's will that lead us to your forests. They are rich with game, lush, and they show signs that there are not major hunters in this village. Am I correct?"

Dolius spoke, seeing Ceyx's mind working behind his cold eyes. "You are, Amazon. Most men in this village raise sheep or goats or cows or tend to orchards, and most of the centaurs work either on fields or forging iron."

"My women are good hunters. We will gladly provide a fourth of what we can hunt and kill to the town in exchange for a comparable amount of bread and fruit. We will never raise our weapons against any member of the town unless a weapon is raised against us first." She held up a hand to stop the argument coming from Alyosha. "If your people will never attack us, as you are sure to say, then you have nothing to fear from us. We shall mark small areas of the forest which will be places for our rituals and gatherings. Those are areas where the townspeople are not to come for any purpose unless they have an Amazon escort."

There was a long silence once she finished speaking, and it was Dolius who broke it. "A very reasonable offer, Amazon. I, of course, have no official sway over what the leader of this town," he glanced at Alyosha and Ceyx with an almost warning look, "will decide, but I cannot see how any could think your terms anything less than appropriate."

For several long moments, Ania stood there, poised in the center of the half circle of men, Dolius nearer to her, her supporter. Alyosha and Ceyx watched them and then looked at one another, and an understanding passed through them.

"If you will come again in three days," Ceyx announced, "we shall have the terms written down and will continue negotiations then."

Ania nodded and turned to leave, throwing a small, grateful smile at Dolius before she headed for the forest.

Prompt 22.1.D (For writers_muses)

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:59:05 GMT

Ania, Amazon Queen
Hercules: The Legendary Journey/Xena: Warrior Princess (OC)
165 words

"Don't look at me like that."

"I told you."

"I know, I know!"

"I told you."

"Yes, Queen Ania, you've said that. Ten times."

"I told you!"

Ania barely stopped herself from hitting the girl. Not hard, not viciously. All she would have done was slap her across the face. She was not quite her mistress, who would set upon a girl and turn her into game. But, then, she had not demanded virgins as her followers. No. Ania was not Artemis, and Daphne would not suffer a fate comparible to Callisto.

That did not mean that the queen was happy about her follower's illness and she was especially not happy that her orders about that too-nice man who had supplied them with shelter and food and asked for nothing had been defied.

Still, for an Amazon to turn a sister away for getting pregnant would be cruel.

Ania pulled herself onto her horse and said, to Daphne's relief, "It better be a girl."

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:38:29 GMT

Children alone know how to live.

Prompt 2.3 (writers_muses)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:00:55 GMT

Ania, Amazon Queen
Hercules: The Legendary Journey/Xena: Warrior Princess (OC)
375 words

It was rather pathetic, and Ania knew it. Where there should be thick logs piled as high as her chest or even shoulders, there were sticks stacked to her knees. Where there should have been large deer and elk, there were rabbits.

Still, everything was carefully laid out. The sticks had been made into a makeshift Amazon altar, and six rabbits had been hunted up. The women had fed on fish, though the two mothers, their daughters having come along as well, had been annoyed at Ania's insistence that they could not eat the rabbits as well.

The offerings were carefully set out on the small, small altar. Two rabbits bound together in the center for Artemis, and a rabbit in each corner for the other deities she would pray to. Hestia, Hermes, Athena, and Hera. It was a small sacrifice, but at least she was making one. Hopefully the goddesses and the god would not be angry at so small an offering. Surely it was better than nothing?

She struck the dry kindling under the altar, leaves and more sticks having been put there. The leaves had been chosen specifically, and, as they caught fire, they released a rather calming odor. Ania breathed it in and knelt before the altar.

"For the goddess Artemis," she whispered, "that you continue to guide and protect those who honor your name as their very way of life." She had dreamed of a bear the previous night, one going north-west, and she had altered their course in that direction. "For the god Hermes, that you assist us in our travels. For the goddess Athena, that you continue to lend me the wisdom to lead the women who follow. For the goddess Hestia, that you help us to find where we can claim a home. For the goddess Hera, queen of the gods."

She knelt before the little altar for hours while it burned itself out. When the last bit of flame had gone out, Ania rose and walked over to where the almost thirty females who had come with her were sleeping, and she sat on the ground, settling her back against a tree trunk, and her eyes shut in an attempt to get a little sleep.

Prompt 20.2.1 (writers_muses)

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:23:13 GMT

Ania, Amazon Queen
Hercules: The Legendary Journey/Xena: Warrior Princess (OC)
581 words

There was no choice left.

There hadn't been a choice for months, maybe even years.

There had been the illusion of choice, though, and that was all they had needed. Hippolyta had never said anything about moving on, about abandoning the sacred ground their grandmothers and great-grandmothers had called home. Yet Ania knew it as she knelt in front of the pyre where the Amazons who died were burned in memorial. It was time to leave.

"You're mad." The accusation came upon the nineteen-year-old queen's ears, and Ania raised her head. She rose to her feet and turned to face the woman who spoke. Iole was a woman well into her thirties, yet she was still able to work as hard as a girl half her age. Her light hair was wild, and she had it tied back, out of her face.

"You had your chance to speak against my queenship when Hippolyta died," Ania answered. "If you wish to challenge me now, you may choose the weapons, and we shall fight."

Iole's mouth creased into a thin line. "I have no desire to rule--"

"Then do not tell me how to do so, Iole," Ania spat.

"It's madness to try and take us away from here," the older woman said.

"Is it? So we should stay?" Ania arched an eyebrow and advanced upon her would-be challenger. "If we stay here, we shall starve to death, assuredly. There will be hardships in moving, yes, but at least we will have a chance."

"It would be better to join the village," Iole announced.

"It would?" Ania questioned. She gave a snort. "You are welcome to do so. I will not stop you nor shall I say a word against you." She turned toward the remaining thirty Amazons, all of whom were watching she and Iole. "I say this now, before you all. Anyone woman or girl who wishes to join the town, you may go with my blessing. I want only those who want to come to follow me."

For several moments, there was a pregnant silence. Two women dismounted from their horses, and three young girls moved to stand with them. Iole hesitated but joined that group.

"We are going to the village," she announced.

Ania said nothing while she walked to her horse and mounted it. Once seated, she looked at the women and girls. "So be it. You go with the blessings of an Amazon queen. May the gods and goddesses be kind to you."

"And to you who go," one of the small girls ventured, and Ania smiled and bowed her head gratefully.

"Those who come with me," she said, turning her horse to face the other mounted women, "know that we will be hungry as we travel, and we will not be welcome everywhere. Life will not be easy."

"An Amazon does not need an easy life," one of the women on horseback called back, and Ania smiled.

Ania urged her horse forward in a gentle trot along the riverbank, and those meant to travel with her did the same. For a moment, a bit of fear rose in her heart, as it did every so often. It was possible that nothing lay before she and those who followed her except death. Yet, a voice inside her that sounded like a mix of her mother and Hippolyta comforted her, if death awaited them, then she would have died trying to save them all.

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:52:31 GMT

Hermes, god of travelers, protect us...

Prompt 2.6 (writers_muses)

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:30:16 GMT

Ania, Amazon Queen
Hercules: The Legendary Journey/Xena: Warrior Princess (OC)
371 words

Ania could not explain what it was about the apple that bothered her. It was a beautiful piece of fruit, like the other forty-nine that had been sent by the townspeople, one for each Amazon.

Perhaps that was it, she mused. There had been no reason for the townspeople to send them food. They had asked for assistance in the past, particularly right after the flood, but that had been six months ago. The young woman's eyes darkened as she thought about that storm. For three days, it had rained, and the fast waters had cost her mother her life. It had been weeks before they could make a pyre, before the wood was dry enough. But that was a long time ago, and there was no need for the townspeople to send them food now.

Yet Hippolyta said it was in honor of their treaty. Two months had passed since it was made, and that was a good thing. The townspeople sent the fruit, she said, as a way of expressing good will and hope for the future. Even now, Ania noted, Hippolyta ate from the apple she held.

Ania looked at the red fruit in her hands and then glanced around at her sisters-in-arms. Seven others ate their apples, but the rest looked like she imagined she did. She was not the only one to be uncertain about this sudden gesture of good will from people who seemed often to wish that the Amazons did not share the forest that they hunted in.

The young woman put the apple down and ate from the piece of deer meat also in front of her. That she trusted. She had helped kill and prepare the deer. She could eat safely of it, as all of her sisters did, even the ones who did not eat their apple. She looked at the piece of fruit again and picked it up once more. When she was certain that Hippolyta's eyes were not on her, she rolled it toward the wooded forest. Those that were not eating theirs either followed her lead. Those that ate at their apples did not notice.

Two days later, the fever came, and eight Amazons died.

For sixwordstories

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:02:58 GMT

Finished marking our territory. Trespassers beware.