Sometimes A Dream Is Just A Dream--Xena's Scroll

Nightmares were a common occurrence with me. Countless nights I had awakened in a cold sweat, cursing at enemies who were long since defeated.


Through trial and error, Gabrielle learned to help me cope with my bad dreams. She would wait until I was fully awake, then would gather me into her arms, talking softly to me until I could go back to sleep. She told me once that it might actually be a good thing that dreams of my past came back to haunt me, because it proved I was sorry for my actions. That may be, but I still hated them.

Gabrielle had occasional bad dreams, as well, as I'm sure most people do. Some nights she would wake up shivering, or cry out in her sleep. Often, I was able to caress her face and whisper her back into a more pleasant dream, without awakening her. Other times, she would awaken and tell me the images that were haunting her. Talking about it helped her, and she would soon drift into a more peaceful sleep.

But lately it was different. Gabrielle had been having trouble sleeping the last few nights, and after exhausting all my other ideas, I had bought some sleeping herbs in hopes of them allowing her to get a good nights' rest. The last few days had been taxing for both of us. We had finally parted from what was left of the Amazons nation to head out on our next mission. Our stay had been bittersweet, but in the end, Gabrielle and I both agreed that Varia was capable of leading the few remaining Amazons as they regained their strength.

We had been on the road for two days, and had set up camp in a small cave, as a spring storm was threatening to boil up. It was too warm for a campfire in the cave, so we had built one a few steps away from the entrance. It served to cast a dim light in the cave.

I woke up abruptly, my ears alerted to an odd sound around me. It didn't take long for me to realize the sounds were coming from Gabrielle. It wasn't unusual for us to wake up in a tangle of arms and legs; Gabrielle said I was her favorite pillow. But tonight, she had pulled herself off me, and was lying on her stomach next to me. She was facing away from me, and I got on my hands and knees so I could peer down into her face.

Her features held an odd expression, one I had never seen before. She made another sound, like a gasp, and I'm sure a huge smile of relief broke over my own face. I suddenly realized Gabrielle wasn't having a nightmare at all. No, on the contrary, she was having a very good dream.

She groaned a bit, and her lower half wriggled against the ground. I couldn't wait to hear what this dream was about! I thought about the various ways I could awaken her, making her dreams a reality, but Gabrielle suddenly jerked her head upward. I pulled back my own head as a reflex, and it's a good thing, or she would have given me a bloody nose.

"Are you okay?" I asked, putting out a hand to stroke her back. She was resting her weight on her arms, and although her face was still focused on the ground, I could see she was bothered by something.

"Xena…" she breathed, as if she just now realized I was there. Then, "Yeah, I'm fine." She lowered herself back to her sleeping fur, and turned her head away from me. "Sorry I woke you," I heard her mumble.

Something was very wrong, that was obvious. Despite the nature of her dream, she seemed disturbed by it. My curiosity was aroused, as much as I was concerned. I sat up on my bedroll, and looked down at her again. I wasn't surprised to see that her eyes were open.

"That must have been some dream," I said finally, hoping to get her to talk.

I saw her shiver a little, and knew she couldn't be cold. "Yes, it was, " she finally replied.

"Wanna talk about it?"

She sighed, and finally turned so she was laying on her back beside me. "Not right now," she said finally. "Maybe later."

"Mmm…later," I repeated. Hearing her little whimpers and watching her grind against her bedroll had caused a fire to start between my legs. My nose told me that Gabrielle was aroused as well, and I knew for a fact that she loved it when I woke her in the middle of the night to make love. I reached out a hand to stroke over her stomach, and I don't know which one of us was more startled when she hitched in her breath and jerked away from my touch. My own hand pulled back as if it had been burned.

"I'm sorry, Xena," she said almost immediately, and then she reached up and pulled me down on top of her. I was expecting to feel her warm lips on mine, but instead, she burrowed her face in the crook of my neck. I could feel her draw in a great shuddering gulp of air as she clung to me.

"What's wrong, My Love?" I whispered in the ear under my chin. "If you tell me, you'll feel better."

"Later, Xena," she whispered in response. "For now, can you just hold me?"

Or course, I could just hold her. I could hold her forever, and I took her in my arms and rocked her gently until she gradually drifted back to sleep. I didn't sleep the rest of the night, preferring to keep watch and trying to puzzle out what was bothering her.

Gabrielle was still sleeping the next morning, when I gently disentangled myself from her, and went outside to greet the day. The rain had stopped, and it was promising to be a beautiful spring day. I said good morning to Argo, and then went on the search for some breakfast. It didn't take me long to find a nest of bird eggs.

Gabrielle was sitting outside the cave writing in a scroll when I returned. I took that as a good sign.

"Good morning," I said, as I moved to sit beside her.

She gave me a tentative smile, then replied, "Good morning. I…uh…I'm sorry about last night."

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could, telling her it wasn't a problem." But if you want to talk about it, you know I'll be glad to listen."

"I know," she answered. "And thank you."

I shrugged, a little embarrassed now, and held up our breakfast. I loved it when I could make her gorgeous green eyes sparkle with delight. "Quail's eggs!" she exclaimed. "Yum!"

Chuckling at her mood swing, I handed the offering over to her. We had long ago agreed that although I might catch our meals, I was to have no hand in actually cooking them.

We made small talk over breakfast. I was sure we could reach Ommiens by nightfall, and Gabrielle asked her usual questions about the village. She cleaned up our breakfast dishes, and we started off.

I led Argo and walked beside my bard this morning. We talked about a myriad of subjects, all of them light and deliberately non-intimate.

Our conversation trailed off as we entered the edge of a thick forest. I had assured Gabrielle it would be quicker to cut through the forest than go around it. The blanket of trees blocked the sky out, and it grew dark. The only sounds were a few birds chirping, and the sounds of Argo's hooves moving through the leaves.

"Xena?" I heard her ask, her voice lowered.

"Hmm?"

Gabrielle suddenly turned, and pressed me backward against a tree. She took Argos's reins from my hands. I let her pin me there, and she stood on her tiptoes. "I want to make up for cutting you off last night," she whispered seductively.

I quirked a smile. There had been plenty of times when I had been the one to say no, only because my bard picked some of the most inopportune times to want me to love her. The last time had been when Eve and Virgil were traveling with us. I had awakened with the taste of Gabrielle on my lips. She had spread her thighs next to me, and swept her own fingers through her arousal, only to press her hand to my mouth. She was supposed to be the inhibited one, but I just couldn't take her with my own daughter so close to us. I had stopped her, finally, and led her to a safe distance into the woods before giving her the ravishing she desired. I don't know why I bothered though. Even Virgil noticed Gabrielle's sated look the next morning, but thankfully, didn't mention it.

I was hastily brought back to reality as Gabrielle shoved up the leather strips of my skirt, and pressed her face to my mound. I could feel her mouth moving against my breeches, and it wasn't long before they were soaked with her saliva and my juices.

"Gabrielle," I growled in the voice that told her she was going to win this battle.

"Hush!" she chided from below. She pulled her head back long enough to strip my breeches from me. "I'm going to make you mine!"

I was already hers, but I'm sure I gulped as I stared down at her. Her eyebrow was raised in a look that I had perfected. She was using my own tactics against me! Her eyes never leaving mine, she burrowed her mouth in my crotch.

It was midafternoon before we exited the forest. I was more confused than ever. Last night, the only touch Gabrielle wanted from me was my embrace. And today, she insisted only on pleasing me, using her nimble digits and mind bending tongue to bring me over the edge too many times. When I had moved to return the pleasure to her, she had stopped me, telling me today was for loving me. I wasn't going to complain…how could I when she had brought me to such rapture? But still…

I tried to be subtle as we continued on our way toward Ommiens. I had weighed over last night and today, and had an idea of what might be plaguing my beautiful bard.

"Listen, Gabrielle," I finally said. "I uh…get the impression that dream you had last night wasn't a nightmare, but wasn't a happy dream either. I get the feeling it left you…uncomfortable."

Gabrielle's face pinkened a wee bit as she smiled up at me. "It was that obvious, huh?"

I just shrugged, not wanting to embarrass her any further. We continued to walk, as I said, "I think I may know what you're going through."

Gabrielle shook her head. "It wouldn't surprise me one bit. You seem to know what I'm feeling better than I do."

I certainly felt the opposite was true. I decided to take a chance. "Gabrielle, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time, but didn't really know how to go about it."

She stopped in her steps, and turned to look at me. I felt my confidence fleeing rapidly. We hadn't seen another person all day, but I didn't want to take the chance of being overheard. I took her hand and led her through the brush, away from the main trail. I could hear water running, and sure enough, we came to a small stream. I gave Argo her head, so she could drink her fill from the stream. "Pull up a rock," I laughed, seating myself on a large flat stone at the water's edge. Gabrielle sat next to me, on the same rock.

"What secret have you been keeping from me?" she asked immediately.

I turned to look at the water a few seconds. Crystal clean water like this always seemed to have a calming effect on me.

I had a disturbing dream of my own a few seasons back, but didn't know how to go about telling you. And it was about someone who has plagued our waking days…probably the one person who has done more to try to damage our togetherness than any other single person.

"Callisto," Gabrielle breathed, recognizing the look in my eye. I nodded. "But you already told me about that dream," Gabrielle began, but I cut her off with a hand gesture.

No, that dream was too bizarre to affect me the way the second one did.

During the horrible, but brief time that Callisto's soul took up residence in my body while I resided in hers, I had dreamed of the two of us coming together to make love. The incredible thing about it was the fact that my mental being was actually making love to my physical body. It was so surreal, as my eyes watched my own body respond to various ministrations, that I was able to laugh it off. I hadn't gone into detail with Gabrielle, just let her know it had happened, and then pushed it from my subconscious. But the second dream…

The only positive thing I can say about the second dream is the fact that after I woke up, I remembered Callisto was dead, and there was no way that it could have really happened. Hades and Morpheus have always been closely bonded in some way, and whatever Callisto had done to get Morpheus to cooperate in the dream, it must have been something.

I saw I had Gabrielle's rapt attention, so I took her hand and continued on. Parts of this dream would hurt her.

It happened when I was traveling to the Amazon land to try to find out what happened to you after…well after your fall into the lava to save me from killing Hope. It should have taken five days to get there, but I pushed myself beyond the limit, and planned to make the trip in three. I only stopped to sleep one time, and only because I knew the horse I was riding was on the verge of collapse. I must have fallen asleep immediately, and shouldn't have dreamed anything…but I did.

I was in a large spacious bedroom…somewhere. The room was luxuriously trimmed in red and black, and looked as inviting as the bedroom of a queen. There were large amounts of fruits and cheeses spread out on a table in one corner of the room. Near the bed was another table, which held several kinds of drink. I looked down and saw that I was dressed in a long flowing gown of red silk. I immediately thought it was one of Ares' tricks, as he knew the colors and decorations I found alluring, and the room could have been from one of his temples.

I was a little taken back when I heard a feminine voice, "Welcome, Xena." I knew the voice immediately, and even as I whirled to face it, I felt unseen hands grab me roughly and force me on my back on the bed. My hands were pulled away and they were secured in cuffs that were chained to iron rings on the headboard. My ankles were cuffed in a similar fashion to the foot of the bed. The hands released me, and I began to fight my bonds. The silk I wore collided with the silk sheets on the bed, and I stopped wriggling quickly, as the feeling on my body was too sensuous.

I tried to ask Callisto what she wanted, but she hadn't made her appearance known yet. The unseen hands went to work again, and a blindfold was placed over my eyes. The hands were gentle this time, almost caressing, and before they left me, they caressed down the sides of my body, smoothing out the dress and…touching me, before leaving.

Then I could sense her drawing closer, hearing her intake of breath as she drew close to my face. I sneered at her, desperately trying to think of a way to get out of this situation…wondering how I had been so stupid to fall into her trap.

Almost as if she could read my thoughts, she began to croon to me in that irritating voice of hers, "Oh, Xena…don't fight me…and don't think about being released until I allow it." She chuckled at her double intendre…"You are here because I have been a very good girl and was allowed to name my own reward. The one wish was of course to be with you one last time…the only way I've never been with you…"

Her hand was on my cheek, and I tried to jerk my head away, but she was lightening fast and never lost contact. Her touch was very soft, deceptively so, and I held my breath waiting for her to continue speaking. "I am going to make love to you, Xena, bring you to fulfillment in the ways I have dreamed about. And at the same time, I am going to tear you open and see what makes you tick. I know how your body reacts to lovemaking…it's an experience I've relived in my head thousands of times. Now I intend to see how the complete package reacts."

Her words sent an involuntarily shudder through me. My mental state the most unguarded and weak it had been since I first met you. My feelings of desperation of ever finding you again were at their peak, and I had been feeling so incredibly alone and unloved. Zeus, I had even been traveling without Argo, knowing I couldn't force this mission on her! Callisto couldn't have planned this attack any better if she had been an oracle.

But I had to try. "It's not going to work, Callisto. The only tearing up is going to be my tearing into y-"

"Shhh…" she chided, her hand pressing on my mouth. "I really don't want to have to gag that delicious mouth of yours…I have many more uses for it than that. I can't wait to feel those teeth raking my nipples and lower…"

She chuckled again, and I regrouped quickly as she moved her hand. "Never!" I declared.

"We'll see," she taunted, and then she began. Her hands which used to be callused from sword handling were now silky smooth. She tangled her hands through my hair, easing the snarls from hair I had long neglected. When it was smooth again, her hand moved down over my brow and the sides of the face. I don't know why, but I allowed it. I was so exhausted, and with my eyes shielded, it was easy to pretend the touch was actually yours.

I paused a second to glance at Gabrielle, but she was watching me, her eyes wide open and she didn't speak. Her expression urged me to continue.

She rubbed her fingers over my lips, and then moved on, across my ears over my neck and down to the top of my chest. The whole time she talked to me like she was gentling a wild horse, her voice deceptively seductive, telling me how beautiful I was, and what I did to her.

When her hands closed on my breasts over the material of my dress, I suddenly snapped back to reality. I couldn't allow this, and began to struggle again in earnest, trying to free myself.

"Xena!" her voice was rougher this time, much more like what I was used to. "I tried! You want it rough…you got it!"

I know I gasped out in pain when her nails dug into the dress and my skin near my neck, and then she ripped it down over my torso. The nails dug into my breasts hard, and I felt her mouth bite into one of my nipples, chewing on it ravenously. I screamed in shock and pain, and she immediately softened her mouth again. "That's better," I heard her purr in the singsong voice. "You are so sensitive." She continued to explore me, taking the dress down with her as she went. Her hands once again were caressing, but the second she sensed I was rallying to struggle again she would grow vicious, digging her claws and teeth into whatever area of skin she was working with at the time.

And her voice…Gods, she insisted on saying what she was doing and what she saw! With the blindfold, I couldn't SEE what she was doing, but my other senses more than made up for it. "Such long legs," she'd whisper as she caressed them. Her hands swept up and down my lower thighs and calves, and then I felt the silk slid all the way from my body. I was now lying there totally naked, and my skin prickled from all the sensations.

"I'll bet these thighs give you great thrusting power, Xena. It almost makes me wish you were born a man." She laughed, and her fingers tickled over the bottom of my feet. "But men are such clumsy, one-sided creatures. All they can think about is sticking their pricks in you and if they make you happy, that's just a pleasant side effect for them. A woman knows the real pleasure is arrived at when she brings ecstasy to another."

Gods, Gabrielle, I'm sorry, but something in that room was making me complacent beneath her. I found myself arching up toward her touch, trying to guess where those hands and that warm tongue would touch next. She had avoided my core, but it was crying out its juices, thrusting up toward where I thought she was. I'm so sorry!

I was shaken out of my reminiscing by Gabrielle hugging me to her. I realized I was sobbing, but she rocked me back and forth similar to the way I had done last night. "It's okay," I heard her whisper. "It was just a dream…I know. And you've already made me feel better about my own dream."

I let her hold me as I tried to control my emotion, and she continued to rock me as I went on, determined to finish…

She didn't laugh at my writhings, surprisingly. Instead I felt her sit up next to me. "Oh Xena, you are so incredible." I heard a sound, and then something was pressed to my mouth. "Taste me, Xena, taste what you are doing to me." Her fingers slipped inside my lips, and I could taste her excitement on my tongue. I should have bit down…I wanted to…but suddenly, her other hand was stroking over my mound and inner thighs, and I felt my attention riveted there. Her fingers slipped back out, and caressingly, moved down my chin and neck and onto the top of a breast.

"How do you like it best, Xena? Do you like a tongue or fingers on your clit? Do you like three fingers inside you? Four? A whole hand? Have you ever been fisted Xena? I had a hard time getting used to it, but once I learned to accommodate, there's no going back. You have very large hands…" She intertwined her fingers with mine as she pressed her upper body to mine. I could feel she still had on her leathers, but had lowered them below her breast, and her erect nipples pressed into the top of my breasts.

"I want to kiss you, Xena…I want to rub my tongue over your perfect teeth and taste the inside of your mouth. But I don't want you to get clever and try to bite my tongue off…how can I be sure you won't?"

I swallowed hard, fighting with the feelings that were threatening to overwhelm me. "You can't," I hissed back.

"Hmm?? Are you sure? Let me think, let me think…" she ran her tongue up over my cheeks and poked it beneath the blindfold. "How about this? If you bite my tongue, then I won't fuck you. I'll use your body so I can get off all over you, and then leave you hanging high and dry. And you know I can do it too." She pressed her covered center hard against one of my thighs and ground herself hard into me for emphasis.

It had been too long…we had been separated for so many days, and my body was sorely neglected in its pleasure. I couldn't bring myself to use my own hands to find relief, and now my body was singing out to me that it needed release. Callisto had to have known that, because I could feel my resolve weaken.

"Can I trust you?" she asked. I didn't respond. I couldn't. I was too ashamed.

"I see your tears, Xena…I want to see your beautiful blue eyes. I dream about them every night" Her warm hands lifted the blindfold and I blinked my eyes, waiting for them to grow used to the dim light in the room. Then I saw her, her long blonde hair slicked back with sweat, and her brown eyes bottomless pulls of dark emotions. Her tongue was licking over her lips and she was staring at me hungrily. I had seen the look on her face before, in battle, and I realized I had tried to put it out of my head. Even during our fights, I had tried not to know what it meant. It was a look of lust…and desire…and hate…and…love.

"Callisto…" I whispered, as I felt my center clutch at emptiness, and realized I wanted her too.

"Can I trust you?"

In answer, and it's with great shame that I admit this, I pressed my body upwards as far as I could, pressing my face toward hers. Her mouth descended on mine, and our tongues fought for control. She was elusive, darting her tongue in and out of my mouth quickly, as her hands continued to torment my restrained body. She raked her nails down my sides, hard enough to make me tingle, but not break the skin. I moaned my surrender and she swallowed it, drawing my tongue into her mouth. She sucked on it the way I wanted her to suck me elsewhere.

Finally, she pulled her head away, and sat back on her heels, between my stretched thighs, eyeing me. Again I tried to pull free, but this time, it was different. She could see my desire, and knew she had broken me. "Please…please…I have to touch you."

She was watching me in amazement. "Not yet, my Princess. First, I touch you."

"Do it, then!" I hissed in frustration. "Fuck me, Callisto!" Gods, even now I can't believe I said that…But fuck me she did. She paused long enough to undress, not even bothering to tease me with her movements…there was no need. I was drenched and my convulsing center was pouring out juices onto the bed. She settled back between my thighs, sitting on her haunches in that obscene way she does. I could see her own arousal, streaming from her in rivulets onto the bed. She was clean-shaven…and her vulgar exposure of her young looking mound made a ludicrous combination in my mind.

I was startled again to feel Gabrielle shudder against me. My keen senses told me that she was feeling a little heat of my own, and I pulled myself from her to reverse the embrace. Now I was holding her, stroking her bent head as I continued my reverie…

She stared at my exposed center for long seconds, her tongue continuing to tease me by poking out from her pinkened lips. "Gorgeous, Xena…you even smell dark and dangerous. I can't wait to…" and her mouth lowered to my flames.

It became a game…a game we both enjoyed more than we should have. I had seconds of clarity, and would realize who was bringing me such joy, and would try to pull away from her, wiggling away from that tongue. And she would follow, worming her way through my folds incessantly, until I had to push back to feel more, and I would smother her with my flesh. Her nose burrowed against my bundle of nerves, and her tongue prodded deep inside my tunnel, stabbing me rhythmically and without variation. But it wasn't enough…

"More!" I screamed, and she moved her mouth to my clit, and plunged three fingers deep inside. She pulled out and thrust in again, and this time her pinky finger penetrated my rear opening too, already soaked in my own fluids. Gods, I hated that! But I loved it too, and only a few lovers had been brave enough to enter me there. But it gave me the sensation I needed, and I thrashed out against her, screaming into an orgasm that clouded all thoughts but the fact that I was soaring. It was no longer Callisto that was causing my body to galvanize…it was my own mind…and it frightened me beyond measure.

Gradually my body released its sucking hold on her fingers, and instead of pulling out, she began again, her mouth sucking strongly on my clit and her hand again penetrating both of my entrances until the pleasure escalated speedily again. I couldn't help it…gods, it was too good! I came again, this time longer and even louder, and I heard Callisto's voice, making sure I knew who was doing this to me…"Oh Xena, you are at your most beautiful…every muscle in your body is so tense…gods, I can feel your power even with you tied down. You're milking my fingers…gods…it's going to make me come…" and I think she did, because her face pulled from me only to collapse on my stomach, her hand still buried in me. With great gasping breaths, she continued to pump me again, driving me rapidly from the realm of rapture into pain.

"No more!" I screamed, but she shook her head, drawing back up to watch my eyes.

"Yes more," she said, "I am going to take you until you die from pleasure. Can't you imagine living with me in Tartarus…fucking each other senseless for all eternity? Don't you want that too?"

As I came for the third time, I began to think her proposal sounded pretty good. But she made a mistake then, a mistake that I realize now was inevitable. I was grunting away, trying to fight the blackness threatening to overcome my brain when her words penetrated the haze. "I'll bet no one can fuck you like this. Not even your precious Gabrielle." An image of you, your sweet face as you looked up to beg me to let you travel with me, floated before my eyes. It freed me from her spell and with a cry of victory, I finally wrenched from the bonds that held me in place. One arm snapped free, then the other, and it was easy for my legs to pull free, and then I was on top of her with a snarl, my hatred fully back in place and my mind finally back in its own rights.

I saw her terror, and her sense of loss. She knew it was over, and as my hands closed over her throat, my hands were suddenly clenching at thin air. I was on my knees on my bedroll, dressed in my leathers, and Callisto was gone. The only thing left was the deep throbbing between my legs, and my love for you. I sat up on my bedroll and let my body calm.

And then I continued my search for you.

Xena's Scroll--Sometimes a Dream is Just a Dream (Conclusion)
Gabrielle's Scroll--Sometimes a Dream is Just a Dream
The Xena and Gabrielle XXX Scrolls
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