CONQUERING THE CONQUEROR

pt.37

Not pleased at all by what Gabrielle had just said, Xena glared at her, for a long moment before turning her focus to Melosa as she heard the Amazon speak.

MELOSA
Are you absolutely sure about this Gabrielle. This is a big decision and don't want you to feel like you're being pressured into taking on something that you don't really want.

GABRIELLE
No. I wanna do this. Terreis obviously trusted me enough to give me her "rite of caste". That's what it's called, right?

MELOSA
Yes.

GABRIELLE
Well if she trusted me with something that important, then I wanna honor her memory and do everything I can to live up to the gift and responsibility that she passed on to me.

Xena scowled.

XENA
This isn't a game you know.

MELOSA
No one said it was Conqueror.

Xena gave Melosa a fierce look.

XENA
She knows nothing about being an Amazon or what it means to be in any kind of leadership role. Think about this Melosa. Terreis was even younger than her, so I sincerely doubt that given the situation your daughter had the opportunity to make a rational decision when she gave Gabrielle her rite of caste.

Melosa scowled as she turned to face the Conqueror.

MELOSA
She may have been young and appeared more care free than most of us, but my daughter was no fool Conqueror. She was wise beyond her years because she knew full well the responsibilities of her position. So even in her final moments I trust that Terreis knew what she was doing. And as for Gabrielle...

The queen of the Amazons turned her attention to Gabrielle for a moment as she continued.

MELOSA
I'm fully confident that with a little work, she's perfectly capable of learning our ways and will become a fine addition to our tribe. And while her ability to someday take my place remains an unknown, we can see how she progresses and make a decision on that matter further down the road once I'm able to see how much she's grown in her current role. But for now we'll just take things slow and give her time to adjust to this drastic change.

Melosa then switched to addressing Gabrielle directly.

MELOSA
Does that sound fair to you?

GABRIELLE
That sounds fine to me.

MELOSA
Well, that settles it then.

XENA
It settles nothing.

The Amazon returned her attention to Xena who could sense that she was fighting a losing battle but was determined to not let Melosa have her way, so made one final move that she was certain would cause the Amazon queen to have second thoughts about taking Gabrielle back to her village.

XENA
I'm warning you Melosa, you take her out of this building and not only can you forget about getting my help against Draco. But you can consider whatever alliance we had between us over. So if I were you I'd think carefully about if this one girl is worth burning that bridge that took so long to build between not only you and myself, but the rest of your people as well.