Xena and Gabrielle belong to Renaissance Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended with this fanfic which must contain all notice of copyright.
This is set somewhere in the sixth season. Thanks to Sarah for her feedback while I was writing this.
No warnings on this one for sex, language or violence.
"Xena, do you hear that?" Gabrielle cocked her head and smiled. "Shepherd's pipes."
"This is sheep country."
Gabrielle looked at her. "That's not the point. I mean it's lovely...and you know that and are teasing me."
Xena smiled. "Yeah, it's nice."
"Let's find him." Gabrielle set off leading her brown mare.
They spotted the flock of sheep first on the side of a hill. Then they saw an old shepherd in a wide hat playing a flute and a teen boy with reed pipes. The man would play a melody then the boy repeated it but added flourishes that made the man grimace. When the boy spotted the warriors the shepherd grabbed his crook while the boy readied a sling.
Gabrielle hurried to say, "It's all right!"
Xena held her hands out. They should be careful. She and Gabrielle looked like a couple of bandits. In the old days Gabrielle looked reassuring at least.
The shepherd smiled. "Welcome then and rest your weary feet. Zeus protects strangers." The women caught each others' eyes at the last words. "Boy, bring some wine and food. Don't you know the laws of hospitality?" The teen warily obeyed but Xena saw with approval he surreptitiously grabbed up stones for his sling.
Xena said, "Thank you but we won't be stopping."
"I'll be insulted if you don't," the old man said seriously.
"All right," Xena agreed simply.
"We just wanted to see who played so well," Gabrielle said smiling.
The teenage boy lugged a bag up. "Here it is but no he doesn't."
"Who doesn't what?" Xena asked.
"Zeus doesn't protect strangers. He's dead. There are no laws of hospitality either. How can you have laws when there's nobody to punish you if you break them?"
The shepherd sighed and looked at his two guests. "Excuse the boy. No manners. Thinks too much. Not like in my day. Besides, boy, Hermes is patron of travelers or have you forgotten?" The boy rolled his eyes when the old man wasn't looking.
Xena and Gabrielle both accepted pieces of cheese and squirted wine into their mouths from a skin.
Gabrielle said, "You should still show hospitality to strangers."
"Why?" the boy asked snottily and received a smack on the back of his head from the old man. Xena smirked.
"Because it's the right thing to do," Gabrielle said clearly.
The boy said sullenly, "If you say so."
"No! Because it's true. And not because you'll get hit if you disagree! Don't hit him again."
"Gabrielle," Xena said warningly.
The old man looked at Gabrielle. "You're my guest, eating my food, drinking my wine, and you tell me how to treat my boy?"
Gabrielle's face was red but she stood her ground. "You don't have the right to hit him like that."
"Mind your own business," the boy said angrily.
"Fighting injustice is my business!"
Xena sighed inaudibly.
The boy yanked the wineskin out of Gabrielle's hands then yelped as the old man whacked him sharply across the shins with his crook. "Never mind how she acts. You know better."
The blonde was about to excoriate the old man but stopped at the look on her friend's face.
The teen said to her, "My father is right." He held the wineskin out.
Gabrielle looked at Xena again then seriously accepted the wineskin back. She said in a small voice, "Forgive me and don't hold my bad manners against my friend." The teen was still red faced but the old shepherd made a dismissive gesture that it was unimportant. But it was important. He knew it, his son knew it, Xena knew it, and Gabrielle knew it. She remembered what he had said and poured a little wine on the ground. "For Hermes, patron of travelers and bringer of good fortune." The old man cocked his head and studied her.
Xena popped another piece of cheese into her mouth. The boy brought out bread and handed her a piece. She saw the way he was looking at her and let his hand linger a little longer than necessary. In the old days...but these weren't the old days. She smiled but shook her head slightly. He grinned and shrugged. Definitely...in the old days.
After they had eaten, the old man took the flute from his belt and the teen picked his reed pipes up. When they paused in their playing Xena started to sing making Gabrielle smile. Time passed more quickly than the women realized and it was starting to get dark when a howling made Xena and Gabrielle look around. But the shepherd and his son kept playing, nodding at each other as their tune wove in and around itself. They weren't acting like any shepherds Gabrielle or Xena had ever seen.
"That was a wolf," Xena said.
The father and son finished their ancient tune. There was a dancing light in the son's eyes that made Xena catch her breath. The old man had a bemused smile.
"No wolf will harm the flocks in this valley," the teen said and laughed. The sound made Xena's face flush. He stood up and stretched. "Though I should look to them. Come with me, Warrior Princess. We can run through the hills and take our rest in shady bowers. We can drink wine and dance and make love under the night sky on the sweet grass." He picked up the shepherd's crook.
Xena's head swirled as he spoke and she couldn't take her eyes off his handsome young face. She saw nobs erupt on each side of his forehead and grow into horns. His face became older and coarser as he sprouted a curly black beard, his nose lengthened and his ears pointed. He ripped his cloak off impatiently and flung it aside revealing shaggy legs that ended in cloven hoofs. He looked in Xena's eyes and extended a hairy hand. She reached to take it but Gabrielle leapt between them.
"Now that is just enough of that!"
With Gabrielle blocking her vision of the god Xena shook her head to clear it. She unsteadily stood up and avoided Pan's slitted yellow eyes. From the waist up he had the body of a man, muscular, hairy, dangerous. From the waist down he was like a huge male goat standing on his hind legs. Pan exuded a musk that Xena wanted more of; she wobbily tried to get around Gabrielle to reach him and his musk. She was brought up short by a hard slap and looked in Gabrielle's exasperated face. "Xena, get a grip! You don't want to run off with Pan! Think about it!"
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. I can't just...why not? Oh, I know. I have to atone...but Gabrielle...just for a minute..."
The blonde kept a tight grip on her friend. "She's not coming with you! Whatever you're up to, it didn't work!"
A garland of laurel leaves appeared out of nowhere and Pan placed it on his head. He laughed with an animalistic sound and Gabrielle supported Xena whose knees buckled. The god of shepherds and pastures, hills and forests caught Xena's eyes again and said seductively, "Another time, my love." He bounded away. They saw him scale a steep hillside leaping surely from rock to rock and disappear. Xena let out a disappointed sigh and leaned against Gabrielle.
The blonde had her arm around Xena's shoulder. Her friend seemed half asleep. She looked at the old man who smiled pleasantly at her as he absently twirled a thin branch in his hand. Gabrielle was quiet a moment then asked, "He's your son?"
"Certainly. Fine boy don't you think? Knows how to enjoy life. Not enough of that in the world."
"What do you want, Hermes?"
He got a sly smile and his wrinkled features melted into a handsome face, younger and more refined than his sensual son's. He still wore the simple shepherd's clothes except the wide traveler's hat now had small wings. Gabrielle also saw wings on his sandals. Hermes pulled the thin branch through one hand. As it emerged it stiffened into a wand which two snakes grew out of, twined around, and froze in place; the kerykeion, his herald's staff. "What I want you can't give me." He glanced in the direction Pan had gone. "Boy misses his grandfather. So do I."
Xena shook off her grogginess. This was no time to fall under a forest god's spell, not when an Olympian was sitting right there. Hermes had a reputation as a friend of mortals. But he was still a god and Xena had killed most of his close relatives. He wasn't sounding very friendly now.
Gabrielle said, "Xena didn't kill Zeus. And it was all forced on us. She was just protecting her daughter."
Hermes sat forward with his elbows on his knees listening attentively. He answered, "Hercules killed his own father for Xena. You think that's better? So now I've heard your side. Let me show you something."