With a slight nod, Xena settled her arms around Gabrielle and accepted the moment. “Hey, kid.” She addressed the young soldier. “Got another song in there, or is that your only one?”
The soldiers chuckled. The servants joined them, after a brief moment of hesitation. The young singer blushed, then nodded and cleared his throat. He paused, then inhaled and started singing again, in a gentle, clear voice that seemed to roll over them in another old song of the land.
“Mm.” Gabrielle murmured softly, under her breath.
Xena bent her head closer. “Y’know that one too, eh?” The blond head nodded. “Me, too.” The queen admitted, lifting her head back a little, and considering a notion. After a slight shrug, she waited for the soldier to complete the first part of the song, and when he started the second, she joined him.
The sight of his eyes almost popping out of his head nearly made her stop. But after a wavering break in his voice, he recovered, and their unlikely duet went on. The words came easily to Xena, and she found them well matched in tone and quality.
It was acceptably pleasant sounding, even to her sharp ears. She was also aware of the look of utter charmed delight on Gabrielle’s face and the rest of the goggled eyes around her lost relevance.
Sky above us, earth beneath us, wind to carry our voices high.
We toil long, our hands one becoming with dirt that feeds us
From the earth we come, from the earth we live, to the earth we go as Charon takes us bye.
Kings will rule us, gods demand of us, life will live hard for us.
But always the land will open her arms to us, taking us back,
Welcoming us home.
When the song finished, there was silence. Xena let her head rest back against the rough tree bark, feeling it’s irregular surface through the fabric of the cloak hood she wore. She studied the people around her, considering the quiet, wondering faces.
It was almost a reverent silence.
Xena hated it. “I can do card tricks, too. Wanna see?” She dispelled it, with a wicked smile.
Everyone shifted and a few chuckles were heard. Gabrielle gave her a brief squeeze and shook her head.
“Mistress.” The same woman servant spoke up. “May I ask something?”
The queen considered, and then lifted one shoulder. “Sure. Why not?”
“General Bregos...” The woman hesitated, even given the permission. “He promised us our freedom.”
Xena snorted softly.
“That’s true.” Another man spoke up. “He said he would be a fair ruler.”
“That’s what I heard too.” Gabrielle said. “You know, people tried to convince me to let bad things happen to Xena because they thought the general was telling the truth.”
“He said he was.” The woman said.
Gabrielle shifted again and sat up, facing the crowd. “I think he said that, because he knew it was what you wanted to hear.” She said. “I mean… what else could you promise people? Would you have believed him if he said he’d give a bag of gold to each of you?”
The woman chewed the inside of her lip.
“It sure was what I wanted to hear.” Gabrielle said, in a gentle voice. “To be out of this place I’d been brought to against my will.”
Xena remained silent, and still. The servants all murmured together.
“But you turned ‘im down.” One older man said. “We heard of it.”
Gabrielle nodded. “Yeah, I did.” She said. “Because I thought about what someone very smart said about it – that what we do, someone has to do. No matter who rules the land.” She drew one knee up and rested her forearm on it. “And, at least we were kept in a warm place, and fed good food, which was more than I remember people having back home in Potadeia.”
“But they were free.”
“But they were dying.” Gabrielle answered. “And they were starving and miserable. So what good was it doing them?”
“But we could be killed at a whim.” The woman said. “Hers.”
Now eyes turned towards the silent queen, whose angular profile was outlined by the fire in shadows and crimson planes. “Don’t feel bad.” Xena remarked, almost conversationally. “I kill everyone at a whim. At least you don’t pay taxes for the privilege.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then the woman scratched her jaw and sighed. “S’truth.”
“Why?” The young soldier asked suddenly.
“Why don’t they pay taxes? They don’t get paid.” Xena said, with a half smile. “Or why do I kill people?”
There was a sudden sense of danger around the campfire. Perhaps the servants realized there had been a line crossed. Perhaps the soldiers did. Brendan and Gabrielle both took in a breath at the same time to start speaking, but Xena’s raised hand stopped them both.
“Because otherwise I’d have to fill the stronghold’s dungeon with people who did stupid things. I’d have to guard them, and clean after them, and feed them. That takes money and resources that I choose instead to put towards improving the land and buying decent food for you. Wanna trade off for it?”
Eyes blinked, as everyone looked at each other.
“Can we have a little enlightened self interest, here?” The queen inquired. “Anyone?”
“But… what if you’re wrong? What if…”
“If I’m wrong, and I kill someone who didn’t deserve it, then I’ll pay the price.” Xena replied. “It’s my eternity in Tartarus I’m bucking for. I accept it. Doesn’t change how I feel. Doesn’t change how I rule.”
Utter silence.
“This is my realm. My choices.” Xena continued. “My rule.” She paused. “Deal with it.”
As the crowd digested this, Gabrielle chose to lean forward and give the stew a stir.
Black humor once against surfaced in the queen. “Tough words from a bell rung half cripple stuck out sleeping under a tree, huh?” Xena taunted them, with wry mischief.
“S’allways been your way, Mistress.” Brendan remarked stolidly. “Them silk panties in t’captiol never did cotton to it.” He added. “Always thought they’d paid for a bit of say.”
“Mmph.” Xena snorted, resuming her relaxed pose against her tree. The dangerous feeling had passed, but not the sense of almost intrusive intimacy with the group around her. She watched as Gabrielle started filling up the few, rude bowls they’d saved and passing them, reserving one that she filled last and brought back along with a hunk of the travel bread to Xena.
It smelled good. Xena realized she was hungry for the first time since her injury, and that cheered her up as she recognized a good sign. Gabrielle broke the travel bread in half and handed a portion to her, and they shared the bowl in companionable silence for a while.
“Know what?” Gabrielle broke it, after accepting a hunk of something from the stew taken off the tip of Xena’s dagger.
“What?” The queen answered, around a mouthful of bread.
“You’ve got such a pretty voice.” The blond woman said. “It’s beautiful like the rest of you.”
Caught chewing, Xena glanced around at the crowd, and hastily swallowed. “Shh. You’re ruining the wild bitch image I just worked so hard on getting back.” She muttered. “Wench.”
Gabrielle licked a bit of stew juice off the dagger, and grinned.
**
Noon the next day found them nearing the narrow valley that cut through the hills towards the capital. Here, the river they’d been following cut deeply into the rock, and they’d come to a point where the path simply vanished, and the water became the only route forward.
Brendan and the soldiers clustered around the craggy outcropping, parting as Xena made her way slowly forward to join them. “Mistress, that’s one wild bit of froth forward.”
The queen observed the fast moving water, constricted by the rock. “Sure is.” She agreed. “Better build the rafts to take it.”
“Rafts?” Her captain queried. “We’re not to cross it forward then?”
“Nope.” Xena rested her hands on her stolen stick. “I’m tired of walking. We ride the river through the rapids, over that last hill, and it’ll take us right to the damn docks of the city.”
Brendan peeked at the white water ahead of them. “Mistress, b’yer pardon, but…” He winced. “Looks a rough ride.”
The queen nodded. “I know.” She said. “But the first part’s the worst. Once we get past that narrow point there…” She pointed. “It’s not that bad.”
“You’ve done this?” Gabrielle popped her head around from behind Xena. “Really?”
“I have.” Xena admitted. “My brother and I were running from Cortese. We didn’t have much choice… we figured the river would be a better death than he would.”
Brendan looked at her. “B… the two of ye were just kids!”
The queen nodded again. “Stupid kids. He caught us anyway. But it was a great ride.”
The old soldier shook his head, but started moving off the rocks and towards the nearby trees. “C’mon, then lads. Let’s get t’building.”
Xena remained on the outcropping as the soldiers and some of the servants followed Brendan towards the forest, speaking together in low tones as they walked. She glanced to one side as Gabrielle joined her on the rock, glad the kid had finally got the message and wasn’t attempting to go off with them and help.
They stood together for a moment, both studying the wild river.
“Are you thinking about your brother?” Gabrielle asked.
“No.” Xena replied. Then after a pause, she cleared her throat. “Yes.”
Gabrielle put her arm around the queen in mute comfort. “I was just thinking about Lila.” She said. “She would never have been brave enough to go do this.”
“Do what?” Xena asked. “Ride down the river or sleep with me?”
Despite the blush, Gabrielle smiled. “Either.” She confessed. “She used to call me… the brave, crazy one in the family.” Had she been, she wondered? Or just the crazy one. She imagined what Lila would say if she could speak to her now, seeing her here about to do something so scary it almost took her breath away to think of it.
The spray from the water moistened her skin, and she decided to kneel down, and see how cold it really was. Her fingers touched the water, and it tingled, so she drew her hand back with a bit of the water cupped in it and took a drink.
It was cold, and sweet.
“Hey.” Xena’s voice sounded, raised slightly to carry over the rushing river. “Use this.”
Gabrielle turned and accepted the wooden cup. She scooped it full, then stood and offered it to the queen. Xena gracefully dipped her head and took a sip as she held the cup, then straightened and jerked her head, indicating the rest was for her companion.
The queen draped an arm over Gabrielle’s shoulders as she drank, glad to be standing still as her plan was put in force behind her. “You know what the first thing I thought about you was?”
Gabrielle nearly inhaled a noseful of the water. She looked quickly at Xena, then wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. “What?”
Xena cocked her head to one side. “I thought… what is this crazy slave dragging a water trough outside for?”
“Trough?” The blond woman frowned, her brow creasing as she thought. “When was this?”
“Day you got here… maybe the day after.”
Gabrielle tried to remember those awful days, but found it difficult to connect with the desolate, grief stricken person she’d been in that time. If she concentrated, she could just recall the awful night, and the aching, and the utter frustration in her that had boiled out and… “You saw me go off on that post.”
Xena nodded.
“I took a little bit of it.”
“After you whacked the Hades out of it, yeah.” The queen agreed.
“I knew…” Gabrielle felt her throat tighten. “Some… of Lila was on that wood. I wanted to keep a piece of it.” She looked off down the river. “It was all I had.” Her chest moved as she took a deep breath. “Sounds pretty silly, I guess.”
“No it doesn’t.” Xena told her, in a quiet voice. She let her walking stick rest against her shoulder and dug in the small pouch hanging from her belt, removing something and holding it out on her palm.
It was a small bit of rock. Curious, Gabrielle picked it up and looked at it, seeing faded, dark stains that cut through the fabric of the stone almost like rust.
Rust. She looked up at Xena.
“From where I found him lying dead, yeah.” The queen answered. “So when I saw you do that, I thought… ‘hey, look. Another whacko like me.’”
Gabrielle put the stone back in her palm, and curled her fingers around it.
“Except this time I was the person who put you in that place.” Xena added. “And I think that was the moment I realized how much I’d let them make me become just like them.”
“Xena…”
“Oh, not right then.” The queen almost chuckled. “Then all I was thinking about was how strange you were, and wondering if you were nuts.” She sighed, after a moment. “The other thing came a long time after that.” She turned and drew Gabrielle with her, making a careful way down the rocks towards the sound of the work in progress.
Gabrielle held her thoughts, as she accompanied the queen along the pine needle strewn path, their steps crunching through the fallen leaves and releasing a soft scent of pine to her nose. The workers had already started to chop down trees, and along with the scent of pine was the smell of freshly cut wood.
How would they do it? She wondered. It would take many rafts to carry all of them, and they had no ropes to tie the logs with. “Xena? How are they going to connect everything?”
Xena paused, and they stood near a thickly leaved bush watching the activity. “Bark.” The queen said.
“Woof.” Gabrielle replied, obediently. “Woof, woof woof.”
Caught in the act of drawing a breath to continue her instruction, Xena ended up spluttering into a laugh instead. She leaned against her staff for support, unable to cease her chuckles for several moments. “That wasn’t what I meant.” She finally said, with a sigh.
“Well, you said…” Gabrielle was secretly delighted at hearing the laughter, and from the startled faces she caught in her peripheral vision she wasn’t the only one. “Bark. So I did.”
Xena removed her dagger from her belt and faced the nearest tree, cutting into it to a certain length and removing a strip of the material. She presented it to Gabrielle. “Tree bark.” She said, “Look.” She flexed it between her fingers, showing her companion the tough threads inside. “Not as good as rope, but it’ll work.”
“Oh.” Gabrielle took the bark and twisted it, bringing it to her nose and sniffing the piney scent. “I get it.” She turned to see the men near the felled logs, now stripping them of the bark. It started to make sense. More soldiers were cutting the branches off, and trimming them to uniform lengths. “What are those for?”
“Lay on top – give us something more solid to stand on.” Xena said. “And the big ones – that we’ll use to push off the sides.. keep us straight.”
Gabrielle slowly nodded. “Wow… that’s pretty cool.” She looked up at the queen. “But I don’t see any safety rails.”
Xena’s lips twitched. “There aren’t any.” She replied.
“Ah.”
“Problem?”
Gabrielle bit the inside of her lip. “Not if you hang on to me.”
At that, the queen smiled, putting her arm once again around Gabrielle’s shoulders and pulling her closer. “Gabrielle, my adorable little muskrat, don’t you worry. If you go overboard, I’m going with you.” She reassured her. “You’re mine.”
“I’m yours.” Gabrielle agreed. “But you know what?”
“What?” Xena asked.
“Your mine, too.” The blond woman said. “Aren’t you?”
Xena grinned silently for a bit, then exhaled, stirring Gabrielle’s hair with her breath. “Yeah.” She said. “But don’t you tell anyone or I’ll skin you.” She warned. “Got it?”
“Okay.” Gabrielle said, feeling her face stretch out in a grin nonetheless. “How are you feeling?” She changed the subject, sensing the arm over her wasn’t just from affection.
“Tired.” The queen admitted, in a low voice. “I just keep wanting to go to damn sleep. Not a good sign.” She moved her head, wincing. “I need a nice soft bed, and some extremely decadent pampering, with lots of cute blond bedmates mixed in somewhere.”
Gabrielle decided she’d like that too, and that meant the faster they could raft down the river, then the better it would be. Right? She watched the men fastening the rafts together, and hoped they were as sturdy as they looked, because she really didn’t want to end up, with queen or no, in that darn cold water.
Drinking it was fine. Dunking her body into it was giving her chills just thinking about it.
“All right, boys – let’s drag her forward, clear t’space.” Brendan ordered, helping the men to drag the first raft forward and towards the river.
“Get them done, then we’ll divvy up who goes where.” Xena said. She tipped her head back and gazed up at the sky. “I want to get this over with before sundown. I got someplace I wanna be when the stars come out tonight.”
Gabrielle suddenly remembered their new quarters, with it’s windows on the sky. Then she turned to watch the men and the rafts, the work now going far too slow to her eyes. Funny how less intimidating the river looked now, that it was a fast path carrying her to someplace she really wanted to be.
**
The raft was bucking up and down, and Gabrielle was glad she was kneeling in it’s center, with Xena’s powerful grip firmly clamped around her. Ten of the soldiers, and four servants clambered unsteadily on around them, and when the last had a good hold, the raft was released.
Oh… gods. Gabrielle found herself staring ahead of her at a wall of white water, as the rising rocks rushed past her on either side. The spray washed over the raft and doused them, causing her to inhale sharply at the shock of the icy water.
The raft shivered as it struck a submerged rock, and she pitched forward, but found herself hauled back into place by the queen’s strong arm. “Wow.”
“Fun, huh?” Xena was kneeling on one knee, her other leg braced against a wood knot and her hand firmly wrapped around one of the branch stumps the men had left for holds on their roughly made transport. Her free arm, of course, was curled around Gabrielle’s body, holding her close and firmly now in place.
“Um.” Gabrielle scrabbled for a handhold, feeling the rough bark scrape against her hands. “Well…”
“Raft virgin.” The queen seemed to be in surprisingly good spirits.
“That’s for sure.” The raft whirled to one side, throwing them all around, then straightened with a vicious twist, nearly sending several of the men closest to the edge over it. “Whoa!”
Gabrielle glanced behind them, spotting the next raft bucking up and down in their wake. She wondered if they looked as terrified as the people on that one did, then she looked up to see Xena’s eyes fixed ahead, her profile the embodiment of a wild, natural courage that made the venture seem tame in comparison.
Must be nice. The water plowed up over the front of the raft, nearly threatening to stand it on it’s end. Gabrielle yelped as she slid backwards, scraping her boots against the wood to try and find purchase. Then the water behind them sloshed up and she was tossed forward almost onto her nose. “H… how much longer?”
“We just started.” Xena released a chuckle. “C’mon… loosen up. This is fun!”
Fun. Gabrielle held on to the queen’s arm and somehow righted herself, just in time to be tossed to the side as the surface under her feet tilted. “Yeah… Fun…“ She squeaked. “Like cleaning sheep poop.”
“Hey… are you my brave lover, or just a squeaking muskrat?” Xena asked, loosening her grip on the raft so she could get a better hold on Gabrielle, wrapping her arms around her companion and clasping her securely. “Which is it?” She rasped, right into her ear.
Oo. Good question. Gabrielle shivered, not entirely from the cold.
“I’ve got you.” The queen said. “Trust me, Gabrielle.”
She’s here. I’m safe. The blond woman took hold of one of the wooden nubs, and resolved to enjoy the ride as much as Xena seemed to be. The water swirled ahead of them, tilting the raft from side to side, and as she held on, Gabrielle sensed an almost rhythm about it.
And then, just like that, she was no longer at the mercy of the water, she was riding it, caught up in the rush and excitement of the experience.
Maybe it was the closeness of Xena’s body, it’s warm length pressed against her.
Maybe it was the danger.
Gabrielle laughed softly. Maybe she just was the crazy, brave one after all. They slid down the side of a whitecapped wave, and she let out a yell, leaning forward and anticipating the tilt and whirl as the raft spun to one side, then straightened out again and rode the next wave.
“Atta girl.” Xena praised her. “Life hands you a lemon, Gabrielle… squeeze it and spit the pits at your enemies.”
Gabrielle turned her head and gazed at the queen in puzzlement. “What?”
The queen leaned close to her, kissing her on the lips as they whirled sharply, spray drenching both of them. “This is living.” She said, drawing back to look Gabrielle in the eye. “Savor it.”
Then they were rushing almost straight down for a long moment, only to be tossed up like a leaf on the wind as the river plunged down between two stark walls of rock. Gabrielle inhaled in surprise as the river dropped out from under them, and she knew an endless moment of flight. Her heart leaped up into her throat, then settled back where it belonged when they caught up the water again and slide sideways and downwards in a thundering splash.
“Whoa.” This time it was Xena who exclaimed it, shaking her head to move now drenched dark hair out of her eyes. She glanced down at the bedraggled little muskrat in her arms, and planted a kiss on the blond head under her chin. “Good one.”
“Hey!!!” Gabrielle suddenly yelped, squirming around in Xena’s arms and reaching for the front of her tunic. “Yow! Yow!”
The queen’s eyes widened in bemusement.
“Baaahhh!!” With a shiver, Gabrielle yanked something out of her shirt and held it up. “Xena!”
“That was in your shirt!?” The queen demanded. “C’mere. Off with his head.”
She reached for the fish, but Gabrielle divined her purpose and threw the small fish as far as she could, bouncing him off the nearest soldier and into the water. “He didn’t mean it.”
“That’s no excuse!!” Xena yelled back. “He tries it again, he’ll be a fillet for dinner! Nobody messes around inside my muskrat’s shirt while I’m around to catch em!”
A memory surfaced before Gabrielle’s eyes, of her father, and her sister – and how there hadn’t been anyone there to say that for Lila when she’d needed it the most.
Then she had no time to savor the moment, as the raft swiveled sideways, and they were heading down another long slope. “YaaahhhhH!!!!!!!!”
“Yeah!” Xena laughed, enjoying the ride to the fullest. The rough action and the icy spray had taken her mind completely off her injury, and she was, as she’d told Gabrielle, simply savoring the experience. The wind blew her hair back, and it’s chill contrasted with the rich warmth she felt where her body and Gabrielle’s were pressed together and the queen decided that it just didn’t get much better than this very often.
The raft sped down the slope, then crested with the wave, flying up and over the water to come crashing back down in a flume of white water.
Gabrielle glanced behind them, and hoped everyone was hanging on really tight. She knew she herself would have been tossed overboard long ago if it weren’t for Xena’s powerful anchoring. She could hear screams, and yells of alarm, but the raft was twisting under her again and she didn’t have time to look long.
The river was really racing now, traveling downward between the two high cliffs, it’s thunder masking out any other sound. The sun was high overhead, and the reflections of it on the rocks, and the water, and the few, crystal droplets on Xena’s cheek were seared into Gabrielle’s dream eye with vivid, almost violent clarity.
“Here’s the tough part.” The queen commented cheerfully, pointing at a narrow pass.
“Now?” Gabrielle gasped, as a cold wave almost swamped them.
“Hang on.”
“I am.”
“To me.”
Gabrielle let go of the stub, and half turned, wrapping her arms around Xena as tightly as she could. The queen jammed one boot under a lashing, and took another wrap of the hide around her hand. The raft tilted and whirled, and for a long, dangerous moment tipped so far to one side she was sure they were going over.
The walls narrowed rapidly, and her eyes widened as she judged the width of the raft against the hole they were heading for. “Are we going to make it???”
“One way or another.” Xena replied. “Hang on!”
Gabrielle surrendered to her better judgement and screwed her eyes shut, burying her face in Xena’s shoulder and simply doing what she was told. She locked her hands around her wrists and trusted in the queen’s strength to bring them home.
She felt a violent wrench to the right, then one to the left, and heard a creaking, as the raft slowed suddenly to almost a standstill.
Then a loud crack made her jump, and they were moving again, tumbling through the opening only to drop unexpectedly into thin air.
Gabrielle screamed, though the sound was muffled by Xena’s overtunic, as her stomach rose up and almost exited her ears. Then it was over, and they impacted the water so hard she felt Xena’s whole body lift up and slam down, and the queen’s hold on her tightened to an almost painful degree.
The raft tipped up, and she felt them rising.
“Uh oh.”
Gabrielle’s eyes popped wide open and she inhaled, that one set of syllables from Xena more frightening than whole legions of rivers and rickety rafts. “What!”
“I think I’m gonna sneeze.”
Was she joking? Was she… A thousand questions ran through Gabrielle’s mind and then…
And then, it was over. The raft plunged one last time, and settled, still moving fast, but moving evenly across the surface of the water. Gabrielle felt her heart settle a little, and her breathing slowed. After a moment, something rapped on the top of her head. “Mm?”
“You can come out now.”
She opened one eye and peeked upward, to see a drenched, yet gorgeous woman looking back at her. Slowly, she turned her head, to see the river now running smoothly under them, still sloping downward, but at a far, far more gentle rate. “We did it?”
“We did it.” Xena confirmed. “Not sure if we didn’t lose people..” She released her grip on Gabrielle and raked her wet hair out of her eyes. Turning, she surveyed the other people on their raft, who were shaken and obviously terrified, even the soldiers. “Everyone all right?”
There was a bit of doubt. “Think so, Mistress.” One of the soldiers finally said. “But that was the damndest thing I ever done.”
A murmur of agreement went up, as the shaken men and women eased away from death grips on the wooden raft One man went to the front, where a big chunk of the first log had been ripped away.
Gabrielle sat down on the raft and tried to relax her shaking limbs. It had been the damndest thing, all right, but you know? They’d made it. She blew out a breath, stirring the wet hair on her forehead and nodded.
They’d made it.
Xena ruffled her hair, easing down onto the raft next to her. “Thanks for trusting me.” She commented.
Gabrielle smiled. “Always.” She replied. “Now we just ride home?”
“Yep” The queen said. “We’re home free.”
**
Part 20
It was glorious. The sun burst out from behind the clouds and lit the river in a million shades of blue and green as they swept around a tight, fast bend and found the plateau opening out before them. Gabrielle felt her jaw drop open, and her eyes widen at the beauty of it – the forest and grasslands spreading out intersected by the river, and then in the distance, the soaring towers of the stronghold basking in the light. “Oh, wow.”
“What?” Xena looked up from where she was kneeling, one hand spread to steady herself on the raft’s surface. “You have to piddle or something?”
“No.” Gabrielle rested a hand on the queen’s soaked shoulder. “It’s so beautiful.” She exhaled. “It like a fantasy land.”
Xena’s blue eyes rolled. “Gabrielle, I love you, but if you say that again I’m gonna chuck your cute butt overboard and feed you to the salmon.”
Her companion grinned, slightly. “Would you?” She asked. “Are the salmon that big here?”
The queen glanced around at the rest of the raft’s occupants. Most of them were just hanging on tight, with varying expressions of relief and exhaustion. With a faint smirk, she eased up onto her knees and flexed the hand she’d been leaning on, then she looked very briefly at the water before lunging forward and sticking her hand in the river without warning.
“Hey!” Gabrielle grabbed hold of her cloak in reflex.
Xena pulled her arm back, and to Gabrielle’s utter startlement, there was a fish on the end of it. With a snicker, the queen tossed the fish at her, and she had to let go and try to catch it, juggling the offended Piscean with fumbling hands. “Yow! Yow!!! Augh!”
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