Disclaimer: The characters belongs to Renpics, just as usual.
Are You the Bard?
by Anders Hallin
"Are you the Bard?"
"Yes I am," she answered with a smile. "Why do you ask?"
She sat in a half-full inn, in a small village a short way from the main trade routes. It was a tidy place, with a clientele consisting mostly of weary merchants and guards who wanted to rest for a while on the long road to the marketplaces of the larger cities.
The girl who asked the question was a pleasant village lass, about 16 years old. Her clothes were dusty and she looked as if she had spent most of the day working in the fields, yet her manners were far more excited than tired.
"A merchant told me about you. He said you spun the most magnificent tales he had ever heard."
"That was very kind of him, I do my best. Of course, with the material I have, it's difficult to fail."
She studied the girl for a moment, suspecting that she knew what the girl wanted all too well.
"But my stories aren't really your main concern, are they?" she asked.
The girl flinched in surprise, "No.. How did you.. no, I wanted to talk to you about.. well. You."
"About me?" she responded, amused by the girl's reaction.
"Yes! About your travels, your life, the world! What it's like to always ride towards a new sunset!" she said in a flurry of words.
"Alright, alright. Calm down. To begin with, sit down and then tell me your name. I never ride, by the way, horses don't seem to like me much."
"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm Dani." she said while she sat down beside the Bard. "I live in this village. Why don't horses like you?"
The Bard slanted her head a bit and paused for a moment.
"I think.. a horse might have spread some nasty rumours about me." she said, her gaze drifting away to some place far beyond the confines of the inn.
"What?"
The Bard's vision snapped back into focus on Dani again and she remembered where she was. "Oh.. it's a.. it was a running joke, a long time ago now.. When I used to travel the world."
"But you still do that, don't you?" Dani asked, "I mean, this is the first time I've met you."
"No, I usually travel in this general area nowadays, but I have only been here once before, and I didn't tell any stories that time." the Bard responded, "I no longer have that urge to see new countries that I used to have when I was younger. I've found that nature has enough miracles to last a lifetime even if you just stay in one place. Though I did see many beautiful things when I travelled, and I will always treasure that."
"It sounds wonderful," Dani said dreamily, "To see the world, meet interesting people, fighting battles.."
"Fighting battles isn't all it's cracked up to be" the Bard interrupted with a slight edge to her voice. "It's nothing to look forward to."
"But the glory! The valor and honour of warriors!"
"I never saw much valor in battle, Dani, and glory comes at a price. Any glory you get on the battlefield will be through killing a bunch of people who would rather be home with their families growing corn, and the people you kill will gnaw at you every day for the rest of your life. You might be able to forget them now and then, but there will be times when you're lying awake in the middle of the night unable to sleep because those you killed won't leave you alone. Never forget that, Dani." the Bard's voice had sunk very low and it seemed as if the light had dimmed around her.
Dani looked at the Bard in horrified fascination. "Have you.. Have you killed alot of people?"
"One is too many. When you kill someone, it changes everything. Everything."
"I.. I see."
The frightened tone of Dani's voice woke the Bard up from her dark reverie, realizing that she let her gloomy mood get the better of her. "I'm sorry Dani, I didn't mean to sound so depressing," she said, forcing herself to smile. "You probably understand why I don't travel around much anymore. I no longer have the attitude for it.. or the company."
"It's okay," Dani said, her voice not completely steady. "I guess my view of the world was a bit optimistic."
"No, no. Don't ever think that, Dani. The world is a wonderful place and nothing can compare to the feeling of discovering it together with someone you love. I truly wish everyone could experience that. It does get bad now and then, but it is always outweighed by the good."
"Then why do you seem so unhappy?"
"I'm not, usually. I wander the land and look back at my memories with a great joy. It's just that sometimes, my hiraedd gets ahold of me."
"Hiraedd?" Dani said, puzzled.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's a word I picked up in Gallia. It means that you're longing for something unobtainable." the Bard explained.
"What is it that you're longing for then?"
"What I'm longing for?" she said, trailing a finger across the wooden table. "I long for the day that I will be able to hold the love of my life in my arms once again. My companion. My soulmate. My best friend. The greatest Warrior the world knew." She leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. "That is what I am longing for."
"What.. What happened to him?"
The Bard turned her head towards Dani, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly. She held her pose for a second and then burst out laughing. Dani stared wide-eyed at the Bard who was laughing so hard she cried. After a minute of the hysterical laughter the Bard finally managed to get ahold of herself again. She had slumped down on the table during the course of her laughter. Now she looked up at Dani while she wiped away her tears.
"By the gods, Dani! I haven't laughed that much in months! I really needed that. Thank you!"
"Wh- Eh. Why..?" Dani haltingly tried to speak.
"I guess it's an easy mistake to make," the Bard said with a huge grin. "Let's see now. What happened to my love, the Warrior." The Bard paused for a moment with a giggle. "Right, I'm okay now."
She looked into Dani's eyes and said with emphasis, "She," noting with delight Dani's reaction she went on, "disappeared in a ship wreck. I spent three years looking for her, searching every piece of the coast line and the countries where she might have ended up. Once I even tried to cross the desert that lay south of the great sea. After that... Well, you probably know what happened then. The world changed. Nothing was the same. I took four years of exploring the world anew and then I decided that it would be best to stay for awhile at one place, so I ended up in this country. At least now I have some solid ground to stand on, if I would have continued travelling with nothing but heart-ache for company I don't know if I would have survived. Now I just live on all the joyful memories I have for her."
The Bard was still smiling, and she had resumed her position leaning back at the wall.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect.."
"It's okay, really."
"So she's dead then?" Dani asked.
"I haven't seen her body. It is also much easier to find me when I stay in one place. Let's just say that I know we will be together again. I just don't know when."
"It's amazing," Dani said, "You can actually hear the love in your voice when you speak of her. It must be horrible to be separated from her."
"It's okay actually. I know it's just a matter of time, and I know she would be proud of what I'm doing now. It's as if I carry her with me wherever I go, in my heart." The Bard said, putting a hand over her heart.
"I hope I will feel love like that sometime.. it sounds so wonderful."
"Don't worry Dani, you will. Everyone finds love sometime. Just don't try to rush it."
The inn had been filling up quite rapidly as the time for dinner approached and the Bard decided that she should prepare herself.
"I better get ready to perform now, Dani. I hope we can talk some more afterwards, or perhaps tomorrow."
"Oh! I'd love to! Good luck." Dani said, moving into a better position as the Bard started moving towards the slightly heightened part of the inn created for the various performers that showed up at the inn. Dani saw the Bard have a word with the innkeeper who hurriedly went into the backroom for a few seconds and then returned with an old harp. The Bard looked at it with a rueful shake of her head, then she straightened and changed her expression to one of determination, taking the harp from the innkeeper. She thanked him, tested and adjusted the strings abit, and then went to the stage. She took a position clearly visible from all parts of the inn and then took a deep breath.
"Good evening, all travellers. I am the Bard, and I will try my best to amuse you this evening."
All the patrons of the inn turned their attention to her at that, since most of them had heard great things about this particular bard. The Bard took another deep breath and began.
"I sing of my friend and companion, the Warrior..."
Dani's exhaustion after a day spent working in the fields finally got the better of her and she dozed off just as the Bard started her story. Through her slumber she heard the wonders of the Bard's story and the tentative harp-playing that accompanied it, which called up wonderful dreamvisions of the world outside of her simple village.
After a long while she finally woke up, and she could hear that the Bard's story was just wrapping up.
"And to this day, I hope that she will one day open the door, so we can be together.. Again." the Bard finished, and started playing a melancholic tune on the harp. Dani closed her eyes again with a smile at the beauty of it. She barely heard the door to the inn opening but she couldn't miss the loud crash as the harp hit the floor. Her eyes were wide open in an instant and she could see the Bard at the stage with the harp at her feet looking towards the inn's entrance.
Dani's eyes moved quickly towards the door, and in the shadows that had now built up around the walls of the common room she saw a tall woman, wearing some sort of armour. Her eyes fluttered back to the Bard who had now started moving. In an instant she reached the tall woman and embraced her fiercely. The tall warrior returned the Bard's hug in kind and they stood there silently for several minutes. No one in the common room moved or even said a word. Dani was staring at the two. Finally the Bard spoke up, her voice quivering with tears.
"I missed you Xena. I missed you so much."
The Warrior answered, with a voice struggling to keep calm.
"I missed you too, Gabrielle." She moved her head back so she could look right into the Bard's eyes. "I love you."