Chapter 1: A Wandering Bard Gathers No Hearth
Another of the questions I'm always being asked is "What was it like, setting out on the road for the first time?"
The answer, in a word, is -- terrifying! Here I was, turning my back on everything I'd known from childhood, everything safe and secure, and setting out into the utter unknown. Of course I was scared!
Why did I do it? I wish I could say something noble and properly bardic, but the true answer is that I'm not really sure. I was bored, yes, restless, certainly, knowing everybody in Poteidaia far, far too well. And Perdicas...if I had known then...
But neither of us were yet whom we would become, if that makes any sense. And back then, I knew only that I couldn't marry and settle down and be a nice, docile village wife, but was pretty much giving up on figuring out what to do about that.
And then Xena swept into the village like a fresh, clean wind, and the world suddenly opened up for me. I knew only that I couldn't let her get away, because once she was gone, I'd never have the nerve to leave.
So I followed her.
And followed her.
And followed her.
It says a great deal for Xena's patience, and for her determination to stay on the side of Good, that she didn't just kill me. I must have been a thoroughly irritating kid back then. Gabby Gabby, I admit it. But I was talking so much to hide the fact that I was scared silly!
Nothing was easy. I had never slept on the ground before or had to forage for something to eat. I had never gone without a roof over my head, either, or realized just how dangerous it was outside the walls of my village.
But I had also never realized just how beautiful it was out there, either, or how exciting it is never to know what wonders might lie ahead.
Most of all, I had never realized just how close I'd grow to Xena. For she has become my sister not of the body, but of the heart.
Copyright © 1998 Universal Studios Publishing Rights,A Division of Universal Studios Licensing, Inc. All rights reserved. Xena: Warrior Princess is a trademark and copyright of Studios USA Telvision Distribution LLC. All rights reserved.
