Chapter 3 - Morning
The slim, fair-haired young lass woke up screaming an agonizing
"noooo!" before she realized that it had been a dream. Sweating, she
got up and looked around. "It's only a dream, it's only a dream, it's
only a dream," she kept repeating to herself. The pre-dawn light
illuminated their camp and she saw that Joxer was still blissfully
asleep.
Callisto sat down and stared at Joxer's sleeping form. Her thoughts
were still churning from the dream. It scared her to be so out of
control, so mad with her desire for revenge that she would do anything
to achieve it. She looked again at Joxer and hoped her sidekick
experiment would work.
Joxer the Sidekick
opened his eyes and saw the leather-clad nightmare peering at him.
"Yiiih!" he exclaimed as he rolled away and frantically looked for his
sword. His hand found a pot which he wielded as he stood up.
The former Goddess watched the warrior-aspirant's antics with the hint
of a smile on her face. "Joxer..." she tried to sound annoyed but
couldn't quite get the tone of her voice right. "When you're done
fooling around why don't you make us breakfast? I've heard you're quite
the cook, now you can prove it to me."
With that she stood up and headed to a nearby pool for a swim, leaving
Joxer dumbfounded as he tried to remember why he was traveling with
Xena's implacable foe. Once the shock faded, he remembered that
yesterday he had agreed to be Callisto's sidekick. Wondering what had
ever possessed him to agree to do this, he set about preparing
breakfast.
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Joxer had
been waiting for the better part of an hour for Callisto to come back.
Luckily, the meal he had made could be eaten cold without losing much
of the flavor, or so he assured himself. He had thought about going out
to look for her, but Callisto could certainly take care of herself. And
he didn't want to bother her if she wanted to be alone.
'Well, this is certainly an unexpected scenario', he thought to
himself. 'Who could have imagined Callisto getting a partner?
Naturally, she came to me first since I am an unparalled warrior with
an extensive repertoire of mastered skills. Wow: Callisto and Joxer,
Joxer and Callisto. This'll be one for the bards.'
Although Joxer would never be accused of being perceptive, he did
notice that Callisto wasn't the raving lunatic that he had met before.
'It's not as if I had tangled with her often before Xena killed her',
he reasoned. 'Perhaps coming back from the dead had calmed her
demeanor. She had said yesterday that she was still insane. I guess
it's a different sort of madness now.'
Callisto walked into
camp, finding Joxer deep in thought, humming his theme song to himself.
"I'm back Joxer," she announced as she examined the meal he had
prepared. It looked good which reminded her that she hadn't eaten since
early yesterday. Eating was low on her list of priorities and she often
went for days with little food, until her body reminded her that she
was neglecting it. Right now she realized she was hungry.
Joxer, without thinking, asked, "are you still crazy?" He looked up at
Callisto expectantly. His expression changed from interest to horror as
the question he had asked finally registered in his consciousness.
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