She turned her
head and looked at her foolish companion; her eyes wide open, anger
showing through, her mouth a thin line. After a moment she thought
better of it and forced herself to relax and grin. "Yes Joxer," she
replied, trying to keep her tone light. "I believe I am crazy. After
all, I'm with you of my own free will."
Joxer stared at Callisto quizzically. She felt she had to clarify.
"It's a joke. You know, sarcasm? Does the concept bounce off your thick
skull?" 'How did this boy ever survive to adulthood?' she wondered.
"I'm not crazy, lunatic, insane, or psychotic. Right now." She
continued. "It's only when I get close to Xee-nah that I start to lose
myself. Until then I'm your average run-of-the-mill leather-clad blonde
warrior with a short temper and a sharp sword to back it up."
"Ok then," began her beffudled sidekick. "How do you know you're not
insane now? Maybe you're just fooling yourself into believing you're
sane while in fact you're just as irrational and psychotic as you ever
were!" he finished with a smile of triumph at his brilliant powers of
deduction and cognitive reasoning.
Callisto was getting frustated. This was like talking to a rock! She
wanted to take her sword and plunge it into his chest and through his
heart. She wanted to rip his heart out and hold it to his eyes so that
it would be the last thing he saw as the life faded from his body and
he went to see Hades. She wanted to...
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The thin
blonde shook her head to dispel her bloodthirsty musings. "I know," she
began with her dangerous smile, "because I'm not hearing any voices.
When I start hearing the voices in my head, that's when I know I'm
close to the edge. When I hear the voices of my mother, my sister, my
friends, all crying for revenge, for justice, THAT'S WHEN I KNOW!"
She was standing over him. He had fallen back and was lying on his back
looking at her with not an insignificant amount of fear. She was
breathing hard, adrenaline pulsing through her veins. Joxer was
breathing hard too. She took a deep, slow breath, then put on a happy
smile and said "Thanks Joxer. I feel much better now. Let's eat!"
She twirled around and hopped to the waiting food. She picked up her
plate and started eating eagerly. Joxer lay there for a minute before
he got back up. On seeing that, Callisto stopped eating long enough to
hand Joxer his plate of food. With a mumbled thanks, he started eating
in silence.
After their meal,
which, surprisingly to the woman warrior, she enjoyed more than she
thought she would have, the warrior-cook left to wash the plates while
she broke camp. It was already the mid-morning of yet another day in
her quest to destroy Xena. With luck, they would reach Patras by the
end of the week.
"I can hardly wait," came a voice from nowhere, her voice.
"Why don't you just shut up and leave me alone?" queried Callisto to
the Other.
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