This adventure is musically enhanced.
When I set out to write my first online full-length Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess story, I knew it had to be something big, something that no other author I knew of had done before. Something that addresses all the questions still unanswered in the midst of H:TLJ's fifth season... How did Xena and Gabrielle deal with the news of Iolaus' death? Where exactly did our favorite sidekick run off to in Redemption, and what could he be doing there?
So, this tale takes on many of the questions voiced by several of my fellow Iolausians,
from the imagination that is fandom. This is your guide to the characters and the roles they play in The Wind
Carries You. The novel is now fully completed! Enjoy! -Iolausian Groupie Ingrid, Keeper Of The Iolausian Dimension.
After his friends death, Hercules was a broken man. Being able to say
goodbye to Iolaus in the right way ("Redemption") renewed his love for life.
Meeting up with Iolaus again in this novel at first is to quote, 'weird,' but Herc
is of course glad to share another adventure with his best friend. Noticing
the closeness of Iolaus' relationship to Gabrielle and his protectiveness of
the bard brings him closer to Xena, as the two share long conversations and
laughs together in the novel. Being able to let go of all the anger and pain
he felt because of Iolaus' death helps Herc to revive the good times the four
have had in the past. This comes alive in the story.
Zarathustra is the mortal (and ex-immortal) from which Dahok both gave
and took away immortality from. Several hundred - more like thousands of years ago,
he was fooled into trusting Dahok to help him better humanity, and was granted
immortality by the god. And like Iolaus, he's still fighting to defeat him. In Redemption, when he attempts to destory him, Dahok
takes away his immortality and Zarathustra disappears. He becomes Iolaus' guide
and teacher for his 'assignments' in Greece to help humanity in the story.
Xena arrived in Corinth expecting to be in battle with a god she'd dealt with
yet never had seen - Dahok - and to be in the company of Hercules and Iolaus in
doing so, but soon finds that the god of darkness is already long gone. She
joins up with Hercules to cross to the other world to stop Ares from murdering
one of the gods. She knows perfectly well that her best friend would voice
protest against her going alone, (even though she'd be with Herc) and against her wishes, Gabrielle follows her lead.
It's there that they first meet up with Iolaus and Zarathustra.
Gabrielle, Iolaus' proclaimed soulmate, and Xena's best friend, plays an important
role in The Wind Carries You. She takes the news of Iolaus death anything
but lightly, and strangely senses that someone is there with her as
Herc and Xena enter the blue vortex to their opposite world. She is the first
to see and hear Iolaus. During the journey being alone together brings back
memories of pastime adventures, and the two once again become romantically involved.
Iolaus knows the mission is too important to jeopardize but can't hide his
feelings for her. She knows that Iolaus isn't supposed to tell her a lot about
how he's able to be with her and travel with her, Xena and Hercules, or the
source of his powers, but that changes as the novel progresses.
The infamous God War is the main villian in this adventure. A wild but
surprisingly smart plan with Discord to set his half-brother up turns out
to be perfect material to Zarathustra as Iolaus' first assignment. Iolaus
has to prevent the "death of one very important to the world" and they both believe
at first that Ares is going to try to kill the Zeus of the other dimension. Ares
uses the Sovereign to further convince anyone trying to foil his plans that
Zeus is who he's after. Soon they discover that the God Of War isn't after either
version of his father, the King of the gods. He's going for Hercules!
The Goddess of Chaos, as I like to refer to her, she's the one who helps Ares
open up the vortext to start the set up of Hercules. Originally, I wanted
Callisto to be his accomplice, but I'll save her for another one, lol. She
decides to make it her mission to find out how it's possible that Iolaus can
be alive and have powers like her and the rest of the gods, if he was killed
by Dahok, which Ares vows is true.
These are the main players in my novel, but there are several other characters involved, too - The Sovereign, Ares - God of Love, Zeus, Cupid, Aphrodite, etc. I have completed the novel recently and I hope you enjoy the unfolding of the plot. This story was a huge undertaking and was very carefully written. The entire novel was written down on loose leaf and edited several times before I even touched the computer keyboard. Over all, I think it's been a worthwhile project and has taught me a lot about myself and my writing. It's of course more fun than watching most of season 5 - and I think ANY Iolausian would agree with that! :-) I also found it amazing how many elements of THE WIND CARRIES YOU were found in the writers' version of Iolaus coming back - REVELATIONS. This novel was written two months beforeforehand - kewl, eh?
Start Reading THE WIND CARRIES YOU!