While feeling uncomfortable air turbulence during the flight, Daniela looked over at Nicasio, still trying to catch up on his lost sleep. The movement of the plane made him more alert and he appeared  now to be fully awake. Realizing they were flying at thirty-five thousand feet and somewhere approaching the Eastern seaboard of the United States—soon be over the dark Atlantic, the feeling of detaching from her home country was finally sinking in to Daniela.

For Nicasio, to see the woman he truly loved accompanying him on this leg of his research, supplied him with a much needed distraction from the subject with which he had spent so much.  After several moments the two were looking at each other again and Daniela's lovely face broke into a more approachable smile.

"Hey," she whispered, moving her warm hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck. "Tell me now. . . truly. Are you really going to Greece to study . . . Amazons?"

It appeared she was now willing to laugh out loud. Reacting to what she had assumed earlier was just Nicasio's typical bantering.

"No," he replied, whispering back . . . "We  are."

Daniela stared at him questioningly.

He slowly leaned toward her, growing more amused at her perplexed reaction and placed his forehead momentarily against hers.

"Look. . . Dani. When you were a young girl, you probably really did watch that Xena series on TV . . . right?"

She  surprisingly did laugh. Loudly.  And again, the couple across the isle turned and stared at them. Her face lit up with embarrassment and she covered her mouth to speak to him more quietly.

"Actually, Xena was my favorite show when I was growing up."

Nicasio rolled his eyes. "See?" And tell me why? Why was that series so attractive to you?"

"I don't know really. I just liked Xena's character, I guess. Her strength maybe? Every girl wanted to be like her. She was always kicking men's butts. Especially when they deserved it!"

She laughed again. Shamelessly this time, not caring what the aggravated  couple across from them was thinking.

Nicasio reluctantly smiled, then he laughed too. 

"OK then . . . See?"

"See what?"

"That you were a big fan of the Amazons."

"OK. But I was young . . . and probably very impressionable."

"Doesn't matter. That alone makes you qualified enough to be my partner in this study."

"What?"

He kissed her softly on the lips before she could respond. They then both began to laugh contagiously. This time another couple in the seats in front of them turned and showed their disapproval of the noise.

Nicasio quickly composed himself.

"Seriously now, Dani . . . have you ever analyzed that?"

"What?"

"What you just shared with me . . . about loving the Amazons as a girl."

"Come on. Just because I watched Xena as a child?"

"Exactly. She did capture your imagination. Right? That's probably a similar sentiment found in every female . . . to be powerful and able to defeat men. Don't you think so?"

"I don't know, Nicasio. Not really. There was just something about that TV character that . . . spoke to me. And most little girls I think. Maybe the whole idea. A powerful woman on a horse. Attractive. Always in the end beating men at what they tried to do."

She was pensive a moment.

 Yeah . . . you're right. I did admire her, I guess."

"Precisely!"

"OK . . . but Xena could also be . . . attracted to men, right? Well . . . at least she would play with them a little as I remember." She smiled reminiscently. It was a devilish smile.

"So you see Dani? You've just described the whole mystique perfectly to me.. At least the way I think most women must see them . . . even now."

"Mystique?"

"The whole Amazon-woman thing. And that, mi novia, is why we're going to Greece."

"Hmmm. So you're really serious about this."

"Completely!. We need to find out how and why that ancient Amazon legend . . . and that attraction you speak of . . . made it all the way from the mythical world right to the very edge of the New World."

Daniela's look was now more serious. More responsive to his.

"Well. . . OK. Then I'm in! If that's what you . . . I mean we are going to do over there . . . Let's do it!"

Nicasio smiled at her sudden focus. And animated, albeit questionable  allegiance to the quest.

"Alright then fellow researcher! Now . . . as a women . . . tell me something else I still don't know . . ."

"Sure, professor. Shoot."

"Why have men throughout all the ages, been so attracted to these dangerous women?"

She smiled her diabolical smile again.

"I mean . . . they're Amazons right? Women who would just as soon kill a man than . . . make love with him."

Following this comment, Daniela seemed to be lost in her thoughts. Her image of Xena reappeared in her mind just as she remembered her—the iconic female from the TV series: buxom, energetic, sexy and alluring. She remembered her powerful war horse carrying the armed beauty across the misty, undefined landscape.

"Well now you've got me interested," she said, quickly returning from her mental image, "I suppose to any man who's challenged by an Amazon . . . they still must all see them as women, right?"

For a moment Nicasio was silent.

"Yes. You're right. But . . ." 

He continued now softly, as if speaking only to himself. 

"Why would anyone in the sixteenth century . . . travel halfway around the world . . . to create a shrine to them? And why there? On that windy, isolated bluff near Big Sur?"

Daniela looked back at him now totally engaged.

"Did that really happen?"

"Where do you think I've been these past weeks, Dani?"

"Are you serious? So how did the professor find this . . ."

"Burial tomb. Ancient Greek in design. And very authentic . . . empty . . . but authentic."

"Wow. So how did he . . ."

"The whole thing was discovered during a marijuana bust."

"You're kidding!. That's too weird."

"You just don't know how weird this all gets, Dani. The discovery has completely baffled Dr. Simons. It's like making him crazy now. And he's one of the best West coast historians in the world."

"Well it's made you pretty crazy too. Nicasio."

"No. He's like a mad dog on this case . . . after some lost bone. It's something he can smell but just cannot find." 

Nicasio smiled, a bit giddy at his own ridiculous analogy. He could nevertheless see from Daniela's expression that she was now undeniably intrigued by all she was hearing. He looked directly into her eyes and tested her resolve.

"So. Are you really willing to take this job on with me? To be the assistant to the assistant?"

Her gaze was indeed animated and intense.

"Yes . . . definitely! This is going to be very cool and interesting."

Her eyes were now also imbued with a distant spark of infatuation. Like they had been when the two of them began aslovers. Nicasio smiled back at this unexpected response. Then, devilishly, he slid his hand up along her thigh, out of sight of the neighboring couple. He wiggled his fingers seductively toward the inside of her legs.

She gently took his hand away and spoke in a sobering tone.

"So . . . maybe it's not such a good idea to mix business with pleasure on this trip, professor." She flashed her penetrating eyes quickly into his for a reaction.

"What?"

"It's just a sound policy I've developed lately . . . with men."

"Hey . . . come on, Angelina. You're not really serious . . . are you?"

"I don't know, Nicasio. Really, I don't." She kept his hand away and sat back firmly in her seat. "Guess we'll just have to see."

Her look was unchanging. Resolved, and disturbingly distant again. It reminded him of what he had noticeably lost over the past weeks while working with the professor and so far away from her. But there was something else in her perplexing look that harkened back to the significant changes he had seen developing in her. He could not pin them down to an event or certain time, but Daniela had definitely evolved. He could only wonder as he looked out the window to an endless black ocean below, just how much.

* * *