It was a nice day for fishing, Hercules and Iolaus were at their favorite spot. This was where the fishing was always the best.

Iolaus' line went tight, "I've got a big one, oh boy!" He stood up and planted his feet firmly on the bank as his pole began to bend.

"Need help?" Hercules asked looking over.

"No, I've got it."

Then, out of nowhere on the hill behind the two heroes, there was a flash, and two forms were ejected out, tumbling down the hill toward the embankment toward the two unsuspecting fishermen. One crashed into a preoccupied Iolaus sending them both tumbling into the cold lake.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" he yelled.

"It wasn't me." returned Hercules, pointing to the unexpected visitors. Standing up covered in mud and soaking wet, Iolaus quieted.

"I lost my fish, but caught a mermaid, or rather she caught me," with a grin he reached out to help up the still dazed young lady.

Hercules turned and looked down at his feet, a second body, a silver-haired lady. She opened her eyes. Once her vision cleared, she met his gaze, but upside down and said, "Oh, hello. Sorry about that."

Soon, there was a blazing fire and the smell of cooking fish wafted through the air. Ceryndip was drying off by the fire, while the blond Greek wrung the water from his vest and laid it on a nearby limb to dry.

"So, where are you from?" asked Hercules as he checked on the fish.

"We were visiting Greece."

"I'm Jane and my distracted friend, referring to the redhead who couldn't seem to tear her eyes from Iolaus' bare muscular chest, is Ceryndip."

"Well, I'm Hercules and that is Iolaus."

Ceryndip broke in, "You're the real Hercules?" She then, turned to Hercules' best friend, "Did anybody tell you that you look like that dude on TV, but much cuter?"

"Thank you, I think?" replied Iolaus.

As the evening wore on, the two girls tried to explain what had happened to themselves and worried about what their friends would do when they turned up missing.

As they settled in for the night, the two girls talked among themselves.

"So, where are we? Or when are we?" Jane asked.

"I'm not sure, but I know we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Ceryndip replied, as she got comfortable leaning up against a tree.

The first rays of the new morning sun shown on her face as Jane opened her eyes, to find that yesterday had not been a dream. She saw Iolaus and Hercules putting together a breakfast of bread and cheese. She tried to elbow her friend awake, but found her gone. She had woken earlier to go down to the river and wash away the remainder of yesterday's mud.

"Good morning," said Iolaus walking over and offering breakfast to the now stretching bleary eyed girl.

It wasn't too long after that they started out for the nearest town. They soon came to a fork in the road. There was no signpost.

One of the girls asked, "So, which way do we go now?"

"That way," both guys said, pointing in opposite directions.

"No, that's the shorter route." said Iolaus.

"No, that way is," said Hercules.

"Bet you a dinar," came Iolaus.

"Deal," replied Hercules.

So, Hercules and Jane took the right fork while Iolaus and Ceryndip took the left.

Soon, Iolaus and Ceryndip came to a sloping wooded glen. They stopped at the edge.

"That looks awfully dank and gloomy."

"There could be lions, tigers, and bears in there," Ceryndip said.

"Oh my, don't be silly. there're no bears in Greece." Iolaus answered.

They continued into the glen. They stopped about halfway through to take a look around.

"Do you hear something?" Ceryndip asked.

"What is it?"

Then, out of nowhere the ground beneath them gave way and the earth swallowed them.

Meanwhile, on the road that Hercules and Jane had chosen. The two were having a lite conversation , when they came upon a small girl who was crying by the side of the road. They stopped and Jane said kneeled down. "What's' wrong little girl?"

"My brothers' dog chased my kitty up the tree, and she won't come down." Pointing to a very large tree.

"Don't worry, we'll get her for you" said Jane.

"We will?" answered Herc. At Jane's look he explained, "Iolaus usually does the tree climbing" Herc looked up seeing the half grown cat at the top. "He takes the punishment better. Hope this goes better than the last time this happened." Resigned to his fate, Hercules began to climb the tree.

Hercules carefully climbed to the frightened cat, and reached out, only to be meet by a show of teeth and claws. He was finally able to grab the cat and start back down. He was halfway when the cat bit him and he lost his grip and fell . He landed in a large muddy puddle splashing Jane in the process. The frightened cat ran toward the little girl and jumped in to her arms. She flashed a large smile and exclaimed Thank you mister then turned and ran home hugging her pet tightly.

"Yuck!" Jane said wiping the mud from her face.

"See, that's why I leave stuff like that to Iolaus," Hercules replied miserably, "there's a stream up ahead where we can wash up."

"So...what happened last time?" Jane asked with a mischievious grin.

"When?"

"With Iolaus."

"Oh,well he sprained his ankle and lost out on getting the girl. By the time we reached my mothers' his ankle was the size of a ripe melon . But, don't let him know I told you. He let people think he got hurt fighting a group of fierce bandits, he got cartloads of sympathy from the girls, he loved it."

"Mums the word," Jane giggled. "I wonder if Ceryndip and Iolaus are having as good of time as we are?"

It was almost completely dark. It looked like a cave or cavern of some kind.

In the dim light Ceryndip asked, "Are you aright?" discovering that she had landed on top of Iolaus.

In a breathy voice he replied, "Fine. The floor broke my fall."

They got up and looked for something to make a torch from by the light from above, but found nothing. They felt their way along the wall till they came to a chamber with more light. Then, to make things even worse, there was a growling coming from all around them. Numerous pairs of yellow eyes appeared.

"Ugh oh, this is not good," they both proclaimed.

Then, a set of flashing white jaws clamped down on Iolaus' wrist nearly tearing through the leather gauntlet.

Two of the dark forms had Ceryndip cornered and were nipping and tearing at her clothing. She kicked out and stubbed her toe, but heard a loud yip in the process.

Iolaus shook off he aggressor, turned and grabbed Ceryndip. They ran for the light ahead.

Ceryndip asked, "What are they?"

"We're not staying to find out."

They made it to the edge of the cave and their unwanted company were not far behind. They were standing on a severely sloping ledge, too steep to run down.

"Oh, great. Now what?" Ceryndip said, out of breath. then she thought, what would MacGyver do?

They grabbed a hollow log and broke the top off.

"Will this work?" Iolaus asked uncertainly.

"It's either this or finding out what's chasing us."

They launched themselves from the ledge just as the pack of very large snorting, slobbering dogs broke into the light. They shot down the slope at great speed on their makeshift sled.

Iolaus turned to see how far behind the pack was and came face to face with the pack leader's snapping jaws, which just about took his nose off. The blonde Greek's eyes grew big and he swallowed hard, then turned back to his pilot and said, "Faster, girl, faster!"

"We have a bigger problem, look!" she said pointing to a rapidly approaching ravine.

Poor Iolaus looked back and then forward again, "We're kibble."

"Not yet, hang tight," Ceryndip yelled as they went sailing out over the embankment. They lost the sled in midair and came crashing onto the other side, rolling and tumbling across the opposite embankment.

They both lay there in two battered and bruised heaps. Iolaus sat up, rubbed the big lump on his head and brushed off dirt from his now tattered outfit, "You all right, Ceryn?"

She lay there motionless and finally said, "Remind me not to do that again, ouch." She sat up. They looked over to see the pack on the other side very angry and disappointed that they could not find a way across.

They both got up and checked their collection of bruises, scrapes and lumps and continued on there way to meet up with Herc and Jane.

It was way after lunch time and two stomachs were starting to grumble, but Iolaus has lost the skin with the water in it along with the leftover bread and cheese back in the cave. A snack for those monsters, no doubt.

They continued on until they found the road back. Ceryndip then said, "I have to go."

"Go where?" Iolaus asked.

"You know," she said stressing the point.

"Oh."

She left his side and disappeared into the bushes. She returned a few minutes later, but she looked different. She had taken her tatted and very torn outfit and redone it into a makeshift amazon outfit. She had also found a strong and straight branch to use as a staff/walking stick.

"Like it?" she asked following his gaze.

"Nice."

They continued on. Iolaus was now confident that they hadn't really lost much time and that for once he would finally win the bet with his friend.

Then, they heard horses. They were quickly surrounded by a small gang of leather clad bandits. They dismounted and began to harass Ceryndip. There was a push and then a shove and the flash of swords being drawn.

Being weaponless, Iolaus would have to do as he had done countless times before and use his hands. One of the bandits swung on him, he ducked and delivered a fist to the man's stomach and then a quick right cross to the jaw. The bandit went down. Iolaus reached for the dropped sword, but got the flatside of another sword to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground, dazed.

"Leave him alone, you bullies." Ceryndip yelled.

They all stopped and looked over at her. The leader threw up his hand to stop his men, "And who are you supposed to be, little girl?"

Striking her best warrior pose with her staff ready Ceryndip proclaimed, "I am Ceryndip, Warrior Goddess."

"You're next," the bandit said.

"And what are you going to do? Cleave my little ol' heart from my heaving bossom?"

"Get her boys!" The leader yelled achieving what Ceryndip intended, to get the bandits away from Iolaus.

They rushed toward her. She swung her staff, connecting with one knee cap sending him to the ground. The, whacking another upside the head knocking him out.

Iolaus shook off his dizziness, grabbed a sword and joined in the fray.

The two warriors made short work of the bandits, sending them scurrying for cover.

"How's your head?" Ceryndip asked noticing the sizable lump.

"I'm fine. I can add it to the collection," Iolaus chuckled, "Ceryndip, Warrior Goddess? Where did that come from?"

"Oh, it's a long story. I'll have to tell you sometime."

The two wayward travelers finally made it to the gates of the city, They were tired and hungry. They made their way through the streets to the inn where they were to meet Hercules and Jane. They entered the inn,

only to find Hercules and his companion setting at a table eating stew. They walked over and Hercules looked up to exclaim, "You look like Tartarus, what happened?"

"Boy! What A day, you wouldn't believe it!"

The end for now.

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