A/N:
This is my first Hercules story, so please be nice.
Summary:
Set before Iolaus dies.
After being separatud from Hercules, Iolaus is ambushed and nearly killed but is saved by a mysterious young girl. (No romance between them though.)
Chapter 1:
Iolaus made his way towards the wood and away from the place he and Hercules were staying after being permitted to take a walk in the woods. Hercules had been rather cautious lately since there had been quite a few anonamous attacks, centered on Iolaus, and he didn't want his best friend killed. But obviously, someone else did, and he had sworn to himself that he would find out who. Soon.
'He must be overacting.' Iolaus said to himself. 'It's probably because I was the closest or easiest target at the time...'
His chain of thought was suddenly interrupted as dark forms began emerging from behind bushes and trees.
'Great. It's them again.'
10 minutes later, out of 50 men, there were only 3 men left. But Iolaus was beginning to tire having fought non-stop for 10 minutes and was beginning to get sloppy. He kicked and stabbed and then there were 2 men left. One of the men attacked him, but he was a little stronger than the others, and a tired Iolaus became so pre-occupied with him that he didn't notice the other remainder, who used the hilt of it's sword to hit Iolaus in the head. He fell to the floor dizzy, and looked up with blurry vision to see sword raised above him, ready to finish him off. The man brought the sword down, but stopped halfway and stood stunned for a moment, and then fell to the floor, dead. The other also fell, and both had an arrow each in their chests. Iolaus lay there confused and began slipping away into unconsiousness. The last thing he saw was a figure he couldn't quite make out looking down at him, and then blackness.
"Wake up, sleepy head." came an unknown voice. Iolaus slowly opened his eyes to see a group of boys and 1 girl staring down at him. He sat upright, but fell back down again as he felt a piercing pain in his head.
"Woah, steady there. You got quite a bump on the head." the girl said. The boys all leaned in to try and get a look at the bump.
"Hey, hey. Give the man some space. Go on. Go do something productive with yourselves." she said to the boys.
"I agree. We need some help gathering wood and food in the forest, unless you want to go hungry tonight." a man said coming up from behind the group. The boys groaned and slumped into the woods to hunt and collect. The girl nodded to him in thanks and turned back to Iolaus.
"I think you can sit up now. Just don't go so fast." she said to him and he slowly made his way up into a sitting position.
"That's it. Now, have you lost your memory, anything like that?" she asked. Iolaus shook his head.
"Have you forgotten how to talk?" she asked again.
"No." he replied.
"Okay then." she said simply.
"My turn to question. Who are you? Where am I? and what happened?" he asked.
"Well at least I know for sure you remember how to talk. Well, I'm Fern. You are in my tribes temporary camp site. And if you mean before you blacked out, I shot them with arrows before they killed you. Anymore questions?" she replied. Iolaus pondered for a moment and then shook his head.
"Good. What were you doing out there anyway?" Fern questioned.
"I was just taking a stroll, when for the 5th time in 3 days, those weirdos came out of nowhere and attacked me." Iolaus explained.
"What happened the other 4 times?" Fern asked.
"I was with my partner, Hercules." Iolaus answered. Her eyes widened.
"So are you're Iolaus?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"You have to come with me. Quickly." she said, obviously disturbed by something. "Hey, bro. Get over here!" she yelled and a boy who looked similar to her ran over and she whispered something in his ear. He turned to look at Iolaus, with the same expression Fern had given him earlier.
"You're not safe out here." he whispered, and they led him into the woods.
