Disclaimer: I no own. Enough said.

A/N: Seriously, sorry 'bout the lateness of this new chapter. Let's just say that studying sucks and no sleep and no rest makes me a very cranky person. :) But I hope you all enjoy this anyway.

Hercules walked through the forest, taking the most likely of paths Nadya would have taken. He felt a certain pride in himself that he no longer leaned on trees like a cripple. Though he winded easily, he could gladly say that he could once again take stoles without worrying about the walk back.

Thinking back to the class that day, he really didn't know what to think anymore. The mysterious woman sent his mind reeling at times. At one point, she was saving the life of Lilith, then trying to kill her. Then she saves his life then avoids talking to him. How could she open herself up to him and his friends one moment, then the next close herself off so completely?

He had been walking around for a while, checking all the most likely of places and paths she may have taken but to no avail. Reluctantly, he turned back to the path leading back to the academy.

"Giving up already, Hercules? And here I thought you were a bit more stubborn than that," a mocking voice teased.

Looking up in surprise, Hercules caught sight of the elusive girl high up in a tree branch, grinning mischievously down at him, her hair cascading around to frame her face and her grey-blue eyes sparkling playfully. He couldn't help but smile back. "How long have you been watching me?"

She looked up as if to really need to think about it. Swinging herself on a branch, she answered with a hint of amusement, "For a while I suppose. About from the time you were searching the clearing where those purple wildflowers grew. I saw you sit down on a boulder there to catch your breath and I thought I'd follow you around to see what you were looking for."

"Looking for? I was looking for you! And don't pretend that you didn't know that," he said, clearly frustrated with her mock ignorance, though he found himself liking the little banter.

"Well then, you should have just been looking in the trees as well as the ground," she defended herself as she jumped smoothly to another tree branch.

"Yes, because people climb trees on a regular basis," he answered sarcastically. He had to admit, she looked positively exotic swinging herself around the branches. "I'll be sure to climb trees next time when I'm looking for you."

"Why not now?"

He looked at her, slightly dumbfounded. "You want me? To climb up there? And how do you propose I do that?" he asked impatiently, crossing his arms in annoyance, not at all liking where this conversation was leading.

Hanging herself upside down with her legs wrapped around a branch, she simply said, "With your arms."

"My arms," he asked, "Of course, I was just thinking of throwing myself at the tree to see where that got me! Why didn't I think of that?" he exclaimed, throwing his arms up after smacking his palm onto his forehead.

"Well then, there's your problem," she said tonelessly as though everything made so much sense now.

Hercules glared at her, his annoyance creeping dangerously close to anger. "You saw me having to take a break back there! What makes you think that I can climb a tree when simply walking tires me? Why would you expect this of me?" When she didn't answer, he turned abruptly on his heel and made to go back to the path to the academy.

Or he would have had Nadya not decided to drop swiftly down in front of him, blocking his way. "Are you the son of Zeus or not? I had come here in the belief that someone born with that type of blood in his veins may have that extra something to him. That you would put it to good use and not disgrace us all by not taking advantage of the blessing you were granted. I don't see the son of Zeus in front of me. I see a coward that's too afraid to do something as simple as climbing a tree." Her face remained stoic as she spoke, but her eyes revealed a hidden ferocity to back up her words.

Hercules could only stare back at her, though he had noticeably cringed at the mention of his father. He could not find the words to answer her back. She expected him to somehow regain all his health back after he had, admittedly, almost did just a few days ago? An angry flush rose in his cheeks. "Get out of the way."

"I will not."

"Don't think I won't push you out of the way." Something about her, he noted, seemed to be bringing out a slightly negative side to him, though he had to admit it was an empty threat. When she didn't make a motion to move, he started to simply walk around her. Problem was, she moved into his path again. She raised an eyebrow challengingly. He made a quick motion to this left and again was blocked. Sighing as if in defeat, Nadya relaxed her stance, believing she had won. Smirking to himself inside, he made a mad dash to his right, passing a surprised Nadya. Just as he thought he had made it away from her, he felt her tackle him from behind and they fell towards the forest floor. Turning around to face her, he gasped her hands just in time. They grappled for a few more moments before he thought to glance at her face. The anger he had seen before was back and the corner of her lips were turned up slightly. It was then that he realized that she wasn't using much force in their wrestling. Catching on, he quickly trapped one of her legs and gave a strong bump with his hips, sending them both rolling to the right, emitting a small squeal from the shocked girl. Nadya could only look up, wondering just how their positions had been switched so easily.

"Give up?" the young demigod asked playfully, grinning from ear to ear.

"Never!" she replied, laughter soon following her response. It was infectious and soon they were both laughing on the forest floor, their wrestling attempts soon forgotten as their arms had a better use of holding their sides from splitting open.

Finally, their laughter dying out, Hercules propped himself on an elbow, looking at the girl who stared up at the canopy of tree leaves, a smile still gracing her face. Noting his directed gaze, she turned her head to look back.

"So why, Hercules, were you looking for me in the first place?"

Thinking a moment before answering, he said, "I was curious as to what happened to you in that class."

"With Fidicius? Why do you ask?"

"Well, it just seemed that, though he did deserve a slight lecture, you may have gone a bit over the edge."

The smile left her face at Hercules' statement. "He had no right to single me out like that."

"Look, I'm not challenging your intellect, as we can all admit you have a lot of, but I was wondering if Fidicius may have hit a soft spot."

Sighing to herself, she had to admit that Hercules was right. "I suppose he did." She looked down at her clasped palms resting on her stomach and mumbled a response.

"What was it?"

Shifting uncomfortably, she said once again, "I don't know how to read… or write. In your language." She added quickly, clearly afraid that Hercules would think that she didn't know how to write at all.

Hercules glared at her in shock. "Really? But you speak so well! Granted, you still have a bit of an accent, but even that is getting better," he said. "Not that your accent isn't nice because it is… well, as accents go, it's nice. Though I've never heard it before… but that doesn't mean-"

"Okay, I get it!" she exclaimed with a laugh at his obvious awkwardness.

"But… well, I don't suppose you would like some help with that? Not that you're not capable to learn it by yourself, but if you wanted some help…"

Turning her face back towards him, she responded, "I'd like that." Hercules breathed again, surprised that he had been holding his breath for her answer. A flush rose to his cheeks and he abruptly stood up, brushing himself off Nadya did the same.

"So, now whatever happened to this tree climbing business?"

"Huh?" the demigod gasped, not quite believing her.

Laughing at his response, she took a hold of his hand and began tugging him along a pathway. Hercules looked between her hand clasping his and the girl leading him to who knew where. Finally getting a hold of himself, he caught up to her to walk alongside her, not behind. And slowly the blush left his face, though he could not bring himself to let go of her hand.

It was a few minutes later that he realized that he had no idea where they were going, though he did gather that they were going uphill.

"I hate to ask this after you've already been leading me for quite a while, but where exactly are we going? I thought you wanted to climb trees?"

She looked over at him with a grin. "You'll see," then added, "Don't you trust me?"

He blinked at her. "It's not that I don't truth you, it's just that I've never been to this part of the forest before," he countered defensively.

"She touched her free index finger to her chin. "So, in other words, I'm making you nervous."

"Ididn't say that!" he argued, the familiar flush creeping onto his face again.

"Uh huh…. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think you'll like what I have in mind." Taking a look at the young man, she could tell her words weren't very comforting, but his own pride refused to let him back down now.

After a few more minutes of walking along, Nadya finally came to a halt. Seeing nothing all that special, he gave a quizzical look towards her.

A bit of laughter came from the young woman. "Now we climb." To her surprise this time, the demigod made no objection. Leading him to a tree, she climbed up a couple branches, then lowered an arm to him.

Glancing at her outstretched hand, he grasped a hold of it and slowly made his way up the tree. Making it about halfway up the sturdy trunk, he came up to Nadya and took a seat beside her.

"This," she gestured in front of them, "is what I wanted you to see." Hercules followed her gaze and lost his breath at the sight.

They were perched on a branch overlooking one of the most beautiful sites he had ever seen. The tree they were sitting on overlooked a cliff of three hundred feet high. To their left, a waterfall cascaded down from the cliff's edge. Trees jutted out from the sides of the cliff, their leaves decorated the rocks. The basin of the waterfall was a soft blue colour, no cloudiness present in the water. Wildflowers were in abundance everywhere they looked as were vines that climbed all the trees and cliff walls. The sun sparkled brightly on the water's surface. Hercules could hardly pry his eyes away from it.

"I'll take this silence that you like it?" asked Nadya. Hercules gulped and simply nodded his head.

After a few more minutes passed, Hercules turned to Nadya. "So, you never did tell me where you were from."

Nadya started at the statement, throwing herself a bit off balance on the branch, though luckily Hercules placed his hand behind her back to steady her. "That is a bit of a more difficult question than you may believe."

"Try me."

"I really don't want to talk about this, okay? Change the subject," she said, staring stubbornly at a leaf facing away from him. Dumbfounded slightly, he merely gave her a curious look. "Nothing against you or anything, but I don't talk to a lot of people about it."

"Why's that?"

Sighing, she answered, "Look, there are some things about my past that really can't be explained all that well. I, myself, am still trying to put together the pieces." She looked back at Hercules and saw his expectant expression. "Oh all right! I'll tell you some of what I do know. From around the age of about seven years old, I grew up in a country north of here. So far north of here that we would get snow." Hercules started at this statement. "Anyway, I grew up there with my adoptive family. I knew that I was a handful, but they still stuck by me for which I will forever be grateful. I attended school there, or I suppose it could be called an academy, and to be perfectly honest, I went through the grades rather quickly. I graduated from secondary school when I was fifteen. I then went to a university in another country called Greece."

"What's a university? And this place you call Greece?" Nadya almost laughed at the latter question.

"A university is another academy, though the studies are must harder." Hercules just nodded his head at this. "And Greece is a country… well, it's pretty close to here you might say." Nadya grinned a bit at this, though Hercules didn't press her for the exact location.

"Anyway, when I was there, I met someone who asked a favour of me and that's how I ended up here."

"What was the favour?"

"Now that is what I can not tell you."

At that, Hercules thought back to the competition at Kora's. "Does it have something to do with that pendent?"

Nadya just shook her head. "Sorry, Hercules, but I really can't say." Rather than pressing for more details, he let it go. She had already told him more than he thought she would say. And to be quite honest, the day was going too perfectly to spoil it with an argument over a simple pendent.

They sat there for the rest of the afternoon. Though there was not much talking, there was no awkwardness in their silence. They were content to just sit there and stare at the scenery, losing themselves in their thoughts. It wasn't until the sun was setting that they realized how late it had gotten.

"We should be heading back," Hercules said.

"I suppose we should," she replied. Looking down at the ground, she asked, "Do you need help getting down from here?"

Laughing a bit at this, he said, "I think I can manage."

Once back on the ground, they walked back to the academy talking about miscellaneous adventures that they had had in their lives as well as just the simple experiences from childhood. Though one topic that came up quite a lot was the look on poor Fidicius' face as an angry Nadya had chewed him out.