Regretfully leaving Coveda and its inn, Hercules returned to the forest path by which he had come. He deposited his unexpected and still unconscious purchase at the edge of a small clearing, then set about preparing the campsite.

By the time he was finished, night had fallen. He was just lighting their fire when the woman began to stir. After a moment of restlessness, her eyes opened, and for a moment she looked around in confusion. Then her questing gaze fell upon Hercules, and her memory returned in a rush.

"You! I'll --"

She lurched upright, then yelped in pain as her back protested the sudden movement. Hercules approached with a reassuring smile, holding out a large leaf with goop on it.

"I gathered some gyatta berries. They make a good healing salve. If you want, I'd be happy to put it on your back."

She leaned away, suspicion on her features. "I bet you would. Don't you come near me."

Hercules was taken aback. "I'm only trying to help."

"Oh sure," she agreed derisively. "That's why you gave that maggot your money -- to help me."

"It was!" Hercules protested, wounded.

His words fell upon deaf ears. She drew away with a snarl. "How stupid do you think I am? You bought yourself a slave girl, and you have every intention of --"

"I do not! Look, as far as I'm concerned, you're free. I would have given you your freedom back in the city, but the slave merchant knocked you out before I could."

"And I suppose you brought me to this deserted site so that you could show me the local wildflowers?" she sneered.

Hercules tried hard not to lose his temper. For this he had foresaken the feather beds of the Covedan inn? "I brought you here because I knew there were some gyatta berries nearby -- I had passed them on my way into Coveda -- and because I had a pretty good idea that if you came to while we were still in the town, you'd go after that slave merchant again."

"So I'm free."

"Yes."

"And you don't want anything."

"No."

He began to brighten, hopeful that she had at last recognized his benign intentions, but these hopes were quickly dashed as she snatched up a clod of dirt and hurled it at him. He ducked in the nick of time.

"You can't even lie well! Get away from me!"

Hercules threw up his hands in frustration, nearly losing the gyatta mush. "Why would I bother to lie? What possible reason would I have? You yourself pointed out we're in the middle of nowhere, and even if we weren't, the Covedans couldn't care less what I do to you."

There was a pause while she mulled over the truth to these words.

"If you don't want anything, then why did you buy me?" she demanded, eyeing him narrowly.

"I'm beginning to wonder that myself," Hercules muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"I wanted to help you."

"Uh huh. I suppose you just wander the earth, helping people?"

"Well, actually, yes," Hercules admitted diffidently.

"And this pays well? Or do the gods drop ambrosia to you from heaven? Oh, that's right, I forgot. You're the son of Zeus. That must come in handy."

Hercules had grown progressively more nettled at her stubborn refusal to accept his words. "I don't see how my life is any concern of yours. Now do you want this on your back or not?"

"No. Wait, yes. All right. Just watch where you put your hands."

With many a suspicious look, she turned her back, allowing him to spread the goop over her wounds. Hercules tried to be gentle, but she couldn't suppress a wince every time he touched one of the weals. By the time he was finished, Hercules' moment of pique had passed, and he once again tried to make friends. "That was a brave thing you did, sticking up for that other prisoner," he offered.

The woman shrugged, then flinched at the resultant discomfort. "Not that it did her any good in the long run. I expect she's been sold by now."

"Even so, there aren't many people who would take on a group of armed guards for a stranger."

She sniffed haughtily. "Maybe not in this barbaric backwater, where you still worship she-demons like Hera, but where I come from, anyone would do as much for a dog." Then she remembered her companion's parentage and looked a bit sheepish. "I suppose I shouldn't have made that remark about your stepmother. ...Sorry."

To her surprise, Hercules smiled. "I have no quarrel with that description of Hera. I only wish more people recognized her true nature. So where is this land of yours? What made you leave it?"

The second he asked the question, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. His unwilling guest's expression darkened and the momentary thaw was over.

"That's my concern and none of yours! Just because you bought me doesn't entitle you to --"

"Okay, okay! Sorry I asked. Look, like I said before, you're free to go."

Her tone savage with rage and frustration, she hissed, "I can't go anywhere except with you. Despite the fact that I have pressing business elsewhere, I cannot leave your side."

Hercules blinked in confusion. "Why not? As far as I'm concerned, the purchase down in Coveda was nothing more than a charade."

She turned away. "Don't be stupid. You bought me, didn't you?"

"For two dinars! That's hardly enough to get upset over!" Hercules protested.

"My life may seem cheap to you, but it means a lot to me!"

"I didn't mean it like that. It's just --"

She interrupted his fumbling apology. "Besides, it has nothing to do with those stupid Covedans' laws. Among my people, if a person saves your life, you are -- bonded -- to him."

She was clearly less than delighted with this turn of events, and Hercules grew progressively more alarmed through the course of her explanation. "Wait a minute! Whatever your people may believe, I'm not interested in acquiring a -- a wife, or --"

She favored him with a scornful look. "It's not that kind of a bond. It just means that I can't leave you. I owe you too great a debt."

Hercules tried to reason with his unwilling companion. "I don't collect debts. I helped you because I wanted to do it. I didn't expect anything in return."

"I don't care what you expected or what you want," she replied between clenched teeth. "I'm going to stay with you until I can find some way to repay you."

Hercules asked hopefully, "How about if I loan you two dinars and you --"

"It's not the money, you nitwit! You saved my life, and now I'm stuck with you!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry. I just -- Wait a second. Why am I apologizing for rescuing you?" Hercules' temper finally flared to life. This was the thanks he received?

"Who asked you to get involved? I bet you do this a lot -- sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong," the woman snarled back.

"If you'd rather be back in Coveda, the road is right over there." Hercules hooked a thumb over his shoulder.

"I already told you, I can't go there -- or anywhere else, unless you're going. It would destroy the few shreds of honor that I have left." To their mutual horror, her chin began to tremble, and she turned away.

Hercules desperately tried to think of something to distract her. "You -- um -- you said something about having an urgent errand somewhere. Where? What is it?"

"What do you care? I can't go there now," she sniffled, not turning around.

"Maybe it's where I'm headed," Hercules suggested.

"Why would you go to Loradon?" she scoffed.

"What a coincidence! Loradon is just where I'm going!"

"It is not! ...Is it?"

Hercules smiled engagingly. "Well, it could be. We 'wandering heroes' don't have a set itinerary, and it sounds like something is amiss in Loradon."

She chewed her lip, torn. On the one hand, she was highly suspicious of Hercules' apparent good intentions; on the other, she was desperate to reach Loradon.

Finally, she concurred. "All right. You can go to Loradon."

"Gee, thanks," Hercules said ironically. "Can I also learn what's wrong there?"

"Later. Maybe."

"How about your name? Or it that being too personal?"

"You don't have to be snippy," she admonished. "It's Alteira. And you? They don't really call you Hercules, do they?"

"My mother does, and it's sort of caught on," he explained drily.

Alteira rose to her feet and started for the road. "Well? What are you waiting for? Loradon isn't getting any closer. Let's go!"

Hercules sighed, extinguished the fire, and jogged after her. Why couldn't he ever learn to mind his own business?

TBC...