The women made their way to the cave that Krellus had described, "Looks like he was telling the truth," Gabrielle said amazed.

"Uh huh, defeat will do that to you. We'll leave Argo here, there's no telling how many men are inside."

After dismounting and setting Argo up for the wait, the women quietly made their way to the mouth of the cave, weapons at the ready. Xena entered first, as was usual, and Gabrielle followed close behind. In the distance they could hear the voices of only a few men, but it would be hard to tell until they got closer. They made their way towards the light from the fires inside and saw that there were actually about ten men guarding the girl, who sat bound and gagged on a log next to the fire.

Xena silently pulled her chakram and whip from her belt, just as they were about to make their move, the girl caught a glimpse of them. "What are you looking at?" one of the men asked, noticing the wide-eyed expression on the girl's face.

"Mmmm..." Cora shook her head, trying to make them believe she didn't see anything.

One of the men turned in search of what she'd be looking at, "IT'S XENA!" he yelled.

"It's me alright," Xena said, "Are you going to give me the girl, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?"

One of the men looked around, "What are you waiting for? GET THEM!"

"Fine, have it your way," Xena said letting out her infamous war cry. She cracked her whip around the first three men and yanked them to the ground, then quickly threw her chakram towards the men charging her. After bouncing around the cave a few times, she caught her chakram, which had taken down all but two of the remaining men. Xena drew her sword and began to fend them off as Gabrielle bopped the three men wrapped in the whip on the head to disable them long enough to get the girl out. She unwound Xena's whip and ran for the girl.

One of the men managed to knock Xena's sword out of her hands, leaving her fighting with just her chakram and her bare hands. This didn't faze the warrior, as she sliced one man across his chest with her chakram then abruptly punched the other man in the face, knocking him on his back. Xena quickly regained her sword and pointed it at the man's throat, "I'll ask you again, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." The man got to his feet and ran the other direction.

Gabrielle had made her way to the girl and pulled the cloth from her mouth. "Who are you?" Cora asked.

"We're friends," Gabrielle said, "and we've been looking for you for a couple days now."

"Thank you for finding me, I was beginning to think I'd have to stay here in this cave with these men forever."

"Don't mention it," Xena said, "we should really get a move on; your mother must be beside herself with worry."

Gabrielle had just finished untying the last knot and threw the rope off to the side. Helping the young woman up, she asked, "Where is your house from here?"

"Not far," Cora replied as they walked out of the cave, "just over there, beyond those trees."

"Excellent," Xena said, let's go. The warrior grabbed her horse and the women made their way to Lady Suryllus' house, where she was still waiting.

"CORA!" they heard the lady yell as they walked up to the house.

"Mother!" Cora ran into her mother's arms.

"How can I ever repay you?" Lady Suryllus asked Xena.

"Just keep her safe from now on."

"Oh don't worry, I will be," Cora said, still enveloped in her mother's embrace.

"Well alright," Xena said and they said their goodbyes.

By the time the sun was setting, Xena had found a good place to set up camp. As Gabrielle laid out the bedrolls, the warrior princess started a fire. "You hungry at all?" Xena asked her.

"Actually no, I'm more tired than anything. Are you?"

"Surprisingly no."

Xena began to rub at her neck, realizing she needed to put more ointment on it. She went to her saddle bag and pulled it out, but Gabrielle took it from her. "Here, let me." she said softly.

"Alright," she conceded, sitting on a rock in front of her. "How's it look?"

"It's getting a weird green color, but it's closed up for the most part. Doesn't look as raw as it did earlier."

"That sounds like a good thing. Should be mostly better by tomorrow."

"That's a relief," Gabrielle said as she bent down to put the ointment on the wound. She gently rubbed it in, put the cap back on the ointment container and placed it on the ground. She leaned down and kissed the warrior on the left side of her neck just below the wound; she then swiveled her head to the right side of the warrior's neck and kissed her right above the wound.

Xena turned her head to the right and met her lips with Gabrielle's. Gabrielle slowly knelt down, so she was more level with her partner and the two continued sharing their intimacy for a while longer. Gabrielle backed away from the warrior, looking lovingly into her eyes as she stood up and wiped off her knees. Xena also got up and made her way to the bedrolls, next to the fire. Gabrielle quickly joined her. Without a word, Gabrielle snuggled up against Xena and the two fell asleep. It wasn't long before Xena woke up to nature calling, she gently slid herself out from under the beautiful woman sleeping with her.

After finishing her business, she didn't want to wake the girl, so she laid out on her own bedroll only a couple feet away and fell back to sleep.