"What's wrong?" Hercules asked when Alexia pulled him aside later that evening.

"Iolaus has a problem with me," she replied.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because he flat-out said so this afternoon," she said, explaining more details about the conversation she had with Iolaus earlier.

Hercules shook his head. "I don't understand. Why would he dislike you so much?"

"I'm not sure, but it may have something to do with me hanging out with you so much. Maybe he feels that I've taken his place."

Hercules nodded. "Possibly."

"He also sounded like he hasn't forgiven me for how I acted when I first came to the academy." Alexia continued. "I mean, maybe I was accepted by the other cadets more easily than he was."

"Yeah, but that's no reason for him to hold a grudge against you." Hercules protested.

"I know," Alexia sighed, "but I can't get through to him, no matter what I do. So I was hoping that you could talk to him and find a way to work things out. I don't want us to be on bad terms and spoil the trip."

"All right, I'll talk to him tomorrow," Hercules complied, "but if he keeps acting like this, I don't know if it will do much good."

"Yeah," Alexia sighed again. "Well, thanks anyway."

Hercules smiled. "No problem. Listen, we'd better get some rest. We still have a long way to walk tomorrow."

Alexia and Hercules walked back to the campsite and the cadets turned in for the night. Long after the others had fallen asleep, Alexia found herself unable to do the same. She replayed the events of that evening in her mind, trying to figure out what she should have done differently. However, nothing would have changed the fact that Iolaus hated her.

She remembered something that her father once told her: "Even when you try your best, you still can't win them all." But for some reason, she didn't want to give up on Iolaus yet. One of her dominating traits was being extremely and unreasonably stubborn.

Alexia sighed and rolled over on her side. Hercules was lying at her right, Lilith was on her left, and Iolaus—where was Iolaus? Alexia sat up, looking frantically around. The blanket that was lying directly across from her was empty, and Iolaus was nowhere in sight. She looked over at Lilith and Hercules, knowing she should probably wake them in case Iolaus was in trouble. After debating the option for a few moments, she got up quietly and crept past the slumbering cadets and into the woods. She didn't know why, but she wanted to go and find Iolaus herself. That way, she might receive another opportunity to work things out with him. If the situation did turn out to be serious and Iolaus was in danger, she could go back and alert the other two.

After searching in the darkness for what seemed like forever, Alexia made her way towards the sound of moving water. When she emerged from the trees, she saw a waterfall on top of a ledge. She could barely make out a small figure nearby. As she came closer, she found that it was Iolaus. She tried her best to keep quiet, but she stepped on a twig and it snapped, causing Iolaus to turn around and discover that she was behind him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was going to ask you the same question," she replied.

Iolaus turned around to face the cascading water. "I couldn't sleep."

"Same here." Alexia said as she walked up and stood beside him.

She looked at the view in front of her: the moon casting its unearthly glow on the forest, a small breeze rustling in the trees, moonlight reflecting off the flowing water. She looked over at Iolaus, noticing a change in his disposition since that afternoon. He was calm now, totally attuned to his surroundings. She sensed no anger or hostility in him anymore, but peace instead. She assumed that he was so comfortable there because he was a hunter. He was one with forest and all of the creatures in it.

He's got a gift, she thought to herself enviously. There were several things that Alexia could do fairly well, but she had nothing that was as special as Iolaus's connection with nature and his mastery of hunting skills.

After snapping out of her thoughts, Alexia reminded herself of why she was there in the first place.