Iolaus scratched at the thickening whiskers on his chin, and wondered yet again how anyone managed to put up with the irritation that the face fungus brought. A glance at his silently brooding companion caught him also rubbing the bushy bristles that had sprouted over his lower face.

Hearing the sound of marching feet, the pair drew their tired horses back into the shelter of the copse that they had stopped by. It was only a patrol, no more than a half century. Iolaus did a quick calculation and reckoned that there were less than forty men. He glanced at his companion and almost laughed. Hiding had become second nature to them, but truth to tell, they now looked very little like the descriptions that were posted everywhere offering a sizable reward for their capture.

Grinning, he admired the blonde hair and whiskers that considerably changed Toris's looks, only the piercing blue eyes proclaimed his kinship to Xena now. - While I, - he smirked again at the thought, - didn't even recognise myself in the mirror in that last inn! - He pulled a very black hair out of his chin and winced ruefully at the sharp point of pain it momentarily caused. - Not even our own mother's would recognise us now, - he chuckled to himself.

They waited for the legionaries to pass, on their way back to their barracks in Lugdunum. The area still had problems with Gaulish raiders, so strong patrols were maintained to ensure the safety of the outer lying Roman dwellings in an area being rapidly populated by colonists. Once the soldiers were safely down the road, the pair urged their mounts forward once more, where they could get a clear view of the road to the south.

"How long do you think before they get here?" asked Toris, curbing his impatience with effort.

Iolaus scratched at his beard again as he considered, "Hard to say," he answered non-committally, "Well before dusk, I should think. That last camp the legion made wasn't too many leagues back there. We've got time to find ourselves a decent inn that overlooks the Prefecture. You never know, we might get lucky and get a glimpse of her."

Toris looked moodily down the road. So far they hadn't been able to accomplish anything of use. As Autolycus had warned, the pair of them had been recognised as soon as they switched back into their own clothes. He grimaced about the close run problem at Orange, a small city a days march north of Evignan. They'd thought they'd managed to slip into the city without any notice. They'd got ahead of the VIIth Legion, much as they had today, and had stopped in a tavern to get a bite to eat, and hopefully watch the wagon go by and, maybe, catch that elusive glimpse of his sister.

It had been Iolaus's sharp elbow digging into his ribs that alerted him to the odd way that the tavern keeper was acting. The man had flipped his hand at a young floor sweeper, who scuttled away on an errand, before the florid, sweating, man came over to their table to take their order.

"Ah, no thanks," Toris had replied to the host's offer to get them something, "we've changed our minds." He stood up, following his blonde companion's lead and tried to brush past the man in his way.

The tavern keeper had put his hand against Toris's chest and said, "But sir, you've only just arrived, and we serve some of the best wine in all of Narbonensis."

Seeing that the man was not going to let him pass peacefully, and recognising Iolaus's worried impatience, Toris tried a trick of his sisters. He allowed his ice-blue eyes to harden and directed a chilling stare at the tavern keeper. The man had gone a little white around the gills and swallowed hard as he stepped back sharply, - Good one, Xena! - thought Toris as he strode purposefully past. He doubted that he'd be able to intimidate a warrior that way, unlike his 'oh so scary' sister, but it had worked well enough there.

"C'mon Toris," the compact blonde had encouraged, heading for the door with a purposeful stride, "Let's get out of here before we hit tr...."

He never finished the sentence, because eight members of the town watch bulled through the tavern door at that moment, their officer shouting, "That's them! Get them!"

Whatever else he had done in his life, tavern brawling was not a skill he had practised enough to be able to call himself proficient at it .. even if he had been brought up in one! Iolaus on the other hand, seemed to be quite comfortable in such situations. Grabbing a bench, the small man had hoisted it and then charged into the soldiers of the watch, before they were able to spread out too much.

Following his friend's lead, Toris hefted a small table and used it to shove the forces of law and order from the side, managing to use it as battering ram and shield both. Several bodies went down in a tangled pile, including Iolaus. But Toris dumped the table on top of the bulk of the heaving mass, before hauling the smaller man out, by his feet, from under a chaos of arms and legs.

With boyish grins at each other for the turmoil they had wrought, the pair, made a dash for the tavern door and their horses, "Ares' left hairy nut!" swore Iolaus as he swung his gaze up and down the street. Legionaries were coming at double time from each direction and converging on them.

They'd scrambled for their horses and darted for the only street providing a clear exit for them. Pushing the horses from a standing start to full gallop, they had raced the running soldiers for the narrow passageway that offered their only chance for escape.

It was a close run thing, but they made the alleyway before the Roman's did, and they'd set the horses for the fastest way out of the city, only to find the gates being closed when they reached them. Iolaus had given a wild whoop to distract the soldiers, then they'd driven their horses towards the narrowing gap as the heavy wooden portals were being slowly pushed shut and, by the skin of their teeth, and the grace of Zeus, they'd just managed to slip through and out into the open countryside. That had been about fourteen days previously. Since that close shave, they had decided to dye their hair and cultivate beards. It had worked and they were now able to pass among the Romans without being challenged or attacked, but they still maintained their cautious approach.

As Iolaus explained to Xena's brother, "If we're cautious and get in to trouble, at least we know we've done everything we can to avoid it. If we're careless, then it's too late to start worrying about caution when we're thrown into Caesar's dungeon."

Impatient though he was, Toris had seen the sense of the argument and had followed the smaller man's lead. In the time they had been together, he had developed a respect for Iolaus and found him to be both good company and sensible ... that is sensible over everything except women.

It had been a wet miserable day when they'd taken shelter in a tumbled down barn from an afternoon storm, somewhere on the long haul between Orange and Valence. They'd brought the horses in and had taken the chance to munch on some jerked meat. "Pity we can't cook some soup or something warm," grumbled Iolaus.

"Can you cook?" asked Toris, more for something to say than any real interest.

Iolaus waggled his hand from side to side and answered, "About enough to get by on. I've never poisoned anyone ... unlike your sister."

Toris had grinned at that, remembering some of Xena's more flamboyant disaster's in his mother's kitchen when they were children, "It's never been one of her many skills. But I never heard that she poisoned anyone with it before."

"That might have been a slight exaggeration on my part," agreed the smaller man with a grin in return, "but not by much."

They ate in silence for a while, each lost in his own thoughts as the rain fell heavily beyond the sagging door and lightning cracked throwing jagged lances around the darkening skies.

"You know," Toris said at last, just to break the silence between them, "You never told me how you and my sister met." For a long while he didn't think that Iolaus was going to answer him. The blonde had stared out into the wet afternoon and a frown had etched itself onto his brow, "I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to pry."

Iolaus sighed and turned to look into the blue eyes of his companion, "Toris, you know very little about Xena. What she did, what she became, even what she is now. I suppose it's only natural that you should try and fill in some of the gaps. But you've got to remember that it's who she is now that's most important." He glanced out into the rain once again, "I think this has settled in for the night, we might as well make a camp here. We can probably risk a small fire and make something warm to drink ... then I'll tell you about how I met Xena."

They'd unsaddled the horses and rubbed them down well before giving them some of the grain they'd brought along for feed, then a search through the decrepit building had turned up enough dry wood to give them a comfortable blaze and a chance to dry off a bit.

They sat on the bedrolls that they'd laid either side of the fire and, taking sips from the herbal tea they'd made, Iolaus began his story, "I first saw Xena about a league outside of my home town. Her horse had gone lame and she seemed to be wary of strangers, even a little frightened of them."

Toris choked down a laugh, "My sister?" he asked incredulously.

"She's a very good actress," his friend told him with a straight face. "Anyway, I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress ... for any kind of damsel really, it's gonna get me killed one day. As it happened, this particular time, it nearly got me and Hercules killed."

"She tried to kill you and Hercules?" Toris almost squeaked as his voice moved up another octave.

"Yeah," came the nervous answer, "not straight away, but that's what she had planned."

"So what happened?" came the demand.

"Well, she got me to fall in love with her, really fall deep for her, you know?" he saw Toris give a small nod, "She is such a beautiful woman and believe me Toris she has more in her arsenal than a sword and a chakram. I'd have done almost anything she'd asked of me." He winced at the painful memory.

"She asked you to kill Hercules?" his companion asked.

"No," Iolaus told him quietly, "her plan was far more devious than that," he sat quietly for so long that Toris almost thought he wouldn't tell the rest of the tale. Finally, with a long sigh, however, he continued, "I spent an idyllic eight days with her at my home, before she told me about some Warlord terrorizing her people in Arcadia. She said she'd come to get Hercules' help, but that she'd found me."

Toris sat quietly as Iolaus picked up a stick and prodded the fire, "I agreed to go back with her and help her. I was so crazy in love with her I'd have gone anywhere with her. I told Herc that I was going with her and she turned down his offer of help, telling him that I was all she needed. Gods, but that thrilled me. Here was this incredibly beautiful woman turning down Hercules in favour of me .. I mean, Herc's my best buddy, he always has been and always will be, but sometimes living in his shadow can be a bit ... you know?"

"Yeah," agreed Toris bleakly, "I know. I have this sister, remember."

Iolaus gave him a tight lipped smile, "Yeah. Well I went with Xena and the more time I spent with her, the more I came to worship her. She became everything to me. So when Hercules turned up a few days after we reached her camp at Elyssia, telling me that Xena had sent a man to kill him, I kind of exploded and told him that I never wanted to see him again."

Toris looked grim, "Must have been tough," he said softly.

"You have no idea." A far away look settled into his eyes as he shook his head ruefully, "Anyway, Herc went and spent the night in a nearby village where he learned all about your sister and her reputation. He hadn't realised until then, that this was the Warlord Xena, Destroyer of Nations, who'd caused so much havoc over the years." A twitch of his lips highlighted the glint in the blonde's eyes as he went on, "Anyway, Herc decided that he'd be damned if he'd let Xena use me as a pawn, and he came back to Elyssia to get me. On the way, he ran into Xena and a lieutenant of hers, name of Estragon. He and Herc fought, but when Estragon surrendered to my buddy, Xena killed him with her chakram for going against her code."

Iolaus shook his head in despondency, "She came back to the camp looking like she'd gone three rounds with ol' Herc, and told me that he'd killed Estragon and attacked her, so when my buddy, my best friend, came striding back to Elyssia I tried my damnedest to kill him."

"But you didn't, did you? and he didn't kill you either, or you wouldn't be here now," pointed out Toris softly.

"No," agreed the blonde, "Xena's plan was for Hercules to kill me and when he broke down over what he had done, she intended to kill him. Trouble was, I couldn't kill my best friend, and Herc doesn't kill anyone unless he has to. I suddenly wised up and saw through her plan and teamed up with Herc to try and whip her and her men, but she got away."