Xena nodded once as she came to a halt beside her friend. Taking hold of Argo's reins, she allowed her disgruntlement to show in the form of a frown and said tersely, "They're swimming."

"Together?" demanded the Amazon Queen.

Xena gave a nod of her head.

"Are they ...?" began the bard hoping for a little help from her stoic friend. When none was forthcoming, the blonde tried again, "Are they ...?" she coughed in embarrassment before asking, "... naked?" She watched the warrior almost hesitated in her long stride before straightening her shoulders unconsciously and continuing her brisk pace along the track towards the lake that was situated around the hill. "Are they Xena?" Gabrielle demanded.

It almost seemed as if the Warrior Princess would refuse to answer but, just when the bard had given up hope of getting a reply, she heard the warrior answer, "Yes," and there was an angry edge to her tone.

"Oh," the blonde said softly, her fertile imagination looking for an explanation other than the obvious one. "They might just be . . . swimming." She pointed out hopefully.

"Uh huh!" agreed Xena darkly.

"Or they might have been chased in there by a swarm of bees?"

"Stopping to take off their clothes?"

"Well it's possible!"

"Gabrielle ...."

"C'mon Xena, you have to admit it's possible."

The snort from the warrior admitted no such thing.

"Well, maybe they fell in some horse dung .. or a mud puddle? Yeah . . . an eagle attacked them after it saw the bees start after them and chased them into a mud puddle. They got so dirty they're having to clean off?" tried the bard again.

The warrior threw a stern look over her shoulder, shaking her head at her friend's imagination. "Gabrielle ... you know, and I know, exactly what that pair are up to . . . and it's no good trying to think up ways to put a better light on it," growled the raven haired woman.

"They're young, Xena," Gabrielle tried to convince herself as much as her companion.

"They're young," agreed the warrior angrily, "And they'll be standing up to eat for a moon when I get through with paddling their backsides."

The rest of the walk was silent as the warrior and bard made their way hurriedly along the difficult track. Intent on reaching the runaway pair as soon as possible. The message from Ephiny had reached Cyrene's inn on the same day that Xena and Gabrielle had dropped in for a surprise visit. A quick search of the premises had turned up a missing kitchen hand and had sent the intrepid pair on a hunt for young lovers. The bard suspected that the Warrior Princess was more upset about missing one of her Mother's lamb stews than the missing youths.

As they rounded the last bend that led to the secluded lake they were assaulted by the image of young Lasca and Mattin standing in the inviting water looking as though they were closely inspecting each other's tonsils with their tongues. The boy's broadening back screened his young Amazon love from the approaching women, but their imaginations filled in details.

"You two better stop what you're doing right now!" bellowed the Warrior Princess.

The pair broke away from each other and turned to face the two women who had just invaded their privacy. Instead of the naked breasts of the girl that they expected to see, they were somewhat surprised to realise she was wearing a halter top.

Xena peered intently at the slightly distorted faces of the two youths, "Just what in Hades do you think you're doing?" she demanded as she strode down to the water's edge, Gabrielle just behind her. "And what happened to your faces?"

The young lovers moved nervously out of the water, very aware of the intense scrutiny of the Warrior Princess. Both were thankful that they'd elected to retain their britches, especially given this current turn in their circumstance.

"Well you see Xena," mumbled Mattin his words muffled by the swelling over his jaw. "I was trying to get some honeycomb for Lasca . . . but the bees . . . well they just came swarming out of the hive and chased us. We got stung something terrible," he explained unnecessarily.

The raven haired warrior could feel the bard's smirk behind her back and resisted the impulse to swing around and catch her. She hated it when Gabrielle's implausible explanations turned into reality. "Go on," she snarled.

Lasca, whose face was slightly less puffy, took up the story. "Well those bees just didn't want to give up . . . so in desperation we dived into this big mudhole thinking we could hide from them . . . and it worked too," she said proudly as she stuck out her chin defiantly.

"Trouble was," mumbled Mattin, "we got covered in mud. And then for no reason we could think of . . . this great big eagle started to dive at us. So we ran again until we found this lake."

"We dived in," the Amazon took over the story, "and the eagle lost interest in us. So we washed off our clothes and threw them on shore to dry . . . and we were just trying to get some of those stings out."

It was a catalogue of disasters that would be totally unbelievable if it wasn't for the vivid evidence of the bee stings. Not really having anything to yell at the already suffering teenagers for, Gabrielle built a fire to help them dry off while Xena quickly coaxed a string of fish to offer themselves for supper.

It was probably the silence . . . the lack of questions . . . that finally got to the youngsters. Unable to wait any longer for the scolding they had fully expected and thought they were entitled to, Mattin, egged on by a jab or two in the ribs from Lasca, asked, "Don't you want to know why I was trying to get the honeycomb?"

Gabrielle looked at Xena before grinning and answering, "Oh, we already know why." She couldn't help but laugh at the consternation on their faces. "You wanted to give the honeycomb to Lasca as a birthday present," the bard smirked.