Belligerent prince Nestor got permission from Ares, the god of war, to hunt down the last of his sacred golden hinds with a small army and traps. Hercules, alerted by villager Hemnor, tries to find and save her, but stops to see, in vain, if he can help a boy who was fatally hurt by a trap. Temple servant Serena, in fact the hind, appears in human form and magically heals the child, applauding Hercules's respect for life as very different from his divine half-brother. They were to get help from faithful Iolaus, but she shoots him with a poisoned arrow, mistaking him for one of Nestor's brutal hunting party. Hercules seeks her help, but she protests, invoking temple rules. Pressed by his nephew Strife, who wants at all cost the honor of killing Hercules, Ares offers Nestor more help: the secret she can be killed with her own blood and a shut-snapping thorn bush to trap her in.
—KGF Vissers