The tavern was fuller when they arrived. Kay pointed her over to a table near the open court yard. Near the man from the other night. Hesitating for a second she moved quickly forward and sat down. The man sat at her side at another table facing her and out into the court yard. Kay returned almost immediately and sat opposite her. Pushing a bowl of food in front of her, before shovelling and obscene amount of food into his mouth.

"So" he said, swallowing loudy "why are you here?"

"I don't really know where to start?" she whispered after a moment

"How about from the start" he said.

"The start, was a long time ago" she said rolling her eyes at his obvious confusion "two years after you were taken mother and father had a bad cough one night. The next morning they were dead" she paused at his exclamation glancing at him, to see the grief on his face, he had been like a son to her parents and a brother to Hansel and herself "two days after that I thought it best to leave. The romans would return. Hansel was twelve summers, old enough to be taken" she sighed fiddling with the table and not meeting his gaze "I suppose it was selfish but I couldn't think of myself being alone, if they took him, I was on my own. I couldn't let them take him. He wouldn't have made it, and by the looks of it I was right, how many knights where with you this morning, seven?"

"There are ten of us left" he supplied

"Ten" she exclaimed softly "ten after 13 years of service" they were silent for a moment before she continued "so we left I was 15, Hansel 12, we got by for a few years doing small things for people until I saw a notice about some thief's that where wanted, so we found them" she smiled here "gave us a good reward to, after our first bounty I bought us weapons and we learnt, we adapted. That's how we survived. Now people are calling for us, wanting us for jobs. Do you think they would still call for our help if they knew we were Sarmatian bastards?" she questioned him sarcastically, at his snort she continued "I kept us moving, just because Hansel wasn't at the village when they came to collect the next lot didn't mean that if they found us they wouldn't take him. We learnt to fight. It was a week ago when we heard a rumour that we were wanted at a village two days from here. I didn't think we should go it was too close to here, but Hansel insisted, it was a good bounty he said. We shouldn't have gone. We weren't far from the village when we were ambushed but some woad's. They were young and inexperienced. Hansel took the brunt of it, he's bigger than me, so people think to take out the larger threat" stopping she looked at him with a feral grin, noting his slight frown, the young innocent girl he remembered was gone "their first and last mistake. There wasn't to many, six I think and we finished them up but we were both in no shape to move, I got us as far away from the clearing as I could before passing out"

"You didn't tell me you were hurt" Kay interrupted her

"Nothing I couldn't handle" she said "when I came to I fixed Hansel up as best I could and moved on. I didn't want to go back past the ambush sight so we headed towards Hadrian's Wall. I was hoping to pass a village, or bypass you completely, but Hansel wasn't well. So here we are." She finished grandly with a sweep of her hands. Kay was silent as they finished eating. Pushing his bowl away he looked at her.

"I still don't know why you were so petrified to tell me Hansel was here?" he said

"You can't be too careful" she shrugged "I learnt that lesson the hard way"

"So what now for the famous Hansel and Gretel" he said grinning

"You'd heard about us?" she questioned, fiddling with her food as she glanced at him.

"I'd heard rumours and stories" he shrugged "but I couldn't be certain it was you. A few years back we were patrolling and stopped at a village. There was a rumour that some bounty hunters had taken out a few troublesome woad's?"

"That was us" she clarified

Before they could continue Kay's name was called, glancing across the room he stood to join his fellow knights. She stood as well and escaped from the tavern into the cool night air. Moving swiftly she returned to her room.

Upon entering she moved to Hansel's bedside, pressing her hand to his forehead she could feel the heat radiating of him. Frowning she pulled the covers up to his chin before readying herself for bed.