I'm adding four new chapters right now, and they may be the last updates for a little while, seeing as I have to go off to university and all, and I have no idea what my schedule is going to be like. These next three are, shall we say, snapshots of Tyke's life, which are fairly brief. If I come back and add more to this story later, it will probably be in this section. Until then, it runs alright, and I think it fills in some gaps nicely without taking forever. As always, please review (I do so hate to beg, but…)

Despite Rowland's worries, Tyke went riding on her own frequently over the next two weeks they were in Gold Lake. She'd wake early in the morning, while everyone else enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in past sunrise, and slip out of the manor. Sometimes she would take her horse, other times she would walk in the woods, as she had used to back at the Tree Bound Hold. As she had been, that first time when she had met Sir Rowland. She knew Rowland would have objected to her outings, but most of his time was spent trying to convince his wife that he really did care for her and his children, and working to fulfill his fatherly duties to that end. Jerril had caught her on her way out a few times, but hadn't said anything. Coban she avoided.

It wasn't that she hadn't known he was a noble and a knight. It was just that he'd never told her. And while she respected his privacy when it came to his past – after all, she almost never talked about her life before she had joined Rowland – she just thought he might have told her before he told someone like the Hag. That was what friends did, right? They shouldn't have to learn something important like that by eavesdropping on the soldiers when everyone else thought they were asleep.

She heard a sound in the bushes and whirled, drawing her dirk. Coban glared at her from where he leaned against a tree a few feet away. Tyke kicked herself mentally for paying so little attention to let him get this close.

"I thought I might find ye here."

"Hullo Ban," she said sullenly.

"Nice to see ye too. Even if you have been avoiding me."

"Sorry," she muttered.

He moved quickly out of the bushes to join her. "Oh, put that up, ye." He brushed her hair, grown long the way the soldiers wore it, out of her eyes. "Why ye been avoiding me, lassie?"

"I haven't," she muttered, turning away.

"And I'm a jackdaw. The truth, now."

"You could have told me you were a knight. Instead I had to find out by eavesdropping on the other men." She met his eyes, suddenly both angry and upset.

He nodded slowly. "I might have done. But maybe I like to pretend I'm not. I'm not a knight like Rowland, lassie. I never saw bloodshed before I came to here."

She smiled slightly, and the tears that had threatened went away. "I know that."

He sighed theatrically. "I know ye do. Can we move on?"

She took his proffered hand. "Aye. Want to come fishing with me?"

"That I do."