Arthur helped Kaitie limp into his room. He then picked her up, set her on the bed and sat down beside her while they waited for Merlin. "So, can you tell me what happened now?" Arthur asked, trying not to seem like he was dying for the truth. "Do I have too?" Kaitie asked, looking up at him with big, puppy dog eyes. Arthur pretended to think about it for a minute then nodded his head. "Well... okay" she said reluctantly. "My village was attacked. A large army came at us out of nowhere and within a matter of hours, the entire city had been destroyed. My parents, the Princess, the King and Queen, and I all managed to escape with the few remaining guards. On our way to the closest village, we were attacked by bandits. The King, Queen, my parents, and the knights all fought the men, but screamed at Lily and me to run. We've been best friends since before I can remember and... and I..." "You what? What happened?" Arthur asked. "I LOST HER" Kaitie started to cry again, this time louder than the last. "Shhhh..." Arthur said, trying to comfort her "I'm sure she's fine". "No you don't understand! It was my job to protect her and I didn't!" no matter what Arthur did, Kaitie would not stop crying. "Tell me what happened" he said, trying to keep her calm enough to talk. "We...we were running away when one of the bandits jumped in front of us. We screamed and tried to get away, but he caught a hold of me. I told Lily to run and not look back, and I think that's what she did. I'm not sure, I was too busy hitting the bandit that had a hold of me. One of the knights came to my rescue and slit his throat, but had to stay and help to others, so he told me to run. I ran down the hill as fast as I could but I tripped over a tree branch and sprained my ankle. I couldn't run anymore so I just hid and hoped someone would find me and help." she said with a small smile. Arthur smiled back at her "Well you're safe now. And as soon as we have that ankle fixed up, I will send out a search party for your friend Lily." Arthur said calmly. He was sure that this was the right thing to do in the situation. "No!" Kaitie practically screamed in his ear, the horror in her voice so obvious that he was scared that he had hurt her ankle in some way. "I emmust /emcome with you! Lily won't come out of wherever she may be hiding if I'm not there. She won't trust you. Not after what happened." Kaitie looked down to the bed covers, a sad look on her face, her eyes welling up with a fresh set of tears. Just as Arthur was about to comfort her again, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" Arthur said. He saw Kaitie wipe her tears from the corner of his eye as he watched Merlin and Gaius walk in. "Hello" Kaitie said kindly. "You must be Mr. Gaius. Although I appreciate you taking time to come and see me, I do apologize for having to summon you on such a simple matter. I have heard great things about you and I'm sure I will be better in no time!" she smiled at him "Tis my job to see to the well being of all in this castle- you of which are no exception. And please, my dear, call me Gaius" He said, smiling back at her. Kaitie turned towards Merlin "and thank you Merlin for taking the time to fetch him, as I'm sure you have better things to do". "Oh," Merlin responded "it was nothing".
As Gaius tended to her ankle, Kaitie and Merlin talked about life and him helping Gaius, and other things that anyone else would find boring, but seemed to interest her. While they did that, Arthur arranged an audience with the King. Arthur came in just as Gaius was packing up his things. "It's time" he said. "Are you ready?" Kaitie nodded her head, and the two set off, his arm wrapped around her to help her walk.