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   "So you have heard of the legend of Q? Not many have. Where did she come from? Alas, I do not know exactly, but as a child she lived in the town but one day’s travel from here. Dunnol. When you get there go to the widow Tully. She will tell you more."
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   "Aye, that’s me. Although you may call me Margaret. I’ll tell you what I can. Tho’ it has been a long time that I seen ‘er.
   "She came to us as an answer from God, you know. Bran and I couldn’t have any chil’ren and we had giv’n up. Then one miserable rainy spring day a band of gypsies were passing through town. Oh, they were roudy and mischievious, half drunks, half thieves, and were almost immediately sent on their way by Matholwic, he was the sheriff then. And about a day after that I found a little dirty gypsy girl in our barn, up there where the crows and cats sleep. We were afraid Matholwic would get rid of her too if he knew she was one of them. So we kept her hidden for a long time, until it was safe to tell everyone that she had wondered into Dunnol after her home in the woods (there were plenty of those hermits back then) had burned down. She was a cute little thin’, and half the time we didn’t even see her as other childless or elderly persons loved her and spent lots of time showing her things.You know what she tol’ us? That she wasn’t a gypsy child at all, but that she and her brother had been stolen from some noble family when the gypsies put a curse on them! She was too young to remember that, tho’. The gypsies never tought them anything, and all she could do was sign her name as “Q”, her brother having taken the letter “X”.
   "She grew up to be a lovely sma’t girl, although she had some of that gypsy in her, me thinks. And that lecherous Matholwic, old bastard, kept asking for her after his wife died. He was childless too, you know. But Bran would tell him that she was still too young, or that she be thinking about it, kept him away. Then Bran died of the cough one winter. Matholwic came over more often after that until even I couldn’t take his presence anymore and told him to leave. He told me if Q didn’t consent he would make our lives miserable. About a month later Q was gone. Had she waited a week...alas, that was not what God wanted. Why? Well, Matholwic was killed in a barfight, they say, after a dispute with a lord over a lady. Or so they say. They also say he was robbed on the road one night and killed in the fight. Some even say he was killed by the gypsies. But I don’t think so. Those gypsies were long gone from these parts."
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   "What? You’ll have to speak up! I’m old and deaf, you know. That’s better. Did the widow Tully send you? Ah, Q and I--we spent many a time together after my gran’son went off to fight the Normans and never returned. I told him, don’ go, I told him...but I digress. I used to fight with King James in those days when I was young, so I kin see why he went off. And Q had me tell her every single thing I did at war. She was so smart, but she couldn’t read. And since I was the only one who knew how to she came to me. See those books? She read every one of them. More than twice. Heh heh. My friend Duncan, may he rest in peace, came o’er sometime and we would show her how to fight with a sword. When she was strong enough to lift one, we show’d ‘er the tricks. Ah, the days...did I doze off again? Sorry; it’s this weather."
   "What else kin I tell you? No boy in town was ever good ‘nof for ‘er. Not that she said so. She never even thought of ‘em, far’as I could tell, tho’ they looked at ‘er. I think she liked to be left alone to herself when whe wasn’t reading or climbing trees. Then one day she just dis’peared. Rumor was that she didn’ want to marry that sheriff, but didn’ want to make bad for her mother. Her father had succumb’d to the pneumonia that year. Well, ‘snot like they were her real parents anyway. Her parents were nobility, she told me once. Don’ know if I believe it, tho’ it’s possible. I think she went off looking for her brother and her homeland, that’s what I think."
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   "Thank you for feeding a poor starving wrech. For what I am about to repeat I could be killed, but I am very old and for your kindness my friend I will tell you what I know.
   "You ask about Q, and that is a interesting story. First I heard of her she had been on her way to the continent to look for her real family, after escaping the advances of a sheriff from her town. Don’t ask what town--I don’t know. Being smart, she dressed up as a boy; but being naive she thought it would be a good idea to steal a horse. Unfortunately it was, unbeknownst to her, a Mercenary encampment she had raided. And although their leader, Lord Wright, was away on an assignment with his men, one that had been left to guard the encampment, Fergananym, caught her. It wasn’t hard, you know. Their horses are trained to respond to them only. Fergananym tied the boy up and left him in Wright’s tent as a joke. However, the boy, being cunning, escaped in the night. But being naive, he tried again to take one of the horses! Not liking being awakened in the night, Fergananym really trussed him up that time and left him in Wright’s tent again. When the men returned there was much laughter when, upon stepping into his tent, the sounds of startled surprise bellowed from within! They decided to keep the boy as a pet for awhile, then maybe train him to fight with them or sell him to the hightest bidder. Can you believe that it took them a week to figure out it’s a girl! Imagine their chagrin! It still makes me laught to remember the expression...Where was I? Oh yes, a week.
   "It takes one to know one, they say. And as it happened, Serelle, a woman in the camp, was the one who noticed and told Wright. He told her not to say anything yet. And the next day he came back from a scouting mission and whilst sitting around the fire, mentioned that a nearby town had put out a reward offered by the sheriff for finding a runaway bride. Q realized, of course, that she must move on before she was sold, so she made her naive escape that night. Without a horse, this time! But Wright knew she would try and stopped her. They had a talk, agreed on an arrangement, wherein the sheriff would be expunged from the domain of her mother’s town, for the measly price that she, Q, stay with the Mercenaries until they all move towards the sea, from where her transport to the mainland could be arranged. Next thing you know, she’s fighting with them to earn her keep and in return they keep. Her, that is. Heh heh heh.
   "Now I could go on with this story for a long while, but I am old and tired. So travel this land and look around. For tales of these warriors and their band of Mercenaries abound."