Rations

Simon was not sure if he was expecting the woman to follow or not, having had many people skip out of offers such as these for the fear that he was a knight and was expecting something from them. Glancing up as the woman came through the underbrush, he made sure to not look for too long for fear that he would appear like many of the men of Dalen. Honestly, the disgusting looks men gave women extended into the Knight ranks of Verden, but he refused to take part in the behavior. Loking down at the fire, he weighed his options of starting the fire or not and simply decided to do it. If the woman needed food, he could not bring himself to serve her the cold food as he would eat it since this was an offer to her and not a result of her begging.

Shifting to his knees so that he was kneeling in front of the fire, he began rearranging the burnt pieces of wood as she sat down on the opposite side of the fire. Bringing his tinderbox from his trousers, he slid the wooden lid off the top and pulled out a small pinch of highly flammable fibrous wood that he had scraped off with a fine blade before heading out. Pulling a small chunk of flint from the box as well as a short blade, he scraped flint off in a fine powder onto the kindling before striking the flint. It took a couple of tries, but once he had the sparks flying in the right direction, he moved the now burning bundle of fibers underneath the tee pee of wood he had arranged in the fire.

Seeing the fires from the bundle licking at the underside of the sticks above it, he smiled as he saw several of the sticks beginning to light in several locations. Glancing up at the woman, he saw her bring her bag in tight again but chose to ignore it as he paid more attention to the strangled word coming from her throat. Pushing himself up quickly, he made his way over to Maddox's saddle and got down a waterskin from one of his saddlebags. Bringing it over to the woman, he knelt down beside her and offered the skin to her. From the state of her dress and voice, he had no idea how well she would be able to lift it, so he stayed put beside her in case she needed his assistance.