Luka was silent for a long time as he stood there, looking at the clearing as she outright rejected that this was a member of her family and he groaned slightly. “It’s human, young but human. Look, if you take this piece, this one and that one.” He trailed off as he walked over to the pieces of bones and began sorting through them. “Put them together like this, you can see it’s clearly a human skull, but if you look at the length of the bones compared to yours or mine, they’re much smaller, meaning they were likely younger.”

“We can walk around in the cold and the snow all you like, but they don’t leave much behind. More often than not they’ll eat everything and leave it up to their digestive system. Anything they leave will often fall to other predators. How long ago did they cross? Because if its longer than a few days I doubt were going to find any remains. Honestly we were lucky to find this.” He stood up, looking at her again at her questions and statements. “First off, I could very easily force you to leave. Don’t forget that. Secondly, don’t think I’m going to be able to stop one of them from eating you if they really want to. They may like me but nothing stands in the way of daemons and food.”

He shook his head slightly. “The only reason we haven’t run into any so far is because they’re all sleeping. They’re nocturnal. Thirdly, I am not alone. The daemons may not seem like it to you, but they’re loyal. They take care of me. I stay because this is my home. It’s all I know, I have a safe place to live and others to look out for me here. I don’t have anything back there. When I was very young my mother saved a younger daemon from a trap set by a hunter. She died a few years later and I actually crossed the wall with the intent of getting myself killed.”

“I knew what was over there; I also knew there was nothing back there for me. However they didn’t attack me like I’ve seen them do to any other human that crosses the Wall. Cade, one of those daemons who tried to kill you last night, was the daemon my mother had saved when I was younger. Like I said, they’re loyal. They all recognised the debt to my family for what happened and offered to be my family. At least that’s what I’ve managed to understand from them, like I said I’m still working on that part. And you know what? I like it here. I’m safe here.”