[IC] Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow opened his mouth to protest when Penelope offered to carry some of his bags for him, but she was already reaching for one, so he just sighed and let her take it from him. There was no point in arguing with her aside from the sake of his vanity. Besides, he did appreciate the help. He felt a lot lighter after the weight was removed from his back. “Thanks,” he said, rolling his shoulder blades in relief as she took the bag.

He turned to her as she seemed to grow more concerned about getting to the castle without more trouble. “We’ll figure something out,” he offered her a comforting smile. “I agree that we should get off the main road for a while though… at least until we’re out of this town.” He glanced down a side street, checking to see if it led out of the maze of alleys. “Even if I disguised myself, I’m sure the knights from the market will remember my face.” He turned a corner. “I also have a feeling the guards in this part of Younis all know each other. It makes it hard for someone like me to impersonate them without getting caught.”

The heightened security in the town troubled him. If they were already having a hard time getting around this early on, he didn’t know what to expect at the palace. But he didn’t want to tell Penelope that. She already seemed nervous enough about getting to the castle. He didn’t want to worry her more by telling her that he was nervous too.

“Hey, look,” Crow pointed at an alley up ahead, changing the subject. “I think that one leads back to the road.” He grinned at Penelope. “We’re finally almost out of here.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope slung the bag onto her shoulder. The added weight didn’t help with her already sore body but the knight hid away any discomfort. Luckily it wasn’t too bad so the knight found she could ignore it rather easily. She looked up at him as he tried to ease her worries. She smiled back at him and let out a small sigh. “Yeah.” She agreed. I just wish we had more figured out already.. She added to herself.

She nodded her head in agreement as he brought up the knights. “You’re probably right. Sneaking around the knights in these parts won’t be too easy. I just hope we can steer clear of them the rest of the way.” She said as she followed him. She glanced ahead as he pointed at an alley up ahead. “Finally.” She said with a small grin. She walked on and glanced down the alleyway as they reached it. Sure enough, it would lead them back out onto the road. Penelope stepped ahead of Crow to check to make sure there weren’t any knights nearby. Luckily, it seemed there were only a few nobles hanging around with no knights in sight.

“At least the streets are busy like in the other towns.” She said, trying to be a bit optimistic as she stepped back out onto the road. “And lucky us that the nobles don’t quite work with the knights like the peasants do.” Penelope imagined that Crow’s stunt to steal the bow likely wouldn’t have worked if the marketplace had been filled with the peasants instead.

[Rogue Sloth]

When they reached the end of the alleyway, Crow hung back so Penelope could scout the area for knights. He waited for her to give the all-clear before he joined her on the edge of the road. Taking a moment to look around, he saw that she was right about the street being crowded. Even if it wasn’t the main road, there were enough nobles milling about to give him and Penelope some cover in case the knights from before were still searching for him.

“I guess that’s one similarity between Brerra and Younis,” he muttered when she mentioned how the nobles hadn’t tried to aid the knights in capturing him. “Nobles only care about themselves, no matter where they’re from. I doubt they could even fathom doing something for someone else.” He blinked, realizing he had let his tongue slip, and turned to her in a hasty attempt to backtrack, “I don’t mean you, of course. You’re not like that at all… I love you.” He kissed her awkwardly on the cheek.

“Hey!” Crow flinched at the sound of a voice behind him. He spun around to see two noblemen walking towards him, eyeing the bow strapped to his back. One of them—a man with white-blonde hair—knit his brow, “That’s an interesting bow you have there. Where’d you get it?”

The thief opened his mouth and then closed it again, biting back a reflexive ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ Instead, he forced a pleasant smile. “Oh, this?” he said, casually dodging the question. “It’s just for hunting.”

“Looks a little big for a hunting bow,” the other nobleman—this one had a dark complexion—noted skeptically. “I’ve never seen anyone use equipment like that to—”

“I hunt bears,” Crow lied.

“Really?” the first noble whistled. “Impressive. I only hunt stags, myself.”

“Look,” Crow rested a hand impatiently on Penelope’s back. “I’d love to stay and chat, but we’re in a hurry.”

“Wait, wait,” the blonde noble said quickly. “You never told us where you got your bow.”

“Wandering merchant,” Crow answered vaguely. “I never caught his name.” Without waiting for a reply, he took Penelope by the hand and walked off, leaving the nobles behind. He turned to her once they had put some distance between themselves and the two men, “I’m starting to think it might not be a bad idea to travel through the forest and avoid all this attention after all.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope shifted her gaze over to Crow, raising an eyebrow at him as he went on to rant about nobles. She gave a light laugh as he soon realized who he was speaking to and quickly tried to back track. “Well, as long as you know it’s not all of us.” She said giving a small shrug. She barely got the words out when someone called from behind them. She tensed slightly and turned to see the two noblemen walking up to them.

The knight relaxed a little as they began pestering Crow about the bow. She was at least glad they weren’t knights but the sudden attention wasn’t that much better. She was eager to get away from the nobles and wasted no time in following Crow as he took her hand and headed away from the nobles. She looked up at him and nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, I’m not sure how many more of those we might get if we keep traveling on the roads.” She gave a thoughtful look and glanced around.

“Come on,” She changed her direction towards a small side street up ahead of them. She figured taking the backstreet would eventually lead them out of the town. “We’ll travel through the forest. It’s probably our best option now and not to mention, if I’m going to teach you how to use that, we’d have to go there anyways.” She pointed out with a small shrug.

Penelope turned down the street, glad to see that reaching the forest wouldn’t take too long. Despite the many buildings and various alleys, she could still make out tall, green trees that stood right beyond the town.

[Rogue Sloth]

“No complaints here,” Crow nodded when Penelope began to lead him down the side street. He was eager to get away from the crowd and the pesky nobles that came with it. However, he did worry about how much time the detour might add to their trip. They were already behind where he guessed they should have been by now. He wondered what was happening back in Brerra. Was the king still waiting for them to return? Or was he moving forward with another plan instead? He shuddered to think of the possibility that they might return home to find the kingdom in the middle of a war. The outer villages were already hard enough to live in as it was. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to make it through the battles that would inevitably ravage them to the ground.

However, that was no longer the only reason why he didn’t want the war to happen. Now, he had much more at stake. If Brerra engaged with Younis, all of the able-bodied knights would be called to fight for their kingdom… including Penelope. At the very least, he wouldn’t be able to see her again until the war ended. At the worst, he would lose her to the flame of war. He couldn’t bear the thought of it.

Coming back to himself, Crow realized they were surrounded by trees. He looked up, finding that they had reached the forest just outside of the town. He had been lost in his thoughts for quite a while.

“So,” he said, turning back to Penelope. “How about you teach me to use this bow now? We’re far enough away from the town that we should be safe to stop for a while.” He also just wanted something to distract himself, so he would stop thinking about the ‘what-ifs’ of the future. After all, there was no point in worrying about something that hadn’t happened yet when he could focus on learning to fight—something that was within his control.

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope walked on through the street to reach the forest. She noticed that Crow had fallen silent and glanced over her shoulder at the thief to find him looking rather deep in thought. The knight couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his mind. However, she didn’t bother to ask and continued onward into the forest, finding the chance to think over their next move during the silence. The forest would provide them privacy from the peering eyes of nobles and knights but it could also very well put them behind schedule. I wonder how much farther until we can see the castle.. Her gaze flickered towards the dense horizon of trees.

She turned her head to look over at Crow as he finally broke the silence that had fallen. She hesitated. Part of her wanted to keep going rather than stop. The day’s events had gotten them a bit behind and she was hoping to make up for lost time. However, Penelope figured it would be best to get started on teaching Crow how to use the bow. Especially since it might come in handy once they reached the castle. She nodded her head in agreement. “Alright. Let’s stop here then.” She said moving to set down the bags under a nearby tree.

Penelope stretched her arms, feeling relieved to have the extra weight off her shoulders. She glanced over at the bow and then looked around as she thought about how to start his training. She dug into the bag Crow had been carrying and pulled out the carving knife. “Well, first thing’s first, you’re going to need a target.” She said with a small smirk. Penelope walked over to a tree that was a little farther than where they had stopped. Gripping the knife, she scratched four spaced out lines with an ‘X’ in the middle. It wasn’t the best target for a beginner but she figured it would do.

She walked back up to Crow. “Ok now before I go showing you the proper form and how to shoot, one thing you need to know is that this thing is a lot heavier than it looks and probably felt when you were carrying it.” She explained with a light pluck of the string. “And it hurts like hell if it happens to hit your arm after you shoot. Normally you’d wear what’s called a bracer over your forearm to protect yourself. We don’t have an actual one so we’ll just have to get a little creative.” She paused, thinking for a quick second before smirking at him. “Luckily I think I have a solution.”

The knight turned and headed back over to the bags she had set down. Digging inside, she pulled out the extra dagger she had stored away in her bag and pulled it out of it’s leather sheath. For now, she stuck it in the ground and proceed to use the carving knife to cut down the sewn side of the sheath. Once it was now expanded, she untied the string that she would have normally used to tie the sheath into her belt and poked four holes into the leather. She slipped the string through one side and then began to shuffle through the bags for one more piece of string to complete her creation. She eventually slipped some out from a small pouch that she was using to store some of their food in. With the final piece, she slipped the string through and completed the makeshift bracer.

Holding it against her own arm, she tied it up and grinned proudly as she turned back to Crow. “I think this should work. Let me test it though.” She said reaching out to take the bow and quiver from him.

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow was relieved that Penelope was willing to stop and help him with his archery practice just then. Anything that would take his mind off of the nagging fears in the back of his head was welcome to him. Besides, judging by the change in culture in the Younisian town they had just passed through, he didn’t have long to learn how to use the bow. He wanted to get as much practice in as he could before he found himself in a real life-or-death situation.

He set down his things under a tree next to Penelope’s and turned to her, waiting for instruction. Though he tried to concentrate on the matter at hand, he couldn’t help noticing how her back curved when she stretched her arms. He smiled. She was beautiful even when she wasn’t trying to be. Gods, how did I get so lucky? he thought once again, his heart skipping excitedly in his chest as he watched her from a distance.

Once she had finished setting up a makeshift training course for him, Crow handed his bow over to Penelope so she could show him what to do. However, before demonstrating the proper technique as he had expected her to do, she launched into an explanation of what he should expect when using the weapon. He stared at her, trying to follow all of the information she was throwing at him. There was a lot more to the simple piece of wood and string than he had realized.

I guess it’s not just ‘aim and shoot,’ he thought, eyeing the bow with newfound interest. Unexpectedly, he found that he had a growing respect for knights. He was only learning how to use one weapon, and he was already overwhelmed. To train with many different kinds of bows and blades and whatever other deadly tools were out there sounded exhausting. He exhaled, resigning himself to his grudging admiration of the knights’ tenacity.

As Penelope went on to fashion a makeshift bracer, Crow took the bow back and stepped closer to watch. He found her process interesting. It definitely wasn’t something he would have thought to try, but it looked like it would work. He grinned at her when she finished, “Nice job, darling. You’re pretty clever.” He passed the bow back to her. “Show me what you can do.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope made sure the string was tight enough around her arm before she took the bow. The last thing she wanted was for the bracer to move and let the string hit her already injured arm. She nodded to Crow, currently feeling a bit excited at the prospect of teaching him how to use a bow properly. She took the bow and faced towards the target she had made. The knight drew an arrow and loaded it into the bow.

She drew the weapon, taking on the posture she had been taught as a knight, and pulled back the string to her chin as she aimed towards the ‘X’. Since she couldn’t hold the bow very long due to it’s weight, she released the arrow almost immediately after she aimed it. With a solid thunk, the arrow hit above the ‘X’ but slightly below the first line. Though it wasn’t quite a bullseye, Penelope was glad to see her skills with a bow held up well. The strain she felt in her muscles though was a reminder that she didn’t have the same stamina as the archers did. If she fire a couple more shots, her arms would be killing her.

She was more happy to find out that the brace worked just fine. The impact of the string was reduced to a small thump thanks to the leather around her forearm. Penelope turned to Crow and smirked. “Well, I’m not an archer that’s for sure but I still hit my target.” She said with a small chuckle. “Alright, now you should take this.” She untied the bracer and moved to tie it onto Crow’s arm. Once that was in place, she handed him the bow once more.

“Ok so first off, you’re going to want to turn yourself sideways to the target, feet apart so you’re balanced.” She instructed and demonstrated the stance for him. She turned back to him and guided his left hand to the shaft of the bow. “That hand here and you’ll use the other to pull back on the string. You’ll use this finger to rest the arrow on top of it.” She told him tapping his left index finger. She looked up at him and smiled a little bit. “Keeping up ok?” She asked, knowing it was quite a bit of information to take in and they still had yet to even draw the bow.

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow stood back to give Penelope space as she readied herself to demonstrate how to use the bow. His eyes swept over her body analytically, and he took note of the way she positioned herself before shooting. Having never been so close to an archer before—they had always shot at him from a distance—he found the intricacy of it all fascinating. She looked graceful, yet powerful with the light weapon in her hands.

He watched as she loosed the arrow, striking the tree just above the ‘X’ she had carved into it. For someone whose weapon of choice was a blade, he found the accuracy of her shot impressive. He wondered how long she had practiced with a bow in the past to still be that good with the weapon, and if he would be able to reach her skill level before they reached the castle.

Maybe I could get even better, he felt a pang of envy as his competitive nature reared its head. Her talents lie with the sword, but this will be the only weapon I’ll learn how to use. I can put all of my attention into it. He let the feeling persist, deciding to use it as motivation to try hard at mastering the bow.

He held out his left arm as Penelope moved to tie the makeshift bracer to him, taking back the bow from her after that was done. She proceeded to guide him through a series of steps to prepare to use the weapon. He followed her instructions, aligning his body sideways and planting his feet about shoulder-width apart for stability. It was a strange position for one who had learned to be agile, never standing still in the heat of a fight. He hoped he would be able to do it when it really mattered later.

As she went on to explain the proper form of loading and drawing an arrow, he listened attentively, following along with the subtle nuances of positioning his hands and fingers in different places to set up the bow. “I think so,” he nodded when she asked if he was following along and then smirked. “I’m a pretty fast learner.” He leaned a bit closer to her, “So, can I shot it yet?”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope looked up at him. “I guess so.” She said with a small smirk. “Though you might want to figure out your anchor point. It’s the point where you draw the bowstring back to. I use my chin, some archers use their eye, mouth, nose.” She explained listing off what she could recall. The knight gave a small shrug. “They all work so you just have to figure out what works best for you.”

She eyed his posture for a moment, making sure it was correct. Penelope flashed him a challenging grin. “Alright, let’s see how your first shot goes.” She said eagerly. She moved to stand back slightly as he prepared to take his first shot. The first shot of the bow tended to never be anyone’s proudest moment. She recalled the arrows flying past the targets or barely even leaving the bow because the knight hadn’t pulled the string back far enough. She recalled launching her own first arrow nearly fell flat due to her previous inability to fully draw back the string.

[Rogue Sloth]

“Anchor point, huh?” Crow echoed thoughtfully. He drew an arrow from the quiver on his back and loaded it into the bow as Penelope had taught him, balancing it on his left index finger so it wouldn’t fall. Even that was more difficult than he had been expecting. With nothing holding the arrow up except for his own hands, he had to focus hard on keeping them steady.

Once the arrow seemed stable, he pulled back on the string to test how it felt. The force it took to draw the bow was surprising to him as well. He remembered Penelope saying that the weapon weighed a lot, but he didn’t realize just how heavy it would be. After just a short amount of time, his arm began to strain against the tension, so he slowly released the string back to its original position without loosing the arrow.

Eye, nose, mouth, or chin, he thought for a moment, trying to decide what his anchor point would be. However, trying to choose one without practicing it first didn’t sit well with him. He preferred to let his instinct drive him, as he did with many other things. He looked at the bow in his hands and then closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and drawing the string one more time. He cocked it back as far as he could manage and then opened his eyes again to see that he had reflexively drawn the bowstring to his mouth.

“Looks like that’s it,” he grinned at Penelope, letting the string return to its straight position once more.

“Alright, let’s see how your first shot goes,” she said challengingly.

“You mean: Let’s see if Collin makes a complete ass of himself,” he snorted, smirking at her teasingly. “I saw that look in your eye. You don’t think I’m going to do well, do you?” He turned back to face the tree she had marked. “I’ll try to exceed your expectations.”

His expression turned serious as he focused on the carved ‘X’. Steadying his breathing, he repeated the instructions Penelope had given him one more time. He positioned the arrow against his left index finger and drew the bowstring back to the corner of his mouth, holding it there for a brief moment before he let go with his right hand.

The string slapped against the bracer on his arm as the arrow flew from the bow. It sailed towards the tree… and then shot past on the right, striking another tree trunk deeper in the forest.

Crow looked back at Penelope, shrugging sheepishly, “At least I hit something. That counts, right?”

[BuzzingBee]

“Guilty as charged.” Penelope held up her hands and chuckled. The knight smiled at him and gave a small shrug. She watched him as he readied to fire his first arrow. Her gaze eyed small aspects of his posture and how he held the bow, taking small mental notes of things that he would likely need to work on. As he finally fired it, she smirked a bit once more as she watched the arrow sink into the trunk of a different tree.

“Not quite. But hey you got pretty close to the actual target for a first try so that’s good.” She said encouragingly. “When I first picked up a bow, I couldn’t even fully pull back the string. The arrow pretty much went straight into the ground the first time I fired it.” She stepped up besides him once more to help instruct him.

“I think you need to move your chin a little closer to your shoulder when you shoot. Also, you’ll probably have some issues with your aim because of how you rest the arrow on your index finger. Everything has to be balanced when it comes to archery so if the one thing you rest your arrow on is off, your whole shot is going to be off too.” Penelope told him. “It’s difficult to keep it perfectly still while pulling back that string and that’s a big reason why the bow takes so much practice. We’ve still got a little time so why don’t you try giving it a couple more shots.”

[Rogue Sloth]

“Really?” Crow raised a brow when Penelope said her first arrow had gone into the ground. “I wish I could have seen that.” Despite his teasing, the story she told did make him feel better about his first try with the bow. He hoped it was a good sign that he had been able to shoot the bow already, even landing the shot on a tree, though it had been the wrong one. Maybe, if he put enough practice into it, he would be able to take down some guards at the palace with it. The thought made his heart beat slightly quicker. It was exciting to think that he would have his own weapon for the first time in his life—a weapon that he could actually use to fight instead of simply to frighten an enemy. It made him feel powerful.

He listened to Penelope’s critiques of his posture and nodded, “I’ll give it a few more tries.” He drew another arrow from the quiver and loaded it into the bow. Taking her advice, he focused on keeping his left index finger steady as he cocked the string back and tilted his head slightly so his chin was closer to his shoulder.

Almost as soon as he had drawn the bowstring back to his mouth, he let go, sending the arrow flying. It sailed to the left of the tree this time, as he had overcorrected from his last shot.

He clicked his tongue and drew one more arrow, ready to repeat the process once again. However, as he drew the string back this time, the muscles in his arm burned in protest. He ignored the pain and tried to force the bowstring to its full extension, but didn’t quite make it. As he loosed the arrow, it fell quickly and struck the base of the tree trunk, not even close to the ‘X’.

“Damn,” Crow cursed, shaking out his sore arm. “This thing is heavy.” He winced at a sharp pain in his hand and looked down to see a thin line of red soaking through the bandages. The exertion of pulling back the string had been too much for his injured palm. Feeling slightly sick at the sight, he turned to Penelope instead, “I think I reopened my cut.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope stood back and watched Crow as he fired the arrows. There’d be a lot he’d have to figure out on his own through practice so she remained quietly observing. If he had any mistakes she was able to spot, she’d be sure to help correct it. She nodded her head as Crow mentioned how heavy the bow was. “Yeah it is. I can’t tell you how sore my arms have gotten in the past.” She mused.

She blinked as Crow told her he reopened his cut. “Ah geez..” She mumbled and then quickly moved to grab some of the bandages and canteen from her bag. She walked back over to him and took his injured hand to redress the wound. The knight glanced at him and then moved to shift herself in front of him so that she’d be able to block his bleeding hand from his line of sight as she unwrapped the bandage. “Guess we’ll have to take it easy on the training. The last thing we need is for this cut to get deeper with you using the bow.” She said with worry at the thought.

Using a bit of the water from the canteen, she cleaned away some of the blood and then quickly wrapped it up again, making sure the bandage was tight to help stop the bleeding. “Alright, hopefully that’ll help it.. If it keeps bleeding let me know.” She said as she took a small step back to face him once more. She hoped the bandage would be enough, especially since she wasn’t very skilled with healing. If the knight had to sew anything up, it likely wouldn’t work out too well.

She smiled up at him and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “We should probably get moving again.” She told him. “I’ll go grab the arrows and then we can head out."

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow averted his gaze as Penelope began cleaning and redressing his injury. He hated how crippling his fear of blood was. The laceration in his palm hadn’t even been that bad, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it. It wasn’t like it was anything new either. He had had plenty of wounds in the past that were far worse than a meager cut. He would have thought it would get easier with time, but instead he almost seemed to be getting more sensitive to it lately.

He gritted his teeth as Penelope poured water from her canteen onto his hand. The cold water stung, but it also felt cleansing. He glanced back and noticed that she had positioned herself in a way that would prevent him from seeing his injury while she worked on it. She must have caught his uncomfortable expression. He blushed. Even though he knew she was only trying to help, he found it embarrassing that she would have to go to such measures to protect him from something so small.

I can’t keep letting this fear control me, he thought with a new resolve that surprised himself. He was tired of being paralyzed whenever he saw blood. It was causing them both more trouble than they needed at this point in their journey. They already had enough to worry about without him becoming a liability every time they got into a fight. He had to do something about it.

Crow blinked, realizing Penelope had finished bandaging his hand. He shook his head when she said he should take it easy on his training, “We don’t have time to worry about that. You told me it takes a lot of practice to learn how to use a bow, right?” His stubborn green eyes met hers. “If that’s true, then I’m going to need all the practice I can get.” He softened a bit as she kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll help you get them. I think I saw where the second one went.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope shook her head at his words and gave a small snort. She crossed her arms and met his gaze with a stubborn look of her own. She understood why he wanted to learn how to properly use the bow after their last encounter with the mercenary and guessed that he still felt guilty for being weakened by his fear of blood. However, she didn’t want his guilt to cause him to push himself too hard. “We are too going to worry about that.” She gave him a soft flick on the head as she gazed sternly at him.

Her gaze softened a bit as she went on. “I know you want to be ready if we get caught in another fight but you should be mindful of your injuries. Especially one on your hand. Gods know you’ll need both of them working properly for when we reach the castle.” She let out a small sigh and placed a hand on his back. “Archery takes a lot of time and practice. The reality is that we don’t really have that time and you probably won’t be able to use it much, if at all, if we get into another fight, especially since a target like that will be moving rather than standing still.”

Penelope gave him a small, comforting smile. “But it’s alright. I’m still here, I can still fight just fine and if anything else happens, it’s like you’ve been saying, we’ll figure it out.” She assured before turning to walk off to grab the two arrows that had sunk into the target tree. She pulled them out and glanced over at Crow. “I just hope we can manage to not lose any arrows."

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow rolled his eyes at Penelope when she flicked him. He didn’t like the idea of wasting precious time just because of a cut, but there was no point in trying to argue with her after she had made up her mind. He sighed. It was starting to look like he would still be relying on her in battle after all. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust her, but he wanted to be able to hold his own in a fight too. He supposed he should have known better than to get his hopes up though.

“You’re right,” he said after a moment, meeting her gaze solemnly. “I’ll do what I can, but I won’t push myself too hard, okay?” He leaned down to press a kiss to her lips and then smiled affectionately at her. “I’m glad you’re watching out for me, love, because gods know somebody has to,” he shook his head.

As they had gotten closer to the castle, he had noticed that his mood had gotten more bitter. He felt trapped, and whenever that happened, he always looked for ways to fight back or run away. Since he only had one option in this case, he was starting to get more desperate for a way to fight. If he had been on his own, he probably would have done something reckless by now. He was glad he had Penelope by his side to keep him level headed.

When Penelope went to go collect the arrows, he went with her. “I hope so too,” Crow agreed, navigating through a patch of underbrush to reach one that had struck a tree farther away. He turned to head back to the clearing, but paused as he caught sight of a strange looking plant at his feet. It had a tall stalk with jagged leaves and a small cluster of yellow flowers on top. He crouched down to get a closer look at it, and a smile crossed his lips in recognition. He reached for the base of the plant and gave it a sharp tug, ripping it up from the ground.

He walked back over to Penelope and held it up to show her, grinning excitedly, “Look what I found.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope glanced over the two arrows before making her way over to the tree on the right where another arrow had hit. She found pulling this one out a bit more difficult than the others and had to give it a couple yanks before it finally popped out of the tree. She nearly stumbled when it suddenly released. Looking at where they arrow had gone in, she was able to see that it had managed to sink in fairly deep. It was his first arrow so she guessed most of his power went into the first one when he shot.

She turned to make her way back when Crow returned, not only with an arrow but also with a plant. She raised an eyebrow questioningly at him, a bit confused on why he seemed so excited over a plant that looked rather plan to her. Penelope wasn’t very familiar with plants. Training as a knight, she never really bothered with learning much about such things. The closest thing to compare it to was a limited knowledge on what plants were edible in the forest and which ones were deadly.

“Uh, exactly what did you find?” She said tilting her head. “Because it kinda just looks like flowers to me.”

[Rogue Sloth]

“It’s henbane,” Crow explained, slinging his bow over his shoulder again. “Do you remember Evelyn—the tavern keeper from the village we stayed in before we crossed into Younis? Her daughter, Hazel, is an herbalist. She makes medicines for the people in their village, since there’s a lot of illness there. She and I used to—” he trailed off, turning slightly red. “Err… we used to know each other when I lived there. Anyway, she taught me about plants like this one. Henbane is really useful for a lot of things, but I used it as a pain killer.”

He plucked one of the flowers from the stalk, spinning it between his fingers. “If you rub the petals on your skin, it causes numbness. It’s great for taking away pain.” He looked up again to meet her gaze. “Sometimes, it’ll make you hallucinate too, but if you have a dagger in your side, it’s a small price to pay for the relief. Here, I’ll show you,” he pulled one of the small yellow petals off of the flower and reached for Penelope’s arm, pressing the petal to the inside of her forearm and massaging it along her skin with his thumb.

“Don’t worry,” he smirked at her. “This isn’t enough to make you hallucinate. At the most, you might feel a little lightheaded for a few minutes. But you can’t feel me touching your arm there anymore, can you?” He let go of her and dropped the petal, watching it flutter down to the grass at their feet. “That’s not why I took it though,” he eyed the plant in his hand contemplatively.

“Henbane can be used in battle too,” Crow said, meeting Penelope’s gaze seriously. “It’s tricky to work with, but if you apply the right amount to the edge of a blade, you can make your enemies become too delirious to fight when you cut them. You just have to be careful not to use too much if you don’t want to kill them, because if too much henbane gets in your body, it can paralyze your lungs and make you stop breathing.” He held up the arrow in his other hand. “I think we should use it when we get to the castle. I’ve had enough practice with it on myself that I think I can turn it into a nonlethal weapon.

“What do you think?” he asked, looking up at her once more. “Want to try it?”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope nodded, recalling Evelyn from the tavern. She listened as Crow explained that her daughter had been a herbalist and that he had learned about plants from her. The knight tried not to pay much attention to how he trailed off and turned red before finishing his sentence. She looked down at the flower as he went on to press it into the inside of her forearm. It wasn’t long before she began to feel the spot tingle with numbness.

“I can’t. That’s weird.” She mumbled, a bit surprised a simple flower could have such an impact. Normally, she thought that healers had to mash them together with other various herbs and plants to bring out such factors. Her gaze flickered back up to him as he admitted that using it as a pain reliever wasn’t why he had picked it up. She raised her eyebrow at him curiously.

“I think we should use whatever we got so I say go for it.” Penelope said with a nod of approval. She moved on to put the arrows she had collected back into the quiver and moved to pick up the two bags once more so they could get moving again. The knight paused, thinking something over before adding. “Do you think you could use some on my dagger when the time comes? I’m planning to try and steal a sword from someone once I get inside.. It shouldn’t be too difficult so long as they don’t expect it but it’d be nice to have a back up plan if the element of surprise doesn’t work.”

The thought of having something to fall back on was rather comforting to the knight, who was still trying to figure out what lied ahead for them. Crow having knowledge about such a thing and figuring out a way to use it to their advantage certainly helped her feel a little better. Though she was doing her best to push away her worries and remain positive about their upcoming palace raid, she’d be lying to say she had been able to completely ignore all of them.