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

[Rogue Sloth]

As another silence fell over the group, Crow found it to be rather peaceful. He enjoyed conversing with other people in general, but whenever he spoke with the knights, conflicts always seemed to arise between him and Gavin. It was much more relaxing to just sit quietly and let the conversation taper off while the others finished their food. So, he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, waiting without speaking for Penelope to eat her supper so they could go to bed.

After a bit, he opened his eyes again to glance at her, only to find that she was done with her food. As she moved in to kiss him, he smiled and leaned forward slightly to meet her lips. “Mhm,” he murmured tiredly when she pulled away. “I think napping for so much of the day took away the rest of my energy.” After taking a second to stretch his legs, he rose to his feet and offered her a hand to stand up as well. Once they were both off the ground, he took her by the hand to lead her back to the other room, where he had left his bedroll out from the night before.

Laying down beside Penelope, he wrapped one arm around her side and pulled her close to his chest. “I’m going to miss this,” he sighed softly, nestling his head against hers. In two days, they would be parting ways again, and he would be sleeping alone once more. The thought made him feel cold, and he held the knight a little tighter.

Feeling sleep tug at him, he yawned and managed to mumble a brief “I love you, Penelope” before he succumbed to its enticing clutches.

--

The next morning, Crow found that he wasn’t the last to wake up this time. Gavin’s bed was empty and already packed up with the rest of his things, but Olivia was still passed out in what look like a deep sleep on her mat. He stretched and wrapped his arms around Penelope, pressing a warm kiss to her cheek. “Morning, love,” he said with a smile.

In the next moment, he saw Gavin step into the room. The knight glanced at them briefly before coloring slightly and averting his gaze to look at Olivia instead. “Everyone, get ready to go quickly,” he said in a brusque tone. “We need to hit the road soon.” Not wanting to linger any longer than he had to, he collected his supplies and stepped back out to wait for them in the main room.

Crow rolled his eyes. “Too bad,” he sighed, turning back to Penelope with mock frown. “Looks like I didn’t wake up early enough to spare us some time away from his uptight ass.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope smiled at him and nodded her head. She took his hand and got up to her feet as well. She followed him into the other room where the bedroll was still out, unlike those of Gavin and Olivia. She guessed that Gavin had likely assumed they would be leaving and had packed up his bed prematurely and made Olivia do the same in the process, leaving them both with the additional work. Penelope moved to lay down, watching as Olivia gave a sour expression as she laid out her mat, before turning her head to glance over her shoulder at Crow as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I will too." she mumbled in agreement as she laid her head back down. The knight closed her eyes as she savored the feeling of being able to fall asleep in his arms. His words reminded her of their limited time together. Though she did believe they would be going on a trip to Wheldrake soon after they finished their current one, she still wasn't looking forward to parting with him.

"I love you too." she replied, smiling softly. Penelope moved to rest a hand on the arm he had wrapped around her. Not feeling as tired as him, she didn't fall asleep right away and instead remained awake, thinking about what would come after their mission. Going back to the usual meetings was going to be difficult after being able to spend so much time with him as of recent. A quiet sigh escaped her lips as she turned over-careful not to disturb the sleeping thief- and looked over at Crow.

Having fallen asleep much faster than she had, she quietly studied his sleeping face for a moment, enjoying the time she did still have with him. She felt a swell of affection for the thief as she thought about how warm his presence was besides her and how peaceful he looked sleep. It was going to be difficult to sleep alone again after getting spoiled for a few days with him. We'll have the rest of our lives after the war though.. Penelope reminded herself, trying to fight off that sinking feeling of heavy disappointment. Snuggling closer to him, the knight closed her eyes again and eventually drifted off to sleep.

---

The next morning, Penelope woke up slowly as she felt Crow wrap his arms around her and press a kiss to her cheek. Drowsily, she fluttered her eyes open and looked over at him with a soft smile. "Morning." she mumbled, right before Gavin came back into the room. The female knight blinked and turned her head to look over at the male knight as he quickly urged them to get ready before heading out to wait for them.

"I guess not." she mused in agreement with a small smile. She leaned over and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Guess we'll just have to try and buy some time later." She shrugged her shoulders and then let out a long exhale. "But for now, we better get ready to leave."

Reluctantly, the knight pulled away from him and got up from the bedroll. Penelope yawned and stretched out her back as she waited for Crow to get up as well then moved to begin collecting their supplies, grabbing the bag she had been carrying.

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow nodded and reluctantly followed Penelope’s lead as she got up from the bedroll. He wished they’d had more time to lay next to each other before getting up to leave, but he knew that loitering would just irritate Gavin. If they didn’t listen to the knight’s orders, he would make their trip back to the camp unbearable. So, he stood up after her and rolled up the mat they had slept on, packing it away with the rest of his supplies and heading out into the main room, where her former suitor was waiting for them.

The knight said nothing as they approached and kept his gaze fixed on the door to their room as he waited for Olivia, who was still putting away her things, to join them.

After a short while, the female knight ambled tiredly out of the room with a yawn. “It’s way too early for this,” she grumbled, adjusting the pack on her shoulder. “Aren’t we even going to have breakfast?”

“You can eat on the walk,” Gavin said. “We need to get back to the barons as soon as possible to inform them of what we learned on our patrol.” Once again, his eyes wandered accusatively toward Crow.

“Great,” Olivia groaned.

Crow glanced at her briefly before resting his gaze on Gavin. “You sound like you learned nothing,” he narrowed his eyes. “But we’ve figure out the thieves weren’t in Whitebridge or Aramoor, and we may have even found a tail in Wheldrake. I’d call that a successful patrol.”

“We’ll see,” Gavin replied in obvious disbelief.

The thief just shook his head in response. The knight had made it quite clear that his mind couldn’t be changed once it had been made up, so there was no point in trying to bother.

“Are you all leaving already?” another voice spoke up from the staircase.

Crow turned to see Silas and Zenith heading down the steps to see them off. They looked tired, as if they had just woken up.

“We are,” he answered with a bashful grin. “I’m sorry if we woke you. We’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Zenith waved a dismissive hand. “We wanted to see you off.”

“And also to thank you for your help,” Silas added. He stepped over and wrapped the thief in a friendly embrace, clapping him on the back once with his hand. “My wife told me about the money you gave to us. I can’t express enough how grateful I am.”

Crow blinked, hesitating for a moment before he returned the gesture. “Think of it as my way of saying thanks for the help you’ve both given to me during the war,” he said with a shrug.

Silas pulled away from him and beamed, “Either way, we really appreciate your help. I hope you find whoever it is that you’re looking for.”

“Thanks,” Crow dipped his head. “Me too.”

The peasant man looked to the three knights with a friendly expression, “Good luck to all of you. If you ever find yourselves in Aramoor again, please stop by to say hello.”

“We will,” Gavin bowed his head respectfully, surprising Crow with the sincerity in his gesture. He had never seen a knight act so respectfully toward someone of a lower class.

Once everyone was ready to go, Gavin addressed the group with a curt: “Let’s move out.”

[BuzzingBee]

The trip back from Aramoor went about as well as Penelope expected. Gavin set a brisk pace back to the camp, clearly eager as ever to return. It left little time for them to rest and she noticed that by the second day, Olivia was growing rather annoyed with the male knight. However, his focus on getting back did help lessen his focus on accusing Crow as well as trying to separate them. The two weren't able to buy much time together anyways because of the traveling but at night, they faced a little less resistance from him.

The sun was beginning to set when they reached Myrefall on the second day. Penelope slowed her pace slightly as they entered the village, knowing this was where she'd have to part with Crow. It'd likely only be for no more than a day or two but she was still reluctant after enjoying being around him for so long. She let out a small sigh and glanced up at the sky. It wouldn't be long before it was dark so the knights would need to get back to their camp soon so there was no more time to buy. The female knight took Crow's hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze before slowing her pace to a stop. Looking back ahead at the other two, she spoke up, "I'll catch up with you guys at the edge of the village."

Gavin paused as he turned his head to look back at them and frowned slightly. He clearly wanted to argue against her decision to stay behind to say her goodbyes with Crow but seemed to realize it would be useless as Penelope stubbornly held his gaze. Letting out a small sigh of defeat, the male knight nodded his head. "Alright. We'll wait for you there.."

Penelope gave a nod and watched as the other two knights continued on their way for a moment. Once they were far enough away, she turned to Crow and gave him a half hearted smile. "Well, at least we've got a little bit of time before I have to go." she mused before leaning up to press a kiss to his lips. She pulled back to met his gaze and let out a small sigh. "Guess we should meet again in a day or so right? It shouldn't take me too long to convince them to let us travel to Wheldrake."

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow didn’t like how quickly the rest of the trip back to the knights’ camp went by. Even though they ended up detouring to Myrefall first—he and Penelope had managed to convince Gavin to take the slightly longer route so he wouldn’t have to part ways with them as quickly—it still felt much too soon to him to split with Penelope. He wished that he could go with them all the way back to their camp or that she could remain behind with him in the village, but alas, neither of those options were possible, since he couldn’t walk into a camp full of knights, and she couldn’t part with her comrades without alerting her barons to her disappearance.

So, when Myrefall came into view between the trees on their second day of travel, he felt his heart sink a little, knowing that the time had come for him to stay behind. Part of him felt selfish, since it would only be a few days at the most before they would see each other again, but he couldn’t help himself. He craved to have her by his side all the time. The constant back and forth of only seeing her when the timing was convenient for everyone they were involved with frustrated him, and he wished they didn’t have to answer to the beck and call of the other thieves and knights in order to be together.

He looked up again when Penelope told Gavin and Olivia to wait for her at the edge of the village. It took a moment for her former suitor to comply, but after a brief hesitation, the knights walked onward, leaving them behind. Almost as soon as they were out of sight, Penelope turned to address him and pressed a kiss to his lips.

At her question, he nodded. “Two days would be best,” he sighed, slipping his arms around her lower back to hold her close. “I still have to talk to my companions too, but I think I’m going to wait until tomorrow.” He leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes. “Even if I left tonight, I doubt anyone would be awake enough to hear me out, so I’m going to spend the night here and go home in the morning.”

Crow pulled back again, holding her gaze for a moment, before he leaned in and met her lips in a passionate kiss. He snaked one hand up the length of her back to caress her neck as he pulled her even closer to himself. He wished they had more time together, but such as it was, he was just going to have to make the most of what they had left.

After some time had passed—he wasn’t sure how long, because he had lost track of it while his attention had been on the knight—he pulled back from her again and smiled softly. “I love you, Penelope,” he breathed, touching one more gentle kiss to her forehead before taking a step back and letting his arms fall to his sides. “Have a safe trip back, and good luck convincing your barons.”

[BuzzingBee]

Penelope pressed close to him as he wrapped his arms around her. She returned his embrace, wanting to enjoy as much of the little time they had left together as she could. "Two days it is then." the knight agreed with a small nod. It was longer than the knight was hoping for but it would likely be necessary. There was no telling if she'd be able to leave camp so quickly after returning from their trip anyways.

As he leaned in to kiss her, she met him with equal passion as she closed her eyes and kissed him back. She trailed a hand up from his neck to rest softly against his cheek. Her heart flutter as it usually did when he kissed her, reminding her of how the thief had a way of making her heart beat faster than anyone else. It made the moment a bit bittersweet as she knew they'd had to part.

Once he pulled back, Penelope smiled back at him, panting softly as she caught her breath. "I love you too and I'll see you again soon." she leaned up and pressed one more fleeting kiss to his cheek. "You be safe too and good luck with the other thieves." The knight stepped away from him hesitantly and left to catch up with the other knights. A wave of disappointment over parting with him washed over the knight as she headed off to meet with her comrades.

A small sigh escaped her lips as she focused her gaze ahead. It's only two days. I'll see him again soon enough. she reminded herself, despite the sinking feeling that the next two days would go slower than she'd like as well as be more difficult. With barons to face, thieves to catch and a war still going on, there would be plenty to catch up on in the coming days, even though she had only been gone from camp for a little less than a week. The knight picked up her pace slightly, finding a small bit of eagerness to get back to camp.

[Rogue Sloth]

As Penelope walked away to return to the other knights, Crow turned to head back to his old house, where he planned to stay for the night. Watching the surrounding alleyways for movement, he absently thought about how long it had been since the last time he had slept there. After his mother had passed, he had moved out of the place right away, partly to get away from the unpleasant memory of being with her on her deathbed, but mostly because she had told him that he should leave. She had known he wasn’t going to stop stealing after she died, so she had wanted to make sure the local knights wouldn’t be able to find him. He smiled faintly to himself. Even in her final hours she had always looked out for him.

After a while of reminiscing, the thief arrived at the doorstep of the old house. He casted a quick look around to make sure he hadn’t been followed—although, he didn’t try very hard, since he knew the only people around who might have seen him were the local knights, and they would have confronted him if they had—and then stepped inside, shrugging off his bag and cloak as he closed the door behind him. He set the pack down near the table and draped the heavy fabric over the back of the chair, arching his back in a weary stretch. After spending so many days sleeping on the ground, it would be nice to lay down on a mattress for once, even if that mattress was patched and full of old hay.

Once he had finished getting ready to retire for the night, he yawned widely and collapsed on the bed. His exhaustion from the five long days of traveling with the knights hit him at once. Drawing his blanket up to his chin, it wasn’t long before he drifted off into a light sleep.

--

The first thing Crow was aware of was the sound of feather light footsteps, moving slowly across the old wooden floor of the house.

Immediately, he tensed and cracked one eye open, only to see a tall figure, silhouetted against the moonlight that filtered in through the window, looming over his bed. His breath caught in his throat. Had a bounty hunter found his hideout? He hadn’t seen or heard anyone follow him back from his parting with the knights. How could someone have found him? He didn’t have time to think about it as another detail about the mysterious stranger caught his attention: In the man’s hands—he guessed the person was male based on his height—was a sword. The blade glinted sinisterly in the low light as the assassin held it poised to stab downward over the bed.

With no time to assess what was going on, Crow quickly rolled out of the way just before the man brought down his weapon. The sword sank into the mattress where the thief’s chest had been mere seconds before. Hurriedly untangling himself from his blanket, he scrambled off the bed and moved to put distance between himself and whomever was trying to kill him. His heart raced as he eyed the stranger, who had just finished pulling his weapon free. This wasn’t good. In his haste to get away from the blade, he had left his own dagger on the edge of the mattress, far from reach. He muttered a curse under his breath.

“What is this?” he spat, shooting the figure a venomous glare. “How did you know I was here?”

The man chuckled in response. Something about the lilt of his laugh sent a chill down the thief’s spine. He turned towards Crow, but the hood of his cloak concealed all but a smirking mouth from view. “Very good,” he purred in an icy voice. “It seems you’re not as washed up as I was expecting.”

Crow stared at the man, wide-eyed. He recognized that voice anywhere. “Jaxon?” he hated how surprised he sounded, but he couldn’t help it. His mind was reeling as he tried to understand what was happening. He and the knights had been searching for almost a week for this thief, and now here he was, standing right in front of him. He wasn’t sure what to think. All he knew was that he had to keep his guard up. After all, they hadn’t parted on the greatest of terms. Jaxon could have shown up to silence him, just like he did everyone else that he considered to be a threat to his posse. It certainly seemed like that was what he had come for, after he had nearly run his sword through his chest. Crow fixed his gaze on the blade warily.

“The one and only,” the smirk widened into a toothy grin as Jaxon reached up to lower the hood of his cloak. “Did you miss me?”

“Hardly,” Crow snorted, tilting his chin up slightly, though he continued to keep a close watch of the other thief’s sword hand. “So, you’ve finally come to do me in, huh?”

“Not quite,” Jaxon shrugged, carelessly examining the silvery edge of his blade. “That was just a test. I’m sure you remember that I only take in the sharpest of weapons, after all.”

Crow blinked, caught slightly off guard by the other thief’s words. “I hope you didn’t come all this way just to offer me my old spot back,” he said slowly. “But if you did, I’ll just save you the trouble: I don’t accept.”

Jaxon chuckled again, his dark eyes flicking up to meet Crow’s gaze, “Oh, it’s not as simple as that.” He strode across the room towards the other thief, who stiffened in response. Crow couldn’t tell what he was trying to do, but he didn’t trust Jaxon enough to wait around and find out. He took a step back, ready to run if the man got too close to him.

At this sight of the motion, Jaxon stopped walking and frowned. “Is that any way to greet an old friend?” he clicked his tongue in a distinct tsk sound.

“We’ve never been friends,” Crow curled his lip coldly. “You know how I feel about you and your little group. I left for a reason.”

“Yes, I know,” Jaxon’s gaze hardened slightly. “And you took some of my thieves with you. Speaking of which,” his lip quirked upward in a foreboding smile. “How are they doing?”

Crow eyed him suspiciously, “They’re fine. In fact, they’re better than ever now that they’re with me instead of you.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Crow faltered. He didn’t like the knowing edge in Jaxon’s voice. It felt like the other thief knew something that he didn’t. Heartbeat quickening with nervousness, he shot the man a distrusting look, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s unimportant,” Jaxon waved his hand dismissively. “I came to make a deal with you. I believe it is one that you’ll be eager to accept.”

“Forget it,” Crow scoffed. “There’s nothing you could give me that I want, and I refuse to work with your murderers again.”

Tsk. “I wouldn’t be so hasty if I were you,” Jaxon took another step forward. Crow flinched, but before he could react, the other thief’s hand shot out and caught hold of his right wrist. He felt Jaxon pull back on the sleeve of his shirt, and he averted his gaze, all too aware of what the man was trying to do.

As the fabric slid up to his elbow, a long, thin scar was revealed that stretched the length of most of his forearm. It had faded quite a bit, and could easily be mistaken for an old battle wound caused by an enemy’s sword. Jaxon traced it with two fingers. “You act like you can do whatever you please, but don’t forget,” his eyes flicked up to the other thief’s face. “I own you. No matter how long you’ve been away, you still belong to me. This mark is proof of that.”

Crow rolled his eyes, “If that were true, I never would have escaped from your group in the first place.”

“Did you really escape though?”

“Of course I did,” he narrowed his eyes at Jaxon. “And you were never able to find me or the thieves I took with me when I left.”

“That’s adorable,” Jaxon smirked again. “You really think I would waste my time hunting down a few rebellious mutts? No, no. I let you all go of my own volition.”

“And just why would you do that?” Crow sighed, clearly not believing a word the other thief was saying. “I know you kill anyone who betrays you. There’s no way you would have made an exception for us.”

“It was an investment,” Jaxon answered casually. “Why would I kill you when I could save your talents for a later time? As I said before: You belong to me, and you will do as I say.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Crow snarled. “I’m not going to lift a finger to help the likes of you, so you might as well turn around and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.”

“Feisty,” Jaxon clicked his tongue again. “Is that your final answer?”

“Yes.”

“That’s too bad,” the thief sighed sadly, letting go of Crow’s wrist. “The poor girl still had her whole life ahead of her too.”

“What was that?” Crow frowned confusedly.

“Oh, nothing,” Jaxon shook his head. “I just think it’s unfortunate that an innocent woman has to die now.” He looked up to meet the other thief’s gaze. “You didn’t really think I was just going to let you go without consequence, did you? Now that you’ve refused my offer, I’m going to take the life of that girl. What was her name again?” He paused, lifting a hand to his chin in thought before turning back to Crow with a sinister smirk. “Penelope?”

Crow felt the color drain from his face.

His reaction only seemed to encourage Jaxon. “It’s sad, really,” he exhaled. “If you had only accepted my offer, she wouldn’t have to die.” He shrugged, turning to leave. “Oh well. Too late now.”

Crow stared after him in dismay. How had Jaxon learned about his relationship with Penelope? He didn’t have time to think about it as the other thief made his way towards the door. He couldn’t figure out how Jaxon knew about the knight, but he did know that if he planned to kill her, there wasn’t much he could do to stop him.

“W-wait,” Crow took a step after him, wide eyed with panic. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll hear you out.”

“Sorry,” Jaxon shook his head without turning around. “You had your chance, and now it’s gone. The woman will die for your stubbornness.”

Crow clenched his hands into fists at his sides. He wanted to go after the other thief, but Jaxon was much more skilled at fighting than he was. If he attacked him now, he would only die, and the man would still kill Penelope. He swallowed, squeezing his eyes shut. As much as he loathed it, there was only one course of action he could take.

He dropped to his knees and lowered his head to the ground. “Please,” he begged desperately. “I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever you want. Just leave her alone.”

Finally, Jaxon turned around, a pleased smile crossing his features, “That’s a good dog.” He walked back to stand over the groveling thief. “You may stand.”

Crow ground his teeth in frustration. Every fiber of his being protested against obeying Jaxon like some sort of trained animal, but what other choice did he have? The man held Penelope’s life in the palm of his hand. So, forcing down his wounded pride, he rose slowly to his feet, averting his gaze to keep from looking the other thief in the eyes. “What do you want from me?” his voice strained slightly as he fought to keep it level.

“I know you’ve been working with the knights to track me down,” Jaxon said. “As infuriating as it is that you would turn traitor to our kind, I’ve decided that I can forgive it. All you have to do for me is continue joining their patrols and working at their sides.”

“You want me to keep working with them?” Crow knitted his brow.

“Yes,” Jaxon nodded. “However, you will no longer be working for them.” He grinned. “Instead, you will be reporting to me. I want to know everything: where they’re searching for us, how many knights are in each area, and what sort of tactics they’re using to flush us out. Additionally, I want you to lead astray any knights who get too close to my camp which, by the way, is in the forest between Aramoor and Wheldrake.”

Our lead was real after all, Crow thought in mild surprise. “So, you want me to be your spy,” he said, folding his arms over his chest.

“I’m sure it won’t be difficult for you,” Jaxon’s grin widened. “You seem to have already earned their trust well enough. Use that trust to find out what I want to know.”

“And just how am I supposed to do that?”

“You’re a clever man,” Jaxon shrugged. “Figure it out.” He turned slightly, as if to leave, but then paused as another thought seemed to cross his mind. “One more thing.” Before Crow had a chance to react, the other thief reached out and caught hold of his wrist one more time. In one swift motion, he pulled back the sleeve of his tunic and dragged a cut along his forearm with his sword, directly over the top of the old scar.

Crow grimaced at the unexpected sting of the blade. “What the hell was that for?” he growled, yanking his arm out of the man’s grip and pressing his left hand against the bleeding wound.

“You seemed to have forgotten your place tonight,” Jaxon said nonchalantly as he sheathed his weapon. “I only wanted to ensure that doesn’t happen again.” He looked up again to meet Crow’s gaze. “I will meet you here in three nights. Don’t tell anyone we’ve met, don’t try to run, and don’t try anything funny or else the woman dies.” He drew the hood of his cloak over his head once more. “I’ll see you then, Crow.” With that, he turned and vanished out the door, disappearing into the night almost as quickly as he had appeared.

[BuzzingBee]

It didn't take long for Penelope to catch up to the other two knights. Gavin and Olivia came into view as she neared the village's edge and she quickly joined them as they began the finally leg of their trip back to camp. The male knight noticeably relaxed now that they had parted ways with Crow and Olivia seemed eager to get back to camp to rest. Penelope fell instep besides her friend, letting a silence fall over the three tired knights as they made their way back to camp.

--

"Well, well, well look who's back. I see you had a successful trip."

Of course the first face they would see upon their return was Layth, who damn near seemed pleased to see them return to camp empty handed. It was already nightfall by the time the three reached their camp and Layth had spotted them returning during his guard duty. Penelope rolled her eyes at her brother. Though he annoyed her, part of her was glad to see that he was still in one piece. There had been a chance that the thieves would strike again or that Younis would attack during her trip away. However, after doing a quick survey of the camp, it seemed that there had been no other attacks in their absence.

"How do you know if we did or didn't?" Gavin challenged, seeming overly irritated. Penelope guessed he was tired from the traveling as well as still having a bit of left over frustration after working with Crow so much. "Just because we didn't return with the thieves doesn't mean we didn't find anything out."

Layth glared at the other knight and folded his arms over his chest before shifting his gaze to his sister. "Well, did you find anything?"

"Something, yes." Penelope replied vaguely, which annoyed her brother. She shrugged her shoulders at his questioning gaze. "You'll hear everything once I report to Mia tomorrow morning. I figure the barons deserve to be the first ones to hear about the trip after all. Unless you think otherwise?"

"Fine." Layth spat. "I doubt you have any useful information anyways."

"I guess that'll be for the barons to decide." Gavin remarked.

Olivia groaned and pushed past the other knights, letting out a tired yawn. "Blah, blah blah. It's been a long trip, I'm tired, and I just want to get to bed. Goodnight." she gave a careless wave of her hand as she walked off towards her tent.

Gavin watched her go for a moment before glancing between Layth and Penelope. "I suppose she had the right idea." he mused and let out a long exhale.

Penelope nodded her head in agreement. "We should get to bed too." she told Gavin before looking over at Layth. "Enjoy the rest of your guard duty, brother." She nodded her head to the two male knights before parting ways from them and heading to her tent. Feeling the weight of the day hit her, she didn't doubt that sleep would come fast once she laid down in her bed.

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep after Jaxon had left. He wanted to just forget about their conversation or pretend it had never happened, but the bite of the cut in his arm refused to let him do that so easily. He still couldn’t believe it had happened. Somehow, Jaxon had found him a year after he had escaped and managed to put him under his thumb once again. It felt suffocating to have the other thief ruling over him when he had tried so hard to make a clean break from him.

What was worse was that he couldn’t figure out how Jaxon had gotten so much information about him. The man had known exactly where to find him, even though it was the first time he had slept in this house in over a decade, and he had known about Penelope. By the sound of his threat, it seemed like he knew the nature of their relationship as well. He shuddered. Of all the people who could have discovered that he was in love with a knight, Jaxon was the most dangerous. He may have decided not to kill her in order to blackmail him, but there was no telling what else he might do with that knowledge. The little sleep he managed to get was filled with nightmares of different scenarios of what the man could do to them.

When the next morning came, Crow was just as tired as if he hadn’t slept at all. He got up as soon as the earliest sunlight filtered in through the window, since there was no point in trying to get anymore sleep at that point. Shouldering his bag, he winced slightly as his injured arm smarted at the motion. He hadn’t expected to wind up in any fights, so he hadn’t thought to pack any bandages for the trip. Thus, he had been forced to just wash out the gash with water and pray to the gods that it didn’t get worse before he returned to his camp.

Once he was ready to go, he stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him with a sigh. His mother had been right. He should have stayed far away from that place after she had died. It’s too late now, he thought despondently, looking down at his right hand, which was faintly stained with blood that had dripped down from the mark Jaxon had left him with. He had already made the mistake, and now he was going to have to suffer the consequences.

--

The walk back to the camp felt longer than usual, but Crow guessed that was probably due to how eager he was to get to the waterfall. Even though he was mostly concerned about Penelope, Jaxon’s comment about the other thieves lingered in the back of his mind, and he had a bad feeling that something had happened while he was gone. He hoped he was just being paranoid, but he wasn’t going to relax until he was certain that they were alright.

When he finally reached the camp, his heartbeat quickened with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. He skimmed the edge of the waterfall and slipped inside the main cavern… only to be met by a sword pointed at his chest. Immediately, he froze threw his hands in the air. “It’s me; it’s Crow,” he said hurriedly as he looked to his left and saw Alistair’s stern face. He frowned, wondering why his companion was acting so hostilely. Alistair was never this quick to draw a blade. His stomach churned. Something must have happened, after all.

“Oh,” Alistair lowered his sword, although his cold expression didn’t fade. He turned towards one of the tunnels and called out, “Rikki! Crow’s back.” After a moment, the female thief stepped out of the shadows, looking just as grim as her friend.

“What’s going on?” Crow asked tentatively, his eyes flicking between their faces. “Did something happen while I was gone?”

“You could say that,” Alistair shifted uncomfortably, exchanging a look with Rikki.

“First,” Rikki growled, storming towards Crow and shoving him roughly. “I have a bone to pick with you. Why did you lie to us? You said you were in Wheldrake! Why can’t you just trust us for once in your damn life and stop keeping secrets?”

Crow blinked, caught off guard by the accusation. “How did you know I wasn’t in Wheldrake?”

“Jaxon told us,” Alistair lowered his gaze shamefully. “He showed up four days after you left.”

“Jaxon was here?” Crow’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes,” Rikki confirmed in a soft voice, all anger fleeing from her words as a pained expression took over her face. “That was the ‘something’ you were asking about.” She hugged her arms across her middle as she explained, “He came here wanting to know where you were. He wouldn’t tell us why he was looking for you, but he threatened to kill us if we didn’t tell him where to find you.”

“And you told him I was in Wheldrake,” Crow murmured, making the connection before she could say so, herself.

Rikki nodded solemnly. “We didn’t have any other choice. He went to look for you in Wheldrake, but when he didn’t find you there…” she choked up, biting her lip as she averted her gaze.

“Crow, he killed Simon,” Alistair finished, wrapping an arm comfortingly around Rikki’s shoulders.

Crow stared at him in shock. “He killed…” he breathed, unable to bring himself to say the sentence out loud. Simon was dead? He couldn’t believe it was true. It couldn’t be true. This had to be some sort of twisted joke. For gods’ sakes, the man had just gotten married! He had so much to look forward to, and it had all been cut short by a power-hungry murderer. What about Hazel? He brought a hand to his mouth, suddenly feeling sick. Widowed less than a month after her marriage, she couldn’t be taking this well.

Alistair nodded silently, giving him some time to process before he went on, “When Jaxon showed up the second time, he was angry. He told us that he didn’t tolerate being lied to. At first, he just had a few of his men hold Simon hostage. He said he would kill him if we didn’t tell him where you really were.” He shook his head. “Hazel told him to look in Myrefall at an old house. She said that was where you went to meet with Penelope…” He trailed off, swallowing awkwardly. “She… she told him that you were seeing that knight romantically and could have lied about Wheldrake to keep your meetup with her a secret from me and Simon.”

So that’s how Jaxon found out so much, Crow thought. It all made sense to him now. Jaxon had been threatening to kill her husband, so she had spilled everything to save him. “If she gave him an answer, then why did he kill Simon?” he asked with a frown.

“Because he’s a heartless bastard!” Rikki snapped suddenly, curling her hands into fists at her sides. “That snake said he would only kill Simon if we didn’t tell him where to find you, but once he got everything he wanted, he ordered his men to slit his throat anyway! Right in front of Hazel, too!” She lifted a hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “It was awful. He said it was a warning so we wouldn’t lie to him again, but I know he just did it to hear her scream.”

“I-I don’t know what to say,” Crow said numbly, meeting her gaze. “Where is Hazel now?”

“She hasn’t left the deeper tunnels since it happened,” Alistair sighed. “She’s hurting bad.”

Crow nodded faintly. He still couldn’t believe how much damage Jaxon had managed to do in just a few days. Simon was dead, his remaining companions were distraught, and he had been practically enslaved to follow the thief leader’s every command. It was the worst situation that could have happened.

“Take me to her,” Crow said quietly, looking up to hold Alistair’s gaze once more. “I want to speak with Hazel.”

[BuzzingBee]

The next morning came too soon for the knight as she had to face dealing with her barons. She had already prepared for what she was going to tell them during the trip back to camp, but after running into her brother the night before, she was reminded convincing all of them would be a bit more difficult than merely convincing Mia. Penelope let out a sigh as she finished up her small bite of breakfast, not feeling very much hunger as all of her attention was focused on the upcoming meeting.

Eventually, the time came for her to head to the tent at the center of camp. As she stepped inside, she was greeted by familiar faces. Tomas looked over and offered her his usual friendly smile while Layth scowled at her. Edward narrowed his gaze and Bennet seemed distracted with the map he had in front of him. Mia looked over at her with a hint of hope in her gaze and was the first to speak up.

"Welcome back Penelope." she said with a small smile. "I trust you're ready to report how your mission went."

"You better be." Edward growled crossing his arms. "This camp is still hurting from the attack, we can't afford people out chasing gossip amongst peasants."

I see Layth informed him of where I got my lead from... She thought bitterly as she moved to sit down in the open chair. "I am, Mia." she said with a respectful nod to her baroness, ignoring her uncle's sour words. "When we went to Aramoor, we were unable to find the thieves or any signs of their camp. It seemed like a dead end but upon talking with some of the villagers, we had a bit of success. Some reported sighting the thieves heading towards Wheldrake and I now believe that's where they're currently located."

Layth snorted. "How can you be so sure the peasants even saw them? It sounds like this mission was as much of a failure as I thought it would be."

"These thieves are obviously well known in the area. I'm sure the peasants could identify them just as easily as we can." Penelope responded sharply. "Have you made any progress on finding them here or any leads as to where they are?"

Layth muttered something foul under his breath while Tomas let out a soft sigh. "No.. Our patrols have been scouring everywhere from Myrefall to Grimsby but there hasn't been any trace of them or our supplies.." the older lieutenant informed her with a small frown. "Honestly, I think the reports of villagers spotting them near Aramoor should be considered rather successful."

"I agree." Mia spoke up with a small nod. "It's not quite as much as I hoped for but it's certainly a better lead than anything we've managed to find here."

"I'm glad you think so," Penelope said with a hopeful look. "because I was hoping to continue to follow it."

"You intend to go on mission to Wheldrake?" Edward grunted disapprovingly.

"With your permission, yes." Penelope responded with a curt nod a her gaze flickered over to Mia. The baroness wavered slightly, seeming less than thrilled about the idea of sending her lieutenant away from camp on yet another journey.

"Penelope, I'm glad you had success with your trip to Aramoor but I think it would be best if we send a different patrol. Do not forget you still have duties to do within the camp." Mia said.

"Besides, if you really are getting closer to the thieves, then they should send someone who won't lose them." Layth sneered, referring to the multiple times Crow had 'gotten away' from her.

The female lieutenant tensed slightly. Even though she seemed to have convinced most that her lead was worth following, it seemed getting Mia to let her leave again would be a bit more difficult than anticipated. The thought of sending a different patrol made Penelope a bit nervous. They wouldn't know who they were really looking for and her flimsy lead would become completely useless.

"I'm not and I won't let them get away." Penelope's gaze hardened determinedly. "My patrol was the one that managed to track this lead down in the first place and with all due respect Mia, I believe we should be the ones to see it through to the end. Afterall, there clearly must be a reason why we were the only ones to discover this lead while the other patrols remain unsuccessful."

"What are you trying to say?" Edward growled while Layth narrowed his eyes.

"All I'm saying is that my group found the lead so we should be the ones to follow it rather than risking someone else losing it." Penelope replied with a shrug.

"She does have a point." Tomas piped up. "They should be the ones following the lead. They have all the information about it after all and they're more a familiar with the details as well as where to look obviously."

Mia frowned and shifted her gaze away as she paused for a moment. Finally the baroness sighed and nodded her head. "I suppose you're right." she mused and glanced between the other two barons for approval before looking back to Penelope. "You and your patrol will be allowed to leave for Wheldrake to follow this trail you've found."

Penelope smiled at Mia and dipped her head. "Thank you." she said appreciatively.

[Rogue Sloth]

As the three thieves headed into the tunnels, a tense silence fell over them. Crow could tell that Alistair and Rikki were both buzzing with questions that they wanted to ask, yet were afraid to speak out loud. He wasn’t sure if he preferred the quiet or if he would rather they just come out and say what was on their minds. After all, he knew they must have blamed him at least in part for everything that had happened. How could they not? It had been his lie that had landed them all in this mess in the first place. Even he couldn’t think of a way to excuse himself from being the cause of Jaxon’s heinous deed.

After a short period of time had passed, Alistair worked up the nerve to ask him one of his questions. “So…” he started slowly. “Is it true? What Hazel said about you and Penelope, I mean… Are you really involved with a knight romantically?”

Crow sighed. He supposed there was no point trying to hide it any longer now that Hazel had admitted it in front of everyone. “It’s true,” he nodded. “We’ve been together for some time now.”

“I see,” Alistair trailed off, seeming lost in his own thoughts.

Another brief silence fell between them before Rikki spoke up. “Were you really visiting with her in Myrefall then?” she glanced over at him curiously.

“Not quite,” Crow shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t want to tell them about what he had been doing with the other knights, but he couldn’t keep lying to them—not after what had happened to Simon. They needed to be aware of everything that was really going on in the outer villages. He let out his breath again after a pause. “I was offering my assistance to her and two other knights to find a group of thieves that raided their camp,” he finally confessed. “On the same night we stole from them, another group of bandits apparently came in later. They looted half of the knights’ supplies and killed all of their night watchmen.”

He shook his head shamefully, “Honestly, I had a gut feeling that Jaxon was behind it, but I never expected that things would turn out like this. I’m so sorry. I should have told you all right away that it was possible.”

Rikki hesitated for a moment before she reached out to wrap him in an embrace. He blinked in surprise at the gesture. He had been fully expecting both of his companions to be furious with him. A hug was the last thing he would have thought she would do to him. “What’s this for?” he asked, thoroughly confused.

“You big idiot,” Rikki murmured, her voice muffled against his chest. “None of this was your fault. Jaxon would have killed someone no matter what. Simon died because he couldn’t find you, but you would have died if he had.” He felt her arms tighten around his middle. “I’m just glad you’re still alive.”

But he did find me, Crow grimaced and averted his gaze. He got what he wanted, and Simon is dead now. It is my fault. However, he couldn’t tell her that. Jaxon had told him that if he told anyone about their meeting, Penelope would be killed next. For her sake, he had to keep his mouth shut. “Thanks,” he said hoarsely. Clearing his throat, he pulled away from her embrace and went on more steadily, “We should keep moving. I still want to see Hazel.”

“Alright,” Rikki said compliantly. “The cavern she’s been sleeping in isn’t much farther ahead.” She waved a hand. “Come on, it’s this way.”

--

Crow wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but what he saw wrenched his heart with anguish. The cave was bare aside from a small oil lantern in the center and a single mat that had been shoved off to the side. Hazel herself laid curled up near the back on the stone floor with her face to the wall. The space was silent, which he just guessed was because she had run out of tears to shed. Overall, the air was stagnant with sadness.

After a moment, Crow worked up the nerve to step forward. “Hey, love,” he said softly as he sat down by her back. She didn’t respond, and he wavered for a moment before going on. “I heard about what happened… I know this doesn’t make anything better, but I just needed you to know that I’m sorry. I-I wish I had been here, or that I could have done something to change what happened.” He ran his fingers anxiously through his hair. “I just feel like I let you down, and I’m truly sorry.”

There was a brief moment of silence before a weak voice spoke up. “You should be,” Hazel mumbled. He blinked in surprise as she suddenly sat up and turned around to face him with the most hate-filled glare he had ever seen her give. “You should have told me the truth,” she said icily. “You know you can trust me, yet you still lied about it, and Simon was the one who suffered for your selfishness.”

Crow said nothing, taken aback by the harshness of her words. Could he really say she was wrong though? It was all true, every word of it. He should have told them all the truth, and then perhaps Simon would still be alive. “I know,” he finally said in a hushed voice.

“No, you don’t know,” Hazel said sharply. “If you understood, you would stop acting like you’re still working alone and learn to trust your friends. But you don’t. You’re just a snake who doesn’t care what happens to anyone else around him as long as he gets what he wants.”

Crow winced, “That’s not t—”

Hazel held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t bother,” she curled her lip. “You can’t convince me.” Suddenly, she bit her lip and looked away, her chin quivering slightly as she fought to hold back tears. “I should have never come with you from mother’s. I should have known you would just hurt me again.” She shook her head. “I was a fool to think you couldn’t hurt me worse than you did all those years ago… You’re still the same snake you were back then, and you’ve ruined my life yet again.” She laid down and rolled over again. “Just get out of here. You’ve done enough.”

Crow sat in silence for a moment before he rose to his feet and walked out of the cavern without another word. On the other side of the wall, Rikki and Alistair quickly fell into step by his side. “Crow, you know she didn’t mean that right?” Alistair studied him with a frown. “She’s grieving. She’ll come around once her emotions settle down.”

“Yeah,” Rikki nodded. “She’s told me before that she knows you’re a good person. This is just the pain talking. I’m sure she’ll be back to her old self with time.”

Crow shrugged, unable to think of anything to say. He knew that Hazel was right about most of the things she had said. It was his fault that Simon was dead and she had been widowed. But he couldn’t tell anyone that. If he told them the truth, Penelope would be the next to be killed. He couldn’t be the cause of anyone else’s death—he couldn’t handle that burden.

“I’m going to lay down,” he murmured when they got back to the main cavern.

“Are you okay?” Rikki asked concernedly, stepping a little closer to him.

“How can I be, after everything I just learned?” he smiled melancholically and turned to look at her. “I’ll be alright though. I just need some time to process it all.”

“Of course,” Alistair rested a hand on Rikki’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s leave him alone.” She mumbled her agreement and the two headed out to give him some space.

Once they were gone, Crow walked over to his bed mat and laid down on his side, propping one arm beneath his head. Despite all of the terrible news he had gotten, he didn’t feel the urge to shed tears. Instead, he stared vacantly at the wall, numb to the pain that he had thought he would feel, until his weariness eventually caught up with him, and he drifted off into a much-needed nap.

[BuzzingBee]

The rest of the meeting went on without much issue. Mia and the other barons seemed willing to let her leave once again and Penelope informed them that her patrol would take their leave in a day. As the topic of her report finished off, they continued on to speak about how they were handling supplies. The female knight was relieved to hear that they had already put in a request to the king for more supplies. Since it was impossible for them to recover the stolen supplies now, they would be needing the shipment.

However, it would still be a while before they came in which was why the group also discussed how to go about rationing the supplies they did have. It seemed they had already assigned a few knights to help with keeping track of the stock as well as handling how to divide it out. Provided Younis didn't attack before the new supplies arrived, it nearly seemed like the camp could recover from the heavy hit.

---

"So, how'd it go?"

With the meeting over, Penelope had set out to find Gavin and Olivia to discuss what was coming next for them. It was now later in the day-the meeting had lasted sometime due to all there was to discuss and plan-and the three were sitting together under a tree in a small circle. Gavin was the first to ask about the meeting, looking a bit nervous.

"It went fine." Penelope told him with a small shrug. "Mia doesn't like that I'm going to be gone again but she agreed to let us travel to Wheldrake."

"So we're still going?" Gavin asked with a hint of disappointment.

Penelope looked over at him and sighed. "Yes of course. From what I've heard, they haven't found any traces of the thieves here and even if they did, it'd probably be the wrong ones. The lead we have is pretty much all we've got to finding the real culprits." she paused and frowned slightly. "Look, if you're that against it, then maybe you should just stay here this time."

"What?" Gavin blinked and quickly shook his head. "No way. I'm still going with you, Penelope. I just... have some doubts."

Olivia snorted and leaned back on the palms of her hands. "Yeah, we all know that already Gavin." she snickered, causing for the male knight to shoot an annoyed glare at her.

"Alright.. Well, anyways," Penelope continued, ignoring Olivia. "we'll be leaving in a day. We're supposed to meet with Crow then too."

"A day?" Olivia groaned. "You couldn't have given us a little more time to rest before we have to leave again? I'm tired and all that walking is so painfully dull."

"We have thieves to catch. We can't waste days relaxing." Gavin pointed out.

Penelope looked over at him and nodded her head in agreement. "He's right. Sorry Olivia but we've got to track them down before they strike again. I'm certain none of us would want to be on guard duty before we catch them after all." The female knight shuddered as she recalled the morning after the thieves had attacked the camp. The image of Millicent's body popped into her mind and she quickly lowered her gaze to the ground as she felt a familiar stab of guilt. Even though she did not directly cause Millicent's death, she still felt terrible for having been the one to put her in that danger anyways. It had been her guard shift after all.

Feeling a hand rest comfortingly on her shoulder, the knight looked back up to see Gavin looking over at her with a softened expression. "Right. We'll leave in a day then... Hopeful we'll find something in Wheldrake.." he mumbled with a small sigh. He still seemed reluctant about chasing after the lead they had found but Penelope did appreciate that he was finally willing to go after it now that they had returned to camp to find nothing of use. She knew he likely still believed the criminal responsible was Crow but still held onto a small hope that he would change his belief once they got closer to finding Jaxon.

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow woke up from his nap sometime in the evening while Alistair and Rikki were cooking dinner. Quite hungry since he had skipped lunch that day—after finding out that Simon was dead, he hadn’t had an appetite to eat— he joined them for a large meal of vegetables and rye bread. After everyone had eaten, Rikki took the leftovers to Hazel, who still hadn’t left the depths of the inner tunnels. According to Alistair, the herbalist wouldn’t touch the food, but Rikki was determined to get her to fill her stomach at some point.

For the rest of the evening, he left the hideout to walk along the edge of the river. His main purpose had been to visit the grave his companions had made for Simon. Since they needed to stay hidden from the knights, they had been forced to bury him far upstream, so their location wouldn’t be given away if any knights happened to see the marker. Fortunately, because it was a late hour, he had no trouble going to the spot and then coming back again after he had paid his respects to the fallen thief.

On his way back to the waterfall, he also stopped to wash off the blood that still stained his skin from Jaxon’s sword. After taking a quick look around to make sure he was still alone, he knelt down at the edge of the river and rolled up his sleeves, using the cold water to cleanse himself of the red streaks that painted his right arm and left hand. It took some time for him to meticulously scrub all of it off. When he was finished, he rocked back on his heels, watching the water flow.

Sitting on the bank alone, he suddenly had a strange urge to climb all the way in. He looked down at his hands. Even though he was clean from the blood, he still felt dirty. He had caused yet another one of his companions to die, and he had agreed to work alongside the murderer that had killed him. It felt vile.

Standing up again, he casted another glance over the area before he reached for the hem of his tunic, stripping the fabric off of his body and tossing it aside. He did the same with his boots and pants and then stepped into the river. The frigid water chilled his skin right away, and he shivered. There was a reason why peasants never bathed at this time of the year, but at that moment, he didn’t care. He just wanted to rid himself of the feeling of filth after everything that had happened.

So, taking a steeling breath, he waded deeper into the river. It was a shallow section that he and the other thieves had used to bathe in the past, and the slow-flowing water only rose to the middle of his thigh. But that was all Crow needed. He washed the rest of his body slowly, taking his time and enduring the iciness of the water as a form of self-inflicted justice for the guilt he felt about Simon’s death. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the effect he had hoped it would.

When he was finished bathing, he climbed out of the river and put his clothes back on, feeling just as terrible as before except that now he was wetter too. Trembling from the cold, he reached up to squeeze some of the water out of his long hair and began the walk back to the camp.

--

By the time Crow returned, the other thieves had already gone to bed. Glancing over at the sleeping area, he saw both Alistair and Rikki laying on their mats. It was as good of a time as any. He made his way quietly over to their medical supplies and dug out a roll of bandages. Sitting down against the wall, he rolled up his right sleeve and dressed the wound. It stung a bit as he worked, but otherwise it didn’t seem like it had gotten worse.

He had just finished inspecting the bandage to make sure it would hold up, when he heard a faint rustling sound from the sleeping area. He looked up sharply and put the leftover bandages back where he had found them, rising to his feet to distance himself from the medical supplies.

“Crow?” Rikki’s half-awake voice broke the silence as she lifted her head.

“It’s me,” he confirmed in a whisper, making his way over to the sleeping area. “I just got back from visiting Simon’s grave.”

“It’s late,” she noted, sitting up on her mat and rubbing her eyes tiredly.

“I know,” he said softly, grateful that the darkness of the cave concealed his damp hair and clothes from the other thief. “I lost track of time.” He met her gaze in the dark. “You should go back to sleep.”

“Okay,” she yawned and then smiled at him. “It’s good to have you back, Crow.” Reaching out, she rested one hand on top of his and then pulled back with a frown. “You’re freezing.”

“It’s a cold night,” Crow lied casually. “I’m fine.”

Rikki shook her head, “I’m going to get you an extra blanket.” Without waiting for a reply, she got up from her bed and made her way quietly over to the supplies, retrieved a blanket, and handed it off to him when she came back. “I’m not going to let you catch a fever the first night you’re back,” she said with a smirk.

“Thanks, love,” Crow said gratefully, spreading the second blanket on top of his first.

“No problem, boss,” Rikki’s smirk widened to a grin as she used her old pet name for him. She settled down on her mat once again and pulled her own blanket over herself. “Goodnight. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night,” he yawned in response, following her lead and laying down on his bed. Despite the troubles he’d learned about and nap he’d had earlier, the warmth of the blankets over his body and the comfort of his companions’ presence at his side left him feeling relaxed content. It didn’t take long before he slipped out of consciousness into a dreamless sleep.

[BuzzingBee]

The rest of the day went by rather slowly for the knight. Penelope felt herself having a bit of trouble throwing herself back into the swing of things after spending so many days away from camp. Due to this, she was a bit slow in doing some rather simple tasks as she spent her evening with Tomas, who had taken it upon himself to show her how they were splitting up supplies as well as what they could afford to give the patrol for their second journey.

"You should be able to take enough to last you to Wheldrake." the older lieutenant mused as he eyed some half full crates of food. "It should take what another four days or so?"

"Possibly." Penelope replied and gave a thoughtful look before adding, "but if we do manage to catch up with the thieves it could take longer.. It might be best if we take a little extra. Do you think we can spare it?" While she was mainly concerned about them possibly taking a couple extra days if the mission panned out, she also wanted to make sure Crow was accounted for as well. She knew the thief would likely pack his own supplies but knowing that the thieves had fewer supplies than the knights did anyways, she couldn't help but want to make sure he didn't get left out or low on supplies.

"I suppose." Tomas said with a slow nod. "When are you planning to leave again?"

"In a day. I'm sure Gavin will probably stop sometime tomorrow just to prepare. You know how he is." Penelope said with a shrug.

Tomas gave a small chuckle and nodded his head. "Alright, well tell him to find me when he starts packing. I can at least help you be prepared for the trip... You guys might be close to catching the thieves so I want to make sure you're ready." A somber expression took over the older man as he mentioned the thieves. "We lost too many that night and it wasn't even a battle.. We can't let them do something like that again."

"We won't." Penelope agreed firmly. "I'll make sure we catch them." The female knight gave him a determined look that seemed to cheer up Tomas slightly and he nodded his head in agreement. Relaxing a little again, she gave him a small smile. "By the way thanks for taking over my duties while I'm away. I certainly wouldn't have gotten Mia's approval without your help. I'll owe you one once things settle down."

"It's not a problem." Tomas shrugged his shoulders. "It's for good cause after all and I don't mind it really." He pushed back one of the crates into place before turning to leave the supply tent. As he stepped outside, Penelope followed after him and eyed the darkening sky.

"You should get to bed soon." he advised, turning back to her. "Mia wants to speak with you tomorrow to go over a few more plans before you head out again."

Penelope nodded her head. "I'll be sure to visit her first thing in the morning then." she promised. "Thanks again Tomas." She dipped her head to the older lieutenant before turning and beginning to make her way over to where they were serving dinner. Grabbing a quick bite to eat, the knight mainly kept to herself as she contemplated what their second trip out would bring. After talking with the others, she sure hoped their lead would turn out much more solid than it was currently.

She eventually retired to her tent as night fell, eager to get some rest. It didn't take long for the knight to fall into a light sleep as her mind buzzed about all they still had to face in the upcoming days.

---

As morning came, Penelope got a slower start on the day than she had originally planned. Olivia quickly joined her for breakfast, at first in hopes of getting the lieutenant to agree to wait a couple more days before they headed out. However, that of course didn't pan out as Penelope remained firm in her decision, especially since she had already agreed with Crow on when they would met again. The thought of the thief also made her eager to see him again, despite only being separated for a short time.

"Fine, fine but can you at least make sure Gavin isn't waking us up at the crack of dawn every day?" Olivia pleaded with an exaggerated sigh.

Penelope rolled her eyes at her friend. "I can try but you know how he is.. I think he's getting to the point where he doesn't trust even me anymore."

"Only because he thinks a certain thief is whispering in your ear." Olivia waved a hand dismissively. "Take it as a slow sign of him losing faith that you'll change your mind and go back to him."

"To be fair, I doubt it's just because of jealousy.. He really thinks Crow was behind what happened and without any evidence to prove otherwise, I think his patience is wearing thin. I just hope we find evidence of the other thieves before it runs out." Penelope sighed softly.

"Hopefully.. If we don't it'll be interesting to see how that plays out." Olivia mused then shrugged her shoulders. "But luckily for you, that ex-suitor of yours has a good deal of patience so I doubt it'll run out anytime soon."

"Yeah.." Penelope mumbled then flickered gaze away. Recalling that she needed to go met with Mia, the knight blinked and hurriedly rose up to her feet. "Ah, I gotta go see Mia. Sorry Olivia, I'll catch up with you after." she said with a small wave before she turned and headed off towards the baroness' tent.

[Rogue Sloth]

The next day, Crow woke up early in his anticipation to prepare for his next trip with the knights. Since he had told Alistair and Rikki the truth about what he had been doing during his last absence, there was no point in trying to hide his plans from them anymore. So, he didn’t bother telling them the lie he had come up with as he packed his bag with supplies for the journey to Wheldrake. This time, he made sure to bring extra bandages both to redress his wound and to take care of any future injuries, should he receive any.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get much done before the sound of his shuffling about roused Rikki and Alistair from their slumber. “You’re leaving again already?” Alistair asked tiredly, shaking his head to clear away his grogginess.

“Not now, but soon, yes,” Crow said without looking up from the bag he was kneeling beside. He wavered for a moment before adding: “We need to catch Jaxon before he has a chance to do any more damage.”

Alistair and Rikki exchanged a look before Alistair cleared his throat, “We want to come with you too.”

“Yeah,” Rikki chimed in, climbing to her feet from her bed. “Jaxon killed one of our own. We’re going to help you take him down for good.”

Crow eyed them hesitantly. He still wanted to keep them out of the hunt for their old leader, but Jaxon had proven that wouldn’t be possible when he attacked them in their own home. He shifted his weight uncomfortably. Perhaps before he would have been more inclined to accept their offer to help, but now that he was working alongside the very man they were trying to catch, he wasn’t sure what to do. If something went wrong, he didn’t want them to get caught up in the middle of it.

“I appreciate the offer,” he said slowly. “But I’m working directly with knights. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be part of that.”

“I don’t care,” Alistair shrugged. “I’d even work with mercenaries if it meant we would bring Jaxon down faster.”

“The same goes for me,” Rikki said in agreement.

Crow chewed on the inside of his lip. It seemed like his companions wouldn’t be so easily dissuaded. “What about Hazel?” he asked, trying a different approach. “If you both come with me, no one will be left to make sure she’s safe.”

That seemed to make them pause.

“That’s true,” Rikki casted a concerned look at Alistair. “We can’t just leave her alone while Jaxon is still on the loose.”

Alistair folded his arms over his chest, “I suppose so…” Suddenly, he blinked as he was struck with an idea. “But we could always take turns keeping watch over her.”

Crow groaned inwardly. It seemed like there would be no convincing them to stay behind. He opened his mouth to try another approach, but another voice spoke up before he could say a word.

“Don’t waste your time sitting around here with me,” Hazel, who had just emerged from the tunnel, said softly. She crossed one arm over her middle in a defensive posture when the thieves turned to look at her.

“You’re up,” Alistair said in surprise.

“Of course I’m up,” Hazel curled her lip. “You three were making so much noise, I just had to come out and see what all the commotion was about.” She lowered her gaze to the ground, all irritation fleeing from her features. “Anyway, you should all leave together. I’ll be fine on my own.”

“What if Jaxon comes back to take revenge for us leading him astray again?” Rikki protested.

“I’ll just stay in the deeper caverns,” Hazel said simply. “I can even take all of our supplies with me. This place is such a maze; he’ll probably just assume we all left to get away from him.” Her eyes hardened. “If there’s even a chance that you three can avenge Simon, then I refuse to be the one to hold you back.”

“We will,” Alistair promised. He turned back to Crow with a smirk. “Looks like it’s settled.”

“It would seem so,” Crow forced a smile despite the sinking feeling in his stomach. “Pack your things then. We need to leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

“While we’re at it, why don’t we help Hazel move the rest of our supplies into the tunnels?” Rikki suggested, offering the herbalist a friendly smile. “There’s far too much here for one woman to handle alone.”

Hazel rolled her eyes, “I’m more than capable.”

“Maybe so,” Alistair shot her a grin. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to stand aside while you break your back over those heavy crates.” He gestured to Crow. “Come on. Let’s take care of those for her.”

Crow’s eyes flicked briefly towards Hazel. After she had spoken to him so harshly about what had happened, he felt like he was walking on eggshells around her. “Alright,” he said after a moment, rising to follow the other thief over to the supplies.

They all spent the rest of the day moving and packing gear as well as strategizing about what to do if they managed to track down Jaxon’s band of thieves. However, the preparations only served to worsen Crow’s unease about the upcoming trip. He had an edge over both the knights and the thieves, since they would freely tell him their plans, but he still had to tread carefully around them in order to keep from getting caught working for Jaxon. It was a touchy situation to be in.

So, when darkness eventually fell and they all settled down for bed, he welcomed the distraction that sleep would bring him, if only for a little while. He laid down on his mat nearby Alistair and Rikki, drawing his blanket fully over his head and closing his eyes tightly. His insides felt like they were twisting with anxiety about meeting with the knights the next day. He wished desperately that he could convince Penelope to stop accepting his help on their mission—to warn her of the potential danger he could be putting her and her comrades in—but he couldn’t think of any way to do so without alerting her that something was wrong and therefore breaking his deal with Jaxon. He was helpless to stop the wheels of the scheme the manipulative man had set in motion.

Please, just let this journey be over quickly… he silently pleaded as he faded into sleep.

[BuzzingBee]

"Tomas said you wanted to speak with me?"

Penelope stepped quietly into Mia's tent. The baroness was looking over her map as usual, only letting her gaze briefly flicker away from it to look up at her lieutenants arrival. At her question, Mia nodded her head and gestured for her to come further into the tent. Penelope walked over to the baroness and eyed the map she had laid out of the outer villages. It was marked up with various symbols, some of which she recognized and others that were unfamiliar.

"I wanted to speak with you a little more before you left again." Mia told her and let out a long exhale. "Did you manage to find out any other information about the thieves during your time in Aramoor?"

Penelope paused before shaking her head. "Not really but.." she hesitated and shifted slightly. She wanted to warn her baroness and the others at camp about Jaxon but doing so without alerting them to her working with Crow would be difficult. If they couldn't find anything in Wheldrake, it could be helpful to direct the knights into searching for the proper thieves rather than Crow and his band. "I just.. I have a feeling that we're after the wrong criminals this time."

Mia raised an eyebrow at her, clearly surprised by her words. "And what makes you say that?"

"Well.. The thief we're after usually works alone or in a small group. I don't think anyone's reported seeing him with more than one or two others at a time, right?" she crossed her arms over her chest and went on. "If that's the case, then I doubt they'd be able to pull off such a big and devastating raid... Plus I've never known them to kill during their raids, especially in such a big amount."

"I see.." Mia mused thoughtfully. The baroness paused for a moment, thinking over Penelope's words. "You do raise some valid points.. Which is why I must ask, if you don't believe that those thieves are responsible, why are you so keen on hunting them down?"

Penelope held Mia's gaze, straining to not avert her gaze. "Well.. t-they're still thieves who've been stealing from us for a while now and besides that, we could probably learn from them if they are guilty of this raid or not. It's another reason why we can't have someone like my brother catching them. He would be out for blood but we need answers more than justice for now." she explained.

Luckily Mia bought the lie rather easily. The baroness nodded her head in approval and lowered her gaze back down to the map. "I'll keep your theory in mind when I send out patrols, which happens to be what I wanted to speak with you about. I need to know where you think it would be effective to send our patrols while you head to Wheldrake. Yours has seen the most success so I figure there must be something to learn."

Penelope gave her baroness a small, appreciative smile. While she was glad that Mia was crediting success to her patrol, she knew she couldn't really take the credit. Most of it was thanks to Crow after all, of course that wasn't a detail she could just willingly share so she accepted the praise for now and moved to help plan a few of the coming patrols with Mia. She made sure to try and keep most of them at a distance from where they would be traveling as well as away from the waterfall where the other thieves were located.

---

As the day went by, Penelope spent most of her time with Mia and then with Gavin and Tomas, preparing for when they would leave the following day. Tomas was kind enough to let them pack the extra supplies she had requested, though Gavin was hesitant to accept them. It didn't take the knights long and they finished before sundown. With everything prepared for the following day, Penelope met back up with Olivia to enjoy a warm supper before heading off to bed.

Excitement buzzed in the knight at the thought of meeting with Crow again. Though Wheldrake wasn't as far as Aramoor, it would still give them time together and that was enough to make Penelope eager for the following day even if it was for a less than joyful mission. She laid down for the night and closed her eyes, finding sleep came slowly to her. However, the knight eventually fell into a deep and peaceful sleep as her thoughts of the coming day died down.

[Rogue Sloth]

“It’s funny,” Rikki mused aloud as the group of thieves trekked through the forest towards Myrefall. “I never thought I’d be on this side of a manhunt before.”

“It’s strange, that’s for sure,” Crow nodded. “I’ve been at this for a week now, and I’m still getting used to it, myself.”

Suddenly, they heard a noise off to their left, and the three thieves ducked behind a cluster of bushes. They waited silently as a small patrol of knights walked passed, oblivious that they were even there. Once they were gone, the thieves stood up straight again. “Well, some things haven’t changed,” Rikki chuckled, drawing her hood a little further over her head. “We may be hunters now, but we’re certainly not the top of the food chain.”

Crow nodded, watching the backs of the knights disappear into the trees. “Let’s keep moving,” he murmured, picking up his pace slightly. They hadn’t seen as many patrols as he had the last time he had traveled to meet with Penelope’s group, but it seemed there were still a few roaming about. He didn’t like it. His nerves were already frayed enough from the stress of his arrangement with Jaxon. He didn’t need to deal with running into a patrol of strange knights on top of that. He didn’t know what he would do if he did, but for the sake of the other deal he had made with Penelope to abstain from killing her comrades, he didn’t want to stick around and find out.

I’m making too many promises to too many people, he thought, fidgeting nervously with the hilt of one of his daggers. It was going to be difficult for him to honor his word to both of them, since Jaxon and Penelope had very different agendas. He wanted to just abandon his deal with the other thief and stay true to the knight, but in doing so, he would just end up causing her death. On the contrary, if he broke his word to her and killed a knight that was wandering too close to Jaxon’s hideout, that would surely cause contention between them too. He took a shaky breath. No matter what he did, it seemed he was at risk of losing her.

After some time had passed, Alistair spoke up. “So… about these knights were going to be working with,” he said hesitantly, meeting Crow’s gaze. “Do we know any of them?”

Crow glanced at his companion with a knowing grin. “Yes, Olivia is one of them,” he answered, nudging the other thief teasingly.

“Oh, good,” Alistair shrugged with forced nonchalance. “I’m glad we won’t be working with total strangers.”

Crow rolled his eyes, but decided to let the subject drop. His companion could pretend to be uninterested in the knight if he wished.

“Are there going to be total strangers though?” Rikki asked with a frown. “You make it sound like there are more than two of them.”

“Well, yes,” Crow said, eyeing her tentatively. “There are three knights. Penelope and Olivia are two of them, but there’s one more man in their patrol.”

“Is he someone we can trust?” Rikki said skeptically.

“I think so,” Crow sighed. “At least, I trust Penelope to keep him from saying or doing anything that would hurt any of us.”

“Why would he listen to her?”

Crow wavered. “Because she’s a lieutenant,” he lied after a moment. “He has to do what she says.”

Rikki studied him briefly before nodding, “Well, I hope you’re right about that.”

“Me too,” he exhaled.

--

After a while, the thieves arrived at the edge of the road where Crow had met up with the knights last time. They lingered by the edge of the village for a while before he directed them to climb up the tree he had hidden himself in before, since it was too risky for them to continue standing out in the open. They settled down on some of the lower-hanging branches, keeping their gazes fixed on the road as they searched for Penelope’s patrol. As an added precaution, the thieves each kept a dagger in hand, just in case they were spotted by any less friendly faces.

Crow held his weapon tightly as he gazed down at the road, heart racing with nervous energy as he waited for Penelope to appear. He hoped she wouldn’t be much longer. The sooner this whole trip was over with, the better.

[BuzzingBee]

"Alright, I think we're ready right?"

Penelope glanced around at the other two knights as she slung her bag over her shoulder. The next morning the knights had gotten up early to begin their day and thanks to the preparation they did the night before, they would be able to leave rather quickly. Olivia eyed Penelope with a tired gaze but nodded her head in agreement before shifting her gaze over to Gavin. The male knight let out a small sigh and nodded his head as well. She could tell he still had reservations about working with Crow and wasn't thrilled to be chasing after their flimsy lead.

"I guess we are." Gavin mumbled and then turned to lead the way out. "So where are we meeting him now?"

"Same spot as before." Penelope informed him as the three began their trip out of camp. Her gaze flickered around, eying the passing knights who were preparing for their own patrols. "Hopefully they'll have a bit more luck now..." she mumbled.

"Why do you say it like that?" Olivia asked.

Penelope looked over at her friend. "I warned Mia that it could possibly be a different group of thieves than the one we're after.. If we aren't able to find anything in Wheldrake, maybe they'll find something here after all."

Gavin looked uneasily over his shoulder. "You told her about Jaxon?" he asked.

"Not completely. I just alerted told her that I think we could be dealing with a different group of thieves." Penelope explained with a roll of her eyes. She felt a small pang of annoyance at his uneasiness. The male knight was acting like giving their comrades the idea that there was possibly a different enemy would take away from tracking down the real culprits. Luckily, he didn't push on the topic and merely gave a small nod. She shook her head and focused her gaze back ahead of them.

A silence fell over the knights as they traveled to Myrefall. Olivia was tired, Gavin was paranoid and Penelope was focused on meeting up with Crow. It wasn't long before they reached the meeting spot at the edge of town. Penelope was just about to look around for the thief when Gavin came to an abrupt stop, becoming tense and resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"What the hell is this?" he growled accusatively. His gaze was focused up on the tree Crow had hidden in before, having learned from his past mistakes. Penelope raised an eyebrow and stepped up besides him to follow his gaze over. In the tree she made out not just the lone figure of Crow but also the other two thieves.

[Rogue Sloth]

It wasn’t long before the knights came into view below the tree. Crow tensed to begin his decent down, but before he had a chance to move, Gavin spoke up from the ground in a furious voice. He narrowed his eyes. The knight’s hand was resting threateningly against the hilt of his sword. He held out one arm, signaling to Alistair and Rikki to stay put. Gavin didn’t strike him as the type to impulsively attack, but if he felt threatened by Crow’s companions, that patient demeanor of his might not be enough to stay his hand. The thief didn’t want his friends to get injured in an unnecessary fight.

“Ooh,” Rikki casted a smirk at Alistair. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a big man.” She turned towards Gavin, swinging her legs carelessly from the bough she was seated on. “What are you gonna do with that sword, huh? Throw it at us?”

Crow’s eyes flicked concernedly between them and he groaned inwardly. He should have known it would be too much to expect the other thieves to work peacefully alongside the knights. “That’s enough,” he said sternly, shooting her a warning look. “I told you both earlier that you’re going to have to be civil, or I’m not going to let you be part of this.”

Rikki clicked her tongue disappointedly, “That’s no fun.” She shrugged. “But you’re the boss, I suppose.”

It wasn’t the answer Crow had been hoping to hear, but he supposed it was the best he would get out of the knight-hating thief. He lowered his gaze to look at Gavin. “These are my companions,” he explained, hoping to ease the knight’s concerns. “They’re going to be helping us look for the thieves who raided your camp.”

“I only agreed to work with one criminal,” Gavin said irritably.

“That’s just too bad,” Rikki curled her lip. “Because we’ve got a vendetta against the man you’re trying to find, so we’re coming with you whether you like it or not.”

“Easy,” Crow hissed at her, worried that her temper would only cause more trouble for them all. Turning back to Gavin once more, he went on, “Take your hand off your weapon so we can come down.”

“How do I know this isn’t an ambush?” Gavin growled.

“Oh, just do it, you paranoid fool,” Olivia spoke up suddenly with a roll of her eyes. Her dark eyes flickered up to the tree—Crow noticed her gaze rest on Alistair for a moment—before she went on, “They’re not going to attack anyone, so you’d better not attack them either.”

Gavin stared at her in surprise before he reluctantly removed his hand from his sword hilt with an annoyed, “Fine.”

“Thank you,” Crow nodded and then gestured for Alistair and Rikki to climb down from the tree with him. He was glad that the meeting had started off without any bloodshed. So far, so good.

Once they were all on the ground, he made his way over to Penelope and greeted her with a friendly smile. He wanted to close the distance between them completely with a kiss, but he felt slightly uncomfortable with the other thieves’ eyes on him. Rikki was still sore about their relationship, and Alistair had only just learned about it a few days ago. So, instead, he restrained himself and stopped walking while there was still a small amount of distance between them. “I see you managed to convince your barons to let you come with me again,” he said with a grin. “You’re getting good at this.”

[BuzzingBee]

It seemed Crow hadn't been as successful in getting away from the other thieves again. The knight couldn't help but feel a small stab of disappointment at this new development. Working with Rikki and Alistair didn't bode well with her for many reasons. The most obvious being Gavin's distrust of Crow. He tolerated Crow but surely the additional thieves would test the male knight, which became obviously clear in his reaction to spotting them. Penelope rolled her eyes at Gavin as he continued to act irritably.

Rikki caught the female knight's attention as she curled her lip at the male knight. There was reason number two of why Penelope wasn't thrilled about the other thieves joining. Thinking about how Rikki tried to manipulate Crow and separate them, she shifted a bit uncomfortably and averted her gaze for a moment. She hated feeling a bit insecure in the presence of the female thief but the reminder of her nearly getting between her and Crow drained away a good deal of confidence.

Eager to focus on anything else, Penelope glanced over at Olivia as she spoke up and bit back a smirk as she noticed the female knight glancing towards Alistair. She supposed the one good thing that would come from this was a much needed distraction for Olivia. With the other male thief around, there was a good chance she'd be less inclined to try and cause trouble. Or at least, Penelope hoped so. Something told her that causing trouble between the group would be a lot easier now with the additional members.

Once Gavin finally agreed and the thieves jumped down from the tree, her gaze shifted over to Crow, returning his smile. As he approached and stopped to keep a bit of distance between them, she felt another small pang of disappointment as she recalled that they still had to hide their relationship from Simon and Alistair, which meant this trip wouldn't give them the same freedom as the last. "I guess so but it certainly wasn't easy." she mused with a small shrug. "I just hope this is the last trip we have to take. I'm not sure if my barons will let me leave again if we end up having to travel someplace else."

She shook her head and then glanced over at the thieves before looking up at Crow questioningly. "I take it you didn't have as much success, huh?" she asked him then paused as she noticed the group was missing a thief. Rikki and Alistair had come but it appeared Simon was nowhere to be found. "Did that other friend of yours decide to stay at camp?" she asked, becoming a bit curious.