“It’s not my fault,” Crow snapped, flushing at the accusation. “I came back for [i]you[/i]. If I had been on my own, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

He looked away from the knight to stare indignantly at the ground as they walked. As much as he hated to admit it, he [i]had[/i] made a pretty sloppy performance. He had been careless to choose a hiding spot that had been so open to the road. Yes, it had been veiled in shadows, but mere darkness was never enough when that many people were searching for him. He shouldn’t have let himself get distracted so easily. So what if Penelope had gotten captured or killed? She was just a knight. It wasn’t like she meant anything to him. If she had died, he could have moved on to another village and forgotten about the king’s damned assignment too…

Yet, somehow it felt wrong.

Crow glanced subtly at Penelope. He couldn’t have just left her to die. He wasn’t sure what it was yet, but he felt certain that they had formed some kind of bond over the past few days. Whether it was friendship or mere comradery, a small part of him felt like they were partners now. That meant he couldn’t throw her to the dogs and sleep peacefully at night. He let out his breath in a solemn exhale. He couldn’t believe he had let himself get this close to a noble. It was such a foolish thing to do. Even if she was different from other knights, she could never be part of the lawless world he lived in. He shouldn’t have even let her put her foot in the door.

He frowned, averting his gaze once again. Despite what he told himself, it had felt so natural to let her in. For all her harshness and stern words, there was just something about her that made it difficult for him to keep his distance like he did with every other knight. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

[color=fff79a][b]“Hey!”[/b][/color]

Crow snapped back to attention as Penelope suddenly called out to one of the men walking ahead of them. He listened silently as she began talking to one of the men in the group whom he assumed was their leader. The man seemed amused by the knight’s sharp tongue at first, but suddenly his expression changed to something darker. He reached out and grasped her shoulder, making her cry out and drawing Crow’s attention back to her injury. His eyes fell on her shoulder, which was covered in dark, scarlet blood... gods, that was a lot of blood. Feeling faint, he staggered into a man who was walking beside him.

“Watch where you’re going, thief,” the man growled, giving him an angry shove that just caused Crow to bump into someone on his other side.

“It’s kind of hard to do that when you’re all walking so close to me,” the thief mumbled bitterly. Still feeling a bit faint at the sight of Penelope’s wound, he attempted to distract himself by questioning the strange group’s leader, “So, where are we going exactly?”