As they got closer to the inn, Crow glanced over his shoulder. Their pursuers seemed to have given up chase. He beamed triumphantly, but the expression quickly fled from his face when his eyes fell on an alleyway leading out to another part of the surrounding forest. A devilish voice began to whisper in the back of his mind. He was no longer chained to Penelope, and now that he had found a landmark—the Gods’ Mirror pond—that he could use for reference, he could easily find his way back to the outer villages. All he had to do was make one sharp turn to the right and he would be free—

[color=fff79a][b]“First one back gets half of the loser’s lunch!”[/b][/color] Penelope’s voice startled him from his thoughts. She had run up beside him while he was distracted and was grinning like a child. He turned to her in surprise, never expecting to hear [i]those[/i] words come out of her mouth. She was always so stoic and emotionless…  But, then again, she had seemed a bit more relaxed since they went to the pond. In fact, in her casual nightclothes, he could almost mistake her for a wily middleclass girl. This unexpected side of her was much more pleasant to be around. Maybe he could stick around a while longer, after all. Besides, the knights [i]were[/i] giving him a free ride into the outer villages. Why go through the trouble of wandering through the woods when he could have a first-class escort?

Crow quickened his pace to catch up with Penelope, who had sprinted ahead of him. Once he was beside her again, he grinned smugly, “[i]Never[/i] put food on the line when taking me on in a challenge. I hope you’re a dainty eater, love, because I’ll be having half of your lunch tomorrow!” With that, he pulled ahead of her, running at the fastest pace he could manage. He had almost made it to the inn when he felt a short burst of dizziness that forced him to slow down. After spending a year locked up in a tiny cell, he had lost much of his former stamina. Still, he kept up a quick enough speed that he managed to reach the inn at about the same time as Penelope.

As soon as they arrived, Crow doubled over, panting for breath, “Well, I learned at least one valuable lesson tonight: Running is a terrible idea after you’ve spent an entire year behind prison walls.”