Crow’s eyes darted to Penelope’s hand as she began to reach for her sword. She had caught onto his plan faster than he had expected, which unfortunately meant that he would have to cut short his grandiose speech. He took a step back. She reached out to grab hold of his tunic, but he was much quicker. In one sharp movement, he pivoted on his heel and sprinted into the forest, using the trees as cover in case she tried to throw her sword at him.

As he weaved his way through the foliage, Crow glanced back over his shoulder to see that Penelope was giving chase. He snorted. Fine, if she wanted to waste her time pursuing him, he wasn’t going to object. He made an abrupt turn to the east and climbed down into a steep valley. The bottom was thick with trees, which he hoped to use to his advantage. If he could just get far enough ahead of the knight, he could easily find a place to hide down here.

He looked back again to find that Penelope was still keeping up with him. In fact, she had even gained back some ground. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and picked up his pace, narrowly avoiding a low-hanging tree branch. She could be such a pain. After everything he had done to comfort her, she couldn’t even do him the courtesy of turning a blind eye when he ran away? It was completely inconsiderate.

Crow turned his attention back to where he was going and then gasped, coming to an abrupt halt. In his momentary distraction, he had almost run straight into a fast-flowing river. He cursed under his breath and hurriedly searched for an exit point. However, before he could take a single step, he felt something crash into his side, the force of it knocking him off his feet. He let out a startled yelp as he fell into the rapids.

The water was shockingly cold and powerful. He fought to keep his head above the surface, but it was a difficult task, seeing as he hardly knew how to swim. He struggled against the swift current for a while until, finally, he slipped out of consciousness.