[i]I’m going home,[/i] Crow’s head was swimming. He could hear Penelope continue to speak as she justified the reason for her decision, but he couldn’t understand a word of it. She had said she would give him his freedom after they returned, and that was all that mattered. Of course, staying with the knights would mean that he had to go through with the king’s assignment, but at least he wouldn’t have to return to a prison cell afterwards. That was all he wanted.

[color=fff79a][b]“However.”[/b][/color] He managed to catch the last of her words. [color=fff79a][b]“Should you try to get away before then, the deal is off. Fair enough?”[/b][/color] She held out her hand.

After a moment, Crow came back to himself. He beamed at her and reached for her hand, clasping it in both of his, “I promise I won’t run. You have my word.”

They began the trip back to the village. Even though they were on semi-decent terms again, neither one spoke to the other. He didn’t want to risk upsetting her by saying something brash, and now that he had come to terms with the king’s assignment for him, he had to start planning it out for real. Now was as good a time as any to start.

While he was confident in his thievery skills, he did have to wonder how he was going to pull off this raid. First of all, he had never been beyond the kingdom border before, so he was completely unfamiliar with the land of Younis. He would have a hard time navigating the cities and marking his escape routes. Second, he didn’t know how the Younisian guards operated. He had learned the routines of the knights of Brerra: how often they rotated positions, which areas were patrolled the most, when they were most likely to take a lunch break, et cetera. Learning such things about the Younisian knights would take time and patience: two things the king didn’t have. So, essentially, he would be going on this mission blind.

Crow put the thought aside. With plenty of time to make his plans over the course of their trip, there was no point worrying about that problem now. In the same moment, he noticed something strange up ahead. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look. What he saw made him snort in amusement. The river divided into two separate streams that branched out in different directions, which meant that they could have floated down either one.

“What do you think?” Crow turned to Penelope with a playful smirk. “Should we go left or right?”