Penelope walked on through the street to reach the forest. She noticed that Crow had fallen silent and glanced over her shoulder at the thief to find him looking rather deep in thought. The knight couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his mind. However, she didn’t bother to ask and continued onward into the forest, finding the chance to think over their next move during the silence. The forest would provide them privacy from the peering eyes of nobles and knights but it could also very well put them behind schedule. [i]I wonder how much farther until we can see the castle..[/i] Her gaze flickered towards the dense horizon of trees. 

She turned her head to look over at Crow as he finally broke the silence that had fallen. She hesitated. Part of her wanted to keep going rather than stop. The day’s events had gotten them a bit behind and she was hoping to make up for lost time. However, Penelope figured it would be best to get started on teaching Crow how to use the bow. Especially since it might come in handy once they reached the castle. She nodded her head in agreement. “Alright. Let’s stop here then.” She said moving to set down the bags under a nearby tree. 

Penelope stretched her arms, feeling relieved to have the extra weight off her shoulders. She glanced over at the bow and then looked around as she thought about how to start his training. She dug into the bag Crow had been carrying and pulled out the carving knife. “Well, first thing’s first, you’re going to need a target.” She said with a small smirk. Penelope walked over to a tree that was a little farther than where they had stopped. Gripping the knife, she scratched four spaced out lines with an ‘X’ in the middle. It wasn’t the best target for a beginner but she figured it would do. 

She walked back up to Crow. “Ok now before I go showing you the proper form and how to shoot, one thing you need to know is that this thing is a lot heavier than it looks and probably felt when you were carrying it.” She explained with a light pluck of the string. “And it hurts like hell if it happens to hit your arm after you shoot. Normally you’d wear what’s called a bracer over your forearm to protect yourself. We don’t have an actual one so we’ll just have to get a little creative.” She paused, thinking for a quick second before smirking at him. “Luckily I think I have a solution.”

The knight turned and headed back over to the bags she had set down. Digging inside, she pulled out the extra dagger she had stored away in her bag and pulled it out of it’s leather sheath. For now, she stuck it in the ground and proceed to use the carving knife to cut down the sewn side of the sheath. Once it was now expanded, she untied the string that she would have normally used to tie the sheath into her belt and poked four holes into the leather. She slipped the string through one side and then began to shuffle through the bags for one more piece of string to complete her creation. She eventually slipped some out from a small pouch that she was using to store some of their food in. With the final piece, she slipped the string through and completed the makeshift bracer. 

Holding it against her own arm, she tied it up and grinned proudly as she turned back to Crow. “I think this should work. Let me test it though.” She said reaching out to take the bow and quiver from him.