As Crow drove his dagger into Penelope’s, he put as much force into it as he could muster. His efforts paid off, as she was unable to keep her balance and fell down. He stood over her with his blade poised threateningly to solidify his victory. [i]I won,[/i] he realized with a rush of excitement. No tricks this time, he had defeated her by skill alone. Perhaps he was better at fighting than he had expected himself to be.

“I learned from the best,” he said with a wink, stepping aside so she could get up from the ground. He noticed her pause to check her arm and felt the color drain from his face at the sight of the blood soaking through her bandage. Reflexively averting his gaze, he swallowed uncomfortably.

[i]Stop being so weak,[/i] he rebuked himself silently. [i]If this had been a real fight, there would have been a lot more blood than this.[/i] Forcing himself to return his gaze to Penelope, he leaned over and offered her a hand to stand up, “Come on, we should take care of that before we keep going.”

Guiding her over to where they had dropped off their bags, Crow crouched down and rummaged through the supplies in search of clean bandages and the henbane he had collected earlier. He reached for her hand again and gave it a soft tug, directing her to sit down in the grass with him.

“Even though I can’t stand blood, I do know a bit about dressing wounds,” he said as he began unraveling the bandage from her injured arm. His heart beat a bit quicker at the sight of the cut, but he ignored it. “I had to do this for myself when I was on my own,” he went on in an attempt to distract himself. Setting the old wrap aside and taking the henbane, he pulled one of the leaves off of the stalk—it had become quite dry over the course of the last two days—and crushed it in his hand. He held his fist over her arm and dropped the pieces onto her wound.

“That should help numb the pain,” he explained as he rewrapped her arm with a fresh bandage. Checking over his work to make sure it would hold, he looked up at her and smiled, “Consider this payment for the times you’ve helped me dress my wounds lately.”