Penelope looked up at Crow as he turned towards her. Her heart skipped a beat as he grinned at her and spoke of his trust in her.  It seemed a bit of the distance between them was suddenly gone and she couldn't help but feel rather happy about it. "S-See you." She stuttered a bit as they parted ways. She turned and began to walk back towards the camp, her face feeling warm. [i]Must be a cold night.[/i] She tried to tell herself. Although it was getting a bit more difficult to deny the feelings towards him she had been so familiar with in the past. 

The knight let out a long exhale, trying to push away thoughts of the past like how Crow had looked at her, talked with her...kissed her. [i]I'll always care for Crow... But I love Gavin now and I'm content with the future I ended up with.[/i] She reminded herself. However, she didn't quite feel so confident about that anymore. The uncertainty she had felt upon the first night of reuniting with Crow just continued to grow inside her despite her efforts to ignore it and be satisfied with her decisions. 

As she returned to camp, Penelope had to be a bit more cautious about getting back to her tent. Olivia wasn't on guard duty that night and instead it was the overly strict Millicent, someone she definitely didn't want to start asking her questions about where she had been. The archer seemed to respect her at the moment but Penelope knew just how strict she could be and how quickly that respect could change if she even caught a small whiff of what the knight was doing. 

She managed to sneak back to her tent without Millicent noticing and soon settled down for the night, ready for some much needed sleep after a long day. Penelope quickly fell asleep, having a rather peaceful and deep sleep. 

---

"Are you ready for your meeting?" 

Penelope paced outside of her tent and turned her head to look over at Gavin as he stepped up to her. The day had come for the meeting with the barons and she was feeling rather nervous. The knight wanted badly to succeed. She had already failed the people of the outer villages and Crow once by losing the staff the first time. She didn't want to fail them again, especially after seeing how reckless some of her comrades could be. 

"I think." She told Gavin with a shrug. "I worked with Mia the other day to work on my argument with her... She seems to approve of it but I'm still worried it won't be enough." 

"Just remember, they have different priorities so appeal to them." Gavin instructed her. He gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you'll do fine, Penelope." He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek. 

Penelope gave him a small, grateful smile. "Thanks. I'll do my best." Her gaze flickered over to Tomas, who was approaching them to get her for the meeting. Taking in a steely breath, she bid goodbye to Gavin and headed off to join Tomas as the two lieutenants headed off to the large tent in the middle of camp for the meeting.