Penelope smiled at Crow as he moved to retrieve the key from her, only to feel surprised as he suddenly wrapped his arms around her in an embrace. The knight felt her heart hammer against her chest at their brief closeness. As he moved away, she found herself a bit dazed as she watched him take off. Perhaps due to his embrace or the familiarity of helping him out such situations, the knight found it felt strange not to follow his lead into the forest. She shook her head, trying to come back to herself in time as the guards neared. 

With Crow being their main focus, she easily slipped out of their pathway and darted behind the nearby tent. She lingered in the shadows and carefully stepped around it so she could circle around as planned. Just as she stepped back out into the open, she came face to face with Gavin, who had appeared from his own tent at the commotion. It seemed the whole camp was quickly coming back to life at hearing the shouts of the guards that chased after Crow. Gavin looked down at her and then towards where Crow had been held. The two knights held each other's gaze, unsure what to say to each other. 

Before their silence could be broken, Millicent came jogging up with a look of alarm. "Penelope! What happened? What's going on!? Where's the thief?" She questioned quickly. 

Penelope turned her head to look over at the archer. Gavin's sudden appearance had thrown the knight off and she fumbled to answer their comrade. 

"We're not sure." Gavin spoke first, wrapping his arm around Penelope. "Sorry.. I may have distracted her a little.." 

"Well that's just great!" Millicent huffed and shook her head disapprovingly. "I'm going to go help them track him down. You two better hope the barons don't punish you for losing him!"

With that said, the other female knight turned and raced off towards the woods to help the other guards search for Crow, leaving the other two alone. Penelope turned to look up at Gavin with unbridled surprise. She couldn't believe that the male knight had willingly lied for her, especially after their previous argument. "Why did you do that?" She asked him quietly. 

"I'm still on your side, Penelope." He mumbled softly as he looked down at her. "Look, I can't say I'll ever approve of some of the things you do but, I'm not just going to turn my back on you."

Penelope looked up at him appreciatively. "Thank you." She said softly. His loyalty and kindness were two things she deeply admired about him. She felt a small spark of fondness for the male knight but it no longer felt quite like before. "I better get to bed... I imagine that tomorrow won't be a very great day." She sighed, briefly imagining how her brother and uncle would react to hearing that she had been the one to lose Crow. 

"No kidding... Mia will be sensible though so I'm sure it'll blow over quick." Gavin assured her before leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek. "Good night, Penelope." He murmured before turning to head back to his tent. 

Penelope turned and began to walk off towards her tent as well, thinking over the events of the day as she walked. The knight couldn't help but feel conflicted over Crow yet again. Two years later, a rocky reunion, and even him stabbing her shoulder didn't seem to lessen her care for him. She felt her cheeks grow warm as she thought of his embrace again. [i]I must be going insane..[/i] She shook her head and glanced up at the night sky. [i]Gavin is a good man and I'll have a good future with him.[/i] Firmly reminding herself of this, Penelope ducked into her tent and laid down for the night, falling asleep rather easily despite  her conflicting thoughts.