The next morning, Crow woke up to the smell of freshly cooked breakfast. Having eaten nothing but old bread and vegetables for the past few days, he was instantly roused by the enticing aroma. He got up from his bed and made his way over to the hearth, raising his arms over his head in a long stretch to shake off the rest of his lingering weariness. When he reached it, he saw that Simon and Rikki were already awake and sitting by the fire. It looked like they were the ones who had prepared the food. “Morning, Crow,” Rikki greeted him brightly and offered him a full plate as he sat down nearby. “I got this for you.” “Thanks,” the thief yawned widely, accepting the dish from her. He was still keeping his guard up around her, but lately, she seemed to have backed off on flirting brazenly with him. It almost felt like they were reaching a point of normalcy in their friendship again. However, he knew her too well to believe she had given up on getting between him and Penelope. She was too stubborn to quit that easily. He suspected she was just trying to find another angle to come at him from. [i]Whatever it is, it won’t work,[/i] he thought, swallowing a mouthful of food. Eventually, Alistair and Hazel woke up as well and came to join them. Now all together, the five companions chatted idly about various whimsical things, since there was no pressure on anyone to discuss upcoming plans. Crow could tell that they were all in much better spirits now that their supplies had been restocked and they weren’t threatened with the risk of going hungry in the fall season. He was feeling better as well. However, his conversation with the two knights was weighing heavily on his mind. He felt like he needed to warn the other thieves about the nobles’ additional patrols, but he didn’t know how to bring the topic up without admitting he had snuck out to visit with Penelope behind their backs. Since they had all thought they had learned everything they needed to know about the next battle—which he also needed to tell them wasn’t happening anymore—he had no good excuse for seeing her in the middle of the night before the fighting began. He let out his breath in a quiet sigh. It was a difficult position to be in. He didn’t want to give away his meeting with the knight, but he also knew he had to warn them about the patrols somehow. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of situation he could easily lie his way out of. He drummed his fingers restlessly against his knee, pondering over the dilemma. After a bit of thinking, he froze as he was struck with an idea. “You’re awfully quiet,” Simon noted, eyeing him curiously. “I know,” Crow looked up to meet his gaze, internally grateful for the blonde thief’s perfect, yet unintentional bridge for him to bring up the subject he wanted to discuss. “I was just thinking about something Penelope told me. I ran into her last night.” “When did that happen?” Simon frowned skeptically. “You were with us until we all went to sleep.” “I woke up in the middle of the night,” Crow lied casually. “I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I went outside to get some fresh air. While I was out, she happened to be on her way to come find me.” He glanced between Simon and Alistair, studying their faces as he hoped they would buy his story. “I told her a long time ago that she could come to our camp if she ever had urgent news for us, and she happened to have some last night.” “What was it?” Alistair frowned. “Well, for one thing, the battle in Myrefall probably isn’t going to happen anymore,” Crow shrugged. “The knights overreacted to our raid last night. They’re sending out patrols all over the forest to find us.” “What?” Rikki curled her lip. “That’s ridiculous! We barely took anything. They have no reason to fight back against us so much.” “I know,” Crow shook his head. “But they’re doing it nonetheless. We’ll all have to be careful when we go out until the tension dies down.” “I hate this,” Alistair groaned, raking both of his hands through his long hair. “I hate being confined to this little section of forest. Those knights have more supplies than they know what to do with! Why can’t they just let us have a few?” “Who knows why nobles do anything?” Crow huffed, rising to his feet. Now that he had informed his companions of the danger, he had no more reason to wait around. The time was fast approaching for him to meet up with Penelope on the outskirts of Myrefall. “Where are you going?” Rikki frowned. “You just said we had to be careful.” “I did,” Crow looked down to meet her gaze. “But I need to sell off the medicine we stole in Wheldrake. I’ll be traveling in the opposite direction of where the knights will be scouting for us, so I’ll be fine.” “I suppose there is one positive thing that came out of this,” Simon mused. “Now that the battle isn’t happening, you can stay there until all of the medicine is sold.” “My thoughts exactly,” Crow bit his tongue to stifle a smirk. The excuse would buy him about a week of time to work with Penelope in hunting down Jaxon’s group. If all went well, he would be back before the others knew the band of thieves were even in the area. “It’s a long trip, so I need to leave early in order to reach the market before it closes today.” “What are you doing waiting around here then?” Hazel looked up at him, waving a dismissive hand. “Get going already.” Crow rolled his eyes at her remark and headed over to their supplies, putting together a travel bag for himself. Since he was going to be gone longer than usual, he packed a bit more than he normally did. Once he was done, he said his goodbyes to his companions and headed to Myrefall to meet up with Penelope. -- On his way through the village, Crow took a detour to his old home to drop off his things, since he wouldn’t be needing most of them while he searched for the band of thieves with the knights. Intending to fool the others into believing he had really gone to Wheldrake, he planned to spend the next few nights in the run-down cottage, so they wouldn’t know he was still in the area. After discarding all of his burdens except for the clothes on his back, a mostly-empty coin purse, and some weapons, he made his way to the northern edge of the main road where they had agreed to meet. He reached the spot fast enough and without any trouble, but he was quick to notice that there were more knights about than usual. Leaning with his back pressed against a tree, the thief clicked his tongue in annoyance. He didn’t want to stand out in the open where anyone would be able to see him. If he did that, it wouldn’t take long for one of the patrols to recognize him and try to fight. So, wanting to get out of the road, he turned around and climbed up the tree he was leaning against to wait for the others out of sight.