Crow shot Gavin a glare, annoyed that the knight was being so persistent in keeping him away from Penelope. He wished the man would just stay out of their business and let them have some time to themselves during the trip. But of course, Gavin was still too hung up on Penelope to let it go so easily. As long as he still had hope that she would eventually leave the thief and come back to him, it looked like he wasn’t going to give up. It was going to be a nuisance to get away from him throughout the rest of their journey to Aramoor.

Crow blinked as he felt Penelope kiss him on the cheek and turned to her with a frown. He didn’t want to get up so soon, especially since they still had some extra time left before they really needed to keep moving. However, he guessed she was trying to avoid starting a fight with her former suitor by following his command. With a reluctant sigh, he took her hand to get up as well, although he made a point to give the male knight one more cold look as he did so.

When Penelope spoke again, he met her gaze with an amused smile, picking up right away on what she was trying to do. While she collected her bag, he glanced furtively at Gavin, noticing the smug look fall off the knight’s face as he seemed to realize there wasn’t much he could do to separate them during the night. The look of defeat on his face was pleasing enough to the thief, so he said nothing more as he retrieved his own bag and slung it over his shoulder.

Once Crow and Penelope were ready, Gavin walked over to get Olivia up as well.

“We’re leaving already?” she groaned exaggeratedly.

“We need to keep moving,” Gavin explained. “We need to catch these thieves before they get away from us again.”

Olivia protested for a little while longer, but eventually gave in and climbed to her feet as well. Once everyone was prepared to keep moving, Gavin took the lead again. He eyed the river at the edge of the clearing for a moment before turning back to the others. “This part looks shallow enough. We should cross here.”

At his words, Crow stiffened. However, he recovered quickly enough that Gavin didn’t seem to notice his reaction. “There’s a better point to cross upstream,” he said, gesturing towards the southern side of the water. “The river is narrower, and there’s a fallen tree that spans the whole length of it. I’ve used it many times.”

“It’ll be faster if we just cross here,” Gavin shook his head, eyeing him suspiciously as if he believed the thief was trying to throw them off course somehow. “Not afraid to get your feet wet, are you?”

“No,” Crow lied. “But I’d rather not if I can avoid it.”

“It’s still early enough in the day that you’ll dry off before we set up camp for the night,” Gavin shrugged, clearly intent on ignoring his advice. He turned towards the water, “Come on, let’s keep moving.”