For a moment, Crow thought Penelope was actually going to let him keep sleeping in that morning. As his complaint about getting up was followed by silence, he let out his breath in a sigh of relief and settled down more comfortably beneath the blanket, pressing his cheek against the soft pillow under his head. It didn’t take long for him to start drifting of again, so by the time the knight decided to rouse him, he was already half asleep again and not at all prepared for the attempt.

When her weight suddenly landed on top of him, he gave a rather undignified yelp of surprise. His flight instincts kicked in, and he scrambled to pull the blanket down from his head so he could see what was going on. However, as he realized it was just Penelope, he let out his breath in an irritable huff and rolled his eyes. Well, any hope he had of going back to sleep was gone now. He supposed he might as well get ready for the final leg of their trip back to the castle.

But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t get back at her first.

“Fine, fine,” he relented as she poked him on the cheek. Shifting slightly as if he was getting ready to climb out of the bed, he waited for her to give him the space to sit up. However, in the next moment, he quickly reached out and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back down on the bed and rolling over so that he was on top of her. In the process, he managed to entangle both of them in the blankets.

Holding her down with his weight, he grinned at her mischievously and tickled her stomach. “[i]This[/i] is for so rudely waking me up,” he said with a cheeky laugh.