Penelope reluctantly got up to her feet as Gavin said they should go. Though she had been comfortable resting at Crow's side, she knew that the male knight was probably wise in urging them to head off again. She stretched for a moment before moving to follow the others, falling instep besides Crow again as Gavin lead the way through the forest.
Though they were on the move again, the peaceful silence seemed to follow this time as even Olivia remained quiet. Penelope guessed that whatever Crow had told her had worked even more effectively than she had originally thought. She was admittedly rather glad that her friend was restraining from causing anymore trouble amongst the group. Hopefully it would last. As they walked on, the female knight found her gaze drifting up to the sky as she thought about what laid ahead for the knights after losing so much of their supplies.
Even though she was hopeful about getting some of them back, she knew it was unlikely they'd be able to recover everything even if the hunt was successful. They'd still be vulnerable to an attack from Younis until they were able to get more supplies sent to the king. I should speak with Mia about sending a request.. Penelope thought with a small sigh. It was likely that the baroness was already working on it but the lieutenant wanted to make sure that her leader hadn't gotten too focused on hunting the thieves down.
The knight was pulled out of her thoughts as she noticed Crow tense up besides her. Her eyes widened with alarm as she picked up on the fast approaching knights. She glanced back towards Gavin as he spoke with Crow. It was a bad situation to be in. They couldn't hide, their comrades had already seen them and if Crow attempted to run now, there would be a great deal of suspicion. The female knight chewed on her lip as she weighed out how to handle the situation.
"Alright, alright." Gavin mumbled annoyedly. The male knight gave a worried expression as he tried to think of a solution to the fast approaching problem. Penelope frowned. Gavin could give the occasional small lie and make it believable but coming up with a full story on his own to get them out of this situation was pushing it. He was likely too used to sticking to the rules, even if he had helped her break them on a couple occasions.
"Olivia, stay here with Crow." Penelope suddenly commanded quietly to her friend as an idea came to mind. It was too risky to stand around and wait to see what the male knight could come up with. She moved away from Crow and gave Gavin's arm a small tug in a gesture to follow her as she stepped over towards the knights. Gavin gave her a questioning look, still cearly anxious about the situation, before following her a bit rigidly.
They met the other knights before they could get too close to Crow, which was likely a good thing since at the head was none other than Layth. Penelope dipped her head in greeting to her brother and crossed her arms. "Hey." she greeted as she stepped up with Gavin behind her.
"What's going on here, Penelope? Who's that?" Layth growled immediately as his gaze shifted past her towards Crow.
"Did you actually manage to catch the thief?" one of his comrades asked excitedly.
Penelope blinked and shook her head. "What? No. Not yet at least." she replied casually. It seemed the reason they had been in such a rush to approach them was because they had thought her patrol had caught Crow. Luckily, they didn't seem to realize it was actually him though, meaning there was still a chance for them to get out of this risky situation. "You remember the herbalist that Jane met with before right?"
While the other knights exchanged uncertain glances, Layth raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. "Yes.. I thought that the herbalist a woman though?"
"She is... This is just a friend of hers that I happened to meet in Myrefall as well." Penelope explained with a small gesture to Crow. She paused and crossed her arms. "We're heading to Whitebridge because he says he might have a friend who can help us track down the thieves." Her gaze focused on her brother, eying him for his reaction to her words. As he snorted arrogantly, Penelope felt a small wave of relief as she realized he had bought her lie.
"You're trusting a peasant with a knight's job?" Layth snorted. "You continue to hit new lows.. Can't even handle doing your own work." The one thing she could always count on her brother for was his arrogance. Had it been a knight like Tomas, she might had had to worry about them trying to insert themselves onto the patrol. Layth was too proud to even consider working alongside a peasant, which Penelope suddenly found herself a bit grateful for.
Gavin shot Layth an annoyed look and shifted a bit uncomfortably besides Penelope. "We're still doing our own work. Information is information, Layth." he grumbled hesitantly. Penelope bit back a smirk. She didn't doubt that Gavin was seeing the hypocrisy in his statement to the other male knight.
Layth rolled his eyes. "Only if the source is reliable... This peasant probably just wanted to play knight for a day." he growled shifting his gaze accusingly at Crow. He looked back at Penelope and sneered, "You must be getting desperate after letting that thief get away from you so many times. Even Mia is starting to see your incompetence."
Penelope held his gaze firmly. "Do you plan to stand here and hold up both of our patrols just to criticize me or start hunting down those thieves?" she challenged.
"I was wondering them same." Gavin agreed with a questioning look at Layth.
Her brother curled his lip up at her hostilely before turning and gesturing for the other knights to follow. "Good luck running around in circles chasing whatever lies this peasant strings together." he spat, shooting one last glare at all of them before continuing on his way. Penelope watched them leave before moving back to join Olivia and Crow.
"What an ass.." Gavin muttered as he followed her.
Penelope shrugged before looking back over at the other two. "Hopefully he's the only one we have to deal with." she sighed.
