BuzzingBee

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope looked up as she heard Crow call from above her. She blinked in realization that the former thief had taken to climbing up the building rather than sneaking off through another alleyway. The knight shook her head, a bit disappointed in herself for not thinking to look upward. She had been too focused on tracking him down that she hadn't considered that he had taken to higher ground. Unfortunately, it seemed she was in for it too now that the win had gone straight to his head.

The knight rolled her eyes at his smugness. "It must be really difficult to hear from up there because I said Collin is an ass and now I owe him one favor." she retorted with a small smirk. She inspected her fingernails as if they had suddenly became interesting. "Honestly you just got lucky I didn't happen to look up." she said with mock casualness. Of course, her words were just meant to poke at him. Even if she had caught onto where he was, the knight wasn't too sure the chase would have still gone in her favor. Penelope didn't climb often so even if she had gotten up onto the roof with him, he'd still have quite the advantage since he was much more familiar with being high up than she was.

"Now come on. You better yet down from there before your head gets too big and you end up falling." Penelope said as she looked up at him with a teasing glint in her gaze. "I'd hate for you to waste your favor on making me haul you all the way back to the castle because you got careless."

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope was too focused on the chase to think about looking up xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As the knight headed down the street, her green gaze flickered around, keeping an eye out for any sign that she was getting closer to the former thief. The sound of his footsteps had disappeared and she was beginning to think that perhaps she had made a mistake in her judgment. She had felt certain that the dropped gold piece had just been a decoy but without any further sign of him, she was tempted to turn back, thinking she might have a chance of catching up with him if she went the other way now.

Penelope was just beginning to turn around when brief movement caught her attention. For a moment, she thought that she had just imagined it but then the sound of running footsteps told her that she hadn't. A grin crossed her lips and she quickly changed directions, sprinting off down the alley she had heard the footsteps sounding from. It seemed her original judgment had been right after all. She hurried after him, trying to follow where the source of the sound was coming from to the best of her abilities.

She was just beginning to think that she was catching up to him when the footsteps suddenly disappeared again. She rounded a corner and slowed her pace as she tried to listen for which direction he had gone in. However, she was just greeted by silence and an empty alley. Penelope clicked her tongue, knowing he much have been using some trick. Was he just hiding somewhere nearby? Perhaps he had ducked into a nearby alley to avoid her. Going off of that thought, she moved with more stealth now as she headed down one of the nearby alleyways.

Traveling down it, she found no success in trying to locate where he had disappeared to. Penelope backtracked to where she had lost him and tried to look down the other nearby alley ways to see if he had gone a different direction than she had originally suspected. Unfortunately she didn't have much success there either. Whatever trick he had pulled, it had been successful. The knight crossed her arms over her chest, knowing it was time to admit defeat.

"Alright, alright I give up." She called out, speaking a bit loudly as she wasn't sure how far away or close he was to her.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope was close to messing up xD so now she's going to try and make up for it lol

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Having escaped with Crow before, she was already aware of some of his tactics. Recalling how they had used the alleyways of Younis to escape from knights before, Penelope knew she'd have to make sharp turns if she wanted to have any chance of catching up with him. Taking a guess, she darted down the first side street that came into view and did the same with the next. It was difficult to say if she was going the correct way or not. While there seemed to be a distant sound of footsteps, they were hard to pinpoint in the maze of alleyways they were in. For now, she just hoped that they would continue to grow louder rather than softer.

Luckily, it wasn't a guessing game for long. A glimmer of gold caught her gaze as she ran and looked to see a piece of gold on the ground. Certain it was from Crow, a grin took over her lips and she nearly began to head in the direction of it. However, another thought made her pause. Crow would never be reckless enough to leave behind such an obvious trail. Even if he had dropped gold by some accident, he would have picked it up to keep the knights off his trail. This was just a trick to throw her off and she had nearly fallen for it. He was a professional at escaping knights and she needed to keep more alert from falling for something so obvious.

Penelope gave a shake of her head and hurried off in the direction opposite of the gold piece. Even though she had caught herself in time, she had still lost ground from her momentary pause. The knight eyed an upcoming side street. Remembering the layout of it, she knew it was connected to quite a few different ones and would eventually connect back into the one she was currently on. She turned into it at a fast pace. The knight partially hoped that the thief hadn't taken this particular alleyway, wishing to use it as a way to try and catch up with him. If he had turned down another, chances were he would eventually cross through this one if he hadn't already. It was a bit of a gamble on her part but feeling confident she'd likely be able to get back on his trail regardless, it was one she was willing to take.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope's glad xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope rolled her eyes at the former thief as he waved the coin purse in front of her teasingly. "Well I'll keep those words in mind when I win." she said with a smirk. Despite the competitive talk, she was much more entertained by how happy he seemed to be about this competition. His energy was infectious and she couldn't help but enjoy the way he was lighting up. Win or lose, she was just glad to have a bit of fun with him.

As he said to just count to five, she gave a small nod and smirked in amusement at his cockyness. "If I give up." she corrected him with a raised finger. "But alright, I agree, no tricks." The knight crossed her arms over her chest and watched as the former thief took off to the nearest side street. She gave a small snort at his taunting words and watched him disappear from sight. She remained still for a couple seconds longer, silently counting down the seconds. As she reached five, she took off in a sprint, heading to the side street she had seen him disappear down.

It had been a long time since she had gone chasing after anyone but there was still a familiarity with such a scene despite the two years in between. On top of that, she found that she was much faster without the weight of her usual armor. The thought made a smirk cross her lips. Though it might not be enough to win their friendly competition, she was at least going to give him a run for his money between her lack of armor and knowledge of the area. Making a sharp turn down the side street, her gaze flickered around as she prepared for the chase to really begin.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope went along with it xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope smirked and raised an eyebrow at him as he gave her a cocky look. "That just sounds like an excuse to me." she teased him again. As he wrapped his arms around her, she gave a quick glance around before leaning into him slightly. At first, she smiled as he kissed her cheek but noticing the mischief in his expression, it faded as she gave him a suspicious look. As he held up her coin purse, the knight rolled her eyes at him, both for his challenging words and for stealing her purse in the first place.

She paused for a moment at his words as he taunted her with the coin purse. While she wouldn't mind a bit of a competition between them, she was a bit worried about drawing attention to themselves. Of course, they were off the main road but that didn't mean the narrow passages would continue to remain as empty as they were now. The knight glanced down the alley. Surely even if there happened to be a couple other people around, it would be fine though, right? Looking back over to Crow, she smirked in amusement as he added a bet to their competition.

While she didn't care about winning for the sake of getting a favor from him, she had to admit it did put a bit more on the lines. "Alright, you're on. And if you by some miracle manage to get away, I'll owe you a favor, no questions asked, too." she agreed with a small nod. The knight really wasn't as confident as she sounded. Crow was a skilled thief and even though she may have been more familiar with how he operated now, she still hadn't worked with him enough to know every move. Besides that, it had been quite a while since she had chased down any criminal, let alone the former infamous thief of Brerra.

"Just don't start using your lack of recent practice as an excuse when you lose." she said with a wink. Smirking up at him, she asked. "So how much of a head start do you need then?"

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

She took the bait xD