“Great,” Crow nodded when Penelope said they could meet again in four days. He wished there was a way that he could see her sooner, but since he was going to be in Younis, that wouldn’t be possible. Besides, even if he could find time to sneak away, Simon was too observant to lose that easily. Until he managed to think of a viable excuse to fool the other thieves, he wouldn’t be able to see her outside of their regular meetings anyway. The thought gave him more motivation to work on a plan.
He smiled as Penelope kissed him on the cheek, wrapping his arms around her to return her embrace. “See you then,” he said, parting with her reluctantly when she pulled back. As they made their way towards the door, he drew the hood of his cloak to hide his face on the off chance that there were any local knights patrolling the area. He met her gaze and grinned, “I’ll do my best.” Of course, he knew he was going to have to make some risky moves to pull off the raid of the Younisians’ supplies, but he intended to be cautious about it. After all, he didn’t want to lose his life on a foolhardy endeavor mere days after he got back together with Penelope.
Once they were outside, Crow parted ways with Penelope to return to his own camp. They had only just gotten together again, but he could already tell that this time was going to be very different than the last. Two years ago, they had spent the entirety of their journey together without needing to separate for longer than a day, and that had only been to infiltrate the castle. With the way things were now, they would be lucky if they could even see each other every other day, and even that wasn’t likely. He sighed. Until the war ended, it seemed that they would just have to make the most of the little time they had.
His walk back to the ravine was spent in deep thought, as he pondered how he was going to be able to get away from the other thieves without raising suspicion. He considered telling them he was going on a raid by himself, but quickly decided against the idea. For one thing, they would only buy that lie so many times before they started to question why he was leaving on raids so often, and for another, he didn’t want to set a precedent of going out alone when he had already told them to stay in pairs when they left camp. It would be hypocritical and possibly put them in danger if they chose to follow his example. There had to be another way.
Crow was so lost in thought by the time he got back to the hideout that he didn’t notice the figure follow him down the side of the ravine.
When he got to the bottom, he removed his cloak and hung it up on a tree branch, raising his arms over his head in a long stretch. After traveling all day and sleeping with Penelope that night, he was ready for a good, long rest. He turned to head into the shelter for the night. However, before he reached it, he flinched as he felt someone grab him by the shoulder.
Whirling around, he jumped back and reached for the daggers at his waist, only to freeze in surprise as he found himself face to face with Hazel. He blushed as he noticed a smug smirk on her lips, realizing she was pleased for having caught him off guard, and he straightened his posture in an attempt to recover from his hasty reaction. “What are you doing out at this hour?” he whispered, narrowing his eyes.
“Working on your medicine, that’s what,” she huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “It’s not like I want to be out this late. This is all your fault for not telling your friends why I’m really here. Now, I have to sneak around if I want to get anything done.” She suddenly stopped, pursing her lips as she looked him over suspiciously. “And just what are you doing out?”
“I had my meeting with the knight,” Crow answered simply.
“Uh huh,” Hazel drawled in obvious disbelief. “I call bullshit. There’s no way it took that long for her to tell you whatever it is that you two claim to talk about.”
“It didn’t,” Crow shrugged carelessly. “She showed up late because she had some trouble getting away from her camp. The meeting itself was short.”
Hazel eyed him for a moment longer before letting out a snort, “A lie like that might have worked on me once before, but I’m not falling for your silver tongue anymore, snake.” She took a step forward and leaned up to get close to his face. “I know you’re hiding something. Just spill it already. You’re sleeping with this woman, aren’t you?”
“I already explained myself to you,” he said calmly, ignoring her attempt to draw a reaction out of him. “I’m not going to say it again. Besides,” he smirked, leaning in a little closer to her. “Why do you care so much about what I do with other women?”
She flushed, drawing back from him and averting her gaze. “I-I don’t care,” she scoffed. “I just… It’s not… You shouldn’t be…” she groaned in exasperation and raked her fingers through her red hair, shooting him a cold look. “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that? Here.” She dug in her bag and pulled out a small object, shoving it roughly into his chest. “I just wanted to give you this before I go to bed… jackass.”
Crow blinked and took the item from her, holding it up to see that she had given him a jar. “What’s this?” he asked, glancing back at her curiously.
“It’s the medicine I worked on tonight,” she muttered. “Try it out and let me know if you feel any different in the morning.” With that, she shoved past him to head into the shelter, walking briskly in her eagerness to get away from him.
He watched her go until she disappeared from sight and then smiled to himself. The herbalist was quite an abrasive person to be around, but at least she seemed genuine in her desire to help him recover from his illness. He looked down at the jar in his hands. While it wasn’t likely that Hazel had found the cure to his disease on her first try, he felt hopeful for the first time that he was finally on track to get better.
He opened the container and brought it to his lips, tilting his head back as he downed the draught she had made. The liquid inside tasted bitter, but it wasn’t as rancid as the one he had been given by the herbalist in Myrefall, so he managed not to gag on it. Once he had finished all of it, he stowed the jar away in a storage bag with some of his other things, so it would be out of sight. Then, he made his way into the shelter to sleep for the night, drifting off almost as soon as his head touched the ground from his exhaustion from the long day.
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Vampiretwilight