[1] WEEPING MONK // you're not what I was looking for

9| Breaking The Surface

═ 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚 ═

[TW// implied acts of religious violence and implied background character death(s)]

Ari worries for the fate of her people and Lancelot learns the fate of one of his.

Ari was not there within the cottage when Lancelot woke up. Squirrel and the old Druid were already alert and milling about making bread and boiling water from the brook at this ungodly hour. With a silent groan for the aches in his body he sat up onto the edge of his cot and looked towards where Ari had slept. Her cloak was missing but she had left her sword. A mistake, he thought, and the boy and Druid didn't seem too concerned about their missing friend. Lancelot rubbed his hand down over his face and rose up to his feet to step outside in the fresh morning air, stretching his legs out to relieve the stiff ache of his muscles as he walked. He glanced around between the forest shadows and couldn't see the queen nearby, so moved away to a tree at the back of the house to relieve himself and then went back inside.

The Druid woman and boy made idle chatter as she told him stories from a past life, one where she was adventurous and free spirited. The boy simply watched her speak with wide eyes and interrupted her flow with a litter of over enthusiastic questions. It's too early for this, thought the Monk as he pulled at his bread and tilted his head back into his hood, hoping to drown out their noises.

"Why don't you go and find Arianne?" The Druid elder suggested, breaking the calm within his mind. Arianne? The boy and the Monk both wondered, simultaneously looking at the woman with confused faces. Oh, Ari, the Monk realised.

Her request caught Lancelot off guard and he tried to protest, not noticing the Druid moving closer, "I don't think that-" 

"Now, now, hush. Go on," Zurah swatted at him and ushered him by the elbow to stand. 

She walked towards the door but Lancelot remained bent forward on the bench, staring at her bafflingly. He was the last person that Ari would probably want to see right now, "I-"

"Off you go now, Lancelot," she ushered him again, her tone like she was scolding a child. 

An indignant noise rattled from within the Monk's chest as he reluctantly rose to his feet, she is a persistent woman that's for sure. The old Druid held the door open and Lancelot strode around the hearth towards her, pulling an unamused face which was practically a scowl as he walked past and out into the forest once again. He did not miss her winking not so subtly to the boy who just smiled from beside the fireplace. 

Fine, I'll find her. Lancelot walked a few paces away from the cottage before he stopped and breathed in the fresh morning air to fill his lungs. Her golden horse with limbs of ash was still tied over by his side to the post next to Goliath, and so the queen couldn't have gone too far. Breathed in deeply again, he searched for the scent he was quickly learning, pushing aside the notes of cedar, hornbeam and elm until he caught her in the distance.