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

8| A Race Against Time

═ 𝘼 𝙍𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚 ═

Ari is forced to make a heartbreaking decision as the enemy crosses their path.

The trio heard the horses before they heard grumblings of several men coming from beneath them in the valley road which they had ridden into the forest on the morning before. They pulled their mounts to a halt within the trees and Ari dismounted swiftly and unsheathed her sword, leaving the boy atop her horse, "Wait here." Creeping down the hillside between the evergreen trees, she came to an edge where she could look down into the valley and gasped at the line of red which was marching south along the road, south towards her camp. A lump rose in her throat that made her want to be sick, her heart pounding within her chest.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no!" Ari breathed out, panicking and getting progressively louder and louder.  Clamping down on her jaw to a point where it hurt, baring her teeth like an angry wolf. All she could see was red. The queen opened her mouth as if to scream out a war cry but a heavy hand clamped over her lips and suddenly she was being dragged backwards against something solid and down towards the ground, her feet kicking at the earth as her hands struggled to claw at the one around her face.

"Be. Quiet."

Lancelot, Ari realised. She muffled an incoherent exclamation into his palm but remained restless, thinking that perhaps he had been one of the Red cloaks.

"Quiet," he repeated more sternly, squeezing his hand around her face a little tighter but still letting her breathe. They didn't need her bringing attention to where they were with her disgruntled noises.

She kicked against the ground as he held her down to the dewy forest floor, her back pressed in between his legs while he crouched against a tree for support. When Lancelot felt her breathing slow down, he loosened the grip on her face. And when he felt something watery land on his thumb he let go of her face completely. She is crying, he realised. Her body shook as she pressed into him, an unusual sensation for the man, one that he'd only seen people do as they were about to give their last breath.

They listened reluctantly as the hooves of horses and boots of the Paladins marched further away towards her camp for minutes which dragged on. Lancelot did not relax his arm around her middle until he was sure that she would not bolt towards them when he did, and when his former brothers were finally far enough into the distance, he let her go.

Ari pushed off of the Monk and sprang to her feet like a jackrabbit. She ran forwards to look over the same ledge from before and down into the valley, refusing to look back at him. He had no right to do what he had just done in stopping her.

Lancelot too pushed himself slowly up off of the solid of the tree, never taking his eyes off of the woman in the distance. "Percival," his husky voice called out to the boy softly, surprised that the child had actually done as he asked for once.