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

23| The Fine Line {Part One}

═ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙚 ═

{AN// this is long (7.5k) but trust me, you don't want me to split it}

[TW// threatening language and mild/moderate violence]

Ari's world turns upside down after Lancelot goes missing.

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You've got my devotion

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Ari found herself being shook awake in the middle of the night by the boy.

"What is it Squirrel?" She mumbled as she rolled over onto her side, her mind protesting to being woken up so early. She turned away from him, wishing that the noise would just disappear.

"It's Lancelot!" The boy shook her shoulder again, his voice muffled in her ears.

"What?" Ari groaned out her concern as her eyes adjusted to the streams of moonlight coming through the gaps of the tent. She rolled back with a sigh, trying to see Squirrel in the dark.

"He's gone!" Ari squinted at him confusedly, her foggy mind wasn't processing anything that Squirrel was saying. What does he mean he's gone? Squirrel pulled on her arm to try to get her to stand. Ari moved the blankets aside and got up reluctantly, pulling on her boots before her feet met the ground. She followed the boy around the parting to their cots, albeit a little wobbly on her feet, her body hadn't woken yet either. She tried not to panic just yet but her mind was barely even alert enough to do so. He was probably just outside, she knew how he liked to step out in the cold when he couldn't sleep. He would walk around for a little while and then he would always come back.

Her head came around the division between her side and theirs. Lancelot was indeed missing. Ari moved past Squirrel and put her hand to their lantern on top of the small wooden chest sitting between the head of their cots. She lit the flame with her palm and turned back to see what the boy was so fussed about.

Lancelot's cloak was crumpled on the cot which wasn't unusual but what worried her as her mind came to was the presence of his trusted sword, half drawn from the scabbard and laying messily on the floor. That's not like him, she thought. Lancelot took good care of that blade, he would not leave it hanging about like that. She stepped closer and saw what Squirrel was then pointing at on Lancelot's bed as he shuffled nervously on his feet. Her fingers dared to push into the sheets, at the spots of something that had dripped. When she brought her fingers back up to her and turned towards the flame, that's when she started to worry, it was blood. 

Ari was suddenly alert and knelt to the ground beside the sword and in a growing panic, pushed her unbound palm to the dirt. She searched for him and what she found made her chest constrict in a way she would never have wanted to feel again.