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

24| Love and War {Part Three}

Ari and Lancelot's relationship is tested as the trials and tribulations of their lives threaten to get in the way. Lancelot makes a decision, and the trio come face to face with something unexpected

Willo disappeared and soon it was just the three of them once more sitting around a fire, thankful that they would be spending another night under cover without the threat of rain or snow landing on their heads. Squirrel walked off as he scanned around the cavern, his hands clasped behind his back as he walked along the stepping stones towards the tree, observing its beauty with wide eyes.

It did not make sense how the tree was able to grow in a cave with seemingly no daylight, but then again, stranger things have happened.

Ari had taken her saddlebag from her horse who was now wandering around aimlessly as it tried to get settled. She was sitting near the fire as she took out hers and the boy's supper. She glanced at Lancelot more than once and noticed that he was not bothering to get his own food, sitting silently and watching the flickering embers of the fire. They hadn't caught each other's gaze much since the afternoon and Ari was unusually fine with it because the way that he was looking at her now, it was like he had turned his blood to ice in his veins and it hurt her to see him this way. They could not avoid one another forever, Squirrel would start asking questions like he usually did and things would only end up worse than they already were. Ari was breaking and carving the wood from one of the torches to make some kind of skewer to heat her salted rabbit meat over the fire when Lancelot stood abruptly from across the clearing. He startled her but she didn't show it, keeping her eyes focussed on the task in hand.

Lancelot let out a heavy and tired breath as he walked towards the water, his hand resting around his sword for no necessary reason. He did not feel like eating, but the slight ache in his head was telling him that he did need to drink. Lancelot bent to the pool surrounding the tree, examining the water to see if it was safe enough to drink. It looked clear enough and since his horse was lapping it without complaint, he thought that perhaps it would do. He lifted his eyes to try and see where the source was coming from but he couldn't tell, perhaps it came from above ground or maybe it was just a natural spring. He could feel something unsettling in his stomach, enclosed, dark stone spaces such as these were not something that he was all too fond of. He dipped his hand into the water, letting the cold run over his fingers and it somehow put his nerves at ease. He noticed Squirrel coming running towards him out of the corner of his eye.

"Are you gonna make the water move again?" Squirrel's face lit up with his question like he'd just been told something great. Lancelot's head twisted over his shoulder towards the boy, it wasn't something that he was planning on doing.

Ari's head picked up and in the silence started to ask when the boy had seen this happen, "When did you-"

"You should have seen it Ari!" Squirrel chirped and his voice echoed a little too loudly around the cave. He jumped to his feet and stood with his legs wide, copying how Lancelot had done in the river and braced his hands out before him, as Lancelot had also done.