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

27| New Beginnings {Part Three}

{AN// 7.5k words in this chapter but... hehe you'll see}

[TW// referenced self harm, grief. Minor wounds]

Emotions run on high as secrets and lies are uncovered

Word soon spread between the Fey of what he had done, that the Weeping Monk had saved a Tusk child from falling to their death. The whispers reached Gawain, and from Gawain to Ari, and she immediately walked out on her meeting with some of the elders.

The group of Fey had escorted Lancelot back to the camp, still keeping a careful eye on him as they walked. Lancelot had been sitting here for perhaps half an hour when he saw Ari appear suddenly from behind a line of tents, striding over to him with a look of something that he had seen before not too long ago. He stood up from the stump as he gave her a similar look of concern in return.

"I heard you ran out of the clearing, you saved a boy? What happened?" She asked urgently, her father following behind in her footsteps. Ari could see the grazing on his palms as he cradled his hands in front of him when she got closer, the campfires being made just bright enough to let her see. She stepped to him, reaching for his hands gently as her face contorted further with concern. Her wide eyes looked back up to him.

"It's nothing," he said but the look she gave him suggested that she knew otherwise.

"I will take you to the healer, get these looked at." Ari started to pull him away by the wrists.

"Ari, no," he protested and dug his heels in the ground. He didn't like telling her what to do, he hadn't ever really done it before, but he wanted her to just leave it.

"Lance you are literally bleeding," she came back to him, gripping his wrists more tightly and shaking them a little for emphasis. He didn't mean to but a wince fell off of his lips from the sting of his ribs as his arms shook.

"Please just leave it," he pleaded quietly, noticing how a few of the Fey were glaring at him, at them. He sighed at the increasingly concerned expression on her face and looked around, why was he being like this? His eyes flicked back to hers and he could see that she wasn't going to back down, he knew that face she was making and the fire in her eyes well enough by now to know as much.

"Okay," he gave in, nodding slowly.

"You both should rest after," her father said, making them remember that he was stood behind Ari. "You've had a long journey," he said to them both and then looked to Ari, "I will calm the elders and... I shall see you in the morning?" He smiled at her.

Ari didn't have many words, still unsteady about how this new relationship with him was supposed to go, so she just pursed her lips into a smile and nodded.

Lancelot did not know how to treat the old king either. The silvered man was still nobility so he had to show respect but a part of him was frustrated as well. He knew nothing about this Sunborn whereas he knew most everything about him, and Lancelot did not like it. Still he pushed it all aside for Ari's sake, not wanting to make things more complicated for her than they already were. Lancelot was wanting to ask how she was feeling about this sudden shock of her father's life now that she had had some time to think, but he would wait until they perhaps might have some privacy to do so.