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

38| Alliances {Part Two}

(AN// Inconsistent Lancelot gifs... sorry not sorry)

Ari accepts an invitation and a rising jealousy prompts Lancelot to take a risk.

Ari felt quite out of place and did not let her guard down just yet. She had lived in the forest for her whole life and never once stepped foot in a place such as this. The few human villages, small and set within fields and countryside did not compare to a Lord's stronghold. Her closest encounter that she had been to such a castle as she was approaching now was when she ventured into the ruined Yvoire Abbey with Lancelot and the boy. It felt rather daunting yet staggering concurrently, like her eyes were being opened further to what she already knew were here.

The people's homes were not huts or tents like her own but buildings. Some short and flat, some tall and thin. They lined various paths of dirt which turned to stone beneath her feet the further they travelled away from the town's walls. She felt small almost as these houses rose above her, they were not like the Fey's own, set in rows as far as she could see down the streets. She caught the smell of fresh bread and her eyes darted to find the baker as she led her horse along, his hooves echoing off of the uneven cobblestones. She head footsteps reaching quickly to her side.

"What do you think?"

It was Arthur, the only human who had travelled with them, and the only one besides her father who had once lived in places such as this.

"It is not the forest," Ari stated, somewhat still in awe of it all and they were only halfway to the castle. The Sunborn and the Lord walking ahead with the white horse as the others in their group filed in behind.

Arthur laughed, "That it is not."

Lancelot already felt watched, the old familiar feeling of the vultures above him, judging him as he walked his black beast on behind the rest. He kept his hood up, his face constant and fixed as he watched only the ground at his feet where he were walking. It he was not recognised then it would not be a bad thing. He though that perhaps his change in attire since the last time he had been to anywhere other than their own forest would prevent his identity from being so obvious. He no longer wore the grey cross which he were infamous for yet he still carried that invisible weight upon his shoulders. He let his amulet rest over his blue leathered and woven tunic, a reminder to himself more than anyone else that he was not that person anymore.

Ari was startled by some young children who ran out from between some housed and up to her. She was startled even more when she saw that they were not just human. There was a Fawn girl, a Tusk boy, two Snake clan children, all crowding her with the others.

The Fey queen stopped and handed her reins over to Arthur who had extended his hand to take them. She greeted the children, crouching to them as the girls reached for her hair and the boys gaped at the sword and dagger over her hip.