[2] WEEPING MONK║you're not what I was looking for

50| The Pagan and The Priest (Part Two) - 𝐈𝐈

After the massacre of the Trinity, Ari and Lancelot make their way home.

Nightfall had just passed when the group returned back to the forest. Tired eyes, hungry bodies and worn out horses all around. As far as they knew they were not followed. Lancelot had kept vigilance with his senses as they rode - fortunate for once that the easternly wind was behind them.

Scouts positioned along the boundary welcomed them. There were cheers from the Fey mouths for their Queen when she rode into the edge of the clearing. Drumming and rattling of whatever they could get their hands on. Ari let them make noise - it was not often that Fey had a chance to celebrate.

Who she was riding with did not seem to matter. Neither Arthur or Kaze or Adrian had questioned why Lancelot was there when they found each other, though that thought was certainly in their minds.

Her people emerged from between the tents and trails - surrounding the campfires with their supper. Ari did not think of herself so highly to believe that she warranted this welcoming, and it almost made her waters well up and her eyes sting. She said nothing, smiling politely through the aches in her body while Goliath navigated the gathering crowd.

Relief flooded through her to see that the rest of her convoy had made it home. Kaze had said that when Pip told the camp what had happened, riders came out immediately to pick up the convoy. Ari thought that they were the likely ones that Lancelot had mentioned.

Elyan approached from within the mass of Fey but stayed back, his hands wringing together in front of him - like a child unwilling to come near. It was his job to have scouted for danger and they had been ambushed. Ari spotted him but not before Lancelot saw the immediate relief fall on his features.

He tried to remember what Ari had said earlier this day - do not give him grief. He knew that it was not fair, and he was not so quick to point blame these days, something which he had learned from her.

Lancelot pulled Goliath to halt at the edge of the clearing, the Old King and his horse flanking their side. He dismounted first, moving over to his horse's head to let Ari down too. She handed him her sword belt to hold while she got to the ground.

Ari felt her legs almost wobble beneath her when her boots landed in the dirt, her hands gripping onto Goliath's saddle. Her energy wiped out from travelling the whole day. The ache from her split brow still persisted, though she did not know what the bruising looked like yet.

Lancelot caught how she had to steady herself, his worry already rising. He feared that the hit to her head had been harder than he guessed that it was, but perhaps their hunger and thirst was having an effect too.

"Ari!"

Squirrel pushed his way through the people and came running through the clearing. He bolted into her side and Ari huffed out all the air from her lungs with the impact.