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

53| Someone Amongst You - 𝐈𝐈

[TW// Moderate blood, gore, violence. Minor/major injury/death. Infrequent strong language.]

Ari, Lancelot and the Fey leave to meet King Uther, but are held up by a grave turn of events.

Once they were clear of forests and sodden trails, Lancelot took it upon himself, after a glance with his queen, to ride ahead of the convoy along the northern roads. North to where Uther would be waiting for them, as they had agreed. Goliath was giving across the rolling landscape and half a day passed them by easily.

They had been moving at speed for near half an hour when they slowed again, allowing the horses to drink from a shallow brook and for themselves to rest before carrying on.

"I am glad that you're with us," Elyan said to him, quietly, when he thought that no one else would care to listen.

They stood side by side at the brook, both contemplating the contents of their own water skins. Lancelot knew that the scout had some doubt in his confidence now after his failing in spotting the Trinity Guard too late, as he had when Ari and himself returned that day. But today he was not so slumped like that evening - shoulders pulled back and head held high. Wearing his wooly hat like usual.

Lancelot had acknowledged him with a nod beneath his hood. Now he travelled again ahead of them, not straying too far along the beaten track. Enough distance between himself with Goliath from the rest to warn when something felt as though it was amiss to him. And something was.

Treetops of the forest surrounding them were too quiet. No noise of birds when there should be. Silence had come to be Lancelot's friend, but in the bleak, grey daylight, it was very much his enemy.

He turned his eyes up to the heavens, a trail of clouds sitting between the parting of canopy over this wide and empty road. Something was in the air and it did not feel right. It tickled the shivers down his spine and poked to awaken the acute sense of his nose.

Ahead of her in the distance, Lancelot stopped his horse and Ari raised her hand immediately. The rest of the envoy halted with her wordless order. Perhaps he was being overly cautious, but he would not signal for them to wait unless he believed that they should.

Lancelot shifted his eyes amongst the treetops which felt as though they were sinking down towards the earth. They rustled and creaked as the timber bent to the breeze, but still there were no birds. Goliath tugged impatiently on the reins and shifted beneath him. He had to decide whether they should move forwards or not, yet the longer that they waited here within the open road - the more uneasy he became.

He turned his face across his right shoulder, narrowing his eyes as he focussed. The thin fog descending in the distance made the trees simply look like silhouettes of sentinels, guarding the forest road. It was not clear, he could not quite see.