Camelot

Chapter Six

Later in the day, after Benedict had finished his duties, he decided to go looking for Sebastian. He knew Sebastian had to be around somewhere, but he wasn't sure where exactly that was. For a while, Benedict meandered around the commonplaces of the castle, seeing if he had gotten stopped by another knight to chat, something that often happened after decent training sessions. He checked the field outside, looking around on the outskirts to see if Sebastian was napping along the walls. Sebastian wasn't there, so Benedict continued through the garden, out of the gates, and into town. Maybe he's already out. Better check the tavern to make sure, Benedict thought woefully. He hoped his friend hadn't already shut himself off this early in the day, drinking away. It wouldn't be surprising to find him in the corner seat, empty ale in hand. As Benedict strode up the cobblestone streets, he crossed his fingers: hoping Sebastian knew better than to go there today. He walked up to the window and peeked inside, scanning over each seat his friend usually frequented. However, Sebastian was nowhere to be seen. "Phew, " Benedict exhaled, running a hand through his black hair. So where could he be? Benedict wandered back towards the castle, stopping a little ways from the entrance. He'd checked everywhere, hadn't he? Suddenly, it hit him: he hadn't thought to check his room. Benedict slapped a hand over his eyes. "Stupid!" A few passing merchants gave him weird looks. He marched back into the castle, towards the knights' chambers, saying his hellos to a few of the servants and fellow knights before coming across Sebastian's wooden door. Benedict stood in front for a second, then knocked hard on it several times. "Seb? You in there?" He put his ear up to it, trying to listen for any movement within the room.

Sebastian had been napping in his chambers when a knock on his door threatened to wake him. He was a little disoriented by sleep as he trudged to his door and opened it a crack. He panicked when he saw Benedict standing there and slammed the door shut again, cursing under his breath. He winced at how stupid what he did must have looked to benedict but threw on a shirt as quickly as he could. He opened the door while laughing to try and trick Benedict into laughing too like he was just playing practical jokes on his friend. "Benedict! Hi. What brings you around at this hour?" Sebastian had no idea what the time was but he was just trying to get something out so there would be no awkward silence.

Benedict jumped back as the door slammed shut, rubbing the side of his face. That was stupid, I shouldn't have leaned up against it. But what did Sebastian do that for? Strange. He listened as his friend hastily moved around in the room. That was strange, too. Was he hiding something? It didn't matter; Benedict didn't want to pry. As Sebastian opened up the door laughing, Benedict mirrored it dryly. He then cocked his head at Sebastian's question, confused. "We're supposed to go out tonight, have some fun? We talked about it early today during training. Although we never said what exactly we were going to do, Otto interrupted us before we could decide." He shifted from one foot to the other, "You said you didn't want to go to the river, which that's fine. We could do something else, like walk through town and makeup stories about the people we see. Or, we could go through the woods, wait until dark and watch all the fireflies light up," he tensed up, realizing how foolish that sounded. "You know what, never mind those. Anything you'd like to do?"

What I wouldn't give to just stay in this room with you this evening. Sebastian shook his head as if that would shake his thoughts as well. Why would I think that. Get yourself together. He rubbed his chin. "Fireflies sound nice." Sebastian thought back to the days he spent on his own at sixteen when he would travel all day until he fell off his horse from exhaustion. Some nights he could watch fireflies flicker around his vision as he gave in to sleep. While he would never consider anything from those days a happy memory, he did find himself liking fireflies later on. "Did you want to go now? It'll be a little while until dark but we could still go find a nice place to make camp for the evening?"