I was left alone again as Lancelot jumped towards what he only could see and hear.
He was fast. I could blink, and he would not be in the same spot. Just what happened last night then?
"Who are you and why are you here?" His voice grew in volume as he bent over a dark figure in the middle of the woods, not to far from where we stationed.
I rushed to his side as I heard a whimper coming from the same direction.
A figure, a very small one.
The one blade was on the verge of neck' skin, so close I was afraid he could cut it at the minimum wrong movement. Tiny hands were raised upwards in a resignation pose, vibrant dark purple irises were staring right at Lancelot's.
A short messy dark emerald bob framed a small and round trembling face, the grimace of discomfort visible. The skin was tanned but also dirty, I couldn't guess when was the last time it was washed.
"A kid?" I realised as soon as my eyes were again comfortable at the change of darkness. I crouched on Lancelot' side, ignoring his defensive posture towards me and placed a hand on his sword.
Why was a kid in the forest? Was she lost? Did she run away?
"Hey. It's all right, are you hurt anywhere?" I glimpsed on my side, to signal Lancelot to move the blade away, not helping in securing a kid outside at night.
He sighed, not sure he took the right approach, but I guess there wasn't a better one in this situation.
The small kid shook her head, before exchanging a look to both of us, eyes moving like crazy.
They then pointed at Lancelot, a determinate spark lighting the strange coloured eyes.
"You–You saved us yesterday." A trembling feminine voice whispered.
I gaped, connecting the dots. Lancelot was really able to free the humans we saw. Was this part of Percival's plan?
"Why are you here? Why are you not in Nalilia?" He pushily brushed off the kid's gratitude. He was acting strange.
As things were not in his control as he thought.
"I won't follow the orders of a stranger."
"But you followed the stranger." I pointed back, stealing Lancelot's role.
I quickly placed a hand on my mouth to shut myself up, as the kid moved her eyes from the Knight to me, but then quickly distorted her view to look somewhere else.
Lancelot stood back up, sealing the blade where it came from.
"Why?" Was his simple question.
I went to help the small girl up, but only got a flinch as response as soon as I tried to approach, which ended up with me looking at her standing back up trembling on her feet.
"I wanted to... thank you for saving us... but, there was no need."
"No need? Who knew what was going to happen-"
"They sell us. It's how we are used to live." The growling voice of a traumatized kid I never thought I would hear, but here I am.
"Ok, ok. Lancey, it's just a kid, she might not have been comfortable in escaping, but instead she followed her saviour." I tried to calm down Lancelot's sudden change of cold heart, as I poured more soup in my used bowl. "You didn't eat anything, right? Here, get warm and eat before it gets cold." I re-approached the kid, this time leaving the food on a log by her side so she wouldn't flinch again at me.
She just looked at me, cold stare in her dark pupils. Did she not like me?
"You should eat before it gets cold." Lancelot's repetition was flat and icy, his stare locked on something far in the darkness.
We might have said the same thing, but she took action only after Lancey repeated my words some minutes later.
It was remarkable, that night. The knight that was superior in kindness to everyone, was having a hard first meeting with a small girl.
"What's your name?" I kindly asked the scared girl. But what I got was a frozen breeze through me in form of a word.
"Rui."
I ignored it. I could try to understand the way she acted. In the end, I was the first one who decided to escape instead of going to meet her other end.
"What a beautiful name. I am Namiya, and the boy who saved you is Lancelot." I presented us placing a hand on the knight's one, tightly gripped on his knee.
Rui followed my limb with her interested eyes, right to stop on Lancelot.
"L-Lancelot."
Point taken, she was not going to listen to me, but only to her "saviour".
She definitely didn't like me.