I first got the idea for this after listening to the Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack, especially Burning the Past and Path to Heaven. It's very beautiful, like the movie. Anyway, so I wrote this. Each chapter is a bit short though, it was originally only meant to be two or three parts, but oh well. Enjoy.
Prayer
Part 1
It had been dark when they first arrived so it wasn't until morning that Lancelot was able to get a good look at the monastery. They had to find a place to rest and recover from the latest encounter with the Woads on their journey deep, south of the Wall. It would be too long of a ride for the wounded to head all the way back now. This was the closest place.
In the morning, Lance was woken by the faint sound of singing. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, realizing that he must have fallen asleep on the bed next to Arthur last night when the Roman was saying he was cold. The younger knight sighed, looking down at his commander's still slightly pale face. Lancelot personally hadn't seen it happen, but Arthur broke his leg on the field. They had done the best they could, but between him and Gawain, they really needed something better than sleeping out in the cold woods.
He stood up and stretched, still half listening to the singing voices somewhere down the hall. The room they were in was quite bare, but the bed was warm and there was a nice fire in the fire place and at the moment, that's all they needed. Except maybe some food, but that could be dealt with when Arthur woke up.
Lance hesitated on leaving Arthur by himself here, knowing that the man might try to get up if no one was here, but he wanted to look around a little first. Quietly, he edged the door open and stepped outside. There was a square courtyard, with all of the doors inwardly faced. He had remembered this from last night when the men in dark robes had made him wait outside while they saw to Arthur. It was raining too, and the singing wasn't as loud, it almost seemed drowned out by the rain.
Across the yard, he could see Galahad sitting outside of one of the doors, one which he assumed must be where Gawain was. The blond knight had been injured quite badly - shot with two arrows. The youngest looked asleep under the overhang of the roof of the rooms in the courtyard. The center of it was open with a patch of grass and one tree in the middle. Lancelot looked around again; there was a passage straight to his left.
It led down through another covered hallway with pillars on the edge of the path. On each side were two fields, but it was also enclosed by a building with many windows. There were many more trees here. In fact, they weren't just fields, but graveyards; each marked with a wooden cross. Lance continued down the hall, the singing was getting louder. At the end were a pair of heavy wooden doors. This is where the singing was coming from. Hesitantly, he opened one door and slipped inside.
He had been to the small chapel at the fort once, while looking for Arthur, but this was nothing compared to that. It was huge, the ceiling seemed to stretch forever. There were large indents in the walls that reminded him of caves, each of them with candles and a statue. There was a large cross at the front with candles surrounding it. The men in robes - what had Arthur told him they were..monks was it? Yes, that was it. The men in robes stood on the main floor in front of him, almost looking like they were in formation like a military unit. Their voices were hauntingly beautiful.
There was a man in a different colour robe standing in front of them on top of a few steps leading up to the place where all of the candles were at the head. For a brief moment, he looked up and locked eyes with the knight. His gaze was welcoming, as if asking Lancelot to stay. But he couldn't, and quickly retreated out and back down the covered path to Arthur's room.