By early dawn, Arthur had ended his portion of the night watch as he, against his better judgement, sat down next to the sleeping forms of Lancelot and Richard leaning his back up against a tree before drifting off to sleep.
He didn't sleep long however as he awoke to the faint and distant sound of his and Lancelot's names being called.
Lancelot must've heard it too because he also awoke and slowly sat up yawning. "Leon and the others must be looking for us." He said in a still half asleep tone.
Arthur nodded. He felt a little bad as he was sure he and Lancelot must've scared the living daylights out of them for sneaking off like that but he didn't regret doing it either. If they hadn't they would've never found Richard which made Arthur shudder to think what would've happened to the boy then.
"Then we'd better go and find them before they worry about us any further." He replied as he stood up on his feet.
Lancelot nodded as he gently slipped his arm off Richard's silent sleeping form and gently shook him to wake him.
Richard stirred slowly as he sat up stretching and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Morning." He sleepily greeted them with a yawn.
"Morning." Arthur and Lanceot replied in usion.
"Why are we getting up so early?" Richard asked.
"We need to regroup with the rest of the knights so we can ride back home to Camelot." Lancelot explained to him.
'They're leaving? Already?' Richard thought to himself sadly assuming that by 'we' Lancelot had meant he and Arthur.
"Oh..." Was all he replied sounding rather disapointed.
"You seem disapointed." Arthur pointed out matter of factly.
"..I just thought that we could spend more time together before you both left..." Richard admitted looking away and hanging his head sadly.
"Leave?" Lancelot repeated before he began to grin and started laughing with Arthur.
'They're laughing? They think this is funny?' Richard thought to himself feeling a little confused and insulted before turning back to the face the two knights and ask "What's so funny?" as he glared at them.
"You didn't honestly think we'd leave you out here alone with nowhere to go or no one to take care of you, did you?" Arthur replied after he and Lancelot had managed to wipe the grins off their faces and stop laughing.
"Well I-" Richard started to reply but stopped as he suddenly began to feel pretty stupid for assuming they would leave him to fend for himself. From the warm feeling in his cheeks he was pretty sure he was blushing with embarassment.
"A knight will never turn away or abandon someone in need of their help, it's against the code, I want you to remember that." Arthur lectured him.
Richard nodded. "I will. I promise." He replied completely determined to keep his word as he rose to his feet and followed Arthur and Lancelot further off into the woods.
"So...what's it like?" He asked a couple moments later if only to avoid the silence as they walked off.
"What's what like?" Lancelot asked him in response.
"Living in Camelot." Richard clarified.
"At the risk of sounding too boastful, Camelot is the greated kingdom of them all. There really isn't much place at all like it." Lancelot replied as Arthur grinned hearing them talk about the kingdom.
Richard smiled as he listened attentively to Lancelot and Arthur continuing to tell him more about Camelot. The more he heard from them the more excited he became to see go and see it.
"Arthur! Lancelot! There you two are! We've been looking everywhere for you." Percival, being the first to spot them, spoke from where he sat upon his horse with the rest of the knights on theirs holding onto the reins of Arthur and Lancelot's horses.
Dismounting his horse and still clutching the reins of Arthur and Lancelot's horses he walked over to them quickly followed by Leon, Elyan, and Gwaine right behind him.
"Now what have you two been up to?" Gwaine, in his usual calm and laid back tone, asked like it wasn't no big deal at all.
"We got a little distracted and sidetracked." Arthur explained his eyes gesturing down towards Richard, who was standing between him and Lancelot, looking up at the rest of the knights with a big grin on his face.
Following Arthur's gesturing glance, all of the knights looked down a moment staring at Richard noticing him for the first time.
As if he had been waiting for his exact cue and had just recieved it, Richard said "Hello. I'm Richard."
"We're bringing him back to Camelot with us." Lancelot added to the knights who nodded in response.
The first to speak to Richard was Elyan who said "Nice to meet you Richard. I am Sir Elyan and thse three are Sir Percival, Sir Leon, and Sir Gwaine. And don't worry they are not as scary as they look."
Richard couldn't help but laugh at that knowing it was meant to be a good humored joke and not to be taken seriously.
The rest of the knights grinned before chuckling a little as well.
After the rest of them greeted Richard Leon and Percival handed Arthur and Lancelot the rein to their horses before they mounted on their horses ready to be off.
Arthur mounted his horse first while Lancelot gently picked Richard up by his waist and gently placed him on the saddle of Arthur's horse before proceeding to mount up onto his own horse.
Leaning against Richard a little, as he tightly cluthched the reins of his horse, Arthur was easily able to make sure Richard didn't fall off the horse as they all raced off back towards Camelot.