Notes: im not proofreading it... its like 2k+ words
The careless breeze moved the orange fabric of your dress, bending it along with the tall grass around you. The sun shined brightly, producing a thin film of sweat on your forehead. The day was perfect, the patch of meadow hidden in the middle of a forest, far away from prying eyes and bounty hunters. All except for one, Tarhos, The tall armor clad man sat in the middle of the meadow, a blanket laid out for when you’d join him. He looked scary, intimidating, he had his back turned to you. It looked like he was picking flowers, his right arm occasionally moving to pluck something from the grass next to him… you moved closer trying your hardest to stay quiet and get the jump on him, but even in that large steel helmet he heard you. Hand swiftly moving to grab his sword.
“Tarhos. It’s just me..”
He relaxed, no words said, he turned to attempt to look over his shoulder at you. He normally did this when he wanted you in line of sight. You found that even though he was non-verbal, his actions spoke very clearly. Your feet carried you just in sight of him, standing on the edge of the blanket waiting for your invitation. Which soon followed, he raised his free hand to offer it to you, a request you thought said “Please sit with me”, you took it delightfully, lifting your feet placing them on the thick blanket. His hand lowered with you, preventing you from falling too harshly to your knees. Once you were seated he went back to whatever he was doing. You went to pick the small fleas of grass off your dress, unsure if you should talk to him or just let him take in the peacefuliness of the meadow. The silence takes over you, for once there is no gang of robbers or evil templars trying to get their hands on you. It’s just you and your faithful Knight.
Faithful Knight… those words stick in your mind, eye unfocusing as you think about how you two came to form your duo. A small frail lady with this bloody knight alongside him. At least you thought he was protecting you, for all you know he could be trying to bring you back to someone. Either way, he never let you stray too far, and he kept you safe so if he is working for someone else at least you have a friend for now.
He turned to you, hand offering you something, a small bouquet for picked flowers. Small pink, blue and purple flowers were held tightly in his armored gloves hand. You smiled, smaller hands grabbing at the bouquet carefully. You took a few out of the bouquet and put them in the holes of his helmet, at least the ones you didn't think he needed to see out of. You took two more and put them in your own hair. Smiling wider as your knight has now been beautified by nothing but a few flowers.
Once they were secure in your hands he stood up. Your head following his moments, he offers his hand once more. Allowing you to get up from your spot on the blanket with ease. He picked up his backpack, rolling up the blanket and moving onwards to the forest.
“Where are we going?”
You ask, knowing you will receive no answer. But still you instinctively follow the large metal man. Black hair blowing softly in the wind as you followed him out of the meadow. Now being shrouded by tall and thick trees. The sun was no longer shining down on you, now it cast dark shadows of limbs and sticks. It is a stark contrast to where you just were. Eyes squinty because of the sun and now you walk uncomfortably behind Tarhos. Aware of every stick bread, bird chirp, or other animal noises. Although you know Tarhos wouldn’t allow anything to happen to you, there was still a lingering feeling of uneasiness as you walked. You fought back everything in your body from grabbing his hands and making him walk besides you.
The forest soon came to another clearing, the sound of horses, sheep and people talking took over that spooky forest you just emerged from. The farm walking his donkey double glanced, 5 o’clock shadowed face smiling at you sinisterly. Tarhos didn’t stop walking. Your feet picked up in pace, moving to now only be two steps behind the large man. He walked you through the town, unphased by the stares and cat calls that were shunned your way. Your feet became increasingly wet, a filthy feeling, you lifted your dress to prevent it from getting any muddier. Tarhos stopped completely, causing you to faceplant into the back of him, you peeked around him. The sight of three men stopping you two from continuing to walk.
“Hand over that pretty lady you got there and we’ll let you pass, ya!”
The other men laughed agreeing with the man in the middle. Your fingers gripped the small amount of flowers tightly, this will end two ways. You’re handed over to these dirty poor looking men, or Tarhos does what he always does. You didn’t want him to give these men the time of day. Your hand grabbed at his arm.
“Let's just go back, we can find another way.”
You said, turning around to see two more men standing behind you. You watched as Tarhos got into his “Be warned!” stance, feet shoulder length apart, and a hand on his already large and dirtied sword. Your eyes looked up at the back of his helmet one more time. The black hair spilling out from the bottom. The men started to move, further surrounding you and the Knight. It was quiet, the sounds of wagons sloshing mud and your own heartbeat could be heard. You turned your back to Tarhos, backing full up so you can at least watch the two men behind you. The moment you heard movement from Tarhos you just squeezed your eyes shut, crouching down and butting your hands over your head.
Tarhos swung that sword like it was a stick, slicing them down one by one. He was handling it until he heard you scream. A shriek that sounded in his ears, and broke his tunnel vision on the man in front of him. He pushed the man in front of him into another, with haste he spun around, grabbing at the man who held you in his grasp. His sword went towards him in a stabbing motion. You flinched as blood splatter on your face, Tarhos sword now drenched in the blood of yet another man as he protects you. He lets out a loud grunt as he pushes the man off the metal, falling backwards with a squelching noise and that gargle of death. You stared in awe, this wasn't the first dead man you've seen, but it was the first one that was ever this close enough to you. Staining your satiny orange dress with a crimson that you knew wasn't going to come out easily.
Loud ringing sounds from behind you, the last man willing to fight Tarhos had attempted to back stab him. The dagger making a clinking noise, Tarho's free hand moved to grab the man by the throat, holding him up off the ground. His dagger fell to the ground as both his hands went to grab the armored glove, one choking him. He was struggling to breathe, Tarhos was going to choke him to death. Your eyes looked past the man to see his buddy scurrying backwards away from you two. Are you going to be forever protected or finally take things into your own hands? Tarhos has never seen you move so fast, your smaller hands grabbing at the dagger and swinging it at the man in front of you. You swing missed, Tarhos had thrown the man before you even registered what happened. That same hand moving to now grab at yours, taking the dagger from you before throwing it away. His helmet just stared down at you. Unbothered by the two last men running away. You watched, their feet kicking up mud and screaming about how crazy Tarhos was.
You went to yank your hand out of his grip, but it tightened. Unmoved or bothered by you putting almost your entire body weight into getting out of it. All you could do was stare daggers at him. This is the first time he’s done something like this, stopping everything just to prevent you from doing something. He let go, still staring at you. You simply grabbed the travel pack and started walking. Unafraid of what the villagers would do knowing they’d all seen Tarhos almost kill five men in one go. Now all you could think about was the fact that you were dirty, stinking like mud and sweat, and wanting to get out of this god-for-saken town. So you did, walked until there was no more village to walk, Tarhos followed closely enough distance for incase something else happens but not far enough to where he couldn’t save or protect you.
The village ended at a river, a rigged old bridge was built as a path over it. You came to a stop, unsure what to do now. Tarhos came to a stop next to you, staring down at the river below you two. He pointed one way, down stream. He didn't even wait for acknowledgement, just started walking. You followed precisely like he knew you would. It was a nice walk, the sound of the river was relaxing, something you needed after what happened in the village earlier. You were hoping the river would at least lead you to some sort of body of water. You would like to clean yourself up and attempt to get this bloody off your dress. It's not lady-like. There was a lot on your mind, still thinking about the incident and even why he stuck around you. That was the main one. What does he gain from being around you?
Tarhos grunted, and pointed at the large lake in front of you. He found a spot with a good clearing and grabbed the travel pack from you. He rolled out the blanket and put his sword down before walking away into the words. You took this time to look at the water, making sure nothing looked unusual. You took the time to walk to the edge of the lake, carefully washing the mud out of the bottom hem of your dress. Occasionally switch between that and washing off your feet. A sigh left you, the water was nice and the events from today were finally weighing on you. You wanted to get all the way in the water, fully submerge yourself in it and just float away. Tarhos hasn’t returned, so might as well take this time to undress before he gets back. You return to your small camp, hands undoing the ties of your dress and allowing it to fall around your ankles. Wasting no time you return to the water, walking all the way down until it stopped around your waist. Not too far but just enough the most intimate parts of you, You slowly start to wash off the day's grime from your body. Cupping your hand, bringing water up your arm and scrubbing down.
Once that was all clean you’d wash your hair, at least get the dirt out. You crouched and leaned back, putting all of your body in the water and allowing your hair to move freely. That's when you saw Tarhos, an armored frame standing on the shore with a dead animal in his hand. He raised it up to show you, before setting it down and moving to join you in the water. You panicked, diving under the water and poking just your head out. He was soon waist deep standing next to you. He dipped his hand in and pulled it out, rigging out the piece of cloth he had in his hand. He wiped at your face, removing the soot and mud from it. His hands are gentle, far different then how he was handling those men. How can he go from being so angry and harmful to soft and gentle with you. He was an enigma, large and rough Knight to let me make sure you're a clean Knight. Why is he so different, he never removes his armor, he doesn't even talk. Yet you feel like you know every single word he’s told you.
He soon turns you around, hands grabbing at your shoulders and pulling you up in the water. He gently moved your hair to the side and continued washing you. No words, no breathing, the sound of the lake and animals nearby.
“Tarhos…”
He didn't stop his movements.
“Why don’t you speak? Why did you stop me from killing that man? And why are you protecting me?”
Your questions were left with no answers, just the sound of water sloshing and the movement of his washing your shoulders. He soon reached over you, handing you the rag, before moving your hair back to behind you and cleaning it as well. Cup-like hands bring water up to the top of your head and repeat the motion. You just let him clean you, taking in the freedom to do nothing. Once he’d done the repeated motion several times, you turned around. Placed a hand on the torso of his armor and proceeded to do the same thing to him. Rag in hand as you washed the dried blood and dirty off him.
“I don't know what your motive is, Tarhos. But I quite like you, even if you’ll never speak to me.”
You moved your hand up to his helmet. He stopped you, hand wrapped around your wrist. The rag dripped water back into the lake. You two stayed like that for a while until he let go. Releasing your wrist and allowing you to clean off his helmet. You saw his muscles relax a bit, shoulder slump just a tiny tiny bit. You smiled, he was learning to trust you, even though you’ve already put your life in his hands several times. Your cleaned off a spot on his helmet before lifting yourself on your tippy toes and kissed the clean spot.
“Thank you for saving me, Tarhos… Even if it's the eighteenth time you’ve done it.”
For now it's just you and Tarhos… The Princess and her Knight….
Oooohh, new ship just dropped!! Can I interest you in some Taurela mayhaps? Two opposites, one driven to heal and save and the other coming from a harmful cause and having to unlearn her upbringing? Let's gooooooo
The Designer (Will Graham) - Dead by Daylight x Hannibal Fan Art
Here's my first publication of a long-term Fan Project of a hypothetical Chapter for Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight, based on NBC's Hannibal TV Series.
"The Designer". A Legendary Outfit for a Killer I'll publish down the line. Hope you like it!
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