There is a certain amount of safety in keeping together. *Beauty is trying to stay close to Hal without hampering his investigations. She seems tensed as though she expects something to materialize at any moment and she keeps clutching at the slime draped trees as they walk by for support. The taller she becomes the more the slightest breeze seems to affect her. Willowy by nature at her normal height, now she seems to sway like a sapling who has shot up beyond reason.*

You assume the worst. Perhaps he saw something and went ahead to make certain it was safe for the rest of the party. That is the charge of a champion.