(Author: bellamysgirl)
I trekked through the forest area, on my way back from the coast. I'd stayed longer than I intended to. The trip was only supposed to take three, four days tops. But I stayed several days longer because I was told to "not bother coming back". My lifelong friend, Lincoln, told me not to bother coming home. And I have nowhere else to go. It may seem pathetic, crawling back like an apologetic child, but what choice do I have? I was only about ten yards from Lincoln's cave when I heard voices. And not familiar ones, either. I dropped my pack in the bushes and looked for the nearest branch. I leapt up, my fingers wrapping around a wobbling Fir Tree branch, and pulled myself up.
I twisted around the back side of the tree and watched, waiting for the owners of the voices to show themselves. And they did. Two men, young and both dark haired in mangled clothes that looked nothing like what I was used to seeing around this area, were walking toward Lincoln's cave. "What are we gonna do, Bellamy? They have Clarke, Raven, everyone," one of them said. The other, the one that was called 'Bellamy', sighed in an irritated way and kept walking. They didn't notice me. I waited until they were just past me and then I slid from the tree. I unsheathed my knife and grabbed the one that spoke. I wrapped my arm around his neck, holding the knife inches from his neck.
Bellamy spun and stared at me in utter shock and I fought the urge to smile. "Easy, easy," the one I held said. "We don't want any trouble. We're here to see Lincoln."
"Jade," I had no trouble recognizing my name and the man that voiced it. Lincoln stood just outside the cave. His expression was cautioned; like he expected me to kill the stranger I had in my clutches, like he didn't know me at all. "Jade," once again my name rolled off his tongue and I let the stranger go. I sheathed my knife on my outer thigh and went for my pack that I left in the bushes. I slung it on my shoulder and turned back toward Lincoln and the two strangers. "Go inside," Lincoln told the two. "I'll be in soon." Bellamy went inside without a care but the second was hesitant, glancing between Lincoln and i. But he went inside the cave. "I didn't expect to see you again. At least…not so soon," Lincoln said. "I'm sorry for what I said to you, Jade."
"And that makes it go away? Just because you're sorry?" I asked.
"No, it doesn't. But I need your help."
"Are you kidding me? Help with what?"
"Come inside and I'll explain." I felt like an idiot for following him inside, but I did anyway. Inside, the two strangers were now accompanied by a third, a girl about my height with long dark hair. I dropped my pack near the door, where I always had, and stood up straight. "Who are they?" I asked Lincoln, thrusting my chin in the strangers' direction. As Lincoln spoke, I noticed the girl was injured. She had a makeshift bandage on her right thigh and it appeared that the wound was bleeding through the bandage. "This is Finn," he gestured toward the man I'd held a knife to, then to the other two. "Bellamy and Octavia." Octavia…why hadn't I recognized her? It was the stranger that Lincoln seemed obsessed with before I left.
"What's your name?" the one called Finn asked. He said the words awkwardly, like he was trying to forget I had just held a knife to his throat. "Jade." simple. Four letters. The wounded girl, Octavia, was barely standing with her bleeding leg. "It took you only a few days to forget everything I told you about a plant's medicinal uses," I said to Lincoln, as I went to my pack. I opened the top flap and started rummaging through it for my medicinal plants. "I think the arrow hit some kind of artery," Octavia said.
"In that part of your leg it wouldn't be an artery," I sat back on my heels and glanced up at Octavia, who now stood behind me. "How far did it go in?"
"A bit more than half way." I turned back to my pack and continued rummaging. "Sit," I ordered. She eased down to sit against the wall to my right and winced when she was all the way down. "How much blood has she lost?"
"About a cup," Lincoln answered. He knelt and started unwrapping the bandage on Octavia's leg. I finally found my leather pouch of leaves and assorted plants and knelt beside Octavia on her right. One look at the wound told me that what I was about to do would hurt. A lot. "Finn, I need the sewing kit from my pack," I said. Then I looked at Lincoln across Octavia. "I need to force the crushed leaves into the wound and then sew it shut." He nodded and Finn handed me my sewing kit from over my shoulder. I took the leather pouch and pulled it open. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" Octavia said, looking at me. I didn't answer. I got the small piece of metal that couldn't even be really called a needle ready with some thread and poured some crushed leaves into my palm.
I counted to three aloud just to give everyone some warning and then forced the leaves into the wound. Octavia barely screamed but she squirmed a bit, making it hard to sew the skin together quickly. Once I had it sewn shut, I bandaged her leg properly, unlike the pitiful bandage Lincoln had on it. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Finn asked. The question wasn't much but it brought me back to a time in my life before I had met Lincoln, back when I was with my people.
(Flashback; Narrator's POV)
A barely four foot tall girl with maroon curls that were jaggedly cut above her shoulders stood in a dark cavern. Also in the cavern was a table of sorts with a body covered in cloth laying atop it. The body shook under the cloth and the girl tried not to look. A tall woman with black hair tied behind her back came into the small cavern and walked straight to the body. She pulled the cloth back to reveal the top half of the body. The woman twisted to look at the girl and held out a hand to her. "Come here, Jade," the woman said, her voice smooth and silky and calm.
(Present; Jade's POV)
"Jade…" I could hear my mother's voice, saying my name, as an echo in my mind. "Jade…Jade," it was like her voice was the only thing I could here. But then I realized Lincoln was saying my name, not my mother, and I snapped out of my head. He gave me a knowing look and kept silent. I put my sewing kit and medicinal plants back in my pack as I spoke. "My mother was a healer. She taught me everything she knew," I finally answered Finn's question. As I dug in my pack I said, "So who's Clarke? You guys seem pretty concerned about whoever it is."
"She's…she's a friend of ours that was taken," Finn said.
"Their people were taken by Mountain Men," Lincoln said. I went rigid and slowly stood, then turned toward the strangers. "You are all such idiots!" I said. "They could have followed all of you here! And I doubt you checked to make sure you weren't followed." Finn and Bellamy glanced at each other, both seemingly unsettled by my current mood. Lincoln too stood just in case I tried to harm one of the two men. "Stay here," I said, forcefully. I walked outside and slipped around the backside of the cave opening. I pulled my knife from it's sheath and held the blade between my teeth. I started climbing up the rough bark of the nearest tree. I saw someone come out of the cave out of the corner of my eye just as I got about ten feet up. I swung my leg over a thick branch and straddled it for a second before pulling myself farther up to stand.
I view from the branch wasn't bad but it wasn't all that great either. But I spotted one of the Mountain Men. He looked to be completely alone. I pulled my knife from my teeth and wound back my arm. I threw it with enough force that it flew all the way to the man and lodged itself into his masked skull. He went down and no others came forward or made themselves known so I grabbed the branch below me and slid off so that I dangled. I let go and latched onto the nearest branch below me. I did this until I found myself on the last branch. I swung a little and then vaulted off the branch, landing on solid ground on my feet. I walked past Lincoln and Finn at the opening of the cave and kept walking to the dead Mountain Man. I pulled the knife from his skull and wiped the blood off on my dark leather pants.
I dragged the body away and covered it with leaves and things and then walked back to the cave. I stopped a few feet from Lincoln and Finn. I slid my knife back into it's sheath and Finn glanced at Lincoln with an expression I couldn't read. "I think she'll do," he said, quietly. Do for what, I didn't know. But I was going to find out.