Chapter One- Bloodied Memories
Clarke
"Yu gonplei ste odon". Blood combined with sweat creates winding rivers down Clarke's arms as she slices her knife through the flesh of the deer that lays before her.
Meat carved, wrapped and securely packed within her rucksack, Clarke uses the surrounding grass to wipe off the blood that coats her hunting knife. Settling the knife into its sheath at her waist she pushes herself up from the ground. Looking down, Clarke is brought to a stop by the deep red that has soaked her dirt-crusted jeans and the puddle of blood that has slowly formed as it drips from her fingers to the ground beneath her. Clarke admires the brilliance of its colour, the way it still seems to emanate the beat of life even here on the ground, where life seems to constantly be at an end.
Clarke suddenly whips her head away, unable to look at the ground, at herself, nausea gripping her stomach as thoughts and memories begin to creep through her mind. Thoughts of melting flesh, of cries of pain, of her mother's blood, of Bellamy's hand on hers, of Octavia's hate filled eyes, a burning village, a knife stained with blood as she pulls it from Finn's chest and Jasper clinging to Maya begging her not to leave him.
Pain coils within each of her limbs as the memories once again threaten to consume her. Clarke lets the pain come, forces herself to endure the agony of some many lives lost, her punishment for the end of some many lives at her hands. As shadows begin to grow around her, Clarke forces the memories into the box, the darkest part of her that has become so familiar these past few months. Her eyes sting but have remain dry as she is finally able to take in her surroundings. The sun sits lower in the southern sky and Clarke knows she does not have long before she will need to make camp for the night. While this fact lays centre in her mind the thought of having to spend much longer in clothes saturated with blood wins out over logic and Clarke heads for the nearby river.
By the time Clark reaches the river, only a few rays still touch the water, leaving most of it a shimmering body of darkness. Clarke heads for a little branch of the river, created into a dam by a fallen tree that is still illuminated by the sun. Leaving her pack against a nearby rock, Clarke slips off her jacket and lays it across the rock, before proceeding to unbutton her jeans and pull off her shirt, dropping them at the water's edge. She begins her descend into the water, her tired mind suddenly becoming more alert as the cool water washes over her sticky, mud covered, bruised skin. Clarke begins to run her hands over her body removing all evidence of the day's activities, discolouring the water around her. Finally clean, she floats in the water, her eyes closed, content for a moment to just let the water slide over her body, like soothing hands, calming her wounds and mind.
As the shadows begin to cover her body, Clarke sighs before standing up and reaching for her filthy shirt and jeans. She makes quick work of scrubbing them clean before walking out of the river and laying them flat on a nearby rock. Reaching in her pack she begins searching for a new shirt and pants which she settles on the ground next to her. While waiting to dry off, she grabs some of the berries and nuts that she picked two days ago to snack on, scanning the forest around her for a good tree to sleep in.
As the sun reaches the final moments before its disappearance, Clarke pulls on her clean clothes. Laying her now only damp clothes across the top of her pack before slinging it onto her back, she heads towards a tree she spotted earlier. Upon reaching the tree, she begins her ascend to the deep crook that has formed between branches of the tree.