Disclaimer: I don't own the 100, or anything and I am writing this for fun. I make no money at all. The only thing i own is my mind, the idea for the story and the OC's. The 100 belongs to the cw, its actors, Jason Rothenberg, and Kass Morgan :)
Chapter 1
Blue eyes starred into nothing, curled in a fetal position at the edge of the woods, a frozen tundra before her like a blank canvas to wash her blood covered red hands across. Clarke shivered in the coldness of the breeze wondering how she had come to this place. Ten days had passed since the moment she shared with Bellamy outside of Camp Jaha, and still the blonde had no clue on how to continue on. Her head was consumed with moments of the past, of Lexa. The brunette's betrayal on the mountain had torn at her heart to cause a fissure that slowly bled as she watched the Commander walk away from her with her army. It was her actions alone though that caused that fissure to tear open and rip a piece of her soul away. She was a murderer of men, women, and children; Grounders, Mountain Men, Her own people. She was soaked to her very bones in their blood. The only thing that she wanted more than to change history is to wash herself clean. The ice tundra before her would be the perfect balm. Its harsh and cold landscape will scrub her weakness away, scrub Lexa away.
Slowly feeling her body ache after hours of not moving she stood as tall as her body allowed her to. Breathing shallowly, Clarke reached behind and pulled out her gun, her only means of survival for the last three days. The dagger that Lexa had given her she had thrown in a lake the seventh day into her journey away from her people. The anger had simmered, burned at a consuming rate until with a scream of grief and rage she had popped like a weather balloon being shot down. Now she was empty. The gun felt heavy in her hand, too heavy to carry on with her anymore, the ghosts of her friends and her victims surrounded her as she became lost in the light reflecting off of her weapon.
"If Life has no worth, than death has no cost" Clarke whispered silently. "What was the meaning of the mountain, of those children? Lexa was right feelings are weakness…Love is weakness."
Lost in her own thoughts, in her determination, Clarke on impulse threw the gun behind her into the forest giving up her ties to the sky and the mountain. Slowly shedding her grounder and sky clothes till nothing but her own skin and undergarments covered her, her body shook and teeth chattered as the effect of the cold began to truly take effect. Born of the sky, baptized in blood by the earth, Clark felt she was no longer apart of either people. She could only imagine what effect the snow would have on her.
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The sky was slowly lightening on the Ice nation bringing with it another day of hardship for the people of Arafalls. The summer had been harsh and rife with illness. The cold of the Nation was a harsh mistress and few survived it. Bathed in the warmth of her private chambers Rena was lost in thought, surrounded by the scrolls of requests from her generals and village chiefs. Wrapped in her favorite lion's fur dress, the weight of ruling seemed a little less in her warm haven of quiet peace. Long black locks cascaded around her hiding her face. Protecting her like a shield. She had been placed as the Azgeda Kwin for three moons now, and every day it was a struggle just to continue on. She had been unprepared to take the golden throne from her mother. Like a dip in the Onta Lake, the news of her ascension had crashed over her, constricting the air from her lungs in a suffocating hug of promised death. It wasn't supposed to be her that ruled, as the youngest in her family she had been free from the demands of her people. A princess by birth Rena knew that the line was never to lay with her. She was to leave the legacy of blood drenched snow to her sister to rule over. Her job was to live as a diplomat negotiating terms for her people's wellbeing until she was married off to one of the generals of their army. It was to be a life of freedom and servitude, but she still would have been free to make her own choices until she was married off. If her sister hadn't been taken by the mountain all would have proceeded as planned. The lives of her people would continue unchanged, if only. When her mother Layna had succumbed to the illness that had terrorized their nation for generations, it was a devastating blow to the Ice Nation. The ancient disease Lueza, came from the old world before the eternal winter that made up the Azgeda's homeland. There was no cure that any could find and few survived it. Death called to all who caught it. The fierce illness had been killing her people for generations, with no end in sight. When it took her mother the previous Kwin, the Elders had hurried to fetch her from the temple of Cathar immediately. Last in her line and months from the age of maturity she was the only choice left. No other would dare to disrupt the line. Unfortunately this will be her 19th winter and with it came the trials to match her for a new generation. It will be a bloody winter.
Sweeping her long black locks from her sight, tucking some stray hairs behind her ear she grabbed another scroll from the pile, this one was aged more than the others. It contained the casualties that fell from this year's sweep of the illness. It was higher than last years by at least twenty and the number grew daily. The most damaging was the five healers it took from her people. Rena knew that the Ice Nation was slowly running out of time, out of people. She was not her Mother or Sister, she refused to look to the north where the slavers ran and bargain for beaten people that needed a kru but only found death, and she refused to make farmers and children into warriors to fight a battle that had no worth. Rena had been trained like her sister to fight and be as hard as the ice beneath their feet. It was a harsh lesson every day and her body was covered in the scars of her prideful honor of being Azgeda Royalty, but Rena had never seen the sense in war. She like the Heda wanted peace. She needed a miracle sent by the gods.
The doors to her chambers burst open suddenly, chasing her thoughts away. Pulling a dagger from her belt she readied for an attack from an enemy as her guards tackled the intruder and would be assassin. "Hod op" she called seeing that it was one of her warriors. The two guards grunted and held the insolent man to the ground his brow touched the floor before her feet. He vibrated with urgency but remained still waiting for a command from the queen, a sense of trepidation filled Rena's heart as she took in his appearance. He breathing was labored and his flaming hair was plastered to his skull. If she had not known the signs she could have sworn he had the illness.
"What is the meaning of this, Croin"
"My Queen, the Sky Princess marches across your land."
"How do you know it is she? Does she march against Azgeda?" Rena gripped the hilt of her dagger tighter, a fierce scowl marring her pale features.
"My second was scouting the borders of our land, she has emerged from the Trikru territory with no weapons, no coverings, and no army."
Rena paused thinking for a moment, the danger that the Skai Prisa was putting herself in by walking across their lands with nothing but her spirit to guide her was baffling. It could be a clever trick thought up by the Skai Kru, but why would they sacrifice their bloodline by sending their princess to die in her land. Was it a declaration of war? She had heard the rumors that the mountain had been taken down by the Skaikru, but nothing of their leader's survival, perhaps this was what she was looking for. Black eyes lit up in hopefulness. The gods are answering her pleas for a miracle, her people will be saved at last.
"Bring her to me unharmed." She commanded. When there was no movement to heed her command Rena grew angry, "GO! NOW! Bring me the Skai Prisa!" In her rage she threw the dagger at one of her guards, its path nothing short of perfect as it landed into the wooden support beam inches from the warrior's head. The singular thunk of the dagger imbedding itself in the wooden pillar rang throughout the room. Once they had ran leaving her sight Rena began to bark orders to her people. They had a Princess to prepare for. The gods had answered her prayers and she would not look back on a gift from the gods.
The Skai Prisa will deliver them all from death.
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Each step she took forward Clark felt through her entire being. She couldn't remember how long she has been walking, only that with each step the freezing cold biting into her as the ice tore her flesh from the bottom of her feet was pain that she deserved. When she had entered the icy landscape wondering if she was on the path to the ice nation her thoughts began to consume her mind, 'Would she die like Costia? Did they even know about her or her connection to the Commander?' It helped a little guiding her forward distracting her from the cold. Soon even the chaotic force of her mind, of her guilt were not enough to keep her naked body warm. The fog of her breath guided her a few more feet forward as her bones rattled from the cold. Clarke had never really experienced the reality of the cold that was snow and ice. Like other Arkers she had known about snow through stories and movies. It was nothing compared to the cold of space, somehow it was more devastating than the vast empty cold vacuum. Bloody foot prints followed told of where she had been but even those prints were not enough to cleanse her soul of her crimes. Slowing down the urge to continue on was dwindling as was the life inside of her. Clarke felt ready to die. She wanted to escape the screams, the cries of dying children, the pain of betrayal from the one person in the universe that she thought had understood her. Stopping in the middle of the white vastness, turning slowly in hopes to spot the semi warm forest that she had left moments ago, her lips with their blue tint cracking with the grimace that crossed her face, dull blue eyes squinted looking for anything to tell of where she had been. Her fight was over and all that the sky leader wanted was one last glimpse of the warmth she had left behind. Feeling a presence close to her, the crunch of crushed ice sounded like a gunshot behind her. Startling the shivering blonde the sound of the wind whistled across her ear drums as stars burst into her skull, pain following and then nothing but darkness. Was this death?
Rohnah lowered his club slowly, glancing at his surrounding with the hopes that he remained unseen out in the open. Crouching down next to the Skai Prisa he checked for a pulse hoping that his blow hadn't been fatal. A sigh of relief left in a shallow burst of fogged white air, briefly steaming his black goggles. Opening his pack he pulled a fox's pelt blanket out of his pack. Carefully he covered the shivering blonde tucking her as he would his son during a harsh winter night. Once secure he gently checked her wounded head. The blood on her head and feet worried him, while the woman was alive the blow and cold could very well finish taking her life before he could reach the castle. The queen would most likely have his manhood for the harsh way he had captured the woman.
The blow to the head was a risk he took with great shame but knew that it would have been the only way. There was no telling what the Skai Prisa, the Wanheda, would have done to him if he had not caught her unaware. Rohnah silently admitted to himself that it was a cowardly way to capture the unarmed girl. He had shamed his honor and would pay for it later during the trials of blood that will take place in the following weeks. He would take no chances with the one who destroyed the mountain with no army. If he was to defend his queen against unworthy mates then his honor would need to be restored when he reached home. Gathering her into his arms he secured the woman across his chest as one would a babe ensuring that no matter how hard the journey no more injury would come to her. Standing with one last glance to the trees in the distance, Rohnah adjusted his goggles and sent a sharp note into the air, he was ready to go home.
The pounding of hooves against the ice covered tundra filled him with relief. A white mare raced across the ice, its breath and the snow dust that followed behind it giving the image of a ghost gliding across the ice to the fearless warrior. Holding the woman close Rohnah waited with a tight grip. Grabbing the flying reigns of the wild horse he pushed against the ground, yelling in exhilaration Rohnah was upon his horse in a moment and racing towards his home. Today he might lose his manhood but he would do so with the honor of completing his queen's command. Passing the first land mark into Azgeda territory the day began to grow warmer as the sun rose along the mountain. Its rays shining blindingly upon the ice. A new day had dawned and with it a new beginning was taking shape with many possibilities for them all.
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Silence pervaded the woods that surrounded the border of the Trikru and Azkru nations. The trees watched as the Skai Prisa was carried away. The crunch of the leaves echoing to the scouts in the trees as Octavia dropped down from her perch. Unsheathing her sword the reckless second was about to follow after the now gone ice warrior when Indra appeared, grabbing her by the shoulder and throwing her down.
"Hod op" she growled starring out at the ice
"Indra, we have to–"Octavia stood, starting forward past her warrior, her brown eyes determined to rescue the body of her friend from the enemy.
"Shof op, Oktevia." Indra commanded narrowing her eyes, face taunt with tension. A familiar feeling of dread for her Heda filling her, "We need to return to Heda, the Skai Prisa still lives, but now the bega has her."
"How do you know?"
Another scout dropped from the trees landing light as a feather, his bulky sunkissed frame belying the grace he moved with. "If she had died from his blow, he would have left her to the ice. That is their way with the enemy." Turning to Indra with a grave look he awaited instructions, knowing what this meant.
"What does this mean though?" Octavia asked
"This is a call for war. The Azkru shall not go unpunished for attacking the Skai heda. We ride for Polis." Indra turned and ran through the forest with purpose followed by the scouts and group of seconds.
Octavia stood behind staring at the blinding light coming from the ice. It was memorizing, she couldn't really appreciate it with the heaviness of her guilt weighing heavily on her. The last time she had seen Clarke they had exchanged harsh words. She hadn't understood than the burden her friend carried, the only thoughts on her mind were her own desires to be with her lover and be reunited with her brother. It had been three days before anyone had noticed that the blond was no longer with them in the camp. At first Octavia had felt betrayed as once again she was abandoned and homeless. She was welcome by neither of her people. The people she had been born to saw her as a burden to their population, a stain on their bloodline as Indra would say. The grounders at first thought her a weak child, until she was claimed by Indra. It was with great heart break when Indra had left and a startling shock when Indra had come for her to reinstate her position as a second. Octavia had jumped at the opportunity. She had finally found a home on earth and it was thanks to the grounders and Clarke that she even had one. She would be forever grateful.
Looking to the trees again a glint off of something metal caught her attention, cautiously moving forward, she squatted down to see what it was. Grasping the cool metal she was surprised to find it wasn't just a metal object or something forgotten from the past. It was clothes, Clarke's clothes and under them her gun rested torn in the dirt. Glance back the ice, a red glint seemed to glare at her on the bright white tundra. Feeling her throat close around a lump Octavia choked back on her sorrow. What had that scum done to Clarke. Why didn't she fight back? Whatever it was, no matter why Octavia swore she would avenge her friend.
"I will avenge you Clarke. I will. Yu gonplei ste odon."
Gripping the items in her hands Octavia moved with a determained gait, "Jus drein jus daun."
TBC…
A/N: life has thrown me some curveballs and my writing has suffered for it. I have been working on this for a week now and i am pretty proud of it. It is still developing in my head, lol, thank you to all the fabulous readers and friends who have been encouraging me to finish my projects, and stories. Enjoy and Review. :) First clexa fic.