a/n: I know it's almost been a year since my last update for this fic, so i'm so sorry for that. I've decided to rewrite and re-continue this story mainly because of the grounder culture that we've started to see in season 3. I've made some changes to how I wanted to portray Shiloh because i felt intitially there was a lot of potential for certain interactions and glimpses of character arcs and relationships to happen in the chapters i had already written, which I have decided to instead explore thought the rewritten work. A lot of what the basis of these chapters are has still remained the same but there are a lot of significant as well as subtle changes that i hope convey Shiloh and the plot of this story better.
Also italics in speech will be to mark the trigadesleng language unless stated otherwise.
Shiloh weaved through the foliage, dipping and twirling under and around an array of bark trees, brushing past shiny coated leaves and allowing her feet to carry her up a tree with ease. Scouting out the area she spotted a flash of colour amongst all the green. Realising what it was she grinned, her eyes squinting into sunset shaped crescents. Dropping gently to the ground she stalked over to the source of colour; a bracelet gifted to her by her friend Bekah. It was a pretty thing that was constructed just as beautifully as its design, woven with intricate details of exotic flowers, feathers and sparkly jewels. Bekah had a matching piece of jewelry; friendship bracelets the girl had called them when she had presented Shiloh with one years ago. Shiloh had felt terribly guilty for losing it; she hadn't even realised she had until one of the children in their clan had asked her where her colourful bracelet was and she had freaked out for days searching everywhere for it until she was convinced it was gone forever. Bekah had told her not to worry, had said to her it would turn up or that Lincoln would find it; he was good at finding things that Shiloh misplaced.
And Bekah was right. Lincoln had found the Bracelet, intentionally leaving it on the branch of the tree that Shiloh had named her 'Thinking Tree'. Slipping the bracelet on her wrist she slumped to the base of the tree and smiled again; she'd remember to thank Lincoln next time she saw him. Settling herself down comfortably, she allowed her eyes to flutter shut.
She knew when she returned back to camp Anya would threaten to have her killed or cast out again, the woman was always making her life difficult, trying to fault her for everything and yet somehow at the same time trying to get her to join the military ranks among the like of the commander and her brothers. But Shiloh was less inclined to fight, and especially less inclined to kill.
She just wished that Anya and the Commander would learn to understand that.
But they didn't. Wouldn't.
And because they refused to listen to her she refused to listen to them, which resulted in her leaving the encampment on daily expeditions on the pretense of gathering wild herbs and plants.
At first it had infuriated Anya, for abandoning duties she had almost been exiled from the camp but Lincoln had pleaded for her, saying he and Nyko would take her under their wing as a healer, which seemed to appease both parties somewhat; Anya got to keep a valuable member of the clan and Shiloh was allowed freedom to explore, well to some extent anyways, there were still rules she had to follow such as staying within the permissible areas. Another thing she couldn't thank him enough for.
Shiloh was feeling exceptionally daring that day and stretched up out of her nap, limbering up and bounding to her feet, bouncing through a throng of trees, the exposed sunlight making her hair glitter in flashes of gold as it's rays pushed through the gaps between the trees.
A rustling nearby alerted her, survival training kicking in and she ducked for cover, crouching down and strategically placing her weight so as not to muddy herself-for a girl that lived among a whole lot of dirt and mud she had an unusual abhorrence to it. Her hair spilled in front of her face and she hastily pinned it behind her ears, making a mental note to remember to braid it all next time she ventured out, it'd do her no good if it was constantly in her face. Her stone coloured eyes darted left to right, surveying the area to locate the source of the sound. They landed on a rustling bush and she crouched down further pressing the palms of her hands into the ground like an animal would it's paws.
A small snake like creature emerged from the bush in front of her, slithering towards her direction with its head raised high as if recognizing her. Baring her teeth she hissed sharply, the snake retreats and slithers around her disappearing into another bush.
As she focuses on the original sound that had caught her attention, her heart hammers wildly and a childish gleam of excitement glitters in her eyes. She waits like a predator stalking it's prey, as voices grow louder.
The commanders Scouts.
Her Brother.
Her eyes flicker upward and she see's some of them have taken to the trees, leaping from one to another. Shiloh conceals herself further; her big brother would give her hell if he found her lurking. Deciding to retire back to camp she sighed, her excitement dwindling. As much as she loved exploring she was becoming increasingly less thrilled about it.
It was the same game every day, she'd play hide and seek avoiding the scouts, stay clear of the mountain men and their nasty tricks, try not to get eaten by a reaper, it was all starting to get very boring, and she wished that for once something different would happen. She kicked a stone, sending it skittering into the stream and decided to stop there for a moment.
She made sure to remove the faintest speckles of mud on her palms and clean the mud from her shoes, then carefully inspected her reflection in the water to check for dirt.
Admiring her appearance she smiled, certain it was clean and pretty. Much like the others in her clan she wore tattoos, each marking told a story, their story or a story that had affected them in some way. Unlike the majority of her tribe who proudly showed off their tattoo's to induce fear and intimidation, Shiloh wore hers like a pretty dress, the placement and sizing had been chosen carefully; a star, sun and moon sitting underneath her right cheekbone, three small circles arching around her eyebrow and a scorpion like shape covering her left arm, the tail curling and stopping to a point at her knuckles; each symbol making her look all the more lovely.
She was sneaking past a jaguar when a sudden loud thrumming noise caught her attention, startling her and she reared back spinning on her heels. Shiloh snapped her head upwards, alarmed to realise that it was coming from the sky; more specifically from a giant metal contraption that was hurtling towards the ground. Digging her heels into the ground she launched into a sprint, making it back to camp where Scouts had already returned to inform Anya.
The camp was abuzz with the news; the sky people were back.
Shiloh had tried to sit and wait for the warriors to return with the news on the level of danger of the sky people but she couldn't. She had been begging for excitement, for something to shake up her world and rid her of the repetitive boredom that plagued her daily life. This was it, these sky people, and she wasn't going to play it safe and hide out in a hut whilst the warriors had all the fun.
Preparing herself to venture to the crash site she began moving inconspicuously around camp, making small talk with village members as she swiped a blade into her boot and scooped up herbs from the greenhouse under the guise of looking for Rebekah, who she knew was attending to the children in the nursery. She finished with putting the herbs and some vials containing various coloured liquids and wrapped a cloak over her right shoulder, securing it in place with a belt around her waist.
"Shiloh!"
A soft voice hissed out from behind her just as she pulled the cloak's hood over her head. Pushing it down with a roll of her eyes she folded her arms over her chest and approached her freckled, fiery haired friend.
"What Rebekah?"
The irritation was seeping through the pretend politeness in her voice and the smaller woman scoffed, giving Shiloh a look that said 'don't you dare use that tone with me'.
"You're going to see the Sky people" She stated in a matter of fact tone with an eyebrow raised into an arch.
"Aren't you?"
Shiloh turned on her heel, nose turned up as she shook her head and started walking away.
"No."
She didn't know what she expected to think would happen, that Bekah would just accept her simple answer of no and leave it at that, she had known the girl long enough to know that the redhead was definitely not going to leave it, or her alone.
A pale hand snaked around her wrist and gave a sharp tug pulling Shiloh to a stop.
"You're taking me with you, to see the Skaikru."
Her friend had said, complete confidence and certainty in her tone that Shiloh was going to do so.
"Am I?"
Shiloh asked raising her eyebrows and looking down at Rebekah. Rebekah nodded definitely, her green eyes gleaming with a look Shiloh knew all too well.
"You are, if you don't want me to yell out at the top of my lungs and alert Anya that you're trying to get out when we've been ordered to stay put."
Rebekah grinned innocently as Shiloh's mouth dropped open in an appalled manner.
"You conniving little wench, trying to manipulate me."
Rebekah simply shrugged in response.
"I guess, you're starting to rub off on me."
Shooting her best friend an unhappy glare, Shiloh proceeded to unclip her cloak and dump the mass of grey material over Bekah's head, the tiny woman drowning in the garment that was too large for her.
"Keep the hood up Bekah, your hair colour is like a flare."
Pleased to know that Shiloh was allowing her along Bekah nodded, beaming as she pulled the cloak into a more bearable position around her.
Shiloh gestured for Bekah to follow her, looking over her shoulder one last time to check no one was watching them leave, then she slipped into the forest in a stealthy sprint with Bekah tailing carefully behind.
They made sure to avoid the Scouts and Anya's warriors, last thing they needed was to be found and then have Shiloh banished for good this time. As she got closer to the crash site she knew to hide, hauling herself up into the concealment of the thick leaves of the treetops, motioning for Bekah to do the same.
Footsteps started to approach and Shiloh was intrigued to find a group of young girls and boys walking underneath her, happy and cheering and laughing loudly. Cocking her head to the side she regarded them carefully, so these were the infamous sky people she had heard so much about, they didn't seem all that special; different maybe, but not special.
A movement in the tree's nearby tore her attention away from them, slight panic making her wonder if she had been caught by a scout. She heard a gasp from Bekah, letting her know that she was thinking the same.
But they were safe, it wasn't a scout but another one of Shiloh's good friends; Lincoln. He had also came out of curiosity to search for the fallen sky people. Their eyes met and the two shared a nod, an unspoken understanding that neither would speak of seeing the other in a place they were not supposed to be. Shiloh felt a weight drop beside her and then Bekah was whispering quietly in her ear.
"Why do you think they came here, to the ground?"
Shiloh, shrugged, she honestly couldn't make a guess, -or she could- only the guesses she made were not pleasant things she wanted to believe they were capable of, she didn't want to think these people were like the mountain men.
She kept her eyes on the people below them, missing on the frown puckering Bekah's features, though she could all but hear it in the tone of the girls whispering.
"I don't like it, all these people here, it can't be good for any of us."
Shiloh brushed off the negative spirits and turned to her friend with glittering eyes.
"I think it'll be fun." She exclaimed.
Bekah shot her an incredulous look, hand clutching the hood on her cloak to secure it as she shook her head.
"Fun? More like dangerous."
The blonde grinned in response, her pink tongue poking out cheekily through her teeth. She turned back to the sky people, pricking her ears to listen to them. As Bekah started up to speak Shiloh clucked her tongue shushing her immediately.
"Listen."
She told her friend and the two focused in carefully, surprisingly picking up the not so foreign language.
"They speak like them, like the mountain men."
Bekah hissed out, she was glad for the fact that they had both learned the old language on the sly so that they could both understand what the young people were saying, despite the language being a necessity for the warriors, but not so glad about the implications of the sky people using their enemies language and what the fact could mean.
But Shiloh wasn't paying any attention to her, and she was certain that Shiloh hadn't even so much as mused about the similarity between these people and the people from the mountain.
Instead, the blonde haired beauty was watching the oldest member among the sky people crew, a young man with handsome features, deep brown eyes and dark slicked back hair.
Nudging Shiloh, she narrowed her eyes, hard frown lines creasing her pale skin.
"What's that look for?"
Shiloh gave a wry smirk in return, turning briefly to her friend.
"I want one."
Bekah snorted at the ridiculous notion, but decided to humour the other girl anyway.
"Which one?"
She scanned the group until she saw the tall and pretty boy that Shiloh had her eyes fixed on.
"Him."
Shiloh told her friend.
"I want him".