Chapter 2: The Dead are Gone.

Not nearly as adapt as the Grounders in moving through the forest Clarke practically had to run to keep up with them. As they neared Ton DC shouts and cries reached them. Clarke hid on the edge of the woods. A group of Sky People stood, guns drawn, just outside the village. The Grounders, faced them with their weapons drawn as well. Lexa darted between the two groups and ordered her tribe to sheath their weapons.

"What is this about?" Lexa demanded.

Kane stepped forward with his pistol in his hand by his hip, "My people are demanding justice. You broke the terms of our alliance."

"I will not apologize for saving my people!" There was something almost wild in Lexa's voice, "Your Heda, the Sky Princess, would have done the same thing. Now put down your weapons and return to your ship."

"You must answer for your betrayal." Kane's voice wavered.

Lexa's hand went to the hilt of her sword, "I don't answer to you! I am Lexa, Commander of the 12 tribes!" Her people cheered and drew their weapons once more."

"Wait! Wait!" Clarke ran out of the woods and stood next to Lexa, "Kane, have your people stand down!"

"Clarke you made your choice when you left. We are not your people anymore."

"Put your weapons down!" Clarke ordered, "Now!" The people behind Kane lowered their weapons. Clarke held her breath until she felt Lexa step next to her.

"The people of the Sky and the people of the Ground have to a place in our history where we need each other. We need the Sky people to teach us how to heal our people and about their technology. And the Sky People need us to teach them how to live on Earth. The alliance must stand for all of us to live."

"Kane," Clarke pleaded, "Go back to camp and vote."

"We know longer take our orders from you." His voice was defiant and filled with false pride. Lexa moved towards Kane and unsheathed her weapon.

"Lexa," Clarke cried, "It's okay." She turned to Kane, "Kane, I'm trying to keep you and your people alive."

Kane straightened, his face pinched, "Fine we will return tomorrow." After a few tense moments both groups dispersed and Clarke watched the Sky People disappear into the woods.

"Clarke of the Sky People," Lexa stood shoulder to shoulder with Clarke, "I thank you."Lexa had to look away, Clarke's beauty caused her heart to ache, "Will you do me the honor of staying in camp tonight?'

"Why?" Clarke refused to look at Lexa. She couldn't handle the leader's poised determination, her cockiness, or her strength. Clarke just wanted to give in, to surrender. Lexa could make the decisions, she could lead the people and protect Clarke.

"Because debts must be paid."

"That's all I am to you? All this is, is your fucked up sense of honor?"

"And I want you to stay."

"What?"

"Yes, I'm in your debt but I also want you to stay."

Lexa studied the Commander, "I won't be much company."

"You can just be when you are with me. You don't have to be the leader of the Sky People or brave or strong. You can just be."

"And you can just be with me?" Clarke asked.

"Clarke…"

"You ask of me what you can't do yourself?"

"Yes but I want to help you carry your burden."

"Why?"

"Because I can." The two women stared at each other neither wanting to be the first one to look away. "Come let us eat and we will discuss our alliance."

"Why can you not sit still? You are like a child bored during her lessons."

"I shouldn't be here."

"You should be with your people?"

"No, I just…I don't know."

"Come. I know something that will clear your mind."

Clarke followed Lexa through the woods and they emerged on the back of a small pond that was fed by a water fall. Lexa handed Clarke a small leather satchel, "Here. This is for you to bathe and relax."

"Thank you but I'll pass. I'm not in the mood to get eaten by a giant snake."

"This water is safe. Water falls from the rocks, enters the basin, and leaves over those rocks. This is a sacred spot for commanders and leaders." Lexa bit her bottom lip, "Now bathe and I will stand watch."

The water felt divine and Clarke groaned in pleasure more than once and seemed to carry Clarke's aches and pains down the river.

"Here," Lexa handed Clarke a glass vile from the satchel. Her eyes drifted down to Clarke's cleavage and the Commander felt her cheeks flush, "This is for your hair."

"Oh my God," Clarke stared at the vile as if it held the elixir of life, "You have shampoo? This alone would cause my people to form as alliance."

"We have soap and herbs to clean your mouth as well."

Clarke bathed with a joy and leisure that she hadn't felt since her father was floated. She tried to school her mind not to think of him, of his disgust at her having killed hundreds of people.

"Clarke?" Lexa's voice was soft, "Clarke?"

"Huh?" Clarke's blue eyes met Lexa's, "Sorry, I was, uh, I was day dreaming."

"I thought day dreams were supposed to be pleasant."

"I don't know what you are implying." Clarke lied, her hair floating around her shoulders.

"You looked incredibly sad."

"I was thinking of my father."

"He was, he was…" Lexa searched for the word, "He was floated."

"Yes, and it was my mother's fault that he died and I got imprisoned."

"Your mother, Abby of the Sky People, is a great leader and as you know great leaders must make the most difficult decisions."

"I didn't choose this." Clarke took the bar of herb scented smoke Lexa held out to her.

"Neither did I but in times of great unrest leaders are forged. Some from the spirits of our ancestors others out of the trials of circumstance. "

"How did you become commander?" The question seemed rude and presumptuous but Clarke needed to know."

"I was called."

"You are going to have to give me more than that."

"Clarke, if you were one of my people…"

"But I'm not."

Lexa smiled, "No you are not. Dry off and dress and I will tell you on the way back to camp. My people will soon come looking for me." Lexa averted her gaze as Clarke climbed out of the water, her under garments clinging to her definitively feminine. Lexa's chest tightened and she mentally chastised herself for being weak.

They walked shoulder to shoulder back to camp and every so often their hands or shoulders would brush. "I was 14. The woods clan was preparing for war against the Ice Clan; a battle that we never would have won because our people were still healing both physically and mentally from a terrible battle with the Mountain Men. One night while I was sleeping my grandmother came to me in my dreams. She showed me our lands ravaged by war and the trees and villages burned. The smoke was so thick you could barely see the bodies that were scattered everywhere. I tripped and fell onto a body. It was my mother. Her eyes had been gouged out, a common method of death that the Ice People used. My mother's mother helped me to my feet and she said, 'Lexa you must lead the people to unite if you hope to survive.'"

Lexa could feel Clarke's eyes upon her and she glanced at the Sky Princess, "You look like you have a question Clarke."

"What happened?"

"The very next day I challenged the Commander to a fight to the death. My mother begged me not to. She told me that I would be a great warrior one day but that day was not the day. But I had no choice, I had already challenged him. He was big and fierce and a man who took immense pleasure in violence."

"How did you win?"

"I was quicker and smarter. I disabled him by rolling and slicing the tendon on the back of his ankle. I slit his throat. It was my first kill. Sometimes, I can still feel the warmth of his blood on my hands."

"I'm so sorry."

"Why?" Lexa stopped walking and put her hand on Clarke's forearm.

"Because no one should ever have to kill let alone when they are 14."

"We are warriors Clarke."

"I know." Clarke took Lexa's hands, "I just, I guess, I just wish that I knew you before. Before both of our hands were covered in blood. Would things be different?"

"Clarke," Lexa squeezed Clarke's hands and then let them go, "There is no point in asking questions there are no answers to or questions that we already know the answer to."

The young women walked to camp quietly, "I must teach you have to walk in the woods if you are going to survive."

"Are you saying I am loud?"