Had not expected to extend this fic, but there seemed to be interest so..thanks for continuing to read. There is a big tone shift in this chapter. Needed a break from the angst.

It was a two day walk to Polis and they had stopped to camp during the night of the first day.

The clans had all left separately. Tri Kru was the last to leave, most likely on Lexa's orders. With the mountain men gone and the threat of reapers now reduced to the occasional straggler, there was no longer a common enemy binding them together. Old hostilities were beginning to slowly but surely creep back into the fold.

Clarke wondered what would happen to her people should the alliance crumble. They had been through too much already, a war with the grounders would destroy them for good. If the tides shifted against her people, she wanted to know as early as possible. That's why she ultimately decided to come. At least thats what she told herself when she left her solitary camp.

The truth was there was every possibility she would be killed before she could carry any message back and she had established no way to communicate with Camp Jaha, having not anticipated a return any time soon. So why? Why had she set out with the very people that had left hers to die?

When Lexa's tear marked face filled her vision, she quickly squashed that line of reasoning. No, she had come for herself. She wanted to see more of this land, she wanted to leave everything else behind her.

Clarke settled herself away from the others. She was about to put up her tent when she saw the grounders were camping in the open, so she decided to do the same. When in Rome and all that.

Whatever that expression meant.

Lexa had made no attempt to speak with her since their encounter in the woods and had only offered a nod when Clarke first walked into their camp. Clarke had spent the day walking next to Indra, who made no attempt to make conversation. This suited Clarke just fine.

The other grounders had been polite but aloof in her presence, many whispered as she passed and regarded with a kind of awe. Clarke quickly gathered that her exploits on Mt. Weather had become somewhat of a legend. Reputations built on blood tend to last forever. It meant everyone mostly left her alone, which was her preference. She had to remind herself that these warriors did not see her actions as monstrous but as courageous. She was the girl who fell from the sky, brought the dead back to life, forged peace with the blood of her lover, and burned their greatest enemies alive with little more than the flick of her wrist.

The grounder children even whispered that her stare could stop a person's heart. The adults openly scoffed but still none met her gaze.

To think, some months ago, she was only an upstart young girl, sketching on the walls of her prison cell. Although she was in a different prison now, nothing to go back to, and nothing to go toward.

Clarke began sketching the grounders going about their night time preparations and the great fire that they built in their midst. She was chewing on an apple when she felt the eyes of a young grounder girl on her. Clarke paused mid bite and managed a smile. The girl smiled back and seemed to take this as an invitation to approach.

"Klok kom skaikru, I am called Helina. May I join you in your night time scouting?" The girl about 8 years old, had close cropped black hair, multiple ear piercings, bright green eyes, and a beaming smile.

"Sure Helina. It's just Clarke and I'm not scouting." Clarke scooted to give the girl room.

"Really, I have seen you. Always watchful, taking in all that you see with much thought and writing them down in your book." At this this, the girl reached out tentatively to touch the sketch book in Clarke's lap.

Clarke flipped it open, "oh no, they're just drawings, for fun... here, take a look."

Helina took the book with a reverence that made Clarke smile. The girl gazed at length at the beautiful drawings within of animals, and plants, and there was one of Octavia and Bellamy sitting quietly together when they first landed, one of Finn in the dropship, one of Wells on the Ark looking down at his chessboard with great concentration, one of her parents smiling with their arms around each other, and one of Lexa's face without her warpaint. So much that would never be the same again.

"There are no drawings of Clarke?" Helina had been silent for so long, that Clarke had gotten lost her thoughts.

Clarke took the book back and closed it, "no I've never drawn myself before."

"Why not?"

"Well I've never really thought about it. I guess it's because I already know what I look like and there are beautiful things in the world I want to remember."

"But Clarke is beautiful too. She must also be remembered!" Helina shouted, causing some of the other grounders to look in their direction.

Clarke laughed at her enthusiasm.

"...You think I am foolish like the others?" Helina looked away and her cheeks became inflamed.

"No! No! I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you. I'm just...you remind me of...good things that I have forgotten."

"Oh! Does this mean you will put me in your memory book? I would like that very much..so you will not forget me." Helina was beaming again, her earlier embarrassment completely behind her.

"I won't forget you Helina...but yes, alright I will put you in my book. Maybe tomorrow, it's getting late, I think you should head back to your parents now."

Helina's eyes widened before looking away, "nomon and nomtu...their fight is ended."

Clarke placed her hand over the girl's and gave her a gentle squeeze, "I'm sorry."

Helina was silent before squeezing back, "can I stay here with you for the night, Clarke?"

"Sure. I'm happy to have the company."

Clarke helped the girl move her blankets over and Helina laid down beside her.

"Helina?"

"Yes, Clarke?"

"What happened to them?"

Clarke thought she had fallen asleep after a beat.

"...they...burned up in the fire that fell on Tondc."

Clarke lay awake, looking at the stars for a very long time.

Helina stayed attached to her side the entire day.

The girl spent their journey talking about everything and anything Polis, and her friends, and plants that she had seen.

Clarke just let her talk and smiled and laughed and watched as she occasionally ran to the front of the caravan and back again. Helina seemed to know everyone and everyone knew her. Clarke understood the grounder war, the entire clan had come together to be family to the war orphans. Despite the fact that Helina's unbounded energy seemed to irk quite of few of the adults, there was an undeniable fondness as well.

Helina returned from one of her explorations with a bright blue flower which she handed to Clarke with a shy eagerness. Clarke took it and pressed it into her sketchbook and Helina gave her a pleased and strangely solemn expression before bounding off again, grinning like a maniac.

"Interesting choice."

Indra's voice startled her.

"Indra? What choice?"

Indra smirked with a knowing expression, "you fight with us, make camp with us, and journey with us, yet there is still much for you to learn about our ways." And with that Indra walked off to move to the front of the train, leaving Clarke baffled.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Michael beside her.

"Clarke. You accepted the girl into your camp last night and accepted her token of fealty today. In our custom, it means she has offered herself as your second."

"She did what? But I'm not a general!"

"You are a leader amongst your people and you are a fearsome warrior. You have earned the respect of my people, they recognize your authority."

"What authority? I no longer lead my people!" He smiled and shrugged gently.

Clarke pushed through the crowd to catch up to Helina, when she finally got through after what felt like an eternity, she saw the girl at the front of the crowd, talking to Lexa.

Lexa saw her first and paused before gesturing her forward.

Clarke approached like a child waiting to be scolded.

"Clarke. Helina tells me she has offered herself as your second. You have earned the right to accept or decline. Do you find this girl worthy to ride beside you?"

Lexa quirked an eyebrow, smugly amused by the situation.

Clarke was less amused. She looked from Lexa to the smiling girl and back again.

"Helina...I...listen-" The flustered blonde began.

"Yes Clarke!?" Helina looked excited enough to explode. Lexa looked on with affected innocence.

"...I...I find you….worthy" Clarke sighed.

If Helina noticed the exasperation she didn't show it.

"So be it, I will make it known. Interesting choice." Lexa returned to the front.

"Why do people keep saying that?!" Clarke shouted at the commander's back.

Helina was jumping up and down. "You will not regret this Clarke, I will thrive under your guidance, you will teach me to stop people's hearts with a stare!"

Clarke had set out with no expectation of where this journey would lead her. She wasn't even in Polis yet, and she was already being surprised.