AUTHOR WARNING; I'm useless at updates. I'm sorry!

CONTENT WARNING; Blood, guts and gore ahead.

TRIGGER WARNING; Child death.

BADASS WARNING; Its Lexa's turn for a chapter.


Lexa

I watch on through the trees while Phaethon carry Clarke and Ema away. He runs fast, as he'd been raised to. I'm thankful he seems to understand the urgency of the situation. Hopefully he will deliver Wanheda and Ema to Polis soon.

I'd intended to track down the dangerous man that had attacked Ema the moment I had bolted out of the the training area. But I'd stopped just inside the tree line. Something was stopping me going and when I had looked back over my shoulder and turned around to stare after Clarke, I knew what.

My eyes are latched possessively and worryingly on Clarke's bare bloodstained back as she's taken further away from me. I watch as my bloody red and black handprints on her skin grow harder and harder to see. My fist squeezes around the cut I'd sustained saving Ema. I feel so scared for Clarke. And I know that its wrong. I should be concerned more with my warrior; she was the one that was dying. And more concerned with myself for the dangerous hunt I'm about to begin. But I'm not. My heart holds fear only for the golden-haired Skaiprisa. It pounds inside my chest and makes me want to run after Clarke so I can protect her myself. I don't really trust anybody else with that duty.

Its selfish and completely shameful and disrespecting to my station as the Commander. But all I want is to keep her safe.

In this moment that is my first priority.

The truth I had almost spilled to Clarke before bubbles inside me again now as the distance grows hastily between us. I'm suddenly scared that she might not hear me say it. It makes me regret not telling her sooner. Before all this trouble with her people had begun. I had been given so many chances and now my spirit was about to be tested once again. I could never get another shot at telling her.

I see Clarke's head turn back. Almost as if she can sense me watching her, can sense my thinking of her. I see the immediate fear pass over her face not being able to see me. She looks so scared. And all I want to do is make it stop. But I can't.

"I love you" I hoarsely whisper, finally tearing my gaze off the running horse fading into the trees ahead of me.

I say a quick prayer to beg the gods to keep Clarke safe for me before I turn away back to the trees that, somewhere out there, was harbouring the monster that threatened my people.

A shiver runs up my back with the memory of the man. He'd been grotesque and disfigured, ugly and disgusting. And utterly terrifying. And now I would have to hunt this beast down. To protect my people.

To protect Clarke.

I glower into the dark thick of trees and tighten my grip on my sword. Then I burst forward into a hard run that has me practically flying through the woods.

I follow my memory back to the place where I had previously found Ema. I'd left Clarke in our training area and followed the river north, following the tracks and screams of my scout to a closed area that my people had once used for training for decades before my ascension to the throne. Now it was just an empty derelict clearing that was circled by large ancient trees and crowded by overgrown roots and foliage. Just beyond it lay one of the few secret dirt tracks that lead out of Polis. Usually it was guarded but I couldn't see any of my warriors nearby. And it wasn't like my people to abandon their posts.

I slow my run and catch my breath by the abandoned training area. I send a call up, signalling the guard who should be patrolling nearby. But nobody replies. My call just echoes and dies around me. It sets me a little on edge.

I tightly hold my sword ready and walk in a slow circle. With eyes keenly searching the area for any clues to the strange man's location. When I'd first come across he and Ema, they had been just within the track. Perhaps he had moved further down it, possibly even followed it away from here altogether.

I start heading forward to check it out just in case, but stop short suddenly when I hear leaves rustling heavy with movement behind me.

I freeze catching a shadow move in the corner of my eye. Over my own light panting I can hear somebody else breathing, heavy and ragged. Almost like they're choking on the air. I know immediately who it is. I don't have to turn to know I've been found by the one I was hunting.

I move my head forward again and squeeze my fingers around my sword as I move it round to hold up in both hands. I briefly close my eyes while I listen to him come closer and closer. I let him. I need him within reach.

"Keryon ste Heda shoun raun ai" I whisper the quick prayer beneath my breath.

Something snaps loudly behind me, and it makes me take a deep breath before I throw my voice louder.

""Stap!" I call out hearing him come closer, "Nou sen yu fut daun nowe!"

I spin around and raise my sword in both hands when I hear him continue forward despite my command.

My eyes carry up his muddy boots dragging along the ground. Up over his filthy torn pants. Up past his heaving chest to the torn skin on his bloody and mud stained throat and face. My gaze locks as if hypnotised on his eyes. They look bloodshot like he's drugged. But more than that they look blank. Like their colour had been sucked dry. It makes me feel as sick looking at him now. As much as it had when I'd first discovered him. He looks unnatural. Diseased.

"Ai laik heda an ai hedon yu stap!"

The strange man keeps coming forward, ignoring me completely as if he cannot hear me. My lips peel up into a snarl.

"I said stop!" I shout furiously at him and pull my left leg back to hold myself in a defensive stance ready for his eventual attack of me.

The strange man ignores me again and moves faster towards me. His limbs move awkwardly in his haste, as if he doesn't know how to walk properly. I look at him meanly, warning him off. Not that it makes a difference.

He's close enough now I can see the skin flapping off the side of his right cheek. And the red drool rolling out of the corners of his lips. There's dark red blood dripping down along the dirt on his neck. I can see a dark stain by his left shoulder. The tear in his jacket there suggests he's been stabbed. Probably by my scout before when he had managed to get his teeth on her.

Remembering the pained scream of my warrior as his teeth had clamped around and then torn into her throat fills me up with anger. He would pay for that. Blood would have blood.

I point my sword at him.

"Whatever you were, whatever foul thing you have become, I swear by my blood as Heda; you will die today"

The could be reaper throws his head back and lets out a loud wild snarl in return that sends an icy shiver down my spine. He begins to flail his left arm at me, trying to reach for me. I lean back to avoid it and kick him back with a yell. He stumbles backwards and then comes back at me. He tries again to reach for me. I twist my torso and block his next swing for my face with my forearm. I have to lean my head back when he leans his down through our touching arms and snaps his teeth in my face. His other hand grabs at my side in the meantime. I have to fight a wince when his fingers catch a purchase on my hip. His nails are digging past my shirt, scratching into my skin.

I gasp out when it hurts and push back against his weight bearing down into my right arm. He's a full head taller than me, with a bulky body to match. The heaviness of his body persistently leaning into mine saps my strength quickly. Soon I know my arm will shake and give out on me.

I try to angle my blade whilst holding him away from me, so that it would cut his face and give me room again to push him back. But the blade is too high even with the angle. So I open my hand and when I finally manage to slip my sword down to hold in my palm enough so that his next strong lean into me makes him press his cheek on the edge of the sharp steel, he just continues forward. Like it doesn't pain him. He leans harder when my surprise makes me hesitate, forcing the sharp blade into his face, peeling his skin up along his jaw and exposing the bloody muscle beneath it.

I swallow the bile in my throat when my hand becomes sticky with his blood and mine running down the sword and onto my wrist.

His other hand lets my side go and reaches up for my face. In a moment of panic, I grab my swords blade in my other hand too and push with all my might against him. My palms sting with its sharp bite into my hands but it does the trick.

The growling man is thrown backwards. He trips up on a raised tree root in the process and falls to his back. I hear a crack when his head hits the ground and I bend over myself gasping thinking that it might be over.

But it's not.

I'm still struggling to breathe when I see him move. My skin goes cold and I stare in shock watching him crawl slowly to his hands and knees in front of me. I can see his neck is at an odd angle. Broken from the fall. And yet he is rising to his feet again.

How?!

A foreign feeling takes me over as the man comes at me again. And I stumble backwards realising what it is.

Fear.

"Ai laik Heda!" I shout at him in fury.

I'm angry I'm feeling scared. Feelings were weakness in every capacity. And I refused to show him that he scared me.

"Ai non fir raun!" I tell him and ready myself for him. I raise my sword and hold my stance steady, "Wamplie ste nau kom op em deyon"

This time when he stumbles closer and raises his gnarled fingers to clutch at me, I yell and raise and aim my sword to slash it across his waist. Blood spurts out from the cruel wound but the strange man keeps coming as if he cannot feel it.

I stare at him shocked. I begin to back up. Any normal man would have cried out. Any normal man would be clutching his open belly and panicking at all the blood. Any normal man would have died the moment his neck broke before.

I don't understand this.

"What are you?" I mumble moving further back when he snarls and lunges at me.

I keep going back, hitting various trees with my back and sliding around them, using them as a buffer between me and him. He makes small grunts every time he flies into the tree I'd just abandoned. Never does he see my escape move coming. He seems to be fairly stupid. I wonder if he can talk at all. Whether he knows what he's doing.

I keep going back until my foot catches on something and I trip over backwards. I land on my back and everything goes black a moment when my head hits something hard.


I struggle to open my eyes. My head really hurts. I raise my hand up to touch it and force my eyes to open and focus on the green canvas above me. I gasp and begin an immediate struggle up. I look straight expecting to see my follower lurking nearby ready to leap on me.

My heart jumps in fear when I see nothing but lonely trees ahead of me.

I stand quickly and glance around myself. The trees and the wind seem to be my only company.

"Where have you gone?" I mutter lifting my leg to step forward so I could find him.

I look down when my foot lands on something soft.

"Jok!" I shout leaping backwards in terror. I cover my mouth with my hand to quiet the sudden sick gasps leaving my chest.

The dead eyes of a city guard are staring vacantly up at me. The only thing left of him that looks to be still intact. Everything else had been torn and pulled apart. Gnawed on and chewed.

His belly had been ripped open, spilling his half chewed insides onto the muddy ground. His throat was laced with criss-crossing scratches and blood. His chest was open and red. Flies were buzzing around the meat and fat dangling from the sharp cracked stakes that were now the guard's ribs, which had been pulled back from the cage of his chest and now lay exposed to the world. There were large mouth sized chunks missing from his arms and face. The skin was barely hanging on in some places. His nose was gone. I could see his tongue laying swollen and blue all the way to the back of his throat thanks to the skin that had been ripped from his cheek. I looked down at the guard's hands. He had a single deep bite on the wrist of the hand that still held a knife in its grip. There's a smudge of black blood on his fingers and the metal of the knife. That must have been what I'd knocked myself out on.

I turn from the horrific scene at my feet and bend over to gag. Despite fighting it, I end up emptying the contents of my stomach over a small tree sapling beside me. I try not to close my eyes while my chest shakes and my breaths shudder out of me. Every time I do I see it all over again.

"Jok!" I gasp panting to myself.

I'm shaking. I've never felt so scared before. I've never seen such horror before. And knowing another human had inflicted this extent of mutilation on another? It was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

I shake my head to myself. I tell myself to get a hold of myself now.

Come on! I growl at myself pushing my back straight.

I am natblida. I am Heda. I will not let fear dictate my actions. I will not let it stop me protecting my people.

I glare off into the trees ahead of me and breathe angrily. I'm going to find this man and I'm going to kill him.

I start stumbling forward. My head aches hard. But I refuse to let it slow me down. I shake off the pain and begin a quick jog back to the area where the cannibal had first found me. I don't know why he had suddenly give up the chase before. But my guess was that he had been spooked and returned there.

To my angry dismay the area is clean. Only a few patches of blood clinging to the grounds foliage are present. And those tracks lead the way I had come.

I stare down at them while I try to think where else he would have gone. And why he had gone in the first place. He hadn't seemed to care when I had attacked him. There had been no fear in his eyes. No emotion. So why leave his prey at their most vulnerable and vanish? Maybe he had seen what he had done to my guard there. Maybe he had felt guilt and ran. But something told me that wasn't the reason.

I growl in frustration and decide to scout the surrounding area. If he had not returned here then he had carried on towards the city, towards more he could hurt.


Time slowly dragged around me as I scanned every inch of ground ahead of me looking for tracks. Sometimes I would find some but they would lead nowhere. Like the creature had walked around aimlessly for no reason at all.

I'm almost tempted to turn back and return to my city. I could cover more ground with my warriors. I sigh down at the staggered footprints I'm currently studying and decide its probably the only chance I have now at finding him. I'm frustrated I hadn't been able to find him alone. I'm angry I hadn't been able to personally get justice for my people.

But in a small way I'm also relieved. I can return to Clarke. I can make sure she made it back to Polis and is safe. I didn't want to be out here away from her. This man scared me. I didn't want him anywhere near her.

"Sis au!" Is screamed around me suddenly.

I bolt to my feet and my head whips around trying to locate the person. My blood rushes in my ears and I begin to breathe faster when searching the trees gets me nowhere. I don't know where they are and its making me panic.

"Beja!" They scream louder and my blood runs cold recognising the young tone of their voice. I'm almost certain its a young boy "Beja sis au!"

"Weron ste kamp yu?!" I shout back and begin running the second the boy's screams become louder and filled with terror.

The bracken under my feet cracks extra loud as I sprint as fast as I can towards the screams. I'm almost at the Polis' city reaches when I find the boy. He's laying on the ground with the man crouched over him. I stare at the dent in the man's skull and the bones sticking out the back of his neck. He's positioned at such an odd unnatural angle. I'm immediately sickened by him.

My heart pounds in my chest as I slow my approach and peer over the monster's shoulder. I catch a glimpse of the boy's still face. Its extremely pale. He must be dead already. I feel immediate responsibility and guilt for it. He can only be ten summers. Far too young to ever even dream of men like this coming near him.

There's a sick crunch of flesh being ripped apart that draws my attention away. I can hear the man's teeth chewing hungrily. I feel weak and have to look away before I can be sick again.

"B-Beja.."

I look back and to my absolute horror the boy is alive and looking straight at me with pained eyes begging me to help him while the man continues to eat him. He whimpers up at me again. Weaker. I know he will die. But I cannot just stand here and watch. He was an innocent. A child. He did not deserve this death.

So I bring my sword arm back and with a furious yell kick the man to the side. He falls with a surprised grunt and a low snarl at me. I glare back as I aim my sword again. I raise it in both hands above my head. I make sure its steady and then stab it powerfully down through the back of the man's shoulder, driving it straight through his body and deep into the ground beneath him. He growls up throwing red drool over the grass in front of him as he slowly struggles to rise again. Thankfully the sword keeps him pinned against the ground.

I ignore his continued growls and kneel by the young boy. As I do, the man flails with his arms. The boy whimpers out in fear. I catch the filthy bloodstained hand going for the boy's leg resting nearby and hold it away from him. It shakes in my grip struggling for freedom. The man's face turns towards me snapping loudly. I tighten my hold on his wrist and make to move it aside. I'm going to stab it down and pin into the ground with my knife. It's only as I'm directing his hand to the ground and grabbing my knife to use that I notice the emblem on the badge stitched onto the man's jacket.

Skaikru?

I stare at the circular triangle surrounded with flames. I think at first maybe I had thought wrong. But no. I had seen that symbol far too many times to mistake it for anything else. It was Skaikru. He was Skaikru.

I glower down at him. My hate for his existence has tripled in the last couple of seconds. Skaikru has attacked my people. Again. One of them lay dead. Another possibly dying. A child was seriously injured. There would be consequences for this attack. My people would demand justice. They would scream for war.

War that would tear Clarke from me.

I struggle internally as I stare down at the badge. The commander side of me battles with the other side that just wants to live normally. My personal desires go to war with my duty to my people. I know what I have to do.

I just don't want to do it.

Head and not my heart, I tell myself bitterly.

This wouldn't be a betrayal against Clarke. Her people had broken our peace first. They had been the ones to start this. And unprovoked.

But she hasn't...

Against my better judgement I reach out and tear the badge from the sleeve of the man's jacket. If none knew he belonged to Skaikru, then none could demand war against them for now. I can handle the situation better. With Clarke's help. We could stop this turning into a war her people would lose.

I just hope that I don't regret this decision later.

I hastily tuck the symbol of Skaikru into my pocket and then turn to the gasping child next to me. He looks incredibly pale. Blood is running from his lips and down his chin. There's a deep gash on his neck pouring more blood down his front.

I press my hand against it to slow the bleeding. But I'm not sure what else I can do to save him. I'm not a healer. And he definitely needs one if he is to live. I have to get him to Clarke.

The child looks asleep when I reach out to grasp his arms. His head lolls to one side and it doesn't look like he's breathing. I quickly lower my other hand to the clean side of his neck and press my fingers into it as I'd seen Clarke do a hundred times. She'd explained once that it was a way to feel for a heartbeat. My own heart thunders in my ears around the constant sounds of the cannibal beside us.

A small bump lifts beneath the gentle probe of my fingers.

He's still alive!

Without a seconds hesitation I lift the boy in my arms and stand with him. I look down at the man swiping out with his arms again. He seems even more aggravated by our moving away. He's almost shouting at us with his vicious snarls.

I secure the boy in my arms and stamp down with the heel of my boot into the pommel of the sword holding the Sky man down. His chest smacks into the ground and a loud crack sends a wobble up the sword into my foot. Its satisfying to hear but its not nearly enough yet.

"Yu gonneple ste oden" I growl in promise at him. Then I turn and begin to run through the woods back towards the city.

My short breaths along with the boy's high gasps are the only thing I hear for the longest time while I sprint as fast as I can towards Polis. I know he is getting quieter. I can feel him getting colder in my arms. Every step is painful for him as he rocks inside my arms. Every second he slips further away.

"Stomba raun!" I order him with constant shakes that have his eyes reopening. I try talking to him to keep him conscience, "Chit yu tagon, strikon?"

"B-Beyr" He whispers almost silently back.

"Ai laik Heda, Beyr" I tell him but he doesn't have a reaction. I doubt he can hear me. I swallow thickly and add soflty, "Yu laik klir nau"

We continue running. I keep asking him questions and he keeps weakly responding.

Quickly I learn that he lives with his mother. His father died in the war against the Maunon. He had come to the outer city in a dare with his friends. But when they had come across the strange man, Beyr had fallen down and been abandoned by his friends. I get him to tell me about his mother, about his friends. I get him to tell me the color in the trees we pass and the name of the nightbloods I train. He knows Aden. He plays with him sometimes when Aden is able to sneak away from the tower. He's asked Aden to train him because he too wants to be a warrior, but his mother won't let him. He thinks his father would have wanted that. He says Aden is kind. His bestest friend. Beyr says he listens to the nightblood's many stories of Heda and Wanheda. Aden's promised to introduce him to them both one day. Beyr says he saw Wanheda on her horse once. He was so scared of her but he said hello anyway. Wanheda had smiled at him. To Beyr she is the prettiest woman in the world.

Every little nugget of information he gives is gasped and whispered to me between long breaks of silence. Slowly he becomes less responsive to my voice. Like he can't hear me properly. Often his body falls limp in my grip before it jerks to life again. It scares me every time.

I pause briefly to check my surroundings and loudly give Beyr another question while I try to catch my breath and get my bearings. I can see my tower standing proudly in the distance. The city is close by. I can hear the chatter of our people being carried over to us by the light wind. It relieves me momentarily. In a short while Beyr would be in Clarke's capable hands. He'd be truly safe.

I start running again into the direction of all the noise, with the hope of reaching home and safety keeping my energy up.


The walls of Polis and my warriors guarding them are just in my view when Beyr whispers my name and then starts harshly coughing in my arms. I stop running just shy of the last field leading to the city wall when I feel the hot flood of blood dribbling quicker down my chest. I look down at the boy shuddering in my arms. His body jerks and shakes and the more he coughs the more blood pours out of the bite in his neck. I kneel quickly and make him sit on the ground bent over to help him breathe. He shakes his head. His hand clutches tightly at my arm holding him upright while he coughs harder.

"H-He-da!" I hear him whimper out in total fear.

The boy turns towards me and tries to speak. But it comes out in another cough, sending a mouthful of blood over my face and neck. I blink in shock. Beyr collapses seconds later.

"Beyr!" I shout and lean over him.

I shake his shoulders and tap his face. I call his name over and over again, with tears coming to my eyes when he fails to respond. When I hear his last breath leave him, in a gentle whisper of my name, I can't stop myself from picking him up again to hold against my chest. My hand runs through his messy black hair. I hold him as his mother would have if she were here for him. A child leaving life should never die alone.

"Ai moba" I whisper hoarsely as I fight back the tears.

I feel terrible for his death. My heart hurt with the guilt. I feel like a failure for not being able to save him.

"Yu gonneple ste oden" I mutter setting him back in the grass and passing my hand down his brow to close his eyes.

I think about his mother and how I would have to find her and explain how her son had died. I think about Aden who will be heartbroken to hear of his friend's end. I think about the funeral pyre Beyr and my guard would share together tomorrow come sundown. I think about the murderer who was alive while my people were dead.

The fury builds high inside me until my vision is red with bloodlust. I stand and start making my way back to the place I had trapped the man that had caused all of this pain and suffering. The jacket badge inside my pocket grows heavy with every step I take closer and closer to him.

I would exact vengeance on this murderer for my people.

And then I would exact vengeance on the others responsible.

Skaikru would pay.


TRANSLATIONS:

Keryon ste Heda shoun raun ai :Spirit of the commanders guide me

Stap: Stop

Nou sen yu fut daun nowe: Don't take another step

Ai laik heda an ai hedon yu stap: I am the commander and I order you stop

Ai laik heda; I am the commander

Natblida; Nightblood.

Wamplie ste nau kom op em deyon; Death is not coming for me today

Jok: Fuck.

Beja sis au: Please help me

Weron ste kamp yu: Where are you

Yu gonneple ste oden: Your fight is over

Stomba raun; Be awake (I'm assuming its the same as 'Stay awake'...?)

Chit yu tagon, strikon: What's your name, little one

Yu laik klir nau: You are safe now

Ai moba; I'm sorry