A/N: Kyra's story! [bonus: I kinda imagine Kyra to look more or less like Princess Yue from The Last Airbender]

I mostly use the italic for sentences written in English but meant to be in another language, be it Trigedasleng or Italian. And if there are no " " it's someone's thoughts.

Also... I'm looking for a beta to go over the story and help me with a few points and to get new ideas, so if you want to help me, contact me on tumblr my username is justawordunsaid or on twitter Sara_NobodyO

If you like it, please leave a review! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty: Lost girl

They reach Sorgente about ten days later and are immediately greeted by the people, a rebel from Cristallo recognises them and they all rush to him to ask where the others are.

The village is big, quite bigger than Cristallo, but still isolated and away from the path of the soldiers, there are more huts and ruins of the old world buildings than in Cristallo where Clarke only saw few remains of what must have belonged to the world before the bombs. The people are kind and friendly, excited to see the ones they were told are the leaders, the ones who started all of this, they keep asking Nyx, Malaya and Wit questions, and they're eager to talk to Clarke.

But the group only promises to talk later and asks to see their friends first. The boy from Cristallo then leads them through streets and small passages between ruins until they come to a stop in front of an old building that still stands. The building is huge and the boy tells them it extends under ground with some kind of very large basement they've arranged as their safe place. It's hidden, there are lots of escape ways all starting from the basement and the rooms of the building overground are vast enough to offer many sparring places. They're training the young rebels of Sorgente and they're sleeping in the basement where they also keep their belongings so that they can either hide them in some of the bunkers communicating with the underground rooms or easily pick them up for a quick escape.

He then proceeds to explain the whole structure of the building, that communicates with other underground bunkers and must have been used as a safe building during some old war because the rooms are all huge and look like they could have been used as storage rooms for the village. But the group of friends is not really interested in the history of the building or all its uses right now.

"Just take us to the others already" Mahol says breaking the boy out of his reverie. He nods quickly and hurries to the back of the building, informing them that the main doors are far harder to open because time ruined them and they could just collapse, so the rebels had to reinforce them and it's not really a quick job to open them now.

He gets them in from a small door on the back and they are greeted by many known faces, everyone happy to see them. Nyx immediately asks to be briefed on who's here and learns that Chayim and the rest of his group got there right after the rebels of Cristallo, he's the one who organized the whole building to put it to good use, he started the training of the ones in the village who wanted to fight and he sent the ones who couldn't fight to the safe camp where are settled all the people from Cristallo who couldn't fight either. Liri arrived with her group just a couple of days before Nyx and the others, she had other rebels with her and just told them to settle in the buildings with the others. It's a surprise that they all fit in the basement, even with the rebels from Sorgente staying in their own houses. Many suggested the new rebels could just settle in some of the houses of the people who left, but Liri had wanted them all in the building, saying she intended on training them hard.

Wit asks to see Chayim and a young girl takes them to him. The boy is training some young ones in a big room left to the hall they first found themselves in. He greets them with joy and goes to hug Clarke fiercely telling her he's happy she's alright. She hugs him back and lets the warmth of his words sink in for a moment. When he eventually lets go of her, he offers a big smile and tells her he was sure the others would have brought her back safe. Clarke smiles back and replies she's glad they did, because they seem to have a lot of work to do here. He then laughs and turns just in time to receive Wit's bear hug that almost knocks him out of balance. The two boys take some time greeting each other getting back on track with their usual playful bickering and then Chayim turns to Nyx.

"Liri wants to see you. Well, all four of you." he states seriously looking at Malaya, Wit and Clarke as well. "She has some hell of a surprise."

He points them in the right direction and tackles Faith under his arm starting to ask her questions about how they saved Clarke. She's all too happy to answer and lets him lead her away toward the other rebels.

When they enter the smaller room Chayim pointed them to they are surprised to find it empty except for Liri sparring with a young girl. They immediately stop when the four friends walk in through the door. Liri nods at them, while the girl simply stares with dark deep blue eyes. Her posture is not the one of a warrior, more that of a wild fighter, her greyish white hair are messy and her clothes dirty, her eyes though are regal and fierce.

"Welcome back." Liri says with a small warm smile.

They all smile at her, but before any of them can say anything, she turns serious and introduces the girl.

"This is Kyra."

Liri slowly stares each one of them in the eyes, her look lingering shortly only on Clarke, but she offers the blonde a nod as further greeting, as to say she's glad to see her alive and well before her eyes settle back on Nyx making the girl almost nervous in anticipation.

"This is the Princess."

For a few moments all they can do is stare first at Liri then at Kyra in disbelief. Wit opens his mouth to speak first but has to close it again and swallow because no words are coming out. Clarke senses more than sees, because she's still looking at the white haired girl like everyone else, Nyx suck in a short breath and go to speak, but Malaya beats her to it.

"How can you be sure?" her voice is probably steadier than any of the others' would have been.

"I recognise her. Hiel recognised her. He was sure."

The answer is simple and means close to nothing to Clarke, but it seems to matter a great deal to the others. Wit gasps softly, Malaya is oddly speechless and Nyx only whispers gently "We always believed she was dead."

Liri smiles kindly then, "She's not. She's been hiding all this time."

So this Hiel's opinion confirms that Kyra is in fact the Princess of Ice, Clarke will have to ask about him later, for now she's busy staring at the girl who still hasn't uttered a word.

Silence stretches for a long moment before Malaya finds her voice again, as always faster than anyone else. "She's still the daughter of the Queen. Why did you bring her here?" though she fails to sound angry, surprise still dominating her tone.

Finally the girl speaks and Clarke is left speechless once again, Kyra's voice sounds like water spilling from rocks and there's a strength hidden somewhere in it that could equal that of a waterfall.

"You thought I died because I escaped from my mother. I hid because I didn't know what to do to help my people, my mentor was supposed to help me, but he died making me escape. Though it looks like my people don't need my help against the Queen, you're already rising and fighting for yourself, and I only wish to aid you how I can." the words are controlled, forced almost, as if the girl isn't really used to speaking in that composed way.

"That doesn't..." Malaya is about to retort, but Nyx cuts her sentence short.

"Tell us your story." she only says.

The girl seems to both tense and relax at the same time, unsure about how she should feel about this. Then she shrugs and drop her forced composure to drop on the floor sitting down with her legs cross.

"Alright then, you might as well get comfortable." the voice still sounds like water, but it's more natural as the blue eyes darken even more while the girl thinks back to her past.

Clarke is the first to move and sit near Kyra, sitting half in front of her half at her side not to make her feel like she's under interrogation. But Malaya takes care of that and sits right in front of the girl, facing her with a look torn between distrust, disbelief, surprise and almost hope. Wit flips down on the other side and tries to give Kyra a friendly smile, but comes out more of an apologetic grimace. Nyx takes her place between Malaya and Clarke, and eventually Liri sits down between Wit and Kyra, near the girl's side as to reassure her somehow.

Kyra takes a deep breath and looks up at Liri who gives her a nod and a gentle "Go on, tell them".

The girl nods back and turns her eyes on Malaya, then quickly changes her mind and looks at Wit in search of a more friendly face.

"The Queen named me after her lover who died murdering King Kyr. I was given the name of Michela, and that's how our people have always known me."

Clarke saw recognition in the eyes of her friends, and understands that the name sounded right in their ears.

"I hated it. I hated him. So when I escaped I changed it and chose Kyra in my uncle's honor. By the time someone found me starving in the woods it wasn't really easy to recognise me, I was just a dirty beaten, hungry kid. The people living near the capital could have maybe wondered if I were the princess, but I went far from that place and when they found me I was already in the central lands of Ice, no one even thought that I could be the daughter the Queen was looking for. Just like that, I disappeared.

"Since I was a child the Queen has wished for me to become like my sister, cruel, heartless, ruthless, arrogant, strong. But she gave me the wrong mentor. Tehav was loyal to King Kyr, but he stood by the Queen in order to survive." the girl pauses and chuckles sadly, her eyes holding regret, "I yelled at him for it once. I told him he was just another traitor, a coward who wouldn't risk his life to stand up for his people and his dead King. I was so wrong, I regret telling him those things, but he understood, he was even proud of me for thinking that, he told me that I was right, that he didn't even deserve our people's forgiveness, but that he had a way to make it right now, teaching me, growing me in my uncle's ideals. I found out later that he stood by the Queen to save his family, I found out later that the only reason he didn't oppose her directly was his young child. His wife was as ready as he was to die for our people, but they couldn't give up their child's life. I felt so horrible for yelling at him then, for calling him a traitor, but he forgave me." thin tears are leaving the girl's blue eyes, but she wipes them away and goes to apologise.

"I'm sorry, I'm not getting caught in the moment, I'm just trying to make you understand what kind of man he was because I need to tell you what he did."

Clarke reaches out to reassured the young girl but stops before touching her, hesitant. Wit offers a real smile this time and Nyx's eyes soften assuring the girl that she can take her time and say anything she needs to. Kyra looks at Nyx and then reaches out to take Clarke's offered hand, smiling gently at all three of them. Malaya's look is still halfway between surprised and wary but she gives a gentle nod to signal the girl to go on without worrying.

"When I turned ten he let me in in what he and his wife were doing. There are still people loyal to Kyr among the Queen's court and some of them try to help the population as they can, sometimes they send food and supplies to those villages the soldiers have razed, sometimes they offer help to the poor people around the capital who can't afford seeing a healer. They have to be careful though and almost no one knows about them. Tehav and his wife were sort of coordinators of this thing. He did anything to be my teacher, in the hope that he could rise a princess different than the other one, a princess that would restore Kyr's kingdom and his fair ruling. And though I've never wanted to be princess, I learned for him, I learned so that one day I could maybe help my people. That day never came, I still don't want to be a princess and I have no idea how to take on my mother. But you can."

She pauses again and seems to gets her thoughts in order before going on.

"By the time I turned twelve I couldn't take it anymore, I hated my mother, I hated my sister, I hated the way people looked at me, I hated the way I had to act around people when I was with my mother, I hated that I couldn't just yell 'I'm not like her! Stop hating me, I'm with you'. I wanted a way out, I was desperate to leave the capital, leave the Queen and her awful court. So he helped me. He still didn't think I was ready, so he planned on coming with me, he planned everything perfectly, he said he would have taken me to a safe place where someday I would have found the help I needed to save Ice. But nothing went according to plans.

"He helped me escape but we were found. So he fought the guards while I ran before they could recognise me, he was captured and taken to the Queen. She probably questioned him and from what little I know he let her think he had tried to kidnap me to kill me, he didn't tell her anything. The Queen killed him and his whole family and believed me to be dead."

The next time she takes a break Wit's eyes are a bit shiny and Clarke's hand squeezing the girl's one.

"I ran and survived in the forest for a while. I don't know how, the Queen had me trained so I guess that helped, but it was mostly luck, I had no idea where to go, but I knew I had to get away from the capital to I travelled south. Weeks or maybe months later, I still can't recall that period very well, some hunters from Fiume found me hiding in the trees. The woman who first saw me then took me to an old couple who could take care of me. They fed me and restored me back to health, I've lived in that village for years, I've learned how to make small weapons with the smith of the village, sometimes I joined the hunters to bring home dinner, they taught me how to cook, how to heal, with them I learned the ways of our people, the way we live. I eventually settled as an helper of the healer, I love being able to cure people, to heal them as they have done with me. When I heard about my sister's death I didn't feel sorrow, regret, pain, I didn't miss her, I didn't grieve for her, I had a new life and I was happy to live it far from the people I grew up with.

"Then the soldiers came and destroyed everything. They killed the people I'd learned to consider family and most of the habitants of the village. Some of us tried to fight back, but the woman who found me made me escape, she was the only one I've ever revealed my true identity to, and she said I was too important. She took me to another village, we stayed there for months before we heard about rebels in the Ice Nation. They were just whispered words, uttered quickly in the dark hours of the night, away from anyone who could be loyal to the Queen, but we heard them anyway. She wanted to join you so we set off to find you. We travelled from village to village, but no one would tell us where you came from, finally someone suggested we looked for you in Cristallo so that's where we headed. We weren't far when we stopped the night at a village just a few days from yours. The soldiers came in the night, everyone was going to evacuate in the morning, believing they still had time, but the Queen's men took the village by surprise. She died fighting them and I joined a group of survivors."

Nyx's jaw was clenched hard and Clarke gently lays her free hand on the brunette's thigh. She looks over at Clarke and gives a small nod to assure her she's okay. Kyra doesn't miss the exchange and explains better what happened.

"While I travelled with the survivors from the village I heard that someone blamed their own people for wanting to leave in the morning. They had been warned by a messenger that the soldiers were on their way to the border and they would have probably passed through their village, the messenger was a rebel from another village and prompted them to move as soon as possible. They decided to wait 'till the next day so that they could be prepared to leave, even if the hunters and the healer had been against it."

Nyx takes a breath to relax herself, she feels better knowing that it wasn't their fault for being late, though it doesn't erase the fact that so many people died.

Kyra looks at her and offers a shy "I'm sorry" before Liri reassures her and tells her to go on. The girl glances one last apologetic look at Nyx before resuming her story.

"When we arrived in Cristallo they were getting ready to leave. Upon seeing us and hearing our story they decided to take us with them to a safe camp, we were to leave shortly. Old people were going to stay in the village, so as to offer some kind of cover in case the soldiers became suspicious and tried to demand explanations. That's when one of them recognised me. He was sitting on a chair in the street and painting, I had approached him to see what he was painting and recognised the landscape around the capital. I grew up with that sight and gasped when I saw it so amazingly reproduced on a sheet. That drew his attention and he asked me who I was, I didn't tell him about my origins, but he recognised me anyway. At first he didn't seem sure, he looked confused and eventually I confirmed his suspicious after hearing his own story. When I told him I was the princess he wasn't even surprised, he only looked relieved and happy to know I was alive. He sent someone to find a rebel, Ethan, and told him to take me to Liri, he told him who I was, but he told him not to say anything until he brought me to Liri.

"Ethan did just that and when we left he kept me near and helped me fit in with the other rebels, he told me how it all began, and how some girl from another land came and made them see that it was time to rise against the Queen. He was still vague, not sure about how much I should have known, given that I'm the daughter of the Queen, Liri is the one who told me everything when we met here, days later."

When the last of the girl's words stops echoing in the room silence envelops them and no one dares to break it. Clarke is still holding Kyra's hand and she's moved by the story, although Wit is the only one with almost watery eyes. Nyx is staring intently at the girl, not able to formulate a coherent sentence just yet and Malaya looks thoughtful more than usual. Liri gives them the time they need to absorb the story and only gives Kyra a nod to let her know that she did fine, the girl looks a bit shy now but she raise her chin a bit at Liri's reassuring gesture.

"I know you probably don't believe m..." she hesitantly says after long minutes of silence.

"We believed her, why shouldn't we believe you?" surprisingly the sentence comes from Malaya, who glances a look at Clarke and for maybe the first time the blonde doesn't feel like the rebel is judging her or hating her, there might even be some kindness in it.

Since the words are not really meant as a question, Kyra just gives a grateful little smile and goes back waiting for some sort of reaction.

More minutes stretch out before the silence is broken again.

"This is getting awkward." Wit talks for the first time, trying to lighten the atmosphere.