Survive for Another Time
Chapter 35
Clarke woke up to her third day on the earth when Wells shook her. Seeing him alive on the day she was supposed to find him dead was a relief. It was also when she realized that today was the first day the acid fog would come and Atom would be mortally wounded. She was then supposed to stop his suffering and break Octavia's heart. Things through did not go the same.
The day started with another healing lesson with Charlotte as apparently one of those who got water daily from the river had encountered the giant snake that had gotten Octavia the first time around. The adolescent turned out to be no other than Atom.
The giant anaconda had contracted on his leg so fiercely that many muscles were bruised. She made sure that no bones were broken and forced Charlotte to feel where she had found a minor internal bleeding that she had then relieved pressure from through a small cut. The girl had shied from the touch at first but then Atom did that charming smile that had attracted Octavia and Charlotte suddenly couldn't wait to be close to him. The girl's attitude had made Clarke and Atom share a smirk.
To Clarke's surprise Atom had succeeded in killing the anaconda with a makeshift knife and had asked her how to prepare it. However beyond skinning it scales Clarke knew nothing of how to proceed. She did suggest cleaning it of anything that resembled poison glands in case anaconda's had developed any in the last century and twirling it on a straight stick. To thank her for examining him Atom gave both Clarke and Charlotte a slice of the snake meat. It had a bland taste and seriously lacked spices, felt as fibrous as chicken but was still better than though and tense meat of the panther.
After breakfast the girls' day truly started. They proceeded with smoking the left-over meat of the panther under the gaze of Clarke's faithful students as she did not want to risk attract insects to the meat and spoil it.
After that Clarke showed Charlotte the most disgusting thing she would ever see and, in the process, lost all of those who were watching.
She showed Charlotte how to use the panther's brain.
Not only that but she had her squish it bare handed until it was a grey and pink goo and made her use it to slather the inside of the three pelts, dispose of it with a sharp stone and do it all over again until the inside of the pelts were smooth and tender. Clarke had prepared it so that the head was still atached to the rest and that it was split in its belly with the four paws at the four extremities of the pelt and the tail was still present too.
"Now this can no longer be considered skins but soft pelts. To get hard pelts you just need to boil the whole thing for half an hour. More than that and it will be too tough and you won't be able to roll it up. Pelts can be used for bedding, cover, tapestry and flooring."
"What about leather?"
"Leather is when you take of the fur on the outside and treat both side of the pelt. Just like pelts you can make it soft or hard and it color depends on the animal used."
"it's disgusting." the little girl complained.
"It's necessary as one day you might be confronted to a head wound and you need to know how brain looks like to know how grave the wound is." said Clarke scolding Charlotte for being childish. "But you're right" she added with a smile "it is pretty disgusting."
"Did you faint the first time you saw brain?"
"No, but I puked. A lot. Couldn't eat anything for three whole days and that was only because my father forced me to eat something."
After that the two cleaned up and changed from their disgusting brain spotted clothes and Charlotte retrieved the tired flower from hair, changing it with another half dozen while and yellow ones that she put in a crown smiling at it and calling her a princess.
Clarke then spent some time in one of her notebooks drawing the human anatomy and skeleton under different sides while Charlotte spent some time with Wells once more. After lunch Clarke called charlotte back to her side and taught Charlotte how the lungs the blood circulation and the heart worked together to energize the human body. She gave the drawing to Charlotte so that she may study them as she wished and went in search of Miller.
She found him at the newly completed stables. The stables were simply made of vertical wooden post with horizontal ones at waist level. A simple rearing of the weakest horse would topple the stables and allow the escape of the horses but it was better than nothing. It wasn't like carpentry was a common skill in space after all.
When Miller saw her with her flowers he mock bowed and when she understood that he was only joking and not bowing to Wanheda, Ambassador of the Thirteenth Clan she answered by mock curtsying back.
"What can I do for you princess."
"I know we have some but we need more food. By the time Anya kom Trikru returns our current reserves will be gone. Plus, I want to process the pelts to have something to trade. Even the littlest thing so I can show them that we trade fairly."
"You always gotta think ahead, do you?" Miller chuckled. "Is there nothing that stops that brain of yours?"
"There is." sadly smiled Clarke as she thought of when she had let herself go in Lexa's arms.
Miller must have sensed her mood because he instantaneously brightened.
"Congrats, Clarke! Do I know him?"
"Her. And I doubt it. She is rather discreet about it. We both are."
Miller nodded.
"I won't tell a soul." He promised.
"I know. After all, you understand."
Miller was startled by her declaration and for a moment considered denying her. Then he remembered that she was trusting him with her secret and that the least he could do was do the same. So he nodded again with a half-smile.
"Did she come down here with us?" he asked curiously.
"No."
It was the truth, Lexa had already been on Earth when they had come down.
"That's a shame. Well, you will see her soon enough anyway."
"Yes, I hope so." smiled Clarke.
"I can't wait to meet her." he teased her.
"Don't be hasty, she is quite terrifying when she wants to."
"Ooh! Being able to scare you is a feat!" exclaimed the boy. "Now I absolutely have to meet that girl!"
"Who do you have to meet?" asked Octavia's voice from behind the duo.
"A chick that scares Griffin." mocked Miller.
"Wait? Those actually exists?!" joked the younger Blake sibling. "Please tell me she is not here with us. That would be scary."
"Shut it, you two!"
Clarke's voice had not been exasperated or joking and her two friends understood that this was not a scolding for their joking around but an instruction that they had to follow so they stopped laughing at her and looked where she was looking. Clarke was intensely fixing a tree not far from the camp.
"I do not know who you are but you should know that spying is rude."
Her declaration had brought silence to the area around her and many now looked on with curiosity at the event.
"Come on! Don't make me look like I'm crazy talking to the wind! Show yourself!"
Seconds of silence trilled by and Clarke lost her patience.
"Dude, I can really see you and I'm gonna prove it! Bald with tattoo on the side of the head! Tan skinned and bulging muscles! His name is... Drum roll! ...a total mystery to me!"
Once again her declaration was welcomed by silence. This time through the entire camp was looking at Clarke. Finally, from the tree she had been starring at since the beginning, something dropped. It was a man with a bald head and tan skin, tribal tattoo visible on the side of his head and his neck and furs than leather clothes that tried to hide his powerful frame.
Seeing the man rise from the ground unscathed after a five-meter fall, several person in the camp wondered how strong and resilient Survivors really were and then they wondered how they could have possibly missed the hulking man perched in the tree and finally how Clarke had spotted him.
Their respect for the girl who could do and knew things that none of them knew grew and more of them saw her as their evident leader and obvious Ambassador for the negotiations with the Trikru and the Coalition.
"I laik Likon kom Trikru." The man said in a booming voice while looking past Clarke who was smiling, fully aware that Lincoln had fallen for Octavia at first sight all over again.
"I laik Klark kom Skaikru." said Clarke to present herself.
"Skai Prisa?" asked Lincoln while finally looking at Clarke and taking in her bleached blond hair.
"Sha." answered Clarke. "Why don't you come in instead of staying in that tree?"
"I am not allowed to. Only Onya may speak to you."
And with that Lincoln threw a last glance above Clarke's shoulder at Octavia and turned around to disappear in the forest.
Wanheda = Commander of Death
Onya kom Trikru = Anya from the Tree People
I laik Likon kom Trikru =I amLincoln from the Tree People
I laik Klark kom Skaikru = I amClarke from the Sky People
Skai Prisa = Skai Princess
Sha = Yes
Onya = Anya