That afternoon, Aden, Clarke and Octavia make their way to their horses. Clarke mounts Daedalus while she waits for Aden and Octavia to be ready for their afternoon hunt. Everyone has a bow slung on their shoulder, at least one blade and a quiver of arrows (Clarke is armed to the teeth, her usual blades and her new ones in place). Aden is saddling Tribute, a younger mare, while Octavia is buckling the straps of her saddle to her typical chestnut mare.

"Catch up," Clarke tells them, "I'm going to get Luna."

Aden and Octavia nod in acknowledgement while they busy themselves again. Clarke kicks Daedalus into a soft trot back through the trees and towards the Arkadia walls.

When she gets to the gate, the doors are already open; When Clarke is in the area they keep them open in the day, when she is away from Arkadia they are closed at all times unless the person requesting entrance is identified and accepted. It is something Kane put into action two months ago when he heard of the festival attack to use as both a precaution and as well as a show of support that Clarke is their leader. It is a lot like how Polis operates then Lexa leaves the city.

When she trots in to the compound she receives the typical head nods as well as murmurs of Wanheda or Clarke from both TriKru and SkaiKru. She tries to acknowledge as many as possible while she waits for Luna. She sits quietly, smiling and answering questions while a few young SkaiKru pat Daedalus and feed him a carrot.

When she sees the boat clan leader, she is atop her large white horse; her dreadlocks are pulled high today in a ponytail and she wears beige leather armour on her chest like a vest, exposing toned bare arms; her brown slacks tucked at the bottom into her boots. Judging from her attire, the moisture in the air obviously affects Luna less than the rest of them. She has a bow and quiver of arrows over her shoulders and her blades, which Clarke is certain totals at least four, are not visible.

"Clarke," Luna greets with a cheery smile.

"Luna, did you have fun this morning?" Clarke smiles back.

Luna nods, "Indeed, Kane and Abby are excellent hosts. I quite enjoy Kane's enthusiasm. They answered all my questions eagerly."

Clarke chuckles while she pictures her asking question after question like an excited toddler. She's certain Kane's enthusiasm matches Luna's.

As if she can sense where Clarke's mind went Luna speaks again, "As soon as you stop learning you are dead Clarke. Remember that, the wise seek more wisdom. We are never finished learning."

That sobers Clarke instantly. It would be strange to some how quickly Luna can go from carefree to serious and back again, but for Clarke, she was used to it after days spent with the woman under her tutelage. Clarke swallows her laughter and ducks her head in acknowledgment and respect.

"I won't forget that Luna, I get it." She finishes with a firm nod.

"Good, now lets get the hell out of here; I feel like I need open spaces and lots of fresh air," Luna says pushing the horse forward beside Clarke.

The blonde spins Daedalus around and they walk the horse towards the gate, "The Ark does that to you, even if you're used to it; that's why so many of us sleep in the tents, especially the delinquents that came down with me first."

"There's more shelter in the Ark though," Luna notes quizzically.

Clarke shrugs and sees Octavia and Aden waiting for them. "We prefer to sleep beneath the stars after living amongst them for so long. Plus, the delinquents were largely kept in solitary lockup in what we call the 'skybox', none of us wish to be confined again."

"You were a prisoner?" Luna's wide eyes stare at the blonde and then she shakes her head with a soft chuckle, "I don't know why I sound surprised."

Clarke smirks and responds with heavy sarcasm, "Yup, that's me. Just making friends everywhere."

"What did you do?"

"I wanted to tell the truth. I thought people had the right to know that our home was dying; we were running out of air. My dad was executed for trying to do the same; as soon as I was eighteen they would have done the same to me. Luckily for me, we were expendable and taking up extra resources so I was spared, if you could even call it that, a month before I turned eighteen by them sending us to Earth. They dropped us and basically left us for dead."

Luna furrows her brow but looks at Clarke like it's the first time she's ever seen her. She's quiet for a few moments as they reach the other two members of their hunting party. They take no guards today as they plan to stay within TriKru and Arkadia lands and will avoid the borderlands beyond as much as possible. Aden and Octavia ride side by side a head of them at a slightly quicker pace, no doubt talking trash to each other.

"You're a survivor Clarke." Luna says it thoughtfully but with a tone of understanding, "You've been doing this," she gestures with a wave of her hand, "leading and surviving a lot longer than everyone realizes..."

"Not everyone, ...not Lexa," Clarke says quietly glancing at the woman. "She knew from the moment she met me. She knew from the moment she spied on us in the woods on our first trek towards the mountain actually. She basically saved us that day by throwing a spear through one of our members forcing us to turn back." Clarke slyly grins at the woman, "…Of course, later she still tried to kill us all anyways; tried and failed only to try again."

Luna laughs lightly, "the great beginning to all love stories."

Clarke shrugs with a sheepish smile, "It started rough but I wouldn't change a thing about it; even the deaths we caused, even the betrayal on the mountain. Had it been easy from the beginning I don't think we would have lived this long or accomplished what we have. I don't think the Mountain would have fallen, not truly, if they had of made it above ground they would have broke their alliance with your people I think." Clarke pauses and bites her lip before she mentions Luna's sister's killer, "Nia would still be alive."

They fall quiet again after that. Clarke can practically hear Luna's mind working, she's far away lost in memories. The blonde allows her the time and space while they ride forward. As the scenery around them changes; the tree cover they went into thickens, it's slightly darker in the foliage and they keep their eyes peeled for both prey and predator.

About two minutes later Luna has already unslung her bow and has aimed it in the trees. She lets loose the arrow and seconds later a very large bird falls to the ground. Luna hops off and collects her score while Clarke watches with a raised brow.

"What?" Luna shrugs carefully putting the bird in her bag, "That's my dinner tonight, I've been craving. Plus, the feathers are useful." She mounts her horse and Clarke and her continue on.

"Lexa said you knew Anya," Luna breaks the next small bout of silence now following Clarke through the thick forest.

Clarke bites her lip a moment and glances back at the tone that tickled her interest. "I did, …sort of - not long… we weren't friends or anything, I'm fairly certain she hated me. She tried to kill me more than once."

Luna laughs lightly, but her smile doesn't reach her eyes. "I'm not surprised," she says honestly.

"Were you friends?"

"Something like that," Luna replies and this time the tone of sadness was very evident. Clarke glances back again with a raised brow, she can't help it, she's curious. Luna rolls her eyes but does elaborate, if only slightly, "We had a complicated history."

"Sounds like there's a story in there," Clarke comments. Luna is silent for a few moments and Clarke wonders if she overstepped. Bad Clarke. "Luna, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

The woman lets go of the reins with one hand and waves dismissively, she offers a small smile; "Don't be sorry Clarke. It has been a long time since I had last seen Anya that's all. Even longer since I have spoken to anyone about her."

"You don't have to tell me."

There's more silence, just the sound of their horses and the wind in the trees.

Then, Luna speaks very softly, "Lexa sent word of her death the day she found out. I have her braid."

Clarke raises her brows as she stares ahead of her. She wasn't expecting that, she wasn't really expecting the conversation to continue. She thought Lexa still had the braid she gave her. But now as she thinks about it, it begins to make sense why Luna has such an item, and it is so like Lexa to be that considerate.

"So you weren't really friends, but something tells me you weren't really enemies either," she says knowingly.

"I think Raven would class us as 'frienemies', but we were always more than that – always on the edge of something real," Luna answers. "It was almost real," she says quietly, a hint of remorse again. "We didn't really have a chance, a lot happened in a short amount of time; she changed, I changed and the world didn't care." Clarke's heart breaks a little for the woman, she sympathizes; it almost happened to her.

Clarke glances behind again, "You loved her."

"I grew up loving Anya; even when I hated her I loved her," Luna says softly with a far off look in her eye, a hint at a very sad smile. "Loving Anya was always difficult, never boring, but very lonely. I always thought when we got old and grey we'd come back to each other again. …I had hope even if she did not."

"I'm sorry," Clarke says through thick emotion she is doing very poorly at hiding. She pauses as she thinks about the fierce woman she barely knew but majorly respected, "Would it help if I told you I think she had hope too?"

"How would you know?"

"I- I was with her when she died, did Lexa not tell you that?" Clarke frowns.

"WHAT?"

"I take that as a no," Clarke mutters sucking back a breath.

She glances at the woman behind her again to see a stone face, unreadable.

Clarke swallows, "We had just escaped the mountain, I found her in a cage and got her out of there. We ran through the reaper tunnels, she saved my life and we jumped out of the mouth of the dam. She saved my life again because I couldn't swim at that point…" Clarke puts a hand up to prevent a branch from hitting her in the face.

Luna remains silent so Clarke continues with her ramble, "Then she took me as a prisoner, I'm assuming to bring me as a bounty for Lexa or Indra, I'm not really sure which, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to end with me still breathing."

Clarke catches a small, very small grin of recognition from Luna when she glances back this time. "Indra would have killed you on sight," Luna confirms. "Lexa is unpredictable as are you, so who knows there."

Clarke rolls her eyes, "She plastered my face with mud and what I am fairly certain contained small traces of feces to help hide us from the Mountain men, …but I kind of think she just wanted an excuse; that seems like a very Anya thing to do. …Anyways, we fought, then fought a lot more and I ended up getting the best of her at the dropship."

"Hod op. YOU beat Anya? Before any of your training?"

Clarke smirks to herself and nods, "Without any real weapon as well."

"You lie."

"I don't, I literally had a log and my fists; and you should know better than to underestimate me by now," Clarke counters.

"Well, that is surprising." Luna falls silent a moment or two, "So what makes you think she had hope?"

Clarke's shoulders slump a little as the image of Anya taking a bullet takes her vision for a moment.

She swallows, "When I got us back to Arkadia we were in the tree line where we have our tents set up now, near the training ground. I let her go, we agreed on her delivering a message to Lexa; that we needed each other to bring down the mountain and get our people out. She agreed and thought she could make Lexa see reason. She had hope, I saw it in her eyes."

"The Mountain took her parents and soon after her brother. It was one of the main reasons we never worked out, she never got over the loss. The last time I saw her she said 'maybe someday, the shadow of the mountain wouldn't blind her'…"

Clarke slows her horse in a place where they can ride side by side again, "She had hope that the mountain would fall so she could come back to you then."

Luna says nothing for a moment absorbing Clarke's words. "So you saw her get shot," Luna says finally and Clarke picks up instantly that it's not a question. Luna knows who killed her.

"You know that SkaiKru killed her? And still you trust us?" Clarke was confounded.

Luna was certainly one of the exceptions in grounder culture. She knows maybe a handful that are like her. When they first originally met she was friendly and open from the get go; every other grounder, especially those with loved ones killed by SkaiKru, had to get to know the members before ever offering any form of kindness.

Luna nods and offers Clarke a small smile. "If Skaikru really is as powerful to take down the great Anya Kom Trikru than they are worthy of my attention." She shrugs as Clarke's brow furrows, "Make no mistake Clarke, you are lucky Lexa put you in the coalition, had she not I would have been a definite enemy of yours, I am not that noble."

"Is that why you're so interested in our ways; the weapons, the technology and medical equiptment?"

Luna nods again and raises her brow with a tilt to her head, "What did I tell you before we came to the woods?"

Clarke fights the urge to roll her eyes, "Right. 'The wise seek more wisdom', I remember." It was a test, a subtle test, but a test from her mentor nonetheless.

Luna laughs, "Yes. And the dead are gone while the living are hungry; now let's see if our training has helped your hunting skills at all."

They ride deeper into the woods and dismount their horses by a stream. Luna and Octavia stay behind to set up a small camp while Aden and Clarke head out with their bows.

Along their tracking Aden sets two snares while Clarke moves on ahead. They are following a deer, it has extra toes on one foot but it's a good size and average weight. A buck if she's not mistaken.

Her cloak flows around her as she slings her bow from her shoulder to hold it more ready. She is quiet as she ghosts through the woods, she feels like she floats across the ground now. She notches an arrow and holds it against the wooden shaft ready to pull and fire at a seconds notice.

She stops and kneels quietly to examine the small pebble like droppings with her pinky; they're warm, the deer is close.

She keeps following the tracks now aware that Aden has rejoined her not far behind. She stops and drops low again tilting her one hand up in a fist to halt Aden as well when she hears a twig snap. She waits and perks her ears; she closes her eyes to focus in on the sound, distance and direction just as Luna taught her. She breathes slow and contains the adrenaline to prevent any shaky shot to come; Sometimes, adrenaline can work against you.

Her eyes pop open when she can hear the sound of something solid rubbing against wood. She turns her head in the direction and begins to creep closer. She moves a small branch down an inch so she has a clear line of vision ahead of her.

She sees a buck rubbing his antlers against the bark of a large tree. She takes a quiet breath, she's not at the right angle and she severely hopes she is down wind. She doesn't want to spook it; from here she would miss the kill shot and that is not something that would impress Luna. (She learned that lesson the hard way by being thrown in the icy water in Boat Kru territory a month ago.)

Luna wants proof of her training; and hunting, the act of silently stalking your prey, is one of Luna's tests. As Clarke shoots Aden a look to halt and stay, she begins to creep a little farther to the left. While she moves she thinks about Luna's lessons, training and tests for Clarke. She thinks about her words about wise people and she realizes that if the wise are always seeking wisdom then she will always be a student of her world; she also has the distinct feeling that she will always be Luna's student now too.

Clarke stops when she finds her angle. She closes her eyes and takes three slow breaths to clear her mind.

When she opens them she is ready; she draws…breath in….she sets the anchor and aims….breath out….start the final tension….breath in, deep to the chest…release and breath out.

The arrow twangs off the string with dazzling accuracy as the buck falls. Clarke knows it's hit its mark, kill shot.

The buck is dead by the time she reaches it.

"Well done Clarke," Luna says happily clapping her on the back when her and Aden bring back their bounty.

"Don't sound so surprised," Clarke quips, playfully cocky but secretly reveling in the praise. "But to be fair, I let Aden take the smaller one; I can't take all the credit. The kid's a good shot."

"Don't sound so surprised," Aden fires back from Octavia's side with a huge grin. "Help me with this?" He asks Clarke gesturing to his kill.

Octavia cleans the two rabbits from the snares to have with the dried fish Luna brought for their snack. Clarke and Aden prepare the two bucks they got for travel on the horses.

They eat around a small fire happily replenishing the energy they spent today. They laugh and joke, Aden and Octavia take bets on who can burp the loudest, although it's Luna who wins.

The ride back is louder and lighter than previous. At one point, Clarke can't help but smile to herself and rub her chest absentmindedly as she feels Lexa; whatever is going on at home, she feels it causing waves of elation and ease and so so much love. It's unbridled and flowing straight from the brunette to Clarke.

It causes some elation in Clarke herself as she feels lighter than she has in days because of it. They race each other through the trees as fast as they can all with huge grins on their faces and laughter radiating the woods.

As they come bursting through the overgrowth and to the clear fields before Arkadia Luna challenges them all to a race. She cheats by saying 'go' when she's already a horse length ahead of them. The race is close but Clarke has Daedalus, she knows the horse well and knows he has about four more gears he could easily hit.

"Come on buddy, this is ours," Clarke tells him crouching lower to his neck and kicking his side. True to who he is, he speeds up so she's neck and neck with Luna's white steed.

"Not going to happen wanheda," Luna laughs in challenge.

"Oh it's going to happen!" She kicks her steed again.

"Go Clarke!" Octavia cheers her on.

Clarke is smiling wide as she gets closer to the compound she can see it clearly though it's still plenty far away.

As she does get closer she knows she's going to win, Luna is close but still behind her. She could get Daedalus to go faster but she doesn't need it.

"Clarke! Hod op," Luna's voice carries to her.

The sound of her rushing her horse to an abrupt stop has Clarke looking behind her questioningly but following her request. She rounds Daedalus to face Luna, "are you really that sore of a loser you pull us to a stop?"

"Clarke look," Luna points towards Arkadia.

The blonde turns and focuses her gaze through the oncoming of dusk; she sees some of her people milling about inside the compound, nothing out of the ordinary; she lets her eyes scan the wider area like Luna and ziva taught her.

And then she gasps.

"Is that-"

"Yes, Azgeda."