Chapter 19
Anya needed much longer to defeat the reapers, even with Tris' help, than she would have liked. She did not know for sure in which direction the little blonde girl had run off and she could only hope to find her quickly. She knew that Marie could not be familiar with the way through the dense forest. She counted it as a good sign that she had not heard the girl scream again as she knew that there might have been even more reapers roaming around in their proximity.
She looked over at Tris after pulling her sword out of the body of the last reaper. The girl seemed unharmed safe for a few obvious scratches and a deeper gash on one of her arms. They had been lucky to not have encountered an even larger group of reapers as they tented to move in.
Tris was visibly heaving for air now, exhausted from the hard fight, but the girl still quickly retrieved their fallen bag of belongings, returning to Anya's side a second later. The girl's expression was troubled as she looked between the dead reapers and the forest around them "Where is Marie now?" she asked in a breathless tone.
Anya shook her head, slight annoyance rising. She did not know how quickly the little girl would have moved through the forest, but taking her hurt ankle into account, she highly doubted that Marie could have made it very far.
"You will search in this direction" Anya briskly ordered, deciding that they would have a higher chance of locating the lost little girl if they split up now, pointing to her left.
Tris nodded immediately and turned on her heel, obviously not even thinking about arguing with her mentor.
Anya kept her sword in hand, just in case there still were other reapers close to them, and tried to pick up the trace the little girl had left. To her utter dismay, she had great difficulties in locating Marie's trace, the child was light and most of the plants on which she had stepped carelessly in her hast already had stood up again, hiding the girl's steps efficiently.
She hoped that the little girl had not encountered reapers, Mountain Men or any predators. Lexa would surely be furious with her if something had happened to her new protegee under her new watch.
Marie threw another glance back over her shoulder, somehow hoping that Anya or Tris would appear out of nowhere. She did not want to return to the dropship with Clarke and Bellamy. She only noticed the pulsing painful sensation travelling up from her ankle through her leg now that she had stopped moving for a few moments and her frown turned into a slightly pained grimace.
Clarke had watched the younger girl and was confused at Marie's antics. It was obvious that Marie seemed to be looking for someone. She had of course also noticed the changed appearance of the little girl and concluded herself that Marie must have been with other humans. It made her question though what they thought to know about the other survivors of the end of the old world. Maybe the grounders were not hostile at all and the attack on Jasper had been some sort of misunderstanding? But she was not able to spin a scenario within her mind in which it was warranted that Jasper had been used as bait by the grounders afterwards. It worried her though that the little girl was clearly in some form of pain now. "Where does it hurt?" Clarke asked the child in a gentle tone, crouching down in front of her again.
Bellamy huffed slightly under his breath, casting worried glances around them. He was not convinced at all that just because the grounders had obviously not killed Marie, that they would let himself and Clarke live as well.
"My foot" Marie exclaimed in a slightly whiny tone, holding it towards Clarke with a little sniffle.
"Have you twisted it while running here?" Clarke inquired and reached out to inspect the girl's limp. She frowned though when she noticed that it was already bandaged and it seemed to have been done thoroughly as well. So, the grounders had not only sheltered and fed the little girl, but obviously also granted her medical care. Could they really be mistaken about their intentions?
Marie shook her head "Fell f'om a t'ee" she relayed shortly what had happened to her earlier.
Clarke and Bellamy both looked around them, now paying more attention to the trees above their head and both could not shake the feeling off at being watched from invisible eyes hidden between the leaves of the trees.
"We should get going" Bellamy repeated, voice getting firmer, as his dark eyes still searched around them.
Marie's pained grimace turned into a pout and she shook her head "Wanna get back to Lexa" she intoned vehemently, grey eyes steeling over a fraction.
Clarke sighed under her breath. They had no way of finding out how close whoever had been with Marie before was now and she would definitely not leave the little girl alone in the forest, even less so that it was slowly but surely darkening around them as the sunset began. "You cannot stay alone here, Marie" she tried to reason with the blonde child in a gentle tone. She still remembered her mother's words telling her to keep personal watch on their youngest delinquent. She still found it horribly unfair that Marie had ended up on the drop ship and she would give the council a piece of mind about it, if she could.
Marie looked up mutely at Clarke, grey eyes pleading and shimmering suspiciously as if the little girl could burst out into tears at any moment.
"We do not have time for this" Bellamy muttered under his breath. He knew from his own experience from dealing with his younger sister, that gentleness and understanding was not always the way to go and that sometimes you had to be strict with a young child to make them obey. So, directly looked at Marie now with a firm expression on his features "We are leaving now, Marie" he told the little girl in a tone which rung with finality "and you are coming with us." His tone only softened slightly when he asked "Can you walk or do you need help?"
Marie furrowed her brows, but she shook her head in denial to the question. She knew this tone well from her mother. Her mother rarely had had to use it with her, but whenever she had, she had known that her mother would not take any further nonsense from her. She did not want to be carried by Bellamy or Clarke and she hoped that she would be able to keep up with them. Internally, she was hoping that she might get the chance to turn around and seek for Anya and Tris instead. What would happen though if Anya and Tris had not won this fight? Would Lexa send someone to search for her? Or even search for her in person?
Clarke had refrained from stopping Bellamy. She knew that the boy had the most experience in dealing with a younger child and it seemed to be working and the older boy was right, they really needed to get going.
After a little while of searching almost blindly through the forest, Anya fortunately did locate an actual trail which must have been made by Marie. The little girl had obviously stepped onto a slightly muddier path and left distinct small boot prints behind.
The general tightened the grip on her sword when she heard voices in front of her only slightly ahead. She crept closer carefully without making sounds herself. She knew that Marie would not be speaking with herself and if she was not mistaken than she was picking up a male voice. It was possible that the little girl had encountered some people who had fallen from the sky with her. Anya frowned slightly in growing frustration. If she attacked them with Marie in the way, there was a real possibility of the child getting hurt. She would need to observe them first.
In the meantime, Tris had crossed the complete way back to TonDC. She had not picked up any traces of Marie leading back to the village, although she had easily spotted the exact way again on which they had left the village together earlier. The bag with all the things she had packed for their planned bath was getting heavy and she wanted to get rid of it in the general's tent, before she would turn back and try to locate Anya again. The general had not given her any clear orders on how she should proceed if she did not find Marie, but she wanted to help in finding the little girl. The child had appeared to be of a sweet nature so far and she knew that the commander had sort of officially taken over care of her, so, it would probably be regarded as very important that Marie returned to them unharmed.
Tris entered TonDC quickly, aiming directly for the general's tent to store their bag. She had not expected to run into the commander though. The woman was dressed in her usual commander regalia and Tris felt her heart beat a little faster. How should she explain that she had returned alone to the village?
Lexa immediately knew that something was not right by the way Anya's second reacted to spotting her in her path. She had been on the way to the communal hall to speak with Indra, but she detoured now and stepped directly in front of Tris. The girl barely reached her shoulder in heights and she was visibly nervous. It was obvious that the girl was alone and she quickly spotted the bleeding gash on one of her arms. Now that she looked closer at the girl, she noticed how dishevelled she looked and she had definitely not taken a bath like Anya had planned. Lexa quickly cast a glance over her shoulder, looking out if Anya might have just sent her second ahead, walking more slowly with Marie in tow.
The commander's expression was unreadable when her gaze returned to Tris as there had been no sign of Anya and Marie. "What happened?" the woman inquired in a brisk tone. Uncharacteristically, she could already feel her heartbeat quickening slightly and her stomach coiled in anticipation. It was obvious that something must have happened on the way to the stream to Anya, her second and Marie and the fact that Tris had returned alone to TonDC did not sit well with her at all. "Where are Anya and Marie?" she added when the girl failed to answer after a moment.
Tris opened and closer her mouth a few times without a sound coming out and her hand holding onto the strap of the bag, balled to a fist nervously as she felt beads of sweat form on her brow. She tried to avert her eyes from the commander, but she felt her green eyes almost burning through her with their intensity "We…we… we encountered reapers" she finally brought out, shuffling with her feet and barely able to meet her leader's intense stare. She swallowed forcefully when she spotted the tightening of the woman's jaw and she waited with a baited breath for the reaction of the commander.
Lexa felt her heart nearly drop into her stomach as a few horror scenarios flashed up in front of her eyes. "Where?" she finally ground out through clenched teeth a long moment later. Her mind had switched from trying to make up scenarios of what had happened, to planning quickly what needed to be done to organise a search for Marie and the general.
Tris quickly tried to explain to the commander where they had encountered the reapers and she tried to answer the commander's next questions as clearly as possible, nearly having to run to keep up with the woman walking through TonDC very briskly in the direction of the commander's tent.
