Chapter 21
When Marie woke up again the next time, she was disoriented for a moment. She needed only a few seconds to notice that she was lying within a comfortable bed and was covered with a soft fur. She blinked her eyes a few times, rubbing at them with her fists for a moment, before she sat up under the fur, keeping the fluffy material wrapped around herself, not wanting to lose the comfortable warmth yet.
Only a slight bit of light filtered into the tent, so Marie concluded that it was still dim outside. A shiver ran through her frame, when the memories of what had happened last night returned to her mind and Marie felt her heart beating a little faster as she vividly remembered the reapers attacking them. Marie was fairly certain that she would not forget their distorted faces any time soon.
Her fervently beating heart calmed immediately, once she turned her head to the side and spotted Lexa sitting at a table. It appeared as if the young woman must have taken a bath not long ago and her hair was still without their usual braids, falling down her back in wild brown waves. Marie had not yet seen her in this state and her mouth pulled into a smile, the commander looked much softer now.
Marie sniffed at the air around her, picking up the smell of the tea standing in front of Lexa. The air within the tent was also still heavy and moist with the smell of the oils within Lexa's bathing water.
Lexa turned in her spot at the sound the child had made and gave her a soft smile in greeting. She had slept beside the little girl and Marie had once again cuddled to her in her sleep and Lexa herself had also rested more peacefully than she usually did, being comforted by the little girl's presence.
"Did you sleep well, little one?" Lexa addressed the girl in a calm tone, giving her a soft smile.
Marie's smile broadened a little as she nodded her head in agreement to the woman's question. "You came to get me" she said after a second, grey eyes shining.
Lexa looked at the young blonde girl with a caring expression, reaching out and pulling the child gently into her lap. She softly brushed a lock of blonde hair out of her roundish features "I will keep you protected" she gravely promised Marie with a serious undertone to her voice.
Marie looked up at the young woman with trusting grey eyes and their gazes connected for long silent moments.
Their private peacefulness was disrupted when Gustus proclaimed Anya's arrival at the entrance to the commander's tent.
Marie gave a slight jump at the burly guard's voice calling out all of a sudden. She was not used to the fact yet that the commander was always guarded and never truly alone. Her prior relaxed expression turned alarmed and she pressed herself tightly to Lexa's stomach, hiding her face against the woman's shirt shily.
Lexa raised a brow at the girl's overly anxious behaviour, but she did not make a comment on it, instead she reached an arm around the girl's little body, pulling her even closer to herself, before she called out to Gustus to let Anya enter.
The general strode into the commander's tent a second later, already dressed for the impending battle. They had decided that Anya would lead a relatively small force of their warriors to the camp of the invaders. Neither of them expected the children from the sky to be able to efficiently fight back, even they obviously now had more weapons at their hands. From what Marie had told them, it was highly unlikely that any of the older children had received any efficient training in how to handle and shoot with their newly obtained weapons. They would definitely not possess any military strategical knowledge and should be easy to subdue.
The general furrowed her brow in obvious confusion at the little girl's position on her former second's lap. Anya had been intensely relieved that Marie had not been seriously harmed last night, she knew that they had all in all been lucky in that regard.
"The troop is ready to march" she proclaimed, nodding her head at the younger woman.
Lexa nodded in agreement with a serious expression, which softened immediately when the little girl within her lap noticeably perked up.
Marie turned her head just the slightest bit, trying to hear who was speaking to Lexa and identifying the person by the voice alone. She had not understood who Gustus had proclaimed earlier. When she recognized Anya out of the corner of her eyes, she finally turned around completely again, letting go of Lexa's shirt and waving softly at the older woman, her expression still shy.
Her grey eyes widened a little when she looked closer at Anya. The general looked different than she had gotten to know her. Her face was smeared with some sort of dark paint and there was a weird looking sort of crown on her head. Marie spotted several weapons gleaming beneath the general's long dark coat and the woman seemed to be wearing a weird kind of armour as well. The general had not looked like this while she had trained Tris or fought with Lexa and Marie internally wondered what was going on.
"I will be expecting your report in a few hours" Lexa finally reacted to the general's original words. She had tried to think of a way which would not result in them having to slaughter all of the invaders. She feared how Marie would react once the little girl learned that they had killed the older children which had landed on earth together with her. She also thought that the older children might be able to offer them more knowledge than Marie could. But after the invaders had burnt down a village and abducted one of their own, torturing Lincoln, the decision had already been made. Lexa knew that her own people would not accept a peace between them on these conditions.
Anya inclined her head towards the brunette, holding her gaze for a short moment, before she gave the little girl a slight soft smile and turned on her heels without another word, leaving the tent.
Marie watched the general leave with obvious confusion on her face "Something w'ong?" she questioned, tilting her head to the side, peering up at Lexa curiously.
Lexa slightly shook her head "Nothing for you to worry about" she reassured the little girl in a firm tone, yet keeping her expression soft.
Marie continued to look at the commander for a moment, before she looked onto the table and noticed a plate with a few things she had already eaten since she had arrived at the grounder village.
Lexa's lips tilted up into the hint of a smile when she noticed Marie's features brightening up with delight. Alira had taken great care in making sure that the things which the little girl had enjoyed were now included on the plates which were delivered into the commander's tent.
The girl seemed to wait for her approval to reach out and take some of the food though and just continued to stare at the food instead in silence, biting at her lower lip while she did so.
Lexa pulled the plate slightly closer to the edge of the table, so that the child should be able to reach it more easily. "You do not need my approval to eat here, Marie" she informed the girl, pointing to the plate once more.
Marie's roundish cheeks pulled into a big smile, before she reached out and immediately grabbed a sweet honey cake.
Lexa rolled her eyes at the little girl starting breakfast with a sweet pastry instead of eating something healthy.
Lexa spend the hours of the morning together with Marie within the commander's tent. She tried teaching the little girl some of their language. If the child was to stay with her, then she needed Trigedasleng to communicate or she would never be able to fit in.
Marie tried to memorize as best as she could what Lexa was trying to teach her. She had great difficulties in trying to mimic the strong and harsh pronunciation of the foreign language, but she did recognize some similarities between the words in Trigedasleng and English.
After a light lunch, Lexa helped Marie dress into slightly warmer clothes and took her out of the commander's tent and walked with her through TonDC in the direction of the meadow where the horses were kept.
Marie waited patiently in front of the enclosure for Lexa. The woman had left her there with the order to remain standing there while she went to get brushes to groom her dark mare.
The horse stood on the other side of fence, already pushing its enormous head towards her and sniffing noisily in her direction.
Marie smiled brightly at the mare, reaching up one of her hands. She had to stand on her toes to be able to just let the very tips of her fingers brush against the horse's velvety nose. She giggled when the horse breathed out and its puff of breath tickled at her fingers.
Lexa appeared behind Marie only a few moments later, two brushes in her hand and Gustus following behind his leader.
Marie accepted one of the brushes silently. She made a slight squealing noise though when Gustus picked her up without forewarning and hoisted her over the fence into Lexa's outstretched arms.
She was only able to reach the horse's legs though and quickly lost the interest in brushing the horse.
So, Lexa passed over her brush to Gustus with a slight incline of her head, signalling the man to take her place instead. It was strictly spoken neither her nor Gustus' task to groom her mare, but she wanted the little girl to spend some time outside of the commander's tent and within the village and the girl clearly showed some affinity to the horses while she otherwise turned very shy with other people around.
She crouched down behind Marie, hoisting the little girl onto her hip, so that the child was perched up high enough to reach her mare's back.
Marie smiled at the commander greatly before she twisted back towards the horse, letting the brush glide over its shiny fur.
"You need to put a little more force into it" the commander remarked after a few moments in a calm tone.
Marie had stopped in her movements, as soon as Lexa had begun to speak and she hesitated visibly for a second before she leaned over more strongly towards the horse and began brushing again with noticeably more strength.
Lexa inclined her head in mute acknowledgement at the child's attempt to follow her order and adjusted her grip on her small body, securing her in place.
It became apparent very quickly though that Marie's muscles began to tire out only after a very short amount of time.
So, Lexa let Marie down again and took the girl's brush for herself. She watched the little girl trot over to a patch of flowers still standing intact on their side of the enclosure.
Marie bend down, carefully plucking a few of the flowers. From the flowers she had picked on the last evening to gift to Lexa, nothing had survived and Bellamy and Clarke had finally made her throw them away while they had fled from Anya and the others.
The flowers here were not as beautiful as those she had picked on the forest with Anya and Tris as there seemed to be fewer species available, but they were still beautiful.
Gustus watched the little girl walk over to the flowers and beginning to pluck them out one by one. He furrowed his brows, wondering why she was doing so.
Marie continued to pick up flowers until she had assorted a bouquet with a nice size. She turned back towards Lexa, a huge grin on her features and she skipped back over towards them.
Lexa turned towards Marie as well.
The little girl had told her last night about the bouquet she had wanted to gift to her and she had soothed her then that the wish to gift her something counted more already than the actual gift and only a few moments later, the child had fallen asleep for good.
Lexa could already see the child stumble before she fell. The bouquet had lost her grip and flowers fell all around her, before Marie had lost her balance. Lexa was not quick enough to catch her and Marie must have tried to balance herself, which only resulted in the little girl falling to the ground face first.
Lexa rushed to the little girl quickly, reaching out and pulling Marie back to her feet. Her green eyes widened when she immediately caught sight of an immense amount of blood on the child's face.
Marie must have fallen right onto a rather rock on the meadow, the only one in sight actually. She felt pain radiating from her mouth and she felt blood on her tongue as well. When she pushed her tongue forwards and noticed that something was in her mouth, she tried to spit it out. Her slightly elated breathing turned erratic when she looked into her hand and beside blood, she spotted what appeared to be tooth within her fist.
