Chapter 20

After the baby had finished eating, it was obvious that the child was in a good mood again and although full of energy after her earlier nap.

Marie wiggled in Lexa's lap to be let down from the table and once the commander carefully hoisted the child on the ground next to her, Marie began to crawl through the tent.

Lexa and Anya both watched the little girl move through the tent in silence for long moments.

Marie randomly picked anything up from the ground which she could find, inspecting the item – no matter if it was a shoe, an item of clothing or even a dagger – before she let them drop down again and moved on.

Once the baby picked up the dagger, Anya's brows furrowed "You will need to keep everything even more in order now". Both of them were ready to jump up any second, in case the toddler would manage to get the dagger out of its sheath, but Marie lost interest in it, before she could harm herself with the blade.

The next thing Marie spotted on the ground though, could be dangerous in another way. The little girl had found one of the beads Lexa wore as accessories in her hair. Her little fingers rolled it around a few moments, before she pulled it to her mouth in her small fist.

Anya had just seen something glistening in the baby's fist before Marie was already chewing on whatever she had picked up. The general quickly got up and carefully hoisted the child up from the ground, tilting her head forward so that she hopefully would not swallow what was in her mouth.

"Come on, little one, spit it out" Anya tried to command the baby in a hopeful tone.

Marie just blinked at the general in confusion though, of course, not opening her mouth.

Anya grimaced slightly as she reached out, trying to open the child's mouth as gentle as possible. It thankfully only took her a few second to fish the little item out between the baby's pouty lips. She grimaced again though when she looked at her hand now, distinctly wanting to wash it at once.

"You definitely need to make your tent toddler-proof" Anya said, handing over the squirming baby to the commander as she got up to clean her fingers.

Lexa did not have time to do that now though.

Shouts suddenly resonated outside of the tent. Lexa adjusted her grip on the baby, much to Marie's dislike who obviously wanted to be placed on the ground again, and went outside to see what was going on.

A few of the inhabitants of TonDC were pointing at the sky, while others seemed in a hurry to start barricading as few buildings as possible.

Lexa quickly turned around again. She knew what it meant that the sky was pitch black in the distance. A strong storm was on the way towards the village and the villagers always sought shelter in the caves close to the woods in these instances, which happened often during this time of the year.

Anya was just drying off her hands and looking at Lexa in silent question.

"A storm will hit the village soon" Lexa proclaimed, carrying Marie over to the bed and shortly placing her on it.

Behind her, the tent flap was pushed open again and Alira entered "Commander, what do you need to me to do?" the handmaid asked respectfully.

But Lexa shook her head, there was nothing in her tent which needed to be saved. She did ask the handmaid though to ready a bag with a few things for the baby.

Just now, a loud crack of thunder, followed by lightening was the first sign of the storm, before sudden strong rain started to splatter against the material of the tent.

Marie had crawled around the bed at first until she had reached her little lamb toy. Once the thunder struck, the baby's grey eyes were wide as she looked around in a mixture of confusion and fear.

Lexa highly doubted that the baby had experienced a strong storm yet and the little girl's immediate reaction confirmed that suspicion.

Alira also quickly readied a pair of furs and clothing for the commander while she was at it.

Anya had stepped over to the bed and pulled the little girl into her arms, before the baby could start wailing. The little girl's lower lip had already been trembling and she shrieked in frightened surprise when another loud bout of thunder resonated outside.

Tris appeared in the entrance to the commander's tent, already carrying a bag of her own, knowing full well on how to prepare alone.

It took them only a few moments to get ready.

Lexa's horse had not been set free from TonDC yet, so, they decided that Lexa would carry the baby with her on the horse, while Anya and Tris followed by foot.

Lexa mounted her mare while Alira stood next to the horse, holding the little girl who still just appeared scared by what was going on around her. Once the handmaid handed the baby over to her, the commander used her red sash to wrap around the baby's small body, fastening the girl in a secure sling to her front.

Marie seemed to be quite happy about her placement though and Lexa felt the baby's chubby fingers taking a hold of the collar of her shirt only a few moments later.

Lexa kicked her horse into motion, feeling the rain beating down on them relentlessly. She tried to cover as much of the baby as possible, but she could already imagine that the little girl would still surely get soaked before they reached the safety of the caves.

The way to the caves thankfully was over quickly as they did not have to walk. In front of the cave, Lexa carefully dismounted, keeping hold of the little girl's body beneath her red sash. She grimaced slightly when she realized just how wet the material had gotten. Somehow, she highly doubted that the child's body could fight off a sickness easily.

She pushed the wet material away from the little girl's face. Marie's little fingers were still holding onto the collar of her shirt and she was looking up at the commander with wide grey eyes.

Lexa let go of horse's reigns and let her horse disappear into the woods, trusting that it would seek shelter on its own and also return again once the storm had passed the area hopefully by morning of the following day.

She walked over to the caves and entered one of them where Gustus was already waiting for her.

Marie had taken up to suck on one of her thumbs again in the meantime.

Lexa was thankful to notice that the things which Alira had packed into a bag for them were still dry.

So, she could lay out a fur and place the baby on it. Lexa quickly tried to get the baby out of her wet clothes, which did not seem to be really to Marie's liking.

The little girl was frowning heavily and every time Lexa lightly pushed her to lie down on her back, she turned around on her hands and knees and tried to crawl away.

Lexa was slowly losing her patience with the little girl as she wanted to get her fully dried off. She halted though when Marie started to giggle, obviously having spotted something of interest.

She had not reached out in time though and the baby began to crawl right through the cave naked as she was born.

Marie must have spotted Anya and Tris entering the cave and she obviously wanted to get into their direction.

Anya intercepted the baby before she could reach the fire which had been lighted in the middle of the cave.

"Hello, little one, are you happy to see me?" the general greeted the baby enthusiastically. She bent down and took her up from the ground "You are wet, little one" she assessed critically, noticing how her blonde locks stuck to her round features and how damp her skin still felt, as she brought the baby back to the commander.