Previously in chapter 273

The journey to Arkadia begins.

Chapter 274

Exactly like Marie already had expected, the night was extremely short. It felt to her as if she had just closed her eyes and peacefully drifted off, surrounded by the warmth of both of her mums, when Anya already slightly shook her shoulder again to rouse her.

Marie groaned under her breath, as she pulled the fur which she had used as a cover through the night over her face.

Anya looked down at their daughter with a shake of her head. Both, she and Lexa, had already gotten up and were dressed again to continue their journey. She had wanted to immediately wake the blonde girl, but Lexa had wanted to let her sleep just a little while longer instead.

"Don't wanna get up yet" Marie grumbled. Her voice was heavily muffled from the fur covering her face.

"Enough now" Anya proclaimed in a strong tone. The general waited for a few moments and when Marie obviously had no intention to get up, she bent down and roughly tugged at the fur covering the child.

Although Marie obviously tried to keep a hold on the fur, Anya's tug was much stronger and a moment later, Marie sat up with a grimace on her features. "Mama!" the girl exclaimed in a reproachful tone, crossing her arms over her chest.

Anya did not pay the girl's attitude any real mind though. The general folded the fur together and stored it into a bag. When the girl still had not moved from her spot and was glaring slightly at her, Anya just threw the girl's shirt at her, hitting her right in the face, and said "Get ready. We leave soon" before swiftly exiting the tent.

Marie was still grumbling something under her breath, stretching herself and slowly pulling the shirt on, when Lexa entered the tent a few moments later.

"Good morning, sleepyhead" the commander greeted their daughter in a kind tone and a soft smile graced her features.

Marie's grimace was interrupted by her having yawn deeply. She sighed once, before she lightly smiled at Lexa "Morning, mommy" she finally reciprocated the commander's greeting words. She got to her feet a few seconds later, grimacing a little at the tightness of the muscles of her thighs. She was not used yet to riding such long distances and she found that guiding a horse herself required much more muscles than just sitting on one and letting one of her mums do the "work".

"Are you in pain?" Lexa inquired immediately having watched the child from the corner of her eyes and noticing the change of her grimace from slight annoyance to a hint of pain.

Marie slightly shrug her shoulders "Not really, think it's just a muscle ache from riding" she explained when Lexa raised a brow at her.

Lexa inclined her head in acknowledgment. She would remember to give the girl a massage during the next evening which would relieve most of her pains or at least prevent further pain from forming.

"Is there any breakfast?" Marie asked in an almost hopeful tone as she quickly splashed some cold water into her face. She left her hair just like it was after having felt that it still seemed to be pretty much in order.

Lexa shook her head though. Most of the camp had already been broken down by now. "You can have some bread on your horse" she suggested. As soon as they had left the capitol, Lexa's worry about what was going on in Arkadia had risen and she wanted to get there as soon as possible. A small part of her also could not stop herself from worrying over Clarke. What if the blonde healer was in danger from her own people now? She also knew that a few of her own people – members of Trikru villages surrounding Arkadia – were frequent visitors to the Skykru's settlement.

The flamekeeper and those who served in this guild had always kept their eyes and ears open for an appearance of the commander's symbol somewhere. Unfortunately, during the many years which had passed since the first commander reigned, it was forgotten by now just what this appearance could mean. Her sense of foreboding told Lexa though that it was nothing good. And of course, it yet again had to be Skykru who were associated with this appearance.

"Hi, girl" Marie greeting her wolf with a smile and ruffling the animal's fur, interrupted Lexa's thoughts and the commander focused on getting her belongings ready again instead.

"Marie, get dressed" Lexa gently reprimanded the child, when Marie laid down again on the residual furs, this time with the wolf.

Marie sighed again, but obediently got up, only frowning mildly.

"Are you not exited to meet Maura again?" Lexa asked, trying to lighten the child's obviously glum mood.

Just as she hoped, Marie's features lightened up immediately at the mention of her friend and the girl nodded excitedly "Oh yes, of course" she agreed in a cheery tone and all tiredness was forgotten instantly, instead the girl launched into loudly proclaiming her thoughts about all that she wanted to do together with Maura once they reached Arkadia.

"…oh, I really wanna go to the stream close to Arkadia with" Marie continued to chat happily.

Lexa was only listening casually. She was happy for her daughter that the girl was so enthusiastic about their little journey, but she honestly highly doubted that this visit would go over as peacefully as Marie was imagining it now.

"Do you think Maura can swim?" Marie mused thoughtfully. The child had continued to chat excitedly while getting ready and was still speaking when they were all mounting their horses.

"Eat, Marie" Anya threw in from the side, passing over a piece of bread to the girl.

Lexa slightly rolled her eyes, hidden both from Anya and their daughter. She was fairly certain that the general was just giving the girl something to eat, to shut her up for a little while.

Marie took the bread and took a bite, but she was looking back and forth between the commander and general, waiting for an answer to her question. When both remained silent and just kicked their horses into a slow trot, the corners of Marie's mouth fell. "And?" she checked in an expectant tone.

"And what?" Anya finally retorted, glancing over to the blonde child for a moment before her brown eyes returned to scanning their surroundings.

Marie narrowed her eyes at the general, noticing that the woman had indeed not listened to her. She sulked for a few moments, before she looked over to Lexa, hoping that at least the commander had payed attention to her.

Lexa met the child's grey-eyed gaze before she inclined her head "You will see if Maura can swim or not. I know that a few of the Trikru are regular visitors to Arkadia, so, someone can have taught her to swim by now. Why?".

Marie momentarily glared at Anya, before she turned her full attention to Lexa and her features were illuminated by a bright smile again "'cause I wanna show her a few of the tricks I learned from Adria" she informed the commander. She spent the next few minutes in depths trying to remind Lexa of just what tricks she was thinking.

Lexa patiently listened to their daughter enumerate just about any trick Luna's daughter had taught to her while they had stayed with the Boat People, she nodded along from time to time and Marie seemed content like that.

Anya had just rolled her eyes at the child's sulk before and did not even try to listen. The general noticed though how amused Gustus appeared from the whole scene, riding just on the other side of the commander. She internally wondered if their daughter had enough plans about what she wanted to do with Maura, to keep the talk going on for the rest of their journey.

Lexa let the girl talk for a long time, before she finally put a stop to the child's seemingly never-ending chatter about what she all could do with Maura. She directed the young girl's attention back to their surroundings, asking her to keep her ears open to bird calls. "Can you identify now if those are real birds or scouts communicating?" she asked their daughter. She had formulated the question in a way which would surely daunt the girl to show off her skill now and keep her occupied for a while.

Indeed, Marie fell silent immediately and a focused look appeared on her features. Her grey eyes first scanned their surroundings as well, looking up at the sky if she could spot any birds flying around at all or not.

Once Marie seemed to have grown tired of trying to listen out for bird calls, Anya asked the child to point out the different trees and plants they were crossing. If Marie got the names they used right, she also wanted to know if they could be eaten or if they had known uses as medical plants. Although the general herself had never put much effort into learning about the medical properties of plants, Marie had shown interest in that and she knew that Clarke had taught their daughter a lot about it.

"You have payed good attention to all of what Clarke told you" Lexa acknowledged after a while. Her education to become commander had not really contained any part of healing and she was impressed that Marie seemed to have absorbed this kind of knowledge so quickly. It may be of interest to their daughter to help the healers in Polis as well. Clarke had only been on earth for a short while and had very limited knowledge of the current vegetation, so, one of their own healers could impart a lot of additional information on the child. The girl's healing talent did not work on everyone and still it was in her character to help other people and she did not want to watch others in pain.

Marie looked very proud at the praise.

"Do you think Nyko will also be in Arkadia?" Marie asked suddenly in interest.

Lexa was not sure about the answer though. She knew that Clarke's mother had worked together with the Trikru healer, exchanging knowledge between both clans. Skykru had offered to teach other healers from all clans who were interested in learning about their ways of healing, but she knew that so far only Trikru healers had taken up this offer, strongly encouraged by herself.

"He may be, yes" she answered vaguely.

Marie inclined her head with a thoughtful expression.

They continued their ride through the forest at a much quicker pace than during the previous night.

Marie could watch the time passing as the sun changed its position over the trees and the tightness in her thigh muscles was slowly morphing into distinct pain. Although she had seen a map of the lands between Polis and Arkadia, Marie currently had no clue as to how long their journey would still continue before the finally reached their destination.

She counted it as a blessing though that the weather was graceful on them. It was dry and the sky clear and neither was it too warm nor too cold for once.

"How long until we are there?" she asked after another while. Her thighs were hurting and her but was also starting to hurt to be honest from sitting in the saddle so much.

"A while" Anya answered nonchalantly.

"How long is "a while"?" Marie checked, tilting her head a little the side, like she always did when she wanted to understand something.

Anya rolled her eyes at the blonde girl "You will know when we are there" she commented drily.

Marie pouted visibly and her lower lip protruded at the even snappy answer.

"Mommy?" Marie seemed to have changed her tactic after a few moments, the pout had left her face and she had a sweet expression on her features now.

Lexa looked over towards their daughter with a raised brow. The commander shortly met her former firsts' gaze, the general appeared mildly affronted in fact.

"When will be in Arkadia?" Marie asked in an innocent tone, giving the commander a charming smile.

"Soon, little star" Lexa answered easily but kept it vague on purpose "Do you need a break?" she inquired after a few seconds had passed in silence and the blonde child's expression had fallen visibly.

Marie sighed under her breath and she grimaced when she slightly stretched out her legs, removing her feet from the stirrups for a moment "My legs hurt…" she exclaimed and her tone turned slightly whiny when she added "…and my bum as well".

Lexa chuckled slightly under her breath "It will still take a while before we will reach Arkadia, but I have not planned a long break now".

"Can we make a short one then?" Marie asked in an almost pleading tone and she lowered her tone noticeably before she added "I gotto pee as well".

Lexa inclined her head in agreement. She was not sure if the girl just wanted to stall for time, but Marie should have enough experience with riding now to know that dismounting, walking around a few moments and then having to get back on the horse, would actually just intensify the pain she felt now.

The commander called the whole group to a stop and dismounted her own horse. She wisely had stepped closer to Marie and her horse and she was not really surprised that the girl's legs gave away under her once she dismounted with a little bit too much force. She quickly steadied the girl and waited for a few seconds. She knew all too well that Marie's legs would be tingling horribly right now and the girl would need a little bit of time before she would be able to walk straight.

"Ouch…" Marie grumbled under her breath when Lexa's steadying hands fell away and she stepped towards a patch of denser trees around them, intending to relieve herself behind one of them. Her legs felt horrible. The slight tingling sensation had flared up into real pain and she felt as if she was walking on some sort of muddy ground.

Marie more or less scuttled behind the trees after a few moments. She noticed that Risha had followed her as well and the wolf was sniffing around in interest.

She hurried to relieve herself as crouching down to do so actually hurt like hell. Marie had to steady herself against a tree trunk as she carefully got up again and she bit back a groan of pain. She really hoped that the rest of their trip would not take too long now and she hoped that Abby would maybe have something to help her with the pain. She knew from the rough training of the royal guard from the Ice Queen that muscle aches just intensified before they got better without any kind of treatment. She would absolutely hate it, if her first day back at Arkadia would go to waste because she would not be able to move around as she wanted.

Marie saw that Risha must have found a track of interest and the wolf left out a slight growl, before moving away from the rest of their group.

Marie frowned behind the wolf, torn for a moment if she should try to follow Risha and call the wolf back or if she was supposed to directly return to her mums and the other warriors. After the wolf had left for several hours last night, Marie felt more inclined to follow her pet now. It was not dark after all now, so, Marie regarded all precaution, even forgetting to call out to Lexa or Anya, and just hurried behind Risha – as fast her smarting legs allowed – before the wolf could fully disappear from her view.

In her hurry, to follow the wolf, Marie was not paying as much attention to her steps and the ground beneath her feet, as she should have and promptly slipped. She braced herself on her hands and knees, scrapping open both her palms. She looked down at herself in annoyance when she noticed that she also had destroyed the trousers and she could see blood shimmering on the skin of her right knee.

Now, that Marie had already left behind the others, she was focused on spotting Risha again though and she quickly hurried in the direction in which she thought that the wolf had disappeared.

Marie came to an abrupt halt, when she heard a growl. She relaxed just a fraction when she identified the source of the growl as Risha. One of her hands had closed around the handle of Lexa's dagger which was strapped to her thigh almost automatically by now.

She remained standing where she was for a moment in confusion, indecisive on what to do. The wolf was standing there, growling at two people. Weirdly, they showed absolutely no reaction to the animal.

Marie would have expected them to be dead, if they were not kneeling in a perfectly straight pose on the ground. They sat facing each other, but their eyes were closed. From the clothes they were wearing, Marie guessed that it actually were Skykru as well. Although she could recognize that the jackets could also be Trikru. But she could not spot any visible tattoos. So, if they were Trikru, they were not recognizable as warriors, as most had some visible tattoos.

"Risha!" she called in a low tone, trying to catch the animal's attention. Marie was not sure why, but the scene was creeping her out. It was unnatural to sit so straight and also very stupid not to react to the growling of a predator close by. She could not understand why they were acting this way.

In the distance, Marie suddenly heard voices shouting and she bit her lips in guilt. Obviously, her disappearance had been noticed and she already felt her stomach knot together. Anya would be livid that she had left to run behind Risha without telling them.

Gladly, Risha finally seemed to listen to her and trotted back to her "You got me in trouble" she told the wolf in a reproachful tone.

Marie turned from the two strangers after another moment. They had not moved a single inch as far as she could tell. She quickly forgot about them, when she distinctly heard her name being called.

Anya and Lexa had stayed with their horses, while a few others of their group had also taken the chance to relive their selves. Once everyone had returned, it was obvious that Marie was not back yet.

Lexa let go of her reigns with a sigh and just told Anya and the others to wait. She had seen after all where their daughter had vanished between the trees.

Lexa frowned though when she crossed the small distance and there was absolutely no sign of the blonde child. For a moment she felt her stomach sink and rising panic, when her mind concluded that they had once again lost the girl. Before she just followed the clear tracks, Marie had left behind, Lexa hurriedly turned around.

"She is not there" Lexa loudly proclaimed towards Anya and Gustus, trying to keep control on her internal panic.

"Oh, I am going to wring her neck myself" Anya muttered under her breath. The general was not overly worried yet, she had seen the wolf leave together with Marie and she could already imagine that Marie had just followed her pet wolf somewhere without even wasting a single thought about telling them "It is worse than watching a bag of fleas!" she still grumbled.

Lexa ordered the group of warriors to wait with the horses, only Gustus and Anya followed her, as they quickly began to look for their lost daughter.

It did not take Lexa long to spot the place where Marie must have fallen down and she frowned when her fingers came up from the ground slightly bloody. Her heart began to pound quicker. What if someone had just waited for Marie to separate from them to seize her?

Lexa forcefully put a stop to this intrusive thought, her warriors would have noticed if anyone had followed them on their journey from Polis.

"Marie!" Anya and Lexa shouted loudly in exchange. The girl had not been overly cautious on her way obviously and her tracks were easy to follow.

"I am here" a hurried voice answered one of their calls finally.

Lexa just felt relieve flooding her whole system and all she wanted to do now, was encase the girl in her arms and check her over. She had found blood after all.

Anya's expression though had turned angry and the general surpassed the commander, stepping into her path directly and the older woman towered over Marie once the girl finally appeared in front of them.

"I hope you have a very good explanation" Anya said to the child in a sharp tone, looking down at her with a hard and strict expression.

Marie opened and closed her mouth for a few seconds, before she slightly shook her head and one of her hands had fallen down on the wolf's head next to her "Risha had run away…" she feebly admitted, lowering her eyes immediately.

Anya's expression now openly showed her anger at the child "Of course and it did not even cross your mind to come back to us, stupidly chasing your wolf alone instead" the general ranted at the girl.

Marie seemed to shrink in size being faced with the livid woman, but she knew deep-down that she very well deserved this scolding now. She doubted though that it would be wise to say that she had thought first about going back.

Anya continued to almost relentlessly scold their daughter. This was not the first time after all that Marie had completely disregarded her own safety and neither the first time that the child had gotten lost.

"I have not gotten harmed though" Marie feebly tried to appease the general, hoping that the woman would run out of things to throw at her soon.

Anya raised a brow at the girl, pressing her lips into a thin angry scowl for a moment.

Marie quickly closed her mouth again and hid her hands behind her back.

Lexa finally put a stop to all of it though, appearing behind Anya and shaking her head at the older woman. "Are you hurt?" she questioned the child, voice still tinted strongly with worry.

Marie immediately shook her head in denial "Just a few scratches" she assured her and obediently showed her palms and knees to the commander.

"These need to be cleaned out before we can continue" Lexa finally assessed. She knew that Anya internally was still seething, but she hoped that Marie would really soon learn to use common sense in such situations.