Chapter 41
Anya found it quiet amusing to observe Marie telling Lexa about her little excitement with following the butterfly. It was absolutely clear that the child had a wrong perception of the dangers of the forest.
Although Lexa was smiling and nodding at the child animatedly telling her the story of her little adventure, Anya did not miss the quick worried glance her former second threw in her direction, Marie did miss it completely though.
Their own children at Marie's age already knew about the numerous dangers surrounding them and Marie would need to learn about them soon as well.
Thankfully Marie remained relatively quiet and easy to handle during the rest of the ride even though the child did not fall asleep again. The girl appeared fascinated by their surroundings and her wide grey eyes flitted over the trees they bypassed continuously.
Lexa kept the girl securely in place even when Marie tried to stretch out and pluck a leave from a twig hanging particularly low. The girl giggled when she missed the leaves and the branch softly brushed over her hair.
Marie turned completely silent as soon as they arrived at Indra's camp. The dark-skinned warrior already awaited their arrival and Marie was obviously intimidated by the woman.
Lexa wanted to speak to Markus Kane as soon as possible. She planned to have the man brought to the border of the invaders' settlement so that he could already proclaim that she wished to speak to the invaders' leader upon her arrival.
So, Anya ended up alone with Marie for a while. A large tent had already been prepared for the commander and they had both almost mutely agreed that the general would continue to reside with them for the time being.
Marie was fidgety though while Anya tried to get the child to eat something.
"Marie, Lexa will come back soon" Anya kept her tone friendly, but she was trying to hold on to her patience. The girl did not seem interested in the food in front of her at all and she had insisted on keeping her toy wolf sitting on an extra chair next to her.
The child thus far had only been pushing the food around on her plate and Anya saw that she had already pushed a few smaller items from her plate as well in the process.
The child's handling of her utensils was clumsy at best, but Marie had protested immediately when Anya offered to help her.
Anya sighed under her breath, when Marie finally managed to get some food onto her spoon, but instead of eating it herself, the little blonde girl brought it over to the wolf plushie.
"Wolf, hung'y, too" Marie exclaimed in a high-pitched tone when she noticed how Anya was watching her with a slight disparaging expression.
"Of course" Anya retorted trying not to roll her eyes at this non-sense "are you not hungry?" she added in a questioning tone.
Marie honestly seemed to have to think about that question for a moment, before she just shrugged and smiled widely, beginning to finally duck in with gusto as if she was nearly starving.
Anya blinked in astonishment as she watched the girl now literally shovel down the food.
Lexa joined them some time later after she had spoken with Markus Kane. The dark-haired man had appeared absolutely relieved to hear that he would be able to tell his people that there would be talks about peace between both of their people.
Marie immediately stopped in the middle of her playing once Lexa entered the tent, smiling brightly at the commander and exclaiming a loud joyful "mommy!".
The girl jumped up from her chair, hurrying over to Lexa. Right in front of the woman though, the child seemed to trip over her own feet. Lexa was just quick enough to catch the girl and pull her up into her arms, twirling her around once, eliciting a loud giggle from the blonde child.
The meeting with the Sky people would take place tomorrow. Anya and Lexa both knew that it was important that they made peace to bring down the Mountain together.
Marie of course did not know anything about what was going on. The child thus kept of them occupied for a few more hours. As the blonde girl had slept through part of their journey, she was full of excess energy now and although it was starting to get late, there was no thinking of trying to put her to bed.
"No ti'ed" Marie argued in a whiny tone when Lexa finally tried to get the child ready for bed "Play mo'e" the girl said, moving away from Lexa when the commander wanted to put her into her sleeping clothes.
Anya shook her head at the girl's antics, standing up from her cot of furs and trying to intercept the child.
Marie did see this as a game now though, trying to run away from the general with a shrill laugh.
Lexa was simply watching Anya's look of puzzlement at Marie actually running away from her grasp with an amused smile. She was amazed actually when Anya did not react annoyed, but instead seemed to accept this kind of game, slowly following behind the child "Going to get you".
Marie squealed joyfully at that, running around the table in the middle of the tent, looking over her shoulder a few times, checking that the general was still trying to catch her.
Lexa knew that Anya of course could have already caught the child easily and was only humouring her, but it was another kind of heart warming to see her former mentor just play for a moment freely with the little child although both of them were a little uneasy about the upcoming day. Having the girl with them here now, was diverting both of their minds.
Lexa was not sure yet if it would be wise to take the girl to the meeting tomorrow, but it seemed that Marie indeed preferred to be within her vicinity. The Sky people would know by now that Marie was with them now.
