Chapter 5
On the ground
Raven was learning how to dress out a boar. Jake was looking through his backpack and trying to arrange it for a fourth time, Rory was watching as some of the warriors were patching up their spare clothing and Sol was learning to spear fish. She was having fun despite the cold water. She'd gotten the hang of it quite quickly - once she'd taken the refraction of the water into account when aiming for the fish.
She caught six fish and one of the warriors showed her how to gut and prepare them. They took them back to the camp and another warrior took them and started to cook them. Sol sat down and just looked around at everything that was going on. Anya sat down beside her.
"We will be moving on in the morning," Anya said.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to Tondc. We have enough for the feast now."
"And what about us?"
"We want you to come with us. It will be safer than leaving you out here alone. There are mutated animals and other monsters out here." Sol realised that they had gotten incredibly lucky not to have run into any of the predators that must roam the forests around them. Sol nodded her head.
"I think that would be better, Chief. We still don't know the full extent of what happened last time, nor why we were sent down if they didn't want us to contact them to say the ground was survivable."
"I will send a message to the Commander when we reach Tondc."
"The Commander?" asked Sol, turning to look at Anya.
"She is the leader of the twelve clans. Our clan - the Trikru - live around here. The Commander comes from our clan. She is one who also remembers."
"How many remember?"
"Not many. As far as we know, only myself, Indra, the Commander and Lincoln remember."
"Only four?"
"We do not know everyone, but no-one else within our village or the surrounding villages has shown any signs that they remember."
"And you all remember the same things?"
"Yes."
"Well then, after this festival of yours, I think we should sit down and talk it all out. I'm not sure I believe it yet, but if you can predict what's going to happen, then it would help change my mind. I'm not sure about the others. I think Raven may be persuaded as well, but the two adults, not so sure."
"Why?"
"Both were raised on the Ark and have spent their lives being told what to do, how to do it, and living a certain way. Me and Raven are younger and we haven't embraced the Ark way of doing things yet. Most of the Ark kids are like that. I think that's why when you met the 100, they were more flexible in their thinking."
"Maybe," said Anya, sounding doubtful. She looked over to the cooking area and saw that the food was ready. "Let's get some food," she said, getting to her feet. Sol followed her and got her plate of food and sat beside Raven.
"Is this the fish you caught?" asked Raven. Sol looked at her plate.
"I think so," she said.
"You think so?" asked Raven, incredulously.
"Well, they didn't look like this when I caught them," said Sol. They both took a bite and both hummed with pleasure at the taste and texture of the fish.
"Oh, man, I think this is my new favourite," said Raven.
"We've only had rabbit before Raven. You gonna say that about each new food you taste?"
"Probably," said Raven, stuffing another piece in her mouth.
"Oh, yeah, I could get used to this!" Sol agreed. Jake and Rory sat down beside them and both hurriedly started eating the fish.
"Oh wow!" said Rory.
"Oh yeah," said Jake. "This is good!"
All four were quiet as they ate their fish and when they'd eaten it, Anya came over with some of the cooked boar for them.
"Try this," she said, placing a slice onto each of their plates. All four tucked into the juicy slices and all four moaned in appreciation.
"Alright, that's it. No more crap for me!" said Sol. "There's no way I'm gonna go back to eating that crap from the Ark when food this tasty is available," she continued.
"I second that!" said Raven.
"Me too," said Jake.
"Yep," agreed Rory. They were quiet as they finished off their meal. Sol was debating whether or not to have some water. She was thirsty, but if she drank some now, she'd wash away the nice taste of the food. She decided to wait a little longer and savour the taste of the meat some more. They watched as the Trikru set up camp in the little clearing. Sol and Jake set up the tents and they all went to relieve themselves before bedding down for the night.
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On the Ark
Three days later on the Ark and Erin had another visit from Harper who told her all that Monty had found out about Abby and her family. Erin went back to her cell and talked to Octavia about whether to tell Clarke. Through Harper they found out that Clarke was in solitary and decided that she should know that her dad was alive and on the ground. It was the timing that was the problem. They could walk about when one of them had a visitation, but at all other times, they were either locked in their cell, or there were too many other people around to be able to tell her. Neither of them knew who they could trust not to tell the authorities. They decided to wait until Octavia had a visit from Bellamy and Erin would try to make contact with Clarke.
The opportunity arrived the following day when Bellamy visited. Erin waited until the guard had left and she went to the gate separating solitary from the general population. She looked around and there wasn't anyone in the immediate area.
"Clarke!" Erin hissed. No answer.
"Clarke!" she said, louder. Still no answer.
"CLARKE!" she said as loud as she dared.
"Yeah?" she heard in the distance.
"JAKE'S ALIVE ON THE GROUND!" Erin said.
"What?" came the reply. Erin repeated her message.
"Fuck off! My dad was floated!"
"NO HE WASN'T, CLARKE. HE'S ALIVE!"
"Really?"
"YES."
"Does mom know?"
"NO. YOU NEED TO TELL HER AND TELL HER TO KEEP IT QUIET AND TALK TO BELLAMY BLAKE ABOUT IT."
"I will, thank you. What's your name?"
"ERIN ARMSTRONG."
"Thank you."
"BYE, CLARKE.
"Bye, Erin."
That was done. Now she had to wait until Octavia came back and she found out what Bellamy had found out.
Which wasn't much. He hadn't found anything else out. He was trying to find Monty, but with no description to go on, he couldn't just look up anyone called Monty in the Ark. The guards monitored all forms of information requests and that would look suspicious. What would a grown man need to find a schoolkid for?
Erin and Octavia talked about what should be done next. They realised that once Abby knew, there would be four people on the Ark roaming free who knew. They tried to think of a way to get them together to discuss what they knew and what to do about it. Erin, Octavia and Clarke were all locked up and couldn't do much more than pass on information from one to the others. It was something, but not much. Octavia had told Bellamy about Abby not knowing about Jake being alive, and that Erin would tell Clarke. Bellamy had to wait until he knew that Clarke had told her mother and then he would go see her. If he could make contact with Harper and Monty, they could hopefully figure out what was going on.
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A week later Clarke finally got to see her mom. She and Erin had had a few more conversations in the meantime, keeping her in the loop.
"Hey, sweetie," said Abby.
"Hey, mom," Clarke replied. She hugged her mom and waited until the guard had left the cell. He would be standing just outside, but speaking in a normal voice wouldn't be heard. Clarke knew she had to be careful how she told her mom.
"Mom, I've got something to tell you and I don't want you to yell out when I do," Clarke started.
"What is it, honey?" asked Abby, frowning. Clarke got up and sat down next to her mother and leaned her head towards her. Abby mirrored her pose.
"Dad's still alive-" Abby gasped and Clarke immediately put her hand over the mom's mouth. "Shhh!" she whispered into her ear. "You can't make any loud noises or the guards will hear!" Abby pulled her hand away and she looked furious.
"Clarke, you can't just say things like that because you want it to happen!"
"Mom, listen. One of the other prisoners was able to get the info to me. She said that her cellmate's brother found a document that had dad's name on it. A list of people sent to the ground instead of being floated!"
"How do you know it's true?"
"You'd need to find that out yourself, mom, but Erin said her sister went down too."
"Sister?"
"Yeah, she's a second child as is her cellmate. Her sister made a deal with Jaha and Kane - or rather they made a deal with her - if she went to the ground, they'd set Erin free to take her sister's place." Abby thought hard and fast about things.
"The malfunction that sent a craft into space! That was a cover story. Jaha said that they'd sent people down to figure out if the ground was survivable!" Abby said, astonished at the lengths Jaha would go to just to make sure that Abby never knew Jake was still alive. She was pissed!
"Mom! You have to keep calm!" Clarke said, almost pleading with her. She knew the temper her mother had and knew she was also liable to do something that could get them both floated. "When you leave here, find Bellamy Blake. He's the brother of Erin's cellmate. He was the one to find this info. Also there are two others who know something's up. Harper McIntryre and Monty Green. They both know people sent down there. If you four can get together and discuss it in private, you may be able to figure out what is going on and who is doing what to whom. We need you on the outside, mom, not floated for losing your temper and blurting things out!" Abby looked sharply at her daughter. She opened her mouth to refute that, but found she couldn't. Clarke was right, she did have a temper.
"How do you know all this? You're in solitary. No visitors other than myself are allowed."
"When there's visitation, they can leave their cell and wander a bit. This only works because they are sharing. When one goes to visit, the other comes to the dividing gate and we have a talk about it. They pass on information when they can. Problem is they have to shout. Any chance you can get me shifted to that first cell nearest the gate?"
"Doubt it, but I can try." Abby was still thinking about it all. "How do I get in touch with…" She stopped as she remembered a patient called Monty Green. "I think I know Monty, he was a patient a few days ago. I think I need to make a house call and go see him," said Abby. "Bellamy, I'm not sure how to contact him."
"He's a janitor or maintenance worker or cleaner or whatever they are called. He cleans up the corridors." Abby nodded at that information.
"Okay, I think I can work with this." Abby stopped and faced Clarke. "Are you sure that Jake's still alive?" she whispered, more in hope than anything else. If Jake was alive, then all might not be lost. She had another thing to fight for now. All that time thinking he was dead because she'd told Jaha, and he was alive on the ground instead!
"Yeah, mom, I am. There's no reason for them to lie to me about it. What would they gain other than my mental anguish? No kid in here is that cruel, mom. We've only got each other now and no-one in here would hurt anyone else in here like that." Abby sighed a huge sigh of relief.
"I hope you're right, Clarke, I really do."
"Me too, mom. Me too," Clarke said, barely about a whisper. "If you're able to confirm it, can you tell one of the others? They'd be able to get the news to me quicker. You're only allowed to visit me once a month and I want to know sooner than that!"
"I will, honey, I promise." They hugged again and the guard came in to escort Abby out. Once they had, they came back and did a mandatory search of her person and her cell - just in case contraband had been brought in. They didn't know that the contraband was only information and nothing physical. Clarke waited until they'd left before smiling the biggest smile she'd had while locked up. She now had something to fight for. If people were being sent to the ground, she'd volunteer to go!
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On the ground
Ten days after coming to Earth, Raven, Sol, Rory and Jake made the final trek to Tondc. Walking tiredly through the gate into the village was a welcome relief to all of the travellers, not just the ones from the sky. Anya led them to an area where they could put their tents up and store their supplies. They did so with a great sense of relief that they wouldn't have to walk anywhere the next day. Anya had said that they could stay at the village until the Commander said so. It would take two days to travel to Polis, their capital, and two more to come back. Four days in which they could rest their weary bodies.
Indra had decided to have Fio teach Raven and Sol how to fight because they carried swords. She did say that the training wasn't free and a payment would be needed. Raven and Sol had agreed and had said that once they were trained, they'd lead a group of warriors back to where they had found the swords and any other swords there, they could have as payment. Indra had asked how many there were and Raven had replied that she had seen at least a dozen.
Indra was pleased. It didn't matter what state the swords were in - even if they were unusable - it was more important that the sky people were willing to trade, rather than expecting everything to be provided for them in exchange for nothing. At least Sol and Raven were willing to barter their services.
All four of them sat around one of the fires eating their food. There was deer, squirrel and some greens. They ate all of it. Not one scrap was left on their plates. The locals had offered a form of beer too, but Sol and Raven had declined it. Jake and Rory both took a mug, but only had one each. This night, they were excused from sentry duty and they fell asleep and never woke up once until sun up, nine hours later.
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The next morning Raven and Sol went with Anya to hear about the first life again. Sol wished she had a pen and paper to write it all down. Anya offered quill, ink and parchment. She took them and wrote down the pertinent points in as few words as she could. Writing with a quill was more difficult as the quill was only cut in one direction and if you got the angle wrong, you could smudge the words. It took most of the morning to get the majority of what happened written down. Raven asked several questions which Anya answered the best she could, but with her dying before the mountain fell, she could only tell so much. Indra had added some more in the afternoon, and by night time, they felt that they had everything down that they could. No doubt there would be bits and pieces added by different people. The Commander and Lincoln were not there, so their perspective was missing.
'Predicting' what would happen next was a difficult thing. No-one on the Ark remembered and the sky people on the ground had no way of getting in touch with the Ark - yet. Raven had expressed her desire to build a radio to get in touch with Monty. Once in contact they could figure out what was happening and try to plan for it.
That evening Raven and Sol showed the parchments to Rory and Jake. Once they'd read them, they all discussed what it would mean.
"We need to make sure that when the 100 come down, we're there to greet them. We need to move them away from the mountain and keep them safe from reapers too," said Raven. All three nodded. "I really need to build that radio, though," she continued. Again they nodded.
"Where are you going to get parts for it? I mean there's no electricity down here any more and no stores," said Jake.
"Maybe we can look at some of the maps I've got to see where those stores were. If we can locate a general area, then we can search for anything in the area," said Sol.
"Like what?" asked Rory.
"I don't know, basements maybe? I don't know how much destruction there is further from Tondc. This was the seat of power so this area would have been totally devastated. We may have to search in other areas that were not targeted."
"Okay, we look first thing in the morning and see if we can locate somewhere," said Jake.
"Agreed," said Rory. "But now, I want to sleep."
"Seconded," said Raven.
"I agree,'' said Sol.
"Motion carried," said Jake, getting up and going to his tent. Sol gave him a few minutes to get changed and then she too went to bed while Jake turned his back to her so he wouldn't see her getting changed.
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On the Ark
Abby carried a small medpack through the Ark towards Farm Station after checking on where Monty's quarters were. She wanted to make contact with him and was using follow-up care as an excuse. She knocked on the door and waited. A small asian woman opened the door and looked at the doctor.
"Dr Griffin? How can we help you?"
"I'm here to see Monty. I want to follow up on his injury."
"Injury? What injury?"
"Oh, he didn't tell you? He burned his thumb using a soldering iron. I patched him up, but I need to do a follow-up appointment. I forgot to tell him that when he was in medbay."
"Come in," the woman said, opening the door wider.
"Thank you," Abby said.
"Monty," the woman called.
"What mom?" asked Monty coming from his room. "Dr. Griffin! Is something wrong?"
"No, Monty. I forgot to tell you that I needed you to come back for a follow-up check."
"Oh, I'm sorry for upsetting you so much."
"No, Monty, It's alright. It's a little raw still, but I should have remembered to tell you. Anyway, I'm here now."
"Okay where do you want to do this?"
"Monty, I have to go to work now, be sure you treat Dr Griffin with respect while I'm gone, you hear?"
"Yes, mom, I will." Monty's mother left and both sighed with relief.
"Okay, I'll look at your injury, but that wasn't why I came to see you."
"Why did you come here?"
"I've been to visit my daughter Clarke in solitary in the Skybox. She heard from another prisoner - Erin Armstrong - that Jake's alive and on the ground. She said that a man called Bellamy Blake had found a list of four people that were sent to the ground, Jake Griffin, Aurora Blake, Raven Reyes and Solange Armstrong."
"Aurora Blake? Bellamy's mother?" he guessed.
"Yes. Solange's sister Erin is in prison as is Bellamy's sister Octavia. They are sharing a cell and keep talking to people, primarily Bellamy and Harper McIntyre - your girlfriend." Monty struggled to get his head around it all.
"So what do we do?"
"We need to contact Bellamy and Harper and we can all sit down somewhere and talk it all through. Each of us may have information the others don't. I think we need to pool our knowledge of all this. Once we know what's going on, maybe we can do something to make sure we all survive," Abby said, while re-wrapping the bandage on Monty's thumb.
"Do you know what Bellamy looks like?"
"No, but Clarke said he's a janitor."
"His sister is in the Skybox, that means she's under 18. How much older would Bellamy be?"
"No idea, but using the Ark's database to find him would alert the guards."
"Maybe if Harper talks to Erin and Erin gets a description of Bellamy from Octavia, then we can figure out who he is," mused Monty.
"Or they can arrange for Bellamy to be at a certain place at a certain time and we'll be there to meet him," Abby said.
"That would be better than trawling through everyone on the Ark looking for him," said Monty, grinning.
"Can you ask Harper to arrange that?"
"Yeah," he said, thinking it through.
"If Harper talks to Erin, Erin talks to Octavia, Octavia talks to Bellamy and then Bellamy comes to us. We'd need to arrange a date and time first though, otherwise we'd spend days trying to organise it all. Prison visits are limited and if we suddenly start visiting every time we can, they'll get suspicious," said Monty.
"I agree. How about next Thursday at say, 8pm?" Abby asked.
"That should work. Harper and I will be free then."
"Me too," said Abby.
"Let's hope Bellamy isn't at work at that time. Where do we meet?"
"We need an out of the way place."
"I know a place, but we need to be careful that no-one follows us there," Monty said.
"Where?"
"There's an unused place over in Orchid Station. Most of that station was emptied when there was a malfunction and some of the sections were opened to space. Those places are now useless for anything even though they are no longer open to space. The walls were replaced, but nothing else was done with them. There is a secret way to Orchid from Alpha, Dr Griffin, but you'd need to walk the tunnels to get there."
"Walk the tunnels?"
"Dr Griffin, when you were a child, did you ever go into the guts of the ship instead of walking the corridors?"
"Well, yes, but only a few kids did that."
"Well we still do that." Monty got up and moved towards his bedroom. "Wait here, I won't be long," he said. Abby nodded and he went to get a schematic of the Ark from his room. He spread it out on the table.
"Look here, this is Alpha Station and this is Orchid station," he said, pointing to each in turn. "Now this," he said, pointing to an access hatch, "is the access hatch to a maintenance walkway that goes straight past Orchid. When you get to this point, there's another hatch. Take it and it'll come out in an unused corridor to Orchid. Harper and I'll be there for you. If we use this room here, then we'll ask for Bellamy to meet us there next Thursday at 8pm. Sound good?"
"Yes. That sounds excellent."
"Good," said Monty, rolling up the schematic.
"Okay, you talk to Harper and she'll talk to Erin who'll talk to Octavia and she'll talk to her brother. We're going to need a faster way of communicating than this, Monty!"
"I know, but it'll only be for the first time. After that it should be much quicker. With Harper and Bellamy and you visiting one of them, they can get more information more quickly too."
"Good point. Well, I'd better get back to medbay." Just then, the door opened and Monty's father came in. "Just remember Monty, keep it clean and dry. Apply the cream twice a day for the next three days and you should be fine."
"Thanks, Dr Griffin."
"Bye Monty," she said, getting up and leaving.
"Something you have to tell me, son?"
"It's nothing dad, I burned my thumb a couple of days ago and Dr Griffin was just following up on it. Mom was here when she arrived."
Mr Green nodded before wandering off to get changed. Monty went to his bedroom and let out a sigh of relief. Maybe now they'd get somewhere.
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The next day Harper went to visit Erin.
"Hey," said Erin, high-fiving Harper.
"Hey," said Harper in return.
"So what's new?" asked Erin as a guard passed them.
"Oh, Monty and I have had a second date!"
"You did, that's great!" The guard wandered off.
"You need to tell Octavia to talk to her brother. Monty met with Dr Griffin and they suggested Bellamy meets us next Thursday at 8pm in room 462 in Orchid Station. It's mostly abandoned and should be a place we won't be overheard," Harper said quickly.
"Next Thursday at 8pm, room 462, Orchid Station. Got it." The guard wandered back towards them.
"So when's your next date?"
"Well he's trying to figure that out. After a small picnic and taking me to see a film on film night, he's trying to think of somewhere else to take me."
"He'll think of something."
"Anything else Monty had to say," Erin asked when the guard had once again moved off.
"No. I think we'll need to tell what we know and pool whatever we know." Erin nodded.
"Well, keep me informed, please?"
"We will." After that they made small talk until the visit was over.
Erin went back to her cell and waited until the guard had gone.
"So what's new?" asked Octavia, not really expecting anything. Erin grinned.
"Abby made contact with Monty. They've decided you should tell Bellamy to meet them next Thursday at 8pm in room 462 in Orchid Station."
"What?" said Octavia, stunned. Erin nodded.
"Uh-huh. Now you just have to remind Bellamy not to get caught getting there. Maybe he can use the tunnels."
"What tunnels?" Erin looked at her.
"Sorry, I keep forgetting. The tunnels are what the kids call the maintenance walkways and air ducts and such that are hidden behind the walls of the Ark. It's the guts of the station - so to speak."
"Did you walk them?"
"Sometimes. The floor is a small space when you're underneath it, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Well, our quarters were near a junction that was also under the floor and dropped down about a foot and I was able to sit up. I enjoyed playing there in the dark because I could make things up."
"I wish I could have had somewhere to go and play," Octavia said, wistfully.
"I was lucky, but sometimes I wished I could come out and play with other kids," said Erin, sighing.
"Me too," said Octavia.
"Well like you said, we can be each other's family. Can you imagine the looks on Sol's and Bellamy's faces when they met for the first time and Bellamy calls her sister?" Octavia laughed.
"I don't think Bellamy would call anyone else 'sister'," she said, still laughing.
"Sol would call him brother, but probably more to wind him up!" Both girls laughed.
"We'll work something out. As long as we call each other 'sister', I think that's all that matters," said Erin.
"Right on, sister," said Octavia, laughing again. Peals of laughter could be heard floating down from their level out to the prison and the ears of other prisoners who smiled to hear such a rare sound in the prison.
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On the ground
Sol and Raven were bent over a map of the Washington DC area and Jake and Rory were looking over maps of the surrounding areas looking for places that might have been left alone during the war and may still be more or less intact, just abandoned.
Raven and Sol were looking for any places that could have stores or shops or any place they might have warehouses. Sol was also looking for the Whitehouse to figure out if she needed to go there. The first clue was to start at the Lincoln Memorial. Her father's diary said he thought the next place to go would be the whitehouse, but he hadn't shown what he'd figured out.
"Look, this area here seems to have some stores, but I don't know if they have what you need," said Sol. "This one is right in the middle of a built up area."
"Yeah, the problem is none of these stores are named. What kind of stores are they? I can work with something from an electrical store - even a phone store. Before the war, they used things called cell phones. I can use some of the chips inside them, but I still need some kind of housing and other stuff. One of their phones won't give me the range nor use the radio waves freely. It has to connect with a tower and then relay it to the next tower and so on until you get to the person you're trying to connect to. The Ark doesn't have a tower. No, I really need to build a radio," said Raven.
"We may do better trying to find one of those big out of town malls they had. They were full of nothing but stores of all kinds. One of the bigger stores should have electrical stuff in it, wouldn't it?" asked Sol.
"Should do, but who knows?"
"This is going to be hard isn't it?"
"Yup."
"Hey, Jake? Does your map show shopping places?"
"Shopping places?"
"Yeah, places where you can buy stuff."
"Oh, some, but I'm not sure of the state of them right now," said Rory.
"Well, there's a electronic's place over in Arlington, just past the cemetery," Jake said.
"How far away is it?"
"It's about 3 kilometers away, but it's over the river," Jake said. Sol and Raven looked at each other.
"Might as well try to find it. Even if there's nothing there, we can search the area," said Sol.
"I agree," said Raven.
"What are you two finding?" asked Sol.
"Not a lot. Washington DC had very few green places. Most of them are to the north near the zoos."
"Meaning?"
"Most of the stores around here are basically a few here and a few there and a whole lot of government and residential buildings."
"So not a lot to find at one time and a lot of digging to find each of them," Raven stated.
"Yeah," said Jake.
"Okay, Sol and I will go check out this Arlington place."
"You'll need our map," Jake said, handing it over having marked the spot using a bit of charcoal from the fire. Sol nodded before she and Raven got up and went over to Anya.
"Chief Anya?" said Sol.
"Yes?"
"We want to go find a place where we hope to find some old world things we can use," said Sol. Raven nodded beside her.
"What kind of things?"
"Well, the kind of things you might not like," admitted Sol. "Things to build a radio or two."
"Why do you need these things?"
"We want to contact a friend of Raven's on the Ark to tell him that we are okay."
"Who?"
"Monty Green." Anya looked confused. She turned to look for Indra.
"INDRA!" Indra turned her head and then came over. When she reached them, Anya questioned her.
"Do you know who Monty Green is?"
"Monty? He's one of the 100. He and Raven were their tek people," she said.
"Can he be trusted?" asked Anya.
"Yes. He was the one most loyal to keeping the peace and he was the one who altered the tek in the mountain so that Clarke could kill the maunon."
"Do you think he'll keep it all quiet?" Anya asked Raven.
"Yes."
"Okay, I will allow it. Where do you need to go?"
"According to the old world maps, it was a place called Arlington, across the Potomac river, past their national cemetery," said Sol.
"There is an old bridge we can still use to get across, but it is upriver.
"How far upriver?"
Anya looked at the map they had and traced the river upstream until she came to a place with a bridge.
"Here," she said. Raven looked at it and then using the small scale in the corner of the map, she mentally worked out a rough distance.
"That's about 6km, Sol. We have to cross that bridge and then walk back down to this Arlington store, which is another 6 km."
"Can't be helped, Raven. We need to go find it." Raven reluctantly nodded.
"Okay," she sighed.
"Good, Fio and some of the other warriors can go with you. They can hunt over there."
"Fine. Don't suppose you have any digging tools do you?"
"We have a few shovels," Indra said.
"Oh good," said Raven.
"We'll lend you some horses and packs too," Anya said.
"Oh crap," said Raven. "We don't know how to ride."
"Don't worry," said Anya, smiling at them. "You will by the time you come back." She and Indra laughed as they walked away.
"Why do I get the feeling they're enjoying this?" asked Sol.
"Because they are, Sol," said Raven. "Are you ready to get your ass and legs sore?"
"That bad?"
"From what I've heard, it is."
"Wonderful. Come on, let's get our stuff and get our asses battered by a horse's back," said Sol, sighing. She was not looking forward to the pain she was going to suffer.
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They arrived in Arlington in the early evening. They got off their horses very gingerly and were walking as if their legs had never met.
"God, I think I'm permanently damaged!" said Raven, aggrieved at the soreness she felt. One of the warriors laughed as he passed her and handed her a pot of ointment.
"Rub this on in the morning and night until you get used to riding," he said.
"Not sure I can bend far enough to reach everywhere I need," said Raven.
"That's why you have a friend with you," he said, pointing to Sol. Raven turned to Sol and looked her up and down.
"Only put the ointment where I tell you and don't let your hands wander," Raven said, seriously.
"I promise," said Sol, "after all, you'll have to rub the stuff on me too." Raven's eyes widened at the implication. The warrior laughed and wandered off. Another warrior came over and took care of the horses. He took their stuff off the horses and left it on the ground beside them.
"We'll look for this place of yours in the morning," he said, before moving off to groom the horse. Sol looked at the tent they'd brought and groaned before she bent down and picked it up. She erected the tent and then Raven put their sleeping bags inside. They both entered and Raven handed the pot of ointment to Sol while she herself got undressed and lay down on her front. Sol sighed and began rubbing the ointment into Raven's thighs and buttocks. She handed the pot back to Raven and turned her back while Raven applied it to her front. She got dressed and then it was Sol's turn.
They left the tent and slowly made their way over to get some food before heading back to the tent and falling asleep.