Chapter 5

On the next morning, Taylor was woken again by Anya, giving her shoulders a shake to rouse her. It felt to Taylor as if she had barely closed her eyes only a few minutes ago and she felt anything but rested.

A pitiful groan escaped from her lips when Taylor struggled to get up from the ground. She immediately felt that her clothes were still damp. A shiver ran through her frame involuntarily and her whole body felt stiff from the cold and wet which had seemed to have seeped into her very bones.

"You have not slept outside before" Anya assessed in a neutral tone, while she watched the stranger struggling to stretch out her limbs.

Taylor did not feel like talking yet, never having been much of a morning person, so, she just mutely shook her head. She wished for the privacy of her apartment now. A soft bed, a hot shower and a heavenly cup of coffee. Taylor had always needed some time in the morning for herself to work up the energy and mood to be able to converse with others. Although she knew that Anya would not be able to offer her any of this, she would also soon need something to drink if she did not wish to faint.

Taylor stretched herself against the tree bark, reaching high into the air with her arms and she grumbled in slight annoyance when her sweater rode up with her movement. She pushed it down again with a huff, trying to comb through her hair her fingers next and simply pushing the strands behind her ears for now.

All the while, Taylor could almost feel the weight of the general's gaze watching her every move.

"We will leave soon" Anya suddenly proclaimed, getting up from where she had been sitting and crossing the small distance to the stranger, offering her some food. She had appeared faint yesterday already and Anya did not want to have to drag her through the forest.

Taylor did not even think twice about what it was that Anya was offering to her, before she took the item. She inspected it more closely though and recognized that it was some sort of root or the very least a plant. Due to her lack of knowledge in botany, Taylor can only trust now that this thing was even edible.

"Eat" Anya clarified a moment later, glancing down at Taylor with a slight frown, annoyance rising within her.

Taylor knew that it was foolish to wonder if this thing was edible. If the general had wanted her dead, she could have easily killed her during the night after all. Cautiously, she brought the root to her mouth, taking a small bite from it. She was surprised by the weird consistency – very juicy – and the thing tasted much too bitter for her liking, but Taylor knew that the juiciness of whatever this thing was called that she was just eating, would greatly help with her dehydration.

"Thank you" Taylor finally said in an honest tone. She had already eaten almost half of this root-thing. She knew that the grounders were not really kind to their prisoners at least according to the show. Taylor remembered how Markus and Thelonious had said in the show that they were left in the holding cell for two days without food or water. Could it be that the general was not seeing her as a real prisoner anymore?

Anya watched the stranger eat cautiously. She herself would not have just accepted anything without knowing what it was and eating it. She was puzzled why this stranger had not even thought to ask if what she had handed to her was poisoned. "You do not seem to fear poison" the general exclaimed a moment later, not quite hiding the lingering confusion from her expression.

Taylor shook her head in the negative "Like I said yesterday, for all I care, you can kill me, once I had a possibility to write down all that I know". Her tone had been almost cold and her expression blank while she spoke.

Taylor watched the general's confusion visibly only enhance at her answer. She guessed that she would have to proof her point. With a slight sigh, Taylor shoved up the sleeves of her sweater, turning her arms in a way that Anya can visibly see the thin scar left behind by her suicide attempt. If she had seen such a scar on one of her patients, Taylor would have immediately known that these must have been self-inflicted.

Surprisingly, the general obviously had not understood though. "You have been tortured" she assumed with her eyes narrowed.

Taylor sighed under her breath, only now finally really looking up to meet the general's gaze.

She was surprised to note that Anya must have left her for some time before waking her up. The general had obviously tried to clean herself up at least somewhat. Taylor could see that a large portion of the woman's face was marred by bruises now. She had always been a rather light sleeper and would have expected to notice Anya leaving and returning, but obviously she must have slept right through it all.

She let out a humourless laugh at the general's wrong assumption and sighed, pulling her knees upwards to her chest, making herself smaller in the process "They are self-inflicted" Taylor clarified in a heavy tone with a whirlwind of emotions rushing through her mind.

Anya appeared even more baffled by that in a way and Taylor wondered for a moment if the concept of suicide was so absurd to the other woman that Anya may still have not understood what she meant.

Before Taylor could make up her mind if she should try and explain in other words, Anya exclaimed "We need to leave".

Taylor nodded her head in agreement, struggling to finally get up for real from the damp ground, while Anya stomped out the small fire quickly. She let out another loud groan when she finally got to her feet. Her back hurt like hell and there was a headache hammering through her skull. Pain was nothing new to Taylor though and by the way with how much caffein she usually consummated, she knew that the headache could already be a sign of withdrawal, so, she tried to ignore both sensations to the best of her abilities.

"How long is the way?" Taylor asked, trying to stall for a bit of time, as she tried to stretch out her back, hoping to get her spine aligned a little better to ease the pain.

Although Taylor felt the general watching her while she stretched, she did not stop in her weird movement until she felt her spine lengthening with a few audible pops.

"A few hours" Anya answered in a matter-of-fact tone. The general smirked slightly at the groan the stranger let out at that information.

Taylor would lie if she said that the prospect of another long track was appealing to her at all. For a moment, she considered if telling all of her knowledge about the plotline of the show to Anya and just letting the general kill her here would be a viable option, but a part of her feared that Lexa would not believe Anya's strange words. A small part of Taylor also looked forward to hopefully seeing the commander in person.

"Oh" Taylor exclaimed before Anya began walking as it only occurred to her now, that she had never even told the general her name "How rude of me, my name is Taylor Ysabella Davis" she finally formally introduced herself to Anya.

The general visibly furrowed her brow in response, muttering "You have many names, Taylor Ysabella Davis". The pronunciation of the names was visibly alien to her though.

The corners of Taylor's lips twitched into a slight smile "You can call me Yssa" she offered in a kind tone, giving the general an almost hopeful look.

Weirdly, Anya only inclined her head mutely once and decided that they would finally begin their way, walking ahead of Taylor and expecting her to follow.

Taylor kept silent as well, trying to walk more carefully. She tried to watch how Anya was walking, hoping to mimic the other woman's movements. To Taylor it seemed as if Anya was moving weirdly graceful over the ground, barely leaving any kind of traces where she had stepped. Taylor immediately felt like the "Klutz" her father always had nicknamed her.

When Taylor finally turned her attention from Anya's feet to the other woman's features, she noticed that the woman must have been watching her for some time in silence on the way now and she immediately felt herself blush deeply at being caught like this.

"You try to learn" the general said, giving voice to what she had watched and if anything, her tone sounded amused.

Taylor kept her eyes glued to the ground beneath her feet, sensing that her face was almost aflame by now.

"You wish for death and yet you try to learn" Anya continued to speak in a slightly confused tone when Taylor had remained silent.

Taylor's head whipped up before she could even think of controlling her instinctive reaction. She was more than just a little baffled at how quickly the other woman was obviously looking through her façade, picking up on things no one else around her ever had.

Taylor's expression of shock morphed into annoyance when the other woman began to laugh at her spontaneous reaction. A very tiny part of Taylor's mind noted down how different Anya appeared for the moment in which she laughed, younger somehow.

"If your knowledge proves valuable, the commander surely will not decide for your death" the general informed Taylor, keeping her tone still sounding amused, while she paused in her steps.

Taylor could not stop her words before she snapped at the general "Too bad. You'd be doing me a favour". Taylor could not pinpoint why, but somehow the general was incensing her. Before Taylor thought her actions through, she quickened her steps, walking away from the general in a random direction.

"Are you a child?" the general's sudden question made Taylor stop finally after a brief moment and she turned back around towards the general with a raised brow, still feeling weirdly angry. Taylor was not certain why she was suddenly so angry. Was she angry at Anya for seeing through her so quickly? At herself for being so easy to see through? Or at the fates who had denied her the absolution of death.

"Of course, not" Taylor bit back in an angry tone, thinning her lips in annoyance.

"You sulk like one though, Yssa" Anya assessed with a raised brow and there still was a tint of amusement in her tone.

Taylor's anger melted away immediately, hearing the general use the nickname which she usually had reserved for friends was a weird feeling. She did not know why she had even proposed for Anya to call her "Yssa", but it felt weirdly good. Otherwise she was also being reminded instantly of her parents. Even in her earliest memories Taylor remembered being told to not act so childishly. Being told that she had acted childishly always meant that her parents were once again disappointed in her. "Sorry" Taylor sighed under her breath in defeat, averting her eyes again from the general's probing gaze.

Anya shook her head at Taylor with a slight huff "You were moving in the wrong direction by the way" she pointed out, voice now definitely sarcastic, turning around and walking ahead in another direction.

Taylor followed the general mutely, internally chiding herself a fool for once again acting the way she usually did and probably diminishing whatever fleeting trust Anya might have had in her.