Chapter 26

Taylor knew the commander was leading them trough the forest at a slow pace and she could imagine how direly the young leader wanted to return to her people. The show had not given any details about the time span the commander was missing from TonDC, but she found it highly unlikely that no one would have noticed their absence. She knew though that Anya was of course still there, Indra as well, both generals would surely handle the other warriors well.

For a moment she wondered how things would have played out, if Clarke returned alone to TonDC, so, if Lexa had indeed died there. The grounders would have needed to somehow retrieve her body or there would never have been another commander. Was there a flamekeeper travelling with the commander? It seemed impractical for the leader carrying the flame to possibly die somewhere alone with the potential of the flame being lost forever.

Her body was in pain all over. Every step essentially hurt, starting from her twisted ankle, over to the not fully healed gunshot wound in her abdomen, the whole side which had gotten the brunt of the fall against the wall and of course her dislocated shoulder. Although Clarke had managed to put the shoulder back into place, it still hurt and Taylor knew that it would continue for several days. How much she wished for painkillers of her time right now. The tea of the grounders worked, but it was still not the same.

Taylor was walking assisted by Lexa, leaning onto the commander slightly, while Clarke walked a little behind them.

The blonde Skykru leader appeared to be in thought and barely paid any attention to them, beside following the path Lexa walked.

"Can I ask you something?" Taylor spoke up, her voice still a little strained as she tried to suppress any signs of pain.

Lexa only slightly tilted her head to signal that the blonde doctor had her attention and waited for the question.

"Is one of your guards a flamekeeper?" Taylor asked a few seconds later and she paid extra attention to keep her tone low to make it impossible for Clarke to catch her words.

Lexa raised a brow in surprise at the direction of the question.

"You could have died there yesterday and the reign of the commanders requires the flame you carry" Taylor added as an explanation quietly.

Lexa nodded her head with the hint of pleased smile pulling the corners of her lip's upside "You have a quick mind, Yssa" she acknowledged before she lowered her tone even more "There is always a flamekeeper in the group I travel with".

Taylor wondered who that person was, but she somehow got the impression that Lexa was reluctant to tell her, so, she decided to let the matter rest as it wasn't exactly important for her to know.

The time they spend wandering through the woods appeared endless to Taylor. She had absolutely no conception about their current location or the distance they had to the village. She knew that they had not walked very long yesterday evening from the zoo and while they had fled from the gorilla, they had all been running, so, it was impossible for her to judge.

Some time later they finally encountered a pair of warriors.

Lexa seemed to know them personally and she gave them a string of quick orders in Trigedasleng.

Although Taylor was familiar with some terms of the foreign language from the show, she understood absolutely nothing from what the commander had just said.

One of the warriors quickly turned around though and hurried off in the opposite direction and Taylor guessed that he went ahead to TonDC to proclaim the return of their leader. Maybe the two warriors had been tasked with searching for Lexa.

The second warrior though stayed with them. The man handed over his weapon to Lexa and it only occurred to Taylor now that the commander had lost her weapons during the last day. She wondered how weird it must feel for the brunette to be without protection essentially.

Taylor was caught off guard though when Lexa suddenly stopped walking and she was basically swept off of her feet by the warrior without any notice. She let out a surprised yelping sound and threw a puzzled gaze at Lexa, but the commander's features were calm, so, she must have ordered for the warrior to carry her the rest of the way.

Although being carried did not change all that much about the pain Taylor was in, it was still a relieve to not have to walk and put anymore pressure on her hurt ankle.

From afar Lexa could already make out Anya at the outskirt of TonDC waiting for them together with Nyko and with a frown she also spotted Indra, Clarke's mother and the Skykru girl who had taken a liking to Lincoln with them. The latter, should all have been in the Skykru's settlement to her knowledge, she had not given any contrary orders.

The general's features showed from a distance already how much Taylor being carried by one of the warriors was alarming her.

"What happened?" Anya immediately asked while her brown eyes only shortly remained on Lexa's features, before her worried gaze came to rest on Taylor's pale complexion.

"We encountered a pauna" Lexa explained curtly.

Anya's brown eyes widened noticeably at that. Warriors seldom survived facing a gorilla and quiet a lot of hunters had already been lost to the beasts. The woods around TonDC housed a pair of them and people stayed clear of the area they were known to live.

Clarke could not have possibly known that of course, Lexa wondered absentmindedly if the blonde leader would have left TonDC in that direction and crossed such a distance, if she had been aware of the possible threat.

"Chancellor, what brings you to TonDC?" Lexa formally asked, face impassive.

Abby had stepped up to Clarke and had checked her daughter over quickly for any visible injuries and was obviously relieved to find her daughter whole and unharmed. "A messenger had told me that Clarke was missing" Abby answered quickly "I wanted to know what had happened to her."

The commander inclined her head in acceptance and offered "Accommodations can be provided for you, of course until you return to your settlement."

Abby nodded mutely in acceptance and Lexa walked past her and Clarke, while the rest of the group followed her to her tent.

The warrior carrying Taylor mutely stepped into the commander's tent and carefully placed the blonde woman down on the bed.

Nyko immediately came over to the bed, bending down to inspect Taylor's injuries.

Anya hovered next to the bed, obviously very interested in Taylor's health.

Taylor sighed under her breath; the general was looking at her with such deep worry as if she was mortally injured. "I am fine, Anya" she reassured the general. The grimace she pulled when the healer prodded at her shoulder, belied her words though.

It did not take long for Nyko to apply a bandage interlaced with herbs to Taylor's shoulder and ankle, telling her to rest for a while and that a tea to numb the discomfort would be brought to her in a moment.

Anya visibly appeared relived to hear this and of course to see that the wound on Taylor's stomach had not reopened.

"And why are you back in TonDC?" Lexa wanted to know from Indra, when the healer had left her tent a short moment later.

"Abby had demanded to go to TonDC" Indra explained "I could not let her travel alone and the messenger had already left".

Lexa nodded in silent acceptance. It would not have been advisable to let the Sky people travel without supervision, she did not trust them to cause more trouble.

Indra continued "I also seek permission to take Octavia from the Sky people as my second." The dark skinned general shortly gestured to the girl standing behind her.

Octavia stood slightly taller, when she heard her name and her eyes shown eagerly to be accepted in this new role.

Lexa nodded again with an impassive expression, although she internally was surprised by this piece of news. Indra had seemed thus far only appeared hostile and distrustful of the invaders and Lexa was curious about the obvious change in opinion.

"You seem to have a talent for getting hurt, Yssa" Anya almost teased. The general had shortly walked behind the curtain of the tent and fetched a small bowl with water and a cloth. Taylor's pale features were visibly smeared with dirt and the general thought the blonde doctor would feel better once she was cleaner.

"More for saving me" Lexa intercepted having gotten up from the throne, now that they were alone again.

Anya had sat down on the edge of the mattress and wrung out the cloth before she started to gently dab at the scrapes on Taylor's features. The general glanced up at her former second in confusion.

"I did not save you Lexa" Taylor spoke up. She felt touched by Anya's gestured although she did not acknowledge it out loud.

Anya's confusion only appeared to increase at that, so, Taylor added "In the string of events I knew of, Lexa and Clarke were alone to face the pauna and Lexa was the one to fall and hurt herself, just like I did now".

"You would have fallen?" Anya echoed in clear disbelief, looking back at the commander with a raised brow, her brown eyes glinting slightly.

Lexa ignored her former mentor's question and instead told Anya of the plan Clarke had come up with "If Bellamy gets into the Mountain, he can free our people and we already have an army inside" her voice sounded slightly faltering even to her own ears and her doubts were directly reflected on her former mentor's face.

"Her plan has a huge flaw" Anya said after a few moments of silence "Most of our people locked there in cages won't be able to fight. I was barely able to walk, I would not have been able to escape without Clarke. They keep us in a sort of daze with something they inject."

Lexa gnashed her teeth together, mutely deep in thought, that was exactly what she had feared "Clarke is right that we need the acid fog gone, leading the army against Mount Weather would just kill us all otherwise."

Anya nodded with a contemplative expression and although she did not see a high chance of the Skykru boy to succeed, she had no alternative plan to offer that could promise a higher chance of success.

Both of them looked down to Taylor at the same moment, both of them questioningly.

They were interrupted before Taylor could react when a guard proclaimed Clarke's arrival at the commander's tent.

The blonde young woman stormed into the tent with purposeful strides and directly said "I will leave to Arkadia now, with my mother. I need to know, if Bellamy has checked in yet. And maybe Raven can come up with something to destroy the dam."

The commander nodded "Indra and a few of my warriors will escort you to your settlement. And you will be assigned a personal guard" she declared strongly.

Clarke opened her mouth, obviously intent to reject the offered guard, but Lexa continued not giving her the opportunity to speak her mind "As a leader of your people you need to be guarded, Clarke" when the other still looked at her sceptically, Lexa added a little more forcefully "Even I have guards with me at all times. The generals of the other clans are expected to arrive in the next two days, you will be needed here for the next war council."

The blonde sighed, obviously still reluctant to accept, but she nodded her consent.

The commander had quickly organised a small group of warriors to escort Skykru back to their camp, as well as scouts to search the way beforehand. Lexa had given Indra strict orders on who to listen to in the Skykru camp should there be any problem. For her, it remained true that Clarke was Skykru's leader and not her mother. The commander had made sure that they would be riding to their settlement or they would never be able to reach it until nightfall.

"You should be assigned a guard as well, Yssa" Anya said once they were once again alone in the tent.

Taylor raised a brow in question. She did not think that it was worth the effort to assign a guard to her and this far she had spent all her time either with Anya or Lexa anyway, so, she found the idea rather pointless.

To her surprise, the commander nodded her agreement and her green eyes turned troubled for a moment "Ice Nation will arrive soon as well" she commented and there was tension within her tone "You might need additional protection" she reinforced the general's previous words.

Taylor was still not fully convinced of the necessity of this, but she doubted that she could convince both women otherwise. She of course also had no real idea if any of the other nations would be interested in her. Skykru already seemed to be and Taylor could guess that Lexa and Anya had noticed the suspicious glances as well, so, in a way she could understand that the two women wanted her protected.

By the time the small Skykru group was supposed to leave again, Taylor had already drunk the tea which would help with her pain and she was starting to feel sleepy, feeling all the aches within her body lessening slowly.

Lexa and Anya left the blonde doctor with a guard at the entrance of the tent to see the Skykru group off.

Anya observed both, Abby and Clarke, being helped onto horse with a slight frown. Taylor also still needed to learn to really ride well, but the blonde doctor seemed to like horses. It looked different for Abby and Clarke, both appeared afraid of their mounts.

Just as the small group had ridden out of sight from TonDC, another group arrived in TonDC from the opposite direction.

Anya stiffened slightly next to the commander when she recognized the group.

The newcomers dismounted in perfect sync, but it was obvious they were not welcomed in TonDC judging from the glares they received. The atmosphere had instantly gotten tense and several warriors tightened their grasps around their weapons, as if they were expecting a fight to break out any second.

The commander approached the small group with a carefully blank face and greeted the general who had led the group.

Lexa's tone was curt when she spoke to the Ice Nation general, telling them were to put up their tents for the night. Although she had insisted on Ice Nation being part of her coalition, even after Nia had ordered for Costia's death, some unease always remained when she had to deal with one of them.

Anya left once a delegation of the Desert Clan arrived and the tension among the warriors diffused while the Ice Nation group followed the commander's order to set up their tents. She wanted to check on the blonde doctor and she knew that Lexa would be busy for most of the night and there was nothing she needed to be doing, so, she could rest as well.

Taylor was sleeping peacefully when Anya entered the commander's tent. Anya remained standing next to the commander's bed for a little while, looking down at the sleeping blonde woman. Washed clean of the dirt from the previous day her fair features appeared paler and the few scrapes were out of place.

Taylor woke up, feeling a gaze resting on her, while Anya was still standing there. Her grey eyes were sleepy and yet, she still smiled slightly at the general and asked in a hushed tone "Lie down with me?".