Chapter 5

The night had set in. It was dark particularly under the forest cover where Anya had left Clarke. If Clarke had her watch, then she would know the exact time but it would be very late. She was sure just in couple of hours sun would rise. The blonde thought she had waited for enough while and then moved towards the entrance of the village. She was cautious at the possibility of walking into a trap. Just before she reached the entrance, she caught the sight of Anya moving towards her.

When Anya saw Clarke, she rolled her eyes and said, "Skaigada is too impatient." But Clarke pointedly glared at her. The grounder let out a sigh and stated, "Indra is not inside."

Clarke cocked her head in contemplation and asked, "Who will deal in her stead? Who is left in charge then?" When the grounder remained silent, Clarke let out a frustrated sigh out and cocked an eyebrow in Anya's direction.

"No one will deal in her stead but Naikou will know where Indra is." Anya gritted through her teeth. "I came to get you." They made their way inside going towards what Clarke assumed would be the healer's tent.

"I will not let you harm my people." Anya hissed just before Clarke entered the village. The grounder was weary of the guns Clarke was carrying. The blonde cannot say that the distress was not unfounded. Truth to be told she herself was weary of it. One such gun was responsible for taking the life of her love.

"I have no intention to do that. I am no fool Anya. I know your people would not help if I kill more of your people but I will not go in unarmed as well." Clarke simply stated as if they were talking about weather and continued inside.

The village was empty. Nobody was outside their houses which was understandable given the time. But Clarke could see that there were no guards as well. She can see that how Finn and Murphy were able to round up the villagers so easily. She quickly shook her head out of those thoughts. It wouldn't do her any good thinking about that at this point of time. Instead, she turned her thoughts towards convincing Indra to grant an audience with the Commander. But before she could think much, Anya stopped in front of a hut and knocked on the door persistently.

It took few moments but the door opened and a face peeked out of it. Since Anya was standing near the door, the person let a gasp out at the sight of the woman. The door was hurriedly opened and the person was revealed as Nyko. He had a shocked look on his face and asked something in trigedasleng. Clarke was sure that he said, 'How are you alive?' But schooled her features to confusion before anyone noticed that she knew their language. At this point of time, she should not know trigedasleng.

Anya spared a glance at Clarke before turning back to Nyko and said speedily in the grounder language, "I need to talk to Indra. Where is she?" If Clarke had not been paying attention then she would have missed it.

Nyko beckoned them to come inside the hut. He suspiciously regarded Clarke when she followed Anya. Nyko closed the door behind them. Anya gestured him to the corner of the hut and gave a glare to Clarke to stay away from them while they talked. In reply, the blonde raised her eyebrow but remained where she was.

Both Anya and Nyko were frantically whispering to each other in their language. Clarke could see from her position that Anya looked annoyed at the information received. After few moments of talking, Nyko left the room and Anya moved towards Clarke.

"Helping you is making me a traitor to my people." Anya angrily muttered to the blonde.

"Your people think you are dead. That you died by my hands along with 300 of your warriors at the drop ship. You are not just helping me. Your people are also stuck inside. I don't have time for this. Just let me talk to your leader." Clarke stated as a matter of fact. It was true the time was ticking. There was no saying when Finn would wake up and try to come after her. Even though without guns he would not try to massacre Tondc but after reaching Camp Jaha, there are no guarantees.

Anya replied in a haughty tone, "You are in luck then Sky girl. Indra has gone to meet Heda and I can take you there." Clarke internally rolled her eyes. It seems that Anya is deliberately trying to rile her up. Before she could open her mouth to reply, Nyko came back and handed a pile of clothes to Anya.

Clarke raised her eyebrows as the other woman left to go and presumably change. She supposed that to the grounder, wearing those clothes from the mountain was very uncomfortable. Clarke glanced down at her own attire and suddenly felt the urge to change as well but knew the request for clothes would not go well. She spent the time waiting for Anya to glance around the room she was standing. It contained few beds for the patients but none were occupied. There were vials of medicines and herbs on the table in the corner of the room. There were piles of cloths and bandages in the other corner. It was a typical basic setup for a healer's hut.

The door opened again revealing Anya who seemed more relaxed than she was before going inside. Clarke supposed that getting rid of those clothes would ease the other woman. That and getting her hands on a dagger. She could not see any knives visible on the grounder but Clarke was sure that there were several hidden on her person.

Without sparing a glance at Nyko or Clarke, Anya proceeded to leave the hut. It took a heartbeat before Clarke realized what happened and ran after the other woman. She reached the grounder at the entrance of the village. 'She can be fast when she wants to be.' Clarke thought. It amazed the blonde that Anya was this swift even after the time she spent at the mountain.

Anya was waiting impatiently for the skaigada to catch up to her. When Clarke reached her she said, "It is almost dawn. It would be a while before we reach the village Heda is currently." They both started walking away from Tondc without any further debate.

Lincoln was glad that the bullet missed him by a wide berth. He decided that it was best for him to stay clear of the camp, the Skaikru had made. The Skaikru were shooting at all perceived threats. Clarke's warning rang in his ears as he was moving a safe distance away from the camp.

He knew he needed to find Octavia not only just to give Clarke's message but also to find whether she was all right or not. He hoped that nothing had happened to her after he was taken by the reapers and she managed to get away safely from there. It was a slim chance that he would be able to find her here without being shot by the Skaikru but he had to.

He moved to hide near the place where he could see the entrance to the camp. Lincoln knew that Octavia would not stay inside the camp for a long time. She would come out. He could talk with her when she did so. Until then he would keep hiding. Clarke had been right that her people would not hesitate to capture him because he was a Trikru.

Lincoln spent the entire night awake and on alert. All through the night only once more a gunshot had resounded in the forest but then it was silent. He knew that the guards were still patrolling the camp but now they had stopped firing at every threat. He still could not decide whether that was a good sign or not.

The sun was high in the sky when Lincoln saw few figures approaching the camp made by the Skaikru. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw one of them was Octavia. He could not see properly who the other three figures were from the position he was hiding though.

Last night Lincoln had placed white flowers so that he could get Octavia's attention and meet him. As expected when the group neared the camp Octavia noticed the trail of flowers. As soon as she saw them, she was looking around frantically. Lincoln tried to catch Octavia's eye. He could see that she was shocked when he finally got her attention. He motioned for her to remain quiet and jerked his head in the direction he wanted to meet her. She looked at him for a moment as if she saw a ghost but then turned towards her companions.

"Bell, you take them inside. I'll come back in a while." Octavia told her brother with barely contained excitement.

Bellamy was startled by the sudden change in his sister's mood. He stopped her before she could go anywhere and exclaimed, "What! Where are you going?"

Octavia impatiently explained what she had seen. She had lost hope that she would see Lincoln again and to catch a glimpse of him made her want to run to him as soon as possible. "I saw Lincoln out there and he wanted to talk to me. I am going to meet him. Bells."

Bellamy looked skeptically at her but then said determinately, "Wait, I'll come with you."

"I think he wanted me to come alone. Go. I can take care of myself and Lincoln would never hurt me." She did not want her brother hovering over her. "And don't they need help to get back to camp?" She pointed at injured Mel and Monroe.

"Why would he not come out here and talk?" Bellamy tried to argue. He was against having his sister go alone somewhere.

"I don't know. But I'll find out and come to the camp as fast as I can. Bells go." Octavia said with conviction and left without hearing any other word of protest from her brother.

Bellamy looked at his sister's retreating back with uncertainty but then helped the other two girls to reach the Camp Jaha. They needed medical attention and his sister would come back soon. He was coming to understand that he would not be able to stop her from doing what she wanted to do. He did not like it but needed to accept the fact.

As soon as Octavia reached Lincoln, she launched herself in his arms and hugged him tight. When Lincoln tried to pull back, she did not give any second to respond. She held his face in her hands and gave him a deep kiss on his lips. It was a while before she let him come out for air. And when she did both of them were out of breathe. Through this all, Octavia did not loosen her hold on him. She held him tightly as though he would disappear the moment she lets go.

"I thought I lost you. When we rescued Nyko and you were not with them, I thought I would never see you again." Octavia was looking at Lincoln in wonder.

"You saved Naikou?" It was now Lincoln's turn to stare at Octavia in amazement.

She gave a small smile in return and said, "Yes, I did with Indra. But how did you escape?"

"Your friend Clarke helped me." At Octavia's confused gaze, Lincoln explained everything that had happened from the moment he had been captured by the reapers until the moment he managed to reach near the Skaikru camp. He at the end relayed the message Clarke had given him to pass on and the dangers of the mountain.

It took a couple of hours but they managed to exchange what had happened to each other since they were separated in detail. They were both holding each other and basking in other's presence when Octavia remembered that Finn and Murphy were going to Tondc.

"We need to tell them everything before they do something." Octavia exclaimed.

"No. You should go to your camp and tell them everything I told you or else they would send more people to my village. If that happens then Heda will never form an alliance and will wipe off your people. I will go and tell them." Lincoln knew that his people were already on a war with the Skaikru. They would be lucky if Heda agrees to let the Skaikru leave the Trikru lands and not kill them all. Something in Lincoln's voice made Octavia to agree to go back to Camp Jaha.

It was late afternoon when they parted ways from each other. Lincoln took the shortest route to Tondc so that he could reach the two Skai skats fast.