A/N: To apologize for shorter chapters lately this one is double sized! Yay! Also, it is a lot earlier because as you may know I am on a weeks run of a musical and tonight is our last night so I know I will be exhausted and just want to collapse into bed when I get back haha. So here you go! Also for anyone wondering why I only had these four travelling to Azgeda. If Ontari didn't go it would be a bit weird, and so from that Raven really needs to tag along as well. The main focus is Clexa now, because of the finale tonight, in tomorrows chapter I want to be able to focus on the two of them. I don't see the new episode until tomorrow anyway when I get back from dropping the set from this show. But I promise, that no matter what happens, I will give you a lighthearted, HAPPY, chapter with the two of them tomorrow. So you have that to look forward too no matter what happens tonight. Also, feel free to message me if you need someone to talk to. I wake up four hours after it airs and then I have my phone on all day so I am here for anyone who needs me :) xxx
As soon as they arrived at Azgeda's capitol they were shocked to see how much of the city was buried under snow and ice, Roan himself met them at the gate with a grim smile.
"Heda." He nodded respectfully to Lexa, embracing Ontari warmly as she jumped down from her horse.
Lexa stared up at the streets at the base of the mountain, "The reports said it was a minor avalanche Roan, this had covered half your city."
Roan chuckled as he gestured to the people already hard at work clearing the streets, "This is a minor avalanche Lexa, the last major one obliterated the majority of the city, that was nearly twenty years ago now."
"So you remember it then?" Clarke asked curiously.
He nodded, "Sha, I do. I was nine at the time, we lost a lot of lives that day."
"How many died in this one?" Ontari asked quietly as she helped Raven down from her own horse.
"We were lucky. Only twelve people are reported missing, we all feel that loss, but it is small in comparison with what it could have been."
Raven craned her neck back to look up at the mountain itself, that overlooked the city, "This is a dangerous place to leave, if anything shifts up there then the rock formations push it straight this way."
"This is our home." Roan defended, "We have lived here all our lives, a little bit of danger isn't enough to make us leave."
"What do you need us to do?" Lexa asked him, "We are here to help you in any way we can, and I have ordered for volunteers from my clan to arrive within the week to help with clearing the streets. You should have another thirty able bodied helpers by weeks end."
"Mochof Lexa." Roan smiled gratefully, "As for right now, the one thing we are lacking more than anything is food, our main store was crushed by the falling ice. I have hunters out from dawn till dusk, but with so many needed to help with clearing my resources are stretched thin. Any help with gathering food would be greatly appreciated."
"Of course." Lexa said immediately, before looking back at her three travelling companions.
Raven held her hands up immediately, "Well I'm probably not very well suited to trawling through the forest for hours, but I could stay behind with you and see if I can figure a way to break up the ice without your people having to hack away at it for hours. I brought some of my stuff with me from Polis."
Ontari laughed, "Your poor horse, so that's what you had me dragging across the city this morning in that ridiculously heavy bag?" Raven just grinned at her in response.
Clarke chuckled at the two of them before turning back to Roan, "Ok then, Raven can stay here and me, Lexa and Ontari will head into the woods to help with your food shortage issue. Can we just drop our things off then, and maybe borrow some weapons to hunt with?"
Roan smiled at her and then waved with his hand to usher them up towards the ice palace at the top of the city.
When Clarke and Lexa finally got down to the front gate, Ontari was already waiting patiently for them, a bow slung over her shoulder and an assortment of knifes stuck through various loops on her belt.
Lexa and Clarke looked similar, both carrying an odd assortment of weaponry, although Clarke had passed on taking a bow having never trained in it's use.
"Are we ready?" She smiled at the as they reached her.
"Yes, where's Raven?" Lexa asked, just as an explosion went off behind them and they all spun to face the source of it. Just to find an excitable Raven grinning happily as she clapped one of the Azgeda people on the shoulder as the ice they were working on breaking up lay shattered at their feet.
Ontari laughed as her girlfriend caught her eye and winked, "She's right in her element."
They headed out the gate straight away, wanting to give themselves as much time as possible to gather food before night forced them back to the city.
As they stood on the edge of the forest, just a short walk from the city, Lexa turned back to look at them critically, "Are we staying in a single group or splitting off?"
"I'll go alone, you two stick together, then there is ranged weapons in each group. It's probably unwise for you to go alone Clarke, hunting around here can get dangerous even when you don't have to get up close to your target." Ontari said quickly.
Lexa agreed quietly, bowing to her superior knowledge of the area. But Clarke wasn't quite so sold on splitting off.
"You're still injured Ontari, what is something happens?" She demanded.
Ontari shook her head, "I will be fine, I have hunted in these woods since I was a child, and my wound feels much better since you last looked at it. If anything happens I will come straight back, and I will return before the sun disappears below the mountain peak, you have my word."
Reluctantly, Clarke nodded after a long moment, gesturing for Ontari to leave and then staring at her critically as she went for any sign that she was faking how healthy she was.
Lexa laughed and wrapped her arm round Clarke's shoulder, "Will you relax? Beja Clarke, she will be fine, and we finally have some time to ourselves."
Clarke rolled her eyes as she shrugged off Lexa's shoulder and started heading deeper into the trees in a different direction to where Ontari had gone, "It's freezing, I'm not having sex with you in the forest."
Shaking her head despairingly, Lexa jogged forwards to catch up, "Very funny, you know that isn't what I meant Clarke."
"Lexa." Clarke said seriously, taking hold of Lexa's hand as they walked and twisting their fingers together. "I have been meaning to ask, why do you seem to make a point of saying my name in every sentence you say to me?"
Lexa smirked and leaned down towards her ear, "Why Clarke, do you not like me using your name Clarke? Do you want me to stop Clarke?"
"Now that's just annoying." Clarke laughed, pushing her back from her ear.
Humming happily in the back of her throat, Lexa squeezed Clarke's hand lightly, "If I had to choose one word to say for the rest of my life, I would pick your name."
"I know what I'd choose." Clarke said slyly, grinning sideways at her.
"What?" Lexa asked with a smile.
"I'd choose Clarke too."
Lexa's smile disappeared as she frowned at Clarke, "You were meant to say my name."
Clarke laughed and shook her head, "No, think about it, how would I introduce myself to people?"
"You are a legendary warrior, you don't need to introduce yourself to people." Lexa argued back, pretending to sulk as Clarke smile just grew.
She was about to reply when Lexa suddenly held up a hand to shush her and then pointed into the distance, where Clarke could just make out a deer if she strained her eyes.
Lexa leaned in close and whispered into Clarke's ear that she was going to drive it towards her and then she disappeared, scurrying up the nearest tree like an overgrown squirrel.
Clarke stared after her helplessly for a moment before following suit, pulling herself up a lot less gracefully than Lexa had.
A few moments later the deer came charging towards the trees they had been stood by, chased by Lexa, who was expertly throwing a handful of rocks to either side to drive it towards Clarke.
As it passed under the tree, Clarke leapt from the branch she was perched on with a fierce cry, tackling the animal around it's shoulders to the ground, where she plunged the knife she was holding straight into the side of its head which killed it instantly.
Lexa offered her hand to Clarke, who took it gratefully, standing up and looking down at the deer they had killed, "This should be able to feed about fifteen people tonight, Roan will be happy."
Nodding, Lexa quickly jumped up to catch hold of a low hanging branch and then snap it off. She tested it quickly before deeming it suitable, tying on their kill so they could carry it back to the city.
"Now I know how you survived before I had you dragged back to Polis." She said, as her and Clarke both shouldered an end of the branch each.
"Not quite." Clarke laughed, "There was more value in hunting panthers. Although they tended to fight back a lot more."
Lexa's eyes widened as she looked at her, "I thought the panther you faced was a single, chance occasion."
Clarke shook her head, "No, in the area I was hunting there was a fairly large population of them, and they were killing livestock in the villages so there was a lot of value in their pelts. I figured it was killing two birds with one stone."
Sighing, Lexa just looked at her, "You're an idiot, you could have been eaten."
"Probably would have been if Roan hadn't brought me back when he did, I had a few close calls." Clarke said easily, which didn't make Lexa feel any better as she sighed once more, Clarke was far too frivolous with her own safety.
When they arrived back at the edge of the forest, Ontari was waiting for them, with a string off rabbits and a fair sized wild boar.
"I thought I had done well, but you two have beaten me with a single kill." She called as they got closer, "It's impressive as well, deer can be very hard to hunt here because they seem to have gotten wise to all of our hunting methods."
Lexa laughed, "Clarke screamed at it and jumped out a tree, I doubt Azgeda have tried that yet."
"No we haven't." Ontari smiled, her eyes glinting humorously.
They headed back to the city as fast as they could with what they were carrying, greeted by Roan who had just met with the rest of the returning hunters.
"How is it that a Trikru and Skaikru team have brought back the best kill on Azgeda lands?" He called out to them.
Lexa chuckled as she handed off the weight she was carrying to one of Roan's people, "I'm the Commander Roan, I am superior in every way."
He shrugged off her teasing lightly and clapped his hands together as he addressed the people who were gathered, "With the Commander's help, we now have enough food to feed everyone for the first night in four. Everyone who is not in the hunting parties or clearing the streets, take this food and prepare it. Everyone will be able to come for a hot meal in two hours time."
The street was suddenly alive with activity, as his people surged forwards, carrying off everything the hunters had brought back, presumably to some kind of kitchen.
Ontari tapped Roan's shoulder quickly, waiting until her had spun round to face her to speak, "Where's Raven? I thought she's be down here when we got back."
Roan smiled and pointed up towards the base of the mountain again, where they could see a group of people working diligently as a much smaller person shouted orders and placed down some sort of wire.
"She has proved most affective at displacing the snow and ice that had frozen solid, if she continues at this pace then the time the restoration of our streets will take might be halved." He said appreciatively.
Clarke laughed shortly, "Oh trust me Roan, if Raven's determined it will be more than halved. What's she working with though? I didn't realize that she had brought that much stuff with her."
"Every one of our cities stores old world items we don't understand." Lexa said in explanation, "I assume she raided Azgeda's."
Roan nodded, "It was the first thing she asked about."
Ontari smiled and said her goodbyes to them all as she walked away, headed in Raven's direction.
Clarke and Lexa did the same thing a moment later, following her lead, eager to go and get some rest after their long journey and then their hunting trip.