A/N: New chapter! Yay! I actually really enjoyed writing this one today and I really hope you guys like it :) I love you all to bits and thank you to everyone who is continuously reviewing and enjoying this, you are all amazing. Also, if anyone has any ideas for any future chapters, can you please start telling me again? I have nearly burnt through my list of reader requests and I want to keep this fic something that we share rather than something that is mine. Please enjoy, and I can't wait to hear what you thing! xxx

"Octavia are you sure about this?" Lexa asked nervously as they stood on the edge of the forest, a hood pulled down low to hide Lexa's face as she slipped away from the city.

Octavia touched her arm reassuringly, "I am positive, now go, before you are seen and someone tells Clarke."

Lexa nodded quickly, reaching up to grab the saddle of her horse before hauling herself up onto the animals back. Inclining her head to Octavia, she kicked at the horses side, soon melting into the forest like a shadow as the sun set below the horizon.

"What do you mean she's missing?" Clarke yelled angrily as Lexa's guards floundered, trying to explain where their Commander had disappeared too.

"Don't shout at them Clarke." Octavia said softly, slipping into the room and waving her hand to dismiss them quickly, "They don't know where Lexa has gone, but I might."

Once the room was cleared, Clarke advanced on Octavia threateningly, "Start talking then Octavia, because she was supposed to meet me an hour ago."

"Clarke you need to calm down, we received a report this afternoon about an attack on a nearby village. It was a small settlement, and if the report was true, the chances were the people there were already dead. There wasn't enough justification for sending warriors so Lexa rode out to see for herself whether any had been spared." Octavia explained, keeping her voice low to ensure they wouldn't be overheard.

Clarke's eyes widened in confusion, "Why wouldn't she tell me? I am going to be her wife Octavia, there's no way she would just-"

"Lexa had to go immediately, and she couldn't afford to send a messenger for fear they would repeat her words."

"Then how do you know? And why couldn't anyone else find out, is the Commander showing compassion for her subjects that big of a weakness that it must be hidden?" Clarke shot back accusingly.

Octavia sighed, "Because I was there when she got the message Clarke. She specifically told me to keep it from you for as long as possible. The report stated that Skaikru were to blame, a small group of three."

Clarke took a breath to calm herself, "When was Lexa supposed to return?"

Octavia met her eyes gravely, "Over two hours ago, and if we going to avoid another war then we need to investigate and go after her ourselves now, before anyone can find out where she went."

Octavia led Clarke as they rode on horseback through the woods, moving swiftly as they navigated the uneven terrain, heading deeper and deeper into the forest.

Without warning, Clarke surged forwards and wheeled her horse round to block Octavia's path, "How much further Octavia? And are you sure you know where you are going? Because the trees are so thick, with a forest as dense as this, how is there a village around here."

Octavia shook her head impatiently, "We're nearly there, please just follow me a little longer Clarke."

Without waiting for an answer she dug her heels into her horses side, moving past Clarke in a quick trot.

They maintained their pace steadily for more than ten minutes, the sky turning to full black as they did, and then Clarke noticed Octavia had disappeared from her side, just as she broke through the treeline into a dazzling clearing, lit by the same luminous plants that Clarke had seen when they had first come down to the ground.

The moonlight cut through the trees to sparkle on the surface off a crystal clear pool of water, which was illuminated by water plants on the bottom so that each of the fish within could be seen in exquisite detail as they darted among one another and the reed lining the bottom of the pool.

Beside the water was a beautiful crimson blanket laid out, with spikes driven into the ground around it holding candles that could only have come from one place in Polis.

And their soft light caught their owners face, reflecting in Lexa's eyes as she sat waiting for Clarke, a gentle smile on her face as she gestured around them. "It's beautiful here isn't it Clarke?"

Clarke's mouth opened and closed helplessly as she slipped from her horses back, looping the reins over the branch of a tree before walking to Lexa and dropping to her knees on the blanket beside her.

"Octavia told me that you were missing, that you had gone to investigate an attack."

Lexa laughed brushing the hair back from Clarke's face that had escaped the simple braids she was wearing that day, "I am sorry to worry you, but you are difficult to surprise, and Octavia told me that you would be too enamored by all of this to be angry once you'd seen it. I hope that she was right."

"You did all of this for me?" Clarke asked, looking around again and this time really seeing the painstaking effort Lexa had gone to, even laying out a feast of all Clarke's favorite foods.

"When will you learn?" Lexa grinned happily, "I would do anything for you, because I love you."

"Don't say anything, we both know that's a promise you can't keep." Clarke said softly, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips.

Lexa sighed and took Clarke's hands, "I mean it Clarke, I will never betray you as I did on the Mountain. We are going to be married, tonight is a promise, a promise that even if I cannot put you first, you will never be excluded from the decisions I make. It's hardly what you deserve but-"

"It is the greatest gift you can offer me." Clarke smiled, "And it is all I will ever ask from you, no matter what happens, we are in it together, no matter what decisions you must make."

Lexa leaned in to kiss her, being met in the middle by Clarke, who pulled her body close until they were practically tangled together.

"Now seeing as how you made me worry for hours about you," Clarke laughed, pulling back to lean their heads together, "How about we have something to eat. I'm famished."

Hours after all the food had been eaten, they lay side by side, looking up at the sky through the gaps in the trees.

"I meant to ask, I saw these plants when we first arrived, but then I didn't see them glow again until tonight." Clarke said, raising her head to look at Lexa curiously.

Lexa smiled at her, reaching out to run her fingers over the luminescent moss that was their only light source now that her candles had burnt away to nothing, "The moss glows at different times in the years, usually on the warmer nights, this close to winter it is usually dormant shall we say. But sometimes on a warm night it will glow just as bright as it does during the summer months. Some people believe that it is a blessing on young lovers to sleep together under the light of it, that the moss itself blesses their union by lighting up all the dark parts of themselves and burning them away so they can live their lives unburdened by their pasts."

"Do you believe that?" Clarke asked, grinning slightly as Lexa shook her head.

"It's an old superstition, one that has all but died out now."

Clarke leaned in closer, "Perhaps, but surely it couldn't hurt to try it."

Lexa laughed aloud as she just pulled Clarke in in response, pressing their lips together, "No it couldn't."