Clarke shoots upward from her bed, a line of cold sweat beading down her forehead. Octavia follows, hearing the low scream the younger girl had emitted.
"Princess?" Octavia asks voice muffled from sleep, "Did you have another nightmare, honey?"
"Yes," the blonde mumbles back, falling back onto the makeshift bed, "It's nothing, O, go back to sleep."
"No. Clarke, we seriously have to talk about this."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"You're leaving tomorrow. I get it, you're trying to be brave and slay your demons, but please, Clarke. You still get nightmares and panic attacks and god knows what would happen if we are separated." Clarke says nothing, but cuddles against Octavia. "You are our princess, and if anything happens to you, both of us would lose our sanity. And right now, we just came to the ground, and now your leaving. It's too soon."
"Octavia, I get that, but I really can't let my fears get in the way of this. We are leaders, and we have to make sacrifices."
"I'm really not sure about this," the brunette responds, pulling Clarke even closer to her.
The blonde sighs, "I'm going this for everyone."
"I love you, Clarke. If you go, you have to promise to radio in every day."
"Promise. Love you too."
They stay in that position until the younger of the two sighs, "I'm going to go take a walk."
Octavia shifts slightly, "Clarke."
"I need to clear my head, O. It will only be for a little bit."
"Fine. Be back soon, or I'm gonna come looking for you."
"'kay, and don't wake Rae up. She needs sleep." The blonde says, eyeing her other sleeping friend. Raven had stayed up very late to make two of their radios work so they could talk to each other.
"I know," Octavia replies, letting her grip on Clarke go. The blonde stands up, slowly, as a response. She quickly puts on her shoes on but doesn't bother with putting on a jacket. It's chilly outside, but the ark's average temperature was about the same as it was outside. She walks outside of the tent and goes towards a group of baby trees outside of the gate.
She sits down in front of one of the tall ones and puts her palms on the ground. Clarke takes a deep breath, calming herself, before speaking. "Hey, Wells." Tears form in her eyes when she doesn't hear a response, "Wells. Oh, god, I'm so sorry."
The silence in the air is suffocating, and Clarke feels like she's choking from it. "I know you came down to protect me. I'm so sorry I treated you so bad when we dropped down. I was so caught up with Octavia and Raven that I completely forgot about you. And when Murphy and the others found your body, I didn't want to believe it."
"I postponed talking to you for so long, but now that I'm leaving, it just seems stupid of me to be this selfish. And now, Wells, we might declare war on your dad and the ark. I really don't want to, Wells, I'm so sorry." Clarke gives out a small sob, burying her face in her hands, "I'm so sorry, I'm so so so sorry Ells, I'm so sorry. I...I just keep on thinking about all the times you, me, your dad and my dad used to watch those soccer matches or when he taught me how to play chess, or all those happy memories we had together. I know you're mad at me for what I did, for trying to kill your dad, but please forgive me, Wells, please. I already get nightmares about what I did to all those people, and I really need your forgiveness."
There's the rustling of leaves, and Clarke wipes her tears with the back of her hand. She stands up, before remembering something, "Oh! Wells, also, did you know that I'm leaving tomorrow? It's good news, I guess because it means that the grounders are getting along with us. I'm kinda scared, to be honest, being so far away from home. I guess I won't be able to talk to you either unless your ghost follows me around."
Clarke laughs to herself for a second, thinking that Wells following her around would be ridiculous. Suddenly, she perks up and straightens her back. "You know, Wells, my dad used to tell me that remember? To always look at the bright side of things. I was sad last night about leaving, but now I feel like it could be a fresh start. An adventure for me, Rae, and Tavia."
The blonde smiles to herself but it drops when she hears a loud noise. She turns around, surprised to see a glow coming from the woods behind her.
"May we meet again," She promises her dead friend as she pulls out a dagger from her right boot and walks toward the light. At first, she only sees a fire but as she walks closer, she sees a few tents surrounding the flame. There are warriors talking in a circle, eating something that smells like roasted meat.
Anya sees her first, nudging Lexa. Lincoln smiles at Clarke, eyes kind, and now everyone is looking at the lone sky girl standing in the shadows. It's dark outside, still very early morning, so the only thing brightening the area is the fire.
Clarke notices that everyone was now looking at her, so she nervously clears her throat, "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I was just taking a walk. I can go back now." She turns away, about to leave, but Lexa stops her.
"No, Clarke, wait. You don't need to feel obliged to leave. In fact, since your coming with us in the morning, why don't you meet the guards and warriors that have been accompanying us? They will be with us on our trip back and they will be protecting you in Polis. "
Clarke blinks slowly, "Uh, yeah, sure I guess." After a moment of hesitation, she walks towards the group. She suddenly feels nervous, not knowing how well the other warriors would accept her. "Um, well, hi. I'm Clarke Griffin and I'm gonna be coming with you to Polis."
One tall broad man with unruly hair chuckles, "This one's special."
The blonde looks even more uncomfortable at the man's comment, and the rest of the warriors join in smiling at the girl's awkwardness.
"She looks strong too," Another woman murmurs to Indra. She looks younger than her but clearly older than Clarke. The woman looks mischevious, "Don't be shy, Klark, come and sit down." Her voice is thick of accent as she winks at Clarke.
"Shof op, Ontari," Anya snorts. "Em ste na be ai sis." She is gonna be my sister.
Lexa glares at both Ontari and Anya from the corner of her eye, but says nothing, making a mental note to deal with them later. "What are you doing up so early, Clarke?"
"I had a nightmare." The new warriors all seem surprised at this confession, so Clarke clarifies, "It's nothing. Nothing new. Anyway, I could ask you guys the same question. Shouldn't you guys be asleep?"
"We wake up very early, and we all have to say alert."
"Alert from what? You can trust us. We won't do anything."
Lexa sighs, "Not just from your people. There may be scouts from other clans lurking around."
"But I thought all the clans were all friends?"
"It's more complicated than that," Indra joins in. "Heda has made peace among the 12 clans. But with you children dropping down, many clans want to kidnap you for there own needs."
Gustus nods, "Also, just because the clans were united, they still have tensions with each other. Trigedakru and Azgeda are on the verge of war, they have been since the clans aligned."
Clarke watches as Ontari winces at the name Azgeda, whatever it was. "Like the stations," she whispers, unaware that all eyes are back at her.
"Stations?"
"We had stations on the ark. Some were rich, others poor. People from different stations hated each other. Mostly because the rich, important people had food to eat, and everyone else did not have as much as them." The blonde fiddles with a thing on her wrist, "I was raised in a so-called rich station. Raven and Octavia were raised in so-called poor stations."
"Raven, Octavia, and you, together huh?" one of heda's guards asks. He has no idea what the relationship between the three was, but from what he could see, they were very close.
Clarke's mouth widens in horror, "EW! EW! EWWWW!"
The man looks at Gustus for an explanation, only to see the man smiling slightly.
Clarke closes her eyes and grimaces. "Yuck. I can't even- just ugh." Everyone is watching the blonde closely now, finding her reaction amusing. She gags slightly, "Ew. Oh my god, why. Why did you have to put that image in my head?"
Lexa clears her throat, trying to cover up her smile, "Clarke, did you pack your things yet? We need to leave as soon as possible."
The smile and laugh fall from Clarke's face. "Right, I still need to do that, but I don't really have any stuff in the first place, so I'm all set, I guess."
"So you're ready to leave?"
"Can we wait until Rae and O wake up? I still need to say," the young girl stops abruptly, almost sadly. "I have to say bye."
Lexa nods, "We can leave after."
"I can't believe I have to say bye."
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Reviews are always appreciated and they help me write faster.
-Lilli