Hi guys,

Sorry for the wait, but I went back to work this week meaning I have less time to work on the chapters. But I finally finished the next chapter!

The first part of the chapter written in italics is a flashback. Afterwards we're back to the present.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

Chapter 2

Kneeling down onto the soft soil of the forest pushing the once clean pants into the dark green moss, the blonde girl listened carefully for any telltale sounds of another person moving through the woods. She knew he was there somewhere. She had seen his footsteps on the ground, had heard him moving between the trees. But for now all she heard was silence.

The hunter became the hunted.

Slowly Clarke moved away from her place between some gigantic, green bushes and sneaked her way through the forest, her steps barely audible though deliberately leaving prints on the forest soil. The blonde smirked, proud of her skill of moving around without leaving any sounds. She had always loved to sneak up to people.

After leaving enough traces of herself on the ground the blue-eyed girl circled back and almost flew over the ground until she found what she was looking for. The big, old tree would give her the perfect advantage point. Climbing quickly up the tree Clarke settled on a branch big enough to carry her weight. Now all she had to do was wait.

Clarke didn't know how long she had sat there up on the tree until she finally heard something. Her head snapped up when she heard the snapping of a stick. It was a rookie mistake and she didn't know if it had been made intentionally or not. Normally he wasn't someone to reveal himself like that.

A head with short black locks came into her view a few seconds later, blue eyes following the careful steps being made to remain silent. But it was too late for her eyes had already locked onto her target the moment she had seen him.

Her lips formed a triumphal smile and her eyes shone mischievously. It wouldn't take much longer and he'd be directly under the branch she was waiting on, painfully unaware of her current location.

Unaware of her watching his every move.

It only took him a few more steps to arrive at the exact spot she wanted him to be. Acting quickly Clarke got into position and took a deep breath, pushing herself off the rustic bark of the branch and letting herself fall. It wasn't a high distance, the branch having been just high enough to be out of sight.

The rustling of the leaves had alarmed the boy of her presence but it had been already too late, he looked up in surprise only seeing blonde, wild hair and a small body flying down towards him and in the next moment he found himself lying on the ground, breath knocked out of him by the impact of the girl's body.

Groaning, he opened his eyes again gazing directly into the smiling face of his best friend, a set of blue glancing happily down at him.

"I got you!" Clarke stated smugly, not in the least bit in hurry to move off of him.

"Please! I could've caught you two times before now. I just wanted to give you a chance."

Clarke scoffed. "Keep telling yourself that."

Slinging his arms around Clarke's body, the dark haired boy chanced their position in a quick move putting his right arm down onto her collar bone and his knee pushed slightly into her stomach, though not enough to cause her pain. "Back at the white stone, you've been hiding behind an oak tree. At the last clearing you've managed to find a little alcove."

The blonde narrowed her eyes thinking back to these moments. She had been so sure he hadn't noticed her. She hit him into his rips as she stared grumpily up to him.

"Hey!"

"Lincoln! I don't want you to just let me win! The rules are that the first one able to sneak up to the other wins. If what you say is true you've already won twice!"

Lincoln was now grinning slyly at her. "I know."

"Urrgh, you're unbelievable!"

Lincoln shrugged and moved off of her, offering her his hand to help her up from the ground. "As quiet as you might be, you're still leaving too many traces. But you're on the right way."

Lincoln was a tall but scrawny boy living in the same village as her. He was around her age and they'd been friends ever since she could remember. Just like her, Lincoln was a peacefully person. Though deciding to enter the path of becoming a warrior he wasn't interested in inflicting senselessly pain. He admired Clarke's older brother, Nyko, for being a skilled warrior while never forgetting his believes and avoiding unnecessary deaths.

Clarke had to give it to Lincoln for being better with a sword, though she never let him forget that she was more skilled with a bow than he was. The blonde had spent quite some time laughing whenever Lincoln would lose an arrow, or if he'd actually managed to fire one she'd smirk in his direction when the arrow missed its target.

"We should head back. We've been gone for too long." Lincoln stated as he looked up to the sky to estimate the time of the day, though the many trees didn't give a clear view.

"You're right."

The boy stepped forward to begin their walk back to the clearing where they had started their little game. He managed five steps when something suddenly caught onto his foot, sending him crashing down to the ground.

"Did you just…?" He asked glancing up at his best friend yet already knowing the answer.

Clarke lifted her brow challengingly. "You know, you're really clumsy sometimes."

Her uplifted lips told him everything he needed to know. Well, two could play the game. In a swift move Lincoln rolled over and shot his leg against Clarke's from behind her, watching satisfied the blonde's merciless fall onto her ass.

"Oh, you little-"

"I'm not little. I'm bigger than you." Lincoln quickly pointed out.

"Are you two done now?" A deep, calm voice interrupted their bickering. Two sets of eyes flickered over to see Nyko standing a few feet away from them, arms crossed in front of him as he stared at them unamused. "Good, then maybe we all can continue searching for the plants we have planned to collect. I've already found a few but seeing that you two seem to have enough energy left, we'll search for some more. How does that sound?"

"Perfect."

"Great."

Both stated at the same time. Nyko nodded satisfied with their answer and turned around, not waiting for them as he walked carefully back to where he had come from. The moment Nyko disappeared again among the trees the two kids scrambled up and hastily followed the healer in his search for healing plants.

For the next hour the three moved silently through the forest, collecting different plants and herbs. Now and then Clarke and Lincoln would throw some dirt or nuts at each other, though always checking beforehand if Nyko was looking their way.

Lost in thoughts Clarke just climbed on a big log ready to jump down on the other side of it when suddenly a hand clasped around her arm stopping her. Surprised the blonde turned around and noticed Nyko staring at something on her forearm. When he let go Clarke lifted the arm up to see some black liquid smudging her shirt.

"I didn't notice." Clarke breahted, immediately feeling bad for being so careless.

Nyko sighed, pulling out his water canteen to clean the small cut on her arm. "You need to be more careful. No one must know about this, Clarke. We've talked about this."

Clarke thought back to the first moment she had seen the dark color of her blood. She hadn't watched out as she had run through the forest and had ended up stumbling down, scraping her knee. Back then she had been confused as to why her blood was black while she had often seen the blood of other people due to Nyko's occupation as a healer, and it had always been a deep red.

Confused and worried about the tar-like blood the blonde had made her way to her brother as fast as she could. Nyko had taken one look at her knee and had calmed down the hysterical child, gently cleaning and bandaging the wound.

Afterwards Nyko had told her that everything was fine, that there were people out there which had black blood, nightblood as it was called. At her question of why they had black blood instead of the normal red, her brother had only answered that just like the others with black blood, Clarke was special. But her blood would also put her in danger, so she had had to hide the fact from the others – even their parents. No one was allowed to know.

At that day Clarke had promised her brother that she'll be careful and that no one would ever learn of her nightblood.

What she didn't know back then was that life had its own plan.

Clarke stared out of the window, letting her gaze wander over the city lying beneath her. Everything looked like a miniature edition from one of the upper levels of the tower Heda Sanco and the nightbloods were residing.

She had to admit that Polis was fascinating. So many people, traders, goods. It had been exciting to ride through the busy streets, her eyes constantly moving around to take everything in. All she had known all of her life was the little village she had grown up in, and the surrounding villages. The biggest place she had ever visited with her brother, Nyko, was TonDC.

Nyko.

She missed her big brother and her parents. She had been careful like always, never showing anyone that she was a nightblood. But somehow, there must have been someone who had seen her little cut. It hadn't been a bad wound, but enough for the black liquid to make its way to the surface. She didn't know if it had been someone she knew or one of the travelers who had been staying at their village for two days.

Clarke had been obvious to the fact that she had been discovered by someone, and the next thing she knew was that warriors made their way into their little home and dragging her out, kicking and screaming. Nyko had tried to free her from the firm grip the huge men had on her, while her mother was frighteningly hurrying after them. Her father had been out in the woods to collect new firewood.

Nyko had taken down one of the men and went for the other one when a powerful voice had cut through the sunny day, ordering Nyko to stand down. Her eyes had flickered behind her and saw Anya, their leader, sitting high atop her horse, looking stoically at the scene.

The man who had held her in his grip let her go and looked after his comrade. Anya stayed on the horse while she told Clarke that she will be following her orders or else she will kill her family for her disobedience.

With nothing else left to do, Clarke had done the one thing that had ensured her family's safety. The blonde had tried to keep the tears at bay as she had hugged her mother goodbye, trying to commit her mother's looks, scent and her voice to memory.

She did the same with Nyko, relishing for the last time his strong arms around her. Those arms that always had made her feel protected from any danger, yet would not be able to continue to do so. She had squeezed him with her own arms wound tightly around his waist and had her head buried deeply into his neck.

Nyko had whispered words of reassurance into her ears, had told her that everything would be fine. Clarke had nodded then, yet both of them had known that nothing would be fine.

It had taken them four days to arrive in Polis, the blonde had followed Anya to the tower she knew the commander would be in. Curious gazes had followed her the whole way to the tower and up to the throne room. Clarke had been slightly frightened as she stood before their heda, not knowing what he would do to her for her and her family's attempt to keep her hidden from him.

Though all he had done was greeting her briefly and telling the guards to lead her to the room the nightbloods were staying in. Clarke did not once look back at the people in the throne room, feeling their glances on her had been enough.

As she had been led to the room she would be staying in Clarke had been informed that her fellow nightbloods were currently attending their last lesson of the day and would be returning to their room soon.

Clarke was glad for the short time she had for herself. She hadn't been able to be on her own since Anya and her guards had come to her home, and once she would join the other nightbloods the blonde knew that moments for herself would be rare.

She knew the predicament she was in, had seen the pearls of sweat collecting on his temple, the overall weak state of their heda despite him trying to appear as the strong and powerful man he was - or at least should be. And with her fourteen years she certainly was too old to join the others whom surely had trained for years together, placing her at a disadvantage she had no chance to change.

Her right hand reached for the pendant hanging loosely on a chain around her neck, three oval figures with sharp ends intertwined with each other. It was the only thing tying her to her unknown origin roots. Clarke sometimes found herself wondering the meaning behind the symbol, but was never able to find something out. She never took it off, though. It was a part of her past. It belonged to her, telling a story she had yet to find out.

If she would able to stay alive long enough to find out, that was.

The opening of a door drew her out of her thoughts and she turned around, her eyes wandering to the source of the noise. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw the boy standing in front of the other nightbloods only two steps into the room, broad and tall. His dark eyes locked onto her own and she felt a shudder run down her back. A long scar ran from the corner of his right eye down his cheek. His whole posture radiated danger. A ray of sun shine hit his face and she was able to notice the brownish color of his eyes, though Clarke thought that the blackness suited him more.

Clarke felt like his eyes were on her for an eternity, but it really had been seconds until he turned to the right side of the room, disinterested. Her eyes stayed on him, almost as if she expected him to attack her any second. However he seemed to completely ignore her presence.

Her attention was brought back to the other nightbloods as she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Five other people had entered and though they had spread out to their own parts of the room, each of their eyes flickered over to her occasionally. Only one girl seemed curious enough to keep moving into her direction, just stopping two feet from Clarke.

The first thing Clarke had noticed about her were her fire red hair falling over her shoulders. Her brown eyes scanned her carefully from her head down to her feet. Several tribal designs marked her skin. The girl's eyes made their way up to her eyes again, a friendly yet slightly cocky smile formed on her lips. "You must be the new one. Titus already informed us of your arrival."

"I'm Clarke." The blonde nightblood said, returning the girl's smile. Maybe they weren't too mean as she had thought. Well, honestly she had no idea what to expect from the fellow nightbloods. She had just hoped they wouldn't give her a hard time while she worked out a plan to stay alive. Her eyes briefly made their way back to the tall nightblood boy whom kept ignoring her.

The red haired girl chuckled as she saw Clarke's apprehensive glance towards their fellow nightblood. "Ignore Khalan. For him you're just another threat."

Curiously, Clarke looked back to the girl. "And you don't see me like this?"

"Oh, I don't feel threatened by you. I've spent years training with the nightbloods. You're just a little girl." She replied cockily, her smile almost becoming predatory. "My name is Nadora, by the way."

"Nadora, leave the new one alone. You've got enough time to play your games." A male voice entered their conversation. A dark blonde haired boy with green eyes came into view. He was almost as tall as the one whom seemed to wear the nightblood also in his eyes, though he wasn't as defined as he was. This one was rather skinny in contrast to the other males in the room.

He smiled at her, offering his arm to greet her. "Hi, I'm Pinto. Probably the best archer you've ever laid your eyes on." He winked at her and his easy going demeanor helped Clarke to relax a little. He leant into her as if he was about to tell her a secret, though his voice was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "If you ever feel the need to have some fun or even an adventure, I'm your man. I know my way around Polis."

"I'll keep it in mind." Clarke replied, not knowing what to say else.

"I wouldn't, if you want to stay out of trouble. He's known for creating a mess. Titus has to reprimand him more often than not." A tall and slim brunette spoke up. She sat down onto one of the beds and Clarke guessed that this was her space of the room. Her hazel eyes glanced kindly to the three nightbloods standing near the window. "I'm Beori. It's nice to meet you, Clarke."

"You, too."

"Beori is right. If you want to be on the bad side of Titus, you do whatever Pinto tells you to do." Nadora said, bumping her elbow teasingly into Pinto's side.

"Hey! I'm just not as starchy as you are. A little fun never hurt, right Olev?" The blonde boy looked to a black haired boy whom sat on one of the beds near the door, a book in his hands. Olev winked briefly at Clarke and turned his attention back to his book. Pinto looked back to Clarke and shrugged, his smile never leaving his lips. "If you ever have questions about the history of Polis, the clans or anything else, Olev is your man. He's a walking history book. But too boring if you ask me."

"Maybe you should all concentrate more on your fighting skills than books and little boy's adventures. Then maybe one of you would have actually a chance at the conclave." A boy with a bald head and a short strip of black hair on the middle of his head looked over to the others. Clarke hadn't noticed him before, as unbelievable as that was. If she had thought that Khalan was huge, this boy managed to place Khalan on the second pedestal. His muscles were well-defined and he was easily one head taller than Khalan. Clarke had no doubt in her mind that he could easily take her down in a few seconds, a minute if he wanted to have his fun first.

In that moment while her eyes wandered back and forth between Khalan and this boy, Clarke knew instantly that she was utterly screwed. There was no chance that she could beat one of them in a fight, even less both of them.

"May we introduce you to Tremot, Clarke? He's one of the oldest and likes to think he's the best fighter of us." Pinto said, his eyes bore a hole into the back of Tremot. It was clear that Pinto didn't like him that much.

"I correct my earlier statement, Pinto." Tremot looked over his shoulder, a sickening smile grazed his features. "Maybe you should enjoy life as long as you still can."

It was an obvious threat, though no one dared to say anything. The room fell silent as Tremot turned back around while Pinto shot daggers at him.

Beori cleared her throat trying to lighten up the mood again by changing the topic. "Which clan are you belonging to, Clarke?"

"I'm Trikru." Clarke smiled, proud of her clan. She loved her people, even if they were the reason she ended up here in Polis in the midst of the nightbloods, waiting for the impending conclave.

"Damn!" Pinto exclaimed and Nadora smirked at him.

"I expect your payment sometime this week, my friend." She replied cheekily.

"I really thought that she'd be Azgeda. I heard rumors that they have a nightblood of their own."

"If Azgeda would have a nightblood, they would be here with us, don't you think? They wouldn't pass up the chance of placing an Azgeda nightblood on the throne. Besides, I saw Lexa's First escort Clarke into Polis, meaning that she had to be Trikru." Nadora explained.

"What? You cheated!"

The red head scoffed. "If you would have kept your attention on your environment instead of searching for adventures, you would have noticed that fact."

"Who's Lexa?" Clarke blurted out. She had noticed eight beds which seemed to be occupied by the nightbloods, but there were only six of them in the room. The blonde took a wild guess at this Lexa being the seventh nightblood, with another one left for unknown reasons.

"Lexa's one of us, though she doesn't engage much with any of us. She keeps her distance." Beori replied.

Nadora snorted. "She's Titus' favorite."

Clarke could see Tremot's back stiffening. Lexa being Titus' favorite seemed to sit wrong with him. She had no doubt that he wanted to be the best of all of them, he wanted to be the favorite. But he must lack something that Lexa didn't. It was obvious to Clarke that there was a certain tension between some of her new family.

"You'll meet her soon enough. The only free bed is actually next to hers." Pinto said and walked over to his own bed. "The other empty bed at the window is already taken by Illiams. He's with his First back within his clan's lands to celebrate some special clan day. Should be back soon, though."

Clarke had the feeling that the next few days will be quite interesting. She just hoped that they wouldn't be her last.

Hope you like it. Please drop a comment to voice your thoughts.