Hi guys,

I'm sorry for the wait. Work has been kicking my ass lately. And I struggled a bit with this chapter. I hope it's better than I think it turned out. I'm not quite happy with the flashback, but it won't get any better.

I wish you all happy Easter holidays!

Enjoy the update.

Chapter 7

Clarke took a deep breath feeling a slight breeze caressing her cheek enjoying the first real day of spring after a hard and cold winter. It wasn't too warm yet though pleasantly enough in the sun.

Oh, how she had missed those warm sunrays on her skin.

"Don't fall asleep up there!" Clarke heard Lincoln's teasing voice from further down and smiled. Officially Nyko was her only sibling, but she felt like she actually had two brothers. Lincoln felt as much like family as Nyko.

Finally opening her eyes the blonde took a few steps backwards, quickly taking in another deep breath before she broke out in a sprint. A few feet further she let out a yell as she jumped, feeling for a brief moment the excitement of being weightless until her body plunged into the luke-warm water of the lake close to their village.

After a few seconds she surfaced again, inhaling some fresh air as she pushed her hair out of her face with her hands.

"Finally! I thought you'll never jump."

"As if I'd miss the chance to spend some time in the lake, Lincoln. It's been too long." Clarke replied laying back to let herself float in the water while the sun shone down onto her.

Lincoln chuckled. "Yeah, you definitely needed this bath."

"Are you saying I stink?" Clarke gasped.

"Well, you did work in the horse stable this morning."

"You little…" The blonde dove at her friend who already swam into the other direction to get away from her, his laughter carrying over to her.

Swimming quickly Clarke had no problems catching up to him. Lincoln may be taller and stronger than her but the blonde had always been the faster one of the two. She jumped onto his back pushing him under water, immediately following him when she felt him pulling away from her. It didn't take long to notice the place Lincoln was diving to.

A few years ago they had found a little hut on the ground of the lake. Of course they had been quite thrilled about their discovery albeit it was a rather small hut. The wooden hut looked like it had been flooded for some years now. The both had spent more than enough time looking over the insides of the hut, swimming either through the door or one of the windows.

Of course there wasn't much inside but it was a fun place to dive through.

Clarke saw Lincoln entering the hut through one of the windows, just a bit ahead of her. She thought about diving over the roof and catch up to Lincoln on the other side of it when her eyes noticed something on the ground of the lake.

Quickly returning to the surface the blonde took a deep breath before she went under water again, smoothly moving through the water towards the position she had seen the object on the ground.

Running her hand slowly through the sand until her fingers touched the mysterious object. As soon as it was safely in her hand Clarke began to swim back to the surface. Pulling her hair out of her face she lifted the roundish object and inspected it more closely. It had a brownish casing and in the middle was a cracked glass. Inside the glass was one long figure beginning on one side and ending on the other. The background looked light one big star with letters on each big line of the star.

"What do you have there?"

Eyes flickering up to find Lincoln staring curiously at the object in his friends' hand. Clarke glanced back down at the object and shook her head. "I don't know. I found it on the ground."

"Must've been laying there for a while."

"Whatever it is, I think it's broken."

Lincoln was just about to say something when suddenly a pained cry broke through the otherwise peaceful silence. Two sets of eyes immediately turned towards the direction of the road. It didn't take long before more screams joined the first one. Not waiting any longer than necessary both swam quickly back to the shore.

In their haste they didn't even dry themselves before putting on their clothes again. The noise from the road clearly stated that whatever was going on wasn't a harmless child's play. The friends picked up their weapons, Lincoln his sword and Clarke her bow and the quiver with her arrows, and hurried towards the source of the noise.

Fortunately it was closer to the lake than they had first thought. It didn't take long until they came in sight of two merchants with a big, wooden cart filled with their goods. Both, the older man and his younger companion were surrounded by five attackers which looked like Azgeda. The older man pressed his right hand onto his right tight as blood seeped through his fingers, his face pulled into a painful grimace. The younger boy held his sword up trying to protect himself and his wounded companion.

Clarke didn't hesitate once as she heard Lincoln pulling out his own sword and quickly grabbed an arrow, aiming at the closest to the two men. The blonde let go of the arrow as soon as she heard Lincoln's battle cry, immediately reaching for the next arrow before the first one even met its target.

Satisfied Clarke watched as the first of the Azgeda fell on his knees, an arrow pierced through his heart.

One down, four more to go.

Lincoln drew the attention of the two closest to him while the other two continued to attack the two merchants. Knowing that Lincoln could hold his own for some time the blonde aimed her second arrow at one of the two warriors the boy was fending bravely off on his own.

The arrow found its home in the warrior's throat, leaving him a blood gurgling mess on the ground.

Once again reaching for another arrow Clarke heard a warning yell from Lincoln and the blonde was barely able to avoid the sharp sword which would have easily beheaded her if she hadn't moved. She cursed under her breath for not having noticed that one of the warriors Lincoln was fighting against having made his way towards her after noticing the female archer standing a little off the side taking out one of his friends after the other.

The Azgeda warrior didn't wait long with his next attack and once again Clarke jumped backwards to avoid it. Trying to put some distance between herself and the attacker the blonde girl moved a few more steps away and readied the arrow she had originally wanted to shoot at the other attacker of the merchants.

She was just about to let go of the arrow as the Azgeda warrior who had already made his way over to her again paused and both, Clarke and the attacker glanced surprised down at his torso where the top of a sword stood out. Soon the attacker fell to the ground and Clarke stared into the face of Lincoln who had come to her help.

Remembering the last of the five attackers Clarke changed the direction and shot the arrow at the remaining Azgeda warrior thus ending the raid of the Azgeda warriors.

Clarke walked over to Lincoln and nodded at him. "Thanks."

"No thanks needed. I'll always have your back, you know that."

Smiling at her friend she squeezed his arm once again grateful for having him as her best friend. She knew that she could always relay on him to have her back, no matter what.

Together they made their way to the two merchants, the younger one took a closer look at the wound of his companion. Upon noticing the arrival of Clarke and Lincoln the boy looked up and smiled at them, his white teeth a stark contrast to his otherwise dark skin. "Thanks for helping me and my father. I don't know how to reward you for your help."

"We don't need a reward. Seeing you two alive is all we need."

"May I?" Clarke asked, motioning at the bleeding wound of his father who had yet to look up from his wound. The pain was literally written in his face as it was still contorted with pain. "I'm training to become a healer."

"We'd be grateful for your help."

Clarke stepped closer to the injured man and knelt down to take a look on the wound. It was a deep cut but it didn't look to serious. Sterilizing and binding it should be enough to stop the bleeding, and after a few days of rest Clarke guessed that the man should be able to walk around painlessly again. "It doesn't seem too serious. Our village isn't far, my brother is a healer. He can help your father."

"Once again, I can't express how grateful we are for your help."

The three of them made some space on the cart so that the injured father could sit down while the others moved the cart towards the nearby village. It didn't take long until they reached the safety of the village, having kept a close eye on their surroundings in case there were more Azgeda in the area.

While the two boys continued to move the cart further into the village Clarke quickly took off in search for her brother. Thankfully Nyko wasn't too far away and was able to look after the merchant as soon as they reached the middle of the village.

The father and the son were following Nyko inside the healer's house and after a short goodbye to Lincoln who made his way home Clarke followed the men inside the house. It didn't take long to take care of the wound and soon the man laid on a cot resting his leg while his son watched over him.

The blonde girl sat on a chair at the other side of the house, watching the little family while playing absently with the strange object she had found in the lake.

"What do you have there?"

Coming back to the present Clarke blinked twice before she put her attention on her brother who took a seat next to her. After a beat she realized that her brother had caught sight of the object in her hands. "Oh, this? I don't know. I found it while Lincoln and I swum in the lake earlier."

"May I?" Clarke nodded and held out the object for her brother. He stared thoughtfully at it before he hummed slightly and a small smile broke out on his lips. "I've seen something like this once before. On the table of a merchant in Polis. It's an old compass."

"A compass?"

"Yes," Nyko nodded, handing it back to his sister. "Before the great war, people used compasses to navigate. It helped them to never get lost."

"How?"

"Oh, I don't know exactly how it worked." Nyko laughed heartily. His sister had always been a curious one. Always a question on her lips. "But with the compass, one was able to always find their way home."

The blonde looked down at the compass in her hand, mulling over the fact that this little thing helped people to find their way through the many lands of the world.

How strange that even the smallest thing could mean so much.

"How many people have you already treated?" Clarke asked curiously, eyes resting on Costia who was sitting opposite of her gazing at the drawing Clarke had made for her.

At first Clarke didn't know what to draw for the black haired healer because she didn't know her well enough to know what she liked, though it didn't take too long before an idea popped up, remembering the beautiful sight from the training area outside of Polis. Clarke had been sure that Costia would appreciate the drawing of Polis she had made for her.

"A few. Mostly I just help my teacher, handing him things or preparing treatments. Though he did tell me that he'll soon give me more responsibilities." The girl replied as her finger gently traced the lines of the picture, staring amazingly at the authentic drawing of Polis. She was stunned at Clarke's talent and didn't find any words to describe her wonderment of how someone like Clarke could create something like this drawing with just her own hands and a few utensils. "This is beautiful, Clarke. You're really talented. I'm sure you could easily live off on this craftsmanship here in Polis."

Clarke chuckled, trying to hide the blush that was threatening to flush over her cheeks. In reality Clarke had some difficulties with this drawing, it had been some time she had drawn something and remembering all the details of the view from the training area. She had worked on this piece for two days before she was satisfied with its outcome.

In the meantime Clarke and Costia had grown closer spending time together, sometimes lounging around the booths of their friends and sometimes just roaming through the streets of Polis. Costia had even introduced her to her teacher, Woqan.

Woqan was a respected man among the citizen of Polis, as the head healer of the city he had treated quite the amount of people, variating from little injuries to life-threatening wounds. He was a busy man because injuries weren't a rare occurrence in their community, though rumors had it that he was solely concentrating on the health of their heda at the moment. Costia did neither decline it nor confirm it, yet Clarke knew that there was no way Polis' best healer wouldn't be working on Heda Sanco.

Costia had shown her the booths with the best foods and other interesting goods. It felt good to spend time with someone her own age who didn't remind her of her future, and she was able to forget about all her troubles. At least for some time. They laughed a lot and ignored Clarke's nightblood and its meaning.

The blonde girl even found herself more often than not at the home of Mira and Costia, sharing the last meal of the day with them instead of joining the other nightbloods. It wasn't required for them to eat together so Clarke opted to stay with her friends as long as she could.

Clarke had been torn away from her family back home and she missed them dearly. However she slowly was building a new one here in Polis, carefully sewing up a safety net for herself. A net of people she knew will have her back no matter what.

Through Costia Clarke even picked up her training as a healer. It wasn't ideal and she couldn't put as much energy in it as she'd like, but at least she could work on her skills. She hoped her brother will be proud of her if he'd know that she continued her training even when she wasn't able to learn from him.

Her days started to get brighter.

Lexa took a deep breath, heart beating slightly faster as she gripped securely on her training sword while she waited for Nadora to get back up from the floor. She used the brief moment to enjoy the warm sun shining down on her face, knowing that the days would soon begin to shorten and the days will become cooler as winter neared.

She heard a quiet thud from afar and flickered her eyes to her right to gaze at a scene she had grown used to see during their training, familiar sun blonde hair laid scattered on the dirty ground as the girl once again landed hard on it. Lexa almost felt bad for her, time was slowly but surely running out and Clarke's improvements were very little after having trained with them for almost two weeks now.

The brunette knew that the girl was trying to adapt as quickly as possible, but it would probably help more if someone would completely concentrate on her and show her the ropes from the very beginning, not throwing her into a group of people whom already knew how to fight and were only honing their style and learn a few more tricks here and there.

Yet their teachers didn't care a lot about this difference in knowledge almost treating Clarke as an unwanted addition to the group, only here with them in Polis because it was demanded that all nightblood were to live in Polis and train under the commander's eyes.

But Clarke had potential. Lexa had seen it when the blonde had taken down Tremot a few days back, even if she'd have died long before that in a real fight. Clarke was stubborn. Stubborn and willing to learn, and if someone would pay more attention to her Lexa was sure she'd quickly catch up to their level.

One thing Lexa had to admit was that she was slowly warming up to the blonde's presence in her life, her eyes always searching shamefully around the group of nightbloods until they rested on blonde hair and blue eyes. Although she never had to search long for her since she somehow seemed to always be aware of Clarke's location, yet her eyes still needed the verification.

Lexa didn't know how but the blonde found a way through her carefully erected walls, her easy smile and carefree demeanor, eyes lightening up in joy and her raspy voice. She had picked up on the little things the blonde did, mostly without noticing it, and it did funny things within her.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a servant making his way towards Tristan, though she was too far away to hear any words. Lexa moved to prepare herself for a new round waiting for Nadora to do the same, yet before they could engage in a new fight the brunette heard her name being called.

"Lexa!"

Confused she turned to their teacher, closing the distance between them to listen to whatever he had to say to her. "Yes, teacher?"

"Heda Sanco requires my presence. Take over the remaining of the lesson. I'll see you all tomorrow."

Lexa nodded and watched his retreading figure before turning around and looked at the others whom kept up with their training instead of looking at the commotion, only Nadora stood there waiting for Lexa's return.

The training went over without a hitch, not that Lexa expected otherwise. Only Tremot wasn't pleased with Tristan's choice to put Lexa in charge, but one well-placed glare and carefully picked words put the boy back in his place.

He was the one she least liked from their group. Lexa knew that he was thirsting to be the best nightblood, to become the next heda. Though he apparently seemed to forget that being a good warrior wasn't all there was to the position of heda, and he lacked greatly in the remaining aspects.

Over the years Lexa had noticed that Tremot liked to rat one of them out if they did something that wasn't allowed, often affecting Pinto and his adventurous being.

Lexa guessed he tried to kiss Titus' ass and become his favorite but the brunette was glad to see that even when Titus was happy that the boy disclosed these information he still didn't favorite him more than others.

Only Lexa.

Titus saw something in her, had even told her that she was born for greatness and that her future will be a bright one. Lexa could often see the pride in his eyes when she accomplished something or mastered his teachings in Gonasleng or their history.

While her fellow nightbloods ended their training and moved out of the room, Lexa stayed patiently where she was only moving when most of them were already gone from the area. "Clarke!"

The blonde turned around and looked confused at her, probably considering the many reasons why Lexa had called out to her. The older girl gazed at her and waited until Clarke was closer to her. "Lexa?"

"We'll do some extra training." Lexa disclosed and handed Clarke the training sword she had kept in her hands at the end of their official session.

Clarke accepted the sword but stayed where she was and her eyes were still filled with confusion. Since when was Lexa directly engaging with her, willingly spending time with her without being required to? The blonde was used to Lexa's loner attitude as the brunette never spent their free time with any of them. In reality no one of the nightbloods often spent their free time with their sisters and brothers, using the offered time for themselves and their friends outside of their little band of nightbloods. "Why?"

"Because you could use some help with the basics every warrior learns at the beginning of their training."

"And you're going to help me?"

Lexa kept her stoic expression on, though she had to bite back a teasing smirk. "Do you see anyone else here?"

"Just making sure. You're not the most social person I've met."

Lexa just hummed understandingly, her actions had actually aimed for this. She didn't want to form bonds, make friends and fall in love when everything could be gone in the blink of an eye. One could say that Lexa was afraid, afraid of the pain that would come if something happened especially for a nightblood like herself. They all really lived on borrowed time, not even the one of them who'd become heda will have an easy life. Heda lived for the people. They always came first, and having people they cared for would almost feel selfish for the brunette, knowing that they would never come first for the heda.

She moved closer to Clarke when the other girl signaled her that she was all set to start their training. Lexa told the girl to stay like this and came to a stop behind her, hands gently moving Clarke into the right position, putting the blonde's feet at the right distance to each other with the help of her own foot.

Being this close to Clarke set her heart into an uncontrollable pace and she had to remind herself to take deep and calm breaths, though that only resulted in inhaling Clarke's unmistakably scent. It also didn't help when she heard Clarke's brief gasp as her hands had first touched her. At least she apparently wasn't the only one being affected by the other, Lexa thought.

As soon as Lexa was satisfied with Clarke's now acceptable stance she moved away from her, putting herself in front of the girl and prepared herself to train with her though without a weapon of her own. This was about teaching Clarke the basics. She wouldn't need to arm herself.

She motioned for Clarke to attack and easily dodged the incoming blow. "You're telling your counterpart where you'll attack them. You have to keep eye contact from the beginning to the end. Never stray your eyes to the position you want to hit. At least not if you don't want to make it easy for your enemies to take you down. Besides, the eyes are the first thing betraying each warrior. It only takes a flicker of them to tell you their thoughts. With time you'll learn to recognize certain tells."

Lexa moved away from another blow from the blonde. "First lead your weapon and then follow with your body when you attack someone. The sword lands on your enemy the same time your foot makes contact with the ground again. This way you won't lose your balance and you'll hit them with your full strength."

They trained like that for the next two hours, Clarke attacking and Lexa dodging each and every one of her hits. Lexa was pleased to note the improvement in Clarke's fighting style, glad that she was able to help the blonde to make her sessions with the others easier.

"Why are you doing this?" Clarke couldn't help but ask at the end of their private lesson, trying to find out the reasons behind Lexa's sudden assistance.

"What?"

"This," The blonde indicated at their surroundings, training sword put away in the row at the far wall where all the different training weapons rested. "Helping me."

Why was she helping her? Was it because she started to like the blonde? Or because somewhere along the very short road she started to cringe inwardly every time the girl hit the ground? Maybe it was that the thought of Clarke getting hurt suddenly was getting more and more unbearable?

Lexa sighed before she softly exclaimed. "Maybe I don't want you to just be slaughtered at the conclave."

Silence.

It was obvious that the girl was processing Lexa's words. Blue eyes stared deeply in her green ones and she stubbornly kept the eye contact while the blonde searched for something deep within the older girl. Lexa shuddered, feeling like Clarke sunk into the deepest corners of her being and she couldn't do anything to keep her out of her.

"The more you're helping me, the more of an enemy you're making me. Why would you do that? The others are clearly happy for my lack of fighting skills."

Why did she have to ask question Lexa herself hadn't answers to? Lexa tried to find words to explain her reasoning, but she fell short. It annoyed her to no end that Clarke could render her speechless without doing much. Still, Lexa struggled to answer her and she was overcome with the need to put on a mask, stare stoically at her to show her that she most certainly won't get a clear answer and get the hell out of this room.

The sigh coming from Clarke told her that she took too long to answer and she felt strangely relieved by it. Lexa expected to meet Clarke's eyes again as she glanced back at her however the blonde was looking melancholy at the ground. Now all she wanted was to cheer Clarke up, not liking the expression on her face.

"We both know that I don't stand a chance at the conclave. I don't have the same skill set of any of you, and I certainly don't have time to catch up. I've met the heda upon my arrival and at any lessons since then. He looks bad. Really bad. That's probably the reason why we see less and less of him. It's actually borders on a wonder that he's still alive. I mean, he could die at any second. The only reason why no one spoke out a challenge until now is because everyone is hiding his condition from the people. If his enemies would've known about his health, they would have already gotten rid of him."

"You should be honored." Lexa exclaimed instantly, not even allowing the thoughts of an impending conclave to plant themselves in her mind. Though she wasn't sure why she had said that having just wanted to disagree with Clarke, hoping to lighten the mood again. "You're a nightblood. Even without experience in fighting the spirit of our beloved heda might see you as worthy and choose you, and then no one, not even the best fighter, would have a chance against you."

Lexa's breath hitched as sky blue eyes flickered up from where they had rested on the ground and stared back at her. The corner of Clarke's lips twitched and a soft smile spread out. She felt her own lips form an encouraging smile.

"I don't believe in this."

The brunette almost missed those delicate words ever leaving Clarke's lips, and again she felt breathless but this time for a whole other reason as she felt her heart breaking for the hopeless girl in front of her. Lexa had no time to respond and could only watch the young girl wordlessly leave the room. Once again she asked herself why she even cared so much.

Damn her feelings.

I hope you like it. Please drop a comment on your way out.

Thanks!