They are traveling in wolf form, Lexa expertly leading through the terrain; always looking back to make sure her companion is able to follow. Clarke takes every opportunity to graze against Lexa's side which causes the Alpha to quickly nudge Clarke back towards a path.

Clarke is utterly baffled as to why Lexa's interest was so controlled.

It was harder to return to her wolf form this time round. The shift occurred almost languidly, the tide of the moon the only encouragement Clarke has now that the adrenaline from the sprint has dwindled. She's still lacking the cure for the constant thrum under her skin. She's agitated and slowing as she scents them nearing her own people. Clarke drops her rump down on the spot, huffs as she recognizes the glade Lexa had led her to before. Apparently there are openings that don't force her worming through the underbrush.

She refuses to move even when Lexa turns back to nuzzle and lightly chew along Clarke's neck. She resolutely shuts her eyes as she curls into herself with her snout in the fur of her stomach. She's shaking again, her temperature spiking up then plummeting in turns as she tries to even out her erratic breathing.

When human hands cradle her face, she lets her head be dragged into Lexa's lap. She feels her erratic heartbeat steady under her Alpha's touch. Clarke moves to lick Lexa's palm but the other girl pulls away. Clarke huffs, gazing longingly up at the Alpha, pleading for more.

The foliage in the glade emits a radioactive bioluminescence, splashing the environment around them with a warm radiance. The haze of the starting moon had made Clarke's focus singular and needy, having earlier passed such a lush alcove without another glance or thought. It's a wonder, a testament to nature's ability to survive and adapt, they had polluted the world to only themselves. By taking their race out of the equation, nature had time to heal and create anew. Clarke had imagined fantasy after fantasy of the Earth she had believed her generation would never see and yet nothing compares to how the glow illuminates Lexa's profile, tingeing the already gorgeous into something ethereal.

"You smell of first heat Clarke but I'll keep myself in check." Lexa smiles, detecting the rapt attention she has gained from the Omega. "You do not have to rush us, I've already committed to my selection."

Clarke didn't want the leisure of time, she wanted Lexa; she wanted her Alpha. Clarke's scent omits in a fresh wave and it's overly gratifying to hear Lexa bite back a moan.

Clarke's in her Alpha's lap, she can smell the other girl's arousal, it wouldn't be so hard to just turn her head a bit and-

Lexa places a firm hand on Clarke's muzzle. "No."

Clarke whines, moving her head off from Lexa's lap and stands. She's bigger than the Alpha right now. She dips and licks at the girl's neck, snuggling into the long braided tresses. She's encouraged by a hand clenching to her shoulders so Clarke clamps her jaws around where she would bite if she were to mate the Alpha but the taste has her freezing.

Clarke staggers back, feeling utterly betrayed as she scents another. It's not uncommon to bite when enjoying someone's company but one was never allowed to apply a claim to a wolf's neck unless Lexa was already… Clarke snarls, uncurling until she stands tall in human form, glaring down at the girl before her.

"You're mated."

Whatever Lexa can say to explain away her misleading courting display is cut short by a violent howl, its Clarke's companions and they are desperately screaming for help.

Clarke makes to shift again, hoping to get to her Arkers as quickly as possible. Lexa is already in wolf form, towering beside her and ready to follow. "No, I rescind my answer," Clarke holds up an unsteady hand, "I don't want you with me."

She takes off without sparing time to see if Lexa had respected her wish. She's merely falling into her quadrupedal form and scrambling towards the dropship. She knows she's being rash for sending Lexa away, whatever is harming her people is an unknown and she could of used Lexa's help but her pettiness from being deceived has her looping alone through the woods.

She bursts through the forest edge and onto the lake shore to find fresh blood splattering the sands. A dozen or so wolves lie still without breath. Others post as menacing sentinels to whatever was inside the dropship's open bay doors.

Bellamy's fur is saturated in blood and coarse gravel. He's the one closes to the darkened archway. His lips viciously curled back but just as he makes to rush into the ship something slithers out. It's nothing like the snakes Clarke has seen in her biology text books. The thing's shape is an amalgamation of both water and land reptiles, two heads sprouting from a single body, chest of a lizard but hind quarters tapering to a tail long enough to disappear into the metal enclosure. Its face elongated thinly to its snout, eyes wheel round and reflective under the moon's light. It hisses, mouths shooting wide like a fringehead's would, needle sharp teeth line the entirety of its gaping jaw.

It's snake like neck bulging with a swallowed victim. Someone was weakly moving, pushing at the scales from within the creature's neck.

Clarke shivers, backing away, calling at the rest of the wolves to move as the beast slides pass the group. Its eyes dart without focus over them, uninterested in the pathetic lot. The frills along its back point straight up and high, seemingly to expand it's already imposing figure while its scales were a waxy iridescence. Clarke would've found this thing a marvel if its complexion wasn't marred by drying maroon.

Their blood.

Bellamy barks a deep grunt as he feigns lunges at the leviathan; Clarke mimics the threat and finds Wells suddenly by her side duplicating the feint. The others join in one by one, tightening the ranks and growing bold in false rushing the unwanted guest out of their camp.

It moves lighting quick towards the water but the pleasure at scaring away the monster falls short when they see its tail coiled around a limp small thing. It's one of the youngest, only a girl. She hasn't transformed, one leg broken in an odd angle, eyes closed and skin ruddy.

Clarke lunges without another thought, throwing herself on the beast's tail and scouring her claws and teeth into the thing's muscle in hope of freeing the fainted girl. After a shock the rest of them move as a gust of bodies, slamming into the cold blooded creature as from all angles.

They are easily batted aside, none able to gain purchase with their teeth or claws. The creature screeches at them, flailing about to drop one wolf after another. Its shrieking is so high in tone that blood starts dripping from some of the Arkers' ears.

They don't give up though, instinct keeping them going, knowing they have to keep a strong unified front.

Some have reflexes too slow and are caught in the creature's mouth and then slung down onto the ground without a thought. It's not a battle they can win so Bellamy rounds on those still able to attack and ushers everyone back, he shifts and circles his arms around Clarke's neck when he sees her pale shape still attempting to protect the girl. Clarke tries to turn on him but Wells joins in, both intent on saving her as much as she is on saving the child.

She's been betrayed once again! She hates Wells, hates the sight of him for everything he has done and is doing to her.

A yelp draws their attention to some unfortunate wolf being caught in its jaws, the thing is leaving but with a prize heading to its stomach, another around its tail and a third in one of its mouth. It keeps its other head turned on the 100 as it descends into the inky lake.

"OCTAVIA! NO!"

Clarke easily struggles out of Wells grip when Bellamy sprints crashing into the water after his sister but he can only go so deep before sinking, the water level rising above his head as he thrashes and chokes. He keeps struggling even when Clarke, Atom, Murphy and Wells drag him kicking back to shore. They trip, cutting themselves on the jagged stones littering the shallow waters but they make it back to land.

Bellamy is furious, crying out his sister's name as he shrugs out of everyone's touch. He sputters out water, vomiting it onto the shore as he can only watch the creature shine through the darken lake. It easily clears up a sloped area they can just make out on the other side of the body of water. It disappears into the caverns and the sight turns Bellamy's anguish into a heartbreaking wail.

Whatever joy Earth had given them is all but gone. Bellamy shakes off any clothes offered to him, a quivering mess against a fallen log. Atom sits next to him while Murphy stands by them, eyes on the lake but silent for once.

Wells wraps his jacket around Clarke, putting his hand on her shoulder but she shrugs it off. She zips her jacket, looking down at the material hanging over her bloodied knees. She takes a deep breath before starting on the group. "Everyone that is able to move need to pair up and help carry in our wounded, we can't leave them exposed to the elements."

Finn's entire left side is raw but he offers his arm to Roma, taking the girl around her waist to host her up as they straggle into the dropship. Others shakenly make attempts to follow in example but several find themselves limping in without aid.

"What do you want to do with the dead?"

Clarke glares at Wells. She doesn't want him near and yet he always is there. It doesn't seem fair that he stands unharmed; her father's murderer is alive while a little girl is being ripped to shreds. "Find all the clothing we left when we ran, recycle the items left behind by the dead; take Jasper and Murphy to help you."

"What are you going to do?" He's hurt at her abrasive tone; face more worried now under her assault than when they were fighting a monster. "You're hurt too, Clarke."

"Now you care?!" Nearly dying, losing some who had ran with her has her to a breaking point. Her heart tears as Bellamy's howls echo into the ending night. The loss of her father feels as if yesterday instead of a year ago. She's never gotten better, she has never found closure. She shoves her palm into Wells' chest, eyes malicious as she watches him stumble back in concession but she follows him through, pushing again until he's on his back on the ground. "Why didn't you care enough to spare my father?!"

Wells doesn't fight back, has no more words on the matter as he hangs his head

Clarke is livid at his pacifistic response, almost moving closer to lash out again when Finn comes into view. "You need to be at the dropship."

She presses her lips together, frowning up at Finn.

Finn grasps Clarke's shoulder in his hands, tilting his head to catch her eyes. "You're the only one with medical training to help set bones, we need you inside."

Clarke watches as Wells gather's Jasper and Monty, sees the dazed pair clinging onto Wells' composed presence. Sees her once greatest friend gently instruct the willing pair, sees him leading by perfect rule abiding example. He's a paradigm person. He's so kind in every aspect of his being, only ever returning her ire with peace and support. She's burnt out from hating such a willing participant. How is it that he's like this, a balm to everyone but a curse to her father and her? Where were the days when his presence and smile was all she needed to feel less alone?

The cries of the wounded bring Clarke back to focus. "I need to gather supplies."

Blood seeps and mats down Finn's hair but his gaze underneath is still warm. It's clear he wants to keep her safe but Clarke can't go and help without supplies. "I need bandages, strong wood to make braces or splints, somewhere we can start boiling water to clean… to… I need to help them."

"You will but I can get you those things, alright, just, just keep warm for a second and breathe alright."

She nods, body numb as she mechanically strides pass the dead bodies and into the dropship. Some reach for her and she tries to give everyone medical attention but her palms are raw from her sprint back and subsequent fighting, it makes any aid she can offer a laborious activity. She soothes whatever she can manage with the little Finn, Monroe and Myles scrounge up for her.

Most of the 100 are lying down or plastered against the wall panels. Clarke recruits Myles to help her, teaches him what she's doing so she can focus on tending those in more dire conditions. He's not a quick study, one of his wrists is swollen but he tries through his hiccupping tears.

Jasper, Monty and Wells come in at intervals to pile up clothing collected from the beach, sometimes adding a broken wristband onto the heap. Twelve in total were taken from the dead; they stack the bands in the middle of the ship making a small untouched shrine.

Near the back Clarke finds one of the two delinquents that died from the impact of the fall. His body has been split in two, belly sliced open and his innards seeping out onto the metal floors.

"Charlotte said she heard one of the boys crying in pain but we had already left and she was too afraid to go outside." Clarke wishes Wells' words were said to condemn them for their carelessness but he's only stating the sad fact.

Clarke kneels, closing the dead's eyelids. There's no peace in his features, only a blank morbidity. "We left her alone with a corpse and a dying boy."

"We were too consumed by the moon-"

"Ignorance to our actions doesn't absolve us." She's harsh, not allowing him to give excuses for what happened tonight.

There's vomit next to the body from someone that couldn't contain their disgust. Clarke wants to do the same until she notices something off. Why did the creature take one body and not the other…? Why did it go for the struggling when it had two perfectly stiff corpses to consume?

There's a fight happening outside, a ruckus of barks and snarls. Someone is screaming.

She rushes outside to find Bellamy still in the same spot, the fire that Finn had erected all but embers now with the sun starting to dawn. The bloodied Alpha is glaring down at a prone Murphy who stares right back with contempt.

"Take. It. Back." Bellamy growls, stepping menacingly closer to Murphy.

"She's dead, you need to at least try and live."

Bellamy looks ready to take Murphy's tongue just for the statement alone but Clarke steps in. "They might still be alive."

Bellamy snaps his head up and snarls at Clarke, he stands and looms over her, grasping her arm into his hand and with a tug starts the path around the lake. "Then what are we waiting for, let's go and get them."

Wells moves in between Bellamy and Clarke which has Murphy and Atom immediately going to Bellamy's side. A few stand to watch in exhausted curiosity.

"Whoa, we can't just go after them without a plan."

Bellamy shoves his forehead against the Beta's, voice hoarse from his own screaming. "Do you say we let them just die? We've wasted enough time."

"Clarke, please," Wells looks desperately at her, "why do you even think they have a chance, I'm not saying we don't go but we have wounded that need tending and what if there are other animals, we can't just take every body still moving and leave our camp unprotected."

"It only took the living; I think it likes to keep its prey alive." Clarke keeps Bellamy gaze, doesn't shy away from his focus.

"We watched the fucking thing have one of us in its throat, what makes you think that guy is still alive?"

Bellamy whips around to growls at Murphy for suggesting against this hope. He refuses to include his sister or the girl into the body count if there's a chance. He has to have one hope and he'll rip anyone to shreds for dashing it.

"Maybe it can regurgitate whatever it's consumed? I can't know for sure but they could be alive." There's a slim possibility and Clarke's stubbornness to keep everyone, to save everyone has brought her unthinking before the desperate Alpha.

"A 'could' can cost us more than the two gone." Finn steps forward.

"How dare you!" Bellamy turns on Finn, his knuckles slamming into the other boy's face. "Who are you to place one life and over another, maybe all those people we are wasting time to heal there are just as likely to die, coward, you're a coward, we need to go now!"

Finn holds a hand up to his bleeding lip, wiping at the blood but only managing to smudge a mark of red along his cheek. "What, are you going to beat me into helping you? Are you going to beat all of us? How far will you go?"

"As far as I need to." For Octavia.

Clarke struggles between the two Alphas, the camp tense around them, lost without clear guidance. A Chancellor led on the Ark and their pack needs a leader now. After such a devastating event, even if the mission is a selfish one for their leader, they as a group require something to follow.

"It might do it."

Both Alphas turn to Wells, glowering at him.

"A lot of animals regurgitate food they carry to their young, they could be alive."

"You hear that!" Bellamy turns around at those watching, arms stretched out and voice bellowing. "The thing that dared attack us has our people prisoner, what's stopping it from returning to us for an easy meal? We've been caught for small offences, kept as expendables for the privilege up there!" He punches his hand into the air for emphasis. "We move now, stand and defend and claim something or stay here and die as the trash they threw away."

"We need to make weapons; we can't just go at it with-"

"Follow me!" Bellamy roars, eyes aflame and silencing Clarke. "Show me you are all worthy of the fur of our ancestors." He shifts to make his point and howls out a long battle cry. He doesn't stop till the group raise their head to join his call and submit themselves to his command.

"Bellamy please, don't just run in blind, it's not craven to think before we go."

But Bellamy is off, leading a hurting bunch along the outlines of the lake, intent of making it to the other side where the cave holds his sister.

"You should have thought of a plan before you came to tell us." Murphy notes over his shoulder before leaping into his wolf, taking after Bellamy with almost half of their people who were willing to bend to the Alpha's demands.

"Shit, this isn't what I wanted; we couldn't kill that thing before what makes them think we can do it now without a plan!"

"Then they will fall."

Clarke looks wide eyed into the forestry, crouching back as Wells steps forward.

"And you must let them." The shadows reveals Lexa, a loose cloak weaved around her body and her eyes emotionless.

"Lexa?" Clarke puts her hand on Wells and pushes for him to move aside. "Do you know a way to fight that thing?"

"You should not fight it; your people are in its hunting grounds, leave this shore."

Clarke warms to see Lexa coming to warn them. "I can't evacuate the group; only the injured remain."

"That creature guards and you've invaded and called it to your camp, you're courting death." Lexa knows she's already too involved in this matter. "You have enough able bodies to drag the living away from here, you must let Bellamy go, his fight will deter the Lerna from returning before you can make it out."

Clarke feels her heart squeeze, plummet at a realization. "How long have you been idle just watching us get slaughtered?"

Wells thunders out a snarl, tugging Clarke behind his back. Lexa calmly rolls her eyes up to watch him, showing little response to his gesture.

"It is against these valleys' laws to interact with the Lerna." Lexa closes her eyes. "Leave."

"I won't abandon them."

Wells nods, reaching and sighing in relief when Clarke lets him take her hand. He squeezes. "We won't abandon them."

Lexa tilts her head, cool eyes settle on Wells; he feels the sheer power of command. Crying out he crumbles to his knees before her, head down with his chin against his chest. He whimpers but refuses to release his grip on Clarke. "You won't convince her."

Clarke's confusion over the statement doesn't need a verbal explanation. It's in the look shared between the Alpha and Beta before her, both viciously protective. Wells doesn't hide it and while stifled the expression is reflected by Lexa.

Oh.

Lexa may have watched their camp get decimated but it's clear she's intent on getting Clarke out safe.

"I won't let Bellamy and the others be taken down, I'll go there too if I have to."

"You'll do no such thing." Lexa growls which sets Wells off to answer in kind.

"What would you have me do? Chance moving my people and having them bleed out then slayed by whatever else is in the forest?" Clarke moves around Wells and stares into Lexa's eyes, trying to pervade her desperation to save her people and her dedication to lay down her life if need be. "Help us."

Lexa stays motionless, mouth a firm line; she casts her eyes up to their lot within the ship then back at Clarke.

"Please," Clarke takes a tentatively steps forward, "help me."

Lexa raises her chin; tense moments pass as she comes to a decision. "There is already someone preparing to enter the caves, your lot will most likely create a diversion, word will be sent to have them take back the two girls but the swallowed boy's fight is most likely over."

Wells lets Clarke go, shocked at the amount of reign this Alpha has.

"Thank you, Lexa, thank you."

Lexa gives a small nod. "Stay here."

Clarke acquiesces by respectfully dropping her gaze.

"Tend to your people here, keep the encampment well lit." The Alpha lifts a hand, fingers almost against Clarke's cheek but she leaves without doing more. She heads back into the trees, shrouded by the forests' embrace.

"I'm surprised she left you alone." Wells notes.

"It's not so strange; I'm no one to her." Wells doesn't attempt to dispute her faulty claim, only watches as Clarkes hands tighten, nails digging into her bloodied palms. "You know I will go to them, I can't let them face that thing alone."