AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do not speak Pawnee. (Yet.) And if you ever look up phonetic spelling for Pawnee words, they're hella long. So when a character is speaking Pawnee to another character or another Native language I will be italicizing their words to show that any English speakers in the conversation may not be understanding what they are saying.
(I know like, maybe 20 words in Creek (Muscogee) language which is another of my tribes and ya, I wouldn't even try spelling those here either. Lmao I'd have to provide an alphabet.)
Also, PLEASE REVIEW, I EAT THAT STUFF LIKE CANDY, LIKE, I LOVE IT WHEN YALL DO THAT STUFF, IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY.
NOVEMBER 1863
They were getting closer to winter. Raven and Clarke worked hard, harvesting and storing crop.
Lexa's visits became more frequent. When Clarke asked her one night about it, Lexa explained that many of the tribes were heading toward their winter homes. Their stable grounds, sacred and home to them as the winter months passed.
After the fire the hospital camp became more permanent. Local settlers worked together, adding from their local stores to build it from the ground up. It wasn't long before they were able to attract a physician to the budding hospital. A dark, bearded man by the name of Nyko.
At first, many of the settlers did not see how he could be any good as a physician. He was rather large and gruff looking. After tending the broken leg of a local settler's son, the locals doubted him less.
He also proved more worthy when he showed knowledge of tribal medicines. It seemed that he had gone and studied with the local tribes and spent time with them in order to become a better physician.
Lexa paid Raven back for working when Clarke had taken time off while ill or taking care of her by coming to work on the farm for a few days. She helped with the harvest, shearing, and to card wool.
It ended up being more fun than work for the two women. They chased one another across the fields, threw wool at one another, laughed as they tackled the other, kissing each other in the shadows when they thought no one was looking. For once in their lives they both began to feel a kind of comfort.
Clarke began to weave squares for blankets. Winter was getting closer. The air cooled, wind carrying a touch of chill to it as the month grew to a close.
It was as it grew closer to the end of October that the Murphy family moved into the plot just north of their own.
Raven wondered what the hell a family would be doing, moving west in the winter months. They wouldn't have time to farm anything.
Yet somehow, the Murphy settlement had hands at their settlement within a day of arrival, helping them to build up walls quickly. Raven, Clarke, Lexa, Octavia, Bellamy, and even Lincoln would frequently take turns watching them from afar, attempting to scope out the new neighbors.
Lincoln remarked at the number of hands they had helping them.
Raven noted the hired hands they had arrived with, including the freemen and women that came with them. What were they building?
It was Clarke that pointed out the parts of a possible brewery. The coppery structures, and the pipes apparent to her eyes as they were hurried from multiple wagons into buildings.
A week into being built and a youth leaned on the fence to Clarke and Raven's property. He looked slightly rough. His hair matted, unclean and a scar across his face. He had large eyes and nose.
It was Raven in the fields that day. She spoke with him.
"What do you want?" She asked him, not at all friendly. The Murphy family had not yet made any effort to be friendly with them yet. If Clarke was correct and a brewery was being erected near their farm, Raven was not sure how to feel about their new neighbors.
The youth leaned over the fence.
"Noticed you gals were growing some wheat." He remarked.
Raven eyed the field. They would be harvesting that part of the field the next day.
"Yeah, what of it?" She shrugged. She waited. She crossed her arms.
"My dad wants to make a deal." He told Raven. He didn't seem at all threatened by her attitude. It seemed he was used to people reacting to him the way Raven was.
Raven eyed him warily.
"Right. You haven't even introduced yourself and you want to make deals?"
The youth picked at a hole in his shirt.
"John. John Murphy." He met Raven's eyes briefly.
Raven nodded.
"Raven."
"The deal. Dad wants wheat. He'll trade you for a cut of his profits." John promised her.
"Profits of?" Raven prodded.
John raised a brow at her in disbelief.
"I think you know." He stated.
Raven frowned. Clarke had been right. She shook her head.
"I'll think it over. Let me talk to my partner." Raven told John. She didn't want to give him an answer straight away. Breweries weren't too problematic, but when it came down to profits, the better breweries could attract trouble. Not to mention robberies from desperate drunks. They sometimes had to be guarded.
John nodded.
"I'll give you until tomorrow evening. He'll want an answer by then." He informed her. He walked away.
Raven found Clarke inside of their home. She weaved squares of wool together, structuring them into a larger piece.
"Neighbors want wheat for their brewery." Raven informed her friend.
Clarke looked up from the work in her hands.
"Figured it wouldn't be long before they approached us." She said. She focused on blanket forming in her hands.
"What do you think?" Raven asked.
"I think you should ask for protection. Whichever farm supplies them that is nearest will be the easiest targets. Even if we didn't supply, folks would assume we did." Clark murmured over her wool.
Raven rubbed her face.
"Why does it have to get complicated?" She whined. "I thought I escaped the tavern life?"
Clarke chuckled.
"The tavern life found you."
They accepted a deal the next day from the Murphy settlement. John returned later that evening with a freewoman.
"This is Indra." He introduced the dark-skinned woman accompanying him. "She will be your guard. Her son, Nick will alternate with her."
Indra eyed the two women from the fence post. She was surly in her demeanor.
"I'll give you the tour." Raven offered.
Indra regarding her silently, gave her a grunt of agreement. She followed Raven as the woman led her around the farm.
Two weeks later, the Murphys not only had not a house, but two storehouses, and barn-like structure. The brewery took the wheat Raven and Clarke harvested. They worked immediately to begin brewing up their first batch.
Mid-November, Lexa arrived as frost touched the lands around them. The nights were growing cold. Clarke had made trades for oils and fats, purchasing lanterns with the profits from the brewery and blanket-weaving. She drew in her downtime. Raven spent much of her time at the Murphy brewery. Her knowledge from working in her father's tavern came in handy with brews the Murphys were attempting to put together.
Raven for some reason, had also seemed to take an odd liking to Murphy. Something Clarke had yet to understand. Perhaps it was his general rough nature. Raven herself could be a bit rough around the edges. Clarke didn't judge. If it made her friend happy, then her business was her own.
Lexa, meanwhile, had given her a gift of paints. Paints made by her own people. Lexa showed her how to use them. How to mix them and to paint the colors onto the skins of animals during one of her visits. She gave Clarke a gift of skins and paper to paint on, and paintbrushes made of horsehair.
One night, as she visited, Clarke asked her about her name.
Lexa had paused then. She hesitated to tell Clarke the truth.
"Lexa is the name I give when I am amongst your people." She had told her, softly. "It is a name my mother gave me. The Pawnee do not usually give their children names at birth, waiting until one has found the child. My mother… she was white, and not used to Pawnee ways, and called me Lexa when none were listening."
Clarke watching her, slid fingers along her bare arms. She waited.
"My name amongst the Pawnee is Man of Earth, Sees the Sky, in your language." Lexa told her.
"Man of Earth, Sees the Sky?" Clarke repeated.
Lexa nodded. She leaned back, comforted in Clarke's arms.
"Why Man of Earth?" Clarke wondered.
Lexa shifted. This wasn't a topic she knew how to broach. Not with… Not with someone like Clarke.
Lexa refused to meet Clarke's eyes.
"When I was a child, it was quickly noticed by my father, that perhaps, I was more of a son than a daughter. Rather than raise me as his daughter, he raised me as his son." Lexa murmured.
"It is why I wear men's clothing."
Clarke understood. Men's clothing was more comfortable. Even for farm work. She wore it sometimes. But she still defaulted to the dress, skirt, blouse, apron, expected of a woman. Particularly when she traveled to the fort. She did not desire the looks she might get should she wear the clothing she wore when she was hard at work in the fields.
Yet Lexa freely wore a soldier's uniform. She donned a man's shirt and boots and when it came down to her people, she wore their warrior's clothing. When it came down to it, Lexa was treated and carried herself very much like a man would.
It sometimes put Clarke in awe of her that Lexa could live in such a way. Yet it also made her fear for her. Men and even women could be threatened by persons such as Lexa.
Lexa nuzzled into Clarke's neck.
"Clarke?" She drew the woman's attention from her thoughts.
Clarke smiled into Lexa's eyes.
"You would not care for me less, if I said, I do not know if I am man, nor woman, nor do I care, would you?" Lexa asked, her voice slightly weak as she spoke.
Clarke caressed her cheek.
"It is your spirit that I found myself drawn to, Lexa, Man of Earth, Seeks the Sky." Clarke told her honestly. "It would not matter to me, if you were man, woman, or even both, I would be drawn to you in any form."
Lexa's eyes lit up. She drew Clarke into a deep, slow kiss. They stayed that way for the night, caressing, holding, and kissing. They took time exploring one another. Their lips pressing into new points, hands squeezing sensitive areas.
It was as they wrapped themselves around one another that Clarke whispered, "I love you." Into Lexa's ear.
Lexa felt her heart speed up into oblivion. She held onto the woman tighter.
"I too, love you, Clarke." She returned the same.
Winter would set in. Lexa chose to enjoy the moments of peace she was given while she had it.
It would not be long before it could be taken away.
