There be spoilers.
Chapter 5 – Percussion & Gold
There was something strange in the air… At least it was strange on Earth. Vibrations, sounds, beautiful sounds, rhythmic sounds, harmonic sounds, melodic sounds, musical sounds. Happiness grew entangled with fear. Their camp was too far for the music to come from there.
Clarke had been the daughter of an engineer and a council member. She had been raised by practical, responsible people, and so she used the values she had been raised with to help the group. When it came to her personal life, though, she had been nothing but emotional. She had felt the need to share an important piece of information that could have cost her father's life – and that she thought did. She had hastily judged her best friend, without ever giving him the benefit of the doubt, only to pardon him before he was killed – a brief moment of luck before the tragedy, she would have never forgiven herself otherwise. Now… Now she was rambling through the woods with only a piece of scrap metal for weapon, and in the probable presence of grounders. A stupid move she had made because she couldn't stay near Finn and his girlfriend.
It was no surprise she was startled when she discovered the sole responsible for what she was hearing was a thirteen year-old boy with a wooden ball in one hand and some kind of drum under the other. Even though he was young, she had no doubt he wasn't from the Ark. He was wearing clothes both made from fabric, leather and skin. He truly seemed like a savage, a woodman, shaking his head mindlessly while performing some kind of ritualistic humming. He was obviously talented, but he hadn't learnt that from anyone.
Startled, the blonde girl was once more when the boy saw her and yelled out of fear, falling on the ground and not waiting to rise up again to try and distance himself from her with both hands and feet. The surprise however soon faded to be replaced with something else: guilt. She felt terrible for inspiring such fear to such a young person, even if he was a grounder.
Until now, they had only met strong and agile men: warriors or hunters, that would kill them without mercy or hesitation. Finding a singing youth was something different. She never thought she would ever be considered a threat by someone from Earth. "It's okay!" she said. "I don't mean you any harm," she tried to comfort him, never minding that it was very probable they didn't speak the same language.
The boy eventually reached a tree and used its trunk to get on his feet again. He kept his hands on the bark, behind his back, and looked at her with a lowered head, apparently trying not to look too confronting.
Clarke raised her hands, showing her palms, to show that she wasn't wielding any weapon and try to calm him down a bit. "Look, everything is okay." Strangely enough, he wasn't looking at the knife on her belt, and stared at her head instead, though she soon realised he wasn't looking at her face. Her hair was frightening him, somehow. She acted instinctively and attached them behind her head.
She tried to approach him, but the boy suddenly turned on his heels and in an instant found his way to the tree tops. The image of a monkey instantly jumped in Clarke's mind. Maybe he wasn't a strong man, but the boy was surely agile, and his bizarre clothes made a decent camouflage in the foliage. He moved pretty quickly, and before long, had disappeared, above, traveling from branch to branch using hands and legs.
The blonde girl remained still for a moment, watching the leaves tremble under the wind. She sighed lightly and looked down after a while. They surely could use some music back at the camp. The instruments would be much welcome, and they surely could make more once they'd figure out how those were made.