Trigger warnings for mentions of rape, graphic mentions of torture, murder, cannibalism and mentions of child abuse.
Azgeda Chronicles: Chapter 26: The Beginning: A mother's love
Two days later
Azgeda territory: Milgred territory
Razeeta had made all the arrangements necessary. Bunks necessary for Klark and her companions who eventually came here to sleep and stay during their time here if they wanted.
Dasha was playing with one of her knives, tapping the small blade against the top of the wooden table right next to her silver and glass crafted chalice full of red wine. Razeeta glanced up from the roaring fire she was in front of, the flames causing dancing shadows that ran across her body and the floor. The light reflected against her face as she looked at her to be wives perched on their respective thrones. Jorsua as always was almost nose deep in her book. Dasha was impatiently tapping her blade against the table continually.
Within the bowels of this building, the floor was polished bronze colored and three of their guards had brought in a type of bed with restraints. A leather stretcher with restraints at each corner. Their victim would be tied to the stretcher and his body would be cut up and his organs cooked.
Usually, there was one law that remained unflinching in the Milgred's land. Any outsider, stranger from another village, or nomad or enemy was prey to the Milgred. They were prey to any hungry Milgred.
But the law in their land was unshakable. "No Milgred is to eat another Milgred, unless they are exceptions." And even the queens, Razeeta and her lovers respected that law. Nearly their whole lives, they had never eaten other Milgreds. For eating someone was saved specifically for those who were not of their clan.
But then there were their exceptions, like this latest man. For that rule could be broken if and only if such an inhuman act had been taken or attempted as this man's had acted. Their latest victim, and the latest Milgred criminal, Bulden of one of the Mildgred's middle houses-of substantial power but not as high as the aristocracy, had committed an unspeakable act. It was all the more reminder that being well off didn't keep someone from becoming a danger to his brothers and sisters in arms. Though the Milgreds had all accepted that they were monsters. There were lines even they did not cross. And Bulden had crossed each and every line.
A woman that Bulden had been interested in, of lower class, a village girl, had been found in the waters just at the edge where Queen Nia's troops were in boats, guarding to make sure the Milgreds' didn't go further out of their territory than they should have. The woman, named Aneska had been beaten. There had been evidence of rape, since there had been bruises all around her thighs. And as the Milgreds actually believed in using technology for their benefit, they had used their research. Though Aneska had been found in water, they were able to do a study on her body.
A great deal of the other tribes considered that sacrilege against the dead. Harm to the soul. Razeeta and her people didn't believe that. If there was a body found with evidence of having been murdered, then there was reason to investigate, using any means that were available. Razeeta and her people, as well as the Sowlas and really, all of the different factions of the Azgeda, considered the rest of the tribes ignorant. And weak. Ignorance was just another form of weakness. Those that refused to be flexible would eventually break. Rigidity did nothing for anyone, much less for the next line of warriors that grew up with their peoples' ignorance.
Yes, she, her to be wives and Aneska's family knew that Aneska had been violated. And they knew who it had been. Who it had to have been. Since the Milgreds used technology, they had cameras, and there was footage of Bulden leaving the ocean's edge, right around the time Aneska had been reported missing.
And the knife that had been made to slash Aneska's throat, after her violation had been found in his home, kept under floorboards.
His punishment would be enacted today. It would not be a public affair. Not like others. Only Aneska's mother and father and younger brother would be present when Razeeta killed her victim.
Razeeta, when she committed these executions, usually didn't attach any emotions to them. When she thought of all the previous executions, public or otherwise, she never felt any real pleasure in them, save for the organs she could take for food afterwards. Emotions were a burden. An unneeded burden. The last time she recalled feeling pleasure for an execution had been the execution of her father for the rape and murder of her mother.
She would enjoy the execution of Bulden a great deal. She knew that when she had first learned of Aneska's death and it had been traced back to him. Rape was a horrendous crime. A violation of another human's right. It always left Razeeta with a certain amount of rage that she was almost ashamed of. However, since meeting Klark, that need to wipe out people like Bulden, like her father had increased, intensified. Those that were a threat to her daughter, especially those that committed rape would be cut apart, slowly broken, violated as they had violated others.
Razeeta looked up at Dasha, recognizing the impatient actions that she was exhibiting.
"He'll be brought in soon, kran en segara." Razeeta assured Dasha. Dasha paused, tilting her knife up so that the blade was aimed at the ceiling. She glanced back at Razeeta. "Well, hurry it up." She hissed. "I want to feel his blood go down my throat. You heard the doctors. His blood is clean."
Razeeta nodded. Being what they were, feeding on other human beings, they needed to know if their food was clean. They knew that humans tended to carry diseases. So they had doctors to study the blood of their victims before eating them, to make sure that their intended victims were clean.
Bulden's blood was clean. Unfortunately for him. He was eligible for eating.
Razeeta nodded. "Ain. His blood is clean. He doesn't drink much. So I suggest we take his liver. His kidneys too."
Dasha snorted, grinning, "I want his throat. I want to rip it out. I want the last thing he sees before he dies is a woman violating him in some way."
Razeeta smirked, turning to the fire. How poetic.
Dasha had a thing about tearing her victims' throats open with her teeth. She liked tearing throats open for some reason. Not that Razeeta didn't appreciate it when Dasha kissed her and Jorsua with a blood-soaked mouth, but it did make Razeeta wonder sometimes.
Razeeta glanced at the room around her, checking to make sure there was enough room for them to conduct their decimation of Bulden's body. To her left there was the bear fur that had originally covered the floor in front of the fireplace, hanging from the back of a chair. They had needed to make room for the stretcher, so they had removed the rug. Not long ago, Klark had slept on that rug, near the fireplace. When Klark had been here, with them, it had felt even more like a family than when Razeeta and her lovers were together.
Razeeta knew what Dasha thought of those that Klark had protected. Dasha, when told about what had been done to Klark mentally, the amount of verbal abuse she had suffered, it was enough to make Dasha want to kill those back in the Trikru territory. Dasha didn't even know Klark that well, as Razeeta and Jorsua did, and because her lovers loved Klark so dearly, Dasha wished to take revenge for the girl's suffering. All the more so since Dasha loathed those who committed any of abuse of any ilk. For her, butchering those that were abusive was just her emotional food. It gave her motivation and purpose. Dasha, like Razeeta cared nothing for the people they were charged with protecting. But they understood that they needed to protect the masses if they wanted to use the masses as the puppets that they were.
And Dasha saw most of the people that lived in the Azgeda as beasts who would commit the most vile actions for the simplest reasons. And for that, Dasha was more than happy to kill them.
Dasha used to tell Razeeta and Jorsua that picking family members was no different than picking medicine for illnesses. You had to pick what was healthy. What was secure. People in general, as all three of them knew, were not secure. Most of the time they were chaotic, treacherous and underhanded. Selfish, doing everything for their own agendas.
While two of the three of them had their own respective blood families alive. Though Razeeta's mother and father were both dead, Jorsua's blood family and Dasha's blood family were both very much alive. However, they all knew that blood family couldn't always be there for them. They would be in many situations when they could not be with their blood families. And there were many a time when they knew people had been rejected by their own blood families. So they picked the family they could.
It was why Razeeta and Jorsua understood Klark's relationship with these new twenty-six Sky People that had come down recently. They were the family that the girl had chosen. While Klark's blood mother and the previous people she had been with in the Trikru's territory had failed her as family, save for a few exceptions like "Wels," Klark's best friend, the twenty-six had proven themselves to be truly there for Klark when she needed them. Razeeta acknowledged that was why they were so precious to the young woman.
True family was precious.
The massive doors creaked open and Razeeta, Jorsua and Dasha all looked at the guards coming in, bringing Bulden in, kicking and screaming.
Dasha grinned as the thrashing Bulden cried out, terrified brown eyes searching the queens, "Please, your majesties! There's been a mistake! I swear it wasn't me!"
"We have the biological evidence," Razeeta said uncaringly, "Your pleas mean nothing."
The brown-haired, pale-skinned young man in his late twenties struggled against the guards crying out and pleading, but all for naught.
The guards brought the man down to the stretcher, pinning him down and securing the cuffs to his ankles and wrists, keeping him from leaving the stretcher, and turning and leaving at the wave of Razeeta's hand.
As the doors closed with a foreboding creak, Razeeta and Dasha slowly pivoted around to look condemningly at Bulden and Jorsua looked up from her book to stare at him.
The man appeared so small against the stretcher, restrained, pleading, terrified, shaking.
"Bulden," Razeeta began as Dasha started to sneak closer to the stretcher, "You violated and murdered Aneska. You deprived her mother and father of their daughter. You deprived her brother of his older sister. And you deprived Aneska herself, of her dignity, her freedom and of her life and her future. For such a crime, you will get what you deserve."
Bulden shook his head, shaking, and his bulging eyes jumped to Dasha and he tried to cover his neck by pressing his chin to his chest, but to no avail.
"Get her away from me!" He cried, very aware of Dasha's habit of using her teeth to tear peoples' throats out.
"Now, that's no way to speak to your queens, is it?" Jorsua asked, laughing, slapping her book shut, getting up from her throne and placing the book on the seat of the throne and walking down the steps, getting closer to where Bulden was.
"Then again," Jorsua continued mockingly as she got nearer, smirking, stepping up next to Razeeta, watching Dasha move, "We shouldn't be surprised. After all, you don't react well to women asserting themselves, do you?"
Dasha reached for her belt and pulled out a knife, and she turned to the increasingly horrified Bulden as she grinned. "Don't worry," she said, "You're suffering will last a long time, before I bite into your throat."
Only a few minutes later, the screams of Bulden rang through the halls. Eko smirked when she heard the pleasant noise. She walked through the hall, each steel corridor marked with a metal holder that each had a lit torch in their holster. Each of the walls was emblazoned with a different predatory animal carving. Some bears lurching towards some imaginary prey, a pack of wolves running along the wall, their leader snarling at the head of the group, hawks and eagles flying, their massive, sharp talons outstretched.
Eko's shadow was struck up against the wall. The screams unleashed a nearly deafening chorus. She knew that in at least two days, Klark would be arriving with her companions. Eko wasn't unaware that her methods of courtship last time had been perhaps a bit too aggressive. She had implied what she had wanted with Klark only six days after they had met, and Eko knew now that she really should have known better than to do that.
Especially with how she had gone about it.
Eko reached the entrance to the building, pushing the black, painted doors out, grabbing her fur jacket off the metal hooks on the wall, wrapping herself up in the fur. She pulled on thick, fur gloves and exited the hall, grabbing the freezing cold metal handles and closing the doors behind her. She faced the white snow bathed hills ahead, watching as her people went about their business. Some of them were bringing supplies to the grain houses and some were bringing animals back into the stables where there were lit fireplaces would keep the animals warm.
Eko felt the brisk, cool air hit her face and saw ahead as the shining sun blazed its light across the frost-covered landscape.
The last time Klark had been here, caught during one of Nia's troops' raids, Eko had made the foolish effort of trying to catch Klark's attentions only a few days after the former Sky girl's first arrival. Eko had instantly been intrigued by Klark. She had been kind and insightful. Despite knowing what the Milgreds ate, she had been accepting and in no way judgmental.
Eko's usually cynical thoughts softened as she recalled Klark's kind words, how she got along with the children in their village, even if she knew that the children ate human flesh too. She treated them all like they were humans rather than monsters. At the time, Eko had foolishly thought that such gentility had been because Klark had feared them. But when Eko had mockingly told Klark that that was what she thought, Klark had calmly just turned and looked at her, an odd smile on her face as she just stared at Eko.
Eko hadn't been sure at the time, but the look had unsettled her. It occurred to her now that Klark had actually been amused by the prospect of being afraid of them, because and Eko remembered Klark's words well, 'just because you eat human meat.' It had been a bit of a shock. But Eko understood. Klark was not afraid of them for being cannibals as others were. Why? At the time, Eko hadn't understood. But a few more interactions and Eko had gotten her answer. The only thing she feared was harm coming to those Klark loved. To her people. She didn't fear for herself.
It was one of the many things that had made Eko almost immediately respect Klark.
Eko began down the dune of snow, trekking closer to the battle house, where she knew her sister, Resorna was training with three other combatants.
Eko headed along the village, passing by traders and warriors who acknowledged her and she acknowledged back, smiling at some of them. Some of the children came by, running over. Eko, when she recognized the four of them-Morda, Vah, Wynla and Layko, Eko had a feeling she knew what they were about to ask.
The four children came to a sharp halt in front of Eko, the snow splashing around their ankles in small piles. Vah, the oldest of the four, a girl, with tied back, black hair and dark brown eyes and copper skin spoke up, intrigued, smiling, "Eko, did you speak with the queens? About Klark?"
Eko nodded, smirking. These four had been the closest of the children when Klark had been here. Razeeta, annoyed had tried to send the children away when they were clamoring around "Wanheda," wanting to see her and speak to her. But Klark had asked Razeeta if they could spend some more time around her before the queens spoke privately with her.
Razeeta, who Eko understood had fallen in love with the girl at first sight, naturally would have done anything her precious daughter had asked. So, she had allowed the children to stay somewhat longer.
Eko, she supposed she hadn't been able to help it, but she had tried to push Klark a bit, telling Klark with amusement in her voice and a smirk on her face that the children ate human flesh regularly as well as the adults did.
Klark had turned her attention on Eko, her face never changing from the neutral, but smiling expression that took it, and still, she embraced one of the children, treating them like they were humans rather than beasts.
Eko nodded to Vah. "Ain." She answered. "She is to come back here in two day's. She and some others with her. We are to negotiate an alliance. Which means that we will be seeing much more of her. Would you four like that?"
Immediately the four young Milgreds nodded. Eko smirked. Amongst the children that had been taken in after the loss of their families during battles, Vah, her younger sister Wynla and the other two children, Morda and Layko had been of the closest to Klark during her time here. So attached Wynla in particular had become that she had pleaded with the queens once not to eat or kill Wanheda after Klark had been returned to Nia's territory.
A startled Razeeta had calmly told the cowering and bowing, pleading Wynla that she had absolutely no intention of harming Klark, ever. Razeeta had even walked over to Wynla, kneeling down in front of the girl and looked at Wynla in the eyes and told the girl that the girl had her word. That she would never ever harm Klark. Wynla had thanked the queen and kissed Razeeta's hands before taking her leave as Razeeta had given her permission to do.
Eko knew that Razeeta never broke a promise. Ever. It was one of the few rules she herself followed.
Wynla piped up, grinning, "If Klark comes and stays here, does that mean that we'll get to spend more time with her?"
Eko sighed, nodding. "Yes. If she does, then yes. But you know that she is to be married to Ontari, Nia's princess, don't you? If Klark is to be wed to Ontari, that makes her staying here very complicated."
Wynla's lower lip puckered out and Eko fought the need to groan. Children were so sporadic and fickle. One moment they wanted one thing and the next they wanted another. They got overjoyed by something, even a small thing, then the next moment got upset for the smallest reason.
It was one of the reasons why children had never appealed to Eko. She wondered why Klark was so affectionate with them. Not to mention she was befuddled by Klark's maternal relationship with the boy, Farrun. Though Eko couldn't say she was that ungrateful for Klark's relationship with him. Farrun, being by blood a Milgred, though clearly the man who had abducted Farrun's very pregnant mother, Tenmar had neglected to mention that to him, was of great benefits to them. To Eko as well. Farrun being a Milgred meant that he would need to come to his mother and blood father's birthplace. And because of that? Klark would have more reasons than three adoptive mothers and a possible alliance to come back here.
If that helped, then Eko really couldn't complain about children, could she?
"But," Wynla protested Eko's words, "You love her, right, Eko? You could marry her instead."
Eko couldn't help her laugh now as she grinned at the girl. "Wynla, as much as I would like to marry Klark, I don't think that that will work. She is to be married to Ontari. If she is not, that will bring danger to her people in the Trikru territory. Not to mention to the twenty-six that are being held captive by Queen Nia. The only way for Klark and I to be together in any way is if we form this alliance. So, then I will ask for Klark's attentions. But until then, we have to go along with the alliance."
Wynla nodded, still pouting, sad.
Eko smirked. It seemed gossip traveled far, including to the children in their clan. It was made no small secret amongst the guards that Klark had Eko's attentions. Or that Eko wanted Klark. Then again, Eko had made it no secret to Klark during their time together here that she wanted to be with the sky woman.
When Eko had made her feelings clear to Klark, Klark had said that she was honored, however reminded Eko of her relationship with Ontari.
Eko had then pointed out that Klark's relationship with Ontari didn't mean that Klark might not be interested. Hence Eko had then asked if Klark was interested in any way in her. To Eko's satisfaction, Klark had said 'no' far too quickly, before looking away.
So that had been a 'yes.' Klark was interested. Just denying it. However, Eko understood when Klark said no, Eko was not to pursue further. She knew now that she perhaps had been too forward. Should have been more careful. After that, every now and then she'd make her attentions obvious by hunting something for Klark and bringing it to her, but she wouldn't ask anything of her. Eko acknowledged that Klark might not in the end choose to have anything to do with her. But Eko would not pretend that she didn't know that Klark was interested in her.
Eko had known that Klark must have understood what someone hunting for another and bringing it to them meant, by the standards of the tribes. When someone was interested in another romantically, they hunted for that someone else.
And yes, every single member of all the tribes were taught from a young age to hunt for themselves, so that they'd know how to provide for themselves.
But one of the highest gestures of courtship, was someone hunting for someone else. It was so that the person who was hoping to court a prospective lover, could tell the person they were interested in, that should anything happen and the person they desired was too injured to hunt, then the person hunting for them could provide for them.
And Eko didn't doubt for a moment, that Klark hadn't become familiar with those customs.
After all, surely the commander, Leksa and her little puppet, Onya, had to have hunted for Klark before, at the beginning of their relationship, in order to prove to her that they could provide for her, correct?
And Eko wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it had turned out that Ontari had hunted for Klark, as well, in hopes of making Klark more cooperative in the marriage.
So, Eko was in no way surprised when she had seen the lack of surprise on Klark's face, when the sky woman had seen the kills that Eko had brought before the younger woman.
Eko had hunted down two deer, and a whole muskox, and had ordered her warriors to bring all that to Klark. And she had seen how Klark had looked at the kills.
Klark had known what Eko hunting for her had meant. She had to have known.
Eko turned away from the children and nodded to the building where her sister was. "I need to see to Resorna. I will speak to the four of you later. But in the meantime, I need some time to speak with her." She heard quiet answers of confirmation and the four children ran off. Eko snorted and walked on towards the squat, but long, metal building that had been abandoned by the previous owners long after the fires and the bombs had hit.
Their villages were made up of captives made Milgreds, orphans, murderers, thieves and bandits. When the very first Milgred king rose, the ancestor of Razeeta, he commanded that they feast on human flesh. For how else would they strike fear into the mightiest of enemies? They would benefit greatly by eating other people. Causing enemies to fear them and hesitate before starting a fight with them. And the Milgreds themselves would have more than enough meat they could eat.
From a pragmatic point of view, it made sense. But it was why Eko wondered how Klark had not abhorred them as soon as she had been in their company.
Eko reached the battle house, entering through the doorway and instantly, as the door closed behind her, blocking the frosty air, filled with dripping snow, she was warmed and surrounded by ablaze torches grafted to the wall. In the middle of the room, there was a metal floor. At the center of the floor were four sparring warriors.
At the center, and in no way to Eko's surprise, her younger sister, Resorna, was winning the fight.
Eko smirked at this and awaited her sister's inevitable victory, so that she could speak with the younger woman.
Back at the queens' building, Dasha continued to cut into Bulden as he screamed. Jorsua and Razeeta both had torn open his arms, biting off pieces of meat from him, blood flowing down their faces as they did.
Deciding to let Dasha have her fun, both Razeeta and Jorsua stood up from the screaming, agonized mass that was Bulden and Jorsua walked over to Razeeta, licking the blood off of her lips as she asked her beloved soon to be wife, "We will get everything ready for Klark to be here?"
"Yes," Razeeta growled, taking Jorsua's hand and gently pulling the other woman into her arms as she said, her bloody lips inches from Jorsua's bloody lips, "We will have Klark soon enough. She will have every reason in the world to wish to be our daughter. We will give her everything. Protection for the twenty-six. A home for her son. And we will cut apart those that hurt her and feed them to her."
Jorsua grinned, delighted at the idea. "I want to cut Abi up to pieces and feed her to our daughter," she said, rage filling her heart at how Klark's own blood mother had treated her.
Abi didn't wish to treat Klark well? Fine. Jorsua and her soon to be wives would do it for her.
If Abi couldn't appreciate a wonderful daughter like Klark? Then clearly, she didn't deserve Klark.
Razeeta laughed, a deadly sound as she grinned at Jorsua. "You will have your wish, love," she said, cupping Jorsua's face in her hands, "We will tear out Abi's bone marrow and feed it to Klark. We will cut out Abi's heart and feed it to our daughter."
It perhaps should not have been as touching to them, to mention the bone marrow, considering Clarke's history with being hunted for her bone marrow, but bone marrow was how you survived the cold, and starvation, if you had no other eating options, and well, regardless of how inhuman it might be considered in other cultures, Razeeta and Jorsua would do anything for their daughter, including crack open the bones of human beings and feed their daughter human bone marrow, to keep her fed.
Jorsua smiled happily and she and Razeeta kissed, blood spilling out from their joined lips, down their necks.
Azgeda territory: Norway: Queen Nia's territory
2 days after Bulden's execution
Shehen had returned, exactly four days after he had left to deliver the letter to the cannibal queens of the Milgred territory, panting and appearing paler faced than Clarke ever remembered him looking. Clarke and some of her siblings had been training near the main hall of queen Nia's fortress, when Shehen practically had stumbled through the front gates surrounding the fortress. He had confronted her, pleading for her forgiveness for interrupting her sparring with West and Frank. The dark haired man had looked frightened and uneasy when Clarke had asked him what the Milgred Queens' answer was. Clarke had a strong suspicion, since she knew already that Razeeta and Jorsua were protective of her. But she still needed to hear it and still needed to hear what the conditions were.
It was true that Clarke didn't believe that Razeeta and her lovers would hurt anyone she loved. Nonetheless, the Shehen had given her a troubling answer that made her look towards the main hall where the others were with Farron, a frisson of fear slicing through her before she could help it. The answer was this; Razeeta, Jorsua and Dasha would all be willing to listen, so long as not only Clarke came, but so did Farron. Clarke stared at her boy, at her son. Farron. Why did the queens want him? What did they want him for?
Clarke asked Shehen this very question and he said that he didn't know and begged for her forgiveness, which she absentmindedly gave.
That wasn't a surprise. She doubted that the queens of the Milgreds would tell a mere messenger their intentions.
She dismissed him and he sprung off, clearly hoping to lie down and give his poor terrified heart a rest.
Clarke couldn't blame him.
To first face off with the three cannibal queens of the Milgreds and barely survive?
Then to tell the person who sent him in the first place, Wanheda; the Commander of Death, that he didn't know what the queens' intentions were?
Shehen likely hadn't thought he'd survive to next month.
Clarke watched Farron, fearful.
What did the Milgreds want with her boy?
The question caused fear to spread through her chest, but she knew that it was best that she not announce this fear to anyone.
The twenty-six-her brothers and sisters, were already very distrusting of the Milgreds. Best not to make them even more paranoid.
Then again, was it really paranoia if the people that Clarke and the others were eventually going to visit, were actually likely to kill and eat another human being first chance they got?
Four months ago
Azgeda territory: Norway
Clarke knew when she left the room following Ontari who had exited almost an hour beforehand that she was about to enter a new era of dangers. True, that was probably going to be a dangerous path to take either way, as long as she was with the Azgeda. As long as she was on the ground and surrounded by Grounders. So why not ally with one of the most powerful and most dangerous tribes there was? It wasn't like the last person she had allied with hadn't betrayed her. And that person had been a Trikru. Who was to say an Azgeda would be worse?
Clarke knew what 'worse' meant.
Worse meant standing alone outside of a mountain, knowing all your friends and family were going to be murdered and someone had deliberately turned the other way, handing Clarke's people over to a murderous race of people.
It was hard to believe that anyone could be worse than that.
That anyone could be worse than Lexa and Anya.
Clarke knew she was probably being foolish, repeating old mistakes by trusting Ontari with her life and not just her life, but with her peoples' lives. But she saw after what happened to Glenn, Cameron, Christopher, Beryl and Parker. She saw that there was little to no choice. It was either trust Ontari, take the risk and potentially save her people, or keep pretending that this way of life that the queen had forced them into wasn't unacceptable and inhuman and wouldn't lead to millions dying if Nia's plan went through. The second option was no option at all.
Clarke sighed, thinking of how David and Jesse had reacted to her interaction with Ontari before. Neither of them had been too enthusiastic, to say the least. It was just that David had been more vocal and vulgar than Jesse had been about it. Clarke hoped when she ran this by them that everyone would try to be civil about her decision. She'd have to be as tactful about it as possible for some of them. David, Christopher, Casey, Finley, Kristin, Parker, Mario, Cody and Dallas certainly, she would have to be tactful with.
She knew how protective all of the twenty-six were of her. But she would have to do this. For them. And she hoped they understood.
She hoped they did.
If not, well, too bad, but was just something that would have to be done. Clarke didn't know if she could trust Ontari. And as what happened at Mount Weather with Lexa and Anya had told her, she'd had bad experiences in the past with trusting powerful Grounders.
But at the same time? Ontari, unfortunately, just might be and the twenty-six's best chance at stopping Nia's plans.
Nodding and resigning herself, she took a deep breath and approached where the others were.
She knew what she would have to do.
She would have to speak to the twenty-six, all of them and tell them that she intended to trust Ontari. And hope that Ontari would not turn on her, as Lexa and Anya had. She hoped this didn't lead to the twenty-six blowing their lids and making a scene.
For their sakes. They could not afford to attract Nia's attention any more than they already had.
But she was certain that they knew when to take things seriously. After all, the twenty-six were NOT the 100.
They actually knew when to get things done, as she had learned when she had first met them, two months ago when they had done what was necessary and had fallen in line for the sake of survival, almost immediately.
So, what did this mean? This mean that Clarke had to hold onto the chance she had right in front of her.
If she wanted any chance at stopping queen Nia from taking over the tribes? Then she would need to chance working with Ontari, and getting the twenty-six in gear, ready to stop the queen.
She knew that the twenty-six would be extremely hesitant to work with Ontari, and she wouldn't be able to blame them.
But they needed to do something.
So, damn her for potentially being a complete damn fool, but she was going to risk it.
She was going to speak to Ontari.
But before that, she needed to speak with the twenty-six.
She needed to know that her kids were okay with this, before anything else.
Two months and two weeks prior-during the twenty-six's initial capture by queen Nia's warriors
She heard groaning all around her. When she opened her eyes, and lifted her head up off of the hard surface she was lying down against, she felt her neck, her legs, her arms, her whole body ache. She lifted her head fully up, her fuzzy vision starting to clear and she saw a series of metal bars in front of her eyes, surrounding her.
Cody gasped, pain striking every muscle in her body and she winced. She pushed herself off the hard floor and got up, knees wobbly. Her vision started to clear as she turned her head, wincing, neck aching. She grimaced. "Ow." She hissed. "Ow, ow, ow."
"My sentiments, exactly," a boy's voice groaned out, sounding like he was in equally as much pain as Cody was.
Cody moved her head to look at who had spoken, feeling her neck creak and she winced at the action.
Ouch.
Her eyes widened, when she saw the group of people scattered throughout the room, which was clearly a cell of some sorts.
It was the other kids from the dropship.
Cody tried to recall all of their names, unsuccessfully. She'd never been all that good at remembering names.
But also?
A potential concussion might have contributed to her not remembering names at the moment.
She shakily got herself to sit up against the bars, face hurting-and really, everything else hurting.
Really, everything was just fucking hurting.
Cody grunted, feeling like she had been hit with one of those old Earth mac trucks.
"Does everyone still have some braincells?" Mario grumbled from across the cage, "Because I think my head's about to split open."
Cody heard a few chuckles in response, but as her mind slowly came back to her, and she recalled some of what had happened, her stomach dropped.
She remembered one thing for sure.
She had been attacked by people who had bore a symbol that she recognized. A hand symbol, with a spiral in it. The Hopi symbol.
Cody shuddered, remembering what had happened soon after seeing the Hopi symbol, the symbol marking a woman on horseback.
The woman had knocked Cody right out, even after Cody had tried to communicate with the woman.
Cody understood what that meant, especially when she had seen the confused expression on that woman's face.
The people who shared that symbol with her own tribe on the Ark? They didn't recognize what she said. They didn't recognize her as one of them.
Realizing that, as the other teenagers in the cage, were moving to one another and checking if everyone else was okay, Cody, pulled her legs close to her chest, her knees against her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees, feeling cold and alone, for reasons that had nothing to do with the frigid air outside.
There was the sound of footsteps moving closer. The sound of leather boots slapping against stone.
Cody tensed, but didn't even bother looking. The others cautiously crept closer to the bars, where the door to the cell was, looking out at who was approaching. They backed up then, when two figures got close.
Cody, who hadn't lifted her head, but her face was aimed at the door, stared up at the two figures and closed her eyes, not bearing to see the symbol tattooed on their necks. The symbol of her tribe. The Hopi symbol.
These people were strangers. It didn't matter that they had her tribe's symbol on them. They were strangers.
(Page break)
Present Day
North Atlantic Ocean
The Great Stallion
Wells Jaha and Anya leaned against the wall of the ship, looking out at the frothing waves below.
Wells occasionally glanced to the right, to get a look at where Charlotte and Wakuren were on deck. Octavia, of course, was still bound to the mast, serving out her sentence for raising a hand to a child.
She would be released from where she was tied, when they were a few days away from the Ice Nation.
Because they would need as many warriors as they could get. And Octavia would need her arms and legs available.
Wells wasn't going to lie, he still found it damn funny to watch Octavia suffer there.
Felt like justice, not just for her about to raise a hand to Charlotte, but for how Octavia had treated Clarke.
Was Wells getting more and more vengeful and petty as time went on? Probably.
Did he find that problematic? You know, he probably should have, but no, he didn't find it to be problematic. If anything, the many examples of betrayal he had witnessed, did nothing, except serve proof to him that there was no point in not being vengeful and petty.
If vengeance and pettiness protected his sisters, Clarke and Charlotte? Not to mention, protected the woman he was in love with, Raven? And protected the woman who more or less had become his and Clarke's new mother, Wakuren? Then, so be it.
Wells turned back to the sea, after he saw that Charlotte was playing with Harper and Fox, and Wakuren was sharpening one of her swords.
He knew Raven was below deck, being looked after by Finn, Sterling and Monroe. That woman did not do well with traveling by sea.
Wells said quietly, knowing that the commander was at the head of the boat, far out of earshot from him and Anya, "After we get Clarke back, we'll have to wait a bit. At least about a month or two. So as not to bring suspicion to Clarke or anyone else. And Bellamy's death, has to look like a random attack from something like a nomad."
"That will be done," Anya said, nodding, and she then glanced over her left shoulder at where Abby was, looking over the supplies of their medicine with the other medics onboard.
She growled to Wells quietly, "There's at least one threat to Klark, who I easily could kill now and dump into the water, while no one is looking."
Wells chuckled, shocked that he found actual, genuine humor in Anya's words, "Well, sure. But if she goes missing now? That will cause questions to be raised. And we won't be helping Clarke in any way, if we do that."
Anya growled again, but turned back to the sea. She had hoped to kill Abi.
Abi was a vile person. Onya had had no strong opinions on her before, however, the information that Wels had spoken to her about Abi? Well, that brought Abi into a very troubling light. The wretched woman had sold out her husband and her own child. Had gotten Jayke, Klark's nontu killed, had expected Klark to protect the rest of the 100, even if Klark was simply a child at the time herself, and when Klark had done what Abi had told her to do, which was protect the 100, Abi then turned around and was cruel to Klark, when Klark had become a leader of her people and had protected her people.
Then there was the rest.
Abi abandoning Klark at Ton DC, after Klark had let the missile fall, to win a war, which would have saved many more than the number that was in Ton DC.
Killing Abi was very tempting for Onya. The woman had hurt Klark.
Wells could see the disgusted rage in Anya's eyes when she looked at Abby. He honestly couldn't blame her.
And you know, horrible as it was, somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice said, (Hey, upside, if she ends up killing Abby? It's not like Clarke's not going to have a new mother to look after her.)
Wells almost laughed at that thought. Because it was true. Wakuren, as soon as she was back in Clarke's life, would happily swoop in and try to be there for Clarke. If Abby died on this trip, that would make Wakuren's attempts all the easier for her.
Wells heard a thought go through his brain, before he could help it. That thought being, (Well, Abby lost Clarke, anyway, after what she did. So, Wakuren should be able to swoop in successfully, anyway.)
Again, Wells had to fight a smirk, because it was true.
According to the captain of the ship, they would reach the Ice Nation in ten days.
When they did, they'd get Clarke back, then Anya could kill Bellamy in secret. Then maybe Abby.
But either way?
Wakuren was going to be Clarke and Wells's new mother. Hopefully Wells could get Clarke to agree. He also knew he needed to speak with Wakuren later, see if she'd take in Charlotte.
He also wanted to tell Raven what his feelings were. Not because he expected anything else, he just wanted her to know. Seeing that they were going to potentially see battle soon and he might die. He just wanted her to know.
They still had ten more days to go, till they reached the Ice Nation. They had time.
Azgeda territory: Norway, main Azgeda kingdom
Hours after Clarke got the message back from Shehen, she and the others got ready.
They had the all-terrain vehicles ready, and began to pack everything up on those vehicles.
Clarke had cautiously explained to her siblings and to Farron, that the queens had requested Farron's presence.
Farron, much to Clarke's surprise and unease, had not been against this. If anything, he'd been all for it. He had nodded and said that he wanted to go along with her to the Milgreds' territory.
Clarke in no way missed the protectiveness in the boy's eyes, when he had said this.
Tenmar, the boy's so-called father, had been ashamed and had been furious, had demanded that the boy not "disgrace" his father and his people by going with Clarke and risk embarrassment, but queen Nia had said that it wasn't up to him. It was up to Clarke.
And Clarke had asked Farron again, if he was sure, as it should be up to him. And again, Farron had insisted that he was coming with her.
So, regardless of what Clarke thought was a good idea or not, and regardless of Tenmar's disgust for the boy that he barely had raised, Farron was coming with Clarke to the land of the Milgreds, then to the land of the Sowlas.
So, he was here, now, with his knives strapped to his sides, with a metal mask over his young face, the metal mask in question, had multiple lines running downwards, and the metal lines made a sort of V-shape of the mask.
The mask covered his face up to the bridge of his nose.
There was white paint on his face, beneath the mask, streaked across his face.
Clarke met her son's eyes, as the five siblings who she was going to take with her; Cody-who Clarke had specifically requested to come with her, (she had yet to tell Cody, however, that it was because she was hoping to get Cody to speak to the Sowlas on her behalf), Mario, Beryl, Kristin and Sabine, were gathering up on the ATVs.
"Are you sure about this, Farron?" Clarke asked the boy, her own face marked with white paint and bits of bones in her hair, her mask in the shape of a wolf's snarl, seated upon the seat of her all-terrain-vehicle.
Farron nodded. "Ain, kosena," Farron answered, "I won't let you go there without me. Not if the queens wanted me there. If they want me? They can just try to eat me."
Clarke smiled, sad, hearing her son's voice wavering and hearing him gulping when he said, "they can just try to eat me."
Razeeta, Jorsua, Dasha, Echo and none of the other Milgreds would so much as touch her son.
They would have to get through her to do it. She didn't know what the queens wanted with her son. But if bringing him to the Milgred territory was part of the deal of the alliance? Then fine, but they weren't going to so much as touch him.
"Alright, then," Clarke said, smiling, and leaned forward, gently kissing Farron's forehead, "My brave boy." She pulled away, stroking her son's dark hair.
Her son, whose supposed father, named Tenmar, lived here, but never had been any sort of father to him, never had spoken a kind word to the boy all the boy's life, was a sweet and fragile young boy. He had never taken a life, ever. He knew how to weild a knife and a sword.
But then, what child born and raised on the ground, didn't?
But he had never taken a life. Ever.
And she would do everything in her power to keep him from ever having to have blood on his hands.
It wouldn't matter how many she had to kill to keep him from knowing what it was like to take a life. She would kill them, before Farron had to feel any blood on his hands.
"We ready?" Kristin asked, glancing over at Clarke and Farron.
"Yeah," Clarke said, going to the ATV, picking her mask up and waiting for Farron to join her, which he did.
Clarke got up onto the ATV, and Farron got on it behind her, holding his arms around her waist, as Clarke put her wolf mask on.
Most ATVs weren't designed for more than one person to be aboard it. But this one had enough room.
Cody, Mario, Sabine, Kristin and Beryl got on the ATVs and the rest of the warriors got on theirs-truly, the ATVs were all but gifts to them from the bunkers where they had found the bikes.
Couldn't say they were complaining.
Clarke moved her left hand from the handle of the ATV she and Farron were on, only to pat the pouch tied to her belt, where she had put what Ontari had given her, a token to make Clarke feel more secure, she supposed. It was a necklace, which Ontari's blood mother, had given Ontari, right before Ontari had been stolen from her mother and father, stolen from the farm that belonged to her birth parents, by queen Nia. It was the last thing that Ontari's birth mother had ever been able to give to Ontari, before the girl had been taken.
Clarke had needless to say, been very hesitant to take the necklace. Because how could she? How could she take something that personal? But Ontari had insisted. And Clarke honestly was grateful for the feeling of it on, for the reminder of Ontari so close. She moved her hand back to the handle of the ATV.
And they started the engines up and waited for the gates to open up.
As they did, Clarke looked over to feet and feet away, to where Ontari and the other twenty-six were. Clarke smiled. She knew that Ontari and the others couldn't see her smile, but she hoped they knew that she would be careful. Or as careful as they could, in this situation where they would need to make alliances with unimaginably dangerous people.
And it wasn't like while they'd be gone, the rest of the twenty-six would be without their own dangerous duties. Clarke had made it clear what they were to do while she, Farron, Cody, Beryl, Kristin, Sabine and Mario were gone. They were to try to make allies with all the bandits and nomads that came across the main kingdom of the Azgeda.
And that? That had its own dangers.
Clarke turned back to the gates, and when the gates were completely open, Clarke began to drive her ATV along, as did the others and they drove through the gates, onwards, in the direction…of Milgred land.
Back near the main building of the castle, where Ontari stood with the others, watching with a forlorn feeling in her heart as her entarg and their child and five of the twenty-six, left, Ontari raised her left hand, looking at what she had been grasping onto strongly this whole time.
The watch that Clarke had given to her. A watch which had used to belong to Clarke's father, Jayke.
Ontari smiled at it, squeezing it protectively. Clarke had insisted that Ontari take it, hold onto it, if she was going to be taking possession of Ontari's birth mother's necklace.
Ontari would have to admit, holding it close made her feel better. It didn't change that thinking of Clarke going off to Milgred territory, made her blood run cold.
Author's note
Yes, yes, updating after ages, I know, I know. And at last, Fanfiction has the option of putting Ontari's name on the "characters" for this fic, which it did not when I first posted this story. Hey, I looked for Ontari's name on the character list. At the time, her name was not there. In any case, huzzah, finally, I can put Ontari's name on the "Character" category. And goodbye to Lexa's name. Just happy I don't have to use the dumbass's name on the category for characters, anymore. What? Did you think I'd get through one Author's note without roasting a character?