21. Meeting Anya
After hearing what Finn had done, Clarke quickly left the camp in search for Lincoln to get information over this peace meeting. Of course she didn't leave the camp on her own, Bellamy would have her head if she even tried to do something like that and frankly she wasn't in the mood to get into another pointless fight with him, so she brought Octavia with her since she was the only one who knew and trusted Lincoln without suspicion. And as they walked through the thickness of the forest and in the direction of her cave, she kept her close friend in the loop over the recent development of their situation with the Grounders. However like Finn, Octavia didn't see the problem about the peace meeting and it frustrated Clarke to no end over how they didn't understand what this meeting could lead them.
"I can't really get into the details right now, but believe me when I tell you that this meeting is a bad idea," Clarke said with evasiveness. "Nothing good with comes from it. Right now we need to be able to survive, not get pulled into something that will kill all of us."
"How do you know that for a fact?" Octavia asked. Her eyebrow rose slightly with question and suspicion. Clarke stared at the brunette and held a tired expression on her face. And she was just about to answer when someone else interrupted and said seriously, "Because she speaks from experience, something she has apparently not shared with you or your people."
Both of them turned in the direction of where the voice came from and saw Lincoln appear from his hiding spot behind one of the trees. Then he slowly began approaching them and stopped a few feet away from them. Although he seemed happy to see them, probably even more Octavia than her, but his demeanor remained serious as his gaze was solely focused on her.
"You should know since you barely managed to save me the last time," Clarke said curtly. "Which makes me wonder why in the world you agreed to do this?"
Lincoln shifted uncomfortable and his gaze turned away from her for a moment before he turned to look at her again.
"You understand my wish that Grounders and Sky People lived together peacefully here on the ground," Lincoln replied. "I hoped that by this peace meeting we could finally accomplish that goal and make my wish come true. Besides I felt bad for injuring him in the first place, so I agreed to set it up."
Clarke didn't say anything because although she didn't like his actions and decisions she could understand and not really judge him for wanting peace. Peace was something she too longed and wished for, but in the end the need for survival was stronger and mainly a first priority.
"Just tell me something, who exactly did you arrange for us to meet?" Clarke asked wearily. She was worried over who exactly she and Bellamy was supposed to meet because there were far too many unreasonable Grounders, who weren't afraid to show disgust and distrust towards her whenever they saw her or was in need of her expertise. She could only hope that it was someone she knew and got along with better than the most of them.
"It's Anya," Lincoln said.
"Damn it," Clarke flinched. She knew Anya very well and one thing is certain and that is that she wasn't going to be reasonable at all. The woman was harsh and would certainly not listen to her or any of the other delinquents. "You know how bad she and I get along. No way is she going to listen and agree to a treaty."
"Would it have been better if it was the Commander instead?" His brow twitched and she flinched again by sound of the Commander, who she never wanted to see again as long as she lived. She sighed heavily and ran an annoyed hand through her hair. Why couldn't things turn out easy for her?
"No. However I guess Bellamy and I will just have to deal with Anya instead and see how things goes," Clarke replied. Then she turned to Octavia and said, "We better head back and inform you brother about what's going on."
She turned and was facing the direction to the camp. She was determined to keep the others safe, but she knew that by dealing with Anya there was no way she was going to show up unarmed. And although Finn promised that she and Bellamy wasn't going to show up with weapons, they would only be fools if they actually followed through with that promise.
"Lincoln, you will tell Anya that we will come, but not without being armed," Clarke said dead serious. Lincoln was about to object, but she wouldn't let him and continued saying, "That's the way it has to be, because she is going to be armed and there is no way I'm putting the others in danger by playing 'duck duck goose' with her. Understand?"
Lincoln sighed tiredly before he nodded and agreed with the condition. Without anything else to say Clarke started to walk back towards the camp, leaving Octavia and Lincoln behind. She was sure those two wanted to spend some time alone together, and even though she was in no condition to obtain love and happiness from a significant other with her current self, there was nothing that said others like Octavia and Lincoln should not be able to find the love and happiness they both deserved. Besides she thought those two looked really good together and they might be the best sign that Sky People and Grounders can live together. Even though she had a feeling that Bellamy was not going to like the love relationship his sister was establishing with Lincoln.
Bellamy sneezed and covered it with the sleeve of his jacket. Someone was talking about him, he thought to himself as he showed another clueless kid how to use one of the rifles. However he wasn't sure who exactly was talking about him, but he was sure whoever it was that person had some kind of issue with him and had it in for him. He shook his head, realizing that it seemed pretty stupid to get all worried and worked up for something frivolous like that when he had other things to worry about. Besides he needed to talk with Clarke, hoping to fix the issues in their relationship. He had decided to stop with his one-night stands in order to pursue Clarke, especially now when he knew she truly trusted him despite his suspicion and distrust from before, because he realized that there was something holding her back from opening up to him and allow her feelings to surface and accept what is going on between them. The only question was how in the world was he supposed to redeem himself for his actions and make it all happen?
"Bellamy," Clarke called up. He turned around to see Clarke entering the camp and the first thing that popped into his mind was where she has been and why did she leave the camp without telling him, but she wouldn't allow him to ask anything. "We need to talk. Something has come that is in desperate need of your attention."
He became quickly guarded because of the seriousness in her voice, so he left Miller in charge of the other kids. Meanwhile he and Clarke retreated into his tent for privacy and closed the entrance behind them in order to signal to the others that they were to be left alone. "What's going on, Clarke?" Bellamy asked as he leaned against the table, waiting for the explanation. Her hands was on her hips as she told him about the peace meeting that damn Spacewalker had arranged with one of the leaders of Grounder clans. And if that wasn't enough this leader happened to be someone who really didn't care about them and was not even the least interested in maintaining peace between them.
"So what do we suggest we do?" Bellamy said with his arms crossed against his chest. "Meet this Anya person and hope for the best? You can't really be serious."
"If we blow her off then we will aggravate them and make them attack, which is bad considering we are nowhere close to be ready for a battle against experienced warriors, who has trained all their lives," Clarke argued. "I think we should go to this meeting."
"You're joking, right?" Bellamy's eyebrow rose. "It could be a trap and get us all killed."
"That is why I'm saying I'm are not going there alone, you and the others will be with me," Clarke said.
Bellamy wasn't very reassured by this at all, but he trusted her to know how to handle the situation and besides she had put a lot of faith in him as well. So how could he even be in doubt when she needed him?
"Fine," Bellamy replied curtly. "If that is what you think is the best idea."
She didn't respond to his reply, but he had a feeling that she didn't really like this meeting very much either. The difference between him and Clarke was that she was more willing to find reasonable and peaceful solutions than him, which is probably one of the reasons why he listened to her ideas than the other kids.
"Oh, and Bellamy," Clarke interrupted his train of thoughts. "Please bring guns."
He smirked by her order. It was obvious that he was going to bring guns; like there was a chance he was going to let her go unarmed and alone.
"Anything for you, Princess," Bellamy said with cocky smirk. "Is there something else you desire while we are at it?"
When he asked her the question he didn't think she would react by turning away with redness on her cheeks. He didn't really understand it at first, but then he started to think. Was it possible that she was embarrassed? Then why would she be? Unless she had something naughty on her mind and it involved him. Just the thought of it brought those tingling feelings up to surface again and he was almost sure his cheeks too was blushing, but he quickly shrugged it off and tried to pretend it was nothing by coughing and turning his gaze away.
"That is all, Bellamy," Clarke murmured. "Thank you."
Then she ran out of the tent without saying another word, but that was fine because he wasn't confident over how much control he was going to have if things were going in this direction.
After much time planning on how things were going to take place on the peace meeting, everything was starting to fall into place and when the next morning happened Clarke ventured alone towards the bridge meanwhile Bellamy and the others remained armed and hidden not far away. Octavia and Lincoln were up on the bridge along with her and Finn, and it was pretty apparent that there was something going on between the brunette and her grounder friend. Clarke could only imagine Bellamy's realization over his sister's boyfriend, but she quickly shrugged those thoughts away. As long as they were happy, she wouldn't complain. Finn on the other hand was not happy over the fact that Clarke had gone behind his back and gone to Bellamy, but there was nothing left to do since Anya and her warriors was approaching the bridge on horseback. Clarke remained perfectly still as she kept her eyes fully focused on the woman, who got off her horse and slowly walked up to the bridge with only a few feet away from each other.
"Clarke, it has been a long time," Anya said with a stoic face. She had dark blonde hair and black roots, which was kept in a braid. She wore leather clothes and her hazel almond-shaped eyes were covered in dark eye shadow, something Clarke had seen many times among the female grounder warriors. "I almost hoped that you were dead."
"Anya, nice to see you haven't change a bit," Clarke said with strained politeness. She really didn't like the woman very much, but she didn't hate her or wish her any harm. Things between them had always been bad and Anya wasn't slow in blaming her for when things went wrong.
"Apparently your people are here to form a peace treaty with us," Anya said nonchalant. "I find it silly really, considering how much harm and destruction your people has done during the short time they have been here."
Clarke had to force herself from sighing annoyed and heavily over being once again blamed for everything that went wrong in Anya's world, or as she like to call it crazy land.
"I'm not wrong in assuming that there is a price to pay for the peace treaty between us," Clarke said. "So tell me, what it is so that we can get things moving and stop the pointless chatter?"
Anya smirked and it annoyed Clarke to no end, it was obvious that she hit the nail with her assumption. And she was pretty sure that whatever the price was she wasn't going to like it one bit and Anya knew this.
"The price is that you and your people will join us in our battle with the Mountain Men," Anya said seriously.
Clarke only stared. It was like she was reliving her own personal nightmare, but this time it was not a dream. This time it was real.
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Thanks again for the response I have been receiving. I should start up with the fact that I'm back after being finally done with my written exams, although I still have one oral exam left, but I will inform you guys later on when I will be busy with that.
If you guys haven't figured it out, I'm beginning to really deviate from the original storyline. Hopefully it will still be fun and entertaining for you, since I don't plan on writing a copy of the original because I'm sure it gets sort of boring reading the same story over and over, no matter how you change the circumstances of the original. But that is my personal opinion.
Anyways please continue giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings. And the next chapter will be coming out soon enough.
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