Chapter 25

Clarke stood still. She didn't know what to do. None of them were close enough to weapons, except maybe Echo, who had a knife on her belt. She met Echo's eyes and was glad that Madi was behind the curtain with Indra in that moment.

"Stay back there, Heda. I've got your mother. Indra has you," Echo stated just loud enough for them to hear.

There was a quick reply of two "sha's." Clarke just nodded as she stepped a little away from the table and towards the blonde in the doorway. The blonde turned her bow from Abby towards Clarke.

"Ferre?" Raven questioned as let go of Palla and turned to face her.

"Yeah?"

"I'm Raven."

"What is going on?" Ferre demanded. "We pulled up. There was a large fire out front. Svathimmel and Fotia were running free but keeping close to the barracks. And, then I heard that banshee scream."

"She was hurt."

"Start talking and it better be good. Or, when Hrathgar is done with dealing with caballos, I'll let him deal with you all as well. When you called, you said nothing about Palla. What happened?"

"She went to get retrieve our missing warrior. She found her, but Octavia, our warrior was covered in sticky sap. Palla did what she could for her in the woods with the promise that she would be back in the morning. They rode not too long ago. Somehow, she was shot on her way back. We don't know anymore than that. I'm sorry," Abby explained.

"You are the healer," she asked Abby as she lowered her bow.

"I am. I am Doctor Abigail Griffin. I am trying to help her."

"Continue," Ferre told her. "Which one of you is Clarke...the Wanheda?"

Clarke raised her hand and took a step forward. She watched as Ferre looked her over. She could see more questions in her eyes and then a fire, but there was something else. It was like Ferre saw something in her that even Clarke didn't understand.

"I can see it," Ferre mumbled.

"What?"

"I know why Eligius sent you here. I can see it in you. She was right. She just doesn't want to see it, but I can."

"Want to clue me in to that?" Clarke asked her.

Ferre just laughed as she completely dropped her bow, "No."

Their little square off ended as soon as they both heard Palla whimper. When their attention turned back to Palla, they could both see Abby holding the shaft of the arrow. Echo handed her the poker and she sealed the wound. Handing Echo back the poker, she stepped down and studied the wound a little more closely. She reached back and Raven put the canister of salve in her hands. She dipped her fingers in and put a generous amount on both the front and back. Then she looked at Echo who helped her move Palla back completely on the bed, hopefully to a more comfortable position. They left her on her stomach for the time being. They would rotate her later if she didn't wake and do it on her own. For now, she was okay.

"I'm going to clean up and then check on Octavia. They both need rest. Everyone go clean up. I'll watch them. If I need something or something happens, I call for help," Abby told them as she moved towards the back of the clinic.

Ferre stepped closer and into Clarke's face. Green-hazel eyes warred with bright blue, but neither backed down. Clarke felt like she was being sized up. She hadn't felt like she was being tested so hard since the first time she'd met Anya or Lexa. It was obvious that Ferre was a powerful woman and she loved Palla.

"We need to talk," she informed Clarke.

"Okay."

"Alone."

"Okay," Clarke replied and she could already feel Echo at her back in defiance.

Instead of words, Clarke just turned and touched Echo's arm. She let her blue flick to the curtain. Echo nodded and stood down.

"Lead the way," Clarke told her.

Ferre turned and walked out of the clinic. Clarke followed, but not before Echo stopped her again. She took her knife and put it in Clarke's belt, in the small of her back. Once it was tucked, she tapped Clarke on the back and let her go. She didn't like it, but she felt better that Clarke had something to fight with. Clarke caught up with Ferre by the dying fire.

"Do you want to tell me more about what happened?" Ferre asked her as they sat on some logs that someone had dragged over.

"No," Clarke answered.

"Are you going to hurt her?"

"No," Clarke quickly answered, offended that Ferre even asked the question.

"She cares for your people. She cares for you. She wants you to join us."

"We need a place to live," Clarke stated.

"I know. She told me. She told me everything," Ferre said stressing the end and she could tell that Clarke didn't completely understand.

"There are only the four hundred of us left from Earth. We found this place only because we were on another Eligius Corporation ship. Otherwise we would have floated through space for...who knows how long. We just want a place to live. We've fought to make it this far."

"You slept for over a hundred years, yet you didn't age. Your soul...the Guf wasn't repaid. Generations must have been searching. Do you know the pain of that? Have you not missed someone?"

"I do. I still do. I miss Lexa everyday. I can't help that. She was my soulmate. But, she lives on in my daughter."

"Heda?"

"Yes."

"She isn't really yours though," Ferre stated.

"I believe you would say that I am her Thetos, like Palla is to her daughter, but that doesn't change the fact that she is mine now."

Ferre smiled. Clarke knew about Lex. Maybe, she really was the one that Palla had been waiting for. She bore a reasonable likeness to Tamma, but she was more serious. Whatever happened on Earth had scarred the blonde, but Ferre could understand that. The wars had done the same to Helios.

"She told you about Lex?"

"Lex?"

"Her daughter," Ferre stated.

"She told me that she had a young daughter, a fosterling, but nothing more."

"She named her Lex. Well, really, I don't know that she named her that. I think that Eligius did. Palla has had that name on her lips since we were teens. She actually informed Tamma that if they had children one of them would be named Lex. After Tamma's death, I never thought I would hear the name again. When she ran into the house carrying the small child, I didn't know what to say. When she told me that she was keeping her and naming her Lex, I just assumed that Tamma has sent someone for her to love again, something for her to live for, and a reason to maintain the peace with the Praha. And, I was right. Lex tamed her better than I could, but it wasn't for lack of trying," Ferre told her.

Clarke's mind was running a million miles a minute. She hadn't known that Palla's daughter was Lex. She barely understood their concept of reincarnation. It was so drastically different that of the Grounders and the continuation of Heda. She didn't believe in the concept, but she'd read about in her studies on the Ark. Religion wasn't taught except in the home, and Clarke had been curious. Her parents weren't really religious because they believed in science, as did she.

"We owe her and your village a lot."

"Not really. Once you join Helios, even if you set up your own town and begin trading, you'll be helping us all. We trade and support each other for the common good of us all. No one suffers and no one prospers to extreme. I know it seems all utopian, but we still struggle. We still have our issues, but we all work together. It is all we know and I believe it is how we have survived so long on our own here."

"Still, you've done so much for us. We have to be able to repay you all somehow. She's given us so much already."

"She is just trying to make you happy."

"Why?"

"It is said that the Praha became disillusioned with Eligius and what we had. They went North to do things as they wished. Their greed corrupted them and how they acted. Soon villages, towns, and small settlements near the non-defined boarder were attacked. They started the war. We aren't sure if was just because we were too close to their land even though there was no clear boarder or if they just wanted what we had. Over the years, it turned into supply runs. They would jump the wall and attack those that lived near it. Well, that was until Palla took up arms against them."

"What did she do that was different?" Clarke asked her.

"She started defended the wall. She figured that if we could stop them there, they wouldn't be able to come closer to the settlements and such. She was right. Ever since, she's tasked Imber, our head general, to reinforce the wall and man it. But, lately, she seems a little more paranoid."

"Paranoid?"

"Yeah, she had him start building watchtowers in the Village. She's stock piling more food. It's like she's planning on an invasion."

"Us?"

"No, it was before she told us you were coming. But, I think that she is worried what you being here might do. The Praha aren't known for their civility or their discretion. They attack their own as they do us."

Clarke thought about what she was saying. They landed and might have caused another war. It was exactly what they didn't want to happen. But, Clarke was very resilient, and she wasn't going to let the Terrens fight her battles for her. If they needed her, she would become the Wanheda and she would fight.

"Don't," Ferre stated.

"What?"

"Don't think that she is going to let you take up arms to fight. She won't."

"But, I have warriors. We can help. We can fight."

"It isn't a matter of if you can, Clarke. It never was. This war never ended for her. She isn't going to let you start a fight that wasn't yours to begin with."

"Life is a war, Ferre and I've been fighting my whole life. This is not something new for us. This is who we've become. Death and war were all we learned on Earth. Half of those that will be coming here grew up from the time they could hold a weapon to be warriors, the rest...well...they found their way through violence. I am not saying that I want to fight, because Lord knows I don't. I never did, but I did what I had to do to keep my people alive. If that means that we have to help defend the wall against the Praha, then we will. And, don't say that it won't matter. You, nor Palla, can say that it isn't our presence here that is making them bolder."

"You think that it was the Praha that attacked as she came back?"

"Possibly, yes. I don't know. I don't know your people that well. I only know you and Palla to be honest. But, if she is the glorious wonder that her legend has become, then I doubt that anyone from the Village or Helios for that matter would want her dead. So, the only logical conclusion is that it was the Praha."

"I can see why she likes you. You remind me of her. Always analyzing everything down to the lowest denominator," Ferre told her.

"I had to learn to. If I didn't, I didn't know why we were fighting. I didn't want to fight if I didn't have a reason."

"She'll tell you that you don't have a reason," Ferre explained. "She tells me the same thing. She won't let me fight anymore."

"You have children to deal with, now."

"And, you don't?" Ferre asked her as Madi came over to where they were.

"Clarke?"

"Yes, Madi?"

"Abby needs you, something about blood and Octavia," Madi told her.

Clarke jumped up. She heard Octavia and tuned everything else out. She was still worried about her friend. She was worried about Palla, but she didn't have a relationship with Octavia. The thought made her stop. She didn't really have one with Octavia. She loved her, but she wasn't in love her. She never would be. She thought of Octavia as a friend and sister, maybe an occasional fuck...if the other night meant anything...but it would never be more than that. Her eyes met Ferre's and held. She turned to look down at Madi.

"Go, Clarke," she said quietly.

Clarke nodded at her daughter and moved through the clinic. Her heart was breaking because Octavia was still lying there. She wasn't sure that she was making any progress and her mother was asking for help. She knew that whatever it was. It couldn't be good.