Time
Ragged breaths hurt her broken ribs. Her lips were dry and chapped, bleeding every now and then. She could feel her heart pounding. Every muscle in her body was as tense as it could be. Her body dropped to the ground with a loud thud. She grunted. Then she stopped breathing.
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Lexa hit with her wooden sword a young child on his back, causing him to fall to the muddy ground.
"Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim. Get knocked down, get back up." She turned around to spar with the rest of her novitiates, easily defeating them. Only four Natblida had been found in the next generation, and none learnt as fast as Lexa needed them to.
"Come on" she tried to get them up every time they fell and stayed on the ground for a couple of seconds "keep fighting" she growled through gritted teeth.
After four and a half hours of relentless swordfighting, the children were laying on the floor, exhausted. Lexa rolled her eyes and sat on the dry floor nearby. "Now you must listen. Your training isn't just about fighting, it's also mental."
The kids somehow managed to sit more or less properly on the ground, some crossed their legs, others simply rested their back against a tree.
"Being Commander is hard. You won't know who might betray you, who to tell your plans to, so you must find a close group that you know will always have your back. But most of all, you have to remember this: you're alone. No one will make a decision for you, they might try, but at the end of the day, you'll be the one who makes them."
They were kids, but they had to know the truth behind being Heda, the harsh parts of it and not the ones they might've heard in their tiny villages.
"Only one of you will be Heda, and you, whoever that is, will have to live with the burden of having killed the rest of you." Lexa remembered when she had first heard those words, her reaction must've been the same one she was seeing: fear, unwillingness to kill those kids she'd considered her friends, and in the back of her mind, competitiveness.
"Don't turn against each other, it's no use to you. The best thing you can do is get along as well as you can, believe me." She sighed "Unless you have any questions, I think we should leave it here for today" she stood up and tried to shake off the dust on her trousers. She barely heard one of her pupils' question, but understood it quite enough.
"What about relationships?"
When Lexa answered him, she looked as if she was an old woman. "Love is weakness. I never believed this to be true, but it is. Learn what I didn't, or it will destroy you."
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Raven kept moving the little figurines over the map, making sure there were no flaws in her plan and going though every possible scenario. She couldn't let anything happen to the hostages that were held by their enemies as long as she could help it. She sighed and kept trying different possibilities: if there were more enemies than troops of their own, if their enemies doubled their number, if they tripled them...Every single time she found a way to either rescue everyone or retire their army without a massive loss of lives. However, if more than three quarters of the grounders were against them, well, they were screwed. She took those thoughts out of her mind, if something so unlikely happened, they'd face it when it did happen.
She opened a drawer in her wardrobe and took out a carefully wrapped little package. She checked that Octavia was nowhere to be seen and unwrapped it.
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Lexa looked at her reflection in the wide mirror that hung in her bathroom. Dark circles under her eyes didn't seem to be going to dissapear, her skin was pale as ever, veins could be seen through it in several spots, and she could swear wrinkles were starting to appear.
It took her a few seconds to figure out what day it was, and when she did her hands turned into fists. Clarke had been missing for over six months. But she wouldn't be any longer. Lexa was determined. She bitterly remembered the plans she had for that day. Happy birthday, Clarke.
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Raven had been so focused on what she was doing that she hadn't noticed Octavia walking in and seeing what she was doing.
"Oh, Raven..."
Raven turned around and tried to hide what she'd been working on, but it was useless.
"I can't believe it."
"I...You weren't supposed to see that."
Octavia then smiled sweetly and closed her eyes mockingly "Okay, let me know when I can look."
Raven sighed, it was impossible to give Octavia any sort of surprise "Cover your eyes. No peeking"
Raven stood up, her arms motioned around the other girl's neck, which caused Octavia to open her eyes far too early. She touched the handmade necklace Raven had just gifted to her "It's so beautiful"
It was a simple metal chain with an asymetrical blue gem which matched the color shade of Octavia's eyes. "How did you find this color, though?"
"Patience. It's a virtue many people have and others lack." She couldn't pretend to be pissed by Octavia's attitude, since it always managed to cheer her up more than she would admit.
Octavia smiled and passionately kissed her, only to abruptly stop. "Shit. I forgot. Something's happened."
Raven's puzzled expression was all she needed to keep explaining herself
"Scouts are going to the Great Tower right now, from several villages and clans. Raven, someone is coming. They don't know whether it's their leader or just a messenger, but no one has got near them. And they're not alone."