Chapter 2
They rode in silence, riding hard and fast. They could hear a thundering of hooves in the distance, as more riders were coming after them.
They finally came to a stop. The girl dismounted and reached for Clarke, who swung her leg over the horse, grabbed her hand and was placed safely on the ground. A hard slap on the horse’s rump sent him on his way. Tree girl then reached behind her back and pulled out rope. She went to Clarke and started threading the rope through Clarke’s legs and around her waist, then tied off the rope around her own waist. Clarke didn’t like the looks of this, climbing? She looked up, and all she saw was a sheer rock formation. There was no way Clarke could climb that. The girl instead went up in the tree next to it, thank god. She climbed to the first branch and reached down for Clarke, and this is how Clarke ended up 60 feet in the tree tops. She was so nervous she thought she would pee herself. But at each branch, the girl made sure Clarke was secure and holding on before they advanced to the next one. Now there was a ledge in the rocks, well hidden from below, and the girl jumped over to it and reached back for Clarke. She had no choice, right? She grabbed her hand and was pulled onto the rocks. This all happened in a matter of minutes, but to Clarke it seemed like an hour. Now they were hidden somewhere up in the cliff, unseen to anyone below.
The girl was standing and looking down as they heard horses stop below. Voices carried up the cliff, angry. Clarke sat on the ground, and finally got a chance to observe her rescuer. She was taller than Clarke, by almost a head. Wide shoulders tapered down to narrow hips. She was very strong looking, muscles everywhere. She was covered in mud, but she also had blood splattered all over from the fighting. Clarke hoped it wasn’t hers and that she wasn’t injured. She had no medical supplies with her. Her hair was slicked back and shorter than Clarke was used to seeing, she guessed it must be black hair, but she really couldn’t tell because of the mud. She only wore bindings over her breasts up top, and shorts that ended mid-thigh. She had sandals on her feet, with leather straps crisscrossing behind her calves and tied off below her knees. They still hadn’t spoken to each other, and Clarke wasn’t sure the girl would even understand her. They heard the horses move off, and the girl turned around and slid down to sit across from Clarke. She leaned her head back against the rocks, closed her eyes and sighed. Her right knee, which was closest to Clarke, was raised and she rested her hand on it. Clarke felt she needed to express her gratitude somehow, she reached out and put her hand on top of the girl’s that was resting on her knee. The girl’s eyes flew open and she stared at Clarke. Clarke felt trapped by those gray eyes. She felt like the girl was looking into her soul, but it wasn’t a violating feeling, it was something else, something passed between them, a tiny spark of some sort? Clarke had to blink to stop the connection.
She cleared her throat, “Thank you, for risking your life to save me,”
There was a slight hesitation, and Clarke thought she didn’t understand her, but then the girl removed her bone mask, and Clarke was rewarded with a smile, “you’re welcome,”
Clarke was relieved, at least they’ll be able to talk.
“I’m Clarke kom Skaikru.”
Andes studied Clarke, and noticed that her hand was still resting on hers, atop her knee. She found it to be quite pleasant, and was hoping to keep it there for a bit. She was a little mesmerized by her eye color. The color of the sky. Andes had never seen eyes that color before. But she saw pain in those blue eyes, down deep. She didn’t know what was causing it, but her eyes told a sad story. She forgot the girl was waiting for her reply.
“Andes.” Her voice was a little scratchy and deep, gravelly.
“Andes?” Clarke said, hoping she was pronouncing it correctly. The girl slightly nodded, and the smile was still there. Actually, a really nice smile Clarke thought, even through all the paint and blood on her face.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you. And thanks again. I don’t know how you did that, or why you did that, but I owe you big time.”
“You don’t owe me, Clarke kom Skaikru. Any enemy of Azgeda is a friend of mine,” she smiled at Clarke. Now it was Clarke’s turn to smile. At that moment Clarke realized that she still had her hand on Andes knee.
“Oh, sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” was her quick reply. Too quick? The smile was still there, and Clarke didn’t know quite what to make of this girl. She seemed very different than anyone else she met on the ground. She seemed oddly charming.
“I’m hoping that none of that blood is yours?”
“No, it’s not my blood. I’m fine.” Clarke just stared for a couple seconds, before she realized she was doing it.
“Where are you from?” Clarke asked.
Andes shook her head a little, “Nowhere.”
“Nowhere? Are you alone? Don’t you have, like family or clan, or something?”
“No, it’s just me. I don’t have a clan.”
“I don’t understand. I thought all grounders belonged somewhere, to some clan.”
“Well,“ she shrugged, “I guess I’m not like all grounders.” You sure aren’t, thought Clarke.
“I also have quite a few enemies, so living alone helps me stay alive.”
Clarke let that one digest for a minute. Did she have to be worried about this girl? She looked into her eyes and decided she didn’t. Clarke was a pretty good judge of character.
“Why do you have so many enemies?” The girl was staring intently at Clarke, and once again Clarke found she couldn’t look away, they were both locked in right now.
“I killed a clan leader.”
Ok, so she’s a murderer. Maybe Clarke should revisit her judgment. No, she got a good feeling from the girl, her gut said she was good, and Clarke had learned to always trust her gut.
“I’m sure he deserved it.” Clarke said.
Andes laughed at that, finally breaking eye contact, “He did.”
“Well, I don’t want to put you in anymore danger than I already have. I should probably head out.” Clarke got up and peaked over the side of the cliff. How the hell was she going to get down?
“Clarke, I didn’t rescue you to just send you on your way alone. These woods are thick with Azgeda fighters, and they will be for the next few days at least. You were a very special prisoner. Danko isn’t just going to let you go.”
Clarke knew the girl was making sense. “Do you have plan then?”
“Yes. The plan is to avoid capture.”
“Hm, that’s a bit simplistic, maybe we could flesh it out a bit.”
“I’m just kidding. “ She winked at Clarke, a wink from a grounder. Andes got up and brushed the dirt from her pants, which Clarke found funny, since she was covered in mud and blood. She grabbed a stick and began drawing a map in the dirt at their feet.
“Ok, we are here, this is ice nation. We are at least a two day walk inside their territory. This area is obviously the most dangerous. We’ll have to travel at night and rest during the day.” She then proceeded to draw a map of the whole surrounding area, “over here is Skaikru, here is Polis.” She pointed out other landmarks, like the desert, the sea, and after a moment of hesitation, she drew her last circle, “and here is the mountain.” Andes looked up at Clarke.
“You know about Mountain?”
“Everyone knows about the Mountain, and Wanheda. But I didn’t know you were Wanheda, until Danko called you that.”
“Not my finest hour.” Clarke closed her eyes and sighed. Andes noticed the sadness in Clarke’s face at the mention of the Mountain. Was this the cause of her pain? She guessed she didn’t realize how much of a hero she was to most grounders.
“You saved a lot of people.”
“So they tell me.” Clarke mentally shook it off and looked at the circles in the dirt. Arkadia looked far.
“How long to make it back?”
“On foot, probably 5 or 6 days.”
“What about horseback?”
“Too dangerous. It’s hard to be discreet thundering through the forest on horseback.”
Clarke knew she had a point. “So I guess you get me back to here, “she said pointing at the end of Ice Nation lands, “and then I’ll make my way back home.”
“Clarke, I will see you safely back to your people. I freed you, it’s my duty now.”
“Your duty? I think you’ve done enough.” She looked at Andes, and saw the resolve in her eyes. Clarke shook her head, “You grounders and your sense of duty.” Andes smiled. She did that a lot Clarke thought.
“We should rest now, we have a long night ahead of us.” Andes stood up and disappeared behind some rocks. When she reappeared, she carried a pack. She pulled out some pelts and handed one to Clarke. Clarke looked surprised. “How the ?”
“I knew this was the best place to hide, so I put the pack here last night. “ She also pulled out some water. They each took a big swig. Clarke was thankful for both.
Andes stretched herself out on the ground and shut her eyes.
Clarke sat down. She wasn’t tired at all though, so she tried to relax. After a few minutes, she wasn’t getting anywhere. “Andes,” she whispered softly in case she was asleep.
Andes cracked one eye open and looked at her.
“I can’t sleep.”
Andes sighed and brought herself up to a sitting position. “What would you like to do, Clarke?”
“Can we just talk?”
“Ok, what would you like to talk about?”
“I don’t know.” Clarke shrugged. “Did you want to ask me any questions?”
Andes knew she was bursting with questions for the sky girl. The night sky always fascinated her, ever since she could remember, and here was a girl that lived up there.
“Ok, you fell from the sky. So, you were living up in the sky, right? Tell me what it was like, and how that was even possible.”
Clarke told Andes about life in space, how the ark came to be, how they all lived up there for a few generations. Andes was a good listener, and Clarke found her to be extremely intelligent. She reminded her of Raven, with her smarts and personality. She was funny like Raven too, making Clarke laugh quite a bit. There was a rapport between them, almost instantly, like they knew each other for much longer than a couple hours. Clarke told her of her life on the ark, her dad, being in lock up for a year, and their journey to the ground. Andes was amazed that Clarke never saw trees, water, mountains, real animals before, just seeing them for the first time in her life. Clarke finally started to yawn a bit. She really hadn’t slept much the past week. Andes insisted they stop the conversation and get some sleep.