Chapter 1
The sun was beating down on her, making her worn leather jacket and tight pants seem stifling. She pushed a few errant strands of hair from her face and looked up at the sun glistening through the trees, its golden beams shining through the leaves bathed the forest floor in a soft emerald glow.
It had been a month and a half since Clarke had saved her friends from the monsters of Mount Weather. A month and a half since she had pulled the lever and watched as over three hundred innocent souls met their end at her hand. A month and a half since she left Camp Jaha, unable to face her friends and her ghosts at the same time.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts and grunted as she continued to skin the deer sitting at her feet. She panted and wiped the sweat from her brow before spreading the entrails around her campsite.
She had quickly grown quite adept at hunting and tracking, even without her pistol. She had only used the weapon once before throwing it away. It was loud and clumsy and impersonal, and once she had learned that almost every Grounder out there was calling her Wanheda and was hunting her down, tossing the gun into the river was an easy choice to make.
Hunting with just a knife had been tough at first, but luck had found her in the form of a Grounder bounty hunter. The struggle had been short, with him underestimating her as just some girl. A quick knife to the throat taught him otherwise, and Clarke found herself with a bow and a quiver full of arrows.
Getting the hang of the bow had taken some time, but Clarke was now confident in her skills, and could hit her target nine times out of ten.
Sun down was fast approaching as Clarke cut off a piece of cooked meat and dug in. She stared at her knife as she chewed. Like most nights, the temptation to simply raise it and end everything with a single slice made itself known. But the more she stared at the blade, the more ghosts she saw.
People who would never have a chance to see the ground; to smile again or breathe the fresh air. Children who would never grow up, never learn about the wonders that were sitting just outside their walls.
And the more she thought about the lives that ended too soon at her hand, the more she knew that, at the very least, she had to live. If not for herself, than for those whose opportunities had been taken away.
She swallowed and sheathed her knife when a loud growl followed by a huff drew her attention to the darkness outside her fire’s ring of light.
Normally the sound of growling would make her immediately pack up her things and move in the opposite direction –especially when it felt like the very ground itself shook with the sound of it –but something about it made her pause.
Again the deep rumbling rang out through the forest, and Clarke knew what caused her hesitation. Whatever was out there was in pain, and against her better judgement, Clarke’s natural instinct to care for and heal had her moving toward the source of the noise.
She jumped over brush and trees as she followed the sound, ignoring the bumps and scrapes she received in the dark, before skidding to a halt as she came upon the animal before her.
“My God,” She breathed.
The gargantuan black bear stiffened at the sight of the human, and snarled at her in warning. She attempted moving, but the trap just dug its large metal teeth deeper into her front leg.
Clarke moved slowly as she reached behind her for her bow, eyeing the massive bear warily. She briefly considered whether the meat would be worth it, but the sheer size of the animal before her told her there was no way she was going to be able to carry it and if she did it would just be a waste since she wouldn’t be able to get through it all before its meat spoiled.
And once she met a pair of startlingly familiar blue eyes watching her cautiously, she knew there was no way she could kill the beautiful creature before her. Instead she removed her quiver and tossed it aside with her bow, before pulling out her knife and doing the same.
“I won’t hurt you.”
Her words hardly put the bear at ease, and she made it known as she opened her mouth and growled lowly at her. She felt the low rumble shake her to her very core, as if the earth itself quaked beneath this great beast. Even in the darkness of early evening, her bright fangs flashed dangerously.
Clarke swallowed nervously at the sight of the bear’s teeth, and decided she needed to earn its trust somehow. Slowly she took off her pack and opened it before pulling out some of the meat from her last kill.
“See?” She whispered as she tossed the meat to titanic predator. “It’s okay. I just want to help.”
The bear turned to the right and snatched the meat right out of the air.
Clarke crept closer and felt her breath hitch as she realised just how big the bear was. It was on all fours and hunched slightly to take weight off its injured leg, and yet its shoulders towered almost a full foot above her head. A quick glance told her it was a female before she shook her head lightly and brought her focus back to the task at hand.
“It’s okay.” She tried again. She remembered reading that bears were omnivores and reached into her pack to pull out some roots and berries she had gathered. She was about to toss them, but ended up squeaking lightly in surprise when the bear’s giant head swung around and took the food straight from her hand.
She couldn’t contain her smile at the feeling of a cold nose rubbing her wrist while a big warm tongue lapped at her hand. It almost seemed like the bear was trying to be careful and keep its powerful teeth away from her soft flesh.
“I just want to get this trap off and help you,” She said softly as she gingerly brought some more food out. The bear nibbled on the food, her ears slowly raising from their flattened position against her skull.
“Can I help you?” Clarke asked. She inched closer to the beast’s injured leg, practically brushing against her now. The bear looked up and held the girl’s eyes and Clarke found herself staring back as brilliant blue eyes studied her.
Something like understanding seemed to pass through them before the bear huffed one last time and dropped to the ground with a mighty thud, seemingly presenting its injured leg for Clarke’s inspection.
Clarke smiled as she inspected the trap.
“Something this big has gotta have some sort of release, right?” She pondered aloud.
The bear huffed and looked at her as if to say she was the human, she should know how the traps work.
“Hey, don’t blame me.” Clarke said lightly. “You’re not the only one the Grounders are hunting.” She sighed as she found the release.
The bear hardly noticed the trap coming off as she seemed to listen to Clarke. Before she knew it, Clarke was recounting her story, from her dad getting floated and her subsequent imprisonment, all the way to Mount Weather and her self-imposed exile.
She hesitated when she started talking about Lexa, and her voice outright broke when she reached the Commander’s betrayal at Mount Weather.
“I want to hate her for it.” She whispered. A few stray tears fell as she tore up an old shirt and wrapped the leg sitting in her lap. “But she’s right. I would’ve done the same. She was already losing men just waiting for me to get the door open, and e-even though it hurts, I do know it was nothing personal.”
Clarke sighed and froze. She watched fearfully as the bear lifted its paw out of her lap and up to her face. The paw was easily bigger than her head, five curved claws, bigger than her own hunting knife, reminded her that it would only take a single swipe, even from its injured leg, to probably knock her head clean off. Instead, the giant beast merely rested its paw against her cheek and stared into her eyes. Clarke swallowed as a feeling of comfort surged through her that she hadn’t felt for years.
Not since before Dad died.
It was the comfort of a parent, and as memories of her dad surged to the forefront of her mind, she remembered reading one of his favourite ancient history books with her. Stories of Roman gods and heroes told so much that she knew them word for word, back to front, and yet they never failed to take her to another world outside the Ark and bring her comfort.
She looked into the eyes of what she had been told was a mindless beast, and she saw understanding. She saw acceptance. To this bear, she wasn’t Wanheda, The Commander of Death, or Clarke Griffin, Skaiprisa, leader of the Sky People and daughter to the Chancellor, she was Clarke, the small girl who helped those in pain because she herself was in pain.
More tears filled her eyes and she leaned into the paw cradling her face.
“Thanks,” She croaked. “I guess I just really needed to talk this out.”
The bear seemed to understand what she said, and watched as she stood up and offered the rest of her meat. She lumbered to her feet and stood on all fours looking down at the girl who had helped her. Clarke couldn’t stop the slight giggle that escaped her as the bear licked her face before taking the meat from her hand and lumbering back into the forest where she seemed to melt into the darkness.
Clarke sighed and allowed herself to smile as she made her way back to her camp. She might not be able to escape the ghosts that plagued her, but at least her feelings for those still living no longer weighed her down. She thought back to that night in front of the gate to Mount Weather and the offered made to her.
You should come to Polis. It will change how you think of our people.
And as she lay down to try and rest before the nightmares came back, she thought that maybe, she had found an answer to where she was going. She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side.
What a helpful bear.
She thought absently and smiled as thoughts of dark fur and blue eyes followed her into her dreams.
*(OoO)*
She was headed east.
It had been four days since her encounter with the bear, and while the animal had helped her let go of some of her hate and figure out what she would do with her life, she was starting to wonder if she would even make it.
She had decided that she would become a healer upon reaching Polis. She was still hesitant about reintegrating herself with a society, but after evading even more bounty hunters and overhearing them say that Polis was the one place they weren’t allowed hunting her, her mind had been made up for her.
She was also aware that going to Polis meant probably running into Lexa, but after thinking about it, Clarke had decided that while she would try not to draw much attention to herself she wasn’t going to hide from the Commander.
But first I have to get there. She thought to herself as she stumbled for the umpteenth time.
She may have found it in herself to not hate Lexa, but that did little to stop the nightmares. She would get maybe a couple hours sleep before the ghosts would come back, and since going back to sleep wasn’t an option she would often just pack up her things and keep walking.
It quickly got to a point where the only sleep she got was when she collapsed from exhaustion, and as she stumbled through the woods, she was pretty sure that would happen soon.
Her legs were shaking and her eyelids weighed heavily. She stumbled and only barely registered the soft twang coming from behind her. A sharp thud in next to her where her head had been a moment ago filled her body with enough energy to get up and start running. She heard twigs snap behind her as the bounty hunter gave chase.
She cursed under her breath, she was too tired to fight and the bounty hunter was quickly gaining on her. She pumped her arms as hard as she could, and pulled out her knife in one smooth movement, hoping her pursuer didn’t notice.
The burst of energy from earlier was quickly diminishing, and she grunted loudly in pain as an arrow ripped across the side of her left thigh before imbedding itself in the ground nearby. She stumbled to the ground and quickly placed the knife underneath her chest, waiting for the right moment.
She gulped in as much air as she could, listening as the bounty hunter came closer.
“Wanheda,” He panted as he lowered himself over her back. “The Ice Queen will be quite happy to see you.”
She remained silent as he reached down to grab her shoulder. She closed her eyes, waiting for the right moment. The hunter smirked to himself as he grabbed a fistful of blonde hair and yanked hard.
Clarke grunted as she was roughly pulled to her feet before using her momentum to shove the knife into the large man’s stomach. She quickly pulled the knife out, and before he managed to finish snarling at her in pain she tackled him towards the steep incline behind him.
They were a tangle of limbs and grunts as they rolled down the hill before coming to a stop at the bottom. A flash of pain up her right wrist told her it was broken, or at least fractured, and she grunted as she turned and tried to shuffle away from her attacker.
He groaned and raised to his feet. “You’re lucky the Queen wants to kill you herself,” he snarled in Trigedasleng. She shivered as he slowly unsheathed his sword and limped toward her. “But she never said to bring you in unharmed.”
She tried to hold in her cries of pain as the blade slid over her ribs. She knew that they weren’t deep, meant to cause pain not death, but as the pain mixed with exhaustion, she couldn’t stop herself from crying out as she felt herself become lightheaded. Hopefully somebody who wasn’t hunting her would hear and would come help.
“And you were so close to Polis, and that bitch Lexa’s protection.” He spat as he dragged the blade across her skin for the fourth time. “And once the Ice Queen has you, we’ll finally be rid of that poor excuse for a Heda.”
This time her screams weren’t just full of pain, but, inexplicably, anger as well. Despite having come to the conclusion that she was now indifferent in her feelings toward Lexa, she still felt herself fill with protective rage at the idea of someone wanting to hurt the Commander and being unable to do anything about it.
He smiled as he continued dragging his sword from her ribs down and across to her ribs. His smile fell, though, when his prey’s screaming was overshadowed by an earth-shattering roar.
He turned around and fear filled his eyes when a giant black bear appeared out of nowhere and started charging at him.
Clarke watched, stunned, as the bounty hunter barely took five steps away from her before the bear was upon them. The bounty hunter yelled in fear as he swung his sword at the great beast.
The bear roared again, raising itself to its hind legs to stand at its full height over the man, and swatted at the blade with its great paw, breaking steel and wrist alike. The man cried out in pain before another paw slammed into his side, shattering bones while claws tore through flesh like paper. A moment later, the man was airborne before crashing into a nearby tree with a sickening crunch.
Clarke noticed the fabric around its paw and identified her as the bear she had helped days ago. She watched rage filled blue eyes stare at the twitching corpse for another moment before softening and turning to her.
The bear lowered herself to all fours and looked inquisitively into the blonde’s eyes, as if to ask if she was alright.
“Thank you,” Clarke whispered. She smiled when a cold black nose nuzzled against her. She could feel her eyes fighting to stay open as she leaned against her new friend.
“You need a name,” She mumbled sleepily as that feeling of comfort filled her once more. She once again thought back to her father reading her stories, and an idea came to her. “How about Juno?” She muttered.
She smiled when she felt more than heard her friend rumble in agreement. “Yeah, I like it too.” And with that she allowed herself to sleep, confident that Juno would watch out for her.
Juno huffed good-naturedly as she watched the human cub succumb to sleep. She looked around and noticed a nearby cave, and carefully maneuvered herself beneath the cub. Once she was secure, she carried the cub into the cave and set her down once more. It didn’t take long for the cub to start shaking and mumbling in fear, seeing this, Juno picked herself up from her post at the mouth of the cave and moved near the cub. She reached out with one paw and pulled the cub in close and nuzzled her hair with her nose. Once she was sure the cub was relaxed and sleeping soundly, she turned her head back to the entrance, watching for any intruders that would bring pain to her new cub.