Chapter Text
Anya walked towards the river with her two kids in tow, she’d never expected to become a mother let alone of two kids only eleven summers younger than herself, but here she was heading to the river after the younger of the two had revealed she couldn't swim.
Clarke saw the large river, it was so deep that she could barely see the bottom, nothing like the one Anya usually took her to when she was taking a bath. “No I don't want to go in there. It’s deep, I’ll sink right to the bottom.” Clarke took a step backwards only to collide with Lexa.
“Come on Clarke its fun.” Called the brunette as she stepped around the girl in front of her and quickly stripping off all her clothes and running into the water.
Anya crouched down beside the small girl, “You need to learn how to swim Clarke, otherwise you could drown. Come on I’ll teach you.” Anya then proceeded to strip down to her bindings and indicated for Clarke to do the same. Taking the girls hands she walked backwards and into the water, watching as it slowly got higher on the blonde.
Once it reached chest hight Clarke stopped and refused to go any further, “I won't be able to stand up any more, I can’t breath underwater.” She shook her head and fought against Anya trying to move back towards the edge.
After letting herself move a step Anya swept the legs out from under the girl and held her just on the top of the water on her back. “Okay just relax and keep yourself straight.” She instructed moving her hands out from under her but staying close enough incase something went wrong.
Clarke paused for a minute before she realised that she was floating, she wasn’t going to sink, but she couldn't move either. Craning her neck she could see Lexa with her face down quickly moving through the water disappearing under the surface and then coming back up for air.
Anya watched as Clarke tried to turn but was unwilling to move too far still fearing she may sink, moving forwards she helped the girl roll and kept her hands under her stomach, “Okay you have to kick your feet and use your hands to pull you forwards. You move them in big circles just Lexa is doing.”
Clarke tried but didn't move due to Anya holding her in place, with her spare arm the older woman corrected Clarke’s technique before removing her arm and letting the girl move on her own. Sticking close so she could be sure she wouldn't drown she watched as Lexa swam towards them and started a small game of tag.
Clarke was doing well until she became slightly tired and began to sink slightly before water got into her mouth, she began to panic and thrash around in the water disappearing completely under the water before Anya managed to grab her and hold her up against her chest.
“Come on little one, I think that might be enough for today.” Anya began to swim back towards the shore never once letting go of Clarke, “You did well though, we will return soon so you can practice some more.”
Letting Clarke go when she could easily walk back to dry land she turned to call Lexa back too, however before she could open her mouth her eyes widened as she saw a large black shadow moving under the water.
“Lexa get back now! Snake!”
On the Ark
Jake heard the door to their quarters open and quickly moved to hide his plans into the bottom of the draw in his desk, “How was work today?” He turned expecting to see his wife only to be met with Jaha staring at him from across the room.
“How are you doing Jake?”
“What are you doing here Thelonius? Haven't you done enough already?” Jake stared at the man who had let his only child fall to Earth, away from him.
“Jake, I know you are mourning. I couldn't possibly imagine what you are going through at the moment…”
“I’M NOT MOURNING. MOURNING MEANS SHE’S DEAD. SHE’S NOT DEAD.” At each word Jake took a step closer to the man, who until two months ago, he had called his best friend.
With each step Jaha could see the tears gathering in his eyes.
“She’s not dead.” Jake repeated in close to a whisper before collapsing into Jaha as the two lowered to the floor finally letting the tears flow.
They sat like this for a few minutes Jaha trying to comfort his friend while feeling reassured that his friend was finally accepting his loss, until.
“She’s not dead Jaha, and I’m going to find her.”
On the Ground
Clarke watched on in fear as Lexa began swimming back to shore as fast as she could while the snake, as Anya had called it, continued to gain on her. “Come on Lexa.” She screamed out to try and encourage her friend to swim faster.
Just as she thought that Lexa was about to get eaten a quiet whistle pierced the air and the water turned red. Turning she saw Anya quickly drawing the sword from the clothes on the shore that she now stood next to and begin to run back into the water. Quickly passing Lexa she moved to where the red was centred and slashed downwards. Reaching into the water Anya pulled out her dagger which was still stuck in the, now unattached, head of the snake. Calling Lexa back over she passed her her sword and the head for her to carry back to shore before reaching under the water to grab the body before slowly pulling that back with her.
“I guess this is going to be supper for tonight then.” Anya continued to walk past where the girls were now stood to finish bringing the snake out of the water.
Clarke’s jaw was still gaping after having seen the display of Anya’s skills, “That was awesome. I want to be just like you.” Clarke looked over the length of the snake eyes wide, it was at least twice the length go Anya and as thick as her and Lexa put together.
“Hold your horses little one, you have a little way to go until you can train to be a warrior like me.” Anya did however smile at the enthusiasm of the young girl and at her desire to become more ingrained in their society. However Anya knew that Clarke had a few more years before she could start training, in fact she realised she didn’t know what age Clarke actually was, “Clarke, do you know how old you are?”
“I was six but my Mummy said it was nearly my birthday so I was going to be seven soon. Do you think it’s soon, I want to be seven?” Clarke was smiling at the idea as if being called seven would suddenly are her so much older.
“Well I think we can call you seven. Don’t you Lexa?”
“That makes you the same age as me, I was born in the summer too. We get the best birthday.”
“We? But it’s only my birthday!”
“Clarke we celebrate birthdays twice a year, once for summer and once for winter. You and Lexa will have your birthdays in the summer and I have mine in the winter, we have big celebrations on those days. You missed the summer one but the winter one is in a few moons, you’ll enjoy it.”
“Okay so now I’m seven, see I’m big now I can be a warrior like you.”
“No you can’t start training till you’re at least nine summers. Then, if you still want to, you can train to be a warrior. I think Lexa wants to be one too so you might train together if you're lucky."
“Yeah I do.” Lexa was already thinking of the stick she was going to get for Clarke, they might not be able to train as warriors quite you but that wouldn't stop them practicing sword fighting together.
On the Ark
Jaha had left a few hours ago after telling Jake he was sorry but he couldn't be seen showing favouritism and that he’d already long surpassed the maximum time to be given off for grieving, therefore Jake was now expected to be back at work in two days. Looking down at the blueprints in front of him he thought of how much longer this was going to take with his job taking up time too.
The drop ship he wanted to make only needed to be big enough for him, and if he could steal one of the space suits he wouldn't need a life support system. Two blueprints covered the table, one for a basic drop ship designed for about 100 people and could be easily made from parts on the station and one for the probe that Clarke had gone down with.
Knowing he needed to use a combination of the two designs he began to sketch out a new blueprint, taking into consideration what materials he would be able to get under the table or steal without it being too noticeable.
Putting away the now partially done blueprints as Abby was due back soon he sighed, he had a good idea how long the whole process was going to take if he wasn't going to be noticed. Three months, he just hoped Clarke could hang on that long.
On the Ground
Between the three of them they had managed to get the snake back to the village, it had been heavy and both Clarke and Lexa were holding it on their shoulders but they both decided it was worth the struggle when they saw the faces of the villagers walking in with it.
“Damn, I didn't think you were going out to get dinner Anya.” One of the guys came over to give her a pat on the back.
“I didn’t, but since I came back with it you guys can cook it.” She smirked at him and then indicated to the guys sitting around the fire. Dropping the snake she looked back and laughed at Lexa and Clarke almost getting pulled down with it.
Clarke left Lexa with the people preparing the snake for the fire and headed over to the healing tent. “Nyko can I stay here for a little bit to watch?” She called out to the man that was currently wrapping a piece of cloth around one of the hunters arms.
Nikon looked over to the girl as she went and sat on the small chair in the corner, quickly nodding to her he went back to the injured woman in front of him. It wasn't the first time she had come to sit in here, always just watching in silence as he went about his work.
Once he had finished dealing with the hunter who had made the mistake of leaning up against an acid tree he headed over to the young girl, “Why do you come in here to watch little one?” He knew no other child who would do so unless their parent was there too.
“You’re like my Mummy, she was like you, a healer. She was called a Doctor though, people called her Dr Griffin.”
“You like it here cause it’s familiar?”
“It’s a bit like the Medical bay, but you use different things here.”
Smiling a the small girl in front of him Nyko offered her a hand to get up from the chair, “Do you want me to teach you about some of the things I use Clarke.” Seeing her nod he led her over to where he worked and picked up some of the plants on the table giving her explanations of what he used them for, he also let her try to bandage up a fake wound on his arm smiling at the joy it was bringing to her. Watching as her face lit up he thought of the name many of the villagers had taken to calling her, the Fallen Star.