Clexa- Ai laik kwel gon yu

Chapter 32

Clarke rode through the night, not even stopping for water. The horses would be dead tired when they arrived but she knew that they would make it, they had to make it. Finally, with the sunrise they were within a few miles of Polis. She knew that Lexa had to be somewhere within a ten mile radius of Polis. She could just feel it.
"Split into groups of two," She spoke. "Find those ice nation warriors or Lexa."
"Sha wanheda," rung out and then each of the scouts paired off and began searching.
"Hod op, Renya."
Renya turned towards her. "Ride Polis and alert the other scouts of the situation. There should be one group that remains in Polis, the others will be out on missions but they may have returned."
"Sha, wanheda."
Clarke turned to Ryder, "Stay on the lookout Ryder. We must protect heda at all costs."
He nodded at her and they began to scout their surroundings. There was too much ground to cover and she had no idea when heda would arrive, it could be in the next ten minutes or the next few hours. So time was not on their side. Hopefully, Renya would locate more scouts and make this search a little easier but she had no idea if any of the five scouting groups were in Polis. Without heda there, the shift that each scouting group was assigned to the city was rarely enforced.
They had been searching for nearly two hours when they came across Gaifu and Horan. They reported that they had seen nothing either and Clarke nearly groaned in frustration. Suddenly the soft crunching of horses hooves alerted the scouts to someone's presence. They quickly hid themselves in the treeline and waited for the intruders to emerge.
When they did they were nearly two miles away. Even from that distance she could see Lexa on her black stallion, her red cloak hanging from her pauldron and her head held high in a regal grace. Clarke's breath caught in her throat at the sight of her, she had missed her. She shook her head of those thoughts, she had bigger issues right now. She began to search the treeline for any movement. She turned to Gaifu and Horan, "fan out" she whispered. "Do not let yourself be seen, even by heda. Search for any of the ice nation, or any traps."
They nodded and began to creep off, "you too Ryder. This is more important than staying by my side."
He nodded and began to creep off as well. Clarke spared one more glance at Lexa and then began climbing the tree she was hiding behind. The vantage point would help her see better and would assist her in preventing an aerial attack. She quickly scanned the area, searching for anything out of the ordinary. She was beginning to think she had been wrong about this when she finally saw a soft glint as though the sun was being reflected by glass or metal in a tree directly in Lexa's path. She held her breath and waited as suddenly a shape began to take form. Someone was crouched in a branch in full camouflage with an arrow pulled taught and aimed directly at Lexa.
She began to slowly draw her own bow and arrow and carefully knocked an arrow when her eyes widened. On the others arrowhead a blinking light appeared near the tip. She knew that could only mean one thing, explosives. Apparently they had been to the mountain. She racked her brain for what to do. On the one hand if she shot the assailant, the arrow might drop and explode anyway and she had no way of knowing the size of the explosion or if they had more explosives that the others would be alerted to immediately use. However, if she did not shoot him, he would shoot Lexa.
She made a quick decision and descended the tree quickly. She positioned herself directly below the tree of the assailant and began to scale it painstakingly slow to remain quiet. When she had risen within a couple branches of the ice nation warrior, she drew her knife and quickly made the leap to his branch. She stabbed him in the neck before he could even react and grabbed at his body and the arrow to hold them both upright. She positioned the man against the tree and stripped him of his camouflage jacket, shrugging into it instead. She saw Gaifu searching methodically through the brush and wished she could get him a message to look for camouflaging. Her eyes scanned the are further ahead and located two more ice nation in the same camouflage, on the ground this time. She noticed more explosives on their packs and wished Raven was there to tell her what type. Luckily Gaifu was beginning to walk towards her tree.
She quickly descended the tree and hastened to Gaifu. "They're here," she whispered hoarsely. "We don't have much time. I just killed one and there are two more there, they're wearing camouflage." She pointed them out and Gaifu nodded. He began to look around and his eyes widened.
"There are three more in the tree line and I see several blinking lights in the trees surrounding heda."
Clarke cursed, "Explosives, all set to detonate with a device one of these warriors must have."
Gaifu's eyes widened further, "Should we not alert heda."
"If we appear and tell her, they'll set them off right away. We need to find the person with the detonator. We have to take down each of the warriors and search them for a metal box that also has a flashing light. But the other warriors can't see us attacking or they will detonate the bombs."
Gaifu nodded, I will take those in the tree's. You take those on the ground."
Clarke nodded and they quickly moved off. She approached the two she had seen before from behind and quickly launched herself between them, slicing the jugular of the first and covering the others mouth. She smashed her head into the tree and stabbed her through the heart. She quickly searched the bodies but found no trace of a detonator.
Clarke turned her eyes to Gafu who was already on his second tree victim. She watched with wide eyes as he slipped in the tree and nearly fell alerting his target to his presence. Gaifu took him down easily but the last member in the tree was alerted to his presence as well. She watched fearfully as the last assailant reached into his bag and procured the detonating device. She raised her bow and took a deep breath, she aimed and fired within a millisecond and watched as the arrow arced towards its target.
It struck the assassin in the wrist and he cried out dropping the detonator. Clarke sprinted toward the man and layed out to catch the device before it struck the ground. Clarke sighed in relief when none of the bombs went off.
The commotion had alerted heda's group to the danger and each of the group had their weapons drawn in preparation. Clarke barely spared them a glance as she turned her attention back to the assassin. He was holding his wrist and grimacing, but Clarke saw him reach into his pack with his good hand and produce a grenade. Clarkes heart nearly stopped when he pulled the pin with his teeth and launched the explosive at Lexa who had begun to approach her. Clarked feet carried her without thought as she launched herself towards Lexa and tackled her as far out of range as she could. The grenade fell to the ground and bounced in the foliage merely fifteen feet away from them. Clarke ran towards the grenade and kicked it as hard as she possibly could, launching it back toward its sender. It exploded halfway there and launched Clarke back with the force of its blast. Luckily, it was neither strong enough nor close enough to detonate the other bombs laced in the tree line.
Lexa was by her side in an instant shouting her name. Clarke barely registered anything past the ringing in her ears. Clarke watched Gaifu kneel by her side and speak to the commander. She watched as Lexa nodded and help her into a sitting position. Her hearing began to register on the seventh Clarke.
"Lexa, you're home." She managed to get out.
Lexa huffed out a laugh, "and what a welcoming."
Clarke watched again as her eyes shaded with concern, "are you alright Clarke?"
Clarke nodded, "My hearing just went out and I'm a little disoriented. That's normal after an explosion so close."
Lexa sighed softly, "next time. Run away from the explosive not towards it please."
Clarke groaned, "you were in danger."
Lexa's eyes flashed, "that does not mean you should kill yourself to save me."
"But I didn't die!"
"Klark!" Lexa closed her eyes briefly, "beja niron. I cannot lose you, you know this."
Clarke sighed, "I know Lexa, I'm sorry. I couldn't let them kill you though."
Lexa sighed in return, but smiled slightly. "Gaifu tells me the great Wanheda is quite the leader. You knew I would be here, and you knew they were after me with little evidence. This is quite amazing wanheda. The people will worship you, this was quite an act of leadership. Even I did not do this well my first time leading a scouting mission."
Clarke smiled slightly, "well I'm sure you weren't given quite the same opportunity." Her smile faded, "I was really afraid they would get to you before we arrived."
Lexa took her hand, "I am here Klark. Thanks to you."

Notes:

*Sha = yes
*Hod op = wait/stop
*beja niron = please love