The 100 - Just one life more!

27: Starry Sky

The stars guided her way. Linkon had taught her how to find directions with the stars. Between all the stars there was the constellation of Orion bringing her comfort. It reminded her of her childhood stories and at the same time it was tied to her love.

She was the one to teach Linkon everything she knew about the legend of Orion, the one thing she knew about the stars, not him. Tears started escaping her eyes when she finally reached the cave. She went inside. She had never been her after Linkon was captured by reapers and turned into one himself.

She took everything in. The fireplace wasn't cleaned and a kettle still hung over it. His medical stock was all there in a neighbouring cave. Octavia sunk to her knees next to the fire place. Everyone had left her. Her mother died because of her. Linkon was gone forever because of her and Bellamy had no life because of her. He felt as if he needed to protect her, but he didn't anymore. Yet he couldn't except that. He never approved of Linkon, but why would Octavia need Bellamy when she had Linkon? Now she was alone, because of her own stupidity.

Slowly her sadness turned into anger, she stood up, took a hand full of ashes, threw it away from her and screamed in frustration. "He's gone. They're all gone," she whispered to herself. And she kicked the kettle down. It rolled over the stone like a skull.

For a second the image of her sleeping mother flashed before Octavia's eyes. In this picture her mother once again cried herself to sleep after coming back from Inspector Grus. After that she always had this dead look in her eyes, pale as a ghost.
As quickly as the image came, it went again. She inhaled shakily. To calm herself she took one of the training sticks she had used with Linkon and went through the movements he'd shown her.

Finally Octavia's mind calmed down and now she felt how tired she was, how exhausted. She laid down on the ground, the stick still in her hand and finally went to sleep again.

***

After they were outside of Camp Jaha, Anya had led Raven to a clearing in the woods not far from the camp. Still, exhausted Raven plopped down on the ground. This walk had exhausted her, the sword was just no cane. Now she laid down and looked up in the sky.

"You know, it looks so different from down here. So far away," Raven said, voice heavy from memory.

"I can't imagine how it is, to be up there between the stars. Just like our first commander. She also fell from the Skai. And with her she brought the flame. The spirit of the commander," Anya answered and sat down next to Raven.

"The first commander fell from the sky?" Raven asked, "How is that possible?"

So Anya started to tell the story, "Bekka Pramheda fell down in a tiny metal box. To this day it remains in Polis, the city she landed in. It was named after her. Some people even say, she was there before the clans separated from each other, but I don't believe that. The clans formed immediately after Praimfaya, the fire that destroyed the earth. But Bekka died before the first Maunon showed their face. Our third commander was the first to deal with them. But the reaping didn't happen until our fourth commander ascended."

"How many commanders were there before Heda?" Raven asked.

Raven frowned when Anya looked at her questioningly. "Every commander is Heda. It's a title, not a name."

"Oh," was everything Raven said before looking back at the stars. At the meantime Anya grabbed a branch she had taken on the way to the clearing and started carving it with one of her knifes. But Raven didn't notice. She looked to the sky and talked, "The only thing I miss about being up there is the spacewalking."

"Spacewalking? How do you walk in space?" Anya interrupted.

"It wasn't really walking. It was just called spacewalking. You'd float in space. It was the best feeling, being out of this giant metal tin for a bit and being weightless. Nothing around you but space and stars," Raven fell into raptures. But then a tear escaped her eyes. Raven continued with a stifled voice, "You know, my first space walk was illegal. It was Finn's birthday present for me. And when something went wrong he took the blame. If he hadn't..." Her voice broke. "If he hadn't taken the blame, he would have never been on the drop ship. He might still be..." Raven whispered now, "alive." She squeezed her eyes shut to rid herself of the thoughts about him, but she couldn't. Tears started to flow again. But then a hand gently touched her shoulder, gave her strength and for a second time she drifted of to sleep with Anya by her side, who kept carving the staff until it was ready. Then Anya went to sleep as well, though, a little further away from the brown haired girl in the middle of the clearing and her swords in arm's reach in case anything happened.