Our People (the Third Book of the Her Weakness series)

Chapter 26

Clarke's POV

The next few days pass quickly and almost uneventfully (Lexa continues to be adorable and plans our travels with a serious expression. It's kind of cute, the intensity she's focused on this. Also Raven manages to catch her breakfast on fire) and suddenly it's the day we're going to leave to go to the meeting.

Lexa and I made sure everyone packed what we need before today. She introduced me to those two guards yesterday, Ryder and Nix.

"Why did you have to wake us up so early?" Raven complains, yawning.

It's dawn, but that's a few hours earlier than they usually get up. Since Lexa's been sleeping next to me, I've adjusted to her sleeping pattern.

"So we can get to Polis on time." Lexa says, leading Octavia, Raven, and I towards where she told the guards to meet us.

There's tension in her shoulders. I speed up slightly so I can walk alongside her, taking her hand. Lexa takes a breath and gives me a half smile. She's stressed about this meeting, and has told me her fears about how it will go. A few clans have grown to respect us, but some are still wary.

I watch her Commander mask go on. Her strides become more confident and there's an almost emotionless expression on her face. Lexa's eyes betray her feelings, and I can tell she's concerned for our safety.

I squeeze her hand, letting her know I'm here. She's my Lexa, but she's also the Commander and I know sometimes she just needs to be the Heda.

The guards walk up to us when they see us, bowing their heads to Lexa. There are seven horses behind them, one for each of us.

I let out a happy gasp when I see that Argo's one of them. He whinnies when he sees me, pawing at the ground. He looks like he wants to come towards me, but his training is preventing him from doing so.

I glance at Lexa, smiling when I realize she's already looking at me with her "heart eyes". Our things are put in a wagon (if that's the right word for it) the biggest horse is pulling (that would be Lincoln's horse, who's funnily enough called Big Mac).

Lincoln, Ryder, and Nix put their items in as well and Nix checks the horses' saddles one last time before gesturing for us to get on. I reluctantly let go of Lexa's hand, but enjoy the joy in her eyes as she walks up to Malachi. He huffs happily and nudges her outstretched hand.

Argo walks up to me and I do what Lexa did. He whinnies again, his hot breath on my hand, and flicks his ears. I want to spend more time like this, but to get to Polis on time, we need to leave as soon as possible.

I go to his left side and put my foot in the stirrup. I swing my body over and settle on the saddle. I revel in the fact that I've only been riding horses since around the time Lexa was captured, but I've progressed a lot since my first time. (I've told no one other than Lexa and Indra's the only other one who knows this happened because she was there. But the first time I attempted to get on the horse I fell backwards into the mud. It was deep enough that I sunk in up to my knees and Indra wasn't much help the first five minutes because she was busy cackling.)

Octavia helps a begrudging Raven onto the horse. I'm pretty sure I hear Raven say "stupid leg" and Octavia murmuring comforting words to her. I glance at Lincoln to make sure he's okay with them being close so soon after he and Octavia broke up. He is looking at them, but I've spent enough time around him to know he's okay with it.

Lexa clicks her tongue and Malachi starts walking slowly. Octavia gets on her horse, steering her so she and Raven are next to each other. Nix and her horse pass Lexa until her horse is the one leading. We speed up and Lexa keeps next to me.

"Why is Nix in front?" I ask her.

"Safety precautions in case there is a trap on the ground we will not be caught in it." Lexa says back.

An arrow flies out of nowhere and lands right next to Nix's horse. It's well trained enough not to immediately bolt, but it does let out a distressed noise and stops when Nix pulls on the reigns. Laughter fills the air and Nix sighs and lets out a few curses in Trigedasleng. It's odd that she's so calm when we're under attack.

"Atrix, get down here!" Nix shouts.

A young girl no more than thirteen comes into view in one of the trees. "What, I can't have fun anymore?"

"Not when I am traveling with Heda and WanHeda."

Atrix climbs down, looking sheepish. "Sorry Nix. Apologies, Heda and WanHeda."

Nix turns her head back towards us as best she can. "I apologize. This is my sister, and while I am gone a nearby village was supposed to watch over her."

"It is no problem, Nix." Lexa assures her, dismounting her horse.

She murmurs something in Atrix's ear and I watch as the young girl's mouth drops open excitedly.

Lexa gestures back towards the wagon and Atrix runs off to it after thanking her. "Mochof, Heda."

Atrix returns with what looks like candy and thanks Lexa again before speaking to her sister. "Ai hod yu in, Nix. Leida." (I love you, Nix. Goodbye)

"Ai hod yu in senteim. Ste klir." (I love you too. Stay safe)

With that, Atrix runs off and Lexa remounts. I feel my heart melting in my chest after seeing a little bit of how she is with kids.

So so sorry that there wasn't a chapter yesterday! I thought I'd have time but I didn't with the craziness that was yesterday (I'll explain it in the next paragraph). I hope the extra long chapter makes up for it! So tomorrow will be the start of the new clexa story, as well (the one where Clarke gets sent down earlier). And I have no idea what to call it. Maybe the 1, like the 100 but she's sent alone. But maybe not, I'll figure it out tomorrow. Also, two character names I made up (maybe. They could have already existed and I might've ripped them off from my memory): Atrix and Nix. I think they're pretty cool. And that Atrix part just was a spur of the moment thing, I have no clue where that came from but it's in the story now!

Yesterday after school my parents picked my brother and I up and we flew to Arizona. But sadly it wasn't that simple. The weather was bad so we had to be rerouted and we were on the plane waiting for that for more than an hour. Like we were supposed to leave at 5:40 pm and we left at 7. And then, when we finally did get up in the air, we were subjected to the worst turbulence I've ever been in. The plane was rocking side to side and to keep myself sane and not panicking as much, I wrote down my thoughts on my phone. These are quotes from it (I can't figure out how to transfer it onto here):
Rickety est flight I've ever been on. Like a roller coaster. Except less fun and with the chance of FALLING OUT OF THE SKY AND DYING
Back and forth is terrifying. Little drops scare the shut out of me
IN A LITERAL DEATH METAL MACHINE
Hums shot down in a blaze of glory during turbulence.

So yeah. That was my craziness yesterday. Plus I was up for a total of twenty hours and didn't think my writing would be good. Or coherent at all. I did get maybe seven hours of sleep last night so hopefully this isn't terrible! Thank you all for putting up with my weird and stay awesome!