Ordered chaos seemed to break out as Clarke and Finn stepped into the walls of the camp, everyone racing to them either to talk to them, hug them, ask them questions. Athena watched as Bellamy walked up to her, and Athena knew this was her chance to slip out. As she made her way to the tent where she and Bellamy had shared the night together, she heard Clarke speaking about leaving, and Bellamy arguing that they had to stay.
In the tent, away from the chaos, Athena grabbed a small bag and tucked a few things into it. Some gauze, some water, and some of her own clothes that she had swapped for Bellamy’s. It was time for her to return to the mountain where she belonged. Sliding the bag over her shoulder, wincing slightly at the pain, she wondered if she should say goodbye to Bellamy or to slip out unnoticed. It would be easier to go without word, but she needed to make sure that they headed in the right direction.
It was Bellamy’s voice she heard when she left, and things were not going as she had hoped.
“You expect us to trust a Grounder? This is our home now. We built this from nothing with our bare hands! Our dead are buried behind that wall in this ground! Our ground! The Grounders think they can take that away. They think that because we came from the sky, we don't belong here. But they've yet to realize one very important fact: We are on the ground now, and that means we are Grounders!” He shouted and the crowd roared.
However, Clarke was not off put by Bellamy’s speech as the other ones were. As Athena leaned against the drop ship, she watched Clarke with slight admiration. Bellamy was older, stronger, more influential at first glance, and yet Clarke had leadership skills she didn’t even knew she harboured.
And so she retorted willfully. “If we leave, we may never find a place as safe as this. And God knows, in this world, we could be faced with something worse tomorrow. But that doesn’t change the simple fact that if we stay here, we will die, tonight. So pack your things, just take what you can carry. Now!”
Athena nodded as she watched everyone head to their tents, gathering food and clothes, approving the actions that were being taken. However, the defeated look on Bellamy’s face made it even harder for Athena to follow through with her decision to stay behind. Clearing her throat and adjusting the bag on her shoulder, she stepped towards a defeated looking Bellamy.
“You’re packed already?” He asked, suspicion consuming the defeat for a moment.
“I didn’t come with much.” She lied, though kicked herself mentally for it as she knew it would be harder the longer she ignored the truth.
“Where do we go?” He asked.
That was something she didn’t have to lie about. “East, and use the sun as your guide. I’d teach you star navigation, but that takes a long time.”
“Won’t… Won’t you be our guide?”
Athena pursed her lips, then shook her head. “I’m not going. I’ll see you out as far as those gates, but then we are going different directions.”
“Where will you go?”
“Back to my clan.” She said, “Whatever’s left of it.”
At first Athena thought that Bellamy was going to argue, to tell her to come with him, that he needed her there to help guide the others. It was a nice sentimental thought, and Athena had prepared herself for such to deny the notion, but instead Bellamy lowered his gaze. Glancing around at the people around him packing up to go, as if doing a head count of all the people he were responsible for, his expression twisted slightly.
“I’ll miss you.” He half-smiled.
“May we meet again, Bellamy.” Athena pressed her hands to his shoulders and got up on her toes, planting her lips to his. The taste was sweet, the touch was gentle. It was a perfect way to separate for the rest of time, as Athena knew she would not see Bellamy again. Once back on the mountain, the Ice Clan would likely be severed from the Wood Clans, and she would not be permitted to come here again. Even if the Sky People went East to the coast, it was a journey she could never make. She was built for mountains and snow, not sunshine and sand between her toes.
Athena remained in the area, helping people here and there with carrying things, packing things. The pain in her rib was worsening the more she moved, but she didn’t want Bellamy to see that. He would ask her to sit down, he would show that he cared about her, and that would make watching him leave too difficult. A hand on her shoulder jerked her from her thoughts, and she turned to see Octavia, her eyes dark.
“We need your help.” Octavia said, “Raven has been shot.”
Athena followed through the shrinking camp, avoiding some things that had scattered onto the ground, left behind as they were not important enough to pack on their swift eviction. As she made her way back to the drop ship, she heard a scream from within, and walked in with confidence. Though she didn’t have many healing skills, she could do what they told her to in order to help.
“We need a stretcher, to carry her.” Octavia gestured to Clarke and Finn who were leaning over Raven, looking like they were in over their heads.
“The panels from the ship, two large, sturdy branches but small enough to hold onto, rope.” Athena pointed to Octavia, and then followed her out of the ship to begin gathering these items. It was going to slow them down, having Raven on a stretcher, but they couldn’t just leave her. Though Athena recognized Raven as the one who shot her in the thigh, she held no grudges against the woman. Now they had both been shot unnecessarily.
They began building the stretcher, and when it was sturdy enough to hold her at least until they got out of the battle area, she brought it back to the drop ship where the three remained. As they carried her out onto the stretcher, the night was nearing; already the clouds were darkening to a deep ocean blue, and the faintest glimmer of the moon was appearing above the horizon. Nighttime was when they were going to attack, sometime between nightfall and day break, they would be coming.
“Come on!” Athena shouted, “You have no time to waste!”
Bellamy walked up to her as everyone gathered at the gates, the metal doors opening to let them out into the deep, dark wild. He grabbed her hand in his, clutching two of her fingers gently for a moment. His eyes met with hers, and she knew that this was goodbye. They were on their way out, leaving to a distant land Athena had only ever heard about. This was it for them, and part of her was thankful to go back to the way things were, but deep in her mind she knew that things could never go back to the way they were. Too much had changed.
“Thank you.”
She nodded, saying no more in fear of saying the wrong thing. Words were never for strong suit. Instead, she lowered her gaze, pulled her hand from Bellamy, and watched as he joined the others on their journey to a new place, a safe place. Athena felt everything in her body fill with sand, weighing her down to the breaking point as they slipped from her view. When they were gone, out of sight and sound, she knelt to the boot-scuffed dirt and grabbed some of it in her hand, letting it blow away in the gentle wind, disappearing just like Bellamy had from her life.
Sorry for the late-ish update, I had a couple of boot camp classes to teach this morning and people kept coming in and chatting me up, and then to finish chapter 25 I had to watch some of "We Are The Grounders part II", so it was terribly difficult with people in the gym where I work. Anyways, I settled with watching it on mute and with subtitles because I'm fucking crafty. Please vote and comment! I'm excited for the next few chapters, and I will have plenty of time to write them tomorrow and Wednesday.