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"Are you...?" Aren didn't get a chance to finish the question when his friend came back into town.
"Well? No, about to murder someone, or at best, myself? Yes."
Tiredness was oozing from her every pore, there were bags under her eyes that betrayed sheer exhaustion, and her expression was indistinguishable between deep irritation or deep weariness, both options would be correct in any case, even Astrid made it obvious how exhausted her mistress was; the liger was walking close to Coriane as if she was ready to receive her with her huge body in case the chestnut collapsed at any moment.
"I guess I don't have to ask," he whispered to himself.
They entered the boy's cabin and Coriane took no time at all to collapse on Aren's fur-covered bed while he decided to take a place leaning against the wall opposite the bed, waiting patiently to hear Coriane's crisis.
"Just when I say, 'Excellent, I have answers about Skaikru!' Another damn spaceship comes down, is that fair? Of course not, am I getting tired of the trouble the sky people bring? On the verge of ordering the ground to swallow them up. Didn't we have enough going on with Maunon without another potentially dangerous people arriving?"
Aren, who listened patiently, nodding his head from time to time, opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by another wave of complaints.
"Although, I must admit, I still don't know how true it is what everyone says, you know, about Skaikru being dangerous people. I mean, what we got from the guy we captured wasn't controversial at all. According to him, the people sent here are the renegades of their society, and the leaders sent them because their people are in trouble and they're looking for solutions. Apart from being a bit rude, and dumb I must stress, he didn't strike me as much of a threat."
Again, the girl was silent for a moment, and thinking this was his chance to speak, Aren tried again, to no avail.
"Do you think I should propose to Lexa that we'd better get to know these people, instead of worrying about what we're going to have to attack them with? Oh, you have to come to Polis next time, the Council is upside down, in any other situation that didn't include my mental deterioration, their faces of sheer despair would be priceless," she laughed to herself.
"I..."
"You're right, I should do it, it's a good idea after all. Yes, I'll do it tomorrow, now I'll go visit Lincoln, do you know where he is?"
He didn't even bother to try this time.
"In his cave! Yeah, thanks, Aren. I don't know what I'd do without you."
The girl jumped up from the bed and left the cabin, leaving the brown-haired man chuckling to himself as he shook his head. And to think that she was the most feared woman on Earth.
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She was walking through the forest at night with Astrid to her older brother's cave, when the sky suddenly lit up with purple lights. Coriane immediately looked up at the night sky, covering her eyes with a hand so it wouldn't hurt, and frowning in pure confusion.
"What in the name of Tekara is that?" She whispered to herself.
Before she could start walking in the direction the strange lights had ascended, Astrid's growl stopped her. When she turned around, her feline was already running the opposite way from the lights, out of the woods and into a village.
"Astrid!" She tried to catch up with the feline but with all the branches, rocks and trees it was hard to keep up at first.
When she managed to reach a slope, she stopped short in surprise to see her brother kneeling beside an unknown body.
"Lin?"
Her voice alerted the man, making him leap up from the ground to face the newcomer, his position one ready to strike. When he saw it was his sister, he calmed down.
"What are you doing here, who is...?" When she got closer to the two of them, she could see the face of the still unconscious girl and she was no longer a stranger to Coriane. "Isn't she a Skaikru? What is she doing here?"
Astrid had gone on the defensive, snarling toothily at the unconscious girl, ready to attack if necessary, or devour, given the opportunity.
"Astrid, be still," at her owner's command, she stopped growling and lowered her guard just enough to keep Coriane happy, but still watchful for any movement.
Lincoln took the opportunity to speak.
"Yes. And I don't know, I just arrived, I found her like this."
A moment of silence. Lincoln panicked at his sister's silence, as well as the look on her face, which didn't give him much hope that she would approve of the situation. After all, she was the Commander's right-hand woman, and the Commander now believed Skaikru to be a danger. He tried not to appear nervous about Coriane's reaction, hoping that she wouldn't be able to see his intentions and somehow convince her not to do something rash.
"We can't leave her like this, you carry her on one side and I'll carry her on the other," she said suddenly, surprising Lincoln but filling him with relief.
They did as the girl said, Lincoln lifted her up and they carried her together towards the man's cave, this being the nearest.
"Thank you," he said to her once they had laid the girl on the ground.
"For what?"
"For helping me."
Coriane smiled closed-mouthed at her brother, there was something odd about him, she knew, she knew Lincoln too well to know that he didn't do things for the sake of it, but a strange feeling, one that was possibly related to how tired she was of the problems and arguments, prevented her questions from being spoken.
"I didn't help you, I helped her, so don't thank me, brother," after that she didn't know what to do. Whether to leave or stay, but she figured it would be good to keep Lincoln some company and maybe, when the Skaikru woke up, she could get more answers in a more peaceful way than with John Murphy. "God, this place is a pigsty, tell me, when was the last time you did a bit of tidying up around here?"
She scoffed, looking around, picking up the books she found lying around and putting them on a table. In the midst of picking up, she came across her brother's sketchbook, and as Lincoln bent down to check the girl's wounds, she took the opportunity to open the book and look at the new drawings. She had always loved the way Lincoln drew, it was a talent she envied in him. When they were little, Lincoln had tried to teach her to draw, but there were things that just couldn't happen, like getting a good drawing and not a highly questionable doodle, and given how little patience she had always had, she preferred to stick to talking to the animals and leave the artistic stuff to her brother.
She scanned the pages with a smile, most were drawings of the village, portraits of her, either with animals or alone, and as she progressed, she found the surprise of Camp Skaikru drawn on the pages, and the more she saw, the more surprised she became. Especially when she saw portraits, many portraits, of the same girl lying on the ground, and another in which one of the boys she had seen before in the forest stood beside her, as if it were a comparative picture, and he had drawn the boy's features so much like her that they looked almost like siblings.
"Lin... What is this?" She asked, looking up to see her brother, who already had his eyes on her.
"I'm sorry...it's just...she...I don't know," he excused, shaking his head and looking back at the Skaikru, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "And that boy...he just reminded me so much of you, and so I drew him, I'm sorry, I know you must be angry about-"
"Not angry, Lincoln, you know Lexa forbade going near Skaikru unless it was on orders. Why didn't you tell me you were watching them? They could have seen you. The boy we captured in the forest told me they had dangerous weapons and... a lot could have happened, Lin," she sighed, concerned for her brother's well-being.
"But nothing happened, I'm fine, Ann, you're not the only one who can take care of herself."
"I know, I know, I only care about you, just like you care about me. All I'm asking you to do is to be careful, okay?" She'd fought so many times that day, the last thing she wanted to do was fight with her family too.
"Yes, don't worry," the man smiled, reassuring her a little. After a little silence, he looked at the unconscious girl again, "Her leg is hurt, I'd better go and find something to help her, will you come with me?"
Coriane gladly accepted, and leaving Astrid to take care of the Skaikru, with the order not to eat her or hurt her, they left the man's cave in search of medicinal herbs and some fresh air.
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After having searched for a while, Lincoln had asked her to continue while he went to check on the girl, Coriane agreed. But instead of looking for any plants she had been completely distracted. On the way she came across a small litter of foxes that sought Terra's attention to play with, and obviously, Coriane was unable to refuse.
"You're the cutest little things in this whole forest," she spoke in a tender voice as she petted the foxes that came to her for attention. "But don't tell that to Astrid or she'll get very jealous," she smiled to herself.
If there was one thing she loved about being Terra above all else, it was the interaction and connection she had with the animals, she was the only Elementa that got to interact with so many species. Being a representative of the earth, she was able to connect with the terrestrial fauna, while Caeli and Aqua only with the aerial and marine ones.
She understood the animals and they understood her, it was a non-verbal agreement of unity, she earned their respect and they earned hers.
"You should go now," she heard behind her.
When she stood up, Lincoln had returned and was looking at her with a smile. He assured her that he had everything under control, and that even Astrid had grown so tired that she had probably returned to Tondc alone.
"Tomorrow you must continue with your Skaiheda duties."
Coriane nodded and agreed to go and rest, she had completely forgotten the small detail that she still had to keep going to Polis to deal with all the problems. She said goodbye to her brother and told him that if he needed anything, he knew how to get the message to her.
The walk back to town was quiet, she liked walking through the forest at night, it had a certain special glow that usually no one else appreciated, too preoccupied with the dangers of the forest using the night as an ally to see the true beauty of nature. Fireflies and radioactive butterflies glowed in the darkness in a mixture of colors and sizes, crickets and other insects were not visible, but they were there, singing nocturnal melodies.
Almost at the entrance to the village, she heard a branch snapping behind her. It took her a second to make out the presence, and when she did she couldn't help but laugh. Coriane shook her head slightly as if she had already expected it and turned around with a playful grin, peering into the darkness.
"Come out of there, little one, I know you're following me."
With a bound, one of the baby foxes she had been playing with in the afternoon came out of the darkness with its ears and head down for having been caught. Coriane bent down to pet it, never taking her smile off her face.
"And what am I going to call you?" She thought for a moment about a name, it was difficult to have so many animals and name them all, the little one waited patiently, expectantly and excitedly waiting for his new name. "Pax..." The fox wagged its tail in approval of its new name, making Coriane smile tenderly. "Well, Pax, will you join me tonight?"
There was no need for an answer, the little fox followed her immediately as she got up and resumed her way to Tondc.
It seemed that she and Astrid would have company that night.
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"Why is it that every time I see you, you have a new animal following you around?" Aren teased in the morning, once Coriane met up with him, Jensen and Krista to leave for Polis again.
"Everyone, this is Pax. Pax, this is everyone," she smiled, looking at the little fox who was still following her everywhere along with the liger.
"Oh, how cute," Krista commented, adoring the little fox as she finished settling her horse.
The ride to Polis was spent in pleasant and interesting conversation, Astrid caught her breakfast and surprisingly shared it with Pax, who was happy to receive a bit of food without having made the slightest effort.
Arriving at the citadel, she continued her way with the animals and humans through the tower to the Commander's Hall. The guards, upon seeing her, seemed relieved at her arrival, a terrible sign for only the beginning of the day.
"Okay, just say it, straight out, what happened now?" She asked with a heavy sigh as she entered the room.
Lexa rose from the throne with an overly serious expression that certainly made her more stressed.
"We'll go ahead with the initial plan," she spat sternly.
The initial plan.
"What? Why?" Coriane questioned in puzzlement.
"I guess you saw the lights Skaikru sent into the sky at night," when Coriane nodded, Lexa continued. "Apparently they were weapons, they destroyed one of the villages nearby, too many Trikru died. We'll strike back, you're Commander of the Skies, so who better for the job, will you be in command, Skaiheda?"
Coriane swallowed dryly, what should she say? What should she decide?
Her two lives were at odds with each other, her duty to the earth, but her duty as the skies themselves as well, split her in half.
It was either Terra.
Or Skaiheda.