Who We Are [Bellamy Blake]

Chapter 2

                Athena had sent Aslan to talk with the commander about the falling star. Athena didn’t know what else to call it; Aslan had only just returned from his mission, eight days later. Wrapping her large coat around her, she realized that there was blood on her hands from the training she had just finished. Many of the Wood Clan would come to the mountain peak to enhance their training; fighting in the safety of the trees and warmth was very different than fighting in the snow. The cold itself could kill you if the mountain didn’t.

                “Tell me.” Athena requested of Aslan.

                “A space craft with people.” Aslan explained. “At first they seemed harmless, but they have kidnapped one of the Wood Clan’s warriors.”

                “Who?” Athena didn’t know many of them as she hardly ever left the mountain top. The woods were not where she felt comfortable.

                “Lincoln.”

                She nodded, “I know of him.”

                Breathing through her nose, the cold air freezing her lungs from the inside, she let out a deep sigh. Her hot breath fogged the air in front of her, swirling up into the sky and then disappearing from sight. The young woman’s face was hardened from her life living on the mountain top, from the excessive training and fighting she endured. For as long as she could remember, she was fighting for her life. She looked to Aslan, her mate, and recalled the time he took her under his wing.

                Athena had been thirteen when her parents, strong warriors themselves, were taken by Reapers when they went to assist the Wood Clan during a war with the Mountain Men. The commander at the time had come to the Ice Clan in order to tell her the news personally, rather than have it sent up the chain. The young girl had not cried, she had not gotten angry, she had not sought revenge, but the news hardened her. Aslan, nineteen at the time, had helped her take the position of her mother; training warriors for battle.

                Whether she hated the forests because the Reapers were evident there, or because it reminded her that her parents had been taken by mysterious men who would have tortured them, tested on them, experimented on them, and then taken their blood. She heard the stories, the rumours, the fears. It took everything in her entire being to not bring war upon the Mountain Men, but she knew no one knew how to defeat them inside their locked walls, with their acid fog; another reason Athena hated the woods.

                When her gear was packed for the hike down the mountain, Athena searched for Aslan, who was rounding up their best fighters. She assessed his choices thoroughly. There was ten of them, including Athena and Aslan. A small group, but not everyone who lived on the mountain was ready for the woods. Most of them were in training, and would need a few more weeks at least before diving headfirst into battle.

                The snow began to lighten up, only small flakes fluttering around harmlessly. Athena raised her tucked hand to the face of one of the warriors. “Mikah, you’ve recovered well from the mountain lion attack. Are you sure you are ready for this?”

                The man grinned, the dark red scar over his eye made him look like something from the depths of hell. “I never back off from a fight.”

                “The mountain lion would agree.” Athena nodded, moving on to the next warrior. There were six men, and four women. All of them hardened by wars, the mountain, and death. She was happy with the troops Aslan had selected. “We leave at dawn.”

                The mountain was safer in the daylight; less creatures lurked around, and the sun would melt the snow enough that it was not iced over. Still, every fighter had ropes and pick axes; there was a lot of repelling involved to reach the bottom of the mountain. It took the ten of them almost eight hours to reach the bottom of the snowy mountain, but the weather held steady for them, and there were no issues. All of them had done this climb countless times, and so it was done with ease.

                The Wood Clan had many villages, but the commander’s village was the largest of them all. Centered and easy to find, it did not take long to reach once they had gotten to the base of the mountain. The guards at the doors allowed her to enter with Aslan.

                Lexa looked up as Athena walked in. Beside her was the unit leader, Anya. Her slender features were striking, Athena would not doubt it. She flickered her eyes around the tent to see who else was in there. To her left she spotted the General, Tristan. Though she knew little of him, she suspected he was as vicious as he looked. With a hookish nose and hawk-eyes, he looked like the type to ravage your corpse after he had put a knife through your throat.

                “Athena, thank you for coming.” Lexa sat upright in her large throne-like chair. Her black outfit and black eyes made her look like an ominous raven, elegant and smart.

                “My task?” Athena got right to the point. If these Sky People, as Aslan described them, were kidnapping trained warriors, they were going to be more than just a nuisance. There was a reason that Lexa had called for Athena’s top fighters when she had an entire army at her fingertips. This had to be kept quiet; the Mountain Men wouldn’t be far, and they too would be curious about the Sky People.

                “Return Lincoln to us, assess the camp.”

                “That is all?” Athena said it respectfully, but there was a hint of anger. Why had she been brought down a death-defying mountainside just to go assess these strangers? She had to bite her tongue.

                “We do not want to attack yet; they may have reinforcements.”

                “Why me?” Athena asked. “I was up there training your warriors.”

                Lexa pursed her lips, her eyes hardened. “You’re my strongest warrior.”

                “I am not your warrior.” Athena snapped; she was of the Ice Clan, with an alliance with the Wood Clans. She trained their fighters, and they brought food from the lush forests.

                “But you are under my command.” She replied, her tone impatient now. “Now go. Lincoln may be dead for all we know.”

                Athena hated being assigned to tasks that had various outcomes; she was going in blind, but she knew that Aslan would not be far off. The other eight would go with Anya to their camp and discuss the tactics, and await Athena’s report. She began to leave the camp after provisions had been provided. Aslan caught up to her, his muscular hand which was large enough to crush a head gripped her arm.

                “Anything goes wrong, you sound the horn.” He told her.

                “Nothing will go wrong.” She was confident in that.

                “I’ll be close by.”

                “You always are.” She replied, then took off.

Please message, comment and vote! Just a heads up, I will be including a lot of season two in this story when it comes, but I will also have mentions of people from the later seasons (like Lexa). I recently learned that the States don't get weekly updates on Netflix, so a lot of people aren't caught up with the show. I pity you Americans. :P