[ Not from us ]
Once they rode closer to the bridge, Valika's heartbeat sped up. She could make out Octavia and Lincoln standing on the bridge. As they broke through the tree line, they all seemed to straighten their posture. Behind Lincoln Valika recognized Clarke and Finn. They got off their horses and Valika grabbed her crossbow tighter. Finn frowned upon seeing the armed warriors. The grounders had ignored the deal, but Valika could see Bellamy and two other people kneeling in the cover of the trees. The thing was, if Valika could see them, the warriors in the trees could too. Valika could tell Anya. Bellamy had guns, she knew that. Their arrows wouldn't stand a chance in this close perimeter. Valika held her weapon low, trying to catch another glimpse of Bellamy.
Anya walked up to the middle of the bridge and ordered Clarke to come forward. She hesitated as Finn held her back, but continued her way nonetheless.
"Your name is Clarke?" Anya began, inspecting Clarke like a weapon. Valika couldn't understand everything, but she knew what Anya had to say. Clarke extended her hand for Anya to shake, but withdrew her hand in an awkward motion after Anya only inspected her hand with an icy glare.
Valika could hear Clarke speaking up about living together in peace. She almost scoffed and apparently so did Anya.
"I understand, you've started a war you don't know how to end," Anya concluded, her voice clear and loud.
Clarke frowned and tried to defend herself of the accusation, but then Anya mentioned the missiles. The missiles that had burned a village to the ground. Clarke seemed taken aback and went on to explain how they were just trying to contact their families and how they'd no idea about the flares doing any damage.
Valika looked to Bellamy, crouching in the shadows of the trees, thinking he was invisible. He held his gun in his hands and watched the conversation intently. She stared at the river bed and her lids felt heavy all of a sudden.
"Lincoln said there are more of you coming down. Warriors."
Clarke nodded, saying something Valika could not understand.
"Can you promise me that they'll follow the terms we agree to?"
Valika couldn't understand the next answer either, but could make out that there was no guarantee for a peace treaty being followed by the new arrivals.
"Why would I agree to such an alliance? An alliance your people could break the moment they land?" Anya asked, growing annoyed with the skygirl.
Valika could make out the words "wipe you out", but was busy looking back to Bellamy and his friends. One of them was pointing his rifle at the trees and then Bellamy and the brunette girl followed his action and scanned the trees. The trees in which ten warriors, armed with bow and arrows, sat, waiting to intervene.
This is bad, Valika thought to herself, gripping her horse's reins tighter.
"Clarke, run!" The boy was now yelling, ultimatively making himself visible to the enemy. He started shooting. He was shooting at the warriors in the trees.
Anya pulled out a dagger from her sleeve, but before she could do anything to harm Clarke, a shot rang through the air, pushing Anya to the ground for a moment. Valika knew who had fired the bullet.
"Anya!" She called and helped her get back on her horse as Finn ran towards Clarke in an attempt to save her.
Anya propelled her horse to retreat into the forest, but Valika was frozen. She barely saw the warrior next to her firing an arrow into Lincoln's chest.
"No." It was nothing more than a quiet whisper. An exclamation of sadness. The sky people ran off into the forest too, but Lincoln remained on the bridge and so did Valika.
Her mind was blank. Everything and nothing came together. Valika needed to follow Anya if she finally wanted to take her place in the clan and carry on with her father's legacy. It wasn't too late, but here stood her best friend, an arrow in his chest, looking at her with the fear and hope in his eyes that Valika had once seen looking into the mirror, and Valika knew how to save him. Nyko had taught her. This wasn't just deciding who she was, but who she wanted to be.
Valika wanted to sink into the ground. Lincoln looked at the river for a second, nodded in Valika's direction and turned around to walk into the forest.
"Lincoln." An instinct, a longing. He turned around. "Come here."
A/N:
thank you so much for 2500 reads and over 100 votes i love yall a lot
i've also started writing the last chapter of this and the beginning for a possible sequel. you should let me know whether you'd want to read that :)
have a lovely day
- charlie
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the pariah ↠ bellamy blake
Fanfiction❝Blood must have blood.❞ Grounders believe in that one sentence. They let it rule their choices, their lives even. It has always been their way of life and it probably always will be. But are there children scared of death and brutality? There is on...
