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

Chapter 136

Clarke's POV

My favorite part of the rest of the ride is when Lexa points out certain plants or animals on our way and spouts off random facts about them.  It's adorable and nerdy, but informative. The plants and animals here haven't changed too much from our textbooks.

The ride goes quickly, but I still get really sore. I grimace when I slide off of my horse. Lexa reaches out to steady me and I trace my fingers down her arm until I'm holding her hand. She smiles at me and pulls up our entwined hands to kiss the back of mine.

I blush and take the time to look around. We're in a small clearing where there is not any cacti or other plants. It's large enough for us to set up camp. There are even a few poles to tether our horses to.

Lincoln takes off the horses' saddles and ties them to a pole, leaving them with enough rope to wander over to the water bucket he sets up.

Lexa and I work on putting up tents, making ours at the farthest part of the clearing. The less the others hear of the activities we have planned for tonight, the better sleep they'll get. And the less we will be teased. Maybe not, since Octavia and Raven give us knowing looks as we set it up.

Nix makes a small fire and Lincoln, done with the horses, comes over. Ryder hands him a sack from a wagon and he brings it over to the fire. He pulls out meat, already skinned and ready to be cooked. Lincoln and Nix work on that while Ryder cuts up some vegetables nearby.

Octavia, Raven, Lexa, and I sit together and watch as the sun sets. It slowly goes behind the mountains and lights up the sky with brilliant colors. I rush over to my saddlebag and pull out my camera, snapping a quick picture of it before rejoining them.

I rest my head on Lexa's shoulder and she drapes an arm over my shoulder.

"We should wear less clothes tomorrow." Raven says. I blanch at give her a look. "Not like that, Princess! Though that is a good idea. I mean, it's super hot in the desert and none of us wore shorts or anything."

"Yeah, I've been sweating a ton in this." I agree. Lexa looks somewhat hesitant and I get why almost immediately. "You can still wear your cool shoulder pad on top of your shirt. The people will understand why."

Lexa purses her lips and nods after a moment of thinking. "They will. Thank you, Clarke. Will you still be wearing yours?"

"Would you like me to? Because I don't mind either way." I question and Lexa shrugs. "I will. We can sweat under the weight of our shoulder pads together."

"How romantic," Raven coos teasingly.

"Babe, they have matching shoulder pads that identify them as basically queens. That's super romantic."

"Well, when you put it that way." Raven grins and then perks up. "Oh, they also have different colors so people can differentiate them because they looks so similar."

"Rae, they look nothing alike." Octavia points out.

"I know. That's what I meant. It's super dramatic, just like them." Raven's words make her and Octavia snicker together.

"Dinner is ready," Lincoln says.

By the amused look on the guards' faces, they heard everything that Raven and Octavia just said. We get up and walk over, sitting in front of the fire, which is even smaller than before. The night air is cold, colder than I expected. With just the little amount of heat coming from the fire and everyone's body heat, I feel pretty warm.

I snuggle up next to Lexa as Ryder and Lincoln pass out dinner. It's delicious, like usual. We're all hungry because of the small lunch we had while we rode, so the food is gone quickly. So we sit around the fire, relaxing.

That is, until Raven sits straight up with an excited gleam in her eyes. "Guys! You know what we forgot?"

"What?" Octavia asks, looking a little worried.

"Sand!"

Raven runs her fingers through the coarse gritty grains beneath her with a wide grin.

I blink, surprised. Man, we did forget. We must have been really sore or something in order to forget about that. I look down at the ground below me and move my hand back and forth, feeling the sand go between my fingers. It's an odd feeling but pleasant.

Raven makes a loud whooping sound and I look up to see that she is in an unoccupied part of the clearing. And she's making a sand angel. It's not working as well as it does with snow, but she's having a blast. Octavia's laughing and sitting next to her, looking at her the same way I have seen Lexa look at me.

Raven sits up a moment later, beaming. I resist the urge to mention that she has a ton of sand in her hair.

"Babe, I just had the most amazing idea. Do you think we can build a sand man? Like a snowman, but made out of sand?"

"I don't know how well sand packs together. Lexa?" Octavia looks over at us for an answer.

"It does not act like snow. It will not be able to stay together and upright. You can make a sand lump," Lexa suggests.

"Awesome," Raven doesn't sound discouraged. "Come on babe, lets do this!"

Raven goes over to another part of the clearing that unoccupied and Octavia trails after her. They start scraping sand together and I laugh when they start a sand fight. By which I mean they just throw sand at each other.

After half an hour of work, they look proudly at their sand man/lump. It's a pile of sand with two dark colored rocks for eyes and a smile made out of more rocks. They're pretty proud of him.

We all say goodnight to Raven and Octavia and to make them laugh, I say goodnight to the sand lump, which they find hilarious. We retire to our tents and I the only words running through my mind are "finally" and "Lexa."

Lexa seems to be thinking the same thing because after she closes our tent, she immediately turns around and starts kissing me.

Bow chicka bow bow. By the way, that's literally in my notes so I would remember that this would happen ;) And I have to say, I'm also proud of thinking of making a sand man and the sand angel. Which is something I am now tempted to do the next time I go to Arizona. Anyway, thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!