Grounders

Chapter 1

I stood on the opposite side of the commanders chair as she spoke with my brother about the star that had fallen from the sky. Indra stood on the opposite side of the chair with a stone cold face as mine held a similar emotionless one. Lincoln and I share the same chest tattoo of am upside down 'L' and while he had arrows down his spine I had circles down it. On my thigh is an intricate design of swirls down my leg and on my left arm is a cuff around my bistro with a dripping picture falling from it. I had shorts on under my skinny pants and armor made my chest puff out from my tank top I always wore. Two swords rested in a cross on my back and daggers were hidden across my body. "Report back as soon as you can." Heda spoke to my brother who nodded and glanced at me before running off to do his job. "Prepare a battle strategy in code of a threat from this star." She told me.

I bow my head in respect and leave the tent and into the Large tent we'd always keep open in case of things like this. I worked silently, but without any weapons known or how many people there are or if there are even people, it's quite difficult. After a few more hours Anja dismisses me from my duty and I run off to Lincoln and I's cave which happens to be quite close. "There are 102 from the metal box, two already dead." He informs me as soon as I walk in and start to strip myself of armor. "A group when across the river."

I gasp, "The Mountain Men." I mutter in a low voice.

"I threw a spear into the chest of the boy named Jasper." My eyes went wide. So there are true people on that star. "I made a trail and they found him alive."

I raise an expectant brow, "And why is that? Are they good people?" He nods slowly as I slip off my boots and place them under my hanging armor. My tattoos now showed almost completely. Scars and dirt cover my toned body. More specificity, the burns marks of those that I have killed in battle are on my right shoulder blade and the mass stretches across my back. "You have to report back to Heda at sunrise. Let's get some sleep." Lincoln nods and the two of us lay down in our makeshift beds. He turns on his side and puts out the fire that had been burning since I'd gotten back. I stare at the ceiling wondering who these sky people are. His soft snores filled the silent room just before I fell into darkness.
•••
"Lincoln, Take James to these Sky People and continue to watch them from the trees." Lincoln and I nod at her order and leave the heavily guarded tent. People watch us leave the tent in curiosity for this Skaikru clan. They are in our forests and it's our job to investigate these things. I'm one of the strongest warriors in Trikru along with Lexa and Indra, so we're usually back at the camp. Lincoln is one of the scouts and stays hidden while looking at the enemy.

One of our shared friends jobs over to us, "What's gonna happen?" Alec asks us keeping his gaze on me longer than anticipated.

"We're scouting out Skaikru and then reporting back." Lincoln informs glaring at the gaze he kept on me still.

I hum and nod to confirm the truth he'd spoken. We went to walk past the boy but he stopped me before I could, "Be safe, James. Come back to me." I walk past him confused and honestly scared for what that should even mean.

But I shrug it off and head into the forest with Lincoln. We climb up two trees and I follow him in the direction of the camp. We hover over the camp, finding a group leaving the camp in silence. Others were whining about the Jasper kid in the 'dropship' as they said. Lincoln has already given me looks and names. Octavia is the leaders, Bellamy's, little sister. Clarke is the blonde healer and her lover is Finn who they call Space Walker. Wells has a limp and seems to be hated because of his father. John Murphy is just an ass. "I'll go after the group." Lincoln nods and I jump through the trees to catch up only to find them running after a boar miserably. A twig snapped and an axe flew into a tree right beside a young girl. "What are you doing out here? I could've killed you." The man named Bellamy spoke with a deep voice and an expressionless voice.

"I-I could listen to that boy dying in camp." She muttered playing with her fingers. Another boy stood beside Bellamy watching him pull out the axe.

"What's your name?"

"Charlotte."

"Little girls shouldn't be out here with the grounders." So that's what they call us? Grounders? What a horrible representation of us.

Charlotte growls, "I'm not little!" She exclaims.

Bellamy smirks and crouches down to her level. How degrading, "Ever killed something before?" Charlotte shakes her head and he places a small knife into her hand. "Who knows, maybe you're good at it." She grins at him and they begin to walk towards where the group of 'hunters' ran after the boar. But it was soon short lived when the dog horn was blown. I turn my head and watch the yellow most become close. I sped through the trees and into a cave ahead of the people as they hadn't noticed and probably don't know what it is. I close the entrance and lean against one of the walls. There's no way they made it, right? What about Lincoln? The entrance is suddenly opened and two people spring in. Bellamy and Charlotte. They lock it up and look around spotting me. "Charlotte stay behind me." He told the girl holding his axe in a throwing motion. I pull my swords from my back and hold them firmly to my sides. "Look," He starts placing his axe onto the sword as I drop my guard slightly. "I don't know how long we're gonna be in here, but killing each other isn't gonna solve whatever it is out there." He points to the rock being used as a door. Slowly, I place both swords in their sheaths and sit down on the ground. He nods and has Charlotte lay down to sleep while he sits across from me.