Chapter Text
C L A R K E
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Beams of golden sunlight shine down through the leaves onto the moss covered forest, leaving sporadic spotted patterns of light over the green plant life. Thick dark brown roots wove out and back down into the ground. Little speckles of dust and bugs illuminated as they floated and flew through the beams of light that cascaded down onto the ground. Nothing but the sound of crunching leaves under my boots and the chirping of birds fill my ears.
My eyes scan around the forest floor closely, watching out for any plants that can be used for healing purposes. I spot a patch of familiar leaves; reaching down, I pluck up a long and narrow shaped leaf, which had a thin layer of fuzz over it that had a grayish tint to it. I held it up under my nose and took a whiff, instantly knowing what the leafs are by the smell of them, Sage.
I gather up the rest that were in the little patch, placing them into a small wool bag that was inside my satchel that hung around my shoulder and down across my chest.
I go to put the wool bag that contained the herb back into my satchel before my head snaps up to the sound of a twig snapping in the distance. My heart stops and my breathing pauses for a split second before I sprint over behind a large trunk of a tree that had vines wrapped around the base of it, leading up to the top. I reach to grab a hold of the handle to my knife while my back pressed against the ruff bark.
After a few moments pass by, I work up the courage to look and see who was there. I peek around the trunk of the tree and get a glimpse of a figure, walking towards a lake that was located east of my village, their back towards me.
The stranger had a large, fur covered cloak over its shoulders with the hood pulled over their head, hiding their face. Baggy pants hung from their waist that were covered with dried mud from around the knees down to the hem of the pant legs.
My grip tightens on the handle of the knife as the person strides further away from me. Instantly my legs start to move, following after him.
It doesn’t take long for me to notice the stranger was following someone else. They had their hands in the pockets of a pair of tan pants that had other pockets stitched along down the pant legs. A dirt stained collared shirt fit loosely around their upper torso, with the sleeves rolled up above their elbows, showing off their tanned arms.
He clearly wasn’t paying attention to what was going on right behind him. Maybe he wasn’t wanting to. His head hung down towards the ground as he walked, failing to look anywhere else around him. Long thick curls hung from the top of his head, blocking most of his vision.
I picked up speed, carefully making sure not to step on any twigs or leaves, which was hard since the forest floor was covered with them. I keep a safe distance behind the hooded stranger as he followed the other man in front of him.
I can no longer hear the sound of birds chirping, as if they all knew what was going to happen, watching and waiting.
Silence carried throughout the forest as fewer and fewer trees spread out ahead of us. The sight of a lake and muddy sand appear in front of us, the blue sky spread out above it all, clear of any clouds. Trees stopped along an imaginary border of sand that led up to the shore of the lake.
The guy wearing the dirty collared shirt stopped at the edge of the shore line, shallow water rippled over the sand, threatening to get close and soak the man’s boots if he stood any closer.
The hooded stranger paused to grab a hold of the dagger that hung loosely around his belt, inside a poorly made sheath. I dodge behind another much skinnier tree trunk that stood behind the edge of the forest, peeking around to observe the two people anxiously.
I can feel the rush of anxiety flow throughout my body, while hearing the beating of my own heart in my ears as I stare. I let go of my knife and glance down to wipe off the sweat that formed in the palm of my hands over my pants for a split second before looking back up to see the hooded man approach closer to the tanned skinned man in front of him.
The crunching sound of sand and pebbles from under the boot of the attacker causes his victim to turn around sharply, reaching out his arms to shove the hooded man away from him quickly before reaching out to grab his own weapon that hung from his belt.
Gasping quietly as I could, I continue to watch the two men struggle against each other from behind the tree. Sounds of grunts and shuffling feet over the sand along with smacking of fists thrown towards each other fill my ears now, drowning out the sound of my heart that seems to be in my throat.
Both their weapons have been thrown out of their hands which they both laid in the sand. The tanned man shoves away the hooded stranger again after the other loosens his grip, throwing him down on to his back, landing in the sand, causing his hood to fly off of his head.
Large purple and yellow bruised lumps cover his bald head, a twisted nose sticks out far from his face and two far parted eyes stare back at the standing man angrily. His upper lip twitches in anger as he turns and reaches for his fallen knife that laid flat on the pebbly wet sand an arms reach away from him.
Both the tanned man and I’s eyes widen at the sight of his attacker’s face. He stumbles back as my hand reaches up to cover my mouth, preventing me from letting any sound escape my lips.
The strange looking man rose back up and lunges forward, taking advantage of the other ones shock, slicing along the tanned man’s stomach quickly.
Bright red blood soaks up into the man’s shirt instantly as he screams out in agony.
“No…” I whisper out, almost blending in with the breath that escapes out.
The wounded man smacks the knife out of the attacker’s grip again with his left hand and throws a punch with his right, landing right along the edge of his jaw. Throwing the attacker back with force, the wounded man falls to his knees hunched over, grabbing onto his side.
The odd looking attacker shakes off the punch and glances back down to the hunched over man, he smiles wickedly, showing his yellowy brownish teeth right before he lifts his leg, kicking the wounded man in the side.
He falls flat onto his back while screaming louder, squirming around, holding his bleeding stomach.
Tears roll down my cheeks I didn’t know I shed. The attacker turns around to pick the knife up again to finish off the dying man.
While shaking my head and glancing beside me, I look for anything I can use to stop him, forgetting all about the knife that hung off my belt. I spot a large piece of driftwood. I sprint over to it as adrenaline rushes through my veins. I pick it up while a grunt escapes my lips from the weight of it.
Just before the attacker can stab his dagger through the man’s chest, into his heart, I run full speed over to him, with his back towards me, whacking him upside the head with the big piece of driftwood.
He falls sideways onto his side, knocked out with the dagger still loosely in his hand.
I throw the piece of driftwood to the side, causing the wet sand to splatter and fly in all different directions. I drop to my knees and crawl over to the other guy, grabbing a hold of the hollering man’s face, making him look at me.
“Hey! Look at me! Open your eyes and look at me!” my voice cracks as tears threaten to spill down more over my already tear stained cheeks. His face contorts into a painful expression before weakly opening his eyes at me, matching me with tears threatening to spill over his freckled ones.
“You need to come with me if you want to live.” I say quickly, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, slowly standing him back up. The man screams out in pain again as he tries to stand up straight until finally giving up and hunches his body over.
I throw his arm around my shoulders and slide my arm around his back, urging him to walk with me. He takes a few steps forward before shaking his head and wrapping his free hand around his bleeding stomach. Most of his shirt is already soaked with the red sticky liquid.
“Wait, hold on! You need to put pressure on that before you bleed out. Let me help you take off your over shirt. Come on!” I urgently speak to him as I start to help pull his shirt off and over his head. He lifts his arms so I can pull them through the sleeves of his shirt.
After successfully taking it off I ball it up and press it up against the 4 inch gash on his stomach. He groans and winces reacting to the pressure on the new wound. I grab his right hand, showing him how to hold it against it correctly before wrapping my arm back around his back and placing his left arm around my shoulders.
We slowly start to walk towards the opening of the forest, in the direction of my village.
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The sun has just started to set, leaving the sky orangey and pink. There are no longer any beams of light shining through the tops of the trees and the happy sounds of birds chirping. Nothing but silence spreads throughout the mass forest.
A few groans escape the weak wounded man beside me, every now and then he trips over the roots that stick out the uneven ground, causing him to wince out in pain while trying to keep himself standing on two feet.
“Why.. are you.. h-helping me?” he whispers out weak and quietly to me. Turning my head to look at him, “I wasn’t going to leave you to die in the hands of someone you don’t understand.”
He nods and his head droops down again, the curly hair covering his eyes once more. We continue to walk for some time as I stare ahead of me, I see the glow of light in the distance in the darkening forest.
“We’re almost there…” A small smile spreads across my worried face as I speak to him. I notice his head swinging around, still drooped over.
He doesn't look right...
Spinning around fast in front of him, holding him up with my right arm still hooked around him. My left hand grabs a hold of his chin and I shake him awake.
“No, you can’t go to sleep.” I urgently command to him. I smack his cheek with my dried bloody hands. Another groan comes from his lips as he weakly lifts his head up, his eyes barely open, studying my face.
“We are so close,” I say, going back to our regular position of walking, “don’t give up just yet.”
We approach slowly to my village, torches have been lit, causing an orangey glow to illuminate the homes and living areas. Small little shacks are placed in various different areas around the gathering area that had a big fire pit in the middle, some homes were bigger than others.
I finally spot mine off to the far corner, it had mismatched colored metal slabs for walls and a small little window next to the front door facing towards the pit. It used to be bigger but since it’s just me living in there, I gave up the extra materials and gave them to some other family who planned to start a family soon.
I approach the closest home and peered around the side of it, looking to see who was standing around the pit. Not too many people were in my village at the moment because they were at The Capitol with the Commander.
I could see a few figures sitting around the fire, thankfully they all had their back facing the door of my house. I look back over to the slumped over man I had in my arms and whisper to him, “Don’t make a sound, my house is a few yards away and there’s people right there.”
He blinks slowly and nods his head in understanding. I pull him closer to me and walk in the shadows behind the few houses until we reach my home.
Quietly pushing open the door, I lead the wounded man to a chair around a small table that was pushed up against the wall. He sighs in the relief of sitting down and leans up against the wall behind the chair. I push the door shut and slide the lock through the slit, making sure no one can come in.
Throwing the satchel I still had around my shoulders on to the table, I dump out the contents that were inside in front of me. Various bags come rolling out of the satchel along with other random tools and rolled up pieces of paper. Picking up bag and opening them, I smell to see which herb is which. Once I smell the sage, I walk over to a small pot that hung over a small fire pit I had placed in the corner.
Knowing I had just filled it up with water this morning, I dump the sage into the pot and light the fire, watching the small flame grow bigger for it to start heating up the pot to boil the water inside. Beside the fire pit, there is a small wooden cabinet that had different sized jars and bottles of medicine, each one specially made to help get rid of different illnesses.
Quickly pushing aside bottles, I look to find the cream to help numb parts of the body. Spotting it in the back corner, I grab it and spin myself back around to the table where the man stayed sitting.
His head slumped over to the right with his eyes closed, my eyes widen in horror.
“No, no!” groaning to myself, I hurried over to him and put the bottle of cream beside onto the table. I smack my hands on his cheeks again, not to hard but enough to try to wake him up. “Get up! You can’t go to sleep.”
I grab a hold of his shoulders and shake him before he groans, reaching for his stomach. “I’m up, I’m up…” He opens his eyes to stare at me. I put the back of my hand on his forehead to feel if he’s got a fever.
“You’re a little warm. What I have boiling will help kill the bacteria that’s in your body, along with what I have here…” I pick up and show him the cream bottle. “This will help numb the pain and what I have boiling now reduces the possibility of infection. First I have to clean it and then I’ll put it on. You understand?” He nods.
I turn back around, walking back over to the boiling water. Grabbing the handle of the pot, I place it onto the ground. I then grab a bowl off the top of the cabinet, scooping up some of the liquid. I walked back to the guy sitting in the chair, who is thankfully still awake watching me.
“You need to drink this.” Raising it up to his mouth before he pushes it away. “How do I know it’s not poisonous whatever you just put in there?” he questioned me.
Sighing, “If I wanted you dead, I would have just left you to die instead of saving you. Now drink.” I insisted, lifting the bowl back up to his mouth. "All of it." He stares at me for a moment and drinks all that was in the bowl, leaving it empty.
Placing the empty bowl onto the table, I spin back around and go to a large tub, dipping a rag that hung off the side of it. Wiping the rag around my hands and up my arms, disinfecting them.
“What are you doing now?” the man questions me. I turn to look back at him before responding, “Making sure I don’t have anything that could infect your wound on my hands so I can clean it and cauterize it.”
“What does cauterize mean, exactly?” His eyes widen at the unknown name.
“It means to stop a bleeding wound by burning it shut. It’s the only option I have, I don’t have any thread at the moment.” I say back to him, throwing the rag into a bin that contained other dirty rags before grabbing another one that was folded up in a cubby close to the tub and dipping it into the tub to soak up the rag with the sterilized liquid.
Pacing back over to the man sitting in the wooden chair, I squat down and bring the soaking rag up to the bleeding gash. He hisses in pain when the rag makes contact with his skin.
While flinching away, he shouts out, "Careful! Shit fucking hurts."
I shush him before responding back in a hushed tone, "Quiet, would you? No one can know you're here or else both our heads would be gone."
His jaw clinches and takes a deep breath. Reaching up to rub his forehead, he looks at me, "Alright.. continue."
Looking back down from his face to the wound on his side, I gently bring the rag back up and carefully rub along it, cleaning away the dried blood. His body tenses up immediately.
"You're lucky that this is such a clean cut. If it were anymore jacked up, then it would have needed to have the tissue around it cut off."
He chuckles slightly, "Yeah, I sure am lucky."
My eyes glace up at him and I shoot a small smile at him, "At least you have some humor."
He returns the smile and responds back, "With the way my life has been lately, I should have been expected it."
I pull my hand away that held the now bloody rag and toss it into the bin. "I'm sorry to hear that, you should probably be more careful when walking around a forest filled with many deadly things."
He laughs and a full smile spreads across his face only for it to go back to the pained expression that his face showed before, his face scrunches up and he leans forward, grabbing his side.
Reaching over to the bottle of cream and opening it, I push him back against the wall. Gathering up some of the brown cream in the bottle, I smear it along the cut and the skin surrounding it.
"Oww, fuck.." The man curses while trying to control his breathing. Once I've covered up what needed to be numb, I walk over to the cabinet and place the bottle back inside.
Reaching down towards a tiny drawer underneath the cabinet, I pull it open and grab a long dull knife. Walking back over to the fire pit, I place the knife into the fire until it turns bright read. Opening the drawer back open, I grab out a small piece of wood.
"What's the wood for?" He questions.
Turning my head to look at him, "For you to bite down on."
His body slumps over and hangs his head, putting them inside his hands. "I'm not going to enjoy this part, am I?"
I snicker while picking up the burning hot knife by the handle and turning back to walk back over to him, "Not one bit." I then grab another clean rag out of the cubby so that I can wipe off the cream.
Placing the piece of wood in his hand and he stares at it for a second before looking at me. Leaning back up against the wall, he puts the piece of wood in his mouth, biting down on it.
Squatting back down with the hot knife and rag still burning in my hand, I look at him, making sure that he's ready. He nods quickly and takes a few deep breaths readying himself.
I glance back down to the cream covered wound, taking the rag and quickly wiping away the cream from his skin. Only seconds after wiping away the cream, I place the hot knife along the wound, making sure the knife is covering all of the cut.
The man's body stiffens, I can see veins popping out of his neck and forehead as he bites down onto the piece of wood as hard as he can to make sure he doesn't make a sound. I count a few seconds, before removing the knife and dropping it into the tub of sterilized water.
The cut that used to be there is now cauterized, the skin around it a bright red from irritation. He lets out a long groan and spits the piece of wood onto the ground. Beads of sweat collect along his forehead and drip down his tan chest.
I look away quickly before my thoughts could ponder on at the sight in front of me any longer. I grab the bowl that sat on the table and fill it up more with sage water.
I offer the bowl back to the man, "Drink, you don't want to get sick." He grabs it and drinks all that was in there.
He reaches his hand up to wipe away the sweat on his forehead. "Thanks."
I smile quickly and nod, turning my head back towards my medicine cabinet to see if there was anything else I could give him or so that I couldn't stare at him anymore. I don't know why it took me so long to notice how well built he was, muscles in all the right places...
I try to shake my head to rid of where my train of thought was going.
"I just remembered you never told me your name." He says, causing me to look back over to him.
"My names Clarke. You also forgot to mention yours also." I smile at him, starring only at his face and nothing below.
"Bellamy.. Thank you again, for helping me out back there and fixing up my wound. You didn't have to do that for me." Bellamy smiles back, placing the bowl onto the table while leaning back into the chair.
I shake my head and look back to the cabinet, pushing around the bottles and jars, not looking for anything particular, just trying to make sure I don't look like a blushing fool.
"It's no problem, it's what I do, I heal people. I would have done it for anybody." I turn my head to look back towards him, he nods and looks down at his hands.
Our heads snap in the direction of my locked door where we hear a small knocking noise.
"Klark, yu in der?" I curse under my breath before standing up quickly. Bellamy tenses up and looks at my with wide eyes.
I whisper to him while quickly lifting up the rug that laid in the center of my home, underneath a wooden door with a latch can be seen, "You have to hide, now. Just trust me and go down there and don't make a sound." I lift up the door and point to the ladder.
Bellamy nods and as quickly as he can, he climbs down the ladder that leads down into the dark pit. Once he reaches the bottom, I close it quickly and quietly, to then pull the rug back over to hide it, making sure no one else could see that it was there.