Chapter 2: Tribe of Two
-1st POV-
When morning came, it was odd. It was like my body had synched with the earth time and awakened with the sun. I look around myself and smile. People, sky, trees, and soft dirt. All I ever asked for was now mine.
Looking towards my chest, I see the top of Octavia's head as she rested soundly. I free myself from her embrace with a subtle maneuver, then stretch my body to wake it up.
The first task of the morning was figuring out how to transport half of the Nine Colored Eel and a whole deer. I decided to use my shirt for more binding and strap the water monster to a long branch after cutting off another portion for breakfast. I figured Monty and Jasper could carry it if they wanted lunch later.
Clarke was the next person to wake up. She walked over and sat next to me as I cooked on the fire. I wasn't the best cook, but rotating the meat over the fire until it was an even brown wasn't too hard.
"How are you feeling?" Clarke asked as she warmed herself with the flame.
"A bit sore, but I'll be fine." I tell her, " After a few weeks here, and I'll be king."
Clarke lightly chuckled, "I'm sure you will. You seem pretty well adapted to the ground."
"For ten years, all I've done was read about surviving on earth and whatever Birdy brought me. Now that I'm here, it's like I'm finally home. This is my element. Maybe not entirely, but it will be. And when Birdy gets here, that's when this place will become a paradise."
I could feel Clarke staring at me. It wasn't a glare but a subtle gaze.
"Birdy." she said, "Who is she?"
"A friend. We all grew up together. Finn, her, and me." I replied, "Her name is Raven. She called me Mahuta. So, until she could pronounce my name, I called her Birdy. She used to get all twisted because of it, and eventually, it stuck. We met Finn when we were six. A year later, some bad shit happened, and w--, I, killed a guard."
I felt Clarke's hand reach out and touch me in comfort. "You've been locked up ever since."
"Yeah." I nodded my head. "You know, you say the Ark is dying, and I really want to care. But I just can't. They locked me up for ten years, almost eleven. Dropped me on earth like a lab rat. During my confinement, I lost my mother and grandfather and missed some of the best moments of Birdy's life, forced to speak to her through a glass window. I want to see em burn."
"You and me both." a sleepy voice sounded from behind me. I didn't have to turn around to know it was Octavia.
"Too much hate isn't good for your wounds." Clarke whispered, "I think you should find someone a little more mellow."
Octavia rolls her eyes when she hears Clarke.
"Don't worry about my wounds. They'll heal with time no matter what I do. So how are we going to cross the river?" I ask.
"I found a way last night," Finn spoke out. "But your deer can't come, or the fish."
"Bullshit." I protest. " That's probably the only deer on this side of the river."
"Well, we have to swing across. So the deer can't go," Finn reasoned.
I sighed as I looked at the big deer. "I guess I can always go fishing on our way back," I murmured.
X
Breakfast went down easy and quick. Clarke was a serious woman, and she was laser-focused on getting to Mount Weather for the time being. When everyone was ready, we moved towards the lake, where Finn showed us a long vine attached to the top of a tree.
Immediately, it didn't sit well with me. It was the first vine I had seen since exploring the forest. Upon closer look, the core of the vine was a rope. I knew then that this vine was manmade. Probably for the same reason we didn't want to swim across the river, the Nine Colored Eel. But the question was, who made it.
Below the mound that Finn thought we should swing from, I watched as he and Jasper pondered the swing and repeatedly check the vines integrity. Beside me were Monty, Octavia, and Clarke. And Clarke was starting to get restless.
"You wanted to go first. Now quit stalling." She spoke out to Finn. "Mount Weather awaits."
"Just hang on to the apogee." a jittery Jasper spoke.
"The apogee like the Indians, right?" Finn asked jokingly.
"Apogee, Not Apache." Jasper corrected him.
"He knows. Today, Finn." Said Clarke.
"Aye, Aye, Captian. See you on the other side." Finn stalled some more.
"Him courage vanished after he left Zero-G, rangatira," I whispered to Clarke.
"Rangatira?" she asked.
"Chief," I reply.
"That's pretty," she said.
I chuckled, then said, "That's because you know no other language besides English."
Clarke agreed with a small gesture. During our brief exchange, Jasper had somehow gotten his hands on the vine. He was visibly nervous, but he could keep his eyes off Octavia. And she was looking back at him.
A free-spirited beauty, giving me eyes like that. I would sing across a river at risk of death too. Jasper took a few steps back then took to the air. He hooped and hollered all the way there. And I have to be honest, it looked like a thrilling ride.
As soon as he made it across, the land was a bit rough, but he got to his feet and screamed from the depths of his gut. "We are Apogee!
We cheered him on just as loud as he did his victory dance like the world was ours. To my side, Finn had moved to give Clarke the vine to swing across next.
Jasper called for our attention again. "We did it!" he shouted, holding up a worn metal sign. "Mount Weather! Whoo! Whoo!"
We exhaled with great relief as we finally managed to make it to the place that would change everything for us. We went into another bout of cheers when an object suddenly appeared, pierced Jasper through the chest, knocking him off his feet and pinning him against a tree.
The shock was unreal. The group was frozen until a survival instinct kicked in. We scrambled and found our way to a lower lip of the rock edge to hide from the mystery attacker. I searched the woods with my eyes as the sound of brush fluttering was all I could hear.
"We're not alone, "said Clarke.
"You think?" I replied, "Jasper just got speared to a tree. We have to go! Now!"
X
Sometime later, we were zipping through the forest, fleeing for our lives. We just ran and didn't look back. We finally stopped when Monty tripped.
Finn moved to help him up, but when everyone saw the skeleton that tripped Monty, we froze. Octavia pulled Monty away from the remains as his body went rigid.
"Who are they?" Finn asked.
Clarke moved to pick a deformed skull and correct Finn. "What are they?" she asked.
"We are so screwed." Octavia gasped.
She was so right. A moment later, we heard distant screams, and Clarke just took off. It was Jasper. We ran back to the river, but when we arrived, Jasper was gone.
Whoever was in the forest with us had taken him. It might sound callous, but I cut my losses. We knew nothing about our enemy, and their weapons looked very well made. For now, I slipped away and went back to the vine by the riverside. I pulled out my little blade and cut off a few feet.
With my bindings, I walked back to where we camped the night before. I remade my sled, bound the water monster to the deer, and made my way back to my den.
When I arrived, I strong up the deer and bled it. Follow the instructions from the fourth book, I worked on building myself a smoke pit. It took a few hours and a lot of woodwork. It was about six feet across and built like a dome over a deep fire pit when it was finished.
I smoked the fish first. At the same time, I skinned the deer, separated it into parts, cleaned them in the creek before adding it to the smoke pit.
With nothing but a hide and antlers left. I embarked on my hardest task yet. Tanning hide. I remember Octavia saying that she used to help her mother mend clothing on the ark. So at least that's one thing I won't have to do myself.
This cycle went on all day. There was a checklist of shit I worked on finishing before nightfall. But when nightfall finally came, I was exhausted. My meat was smoked and persevered, The natural den became my mound. I covered the surface root with moss and other vegetation. I then bound larger branches and made walls and a roof extending towards the creek. The newly made earth home was camouflaged to look like a natural mound. I figured the only people to know it was unnatural would have had to see me build it or look pretty damn closely.
After a short meal of deer meat. I crept back to the landing. There were few things that I still need that I could only get from the landing site. When I arrived, it seemed that everyone was distracted.
They all surrounded a fire with the distant aroma of cooking meat. They were cheering, and Bellamy was in the middle speaking. Though I was too far to hear what he was saying. Pushing the event aside, I made my way to a small panel on the side of the dropship. Every ship had service like panel for mechanics to enter.
This panel led to the wiring in the ship and the fuel tank. Once I was in, I was directly beneath everyone's feet. Looking up, I could see Clarke moving about. She was tending to someone. My guess is they found Jasper.
Without much time to spare, I took wires, scrap metal, and found a jar-like cylinder. It didn't have a cap, but it was enough to hold the fuel I bled from a valve on the drop ship's tank.
Putting a cloth over the cylinder, I tied it off with wire and began on my way out. When I was just about finished putting the panel back on, I heard the snap of a twig from behind. I quickly turned around with my knife drawn to see a young woman of Asian descent.
We stared at each other for a moment as she periodically glanced at the camp. I didn't know if she was going to scream, run away, or fight me.
"You're him, aren't you?" she finally spoke.
"I don't know what you mean," I replied.
"The child murder. The first one on the ark. You also save Octavia from a water monster." she explained, "Bellamy's been looking for you. You should go see him. I think he'll suck your cock; he's so grateful."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Having my cock sucked sounds good. But I'm not into men. So what now?"
"You are obviously stealing a bunch of shit." she replied, " But Bellamy has this idiotic rule right now. 'Whatever the hell we want', he says. So, I want to help you steal their shit."
'No, fucking way,' I thought.
I then ask her why.
"You see this?" she held up her wrist. " This tells the ark that we're alive. My mom is up there, and Clarke said they could all die if they don't come to the ground. This earth is big enough to disappear. So I figured, keep the bracelet, the ark comes down, and I run away from their reach. That way, I stay free and happy, and my mom is saved."
I didn't quite get her point, so I asked.
"Bellamy doesn't want the ark to come down. He's afraid. So, in order to eat the animal he brought back, we have to offer our bracelets. Like I said, my mom is up there." she explained.
" So what do you want from?"
"Help..."
I sighed. I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but I wasn't an asshole. "Fine. Help me carry this shit and follow me."
I could faintly make out her smile in the dark as she moved closer to me. She reached down to pick up the bundle of wire, but before she came up, I stopped her.
"This camp. It isn't your home anymore. We're a tribe of two now, and I'm ariki tauaroa." I tell her.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Ariki tauaroa?"
"Yeah."
"High Chief." I say.
She nodded her head and tightens her hold on the bundle of wire. When she rises, she holds out her hand and says, "I'm Mira Xu."
"Tanemahuta Ngata." I reply.
"Tane-mah-uta N-gata." she replied slowly to get a feel for my name. "Wow, that's a mouthful."
"But you handled it pretty well. Come on, we should get going."
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