The Tribute (Clexa)

Chapter 3

Clarke jolted awake, making her head pound and causing lightning pain to shoot from her back to the tips of her toes on her right side. She couldn't help the yell that escaped her. She'd never felt electric pain like she just had.

It was dark, and she couldn't see anything.

Her heart started to race.

Where was she?

She tried to think back to the last thing she remembered, but her head was muzzy. It took her a minute to piece together what had happened to her. In that time, the door to the room she was in banged open and she jolted again.

She cried out as the movement caused more pain.

Tears leaked from her eyes.

"Strikon (little one), try not to move. You injured your back and your head when your metal ship entered the atmosphere. You need to rest."

Clarke tried to focus on the figure before her, but she couldn't. Her pain and her fear were too great. She could not remember anything apart from her days in solitary, although she was certain that the bed she was on was not her cot, and the person before her was not an Ark guard, at least not one she was familiar with.

"Wh-what did you say?" Clarke asked quietly. If it was an Ark guard she was looking at, she didn't want to make them mad. Angry guards usually stole her already meager rations.

A soft, feminine voice replied. "I said you were injured upon your entry to Earth and that you need to rest."

"Earth," Clarke parroted. It was all she was capable of doing.

"Yes, Earth. Keryon (the Spirit) brought you me."

"Who...who are you? There's not supposed to be anyone on Earth." Clarke's eyes began to adjust to the light the other person was holding. Was that a flame? A candle? She had never seen a real flame.

She took in a deep breath and caught the scent of the other person, an alpha. A powerful one.

Clarke shrunk into the bed covers. Powerful alphas usually meant trouble. She turned her head in submission.

"My name is Lexa kom Trikru." The alpha took another step onto the room. Clarke squeaked. She tried to move toward the other side of the bed to get away from the person, but the electric pain shot down her back and leg again, making her cry out in agony.

The alpha's scent changed, and Clarke sensed that she was trying to soothe her, only it wasn't working. She didn't understand what was happening.

"Please strikon, stop moving. You might be doing more damage to your back," the alpha named Lexa said.

Clarke watched as the alpha took another step into the room. She tried to stay still, she really did, but the alpha's movement made her flinch. She bit back her cry this time.

She was uncomfortable, and she wanted to roll onto her side, but she was petrified that the shocking pain would lance through her again. "I don't understand."

"That's because you have a concussion. It might be a while before you remember things correctly," the alpha said.

Clarke turned her head to look at the alpha. "You said I am on Earth."

"Because you are," Lexa affirmed.

"I...really?" Clarke tried to remember falling from the sky. "How long?"

"Less than a day." Lexa kom Trikru replied.

Clarke lifted her fingers to her head. She felt the large lump there. No wonder she couldn't remember.