The Tribute (Clexa)

Chapter 11

Clarke woke up and rubbed the grit from her eyes. She had thoroughly exhausted herself playing with the tools Lexa had gotten for her. She hadn't dared to try the mini saw. She wanted to try and cut the wood, but she'd never used such a tool before, and with her luck she would have hurt herself. If she could muster up the courage, she would ask Lexa, or maybe one of the others to help her with it the first time.

She looked out the window and was pleased that she could see the blue sky and a big, puffy cloud. She had asked Lexa, before the alpha left that night, to move the yellow curtain out of the way so she could see out. She had wanted to look at the night sky from where she was in the bed, but it had been overcast.

It delighted her to know that the day would be sunny.

She had spent much of her day outside yesterday, but she had initially been so nervous and uncomfortable around Lexa that she hadn't paid much attention to her surroundings, at least not until she and Lexa had gone to eat under the tree. Then she had allowed herself to look at the ground, the trees, the buildings, the sky, and the horse in its training ring.

It had all been quite overwhelming. The sights, the sounds, and the smells had overtaken her in a way she had never experienced before.

On the Ark, the air was recycled, and it always smelled the same. The food never changed, the people never changed, and the sights never changed. The people on the Ark thought they had a slice of heaven, but Clarke knew better. Heaven was a place on Earth, and she was now a part of it.

Her thoughts flitted to her parents, but she quickly banished them to a dark corner of her mind. If she started to think of them and her friends, she would fall right back into a black pit of despair, and she didn't want that. She had promised to try and make herself comfortable with her new world and the people around her, and she was going to do her best stick to that.

She sat up on the side of the bed. She wanted to be brave and not hide in the room until someone came to get her, only no one had thought to bring the wheelchair into the room. Her brace had been bent when she nearly fell down the stairs, and it had been sent back to the blacksmiths. Her crutches were there though. Deciding to take a chance, she grabbed the pair of wooden crutches and stood herself up using her left leg. She wobbled but maintained her balance. She tried putting weight through her right leg and was pleased when she was able to bear weight on it for a few seconds before it tried to buckle. It was only a slight improvement, but it was progress.

She hobbled over to the door, and as quietly as she could, she opened it. She had no way of telling what time of day it was, and she didn't want to wake anyone up if it was too early.

She looked across the hall at the shut door. That was the room she had destroyed. She felt terrible for her actions. Never had she destroyed someone's property before. If she had done that on the Ark, she would have been floated, tribute or not. No omega would ever be allowed to get away with that, but down here, she hadn't gotten in trouble except to be told that she would have to help clean up the mess.

Looking back on all her interactions with the people on the ground, except for the terrifying masked men, everyone had treated her kindly. They had been nicer and treated her with more care than she had ever been, and while everyone here kept telling her to eat more, she had already eaten more since arriving on the ground than she would have gotten in a week on the Ark.

She leaned on the wall and rubbed the sore area on her back. If she had sustained an injury like this one on the Ark, she wouldn't have gotten treatment unless her mother had been able to do something for her in their apartment. The council wouldn't have allowed medical treatment to be wasted on her, and she would have been destined for a life of agonizing pain. Nobody, except for her family and friends, would have cared.