fragile | clexa

chapter thirteen

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A man with a horse stopped by later that day. Clarke was surprised to see the bald shaven guard from the Heda's chambers leading Artigas in front of the tent.

"My name's Lincoln," he introduced himself with a small smile. "I'm here to introduce you to Artigas. He's very gentle, I think you met him yesterday. You'll meet him a couple times from now on if that sounds okay to you."

Clarke decided she liked Lincoln. His voice was soft and his eyes were too and there was no weapon on his still very muscular body. Lexa, who had been supporting Clarke's body all the time, now lifted her up on the horse and followed up behind. "Just relax, Clarke. Breathe. Nothing is going to happen. Literally. We're just going to watch a horse and ride around a bit and if it's too much, you can just say so. We can get back to the tent in a matter of minutes."

Clarke nodded again. She didn't know why she would watch a horse, but she felt okay on the horse, feeling its steady movements beneath her and Lexa's body behind her.

Of course the people at the stalls looked when the Heda rode inside with a girl like Clarke in front of her. Then, they weirdly just bowed and continued their work.

The place they reached was outside on a small cobblestone place behind the building of the stalls. There was hay stacked and a meadow stretching out behind TonDC, nothing or no one else around and silence consuming the small space. Lincoln tied the horse loosely to a post and Lexa got down before helping Clarke. They sat down on a comfortable, slightly scratchy bunch of hay.

Then, they just watched Lincoln wash the horse.

"Do you know how to braid?" Lexa asked and Clarke nodded unsurely. That was definitely the weirdest owner she had ever had. Brought her to a little village to watch a horse get cleaned while asking her for such skills.

Lexa nodded Lincoln over and the man guided the horse to lie in front of Clarke and Lexa- with a bit of distance- on the hay. It contendly closed its eyes and snorted softly while Lexa got up, making Clarke more nervous again. Her eyes flickered up to the woman before remembering she wasn't allowed to do that and averting them again. Why was Lexa leaving? To what was she leaving Clarke?

"I'm not leaving."

Oh.

"You can braid the horse's hair if you want to, or just sit there and watch, I'll be right behind the bunch of hay and if anything is, you can call me. Okay?"

Clarke nodded. Why was Lexa going out of sight? Why was she sitting there?

Lincoln followed his Heda and Clarke was left alone with the horse. Fantastic. 'You can braid the horse's hair'. What kind of order was that?

Artigas curiously turned his head after a while and Clarke smiled at him a little, making the effort to lift her hand and wave. She had used to love animals. The person she had used to be had loved animals.

Slaves didn't like animals, right?

The question disappeared out of Clarke's mind when the horse moved its head a little closer to Clarke. The blonde sticked out her hand and petted over the animal's head. "Such a pretty boy," she whispered.

It snorted again and Clarke thought that maybe talking to animals wasn't so ridiculous after all. "You want me to braid your hair?"

She didn't get a response, but there was no sign of rejection either when she started combing through the thick dark brown. Her arms and fingers started hurting when she was half through Artigas' mane and she stopped for a moment, only patting his head shortly. "I'm gonna make a pause," she informed the horse, which just laid down its head into the hay and closed its eyes again.