Gravity → The 100 [1]

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO
WE'RE NOT ALONE

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     Aspen couldn't stop staring at the nature around her. She was hardly paying attention to the group around her, talking and laughing as they played with each other. She kept touching everything. A blue flower growing at the base of a tree, a log fallen in front of their path, a bush with bright red berries. The bark on every single tree that she passed. She even tilted her head back as she walked to stare up at the blue sky, at the clouds passing by. Every now and then, a breeze made its way through the trees, and she would close her eyes when the breeze brushed her hair back from her shoulders. It was no surprise, really, when she eventually stumbled, not seeing the stick in her path because she was too busy taking in the nature around her. Letting out a small shriek, she stumbled over it and promptly crashed into someone's back. It took her a moment to realize it was Octavia; luckily, the other girl had caught herself for both of them, so neither ended up falling.

"Sorry, sorry!" Aspen said, biting back her laughter as she and Octavia detangled from each other. Aspen, embarrassed but even more annoyed, fiddled with her hair as Octavia turned to study her. Aspen hadn't noticed before, but the other girl was alarmingly pretty, her hair thick and dark and her lips full. Aspen found herself smiling at her, one of her fingers absentmindedly twirling around a lock of her hair. Octavia smiled back, almost shyly, and then she mumbled something and turned to follow Clarke and Finn talking up ahead. Behind Aspen, Monty and Jasper tumbled into her, laughter in their voices.

"Found these," Monty said, and then he was pushing a few dark purple flowers into Aspen's hand. Aspen brightened, immediately getting to work putting one of the flowers into her hair, tucking it into a small braid. She then turned to tuck one behind Jasper's goggles, who grinned at the gesture. There was nowhere for her to tuck a flower on Monty, so she simply pressed the remaining third flower into the stack he'd collected in his palm. Up ahead, Finn had found a similar bush of flowers, and was putting one behind Octavia's ear. Clarke wasn't paying any attention to their antics, too busy studying the map.

"Now that, my friend, is game," Jasper noted once he saw Finn and Octavia flirting, nudging Monty in the ribs. Aspen circled around the two flirting people and joined Clarke, who was folding the map back up.

"We still heading the right way?" Aspen asked curiously, relieved when Clarke nodded. She turned to address their small group, and Aspen turned with her.

"That, my friend," Monty was saying as he walked past Octavia, "is poison sumac."

"What?" Octavia exclaimed, immediately rushing to swat the tiny flower out of her hair. Aspen smiled at the sight. She wasn't worried about the flower still in her own hair. She knew Monty wouldn't have put anything genuinely poisonous in her hands, and she trusted that he knew what he was talking about.