Here (The 100 Fanfic)

Chapter One ~ The Fallen Princess

To go too far is the same as not to go far enough. -Confucius

Clarke walked through the trees, glancing into the canopy periodically as she went. If someone were to walk right up to her, they would know right away that she wasn't one of the Tree People, but she hoped that with her braided hair and face paint she would look like one from twenty feet up. Although they didn't make a sound, it was safe to assume that there was at least one Grounder in every tree she passed. She knew her enemy well enough by now to know what not to do to make herself stick out, and she was applying it to all aspects of her traveling. She didn't look into the trees often, she adjusted her steps so that they barely made a sound in the leaf litter, and when she stopped for the night she never had a fire. She had even picked up enough Trigedasleng to talk to any Grounder that she crossed paths with.

Clarke knew that she was somewhere on the east coast of the United States, but she didn't know exactly where. During her travels in the territory of more amiable Grounder clans, she had procured multiple maps, some dating to before the war. She took off her pack and started separating the maps in the grass. She briefly paused at the map that included the place that was considered her home, Camp Jaha. Other notable places were marked out, including Mount Weather and TonDC. This map also included the location of the drop ship that brought her and the rest of the hundred delinquents to Earth, which is why she wanted it. That was her home. That was the place where she had shed blood, sweat, and tears trying to make it a safe place for her people. That was the place that she was headed.

She had been following a mountain range for the past few weeks, and she looked through the maps to see which had mountains on them. She narrowed it down to two different areas: Woods Clan territory or the lands of the Boat People. Woods Clan territory was where she wanted to be, but Clarke was almost certain that she was still in the territory of the Boat people. She would cross into Woods Clan land in a few more days, but she still had a long way to go before she would be anywhere near Camp Jaha.

"Another week, at least," Clarke muttered to herself, and she crumpled the map in frustration.

Not wanting to waste any more time, she crudely shoved the maps into her pack and continued on, not stopping again for many hours.

The 100

Clarke stopped for the night in a copse of trees a few meters away from the path. It was the ideal place to camp, being closed in enough to give cover from the elements, and open enough to keep a look out for Grounders. She untied her bedroll from her pack and spread it over the leaf-covered ground. The comfort of the bedroll was something that she rarely got to experiance, for if she heard even the slightest russle in the leaves, she packed it up and started on her journey again. That was also the reason why she never took off her boots, not even for sleeping.

Clarke took from her pack her only means of protection: her knife and the gun that Bellamy had given her many months ago. She tucked the gun under the bedroll and kept the knife hidden in her hand, just in case. She didn't like using the gun unless absolutely necessary because it would draw attention to her location, and any Grounder that saw her with a gun would know that she was from the Ark. A grunt from the darkness made Clarke freeze in place, and she looked in the direction that it came from, away from the path. The moon was almost full, which gave her some light and a sense of security from whatever lurked out there, but she still needed to see for herself what this thing was.