The Commander's Daughter

Chapter 3

"Come on Alex!" Lexa says loudly. "Head up!" I am training with one of her own pupils that I knew when I was young. Aden. He and I used to be close. I grunted, and hit the butt of his sword, watching it clatter to the ground. I lunge at him, and stop my sword centimeters from his neck. "Very good." Lexa says, and I feel her pride mix with my own. 

I heave deep breaths, and lower my guard, wiping sweat from my face as Aden collects his sword. 

"You have gotten good, Alex" Aden says with a half grin, sheathing his sword. 

"Well, when you have twenty four hours in a day and nothing to do in that village on the side of a hill for around two years, you tend to practice with every warrior there. Challenging them" I say, and start to sheathe my sword, but Lexa puts her hand on mine. "Yes?" I question. 

"You have one more opponent" She says, and I furrow my brows, trying to find an answer in her face. She steps aside, and Octavia stares back at me. "Octavia, has wished to train with you. Indra says it is good for the both of you, and I agree with Indra. Starting now, Octavia is your training partner" Lexa tells me. I nod to Lexa, and turn my attention on Octavia. She stands very rigid, as if she is unsure how to act, or what to do. 

Lexa nods, and I swing my sword at my side, waiting for Lexa to tell us to begin. Octavia stands still, while I bounce slightly on the balls of my feet. 

"Begin!" Lexa shoots, and Octavia comes at me with such sudden ferocity, that I jump to the side, barely avoiding her blows. We train with wooden swords, but it will leave bruises when you get hit. I, for one, did not mind bruises, but did not like to get hit. 

I parried some, and I could tell that Lexa was getting frustrated with all my defense. She wanted me to be an attacking opponent, not one that sits back. So I grit my teeth and made Octavia scramble for footing, going from side to side, and I struck her leg. At this moment, she growled in anger and came at me with too much power and ferocity, because in all her anger, she was left vulnerable in some obvious areas. I hit her ribcage, not hard though. And I also went and hit her leg again, in the same spot. 

"Thats enough" Indra says. She nods to me, and I nod back. "Alex, take Octavia with you on your rounds" I bowed, and turned away, expecting Octavia to follow. 

"Your rounds?" Octavia asks. I wait until we're a ways away from Indra and Lexa. 

"When I was younger, I was assigned the perimeter of Polis. But, since an unbelievable amount of soldiers trail the perimeter, I never go to there. Instead, I do better things" I smirk at Octavia, and she looks at me with questioning eyes. "You'll see, don't you worry" I got on a horse. "Hop on, Octavia" 

Once on my horse, Octavia and I take off through the woods, on a ten minute horse ride. I slow to a stop, and hop off, Octavia on my heels. I stood at the edge of a cliff, with a waterfall to my right. It extended about fifteen to twenty feet down to the water. Then, I started to strip to have two layers on my body until bare skin showed on some sensitive areas. Then, I started to wade through the waterfall. I stopped suddenly, and looked back at Octavia. 

"Well?" I ask her. 

"Well what?" She asks. 

"Are you coming?" I wait for an answer. Octavia debates it, and then finally nods, stripping to get where I am. She wades next to me. I could see fear in her eyes. "Jump" I grin, and take two steps before leaping into the air. I flip, and hit the water with my heels. The water is crisp, and refreshing on my skin. I come up, and laugh. I look up. "Come on Octavia," I say, "It's fun!" She takes one look back at our clothing and my horse, then jumps. A small screech escapes her lips, and she hits the water with her feet first, arms flailing. I laugh, and watch her come back up. 

"Took you long enough" I laughed at her. 

"Cool it kid. I had a tussle with some kind of water monster last time I had fun in the water" Octavia tells me, rubbing her face from old paint. 

"Water monster?" I ask, playful look on my face. "None here, Octavia" 

"Good. I'd kick your ass for bringing me in the water with one of those things" Octavia smiles at me, and goes underwater, coming back up and shaking her head from water. I floated on my back, and stared at the trees. "You usually do this?" Octavia swims beside me. 

"Every single day when I was here. Except for winter, of course. But besides that. Every day. No one says anything, we mind our business here, and do what we must to survive" I say softly, and dunk myself under water, then come back up. I stared at Octavia, and she stared back. She looked elegant, even when paint was smeared down her chin from her cheek, and her hair was stuck to her head from water. There was a type of elegance to her. Then, she smirked and splashed my face with water. "Hey!" I said, which was answered with laugher, and she started swimming away backwards, splashing me in the process. 

I was by far the better swimmer, and so I could use both hands to splash Octavia while I tread water with my feet. 

"How do you do that?" Octavia asks, putting her hand up as if to surrender. 

"Lots, and lots of practice, Octavia" I say. "Maybe soon you will get better at it. You will need to, if you'd like to keep up with me" I winked. She rolled her eyes. 

We jumped from the waterfall twice more, and sat at the bottom of the pool of water. Holding our breath, staring at each other. Octavia's hair was wild. Almost like if she was hanging upside down while there was a breeze outside. In time, we just sat on the rocky bank, and dried off in the sun. I stole glances at Octavia. Her elegance was now beauty. The way the sun reflected off of her somewhat wet skin, and how her clothing stuck to body, making me think in ways I could not be able to describe. All thoughts of the servant girl fled my mind, as I stared at Octavia. 

"What?" She asks, matching my gaze. Even though I was just caught studying her, I did not break the gaze, and I think this surprised Octavia to some extent. 

"Nothing, Octavia" I say, slowly breaking our stare and looking out at the water. Octavia still looked at me. Maybe she was contemplating what to say. Or maybe she was trying to figure out why I had stared at her for so long. Or maybe, just maybe, she was trying to decide what she felt. I am not even sure what I felt. After I was dried, I looked back at Octavia, and noticed she was dried as well, so I stood. "We should probably head back, before they start to wonder where we went" I tell Octavia. She looks at me, and nods. I hold my hand out, and she grabs it, getting to her feet. Dressing back up, I got onto my horse and waited for Octavia. Of course, I was faster than she was because I had done this more times. 

Riding back into Polis, I got to the tower, and Octavia offered to take my horse back, but I politely declined her offer. She followed me into the stables as I set my horse in their pen, and leaned against the door to it, looking at Octavia. 

"Thank you" She says. 

"For what?" I ask. "All I did was keep us out of Lexa's way"

"You also taught me that I can still have a good time, if I let myself" Octavia says, sincere. I smile at her, taking her in. Please, oh almighty Heda, please do not tell me I am falling for this girl. 

"Of course" I say, and look at anything but her. She notices, and stares until I make eye contact again. 

"I will see you tomorrow, training partner" She says, and holds her hand out. Typical way for grounders to say goodbye and greet each other. I closed my hand around her forearm, and she did the same to mine. I felt her tense up, but then relax again. She had a smile on her face, and I nod, letting go of her arm, and she does the same to mine. 

She walks away, and my eyes drift away at the last second, when she turns back to look at me. Once she is out of view, and I could no longer hear her footsteps, I rested my head on the door, and groaned internally. Why must this be something I feel. Did I not learn my lesson with Kora?