The One Who's Fallen

Chapter 89

I tell mom about the time I spent on my own first, deciding to start from the very beginning. My mom is impressed by how I survived, and gets worried when I tell her about the giant water snake.

"You almost got killed by a giant water snake?" Mom asks, sounding both fascinated and panicky.

"Yeah, but I'm okay, mom. It didn't hurt me. I did however learn how it found me." Now Lexa perks up, interested. "It follows movement in the water."

"How did you figure that out?" Lexa asks.

"Who is that?" Mom questions. "I don't recognize their voice."

"Um. I'll explain that soon, I promise. To answer your question, I had that as a hypothesis so I decided to test it. No I didn't do anything dangerous," I say reassuringly when I see Lexa's worried expression. "I just threw a big rock in the water away from me and it went over there."

Lexa nods, looking impressed.

"What happened after that?" Mom's voice filters through the speakers after a moment of silence.

"Sorry, got distracted for a moment. Anyway, after that... This is a pretty big thing, you might want to sit down for this."

"Clarke, I'm already sitting down. You told me this would take a while and I'm not as young and strong as I used to be."

I laugh, "Sure mom. Act like you couldn't beat Jackson in an arm wrestling contest."

"I did, recently. Then he had to change all of the dirty bedpans and clean them." Mom says, amusement in her voice. "So what's this big thing?"

"There are other people down here."

There's a pause. "I would assume so, people may have survived in Mount Weather. And the hundred are down now, which you know." She says carefully.

"Yeah but I mean other people. Who live on the ground. The hundred have taken to calling them Grounders."

There's a longer pause. "People survived... On the ground? All this time? How did they survive the bombs?"

"Humans are resiliant, like cockroaches." Raven provides unhelpfully.

"How many people are down there, Clarke?"

"I don't know. Thousands," I guess.

"Thousands," Mom repeats slowly. "Gods," she breathes out. "Everything we've done to make sure the human race survived... And we're not the only ones."

"I know, it was a shock to me too." I say honestly.

"Alright, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. You can continue, sweetie."

"I had thought for basically the entire time I was down there that someone was watching me. They didn't reveal themselves for a while. When they did, they told me to pack up my stuff and come with them. They had weapons, better than the makeshift ones I had, so I packed up and followed them. They didn't tell me very much on the way, just that we were heading a town. It's called TonDC."

"Like Washington DC?" Mom asks.

"That's what I thought, too. I think they named it after a sign they found when they settled there. But Mom, from the second I saw them I knew things would be different down here. They're so much happier. I'm not saying they have it easy, there are many hardships. But there's a sense of community here that the Ark could never achieve."

"They seem more free." Raven adds.

"The ones that found me are Anya and Artigas. Anya's a general under the Heda and Artigas was assigned to be my guard."

"What's a Heda?"

Anya snorts and I smile, remembering how I said something similar when Anya told me that.

"So there are twelve clans, and then there's one person that's the Heda, or the Commander in our language. She's kind of like the Chancellor, but she's not chosen by the people. I can get more into that later, it gets even more complicated and I don't want to overwhelm you."

"There are twelve clans? No wonder there are so many people." Mom murmurs. "What happened after that?"

"Anya told me the leader of their clan, and the clan is called the Trikru or the Tree Clan as well as the Heda herself is coming to TonDC to see me. The first Heda was someone from the thirteenth clan that fell from the sky, so me falling was a big deal."

"I didn't know that," Raven pipes up. "Wait. Is that why Polis is called that? After Polaris?"

"I think so," I say. "Our histories are entwined in ways I never expected. Anya trained me to fight better and taught me Trigedasleng, their language. Nyko, the village healer, taught me their ways in medicine while I helped him incorporate our ways. They're not familiar with technology like the Ark is."

"What happened with the leader and the Commander?" Mom asks.

"Indra is the leader. She's very intimidating and rarely smiles. She wasn't really impressed with me. And Lexa is the Heda, she's the one you heard talking earlier. Um, aside from Raven, Lexa, and I there's also Luna and Anya in the tent."

"Luna?"

"I'll get to her in a bit. Uh, so after that I met Lexa. She helped Anya train me. After a while, I got restless. I had become a pretty great fighter, even Anya was impressed. So I asked to go with Lexa on a hunt. Just me and her. And after some convincing, we did. Soon before we left, there was a kid who got seriously hurt by a Pauna."

"What the heck is a Pauna?" Raven asks.

"Basically, a giant bloodthirsty gorilla." I answer.

"You're joking." Raven says but I shake my head. "You're not joking. Okay. That is simultaneously freaking awesome and terrifying."

"So I told Lexa we were going to hunt the Pauna."

"Clarke!" Mom's sharp voice makes me wince. "Of all the things to hunt, you decided to go after a giant gorilla that could kill and eat you?"

"Um. Yes?" I say hesitantly. "It worked out, though! Lexa got hurt while fighting it so it started going after her, so I distracted it with my bow and arrow. And I shot it through the eye as it charged at me."

"Badass," Raven murmurs, giving me a high five.

Next chapter, more explaining! I'm loving getting to write the commentary! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!