Our Journey (the Fourth Book in the Her Weakness series)

Chapter 23

Lexa's POV

That night, we decide to bring Octavia and Raven out to the forest so they can see why it is called Trishanakru, or the Glowing Forest Clan. We head to the same place we where yesterday and I keep Clarke close. The wonderful memories we made here are making it even more difficult than usual to be apart from her.

Clarke does not exactly complain and cuddles up to me on top of that same blanket, which we brought from the house. Octavia and Raven have their own blanket that they're snuggling on, and thanks to Lincoln and I, we have delicious food to eat as well.

We get there before dusk so we have time to eat dinner before the butterflies show up again. We finish eating relatively early, giving Raven and Octavia time to tease Clarke and I about being disgustingly cute together.

"Seriously, they can't keep their hands off of each other." Raven says fondly at one point.

I have to admit, we are more tangled up in each other, more close than usual. My arm is around Clarke's shoulders and she is curled up against my side, her legs lying on top of mine. She has our free hands entwined in my lap and every once in a while presses a kiss to whatever sliver of bare skin she can find with her lips.

"I think Clarke's feeling up Lexa's abs." Octavia teases. "Get it, Griffin!"

Clarke blushes. "Like you wouldn't do the same if you were dating Lexa."

Octavia hums and nods. "That's fair. I get it. I too have a gorgeous girlfriend with drool-worthy abs."

"Yeah you do." Raven confirms proudly, lifting up her shirt slightly to reveal abs.

I raise an eyebrow, both surprised and impressed. I have known that she is in shape, more so than ever now that she has spent time learning to smith, which is hard and sometimes tedious work. I just did not know it caused her to get abs.

Clarke whistles loudly and moves her eyebrows up and down suggestively, making Raven laugh at her best friend's response.

"So tell me, Rae... Did you get it from smithing? All that tinkering you do? Or because of the workouts with Octavia?" Clarke winks at her after saying her last suggestion.

"All of the above," Raven says proudly.

We sit in silence, watching the sun set behind the giant trees. The setting sun sets the sky ablaze with colors, of reds and yellows and oranges that make it almost look like the canopy of the trees are on fire. The last of the sunlight glistens, shining through the thick, huge leaves in a desperate attempt to warm the ground for one extra second.

"So..." Raven drawls as darkness settles over the forest, the last beams of light swallowed by the persistence of night. "How did you guys find this place?"

"I had some natives of Trishanakru (Glowing Forest Clan) show me the best place to see the butterflies." I explain.

"When?" Raven asks, confused. "You've been with us all day."

"Yesterday, when I was putting the finishing touched on my plan to propose." I explain.

"Hold up." Octavia raises her hand up to stop me, even though I am finished talking at the moment. "Are you telling me... That this is the place you proposed to Clarke?"

"Yes, it is." I confirm.

Raven and Octavia sit up straighter an look around, studying everything around them.

"It's dark now, I can barely see anything." Raven grumbles.

"Just wait. It is called the Glowing Forest for a reason." I say.

Raven nods. She is right, it is rather difficult to see anything. The light of the moon barely makes it through the trees, causing the outlines of the others to be the only things I can see. After another minute or so, the sky continues to get darker and it is not a surprise for Clarke or I this time when the moss begins to faintly glow.

However, I do not think we included this in our description to Raven and Octavia of how our proposal went. So it is a surprise to them.

"Whoa," Octavia breathes out. "The moss glows too? This is so cool!"

I smile and exchange a soft look with Clarke as we watch our friends fawn over how amazing the forest looks when it is dimly lit up. I kiss her gently under the pale light of the glowing moss, illuminating her features beautifully (though she always looks beautiful). We pull apart and turn back to our friends, who go back to looking at the forest, pretending they did not see our moment. I look at Clarke lovingly until I hear Octavia's gasp.

"The butterflies are here!" She whispers loudly in her excitement.

I look up, reluctant to tear my eyes away from my gorgeous fiancée (that word still fills my stomach with butterflies, pun intended). The butterflies are in a group again, moving up and down through the trees as one, following the path of a few lone ones in the front.

They settle on the trees with the moss, their wings flapping slowly though they have already landed, just like yesterday. It gives the impression that the moss is moving, almost like water with ripples after a rock is thrown in it. A few continue to fly around, and Octavia watches them with wide, awed eyes.

She quietly squeals with happiness when one lands on Raven's head.

"I definitely have to draw that for them." Clarke murmurs.

I nod in agreement. Octavia's eyes are bright with happiness as she looks at her girlfriend, who has a butterfly on her brace. Raven does not even try to hide the tears that fill her eyes and slowly drip down her cheeks.

"This place is beautiful, no wonder Clarke said yes." She teases, but her tears make her voice more rough than normal.

"It wasn't because of the location, Rae." Clarke says, then winks teasingly at me. "It was the shiny ring."

Raven and Octavia laugh, keeping their voices quiet and their movement to a minimum so they do not scare away the butterfly.

Okay, the results are in! It was almost unanimously "shorter, I want the wedding!!" or "whatever you want." So shorter it is! And I did have someone express their concern about this book ending quickly, so I want to address that! It won't, I promise! We have nine more clans, not including Trishanakru, so that's at minimum 27 more chapters, or 81 days! Not to mention the wedding set up and the wedding itself and the party... This book will continue for a while! And I'm not sure if I've told you about my plans after I finish this book, so I'll just put it here. After this, the series won't truly end. I'm planning on making another book, but with prompts and suggestions you guys give me. Like you would tell me what you want to see. Like "Clarke and Lexa adopting their first kid" or "Raven and Octavia getting married" or "plot twist: Lexa killing Titus." Too soon? Probably. :/ I miss her. Anyway! I plan on that! You can message me on here, comment on that story, which I haven't even named because the start of it is so far away, or this story with the prompt, or message me on Tumblr (wolf3223)! I have anonymous asks open, so if you're not comfortable with me knowing exactly who's asking what, then that should work for you! Or you could comment on here if you have one now and I'll store all the prompts somewhere. Alright, that's it for this long Author's Note... Thank you for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!