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

Chapter 34

Lexa's POV

When Clarke and I gather ourselves enough to rejoin Octavia and Raven, we are greeted with clapping, hollering, and whistling. Raven holds up her hand and I high five her, still confused by their reaction to seeing Clarke and me again.

"Get it, Heda!" Octavia remarks with a wink.

"How do you know?" Clarke asks, seeming both defensive and curious.

"You aren't exactly quiet, Princess. Nor is the Commander over here." Raven answers with a smirk.

Clarke groans and buries her face in her hands. I can feel the heat in my cheeks as I blush in response.

"So, how was it?" Raven asks, raising and lowering her eyebrows suggestively. "I mean, we heard the effects and everything so I know it was good..."

"Raven!" Clarke cries. "Let's just eat our food!"

Raven's laughter echoes off the trees and the water.

***

We all politely say goodbye to Miko before we leave.

We ride in mainly silence for the first couple of hours, all of us tired from the previous days.

Clarke is the first to speak. "So what clan is next?"

"Boudalan, or Rock Line. It is known as the separation between the clans with more greenery and the more mountainous and rocky clans." I answer.

"Why is it called Rock Line? Because it's a divide between the two... Uh. I don't know the word for this. Biomes?" Raven asks. "Like, rocky vs green?"

"That is a second reason, yes but there is another reason. There are many unusual rock formations all over, some of which we will be stopping at. Some are old walls, dividing two long forgotten lands, some are even fortresses that have been found. Others are unusual stacks of rocks that are unnatural, and some circles with rocks. Many historians are fascinated with them. Perhaps sometime your people will want to come study them. You may have insights with your tek (technology) that we do not."

"That sounds awesome." Raven answers.

"You hated history." Octavia reminds her. "You told me that."

"I don't hate history, I hate learning about dead white guys that are commended for their contributions to society while their faults are ignored. Especially when their faults are like genocide." Raven huffs.

"What do they teach you on the Ark?" I ask, baffled.

"The history of the world, and then some emphasis on some nations." Clarke says. "Like the United States, Britain, India, some others. But yeah, the Old Earth wasn't all that. People still sucked, but to be honest I think they sucked more."

"Yup. At least sexism isn't prevalent anymore. Or homophobia. Or racism." Raven stops herself before she starts listing off more things.

"My favorite memory of the Ark was when this one guy who was a guard and not so secretly very racist, and he tried to stop me when I was headed to work." Raven begins. "He was saying stuff like oh what are you doing back here? And I was young and new, and I looked it. So I told him I was headed there for my job and he laughed in my face. He kept me there, trying to interrogate me for like five minutes until Sinclair got worried and looked for me. That guy, he was fired from being a guard, that was the final straw from his boss. Then he worked as a garbage compactor."

"Oh, that's a smelly job." Octavia laughs.

"Raven. What is racism?" I question, confused.

"It's like, you don't like someone specifically because of the color of their skin. That's basically what it is."

I scrunch up my eyebrows in confusion, a face I know Clarke finds endearing. "Why?"

"I don't know, to be honest." Raven shrugs. "But it's not a big thing here like it was on Old Earth. Luckily. Anyway! Border-line!"

"Boudalan," I correct her.

"Right, that. Are any of the rock formations on the way? Like can we stop at some?"

"Yes and one is coming up pretty soon, actually." I answer.

"Yeah!" Raven pumps her fist in the air, making Octavia grin dopily at her.

Clarke and I exchange an amused glance and I reach out briefly to take her hand and squeeze it.

"The formation is just ahead, Heda." Ryder reports from the front.

"Mochof (thank you) Ryder." I say.

"Pro (you're welcome)."

Soon enough, the formation is visible from the road we are on. A path goes from the road to the rocks, and we dismount before the path. Raven groans and stretches her arms.

"Man, that was a long time riding." Raven sighs out, doing some quick stretches with her leg, ones that Clarke and her mother taught her, while we are stopped.

I make my way over to Clarke as everyone stretches, getting the feeling back into their limbs. I take her hand in mine and stand close to her.

"How are you doing?" I murmur.

"I'm sore." Clarke sighs and I can't help my answering smirk. "Not like that! Well, yes like that but I meant my butt is sore from all that riding."

"We can take more breaks, just speak up when you need one." I say, squeezing her hand gently.

"I will. I didn't realize how bad it was until I got off. My butt is practically numb."

I chuckle and Clarke pouts at me. I melt and lean in to kiss her. We get lost in it, in the sweetness and gentleness of it, only to be broken by Raven.

"Hey! Love nerds! Come on, I want to see this!"

Clarke and I pull away from each other enough to exchange an amused look. I lean in to peck her lips again, keeping our hands entwined as we follow Raven down the small footpath. She is at the front with Octavia, who is practically being pulled along by her excited girlfriend, with the guards behind them, and then us because we were slow to follow. But that means I got to kiss Clarke for longer, so I have no regrets.

And done! I'm glad I got this finished when I did, I have to go to the second funeral today and it's going to be difficult (he's my uncle's wife's brother and my grandma's sister's son (say that 10 times fast), and he was 31 and it was unexpected). But by the time I post this I'll be home and it'll be over, so no worries! If I post this, it means I survived! :) Sorry my authors notes haven't been full of as much witty commentary, but it's been... A crazy week. Anyway! One last thing! I mentioned racism in this chapter, and as much as I like to think I'm relatively informed, I am a white girl so if I wrote anything wrong/incorrectly, feel free to let me know! :) Thank you guys so much for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!