Coming Back Down

Ye Who Enter Here

  Being chained up, I expected to be in a dungeon or something of the sort rather than a crappy room. But, as fate would have it, I was wrapped in chains that were attached to a ring bolted to the floor in a room of sun-bleached concrete. The walls were chipping and mostly concrete while the ceiling and floor were in the same degraded condition. The windows along one wall were all broken while some were covered by metal or tattered curtains.

  Sighing, I sat cross-legged on the floor while boredly looking around the room. Clicking my tongue, I rose to my feet and walked in the tight circle the chains allowed me to move in. Going as far as I could in one direction, I suddenly ran the opposite way until the chains went taut, and I fell flat on my face. I was hoping the sudden force would break the chains, but they seemed to be tougher than I thought.

  "I see you are just as bright as an animal." Hearing a woman's voice speak, I looked up to see the brunette from before. "Do you know why I chose to put you in here?" She walked further into the room while looking at the windows as she strolled toward them.

  "No." I replied shortly.

  "I'm trying to keep peace between us and Skaikru." She had her hands held behind her back as she was looking out a window. "Clarke has made the request that I let you walk freely, but from what I have heard, you are unpredictable and easily riled."

  "The Sky People call me 'Viper' for a reason."

  "Viper? Like the snake?" She rose a brow while looking over her shoulder at me. "And now you are known as Pakstoka...."

  "That Grounder said that meant 'wolf'. Why am I called that?" I asked while having a flat tone and wriggled around to sit up.

  "You are the Skaikru that vanished even though my people had your camp surrounded. From what I have heard, you were a forager but taught yourself to hunt and survive on your own. In the villages, they say that if you hear the Pakstoka's howl....your time is soon to end."

  "I don't howl." I glared.

  "Music." She stated. "A wolf sings when it howls, as you do. A wolf is a predator, as you are. It's just what happens when stories pass through villages."

  "So your people basically see me as some lone wolf in the woods?" Rising to my feet, I looked right at the woman. From everything I had seen so far, it was safe to assume this woman was the Commander. "I am no ghost story to tell your children."

  "Obviously." She glanced at me. "As Clarke became Wanheda for the Mountain Men, you have simply become Pakstoka for how you have survived....and killed." She raised both of her brows while saying the last part. "But I will overlook that as you defending yourself. It is nothing new."

  "And why are you being so nice?" Walking as far as I could with the chains, I stared right at her as she turned to face me.

  "I'm not being nice. I'm getting what I want by giving Clarke what she wants, and what she wants is for you to not be chained up in a room."

  "A deal?" I tilted my head to the side. "You honor this deal but not the one for that Grounder that brought us here? Why should anyone trust you?"

  "That 'Grounder' is Prince Roan of Azgeda, son of the queen that marched her army into Trikru territory as a threat to my position as Commander."

  "And?"

  "And peace with Skaikru will help form an alliance that may assist in putting Azgeda back into place." Lexa walked toward me but stood just out of my reach. "I don't need you to trust me, I just need Clarke to. So I'm letting you go as a show of good faith. However, because you were caught as a bounty by Roan, it is him you should ask for your freedom from."