Hope - Clarke & Madi || The 100

I

Clarke opened her eyes slightly. The bright daylight blinded her. After her eyes adjusted a little to the light, she opened them fully. She was looking at the sky. She knew it by now. The stars belonged to the night and the sun to the day. Yet, she always felt a little disappointed to see that the stars were gone when she opened her eyes in the morning. It was the only thing she ever missed about the ark. Back there, she could see the stars no matter what time it was. That was before she was confined for treason of course. Other than that, she'd always hated the Ark. She had been a prisoner from the day she was born there.

Her thoughts trailed off to her friends, who were on the Ark now. At least, she had told herself that until it had become the truth. They were up there. They were safe. But she missed them nonetheless.

It had been safe for them to come back for almost a year now. Why hadn't they? The scary thought that they never even made it in the first place came up again, but she pushed it away. Raven had been the one who had planned it all out, so what could've possibly gone wrong?

She got up and stretched, then checked the traps she had set up. She made sure to keep an eye on the camp. Madi was still sleeping and Clarke didn't want to wake her up yet, knowing she couldn't fall asleep last night. Still, she knew Madi was sleeping with her ears open and would wake up to any unknown sound. Clarke smiled to herself. Her little Natblida reminded her of her sister. Lexa had always been a light sleeper and would be fight-ready if you'd wake her up in the middle of the night.

Two of the traps were empty. She set them up again and then walked over to the last one. The catch was a rabbit. It had probably tried to escape for a long time and was tired out by now. Clarke stabbed a knife right through its heart, causing the rabbit to die fast and with the least amount of pain.

A lot of animals had died in the second Praimfaya. Mammals were affected most by the radioactivity. She had noticed there were less and less ones around for the first year or so, but then, they started coming back. Smaller, simpler animals managed to survive in bigger numbers. Mollusks, for example. At first, Clarke was disgusted by the thought of eating snakes and worms, but the hungrier she got, the less of an issue that became.

She got the rabbit out of the trap and set it up again. With the rabbit in her hands, she made her way back to their little camp.

"Good morning." Madi was awake. She sat in the Rover and smiled at her. "Like done em raun oso seifas? (Was it in our trap?)"

Clarke nodded. "Yes, we're going to have some great breakfast," she said and started to skin the rabbit. "How did you sleep?" she asked, once she realized Madi was standing right beside her.

The girl shrugged. "Couldn't fall asleep last night, but I already told you that. I had a really weird nightmare."

Clarke was a little surprised. Madi had often had nightmares when she was younger, but they were gone for a long time now. "Do you wanna tell me what it was about?"

Usually, they were about her parents. Lexa had told Clarke that her parents were killed by Azgeda, but that wasn't the truth. It was what she had been told.

The truth was that her parents were captured by Azgeda even before Madi was born. About eight months after that, her mother gave birth to a little Nightblood. That meant Madi had been growing up in captivity since she was born. Azgeda didn't kill her or her parents but tortured them nonetheless. Madi had told her it was because they didn't want to kill an innocent child, but that made no sense to her. Clarke believed that they were held hostage. Lexa had always been a very promising Natblida and everyone was almost sure she would win the conclave. Azgeda wasn't the most wealthy clan back then and in order to have something against the commander, they held her parents hostage. And her little sister, which she never even knew she had.

It was horrible and she couldn't even imagine Madi or her parents being tortured. She hated herself for ever trusting Azgeda.

"I don't know. It was weird. I was sleeping and you woke me up to tell me your friends were finally coming." She paused as if she was trying really hard to remember what had happened in her nightmare. "But it weren't your friends. In the ship that landed were people from the sky, but they were weird. They weren't friendly at all and had guns too. They shot and the bullet..."

Clarke gave her a worried look but Madi shook her head, barely noticeable, and went on. "The bullet hit you right in your heart. I thought I had lost you too."

She pulled Madi in a hug and stroke her hair comfortingly. Even the thought of Madi being all alone again made her heart ache. "I'll never leave you. You know that, right?"

Clarke had found her almost a month after Praimfaya. She was so thin, it was shocking. There weren't a lot of animals at that time, so hunting was difficult. And the girl was only six back then. She had never been trained to hunt or fight. Clarke found it a miracle she even survived that long.

Madi nodded, pulling back from Clarke's hug. "Then I woke up and saw you checking the traps," she smiled. "I never thought I'd be happy to see you checking an empty trap."

Clarke let out a chuckle. "But they weren't all empty," she said, aiming at the rabbit. She heard Madi's stomach grumble. "If you help me, you'll get breakfast sooner."

She nodded and started helping Clarke prepare the rabbit.

A/N: That was it for the first chapter! Any feedback? :)