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

Chapter 49

Lexa's POV

Octavia and I work well together, just like I knew we would. Since I am the more patient one in this partnership, I am the one who sculpts the castle. Octavia runs back and forth with a small bucket she had the foresight to bring, carrying wet sand and water when I ask for it.

Now, neither of us are artists like Clarke, but I am relatively pleased with what we have made. We make it look like a typical castle, with the circular pillars on the four edges and a moat. We even make a drawbridge out of a small piece of driftwood Octavia finds. Then her mission is to find shells and rocks to decorate it with.

When we finish, we high five, which is a Skaikru action I have come to like. Octavia and I sit in silence now, making little tweaks to our castle here and there.

"Are you guys done?" Octavia calls after a couple of minutes.

"Almost, just a minute!" Raven calls back.

"What do you think theirs looks like?" I murmur to Octavia.

"Either a pile of crap or something really intricate and beautiful that blows ours out of the water."

I nod in agreement.

"Alright! Come over and behold our work!" Raven calls.

I shrug and stand, careful to not disturb the sand near the sandcastle. We walk over to where Clarke and Raven are, keeping our eyes on their faces so we do not see what they have built yet. Clarke winks at me and gestures downwards, drawing my attention to their sandcastle.

It is large, bigger than the one Octavia and I built. There are details in the castle that I didn't think was possible to make. The ridges that are common along the tops of castles have been made, and it almost seems sculpted, with how the pillar-like places are almost perfectly circular.

"Whoa." Octavia says.

Raven and Clarke high five at her response and I am already pretty sure that we are going to lose. Clarke's raw artistic skill has translated into sandcastle building better than I expected, which is saying something.

"Come see ours, it's awesome." Octavia sounds confident but I think it is a facade.

Clarke and Raven follow us over to ours, which suddenly looks less good after I have seen theirs.

"It's classic." Raven says. "I like it." Octavia gives her a dubious look. "I do, babe! Okay, but now we have a problem. How do we decide who wins?"

"Does it matter who wins?" I question.

"Uh, yeah!" Raven says. "So how do we decide? Because if there were more than two teams, we could say just don't vote for your own group but that doesn't work."

"You're missing the obvious, babe." Octavia receives a confused look from her girlfriend. "Third party. The guards!"

"Are we really going to bother them, though?" Raven asks, gesturing towards where Nix, Ryder, and Lincoln are all lying in the sun together, talking amongst themselves.

Octavia sighs. "No."

"Then we just say it's a tie." Clarke suggests.

Raven gasps. "Clarke Marie Griffin! My competitiveness won't allow for such slanderous suggestions!"

"Slanderous suggestions?" Clarke repeats, amused. "Okay, Rae."

"That sounds like 'sure, Jan' to me."

I have no idea what that means, but Clarke's long groan means that she definitely does. "Stop with the early twentieth century memes, it's been a century."

"Never."

***

It does not take long to get ready to go, as all of us have done this many times before by now. The horses seem eager to get going, happy to be moving and on the road again.

"I feel like I always ask this, but what's next?" Raven says.

"Louwoda Kliron, or Shadow Valley." I answer. "It is like this place, but further inland. It is very rocky and has many beautiful rock formations, like Boudalan (Rock Line). It is called Shadow Valley because all of the major cities and towns are build in a crevasse in the ground, like a canyon, or underneath an overhanging cliff."

"That sounds really cool." Octavia says, her eyes sparkling. "And hey, it seems like we've been on the road for a while. How many more clans are there to visit?"

"Four." Clarke answers. "There's Shadow Valley, Broadleaf, and then Trikru and Skaikru."

"We're... We're almost done, then." Raven sounds shocked. "And then you nerds get married... What'll happen after that?"

Clarke shrugs. "Our own little happily ever after, that kind of cheesy thing. I don't know. Maybe one of you two will finally get the guts to propose."

I hear twin squeaks from Raven and Octavia and smile. I know they are both thinking about it, even if they have not spoken about it aloud. I know Raven has probably been subtly looking for rings or something already while we have been shopping in the markets. I know because she is not much of a jewelry kind of woman, but has been spending a lot of time looking at the stalls with jewelry. I have told no one, not even Clarke. I would like to discuss this with Raven first.

"Um. So like a white pocket fence for you guys?" Octavia asks, changing the subject.

"Octavia. I love you, but we aren't built for white picket fences. We'll live in the city we build instead of Lexa's giant candle, get some pets, maybe adopt. That kind of thing."

"Clarke, it is not a giant-"

"It kind of is." Raven interrupts. "The top even has a flame."

"So dogs and kids? In a house in a community you're building? Sounds like a white picket fence kind of thing to me." Octavia points out.

I am still uncertain what that phrase means. Is it something like a wistful dream? What we would like the future to be, even though it is unlikely it will happen?

"Except for the fact I'm the Commander of Death, and Lexa's the Commander. We can kill people in more than seven ways with just one finger."

Okay, so some people have been commenting about wanting to see the prank, and I just want to make sure I understand what you lovely people mean. Like Clarke and Lexa's retaliation for the raccoon/lion prank that Octavia and Raven pulled? Or something I didn't think of? Next chapter, Shadow Valley! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!