Coming Back Down

Join Or Die

  Lincoln was gone. The man Octavia loved was shot in the head for Pike's twisted sense of justice. After being given a proper Grounder burial, Clarke, Bellamy, Jasper, Octavia, and I all set out to find Luna, the last Nightblood other than Ontari. Monty, Raven, and the rest stayed in the abandoned Ark to find a way around Alie.

  Loading up the truck and mounting on my horse, we all knew we had to find Luna and get rid of Alie if we wanted to find peace again. As we went, Octavia hung out of the window to talk to me.

  "What's his name?" She asked in a quiet voice while looking at the horse as he trotted.

  "Dunno." I replied. "I took him from Polis when Clarke and I escaped."

  "Then what have you been calling him?"

  "Horse." I replied, receiving a look from Octavia.

  "You can't just call him 'Horse'. He's yours now, you gotta name him." Glancing down at the dark horse, I thought about it.

  "Fang."

  "Fang?" Octavia questioned with a raised brow.

  "You call me 'Viper', so why not? I think it fits."

  "Fang it is, then." She nodded.

  When a storm started, Octavia pulled her head back into the vehicle while the furs from Azgeda had me mostly protected from the rain. Following the truck, I paced the horse so that he would be able to keep up without tiring. Listening to the engine and the rain pattering on the plants around me, I thought about how only a few weeks ago I wouldn't even dare mount a horse. But now....now I was riding one by myself and giving it a name.

  When the truck was blocked by a fallen tree, it looked as if Bellamy would back up to try another path, but Octavia jumped out and climbed on the horse behind me.

  "Keep going." She said lowly to me, her face as stern as it had been earlier. Nodding, I urged the horse forward as we passed the vehicle and neared a hill.

  "Anyone hear about how it could be days?!" Jasper called out.

  "Stop!" Octavia tugged on my sleeve, and I pulled the reigns. "You hear that?" She asked.

  "It sounds like water." I replied while listening through the rain. Sliding off of the horse, I tied him to a tree before we climbed the hill.

  "Eyes sharp, they could be hostile!" Bellamy shouted as the others caught up on foot.

  "They're not hostile. Put the guns down!" Octavia told her brother once we reached the top of the hill. Hurrying along the river on the other side, we followed it to what looked to be a vast lake surrounded by rolling land.

  "Where's the village?" Jasper questioned. Octavia checked the journal in her hands and looked back up, seeing a piled formation of rocks along the bank.

  "No, it can't be...." She trailed off while going over to it. Following her, I didn't understand her expression since I didn't know what she had seen in the journal.

  "It isn't a village. It's just a bunch of rocks." Jasper popped off.

  "She's gone." Clarke said lowly as she looked around with her brows furrowed due to the daunting realization of what it meant if there was no Luna to claim the Heda title.

  "What do we do now?" Jasper questioned while looking at the blonde while Octavia went to the water's edge. The dark-haired girl fell to the ground, screaming into the foggy air in frustration. It echoed across the water, filling our surroundings with the sense of despair she felt.