Afternoon.
''Wait—did you seriously go all the way from Sangedakru t-to go here? To Shallow Valley?!'' Madi said incredelously, staring at Carl in disbelief.
Carl chuckled. ''Yes, I did.'' he stated, taking in Madi's disbelieving expression. ''Rather the arduous journey, don't you think? I'm not even sure if I want to remember it now.'' he admitted.
''How-why were you even in Sangedakru in first place?! I didn't even know Sangedakru had Nightbloods! Wait, what Kru were you from again!?'' Madi exclaimed, disbelief still apparent in her features, as Carl averted his eyes away from her expression at the mention of Kru. But it had went unnoticed in Madi's eyes. ''A-and how'd you go all the way here?! Without food a-and or water? And sick?'' she asked, piping her curiosity.
Carl still chuckled at this, but the corners of his smile had dropped, and he shook his head. ''That's a long story, Madi,'' he said as he stretched his back, lifting his head so Madi couldn't see his slight frown, at the memories that had bombarded his mind. ''I'm not sure if I can tell you that.''
''Aw, c'mon!'' Madi said in excitement, as Carl's expression went unnoticed. ''I'll go first—I'll tell you mine! And you'll tell me yours later! The entire thing!''
''That—that's quite alright, Madi,'' Carl said, but at the immediate droop of Madi's expression, he had felt slightly terrible, similar to how he felt when the perked-up Madi had asked if they could share survival stories and no was on the tip of his tongue, and so he tried again: ''How-how about I hear yours, and maybe you can hear mine later?''
By later, I mean never. But Madi's excitement was far too visible for Carl to ignore, so he stifled a chuckle, and nodded to the Nightblood. ''Would you like to begin?''
...
391 days since Praimfaya (331 days since Madi).
Carl was getting better, Madi could tell.
For starters, he stopped coughing. And he grew a lot more energetic than when Madi first found him—at least, energetic enough to start hunting and gathering.
It had been around two weeks since Madi had first found Carl. Ever since, she had visited him weekly, sometimes coming for surprise visits whenever she was bored and whenever Clarke and Lexa had gone all... yearning over each other, side-eyeing and touching each other when they thought Madi didn't notice, and made a lot of seemingly-unrelated remarks that had definitely didn't go over Madi's head.
(After all, she was raised in Polis, and then Louwoda Kilion Kru, where everyone liked to be as obvious as possible—and most especially, Madi had her parents to thank for her discretion. Which was a memory she really wished would just go away.)
So here she was now, escaping one of those aforementioned... sessions, giving Clarke and Lexa some alone time while she picked berries with Carl.
''Can you tell me any stories?'' Madi asked eagerly, while they were picking berries. Berries were usually scarce; however, they seemed prominent where Carl lived, northeast of Shallow Valley. She would have to remember that if their food ever became too scarce. However, the task of picking berries were boring. Madi had gotten over the joy of it a long time ago, and was now impatiently waiting for Carl to catch up.
''Huh. Stories...'' Carl murmured. He was still picking berries, but his eyes seemed faraway. And then he was jolted back; his eyes filled with something she hadn't seen on there before and stared at Madi with an intensity that almost made her wince.
''Nevermind.'' Madi mumbled, as she looked away from Carl and took a few steps back. But Carl shook his head vehemently, looked at Madi with... something, and put the berries down.
