𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒪𝓃𝑒 - a Fanfiction of The 100

chapter eight

My eyes fly open and I sit up immediately, gasping. A horrible aching has taken over every inch of me and I groan loudly. Looking around, I see I'm back in the cave, my makeshift home. Specifically, my bed in said room. Tala steps in, her gaze bemused as soon as she catches my eye.

"First training session go well?" She sits on the bed, handing me water in a bottle, bread right after. I down the water, hoping it'll help my pounding headache. Oh, how I miss ibuprofen! I tear off a large bite of bread and chew quickly, swallowing and drinking more water.

Finally, I give her a look, something that must tell her how angry my body is with me. Tala's face changes from amusement to sympathy.

"I'm sorry." She says. "But at least you're on Lincoln's side, no matter how bad it's going to be to train. He's not someone you want as an enemy."

"Hell no." I agree. "The man abuses his friends, I can't imagine what he'd do to someone he hates. But... did he have to bruise the majority of my body?" Complaining, I give Tala puppy dog eyes, pulling my shirt up to show her my side. A massive, blackish-blue contuse had colored my sides while I slept, darker on my left, and even brushing it hurts like shit.

Tala takes a moment to look and closes her eyes briefly, giving me a frown.

"He's pushing you. As horrible as it may feel and as ugly as it certainly is, Lincoln sees something in you, something I barely saw when you had just crashed. It's growing on me, but for him, he knew from the start." The girl's intense brown eyes drill into mine. "Lincoln... he believes in you. You just need to trust him and believe in yourself, too."

I look at her, feeling a little bit of happiness that someone believes in me, but also feeling like shit. Deadpan, I speak.

"I crave death." Tala chuckles, shaking her head.

"You're weird, Cal." She says, the most normal thing I think I've ever heard her say.

"Why thank you." I reply, laughing along with her, then grimacing a second later as my side starts to burn. "Nope, not laughing again. That hurt like hell."

"Just get some rest." Tala cooes. "Tomorrow you'll feel better..." A pause, then a halfhearted, "probably."

"Thanks." I moan, slowly laying down again.

"No problem." She chuckles and exits.

Okay, so this is what training is. I think, trying in vain to fall back asleep despite the aching pains. Oh dear lord, I'm not ready for the next session.

It's been another week filled with more fight training, rarely any words spoken to Lincoln, more friendship built with Tala and only slightly less work on Trigedasleng than the week before. The only phrase I can seem to remember is 'jok of'... and it's not a very nice thing to say. I'm more exhausted than I've ever been or thought I could be.

Besides the first fight training session, this entire week I've been awakened by Tala early every morning, fed some sort of food that doesn't always look like food, sat for lessons with her, gone on a run with Lincoln that always ends with him winning, we eat a tiny little 'lunch' that's really just a glorified snack, then the sparring, ending every time with a knockout punch that sends me to tomorrow just in time for the wakeup.

It's got to be the beginning of the fourth week, I've pretty much lost track, when I wake on my own. My body feels slightly better than previous days, but I'm still so sore. Sore to the point that I almost want to cry whenever I move. That's a step above every other morning I've woken up, though.