Nearly 7 years has passed since the mountain had fallen. In that time, a lot has changed around Arkadia. There were new homes built around the wreckage, a greenhouse so that they could grow plants all year round, but the biggest change had come from the people living there. Lincoln had taught them to hunt without guns so that they didn’t scare all the animals in the area away, they had learnt to plant and grow crops, they had learnt how to survive on the ground and it had been hard.
They have an unspoken truce with the grounders, which consists of you leave us alone and we leave you alone. However, Octavia, Lincoln and Kane are permitted to go to Tondc once a month to trade for things that they can’t get for themselves. 2 years after the mountain a messenger had delivered word from Polis that Lincoln’s kill order had been removed, nobody knew what had changed Lexa’s mind they were just glad that she had.
In 7 years, a lot has changed undoubtedly, but one thing that hadn’t changed was that Clarke was still nowhere to be found. For the first year after she had left they had looked everywhere they could for her and not found a trace anywhere. Kane even asked Indra if she had heard anything about Clarke, but she told him she hadn’t. By now most people believed that she was dead. An omega in the wild could never cope, well according to most of the alphas in Arkadia, but Bellamy and Abby knew that Clarke is no ordinary omega. They both still hold out hope that she is still out there and that she will return one day.
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Today is Octavia’s favourite day of the month. She, Lincoln and Kane have just arrived at Tondc for their monthly trading trip. Even though some of the grounders still distrust her and throw glairs at her every chance that they get, she still feels more at home here than she ever has on the Arc or in Arkadia.
The trip is always bittersweet for Lincoln though as a lot of the people he grew up with still see him as a traitor. Some simply ignore his presence, whilst others look at him like they wish they could enact the kill order that had been place on his head. The truth is that he misses his people, he misses that games they play, the songs, the dancing, but most of all he misses the feeling of home.
Kane just sees the trip as a way to continue getting better relations with the grounders and he is still fascinated by grounder society.
After leading their horses to the stables for the day, the three set about their tasks. They trade fruit, that wouldn’t be possible to grow at this time of year if it wasn’t for the greenhouse, for furs for the fast-approaching winter.
They quickly realise that Tondc is a flurry of activity, even more so than usual. They were preparing for a celebration of some sort. After Lincoln asked one of the traders what the celebration is for, he is told that the commander had arrived that morning and that she had brought her mate who is now the Kwin of the coalition, and their two pup, the prince and princess, with her for the first time. They were having a celebration to welcome Heda and her family.
“I thought that the commander wasn’t allowed to mate. You told me that she is supposed to live her life alone.” Octavia says looking at Lincoln. She doesn’t understand what has changed, but it must be something important to change years of tradition. Maybe Lexa is trying to change things, first with removing Lincolns kill order, which is something nobody thought would happen, and now with gaining a family.
“She is only aloud to mate someone who is who is of equal rank to her, or the heir to one of the clans. The problem is that there is no one of equal rank to her and if she mated an heir then she would be accused of showing favouritism to that clan. I heard a rumour years ago, about Heda finding a mate and that there was a little prince and princess, but I believed that it was just a rumour.” He shrugged his shoulders “I guess I was wrong.” He is just as confuse a Octavia about this.
“I think we should finish up and head back. We don’t want to intrude on their celebration.” Kane tells them obviously not wanting to cause offence with the presence of outsiders at such a celebration and not entirely comfortable with having Octavia so close to the commander.
Octavia’s mind is running wild. She wants to know who has mated to Heda. Who would want to mate with an alpha that is incapable of love. What poor omega has been forced to mate with someone who cares for nothing other than herself and dominance over others. She knows that grounders treat omegas better than they were treated on the arc where they were basically treated as property, but surly this omega hasn’t mated of their own free will.
A voice snaps Octavia out of her thoughts “Alex, come here, it's time to get ready for tonight's celebrations” Even though the voice is speaking Trigedasleng she recognises it straight away. Clarke.
She spins around trying to find the owner of that voice and spots the back of head of braided golden hair. She bolts after the head, but loses it in the crowd of the market place. She tries to pick up on Clarke’s scent, but can’t find it. There is something there that smells like her, but there is something different about it so it couldn’t be her.
Kane and Lincoln catch up to her asking what happened. They are looking around for threats or for any sign of what made Octavia run away from like she did.
“Clarke, I saw Clarke, I’m sure it was her. I heard her voice, but I can’t find her scent anywhere.” Octavia blurts out still looking around the market place to see if she can spot Clarke again. “Octavia if you can’t find her scent it probably wasn’t her. It was probably just someone who just looked like her.” Kane tries to calm Octavia down. “Did you see her face?” He asks sceptically. Nobody has seen Clarke in years and he had spoken to Indra on several occasions about her, but she had always told him that she hadn’t seen her.
“No, just the back of her head, but I heard her voice. I’m sure it was her.” Octavia is getting annoyed by Kane not believing her, but she is so sure that it was Clarke it had to be. She couldn’t just be imagining her, she heard her voice and she would know her anywhere.
“OK, it’s getting late and we need to get back to Arkadia. We can talk about this when we get back there.” Kane tells her and starts walking back to the stables. Leaving Octavia, no chance to argue with him even though she really wants to.
Octavia takes one last look around, trying to spot the familiar locks of blond hair, but she can’t see her anywhere. She reluctantly follows Kane back to the horses, mounts up and rides out of Tondc. She decides that she will go and see Abby as soon as she gets back. Abby will let her come back to find Clarke she is sure of it.
