Scars to Your Beautiful (the 100 fanfic)

Chapter 19 - Enter Clarke

It was nerve wracking to walk between the lines of silent Grounders as I made my way up to the Commander's Tent. I had to keep myself from turning back around and hiding behind the fence. Reminding myself that there was more at stake than just preventing a war over Finn. Images of what the Mountain Men did to the Grounders flashed in my mind. The knowledge that I had left forty-seven of my people inside, kept me placing one foot in front of the other. I had made a promise to them and to Anya that I would get our people out. It was a promise that I needed to see fulfilled.

I reached the Commander's tent and a large man stepped in front of me, stopping me from entering.

I glanced up at him, trying to hide the fear I felt coursing through my veins. I cleared my throat and said, "I wish to speak with your Commander."

A female voice from inside spoke but it was in their language. I didn't understand the words spoken but the man did.

He stepped aside to allow me to pass, but before I did, he said, "If you so much as look at her the wrong way, I will slit your throat."

I glanced up at him and saw the threat to be true and hid a shudder that threatened to buckle my knees. I took a deep breath and entered the tent, the man following closely behind me. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't quite it. All eyes had turned to me as I stepped through, making me stop a few feet from the interest. I was being openly glared at by the majority of those inside except for two of them. The woman sitting on a throne-like chair barely registered my appearance. Rather, she seemed more interested in spinning a dagger on the arm of the chair. The other woman that caught my glance was looking at me curiously. She was only dressed in pants and a bra of some kind, blood running down her side from a wound that she was stitching up. There was something familiar about her. My eyes widened in surprise as I recognized her face tattoo. She had been shot by Finn at the village, nearly impaling him with a spear if Murphy hadn't tackled him to the ground. She had been wrestled to the ground as she tried to come after him and knocked out before being carried away. I closed my eyes briefly at the memory and I heard a soft snort of derision coming from her direction.

Looking at her again, she had returned her attention to her wound and was resuming her stitching. I watched silently as she didn't flinch or make a sound. A small part of my brain recognized it as an intimidation tactic, but it was still shocking to witness. I wondered if she had used a numbing agent to be able to do it, but the woman sitting on the throne drew my attention once more.

Finally speaking, the woman on the throne said, "You're the one who burned three hundred of my warriors alive."

I looked at her and unwaveringly replied, "You're the one who sent them there to kill us."

The twirling of her dagger stopped as she glanced up at me and I was taken aback by the striking shade of green of her eyes and it took me a moment to remember how to breathe, but I waited her out.

"Do you have an answer for me. Clarke of the Sky People?"

The tension in the room became heavier and the only movement came from the woman stitching herself.

I stepped closer and said, "I've come to make you an offer."

"This is not a negotiation."

"Let me kill her and get this over with," the dark-skinned woman growled in their language, her hand gripping the hilt of her sword tightly making no mistake that she was threatening me.

Ignoring the threat, I said, "I can help you beat the Mountain Men."

There was a scoff from the woman at the table and she spoke, her voice hoarse, "It is impossible to defeat them. You lie."