Blodreina

Beacons of Hope

Sage's POV

Ever since we've come back from the mountain things have been a lot different than expected. For one Clarke still hasn't come back and after a week or so we've given up on her returning so soon, we've even stopped the extra guard shifts from waiting for her at the gates at night. With few actual enemies remaining outside the walls there's really no need for all of them to stay up all night along with extra shifts. Especially with the added training that they're all going through ever since Licoln has been staying with us due to the commander's kill order. He's been perfecting their hand-to-hand combat skills since they'll easily be beaten by any and all grounders if they don't take the extra time to hone their skills. But that has led to another problem that specifically affects Octavia and I, we've been fighting with the man. The guard as a whole and leadership here desperately wants the man to show his allegiance to our people, at the added risk of him losing the support of his own people the moment the kill order is lifted. He's denied their requests to wear the guard's uniform so far but they won't give up and sooner or later he'll gladly accept the offer. Which is why we're both fighting with him in the first place. He knows how they treated us for years back up in space but he still seems to be okay with them, now that they've 'changed' or something like that. Their lies somehow overriding our long friendship and deep trust. Which is why if Octavia and I aren't training we're either back in our room or are outside the walls of the camp, staying as far away as humanly possible. Sometimes our friends will visit us or even ask us to come inside to help them with something but most of the time we refuse. Unless it's a scouting mission. Anything else to us is useless since we don't like how the camp is run so we don't want to participate in it. However the invitation to go look around more with our closest friends, who aren't mad at what we're doing, is an opportunity we'd never think of passing up.

Today we're going to scout Sector 7, a huge plot of land that shares many borders with the Ice Nation. That clan not being the most loyal to the commander and one that has been openly hostile towards anyone. Fully knowing that and my continued training sessions with the commander back in Polis is why they want us both there when they go scout that important sector. Lexa trusts Octavia and I to keep everyone in line and knows that we understand how to approach their warriors peacefully and if needed not so peacefully. What she doesn't understand is the tension within our own ranks but how could she all the way from Polis and with very limited information coming from me? There are just some things that the commander doesn't need to know since they don't pertain to her. Which is why she knows everything about Clarke and absolutely nothing about Jasper and his new drinking problem. If he was more influential she'd know but she probably doesn't even know his name if she even knew that he existed in the first place.

"What's taking them so long?" Refocusing on the world around me my feeling of annoyance for how long our friends are taking comes back to the surface. According to them they'd need not even an hour to repair their rover but by the looks of it it's been a lot longer than that. Hopefully they're just waiting for us since we didn't tell them we're taking our horses today. That being a new development we haven't told them. Just as I opened my mouth to tell her I'll be back, the door to the garage opens and reveals the rover slowly turning on thanks to the solar panels being exposed. Rushing over we stop in front of them with huge smiles on our faces when they look at us in awe and amazement. "Try and keep up Raven," we both say to the mechanic who rolls her eyes at us with a smile. Knowing exactly where we're going we don't even give her time to motion for us to lead the way and do so on our own, making her have to rush to catch up to us. The ride out of the camp is short but a lot different than it was a few weeks ago, everything being built up since then due to high morale and more people living here. There are new buildings, bigger farms, a bigger and better fence, and much more surrounding the roadway. The added improvements make it look a lot better than before which is nice but it still doesn't beat the woods. Even with our heightened presence within them making wide paths through the trees nothing else has really been touched thanks to us learning our lessons from our ancestors. That and the grounders showing us how easy it is to mainly live off of the land instead of manufacturing and industrializing almost everything. Most of these paths are wide enough for the rover to drive alongside us but most of them aren't and require them to stay behind so that they don't damage it more. But that doesn't mean Octavia and I aren't racing through the woods on our horses and so far we've been expertly riding and navigating every single trail. Our horses however have a different idea and are running fast enough to keep the rover behind them but that doesn't mean we aren't enjoying this any less. Honestly this makes it even more fun because lately all we've been doing is competing and just being able to enjoy ourselves is a very nice and welcomed change. Halfway to the clearing we both stop looking at the path ahead and instead look over at each other, fully trusting that we don't need to direct our horses anymore since we're in very familiar territory for them. Every once and a while sunlight will make its way through the trees and illuminate her face, making my own heat up at the sight in front of me. The same could be said about her which only makes our faces burn an even brighter red. Something that the others can see but thankfully can't tease us about due to all the noise. The next few minutes are like a blur due to how distracted we are until the trees disappear and we're suddenly out in the open of the vast clearing, all of the light now illuminating our entire bodies and easily distracting us even more. That is until the rover passes us for a moment or two and then comes to a quick and sudden stop, barely giving our horses time to slow down.

Jumping off to walk over to the vehicle we open the back door to see them all staring at the small monitor in the front of the rover. After four months of silence we're receiving a beacon from part of the Arc, more importantly what used to be the huge Farming Station. There has been nothing but silence from that homing beacon and now they're trying to make contact, which is suspicious and concerning. Either it's actually them or someone from Ice Nation found the beacon and unknowingly activated and turned it on. But the circumstances don't matter at all when there's a specific protocol that the chancellor has mapped out that we have to follow in these very scenarios. Which means that we can't go towards the beacon without telling her first. That or we don't follow her protocol. That being the immediate answer for us all, even when the beacon is located in a sector that is no longer open land and just happens belong to the Ice Nation. This being a huge risk for us all to take since we've been told by many people to not enter their land and to not provoke them at all. But with Monty's family and Miller's boyfriend being from that station we all know that this is a risk worth taking. Especially when their skills are desperately needed back at camp. After getting the much needed confirmation from the two men we both slam the door shut and quickly jump back onto our horses before they can get too far away. This time however we're knowingly following them into land that's extremely dangerous for us all to be in. Although just moments ago there was an open field blanketed in sunlight it doesn't take long for it to completely disappear. Now the cold weather we were expecting washes over us as the sun slowly dims behind the thick layers of clouds in the sky above us. Once these noticeable changes occurred Octavia and I took the lead again since we knew where the exact border was, that being another thick line of very tall trees. There is where we tie our horses up so we'd continue the search for the beacon on foot, mostly because our horses and rover would make too much noise and attract unnecessary attention from the hidden warriors. That also didn't seem to be a problem since the location of the beacon itself is just 200 meters away and quickly approaching. Making us all get  into the tight formation that Bellamy ordered us to fall back in once we all understood the rules of non-lethal engagement. Which is why once again Octavia and I are in the front since we can easily identify them and since we're are also more skilled fighters.

———————————————————————————
AN: with the holidays coming up I'll be slowing down updates to be able to catch up on all my stories for the new year.
Let's all just manifest that it's not another 2020...
I also have many more being worked on behind the scenes and hopefully taking a small break will help me get them published faster.