Work Text:
This, is the story of how I died. Don’t worry this is actually a very fun story, well mostly. And, truth is, it isn’t even mine. This is the story of a girl named Clarke, and it starts with the sun.
Now, once upon a time a single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens, and from this small drop became a magic golden flower; it had the ability to heal the sick and injured.
Centuries passed and a hop, skip, and a boat ride away, grew a Kingdom ruled by a beloved King and Queen. The Queen, well she was about to have a baby, but she got sick, really sick. She was running out of time and that’s when people usually start to look for a miracle, or in this case, a magic golden flower. So the King and Queen sent their most trusted knights in search of this magic flower. But you see, an old women, Mother Griffin had found the flower long ago and has been hoarding it’s power to keep herself young for hundreds of years. To the kingdoms fortune Mother Griffin had left it unguarded, and the search party found it, and brought it back to the Kingdom; healing the Queen. Thus a princess with beautiful golden hair was born. They named her, Clarke. To celebrate her birth the King and Queen lit a beautiful lantern and sent it into the sky, and for that one moment everything was perfect.
And then that moment ended.
Griffin broke into the castle, stole the child, and just like that.
Gone.
The Kingdom searched far and wide but, they could not find their princess. For deep within the forest in a hidden tower, Griffin raised the child as her own. The centuries old woman had found her new magic flower but, this time, she was determined to keep it hidden.
“Why can’t I go outside?” Clarke had asked.
“Because the outside world is an awful place, filled with horrible, selfish people. You must stay here, where you’re safe. Do you understand, Clarke?”
“Yes, mommy”
But the walls of that tower could not hide everything. Each year on her birthday, the King and Queen would release thousands of lanterns into the sky in hopes that one day, their lost princess would return.
The sun shone onto the stone of the tower, a beautiful sight to someone who wasn’t almost approaching her 18th year in said tower. To say Clarke Griffin was bored, would be a supreme understatement. At least she had Monty, a bright green animated chameleon who seemed to somehow understand her when she was talking. Clarke would admit to the fact that she has gone slightly crazy enough to understand the amphibian’s gestures back. They were best friends, because who else did Clarke have to talk to when her mother was off somewhere that she wasn’t allowed to be?
Monty and Clarke were currently on round 22 out of 43 of hide and seek, Monty obviously winning. He was a chameleon, he had a distinct advantage and she would always remind him of it. But Monty was tiring of the game and glared up at the blonde girl when she suggested they go again “Oh yeah?” Clarke said, leaning on the sill of the window they were currently sitting on “Well what do you want to do?” She said to the chameleon sarcastically. The chameleon's face lit up with an excited smile enthusiastically pointing out the window, suggesting they leave the tower, the smile never leaving his face. “Yeah, I don’t think so.” Clarke said, the smile falling from the amphibians face, she pulled Monty into her lap and looked around the tower she has occupied for so long. The curve of the staircase leading to her room, the large fireplace tucked into the side, the long curtained stoned sill. It was all, the same. “I like it in here, and so do you.” Monty stuck his tongue out at the blonde haired girl, clearly annoyed “Oh come on, it’s not so bad in there.” Clarke said, not completely convincingly, but she stepped back and away from the window anyway. Running back inside to find something to do.
Clarke couldn’t hide the fact that she had fallen into a routine that she couldn’t continue to do without going insane. Every morning she was up at 7o’clock, on the dot, then she would start on her chores: sweep the floor, do laundry, and clean her room. She’s walked this same stone floor every day of her life, it was safe, familiar. But how many times can you repeat without feeling trapped? She’s gotten to the point where she’s read every book in the tower more than 5 times, she has no more space to paint on the walls, she’s self taught herself how to play guitar, knit and cook. Clarke has gotten so good at candle making that it actually scares her a bit. The only thing that’s actually time consuming nowadays is brushing her hair, which has gotten so long from uncut that it’s an astronomical feat to keep it tame.
But tomorrow, oh tomorrow, is something Clarke has been looking toward to since well, last year; when the lights in the sky float through the air like a barrage of shooting stars, and oh yeah, it’s her 18th birthday, there’s that too. Now that she’s older, Clarke’s hoping, her mother might just let her go see them.
Lexa had scaled many rooftops before, there was a special art to it really: Watch your footing, always have a plan, and keep moving. Lexa was just that kind of girl, a girl with a goal and a future of happy solitude and riches that await her; If she can get this job done, of course. She had no doubt in her mind that she would, because that’s just the kind of girl she is; Confident. This morning, this gorgeous morning, on top of the red speckled roofs of the Kingdom was just too good to not take a moment to appreciate it. The castle rose up in the distance like a glittering masterpiece overlooking the common rabble of a sleepy awakening Kingdom. Lexa took a deep breath, taking a wide stance, hands on her hips to gaze over this dream deferred.
“It’s decided, guys.” She says, looking around, an easy smile settling on her face. “I want a castle.”
The break in the silence of their rooftop advance makes her ‘acquaintances’, The Stabbington Brothers, skid to a stop a rooftop ahead of Lexa.
The Stabbington Brothers were, as their name might suggest, a pair of burly, cut throat men that don’t play well with others. There are two of them, Finn and Murphy, both brown haired and scary looking. One of them has an eye-patch over his left eye but, honestly Lexa has never taken the time to learn which one has it.
“Come on, Woods.” One of them, she decides is Finn, beckons to her with a snarl and death in his eyes. Their teaming up with the notorious Lexa Woods was not the most preferable situation, but they could admit they were not smart enough to plan a heist like this. So they begrudgingly accepted their role as the muscle of the team to get their big pay day. It didn’t mean they had to like it though.
“When we finish this job you can buy your own castle. Move your ass.” Murphy spits. Lexa doesn’t appreciate the bite behind that sentence, but she lets it slide. Unpleasant is the main adjective Lexa would use to describe the man. Not to his face of course, or else she would become very aware of the ‘stabbing’ aspect of their name, and really, it’d be a shame to scar her gorgeous face.
“Alright, alright,” the girl says, moving quickly to the next rooftop. “Let’s go steal a crown.”
Clarke was excited, today was the day. She was going to ask her. She heard a voice call her name in a sing song tone outside. An excited gasp escapes her lips as she rushes to the window, bare feet slapping against the stone floor, to throw her hair down for her mother to climb. Honestly, it hurts, why doesn’t the woman understand that? And she has the audacity to reprimand her for the speed at which she raises her. But Clarke’s excitement over the outcome of the conversation she’s about to have pushes all her anger aside when her mother reaches the window.
“Hello, Clarke!” Her mother says with grandeur in her voice, as she pats the girl on the head and starts the walk to the mirror on the other side of the room.
“Hi, mom.” Clarke starts nervously, fiddling with her fingers as she walks towards her mother. The blonde haired girl suddenly feels very anxious. Her footsteps are too loud, the sunlight filtering in through the window is too bright. But she pushes that all down, steeling her nerves. This was her one shot, and Clarke was not going to let her own doubts stop her. She picks up the pace, coming to stand directly next to her mother. “As you may know, tomorrow is a very big day-” but Clarke is cut off when Griffin grabs her lightly by the arm and tugs her in front of the mirror with her.
“Now Clarke, look in the mirror. What do you see?” She gives Clarke no pause to respond and continues on. “I see a strong, confident, beautiful young woman.” The beginnings of a smile start on Clarke’s face, not used to praise from her Mother. But it quickly falls from her face when she finishes the sentence. “Oh! And you’re there too!” Griffin laughs and tells Clarke not to take everything so seriously. Trying her best to ignore her mother’s quips, Clarke tries to start her hopeful question again. Only to be cut off, again, with her mother asking Clarke to sing for her. She bites back an annoyed sigh and rushes to grab the old stool and brush. And Clarke sings, but at an impossibly fast pace. After getting reprimanded for the quickness, Clarke launches back into her question.
“So as you know, tomorrow is my birthday.” She starts cautiously.
“No it’s not,” Griffin dismisses her. “I clearly remember it being last year.”
Clarke cringes, this was not going well. But she puts on her best smile to try to convince her mother. “That’s the funny thing about birthdays.. they’re kind of an annual thing.” When she doesn’t gets no response from her ‘funny’ quip, the girl sighs, sitting down on the stool in front of her mother. “Mom, i’m turning 18 this year and the thing I really want is… well the thing I've wanted for the past couple birthdays is-”
And she’s cut off again! Seriously the nerve of this woman.
“Clarke! What have I told you about the mumbling? It’s very annoying.” Griffin watches the young girl’s face fall and speaks again. “Oh i’m just kidding! I love you! I love you so much, flower.” The blonde haired girl is disheartened, but she sees Monty in the corner urging her on and she finds a surge of courage come through her. Clarke stands, following after her retreating mother.
“I want to see the floating lights!” Clarke finally yells hopefully to her mother. Her mother pauses, obviously perturbed.
“You mean the stars, Clarke?” Griffin says, blowing off the request like it’s nothing.
“No!” Clarke yells enthusiastically back. “The floating lights that happen every year on my birthday! Please mom! I want to see them!” The girl continues, impassionately moving over to a cord that unveils a chart of stars on the ceiling. “See, I’ve charted stars and they’re always constant. But these? These only happen on my birthday. And I can’t help but feel like… they’re meant for me. It’s my only wish please!”
Clarke continues begging, this is the only thing she’s ever wanted this bad. The lights are so important to her. They’ve been there everyday on her birthday without a doubt and she needs to see them up close with her own eyes. But Clarke’s day dreaming about the lights is cut short. By a condescending laugh from her mother.
“You want to go outside, Clarke?”
And suddenly Clarke is pulled into a conversation she’s heard way too many times. Mother knows best. The world is a dangerous place and people are awful and she shouldn’t go outside. And before Clarke knows what’s going on, she’s being hugged by Griffin who’s looking down at her and says
“Clarke, don’t ever ask to leave this tower again.”
“Yes mother.”
Then Griffin is sliding down Clarke's hair, promising to be back soon and disappearing into the thick of the forest that surrounded the tower. Clarke watched her go, wishing nothing more than to be the one leaving instead.
Not to get into too many details but, the stealing of the crown bit? Yeah it didn’t go so well. It was mainly Lexa’s fault because while descending through the skylight to grab the crown, she just couldn’t help that, when an unknowing guard sneezed, she asked, “Hay fever?” in a concerned voice. That DID give away her position to the guards but really, what kind of person are you if you’re not polite? Damn her good manners. In response to being a good person, she now has a shit load of palace guards chasing her down, like a dog after a bone. Really, not the most agreeable situation for her, but Lexa is most known for, well first off, her rugged beauty which she will always begrudgingly admit to with a knowing smile and fix of her collar, but also for her quick feet. So a daring chase through the woods was nothing challenging for her.
Lexa had gotten a good clip ahead of the guards when the girl passed a tree. A tree holding a wanted poster for yours truly. Lexa, not even winded, stops dead in her tracks, staring the offending paper down, hoping to catch it on fire with her glare. The Stabbington Brothers come bursting through the tree line, heaving in exhaustion from the run, satchel containing the crown bouncing against Murphy’s leg.
“What?” Finn gasped, “Why did we stop?” He was happy for the small break in their sprint, but not so happy about the incoming guards getting one step closer to them being put in the guillotine.
“This!” Lexa yells in frustration, tearing the poster down from the tree roughly and spinning on her heel to face the brothers. She holds the poster up to her head, a sad look coming across her face. “They just can’t get my nose right!” Lexa sighs, bringing the paper down to stare at it glumly. “I honestly think they’re doing it on purpose.”
The paper is suddenly snatched out of grip and shoved into the satchel by Murphy accompanied with an angry yell of “We don’t have time for this!”
The thundering of horses hooves and the screamed orders of the Palace Guard could now be heard in the distance. “There they are!” One of them yelled, pointing out the thieves location.
“Shit! What are you guys doing standing around? Let’s go!” Lexa yells, sprinting off further into the forest.
“Don’t put this on us, Woods!” Finn yells after her, Murphy just grunts angrily and pushes his brother to chase after the annoying girl.
Greens and browns blurred by Lexa as she gave chase from the guards, The Stabbington Brothers bumbling close behind. The woods were where she called home, she could run through a forest all day and never feel out of place. It calmed her like nothing else could. Well, it usually could. Today, not so much with the whole high speed chase thing going on. She could hear Indra, the Captain of the guard yelling orders loudly to her second, Octavia, who acknowledged them with gusto.
Yes, Lexa had become acutely aware of certain aspects of the guard while sneaking around or being chased. Or for personal other reasons that she has soundly put behind her.
Indra, the captain of the guard was a dark skinned, dark haired intense kind of woman. Her armor always shined to absolute perfection, accompanied with a hard look in her eyes at all times. Honestly, Lexa has never seen the woman smile once and isn’t absolutely sure the scary woman has the ability. Recently, she’s taken a student under her wing. Lexa has heard her named yelled enough to know it by heart, Octavia. An excitable, fair skinned woman, with dark brown hair and an extremely determined glint in her eyes. This woman would follow anything Indra tells her, probably to a fault. She’s very eager to prove herself, and Lexa actually admires her ability to get back up every time she gets knocked down. But she has a feeling she won’t ever tell that to the girl who is trying to have her hanged.
Now back to the whole, chase to the death. They might have taken a few wrong turns and have ended up horribly trapped in a dead end. Well, not exactly a dead end but, the only way out is to make a human ladder to reach the top of the rock wall they are trapped against.
Lexa, being the smallest of the three convinces the brothers to let her climb up first. Justifying that they have the crown, so she really has to pull them up afterwards if she wants her money. They barely accept, a sneer coming to Murphys lips as he threatens the girl to follow through on the plan. Lexa gives them her most convincing smile and they allow her to scramble up their unsuspecting shoulders.
Really, they should have seen this coming but, the Stabbington Brothers are in fact not known for being the brightest torch in the cave, which works to Lexa’s selfish advantage. So when she safely makes it on top of the rock wall to freedom, she looks down to Finn, who’s holding his hand out to let her pull him up. A toothy smile makes its way across Lexas face. “Well boys,” She says, holding up the stolen satchel containing the crown to the brothers disbelief. “It’s been fun!” Lexa sprints to freedom, a laugh on her lips and the threats of the brothers on her back.
“WE’LL GET YOU FOR THIS, WOODS!” But the girl just laughs again, the sound of the guards catching up to the brothers being her own personal symphony.
“Octavia!” Indra yells, a fierce look on her face as she watches the retreating back of Lexa Woods. The eager girl appears at the stoic womans side almost instantly. “Captain!” She yells, a salute on her forehead. “Follow Woods! I’m going to take these two into custody. Make sure she doesn’t get away! I’m counting on you!” Indra looks down at her second to find Octavia has broken her serious demeanor to smile happily at her first. “Octavia! Now!” The smile stays on the girl’s face, “Yes Ma'am!” as she goes running off in the direction of the thief. “What am I going to do with her…” The captain says to herself, directing the guards to shuffle the captured brothers back to the castle.
Octavia knew she could do this. She’s been training for this damnit! Lexa had slowed down her fast pace just a bit, thinking she was in the clear, which gave Octavia the perfect opportunity to catch up to the notorious thief. Indra has been drilling her for months on stealth and capture methods. Anything and everything a good Captain of the Guard would need. But Octavia could maybe admit she got a bit...excited, and maybe tackling Lexa to the ground while screaming at the top of her lungs was not the best technique to use….
“What the fu-!” Lexa yells, as a mass of brown hair throws her to the ground, and now she is face down on the ground and someone is sitting on her back, trying to tie her hands together. Correction, very badly trying to tie her hands together. She can hear a feminine voice yelling above her,
“Lexa Woods! By the authority of the Palace Guard, I place you under arre-” Octavia couldn’t finish that sentence because she was suddenly bucked off of the thief's back, and landing rather roughly on her ass.
Octavia had heard of Lexa Woods strength but didn’t truly believe it until now. By the time she looks back up, Woods is already sprinting away throwing a, “Better luck next time, Blake!” over her shoulder. Octavia was caught for a second, getting an odd sense of deja vu, but pushing it off to shove back to her feet and take off after Woods. She would not fail on her first mission from Indra. Woods was going down.
Lexa felt a hand tug at her satchel. Jesus Christ, this chick would not give up. The dark haired girl was keeping pace with her now, hand clutching on the bag, an annoying look of determination in her eyes. Lexa tugged back, dislodging the hand, but unfortunately not the girl. With a sigh of exasperation, Lexa dead stopped. There was a cliff coming up any way so she decided this confrontation needed to happen now. Octavia stumbled to a stop a few paces ahead of the thief, surprised at the sudden halt in motion.
“Alright, so here’s how this is gonna go.” Lexa started, rambling off how she was going to get away from Octavia in some flashy style so she might as well give up now. But Octavia wasn’t paying attention at this point. Now that Octavia had a moment to look over the girl in front of her, she understood her deja vu moment from earlier. While Lexa spoke, using her hands to embellish her points, Octavia noticed the braids running through the elder girls hair. She slowly raises her hand to her own hair, braided in a similar fashion but obviously not as skilled as Lexa’s. Octavia slowly approached Lexa, who, caught up in explaining her own bravado, failed to notice their close proximity. She did notice, however, when Octavia punched her straight in the face with a yell of “You bitch!”