A Peek Into the Past

I didn't get much sleep last night, the mountain man had given me a lot to think about. What was truly upsetting though, was that no matter how many different scenarios I came up with, I could see absolutely no way we would even be able to use any of the information. Besides the tunnel entrance, everything else we found out had to deal with the inside of the mountain. I thought about getting someone, maybe even myself. into the mountain by being captured by reapers. The problem with that plan though was that there were just too many different variables and unknowns to account for. There was just too great of a chance of it going bad and having no control over the situation.

Heda and I were given guest rooms in one of Ton DC's larger buildings. Laying in bed absolutely wide awake, I look towards the large window adjacent to my bed. It was early dawn, around the time I would usually get up. Sighing aloud, I stepped out of bed and got ready for the day. Clasping my Pauna cloak on, I walk over to Heda's room like I normally would. Thankfully, Her room was only situated a few doors down from my own. Knocking on it as it is my routine, I begin my wait. She is always awake by the time I knock on her door and I will never understand why it takes so long for her to get ready.

Eventually her door opens and we begin our walk through Ton DC. As we walk, I notice that Lexa has a nostalgic look upon her face. She was Anya's second before she became commander so I'm sure she has plenty of fond memories of this place. "Did you enjoy your time being Anya's second, Lexa? I ask, genuinely interested. Whenever she would return to Polis when we were children, it was always with amazing stories to tell.

"Yes, Anya is an amazing teacher and a good warrior. She has taught me many things during my time here." She answered happily. I nodded my head in understanding, more than once Lexa had praised Anya's leadership and fighting capability. I remember once when we were children Lexa had returned to Polis and had been telling everyone who would listen that she was now a true warrior, no more was she a little girl. According to Lexa, Anya had given a prisoner the option to fight for his freedom, in which his opponent was Lexa herself. Anya had made sure that Lexa could handle him before pitting them against each other of course, but still, it was a fully grown man against a little Lexa… and she won. She had received her first kill under Anya's leadership.

"Did you make any friends here?" I asked her curiously, by the soft smile that formed on her face I already knew the answer.

"Yes, well sort of. During training I would often get injured and seek healing. The healer was a man by the name of Nyko at the time. He was a very nice man and someone I would often come to when I needed advice." She said fondly, her smile growing wider.

"Well let's go see if Nyko is still around. I'm sure he has missed your constant injuries." I teased gently.

"You know, that is a good idea. Come, I believe his hut was this way." She said excitedly, suddenly turning on her heel and pulling a right face movement and started down the street.

Chuckling at her behavior, I quickly follow suit.

Walking near the outskirts of Ton DC, we start to approach a small hut with smoke coming out of the top. Once we reach the door, Lexa knocks firmly. After a mild amount of cursing in trigedasleng coming from the inside, the door opens and a large man with a tribal tattoo on both sides of his face along with a bushy beard appear. The man looked irritated that he was distracted from doing whatever it was that he was previously doing before he answered the door. However, upon recognizing who it was that was on his doorstep, a large grin replaced his scowl.

"Nyko, it's been a long time my friend." Lexa says with a large grin of her own.

"Aaah it's Little Heda. I knew you wouldn't forget about the best healer in Trikru." Nyko boasts loudly. I let out a small chuckle at Nyko's nickname for Lexa, apparently she didn't find the name near as wonderful as I did because she shot me a dirty look with a cute scowl on her face.

"Quite." Lexa says, with a roll of her eyes.

Nyko quickly ushered us inside and set about preparing some kind of herbal tea for us.

"You don't need to prepare anything for us, Nyko." She says politely.

"Nonsense, you are the Heda, and let's not forget about the famous Shield at your side." Nyko says jovially. I raised an eyebrow at his use of my title. I knew I was famous for my position next to the commander but hearing it always amazes me.

She shook her head at his words, knowing that she wouldn't be able to dissuade him from being a generous host. Once Nyko finished making the tea he brought it back to us and encouraged us to drink. Taking a sip I was astonished, it was the most delicious tea that I've ever had. They don't even have this blend at the tower.

The look I made must have been obvious because Nyko took the liberty to inform me about the tea. "It is a special blend that I came across, being a healer offers many opportunities when you know your way around flora." He explains happily.

"So, is this the young man that you wouldn't stop talking about when you were a young warrior?" Nyko asks Lexa teasingly. My ears perked up at this, looking over at Lexa to see what her reaction was, I was treated with a rare sight. Lexa was blushing.

"No." Lexa denied weakly, not meeting my eyes. Oh she wasn't going to get out of this, Nyko wouldn't let her escape that easily.

"Are you sure? His name was James wasn't it? Hey boy, what is your name? Nyko asks me, looking in my direction with a mischievous spark in his eye. Looking at Lexa again I see that she was looking at me with a look of panic across her face.

I decided to play along, it wasn't often I got to see Lexa embarrassed like this.

"My name is James." I inform Nyko, excited to see what he is going to reveal.

He laughed loudly at this new piece of information and Lexa looked like I just stole her kill.

"Little Heda, I thought that you said that he was the most handsome boy in the world? I should have known you were lying, no one is as handsome as I." Nyko chastised, flipping his long hair to emphasize his point.

Seeing this, I ended up choking on the tea I was drinking during his majestic action. Lexa and Nyko were both ignoring my sputtering, Lexa was too busy sending a death glare promising death by one thousand cuts at Nyko, and Nyko himself was laughing too hard at the look Lexa was giving him. Ignoring Lexa's silent death threat, Nyko pushed forward with new information. "At least you weren't lying about him being a great warrior, no weakling would be able to take down a Pauna. Is your goal still to be able to beat him in an all out spar again?" He added teasingly.

Having finally been able to get over my coughing fit, I nudged Lexa's shoulder with my own. "Yeah, Lexa, still wish you could beat me?" I baited, ignoring the way her glare shifted from Nyko to myself. We haven't had a real spar in awhile and I knew that was definitely still one of her goals. Lexa was very competitive and could never back down from a challenge by me.

"I can beat you." She said confidently, fire in her eyes. We stared each other down, both daring the other to back down.

Nyko took this opportunity to kick us out of his home so he could go back to whatever it was he was doing before we interrupted him. "Alright, Little Heda, Shield, it seems that you both have a score to settle. I believe the training area should be near empty at this time of the morning." He informed us helpfully.

After thanking him for his wonderful tea and amazing insight into Lexa's younger years, we left in the direction of the training area. When we arrived there, there were a few warriors but we wanted some privacy for our sparring session. Other than the nightblood and some guards, not many people have seen us spar. We didn't want potential enemies taking advantage of the opportunity to study our moves.

"Follow me, when I was Anya's second she had a private training area set up so we wouldn't be bothered." Lexa said excitedly. Following her around the back of the training pit, we came to a large nondescript wooden building. Entering it, I saw that it had a high roof with a lot of different training equipment set up against one side of the wall, and the building itself had no floor, meaning the ground was just compacted dirt from years of training.

"I hope you're ready for your swift defeat." Lexa gloated, walking over to where the training weapons were located.

"Oh I'm definitely ready for your swift defeat." I retorted with a smirk, following Lexa to the weapons rack.

We eventually decided on using a bo staff for our sparring session. It was a very good sparring weapon and we used them a lot back in Polis, so it was a weapon that we were very comfortable with. Standing across from one another in our individual defensive positions, we didn't make a sound. We were as still as statues, neither one of us daring to make the first move.

The tension between was, was so thick that you could feel it. I don't know who acted first, but all of the sudden we were rushing at each other. It was a flurry of accurately executed strikes and blocks. For every action that one of us produced, the other would retaliate with the perfect counter attack. If anyone were to look at first glance, they'd think we were evenly matched. However, if you were to look closer than the surface, you'd see the truth.

Lexa was slowly but surely losing ground. The grip on her staff was getting weaker and weaker with every block, and my strikes were getting stronger and stronger. Using my superior strength and experience with a polearm to my advantage, I started to gain the upper hand with increasing speed. Neither of us said a single word during our battle, we were far too focused for any kind of taunting.

With a particularly brutal downward swing I knocked Lexa's staff from her hands, but she wasn't done yet. Now that her range was dramatically decreased, she got into my personal space and disarmed me before throwing a vicious front elbow strike towards my jaw, which I barely avoided. Our spars had a reputation of getting out of hand, and more than once, one of us or both of us ended the spar with multiple broken bones.

Realizing I needed to create some distance so I could readjust, I threw a spinning heel kick in her direction. She had to jump back to avoid it which is exactly what I intended. Pressing forward, I kept her on the backfoot and made sure she couldn't steady herself. When I saw she was losing balance due to the constant back foot movement, I delivered a kick to her chest. Unable to dodge and with the only chance being to block, the momentum from my kick sent her to the ground. She didn't move to get up like I thought she would. In Fact she didn't make any movement at all.

Worried that I seriously hurt her, I quickly rushed over to her still form on the ground. Just as I was about to make contact with her to check her for injuries, I am kicked across the face by a surprise kick from Lexa herself. The next thing I knew, I was the recipient of a very painful series of punches which resulted in me being on the ground with Lexa's knees placed on either side of my waist.

"What the hell just happened…" I asked, completely confused.

"I believe I just won our spar." Lexa answered with a victorious smirk. I wasn't going to point out the fact that in a real battle I wouldn't check to make sure my enemy was alright.

Laughing a little at the turn of events, I couldn't help but notice how much I enjoyed the position we were in.

"You know, I believe we were in this position before…" I said suggestively, referring to the time where we almost kissed during a sparring session.

A suggestive smile formed on Lexa's face at the mention of the previous situation. "Oh yeah?" She whispered softly, leaning in.

Just as she was about to kiss me, I used my strength to my advantage once again. Thrusting my hips up and pushing her to the side, I reversed our positions. "Yeah…" I whispered just as softly, kissing her gently.

We didn't move positions for over an hour after that, choosing to instead just kiss on the dirt ground. I knew we would have to talk about our "relationship" soon, but until then, I'll take it for whatever it was and I wouldn't have it any other way.

All too soon, we were once again interrupted, but this time, it was by something that no one could have predicted.

Hearing an extremely loud roaring coming from outside, we quickly separated from each other and exited the building. We looked around for the loud noise, but upon realizing it came from above us, we looked up. What we saw reminded me of a place that I hadn't thought of in years...

Th Ark.