CHAPTER TWO - FRIEND OR FOE?
( FEBRUARY 15th, 2150 - VILLAGE OF NADAL, GLOWING FOREST )

PHOENIX DRAGGED THE FALLEN TOWARDS THE FUNERAL PYRE BE BURNED.

   The young warrior was not so keen on helping another when she knew that danger could possibly be lingering further up into the forest. It became a regular thing for her to never stay in one spot for too long, and building a pyre to honor the dead was becoming to time consuming. Not to mention that once they had lit it on fire, the smoke coming from it could be seen miles away.

  Phoenix found herself frequently looking over her shoulder, her eyes falling onto the Trishanakru warrior with distrust in her eyes. What if he was one of the unlucky ones to fall to this mysterious technology? She did witness him torturing his family, then killing them in cold blood. 

  After she had time to think about it, she did see a warrior whom, she assumed was a follower of The Lady In Red, appear from the treeline with only one thing on his mind and that was killing the distraught Trishanakru warrior. She had been studying these strange people for more than three months, and from what she had learned was that they didn't kill their soldiers.

 But the curiousness had been eating the young warrior alive since she saw the murderous scene before her, and before Phoenix could stop herself, the question slipped out. "You were one of the confused, weren't you?"

  The Trishanakru warrior looked up with clouded eyes, full of hurt and a hint of distrust for the girl. She might have been there to help him, but he still didn't trust her completely. "What makes you think that?" 

 Phoenix rolled her eyes when he didn't bother to answer her question, instead he decided to totally dodge it with a question of his own. "I've been studying these.. inflicted for four months, and you just killed your family in cold blood."

  The warrior, whom she still never learned his name, blinked while looking towards his sheep pen. To her, it was obvious that he was guilty for taking the small device that was almost forced down her throat at one point. Phoenix's eyes turned into slits, looking at him with a judgemental expression. She would have never willingly took the chip, no matter what temptations they feed her. He was weak.

 Upon seeing her stare, he then questioned her with a blank expression. "Are you going to kill me?"  

Phoenix glanced at him, her eyes narrowing down. "Depends, are you going to attempt to kill me?" she looked down at the knife hooked to his belt. "because if I see you reach for your knife, mine would be in your skull before you even had the time to unsheathe yours."

  He looked back at her, a tiny glint of amusement gathering in his iris's as she threatened him. "You don't like strangers, do you?"  He should have been offended that she had threatened her, or even felt angry, but for some reason, he did not. He was more intrigued than any other reasonable feeling.

"If your looking for hospitality, you had it here before you destroyed it." she snapped back at him. "If I knew that all you were going to do is open your mouth, I would have turned around on my horse. I should have let that man kill you."

He looked back at her with another blank expression, and Phoenix rolled her eyes out of annoyance. He was so hard to read half of the time. "Why did you stop here then?"

 "It was the last village near the Trikru border." She didn't know why she was telling him why she had stopped her in the first place. "I've been going to villages in hopes that people would be occupying it but I got nothing― not until you."

   He nodded with understanding, this was just one of her stops. He wondered if she hadn't come along, he might have been dead. Phoenix watched him as he got the bodies on top of the pyre, hope in her eyes that maybe, just maybe, he was all out of questions. The quicker she was out of this exposure, the better. She still didn't know if The Red Lady was still out there, or maybe she was standing in front of her.

 "I'm Ilian by the way," he mentioned while looking back at her. 

 "I really don't care." 

  Soon, her brown eyes were a mirror for the reflecting orange flames dancing around within her Iris's. Her gaze flickered towards the man, whose name she had learned was Ilian, his shoulders were hunched forward, a frown on his face as he watched his family's soul go onto the next journey. 

 Her brown eyes flickered back to the fire, flames licked the blue sky. He heard her take a sharp inhale before muttering under her breath. "Yu gonplei ste odon." she then met his eyes, full of sorrow and emptiness. 

 "Thank you." he managed to shoot her a smile in her direction, but she could tell it was forced. There was no happiness in this situation. Phoenix's eyes bored back into his before she exhaled and his eyes quickly left her fame and back to the funeral pyre. It was when Phoenix then realized that he had his hand in his pocket, his hand full of moment and her eyes went red with suspicion. 

 Phoenix's eyes went down to the green earth, her brown eyes stopping onto a large stone quickly. Before the Trishanakru knew what was happening behind him, a large stone hit the back of his head and all he saw was darkness. 

 Phoenix bent down to grab whatever was in his pocket, fishing out a piece of technology that looked exactly like the one that the confused had, not knowing that The City of Light was already shut down. Her eyes flickered back on to his body with a victorious smirk on her features. 

  "Well would you look at that." Phoenix mused as she held the techology towards the sun, her eyes seeing through the chip, before she tucked it inside her pocket with the other one she collected off of the other body she left back in her cave.

 Looking down at the fallen Trishanakru warrior, Phoenix took this opportunity to search the small house and the barn. Her hand falling onto the hilt of her twin dagger, resting in it's holder strapped to her thigh. Every step was calculated to not make a sound, incase this Ilian was holding up more of the inflicted inside. 

 Her brown eyes studying every nook and cranny inside the house, her hands grabbing some of the herbs that were sitting on the table. When she confirmed that the house was empty, she made way for the exit. 

 Her eyes narrowed down at the spot where she swore she left his body, but now all that she could see was the imprint his body did to the wet grass. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion until she felt herself fly over Ilian's shoulder, her body colliding with the hard, wet ground.

 "The farm boy does know how to fight." she pointed out, looking back up at him with a competitive look on her face, her eyes full of wonder before she twisted her body and the heel of her boot colided with the back of his knee. 

 Ilian found that he was on the receiving end of her knife, the blade pressed against his Adam's apple as his shoulder was painfully twisted backwards, forcing himself onto his knees. 

 "How many are you left?" she hissed. 

 "Of my clan? I don't know." Phoenix huffed out of annoyance and twisted his arm back a bit more, letting the warrior below her let out a pained cry. "―OKAY! Okay!" 

 Phoenix gritted her teeth before leaning forward, her lips against his ear. "Try me again, and I will have no problem slitting your throat." she then dug her knee into his spine which made Ilian wince. "Let's try this again, shall we? How many?"

 "I don't know. I just remember waking up with a knife towards my own throat and the bodies of my family laying before me." Ilian managed to cough out, and instantly with the information given to her, her hold loosened just a tiny bit. "The Lady, she left. Something about Clarke."

 Phoenix furrowed her eyebrows, "Clarke?" she questioned while walking to be in front of him. "She's the leader of the sky people, the same people who had me captured by the Mountain Men." Phoenix muttered under her breath, her words were only meant for her but Ilian heard them.

Ilian looked up at her, his eyes narrowing up at the little triangle tattoo located on the center of her forehead, right below her hairline. "You were captured?"

She looked down at him, her eyes narrowing into slits. "I'm the one asking the questions here." she told him while squatting to his level. "You don't remember anything?"

 Ilian took a moment to think about it whether he was actually thinking or just stalling time, Phoenix waited with her lips pursed. Ilian then shrugged his shoulders which made the girl huff with annoyance, lifting herself from her position infront of him. "Useless." she snapped under her breath before sticking her two fingers in her mouth and blowing, a high pitched whistle coming from her lips.

 Ilian looked towards the tree-line where a beautiful caramel brown horse dressed in cloth and armor trotted towards the farm land. He glanced at Phoenix's face, looking at the sheer adoration she had for her companion. He caught himself staring when the horse slowed it's pace, his long nose resting against his owner's palm. 

 "I hope you didn't miss me too much, girl." Phoenix cooed towards her companion, the same horse that Commander Lexa had gifted her. She grabbed the black reins and lifted herself onto her horse, looking down at Ilian who was still in his kneeling position. 

  "You do realize that you could of picked up and ran, or are you as stupid as you look?" She questioned him, her perfect eyebrow raising. 

 Ilian looked down at his hands and then awkwardly stood back up, the pounding in his head had subsided from the impact of the rock she had hit him with, but he had faced far worse pain. "Where are you going?"

 "Back to Polis." She told him. "I need to get back to my Commander."

Ilian looked back at her with confusion. The only Commander in Polis was Ontari, since Lexa had been murdered. She didn't look to be from Azgeda, but she might have been a spy.

"You're with Azgeda?" he hissed towards her, now having less respect for her.  

Phoenix looked insulted as the words fell from his lips. She would never be associated with the warrior's from the north, not after what they did to her father. "You insult me. Trikru would never bow to those frozen beasts they call warriors."  She hissed in disgust. "I'll kill the Ice King himself, over and over if I could."

 Ilian held his hands up in defense at the hostile tone she used when speaking about the Ice Nation. "I didn't mean to put it like that." He had heard the tales about the harsh war that had been stretched throughout the years with the Tree People and Ice Nation. 

  The Battle of Tawa was one of the largest that the clans had ever seen, and it was one that got a lot of good warriors killed, some of Phoenix's extended family included. Trikru warriors had pushed the ruthless Ice Nation back to surrender to the Commander, concluding to a peace treaty where Heda Lexa had banished the Queen's son. 

  Before Phoenix got captured by The Mountain Men, she remembered meeting Queen Nia in an open field after Costia's head had been delivered to Commander Lexa's bed. It was exactly two weeks after she had ascended, and where she was sent out to investigate the borders of Azgeda by her War Chief. She could remember the power hungry stare that the Ice Queen gave her before they pulled their warriors back into Azgeda territory after a tough battle, like a dog with it's tail between it's legs. 

Thirty Four hard years at war with the Ice Nation, and it seemed that by the sound of Phoenix's anger towards the warriors, that the war wounds were still fresh.

  While Phoenix gripped the reins of her horse, she patted it's belly with her boots to make Steltrona walk forwards, irritation had started to seep through her expression, or maybe that was permanent. Ilian didn't really know. He hadn't seen her truly smile since he had met her on unwanted circumstances, it made him truly wonder of how such a beautiful human being could be so unhappy all the time.

 "you implied it. That's good enough reason to be insulted." Phoenix snapped back and turned her brown horse around, walking towards the direction of Polis. 

 Ilian watched her statue get further and further away before he thought about the fact that he was pretty much deserted on his own land. Without a horse, to get to Polis on foot would at least take a day.

  With a sigh coming from his lips, he broke out in a jog towards the warrior yelling out, "Wait! I don't have a horse!"

 "Boohoo, go cry about it." Phoenix rolled her eyes as she heard his yelling from behind her, silently hoping that she didn't stop her in the first place. God, she should have just left that kid to die. 

 "You bashed my head with a rock! The least you could do is take me back to Polis." Ilian begged her as he grew closer, almost running into the backside of the horse when she stopped. 

 "You insult me, attack me―" 

 "you attacked me first," 

 Phoenix narrowed her eyes down at the Trishanakru warrior whom was sporting an amused expression. He really liked to push her buttons. "And now you are interrupting my sentences. Do you even know who I am? People cower away in fear when they see me."

 Ilian pursed his lips while his eyes studied her frame. "You look like an entitled child to me."

 Her eyebrow snapped up onto her forehead, her nostrils starting to flare out of anger. Did he really just call her entitled? She was nothing like that. She had been at the end of the stick and worked up the ranks to be where she was. 

"And now you are calling me a child?! Tell me why I shouldn't end your miserable life right here where you stand?"  

 Ilian smirked over at her before reaching into his pocket, pulling out the tiny blue chip that she had taken from him when she bashed his head. Her eyes narrowed down, "Because we both want revenge."

 "How did you get that?" She questioned, her voice laced with venom as she reached forward but he pulled his hand away.

 "You're not the only one with sticky fingers darling, take me to Polis. We can destroy what damaged us."

 "I never took it. I'm not weak!" Phoenix defended herself. 

 Ilian nodded to himself. He knew she didn't take it but he also knew about the one woman asking questions about a Trikru Warrior that was lost, four months since she had seen her. "No, but the Silver Lady, she took it."

 Phoenix's expression turned to worry, worry for the girl she took under her protection but whom she left behind. If something had happened to her, gods, she would not be able to live with herself. With a hesitant mind, she reached her hand towards him while she took an exhale. 

 Ilian grabbed hold of her hand, helping himself up onto the horse and sitting behind her. The horse moved slightly, adjusting herself to the new weight being added onto her back but not overly bothered by it. Phoenix rolled her eyes as he moved to get more comfortable, growing irritated when his chest rubbed against her back while he laid her hands over her stomach. 

 "If you talk this entire time, I will get my horse to buck you off and then leave you here." Phoenix told him as she told her horse to move forward, going towards the tree-line and into where she felt more comfortable. 

 Being out in the open was too dangerous. 

   She felt him nod against her and they rode in silence for two minutes before the warrior sitting behind her opened his mouth. "What's your horse's name?"

A/N

what up hoes. I know that I like abandoned this story, and haven't updated since last year but eyy, here's the second chapter. I'm a bit rusty with writing for the 100, but when Phoenix get's to polis, it will start moving along. KEEP IN MIND, that Phoenix isn't that much of an ass, ok. keep in mind that she has been tortured, forced from her home, and had her parents killed right in front of her. MORE ON THAT LATER.