Chit nou frag yu op na teik yu ste mou yuj.

Anya’s head canted to the side as she tried deciphering where this girl came from. She’d heard little. Only that there was a girl in the woods who didn’t seem to belong anywhere. She had fought and a few people knew her from youth. But Anya knew that once this girl’s parents weren’t int he picture, she’d become savage almost. This was a bid to both harness and help the power Anya saw under this girl’s skin.      “There is something within you Tris. Something strong. I believe every word you are saying to me, I feel you and your need to belong here. Know this, so long as you do what you’ve said… you will always have a place to stay. By my side. As my Second. Known. And Strong.” She said with a firm nod.

She did not understand the way that Anya was looking at her, but it seemed that her eyes were searching for something, so Tris stared back. She did not show fear or allow any of her confusion about what it was that her new mentor was eager to discover, or not find, within her. If this was another test she would not fail it. Not so far as she was able to sway the results at least  She wanted to stay here. Settle in. There had not been a safe place for her to rest for seasons, and some would say never if the whispers of her mother being unfit before she was gone were to be listened to. She had always tried her hardest not to hear them, but the echoes of the words sometimes tracked her down in the night. And then she could almost believe. At her weakest.

Her eyes burned at the words she heard now most of all though. They were still dry when she blinked, but she did so twice all the same, to be certain it remained so. This woman saw her and did not flinch away.

I was tagged by @imqetuous and I’m tagging: @grounderiisms, @gonaxyongon, @notsoheavynly (for whichever muses they would like), @boywhobuildsgallows, @thesinfulx100, @torturxdforhxr, @choseright, @fangedspiritisms, @hxdaleksakomtrigedakru, @komazgedakru, @oficethronisms, @queengxiffin​

Oak had no words to explain how frustrating this was becomming. Talking to someone who may or may not have known English was waring her patience thin. The girl might know what Oak was saying and using a lack of knowledge on her people to make Oak think this girl didn’t understand. OR she honestly didn’t and Oak might have been able to offer something in return.     “Your teacher, they teach you to speak English? Or do a lot of your people speak it?” Whether she could trust the younger’s answer was a complicated thing.

She inhaled slowly and pressed her lips to a tight line.     “We are indeed…. And they?” She said pointing to the sky.      “They are some of the most ruthless, heartless people your’s will ever meet. They will wipe you out with technology you’ve never even seen… Unless someone was to tell you about it?”   She had the idea as she spoke, but maybe in exchange for some fighting lessons, Oak could help this girl to help her people so they had a fighting chance when the Guard came down.

The girl did not even try to mask her frustration so she felt it all. It made her want to smile - to briefly show herself to be as openly triumphant as she was inside- but she did not. It would be a mistake to betray herself for such a fleeting emotion. She had the upper hand now. It would not be squandered. For this or any other reason.

She took a step forward, her eyes looking the stranger over from head to foot, because she had no need to be subtle in these intentions when the idea was that her enemy know they were being not just stared at, but into. Her greatest wish for the moment was that the other felt exposed, her skin made raw by the gaze she aimed at her. It was a weapon Tris favored when she was told to use none.  “Those who need to, speak it.” she answered finally, thinking it might prove reckless to reveal it was a skill which only their warriors possessed. It was better for the sky people not to be sure if they all had the talent, or if it was reserved for a rare few. 

“You shouldn’t act like that. Girls get adopted all the time, boys don’t after like age six. You could get of here, I’m just stuck. So what you’re tall. And aren’t porcelain, whatever the hell that is. You’ve still got half a fucking chance,” Myles grumped walking down the street  pulling his jacket tighter around himself. He’d always wanted too be part of a family, one that gave a damn about him. One that cared when he got hurt and didn’t shame him for being weird or girly.

But with who his parents were in never happened, children of murders don’t get adopted. You can’t trust them they may be crazy.

And foster parents never cared, not that kids hurt you in a locker room or that you hadn’t eaten in two days but sighed up for extra practices in basketball to get fit. Not that you passed out during gym. Not that you had bruises from being beaten, hell they sometimes caused those. They didn’t think about anything other that making sure you looked clean and happy when ever the social worker stopped by. That you told them you liked it there and how good they were at the job./>

“We should probably sneak a few bucks back into Mrs. Trechen’s wallet so he’ll think she took it. He’s normally so drunk he forget the younger kids exists anyway.”

“I know your heart is the right place, so I’m trying  not to get mad over you telling me how to act, and worse, calling me a girl, but you gotta know my struggle is real right now.” Her nose wrinkled distastefully, because her gender hadn’t done her any favors lately, here or anywhere else, as far as Tris was concerned.  It had its moments, obviously, keeping her safe because people thought she was just a little girl, but not when it came to finding her a way out this place. There was a limit to how innocent, or cute, she could appear, after everything. She was too tainted, worn down, that was the truth. “You don’t know shit. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so damn sad. Your chances are as good as mine, Myles. Better probably, because you want it. Adoption., I don’t give a fuck about family life, it’s too late for all that and I’m not about to start pining for something I’ve never had, but it matters to you, which  means you’ll find a way to make it happen. I only want to get out and I’ll do that.”

She kept in step with him, her head high and her arms crossed over her chest. To keep the cold out, she told herself. There was no need to be defensive as hell now that she’d said her piece. And she had calmed down. She’d made herself. 

She wasn’t faking the feeling by the time he spoke again. Annoyance was the last emotion she’d aim his way after such a genius idea. The grin she wore wasn’t in spite of herself or her anger, it was genuine. The tension between them had disappeared as quickly as it settled. They’d got this. Nothing was going to go wrong and today was going to be a good day. She nodded. “Hell yeah. We definitely should. I knew there was a reason I kept you around.” 

Anya smiled and her head gave a sharp shake when the young girl seemed concerned about her previous second.     “My second was Lexa, who is now Heda, perhaps one day you will meet her.” Anya said hoping Lexa might return one day to see the new Sekond Anya had choosen.  She watched the girl with the knife, while she said she didn’t know how to use it, the way Anya saw her handling it, she seemed a natural.

The woman rose her brows when the young girl said her peice in excitement. Usually she would scorn being told what to do, but she had already made this promise. She gave a nod,     “Yes tomorrow we begin. Now. You live where? You will need to be closer to me. If it is not so, you may stay in my houm. I believe that a commander and her second should be unable to be seperated. United.” She said with a sense of finality to it. They would be, after tomorrow, once this girl had shown her worth, Anya would make the call as to the status and a ceremony would be held. Food would be feasted upon and the Clan would be required to welcome their newest Second.

Once her ears had picked up on the word heda, she stopped breathing. The stories she’d heard were true then. Her head bowed as she nodded, Tris deciding that she owed Anya more respect that she had shown her up until this moment. It was a gesture that begged forgiveness that she’d never be able to find words for. It was a promise too. She would learn. She would do well. Nothing would be undertaken would in turn be taken in any way lightly by her. She was willing to fight, to hurt, and to bleed, for this woman now. And for every day that came after. Until her last. 

With his pledge in mind, she didn’t hesitate over her answer for a single moment, though it was a source of great shame for her, being first unclaimed and then, without a mother, unwanted in anyone else’s tent. “I live nowhere.” she replied, simply, speaking true. “I stay anywhere before. Now, I go where you tell me.” 

She didn’t raise her head yet, in case her words were not as pleasing as she wished them to sound, and because she was preoccupied with thoughts of the days to come. It helped Tris to have something to focus on that was not the past. She did not like her mind to be filled by images of her life as it was, preferring to consider what it could become, whenever she could help it. And she battled hard (with equal fervor as she had just swore to give Anya) to not let it reach her during the quiet moments that seemed to exist even in the daylight hours when she was kept busy by those she owed her prior night’s bed to.