Striking

Chapter 2

Chapter 1 recap: We open the story in San Piter, and see right off the bat that Yuri is as difficult as ever, yet that Otabek has decided to take it as a challenge. Yuri's stalwartly refusing to entrust to Otabek anything difficult, and essentially won't let him do his job, so Otabek, determined to prove his competence, volunteers to oversee a surveying expedition. Yuri, naturally, was already signed up to do so, so they do it together; Yuri is less than pleased about the arrangement. On the expedition, Yuri becomes a little less prickly, and they have a few thought-provoking conversations that seem to change Yuri's perception of Otabek (if marginally) favorably. At the very end, we learn that Yuri is an artist, through Otabek accidentally looking through his journal and finding many drawings of... himself?

~~~

The sunset over the free, wild landscape was a sight Otabek would never get tired of. Neither was the sight of Yuri, clearly just having woken up but already prepared for the day, tripping over a tree root and very nearly sprawling flat on his stomach over the sparsely grass-covered ground.

Otabek couldn't hold back his snigger, watching as Yuri's arms pinwheeled and he stumbled back into the tree from which the offending root had originated.

He scowled, righting himself and sending an evil glare Otabek's way, its effect lessened only slightly by the blond hair falling over his face and the puffiness of his early-morning eyes. "Not a word, Altin." He hissed, pointing a threatening finger Otabek's way.

Very slowly, very seriously, Otabek raised a hand to his lips, pulling his fingers across it as though sewing his mouth shut.

Yuri huffed and marched away. Otabek grinned.

***

Another week or so on horseback, and they were on the last legs of their journey to the Almatian/San Piterian highway. They still had to make the return trip, but that one would be infinitely faster, the party able to travel at three times their previous speed, now their only goal was to cover ground, and they didn't have to concern themselves with the mapping of it.

So naturally it was then, hardly a week before they could head toward home, their mission complete, that everything went to hell.

Maybe not hell specifically, for things could've gone so much worse, but there was no denying that the expedition took a turn for the worse just as it was about to come to a close.

Bandits were always a danger when traveling between nations, let alone two as prosperous as Almatia and San Piter, but, given that they were journeying so far off the beaten track, just trying to figure out where that track would be beaten, Otabek had been hopeful -- as had everyone else -- that they wouldn't encounter trouble. Their hopes were collectively dashed early one evening when, camp set up just finished, several figures on horseback came into view in the distance.

Yuri muttered profanities under his breath when he relayed this, having been the only one on watch at the time, and, within thirty minutes, the figures were upon them.

Optimistic that they may pass, for they may very well have been normal travelers, the expedition hadn't tried to outrun them -- indeed, dismantling their camp would've taken them long enough, fast though the process was, that their lead wouldn't have been much as it was -- but had continued their evening almost as usual. Some game cooking over the small fire, everyone working around it while two men stood on watch, the troupe was the picture of normalcy-- except for the fact that they were all sneakily armed, and all ready for a fight.

The hope was that it could be avoided, but it was dangerous to allow Providence to take you as she would.

And their preparedness paid off, Otabek knew the second four horses and their riders galloped into camp, preceded only momentarily by the two watchmen with the notice. While the number of people in the camp was greater than that of the riders, Otabek could imagine why they had been marked out as a collectively easy target. As the only alpha in the group, everyone else a beta -- or, in Yuri's case, an omega -- Otabek knew he was far from intimidating at first glance, and everyone else was his height or shorter. A tall, burly crew, it made sense that the men on horseback thought they could make up the one-man difference sheerly from power-- doubtlessly they thought that Otabek would be the only real threat to them. Little did they know.