Our Journey (the Fourth Book in the Her Weakness series)

Chapter 29

Ravens POV

As Octavia and I point our horses in the direction we want to go in, Octavia brings her horse to a canter. I squeeze my legs and click my tongue so my horse knows to do the same. The bouncing movement isn't exactly comfortable for me, with it making my stomach a bit queasy. But worse than that, it hurts my leg. My brace pinches my skin in places I haven't thought to pad yet and the movement in general doesn't feel great with my leg.

I slow down to a walk and Octavia silently does the same, not asking why. Yet, at least. Which I appreciate. Octavia always seems to know when I want to talk about something and when I don't. It's just one of the things I love about her.

Our horses weave their way through the tall grass, making a visible path as their hooves crush grass and as their stomach forces some grass to bend as they pass.

"Man, it would suck to be a criminal and flee on a horse through this." I remark, turning in my saddle to look at the two clearly defined paths from our horses.

Octavia turns in her saddle. "Oh. That's actually pretty cool looking. I guess it wouldn't be great to be a courier in wartime, or a group of soldiers, especially if they're trying to hide."

"True. Wait. Why the courier? 'Don't shoot the messenger,' remember?" I say.

"Because if they're taking a look at the enemy's front lines, it'll be clearly visible where they have been and where they're going. The enemy could chase after them and kill them to make sure that the courier's bosses don't get intel on them." Octavia explains.

"Babe, you could've just said 'this would have sucked for people during war' or something." I point out in amusement. "Instead of something so complicated."

"Well, I'll have you know I'm Skaikru. I don't say one word when twenty will do." Octavia says, teasingly sticking out her tongue at me.

I laugh delightedly in surprise. "Is that seriously a Skaikru stereotype?"

"Apparently, yeah. When I told Lexa about it, she said it must be because you and I joined her and Clarke on their tour of the clans." Octavia says.

"Ooh. Lexa's really got the hang of witty responses." I observe proudly. "So did you have a good comeback?"

Octavia sighs. "Not at the time, I was too surprised. But I thought of one! 'Not everyone can be as broody as you and successfully communicate through grunting.' Good, right?"

"Eh," I shrug, laughing at my girlfriend's affronted gasp. "She's gotten better at speaking since we first saw her. Lexa's mainly just been grunting in the bedroom."

Octavia cackles and holds her hand out for a high five. "Okay. Now that was good!"

"Yeah, it was! And you know what's better?" I ask.

"What?"

"Me beating you at comebacks and at racing." I challenge, loving the fire in Octavia's eyes.

"Should we start off at a canter, work our way up?" Octavia questions.

"No cantering, it's bumpy and makes me nauseous and hurts my leg." I say. "Just go on the count of three."

"Alright."

Octavia and I stop our horses and stay side by side so no one has an advantage of a couple of inches.

"One. Two. Th-"

"Wait wait, hang on." Octavia holds up her hand, cutting me off. "On three or after three?"

"I don't know. On three?" I shrug. "One. Two..." I pause for a dramatic moment, both of us leaning forward in preparation for racing. "Three!"

Both our horses go off like a shot at our urging, Octavia a few paces behind me. She whoops loudly and I grin, pushing my horse harder.

"Where's the finishing line?" I shout over the wind.

"That tree!" Octavia yells back from a few paces behind me.

"What tree? This is a plain, there's like no... Oh! I see it!"

Octavia's laughter is audible over the roaring wind in my ears, both from the actual wind and from how fast I'm going. It's freeing, to be like this. I feel like I can take on the world and win. I feel like I can do anything! Except maybe be faster than Octavia, who's gaining on me.

I direct my horse towards the tree and we move up a sloping hill. I focus on winning instead of looking at Octavia because she looks beautiful always, but she's in her element here. At one with nature, moving with her horse with practiced ease. Yeah, so if I start staring at her, I'll crash us into the only tree within like three miles.

Pretty soon, I'm looking at Octavia's horse's hindquarters, despite how I've been pushing my horse. We're nearing the tree and I squeeze my horse with my thighs, urging it to put in one last burst of speed, and it does. But it's not enough, not against Octavia and her weird ability to work well with horses.

We slow our horses down and they breath heavily. Octavia and I get down from them and the horses let out a huff of breath, their flanks moving with every breath they take in.

Octavia throws her arm in the air and whoops again, startling the horses a bit if the way their ears turn towards us instantly is any indication. Octavia starts doing a dorky victory dance that makes me laugh. She finishes it by giving me finger guns with both hands and putting her head back dramatically so she's looking at the sky.

Octavia flops backwards onto the ground and lazily pats the space next to her. I lie beside her and cuddle up to her.

"I won," Octavia reminds me.

I just smile. She looked too pretty doing her victory dance for me to be sad about losing.

"Yeah, but I have you, so who's the real winner?" I retort.

"Aww..." Octavia says, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "Love you, Rae."

"Love you too, O."

Okay! It was tied between people saying move on and people saying Raven and Octavia, plus one person saying "whatever you want," so I decided to compromise! This is the last chapter in Ingranrona (Plains Riders), unless you count the brief beginning of next chapter where they say bye to Bri... So we're moving on! Next chapter, they're at the next clan! Who knows which, I don't even know! I haven't picked it out yet! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!