Disclaimer: I own no part of Horizon Zero Dawn nor its characters.
Warnings: I am not using a beta reader but I tried to clean it up.
Rated M in chapter three. Aloy accidently propositions Ikrie.
Spoiler Alert: The story assumes you've already beaten the main story of HZD and The Frozen Wilds. If you have not, some characters and events are going to mean nothing to you.
Fate's a Long Climb (up a High Cliff for People like you and me)
Elisabet's description of where she grew up led her to an area she had walked past but never stopped. It was within the Carja Sundom near its eastern border but the closest town to her would be Free Heap in The Claim.
It was a personal time for Aloy, to finally meet her heroic mother. It was her time to rejoice, to grieve, and to consider her future and where she wanted to go next in life.
"Your watch is finally over Elisabet" She said after she buried her mother above ground under stones. The woman had kept a vigil to see the world both end and be reborn. Her rest was well deserved.
Unfortunately, due to her location not far from trading routes, Aloy's privacy was soon interrupted. The first was a group of Oseram who were heading to Meridian to help rebuild the bridge. While it was pleasant to have some company for a short while, when they left, Aloy deeply regretted not swearing her visitors to secrecy as to her location.
It was a matter of days before more travellers 'happened' upon her, and everybody wanted to hear a story. This unto itself was not so terrible, but as more visitors came, they wanted to hear her speak of events that she had no part of, nor skill in. She had heard that she had taken down a glinthawk and welded the wings onto her armour so that she herself could now fly. She also heard about the time she allowed a thunderjaw to swallow her whole so that she could kill it from the inside.
The final straw was when she heard some Carja talking amongst themselves around their campfire about a special envoy the Sun King Avad was sending this way. Their speculation that it was some romantic gesture was the fuel she needed to walk away from Elisabet's vigil. This was how she found her way to The Cut where she found more challenges and rewards. She even found herself being the temporary chief of a werak.
Once Hephaestus had been subdued, the last thing to do was to take down the daemonic fireclaws. She knew that a glory seeking werak would come along able to take on the monstrous machines, not likely not before innocent people were slaughtered. This was her justification for staying in The Cut for at least another week longer. Sure, it was a deadly place to live; the cold could kill a person before any daemon forged beast had the chance to try, but she liked its people. People didn't treat her like she was some kind of divine being, they all just knew her as Aloy the great hunter.
Now, three months later, her reasons to avoid going back to the place she would call home were coming to an end. She just needed to find that last fire claw, and it had been reported to have been seen close to the hunting ground where she knew Ikrie was currently staying.
The girl was consoling herself from the loss of her lifelong companion and any werak she may have beem a part of by losing herself in the hunt. Aloy could find traces of her in the random machine corpses she came across the closer she came to Snowchants hunting grounds. She found a fallen scorcher and a pack of scrappers with Ikrie's signature kill marks which included shattered front paws and then four arrow holes lodged into their foreskulls.
Most hunters left their arrows behind as evidence of their hunting prowess, but Ikrie used her arrows faster than she could carve them, and she didnt think that the traders were giving her their best prices so she hated to buy. She had told Aloy that her signature would be no signature at all.
It was dusk as Aloy marched up the Snowchants hill. She was carrying a couple of dead rabbits for their dinner tonight when from the west she saw a flame rise high above the trees accompanied by a distant roar.
"Looks like someone found the fire claw; I should check to see if they need a hand."
Aloy ran towards the action with her ropecaster ready to shoot in a seconds notice. She heard the roar of the terror long before she saw the fight. The ground beneath her shook with the sound of heavy feet and trees being toppled over. Before long, she could see the hulking monster in the near distance pacing. This meant whomever it was fighting was currently out of its field of vision.
She crept closer hoping it wouldn't spot her before she could find the hunter who had started this fight. She hated how loud the snow crunched beneath her feet despite the cover of the long grass around her. The beast was beginning to slow its pace down signifying it was no longer searching, but it bore a limp from a wound in its right forefoot. It was bleeding sparks, clearly it had been shattered in the fight.
"Ikrie" Aloy whispered as loudly as she felt safe to do. "I know you're here, are you alright?"
She looked around herself seeing the darkness of the forest to the north, a Cliffside to the south, and wide open space everywhere else.
A soft crunching sound from behind alerted her to the footsteps that were close by. Quickly she turned to see the grinning hunter stepping into the sunken steps Aloy's feet had left in the snow.
"Aloy, I'm glad to see you again." she began "Do you see the mess I made of that?" They both looked towards the injured monster.
"Looks like you could have taken this one down alone?" Aloy complimented, her focus verifying that its life had been diminished by half.
"I was fighting this one for several hours, and I have to admit I'm starting to feel tired. If my supply of ice bombs wasn't almost gone I'd still be out there. I was originally planning on finishing it off in the morning..."
"How about now?" the flame haired woman insisted. In her mind she saw no reason to not use any advantage they had. Ikrie didn't have the bombs, but Aloy had something else.
"You should use my ice rail, the damage it causes is enormous"
Aloy pulled the deadly weapon off her back and handed it towards the other woman who held her hand to it yet not touching. She gazed at it with respect.
"I dont think I'm allowed to handle that one" Ikrie said nervously. "only the most esteemed Banuk wield such weapons."
Not one to adhere to any cultural normative, Aloy took the wrist of the other woman and turned her hand so the Icerail rested within it.
"You are one of the Banuk I esteem the most" The outlander spoke plainly. "You're a fierce hunter, but this one will challenge your style because it's a close range weapon."
Ikrie bore the weight of the weapon as she closed her hand about its handle. She looked at it closely noting it had a power source from which it created its signature frost cloud. She had seen it used in a hunt before, and just as Aloy had said, its user had to be nearly touching a beast to get the most effect from it.
"That's suicide." Ikrie noted grimly pointing it, through the grass, in the direction of the monster. "From afar I was lucky to even dodge its flames, but up close I would have to somehow be able to jump further than I ever have when its radius explodes...Not that I'm not up for a challenge--"
"You wouldn't be alone." Aloy cut in, showing the Banuk woman her ropecaster. "I'll tie it down and keep its attention on me. When its fully pinned down, you come in and freeze it. Once its been covered in frost it will be vulnerable and we begin firing regular arrows at its weak spots, basically anything that glows."
Ikries eyes went from the ropecaster to the monster, pondering how much better her odds were if she took it on with another hunter. She looked up at Aloy again and remembered how the Nora woman told her about her preference for fighting alone. She couldn't help but smirk. The opportunity to hunt with this one again was too good to pass up on.
"I'm in. Let's go before it starts scavenging for machine parts. I also killed a couple of ravagers that were travelling with the beast so it will try to repair itself shortly."
"Then here I go..."
Aloy crept up ahead using the spread of grass to get closer to the monster. It had indeed started drilling out metal pieces out Ikrie's earlier kill. This gave her the opportunity to take it from behind.
One!-two!
It's hind legs were bound to the earth and it stood immediately and turned to face its attacker who immediately struck it with one more rope to its neck.
The roar from its mouth shook the ground beneath them and flames surged from beneath its belly as it struggled with trying to remove its bonds yet keeping sight of its prey.
"Ikrie now!" Aloy shouted, shooting it again as its hind legs became freed.
The northern girl answered quickly with icy blasts but it wasnt enough time to completely cover it with frost before it lept forward; Aloy rolled just in the nick of time from large claws that struck the ground where she had just been standing.
Ikrie ran back as flames began to generate within its belly again, it was about to burn the ground within its radius just before it turned
some other land mass to molten lava. Aloy did likewise and knew she had only seconds after the blasts to rope it again before it was fully free to take chase.
Aloy leaped towards a large rock before her as she felt the temperature beneath her boots quickly rise. She turned mid air and fired again, missing the target of its head and instead lodging into its busted paw which wouls surely not support the ropes longer than a few seconds.
Her feet landed and she rolled into position to take another shot but it stood and leaped forward, taking its chance the rope would fail.
"one-two"
One of the ropes landed but the machine's body was already about to smash into her. Swiftly, she jumped forward directly under the beast who would not be able to strike her mid air, but she would be still within striking distance of the beast when it rose again.
"one-two-three" ropes connected and Ikrie attacked without fail.
Its inner chambers made the clicking sounds like it was charging up to explode again, but the Banuk woman did not cease and soon the gears within creaked as the entire exterior of the monster frosted over white.
"Arrows!"
Ikrie struck 2 arrows at once into its belly while Aloy focused on the sacks on the sides of its shoulders. This opportunity would be brief as the loud engine within began to re-energize and it would explode as planned.
The battle raged another quarter of the hour. They had the advantage of it being injured from its earlier fight with the lone Banuk woman and Aloys experience at felling these creatures.
The final strike in the end was Ikrie. It had been on its hind legs in its final frost and the girl raced up its back with three arrows notched to her bow. Its mouth wide open, teeth ready to take down one of its killers, it roared watching the girl leap into the night sky turn and release. Her aim was true, two in the eyes, one into its forehead and surrounded by sparks, she landed softly into the melt of snow behind her where Aloy stood mouth open stunned at the perfect ending.
it was a good hunt.
Both women smiled at one another in shared victory.
Aloy went to the other woman with her hand held out to share a congratulatory high five.
"Excellent finish Ikrie" The red head said and found herself being pulled into a tight hug.
"That was legendary!" The Banuk woman proclaimed. "Thank you Aloy"
Sheepishly Aloy placed her hands on the girls back and patted her twice before pulling herself back into her own comfort zone.
"You're welcome. We should harvest the parts from this guy" Aloy directed towards the felled beast. "The heart alone could buy you your own hunting ground."
"Right, we'll have to do this now before scrappers pick it clean"
In the afterglow of battle, both women failed to hear the sound of hoots and claps in the distance. When they finally caught on, they saw the torch first signifying it was a person, and upon approach they saw it was Lauvuk, the owner of the Snowchants Hunting Ground.
"Well done hunters!" she exclaimed with utter joy "i havent seen a fight like that ever in all my days! i saw everything from the hill over there."
She pointed to the direction she came which was still some distance from her post.
As it turned out the reason she came was because she could hear the fight from her lodge and was checking to see if Ikrie had died or not. She was surprised to see her being accompanied by the famous outlander Aloy.
Her torch gave sufficient light to pillage vaulable parts from the beast and before long they were back at the hunters lodge.
Lauvuk did most of the talking on their way back, mostly she was doing a play by play of the action she had witnessed.
Aloy felt proud for her friend, who would likely now be viewed as the great hunter she truly was. She also felt this was the perfect parting gift. She didnt know what life was going to bring her next, but she wasn't she would ever be able to return to The Cut again.
Thankfully, there was already roasted goat over the spit. Both women were starving and the exuberant gameskeeper was more than happy to provide their meal tonight.
They ate heartily around the large fire as Lauvak finally stopped talking at them to go retell the story to Patras the trader.
At the side of the fire was a large kettle with hot water and herbs in it. They helped themselves to tea and sat with confortable ease next to one another.
"How long will it take you to return to your mother?" Ikrie inquired, continuing a conversation already begun.
"If I ride, maybe 3 or 4 nights, depending on where i stop"
"Your admirers will have questions and wish you to regale them with stories of your many adventures" the paler woman spoke and Aloy sighed deeply, regretfully.
"Yeah. Its not that I dont appreciate people not hating me now, its just..."
"It sounds like you are used to being alone, and it sounds especially difficult now that you are likely never going to be alone again."
Aloy smirked at the accurate assessment, but it fell as its truth slapped her in the face.
"Yes." she said plainly suddenly eager to take the focus off of herself.
"What about you Ikrie, will you join a werak? Chief Aratak at Song's Edge is a friend of mine, I could ask him to accept you; although I imagine Lauvuk will let no hunter pass by here without mentioning this last hunt. You'll be famous yourself soon enough."
"I dont think I'm ready to settle into that kind of life" Ikrie admitted, before swallowing her last sip of tea. "I actually might try to start up my own hunting ground though, maybe down in the valley..."
She stopped talking as the lodge keeper approached them again.
"Please hunters, take the main lodge. I'm not expecting anyone else and I would be honoured to see to your comfort and safety tonight."
He directed his hand to the larger structure behind them, the main lodge which would nomally be reserved for groups of elite hunters.
Aloy wanted to reject her offer; sleeping on the ground, or in cold caves or in trees was a way of life for her, but Ikrie spoke first.
"Thank you" she said before speaking to Aloy. "I usually take the smallest tent by the side of the hill. I was hoping to get to try to give me an idea of how I should set up my own lodge."
Aloy looked at the cheerful older woman and nodded her assent as well. Lauvuk clapped her hands and walked away from them, perhaps sensing their reasonable fatigue.
The full moon was up, and the wind was starting to whip snow about them. Aloy was ready to take a break from the snow.
"So" she started saying to Ikrie. "Do you want to go be warm together?"
It was a figure of speech she had observed Banuk use with one another before they went to sleep. Aloy thought it would impress her fellow hunter to use the local slang and that was how she read Ikrie's face, which was an one of shared knowledge.
Ikrie did know this expression. All Banuk have heard this said around campfires. It was a form of something Mailen told her some nights when they were alone.
"Ikrie, come and keep me warm".
Aloy had been in The Cut long enough that she must understand what she was asking her. The red head was strong and beautiful, but until that moment she hadn't considered there was
anything between them but friendship.
Aloy was set to leave in the morning. Ikrie could make her last night unforgettable. The cold wind blew, and she could use some warmth as well.
She blinked deliberately, exhaled then smiled.
"I would."