Aloy visited Elisabet every year, on the day she first found her. She would travel to the house, GAIA called it a ranch, the same week every year. She liked to ride on the Strider, imagining Elisabet riding whatever lived back then. She'd heard GAIA call it a horse in one of the data logs and tried to picture it, thick like the Strider, stocky and powerful, with hair like a fox's or racoons, because that was the only hair she'd ever really felt on an animal. She'd tend the gardens, weed and prune the flowers. She'd never been one for such domestic things like that – the only preservation in her nature was her will of the fighter, as Uthid called it. But she couldn't deny the pride she felt when the purple petals of the Dusk Blossoms bloomed in the shape of a Focus around Elisabet's grave.
She'd started working on the house as well. It started with cleaning out the rubble. She'd begun on her own, then overridden a Broadhead to help speed things along. A year later, during her third visit, she began tending the gardens, keeping the area clean, planting the Dusk Blossoms, and then brought Sun Drop seeds from Meridian to plant around the perimeter. On her fourth journey she brought two Shell-Walker's and a heard of Lancehorn's with her, and the three of them began to build, plough and make the earth into something she was sure Elisabet be proud of. Her fifth year was the first she sat back and enjoyed the work she'd done... for all of half a day, before she decided to add a few personal touches. An attempt at a fountain soon became a man - woman made lake when she discovered an underground water supply, perhaps once an old well. She brought fish to live there, trout she'd carried in a wooden bowl from the river a few miles away. She built an archery range in the cliffs behind the ranch, her own mini proving course. She had to keep at the top of her game, after all.
Today, though, it was hot, and she had no wish to run her obstacle course. She'd fed her fish, weeded her gardens and made sure the house wouldn't be falling down anytime soon. Now, she was sitting amongst her flowers. Her fingers played with the grass stems growing from Elisabet's grave, marked by a stone Aloy had carved herself, into the shape of a triangle – she was no Stone Mason, and it was as close to a Focus as she could get.
"So... my year? Do you really want to hear about my year?" Aloy laughed, as she usually did when she talked to herself or Elisabet. "Avad is still requesting I take up permanent residence in Meridian, but you and I both know that's a not going to happen. But... I'm on his council. Yes, I finally caved. But it's only part time, when I'm travelling through the Sundom. He tells me he seeks my advice, but..." But she knew what he really sought, but saying it out loud made it something she would eventually have to confront. "I shouldn't be so harsh, he mourned Ersa for a long time. I think it's what made him choose Errand as the Oseram envoy for the council. He was the only one he could share her with." Aloy rolled her eyes to the sky. "I shouldn't complain. They're both good to me. Errand doesn't drink as much as he used to... what does he call it? Social Drinking." She laughed, shaking her head. "I wouldn't call how he gets 'Social'. Let's see, the good, the good... Ah! Talanah's making progress with the Hunter's Lodge. They accepted a Banuk warrior two seasons past, I think her names Linea. She sings her songs all the time, but Talanah actually likes that. Avad's new reform is moving slowly, but at least it's moving.
"It's spring now. It's always spring when I come see you. It's when your flowers bloom." Aloy smiled at her Dusk Blossoms, reached over and plucked one between her thumb and first finger. She twirled it, her grip soft. "GAIA never told me if you liked flowers, but I think that you did. You liked watching things grow, watching them become what they were always meant to be." She placed the flower on the grave, tucking it in amongst the grass stems.
The sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon. Clouds alight with fire raced each other across the sky, gold in their wake, chasing the sun, twilight stars twinkling in their wake. Behind her, Aloy watched her shadow crawl across the ground, silent, looming larger every second.
As the Sun lowers, the shadows grow. Yet when it rises a Shadow is never more clear. Can the Shadow every truly escape from the love it has for the Sun?
She frowned, forcing Nil's anecdotal crap from her head. She was surprised she remembered it at all, a guilt rushed that realisation that she was in danger of forgetting the Hunter's voice, nature, being. It was the only thing she didn't like to talk to Elisabet about. Nil was the only one unaccounted for after the battle of the Eclipse. Others died, some in the field, some later from their wounds. But his body was never found, and none of the medics reported treating any wounds for a man of his description. It felt wrong to speak of a man so intent on being forgotten. All by her.
"I never really understood why he wanted to die by my hand," Aloy murmured, not diving into those memories, more like dipping her toe in. "Maybe he did. That battle happened because of me. Maybe it was the only reason he showed up at all."
The wind blew, nimble fingers running through her red locks. Kissed by fire, Nil had called it, and her cheeks flushed against her will. Elisabet's breeze soothed the traitorous burn in her cheeks, like a whisper in her ear that it was okay to think about Nil sometimes, to feel guilty over his death and smile at his laugh or the way he smiled with one half of his mouth. It was hard not to feel guilty all the time, but she always listened to Elisabet.
So she thought about her last hunting trip with Talanah instead, recounting the tale for Elisabet. They'd been tracking a Snapmaw in the southern Sundom's rivers, rumoured to be twice the size of a regular 'maw. Talanah had been on point, Aloy letting the Sun Hawk lead. She smiled as she remembered the bushes rustling, and Talanah rushing for the sound. A boar had been snuffling around and, spooked by the screaming huntress, had chased her all the way into the water. Talanah had stunk of wet boar for a week. Aloy could smell it even now.
The wind blew through the clearing, a chill to it, a warning. Aloy's head tilted as Dusk Blossom wafted through, mingled with the fresh breeze and the smell of wet fur. A deep splash brought Aloy to her feet, whirling on her fish pond. The water rippled, crashing over the rocks, something swirling in the depths below. Her bow was outside the Dark Blossoms, laying in the grass. She rolled for it, notched her arrow and drew as she came up on her knee, aiming at the pond. Boars liked her lake in the spring and summer seasons, the shallow water and mud bottom a haven for their itchy heated skin, and she was low on furs. It would need a clean, good thing it was already wet.
She waited. One heartbeat. Two. Her arm never shook, her sight never wavered, but when the water burst apart her arrow loosed wide from shock, shattering against the rocks. A dark shaggy head bobbed above the water, droplets running through sopping wet fur. Small, black eyes found her, blinking slowly. It took one step from the pool, then another, four feet lumbering out of the water and onto the ground. A fish wiggled in its huge snout, caught between white teeth as huge as her spear head.
Aloy backed up. Her bow dropped from her fingers, shock a cruel and ill-timed paralysis. She'd never seen anything like this beast before. It ambled towards her, swallowing its catch in one gulp. The noise it let out was like a boars grunt mixed with a Ravagers roar. It took another step towards her, and she took one back. It stopped and cocked its dark head, another string of grunts and snorts coming from its odd, pebble black nose.
Blue light filled her vision suddenly and she screamed. The furry thing shrieked, scrambling backwards so much it tipped back into the pool. Her Focus zeroed in on it as it came gurgling to the surface. "Subject: Organic," a female voice announced.
"GAIA?" Aloy gasped. She hadn't heard her voice outside of a data entry before.
"Mammal," the voice continued. "Species: Kodiak bear. The largest of the bear family. This one seems to be in the later stages of infancy, maybe a year. Gender, male. The first bear in one thousand years."
"GAIA, are you there?" Aloy asked, reaching into the air. "How are you here? I thought you were destroyed."
"Not destroyed – dormant. My systems were built to endure the heaviest of threats. In the aftermath of... systems depleted. Powering down until charged."
"No!" Aloy cried. "No, I must know! Tell me about Elisabet! What was she like? You talked to her! Tell me, please!"
Her focus shut off, leaving her alone in her garden. She dropped to her knees where she stood, staring into the air, waiting for GAIA to come back. But she didn't, and Aloy was by herself. Her mind raced, trying to process everything, trying to make it make sense. She wanted it in front of her. She was good when it was in front of her, when she could see it, touch it, move it like she moved the projections on her Focus, but no amount of turning it on and off made GAIA return, and the hope of something she never knew she desired was gone.
Her arm bounced, a black snout coming up underneath it, wriggling until a wet, soggy head was pressed into the crook of her armpit. The bear snuffed at her red hair, black eyes blinking curiously. Aloy stared at it, unseeing until it burped dead fish in her face. She recoiled, gagging, pushing the putrid snout away. The bear chucked, pushing back until Aloy gave up, sitting back. The bear nudged her, pressing its face into her hand, wanting to keep playing, groaning when she wouldn't respond.
She stood suddenly, slinging her bow across her back. She stuck her fingers between her lips and whistled, a sharp shrill note. Within a minute a Broadhead was charging for the clearing. The bear shrieked as it stampeded towards them. It scrambled clumsily, waddling to its escape, but Aloy snagged it by the back of its neck before it could run. It was heavy and wriggled in her grip, but with both hands she could lift it. She held it out from her.
"You're coming with me."