Hi guys! I definitely should be writing/finishing "You're so Blind" but I just finished playing Horizon and can't get these two out of my head! SO, this is going to be a collection of interconnected one-shots. Rated M for mature, it's not fluffy. I'm thinking it'll only be 3-4 chapters (you can quote me on this later when I throw that out the window).
Please don't forget to review, they are the fuel to my creative fire!
The wind howled.
Gusts of icy air flowed across the ground, whistling into nooks and crannies and stealing the warmth from the bones of the bandits who huddled on top of their hilly fortress. The prisoners moaned quietly as the cold bent their bodies inwards, twisting their bound wrists tightly behind them as their muscles rebelled and their limbs stung from lack of blood flow.
Sentries paced, bowed from the cold, keeping their torches close. Too close for safety, they carelessly spoiled their night vision with the light from the flames. The flickering light did little to warm them, but not one of them complained. They stubbornly kept up the watch, no one wished to feel the sting of the lash. Ever since the killings had started, the bandits were growing increasingly more paranoid.
It was too quiet, this night. The kind of pervasive quiet that foretold a grim dawn.
There were no watcher's footsteps, no huffing and bellowing of tramplers and striders. No clicking of machinery or even the steady tattoo of ravager footsteps pacing over the eastern ridge could be heard. Even the bellowbacks seemed to have withdrawn deep into the jungle. The lights of the forest were absent, the searchlights of the machines had been quietly snuffed out.
That was the first warning.
How foolish of the bandits to think that they would be able to survive the will of the flame-haired huntress. By the sun, they should have known better.
The second warning came with the discovery of a corpse, neatly hidden in the long grass at the northern edge of the hideout at dusk. Death had come by way of an arrow, the wound so small and precise that the bandits had missed it; the arrowhead was still buried in the man's armpit. The dark blood and black sleeve had disguised the death signature of Aloy, the bane of the bandit clans.
Now, at midnight, she planned to make her move.
Rain pelted the ground and tiny rivers flowed down from the hill to soak Aloy's boots. She barely noticed, she was so intent on her focus' line of sight. Torches sputtered under the onslaught of water, marring her natural vision with thick smoke. She scanned again, taking stock of the bandit warriors. She kept her eye on the sniper closest to her, fully conscious of the alarm that stood directly behind the pacing sentry.
She was the last and final warning. She had come for only one thing; to see the end of the injustice wrought by these outlaws. The thought brought a dark pulse of heat flooding into her veins, and she calmly made a decision to strike. Their guards are down.
Reaching into her quiver, she selected a precision arrow. As she drew back her bowstring to take aim, she felt the familiar rush of satisfaction as the sinew tightened, the slow, deliberate sound a sharp contrast to the rapid beating of her heart.
That's when she heard the rustling behind her.
The man moved so smoothly that she was able to track him by the absence of sound. Right on time, she thought darkly, secretly both glad and frustrated by the appearance of her hunting partner.
They hadn't discussed an attack on this bandit base, but somehow he was always able to figure out what she was planning. It was irksome, the way that he was able to read her mind.
His footsteps were so quiet that they were nearly silent, and she didn't have to turn around to know who was making his stealthy crawl towards her. She turned anyway, wanting to see the whites of his eyes. The arc of her focus had him scanned and pinned even before she had her bow lined up with his heart. He froze, his hands open, palms spread. He wasn't looking for a fight.
For now.
It was the game they played; he would pretend to hunt her, and she would make sure that he never forgot how quickly she could kill him. She didn't know why she hadn't killed him already; he was more than deserving of her contempt.
"You should know better than to sneak up on me, Nil."
"Hardly. It would take all of my skill to truly do so."
"You spoiled my shot." She replied coldly, refusing to let him startle her.
Her bow lowered slightly as Nil inclined his head in greeting, the plumes of his headdress quivering in the rain.
"We both know that it'll take more than me to make you miss." The silver flash of his eyes no longer fazed her, but she couldn't help the sheen of sweat that had suddenly appeared on her palms. Damn him.
His voice was low, barely raised above a whisper, but Aloy felt as though he may as well have shouted. The jump of adrenaline flooding through her veins made her heartbeat quicken, and she lowered her weapon.
"It doesn't matter. Stay out of my way, I'm not playing your sick killing game."
"Oh Aloy, you still have so much to learn." He murmured, sinking down into the grass next to her. "I don't play games."
She should have been angry to hear her name leave his lips in such tones of reverence, but there was something about the way that he'd said it that made her want to hear it again. Rost would not be impressed. Don't lose your head because a pretty man said your name! Focus, Aloy.
His slow smirk quickened her heartbeat even further, and she took a small step away from him, farther into the long grass. "If you're here, you may as well help me."
"You don't have to ask. I am, as always, eager to hunt."
"It's easier to hunt if you keep your mouth shut." She half-snarled, pressing down farther into the grass as a sentry passed by their hiding spot.
Without any hesitation, she pounced, taking the man out with a quick spear thrust to the spine. He went down quickly, the quiet gurgling of his blood leaving his body dampened by the pouring rain. Aloy used her momentum to drag the body back into the grass, counting on the limited visibility of the water flooding down to prevent the snipers from spotting them.
"One less piece of scum to share this land with." Nil commented quietly, now so close behind her that the feathers on his headdress tickled her cheek. "The satisfaction makes the kill even sweeter, doesn't it."
It wasn't a question. He knew exactly how to push her buttons, but she determinedly ignored him. "Stop, Nil. Let's just get this over with."
"Aloy, it's useless to fight it. Let your fury guide your arrows." His quiet chuckle sent another shiver shooting down her spine. He radiated danger, and she couldn't wait to get away.
She fought her instinct to shy away, and determinedly made her way to another spot of tall grass. I have a good shot from here. First, take out the sniper, then shoot the alarm. When Nil ignites this firestorm, I don't want any surprises.
She very slowly made her way closer to the walls, laying traps as she went. Nearly invisible blast wires crisscrossed the ground, the pattern spelling out a quick and painful death for those who were dumb enough to blunder into them.
Aloy deliberately ignored Nil, trying to focus as he followed her towards the edge of the improvised moat that the bandits had hurriedly dug into the hillside.
"What?" She finally hissed back at him, tired of the tiny clucking noises that he kept making as she set her traps.
"The traps. I know you don't need them."
"They make things easier. I take no pleasure in killing, unlike you." She snapped, unnerved by how close he was. "You're interfering with my focus, you're right in the middle of the sightline."
"You don't seem to take pleasure in anything," he replied quietly, the timbre of his voice sending jolts of electricity deep into her belly.
The rumble of his voice behind her left ear made a tiny part of her want to lean back against him. The other, larger, part of her screamed for her to either run or punch him. She needed to lose some of her nervous energy, she was on edge. It's his fault.
She settled for grabbing another arrow, notching it and raising her weapon to point at a sniper huddled with her torch. Aloy rolled her eyes, the woman was a beacon in the dark. Do these people ever learn?
"Of course I do." She muttered, annoyed with herself for rising to the barb.
"But do you really feel anything when you do it?"
"Do what?" She drew back her bow, using her elbow to shove him away. She didn't know what she wanted to hear, but not for the first time, he was making her nervous. He moved without complaint, content to watch her kill the sentry in the ramparts above them.
"When you kill a bandit and feel their heart stutter around the metal of your spear," He murmured, his scarred hands tracing along the edge of his knife. "You don't stop to watch as the light leaves their eyes?"
"No," she snapped, grunting quietly as her bowstring snapped across her cheek. The arrow whistled through the air, hitting the sniper in the eye. She crumpled without making a sound.
Aloy despised the rush of feral triumph that filled her; she wasn't like Nil. But she feared that she was becoming more like him as they spent more time together.
She knew exactly what he was talking about, the frantic pumping of a dying heart and the look of shock that passed over the face of a dying man wasn't something that she could easily forget.
Just like she couldn't forget the way that her own heart beat faster when she took her mark on her next unwitting victim. She would never admit it out loud, especially not to Nil.
But he knew that she felt it. His small smirk deepened and he brushed past her, heading for another tuft of long grass. She knew that her eyes gleamed in the dark, and her expression turned cold and cruel when she was taking her mark. She knew that she was a predator, and that made the kill satisfying, whether she wanted it to be or not.
I am not taking pleasure in this. She told herself firmly, staring daggers at Nil's back. She could feel the smugness radiating off of his skin, and it took all of her restraint not to follow him and make sure that he understood that he was a monster. I'm doing this for the people of this valley.
But that would mean that he won. She decided that she wouldn't allow it.
Aloy changed direction, heading for the westernmost part of the camp. As soon as she was able, she took aim with her bow and disposed of the alarm, breathing a small sigh of relief as it deflated, spilling its precious cargo of blaze.
Taking a risk, she used a torch forgotten on the path to ignite a fire arrow. She took a deep breath and shot it into the heart of the camp, catching the attention of several of the bandits. Just as she'd hoped, the largest of them, carrying a deathbringer gun, surged out into the rain, intent on gunning her down. She watched from a distance as he and three of his companions blundered straight into the traps that she'd strung over the hill.
Not caring about what Nil was doing, she took advantage of the chaos and confusion to slip over the westernmost wall. She snuggled down into a patch of grass, fully hidden from the view of the snipers who patrolled the ramparts above her head. She watched for a time, using her focus to map the paths that the bandits took. She bit her lip in concentration, quietly relieved that Nil wasn't interfering with her.
She took down several of the bandits from that hiding place, drawing them in with well-timed chirps and strategic traps. The sounds of their dying sighs and the silent spreading of dark blood didn't bother her, which caused her some concern. She didn't have time to get sentimental in the middle of a bandit camp, she could mull it over later.
Breathe, Aloy.
It wasn't until she was spotted rummaging through the pockets of one of the corpses that she felt adrenaline singing through her veins. The battle cry that the bandit slugger had let out was his undoing.
She was going to fight with all that she had, she didn't want him to raise the alarm and bring the troops of the fortress down upon her head. So she notched an arrow and took the bandit in the shoulder as he charged at her, his battleaxe held aloft. She winced as her shot missed her target of his neck, deterred by his crude armor.
He dropped his arm with a grunt of pain, but he still moved towards her. Her spear whistled out of the sheath on her back and she dropped her centre of gravity to meet him.
Fighting for her life had become second nature to Aloy, and she was so consumed with snuffing out her opponent that she didn't pay Nil any mind.
He watched from the shadows as she used her bow and spear to defend herself, her fire-bright hair gleaming despite the seemingly endless rain. She dodged the clumsy blows of the bandit slugger easily, stabbing him with her spear in the stomach as he raised his own weapon for a death blow. She didn't hesitate to watch the bandit breathe his last breath, instead she wrenched her weapon from his body, ignoring the silent spill of dark blood that flowed down her spear and into her bracer.
She stood straight, throwing her hair out of her eyes as she regarded the body. Her chest heaved with exertion, and she had a look in her eye that Nil knew all too well. Try as she did to ignore it, he knew that she couldn't ignore the feral, primal part of her that savored winning a fight to the death. Her expression turned almost hazy for a fraction of a second before she caught herself, but it was enough. Her exotic features scrunched into a frown, and she was Aloy of the Nora once more.
He'd seen enough to know that he was right about her.
Nil watched, transfixed as she turned on her heel and darted back over the wall, leaving dark drops of blood shining in her wake in her haste to find a new hiding spot. The shimmering liquid seemed to hang for a moment in the air, and he closed his eyes as the battle-lust began to wind its way into his body once more.
He stepped out into the causeway of the fortress, inviting the advances of the remaining bandit warriors. He relished the sound of the alarm being raised, and didn't hesitate to surrender to the ancient song thundering through his veins. He sighed as he was cut by a stray arrow, the shaft quivering in the dirt as it passed by him. The pain only brought focus, made him finally feel alive.
He fought, spinning through the forms of his art. A tap here, a stab there, and the bodies began to fall around him. It was too easy to snuff out the scum, none of them were worth his full effort. He let out a sigh as he stabbed the final bandit through the heart that was filled with so much satisfaction that it could have been a moan of pleasure.
Perhaps it was. To Nil, there was very little difference between the two forces that drove men to madness. Pain and pleasure were two sides of the same shard, if you spun it fast enough there was no way to differentiate the two halves. It was in this merging of two powerful forces that Nil preferred to live his life.
But Aloy, she lives on the side of pain. Perhaps it's all that she knows.
Finally, as he made his way up the final staircase, he caught another glimpse of the huntress. She fought like a thunderjaw, using every part of her body as an effective weapon. He watched, high in the tower, as she wove and spun, weaving the death chant of the bandits who were foolish enough to attack her. He would have been blind to miss the brightness of her eyes and the way that she efficiently flicked the blood from her weapons. If he was a religious man he would have taken her sun-lit red hair as an omen.
Perhaps she was an omen. A messenger from the sun sent to right the wrongs of the foolish men who laid claim to the earth. That, or she was simply extraordinary in her own right.
Either way, Nil would find out what she was.
Then, it was silent. A hush fell once more over the camp as the chaos ebbed away. Nil watched Aloy come back to her senses with some regret, he had never been able to sit as a spectator as she fought. What I wouldn't give to watch what she could do in the Sun Ring, he thought with some melancholy. He felt the flickering of something long dormant in his chest, but he couldn't see or feel a wound.
It concerned him. Without him noticing, the rules of the game that he played with the Nora girl had changed.
His eyes narrowed as Aloy left the remains of the fortress without so much as a backwards glance.
Aloy didn't look behind her as she left the camp, knowing full well that Nil would eventually follow her. She'd hurriedly freed the prisoners and left, content in the knowledge that the bandits wouldn't be able to terrorize the inhabitants of the mesa any longer. She told herself that she didn't care if he chose not to. Determinedly, she darted into the forest and back towards Meridian, making for the ridge overlooking the mesa. She was grateful that the rain had let up, although she was soaked through. I tanned this leather well, it won't mold.
Pausing only to hunt several rabbits, she had a fire going and the meat dressed before Nil's shadow crept over the edge of her camp.
"I told you not to sneak up on me." She said by way of greeting, choosing to avoid his gaze as she lashed the rabbits to an old arrow shaft; it was as good a spit as any.
"Your flattery is as sharp as your arrows, be careful that you don't get cut." He replied cryptically, ignoring her glare as he sat down on the other side of the crackling fire. She refused to back down as his gaze met hers, even though the dark look in his eyes was making her stomach feel strange. It felt as though she might vomit, but not in an unpleasant way.
It frustrated her. Damn his stupid eyes and his stupid face.
"You don't stay in Meridian." His soft comment nearly made her jump; she'd been staring into the flames. A frown line appeared between her brows as she mulled over her answer. "I don't."
"Why?" His expression was openly curious, and she decided that she definitely preferred it when he was cryptic. It made him easier to read.
"I don't like cities." She found herself speaking before she'd thought it through and she nearly clapped her hand over her mouth.
"Can't cage a hunter?" He smirked over the fire at her, the shadows of the flickering flames casting an eerie glow over his features.
"Unlike you, I don't need a cage," she grumbled, turning the rabbits over the fire, "I grew up outside of a city."
"The noise, the smells, the aura of corruption, they're everywhere." Nil drawled, easing his knife out of his scabbard and toying with the edge. "It makes it difficult to follow a righteous path when you can see the scum parading in the streets, doesn't it?"
"That's not why."
"Isn't it."
"You completely missed the point." She said tiredly, not amused by his constant attempts to convince her that they were the same kind of person. "I like the stars and the sounds of the mountains, a city is too busy."
"Did I?"
"Yes."
"Perhaps the corruption that I speak of goes by a different name in your world, but they are one and the same in deeds."
"What could you possibly know about my life?" She demanded, ensnared by his bold statement. She was not going to let him take the upper hand. She had a moral compass, he did not.
"The Eclipse, the bandit clans, they're the same."
"No."
"Yes." He leaned forwards into the light, his eyes glittering. "They both seek to destroy the world, in different ways, but the end result is still the same. Someone has to dispose of the unworthy, why not us? You picked up that mantle willingly."
"I didn't." She didn't offer any more information, the slaughter at the Proving was none of his business as far as she was concerned.
"And yet, here you are." The look in his eye unnerved her. She was irked that his words rang with a hint of truth.
She didn't have a response, so she simply stared into the light of the fire.
Finally, he sighed and moved around the edge of the fire. She stared at him, startled and slightly afraid. He sat down next to her and didn't seem to notice that she scooted away, putting more distance between them.
"We aren't friends." She blurted out, suddenly very wary. "Barely allies, actually."
The corners of his mouth ticked up and he gestured at her face. "I'd be more convinced that we aren't if you weren't so comfortable with your enemy's blood on your face."
Her jaw clenched, her hand automatically raised to her cheek. He was right, the drops of blood from the battle had dried onto her skin, a macabre new collection of freckles. She hadn't even noticed the tightening of her skin as the spray had dried down.
That thought bothered her, and she fought back a shiver of revulsion.
"Aloy."
She turned towards him and was startled to see that he was wetting a scrap of fabric with a skin of water that he'd pulled from his pack. Warily, she accepted it, rubbing furiously at her face. He chuckled and grabbed her hand. "You're missing all of them. Let me."
She froze, and despite her better judgement, allowed him to move close enough to touch her.
His hand was warm, and she couldn't help noticing the calluses on his hands and the scars that crisscrossed his skin in a pattern like the straw thatches on Nora roofs. She sat shock-still as he gently removed the blood, somewhat shocked by how tender he was.
She didn't like it one bit.
Nil wasn't soft, or kind, or tender. It made her heartbeat stutter as the edge of his hand brushed across her lower lip. A jolt of what must have been lightning sang through her body, heating her blood and bringing a flush to her cheeks. She took a sharp breath, trying to slow her heartbeat as Nil shifted even closer, bringing his other hand up to cup her cheek as he wiped the coppery stains from her forehead.
Another bolt of heat went straight through her at the feel of his fingertips on her skin.
She moved as if by instinct, drawing her knife and slamming him to the ground. The breath hissed out of his lungs as he landed on his back, her knife pressed against his throat. The look he gave her was dark and clouded with something that both excited and frightened her.
"Don't do that." Aloy hissed, her heartbeat thundering so loudly that she feared he might hear it. "I'm not some silly girl who will let you bed me."
He chuckled, a slow smirk spreading over his face. "I never said anything about bedding you. You have only to ask if that's what you want."
His laugh rumbled through her body and she was suddenly very aware that she was flush against him, still straddling him with her weapon pressed to his jugular. She scoffed and moved away, pausing only when his hand snaked up her hip to hold her in place. She froze, unsure whether to press her knife into his skin and kill him or wait to see what he was doing.
The heat in his eyes pinned her as she struggled to understand what was happening to her body. Something primal had taken her by the throat and held her fast, she was transfixed by the curve of his jaw and the slight sheen of sweat that still covered his chest.
She wasn't kept waiting long, and Nil's quiet words snapped her out of her trance.
"You still haven't accepted that you're a huntress, Aloy."
The way that he said her name was like a prayer, slipping easily from his tongue as he lowered his voice. "Of course I have-"
"No. You haven't."
They stared at each other for a few seconds, and Aloy was uncomfortable to realize that her heartbeat hadn't slowed, and his blood was thundering through his veins as quickly as her own. She felt his pulse against the metal of her blade.
It felt like battle-fever winding through her skin, but different, darker somehow. The pressure building in her chest and between her thighs frustrated her, and she could feel her expression softening, despite her attempts to keep the upper hand.
She felt his muscles tense a split second before he moved, flipping them over and pinning her with little effort. She felt her knife fall out of her hand as his chest came to rest against hers. All that she could see was the striking silver of his eyes this close, and she felt his breath ghosting over her lips as he finally spoke. She knew that she should fight back, but she found herself to be surprisingly boneless.
"A girl asks, Aloy. But a huntress takes what she wants."
His mouth was a hair's breadth from her own, and she felt the overwhelming urge to close the distance between them flooding through her body.
So she gave into it. Arching upwards and meeting his lips with her own, desperate to take the pressure off, she grabbed a fistful of his coarse hair. She wasn't gentle, attacking him with teeth and tongue and not stopping until he made a sound that was almost a grunt of pain. A moan. That's what that is.
She felt a surge of triumph, and took his lower lip between her teeth again, trying to force him to repeat the noise. His hand fisted in her hair and she found to her surprise that the slight sting wasn't painful. His mouth tasted like metal, and smoke, and something darker, something that could only be Nil. She felt her aggression softening, her body responding so enthusiastically to his touch that felt like she might burst.
She tensed when his hand smoothed up her side, coming to rest at the tie of her armor. Before she could think, he'd loosened the knot and slipped her chestplate off. The feel of his callused hand running along her collarbone was shocking and arousing in equal measure.
He must have sensed her hesitation, letting go of her hair and cupping her face as he abruptly softened the kiss. His mouth slanted over hers with less ferocity, his tongue running softly across hers as she felt herself clutching at his vest like her life depended on it. He knew that he'd taken his victory, he didn't have anything to prove.
Finally, they broke apart, breathing hard.
She saw herself reflected in his eyes from the firelight and shivered when she saw how feral she looked. Her hair was mussed, and she knew that she had dropped the pretense of control altogether. It frightened her, the way that he examined her. He leaned down to capture her lips once more and she snapped back to her senses as she felt the hardness of his arousal pressing against her.
She made a split second decision and bit him, hard. He snaked backwards, his hand drawing immediately to wipe at the bead of blood collecting on his lip. She scrambled to her feet, putting distance between them. Her chest heaved as she fought to get herself back under control, and she hurriedly scrubbed her mouth with the back of her hand.
Nil said nothing, simply watched her stalk to the other side of the fire with hazy eyes. She glanced over her shoulder to see him lick the blood from his lips, still watching her with a hungry expression.
"I'm leaving. Don't follow." She blurted, grabbing her pack and making for Meridian as fast as her legs would carry her. Her whistle echoed through the darkness and she breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the thundering gait of her strider mount coming towards her. She snuck a glance over her shoulder and wasn't surprised to see Nil's shadow outlined by the firelight.
Safely mounted and moving towards the city, she finally allowed herself to brush her fingers across her kiss-swollen lips. The fire inside her hadn't been dampened in the slightest by Nil's touch, it felt like she'd thrown a can of blaze on it.
"Damn it!" She groaned, her head in her hands. "What are you doing? I don't have time for this!"
But a tiny bubble of excitement had blossomed in her chest. The rules of the game had changed, and she knew that her bandit hunts with Nil would never be the same.
She wasn't the same.
She steered her mount into the mesa, determined to find a way to distract herself. She needed to think about something else besides the enigmatic man who tasted of blood and heat.
The next bandit camp would be different. She, Aloy, had to stay in control.