"Uh, Aloy…"
Aloy shook herself out of her reverie, and met Ikrie's ice-blue eyes. Which was only so tricky, when she was already gazing absently at her face. "Hmm?"
"What are you looking at?"
Aloy cocked her head. "All the time we were running together up in the Cut, you were wearing full Banuk gear. Practically swaddled," she said, and Ikrie chuckled.
"So you mean to say…"
"My… image of you included the furs, the hood, the whole headgear." Admittedly Ikrie had retained a bit of that for the more temperate gear she was wearing down here, keeping the aspect which put Aloy in mind of a lynx when she saw Ikrie, but the ensemble which had framed her feline features was very much altered.
"Can I at least get an 'I like your hair'?" Ikrie prodded, eyes full of amusement.
"Goes without saying," Aloy smiled. It was a striking look which had emerged from under Ikrie's hood, dark hair cropped on the sides and tied into a short ponytail. From that point down, she had turned out to be slender and sinewy, which Aloy found she rather liked. Something about it completed the impression given by those ice-blue eyes and-
"You're doing it again, Aloy."
Shit. Control yourself, Aloy. "Sorry."
"Bah," Ikrie chuckled, and punched her lightly on the arm. "No harm done. And there are worse people to have looking at me."
Aloy felt the blush rising in her cheeks, and turned back to her lunch. "So Ikrie, what are we doing out here? I mean, obviously we're getting away from the ice, and I'm happy about that." She had, after all, sacrificed a good month of spring to roving around in the snow, and it was good to feel a breeze on her skin which didn't hurt.
Also, finally seeing Ikrie in lighter gear was, to put it guardedly, a welcome novelty.
They'd come down out of the Cut today, and were working their way west across the Sacred Land of the Nora. Setting out from the border after breakfast, a morning's ride on an overridden Strider had brought them to a river, which seemed as good a spot for lunch as any. The Strider was now standing quietly to attention a stone's throw away.
When Ikrie had asked to come with her, Aloy hadn't thought anything of it. The other woman hadn't seen beyond Banuk territory, and she had just had her ordeal on the glacier. The White Teeth's test, which had cost Ikrie her friendship with Mailen. Which had forced Ikrie to sacrifice her friendship, so that her friend could achieve the thing she desired most of all.
And Aloy had been turning that over and over in her head, realising just how much Ikrie had given up. Sure, Rost had parted from her before the Proving, determining silently to stand vigil over her trial, but he had done so in the expectation that Aloy would trade his guardianship for a place within the Nora tribe. True, nothing had gone as Rost envisaged, but the intent had been there.
There was no such upside built into Ikrie's choice. She'd been faced with a lose-lose situation. That had to knock her off-kilter pretty badly. Where did a lost Banuk go? The Sundom seemed to be the usual answer, from those she'd met.
Now Ikrie spoke up, and confirmed Aloy's supposition. "I pictured us heading over to the Sundom, and finding our way to the Hunter's Lodge."
"Hunter's Lodge, you say?" Aloy looked at her sidelong. "You're going to need a sponsor."
"Lucky I've got a friend on the inside then. She owes me," Ikrie continued, warming to her little act. "I did miss out on the call to arms at Meridian after all."
"You mean the great battle?" Aloy arched an eyebrow, remembering the terrible carnage of that day. She'd found an ancient word which seemed to fit: apocalyptic. "Well, I'm sorry I didn't drag you from all the way from the Cut into immense danger, with all the pressure that goes with needing to save the world."
"Apology accepted." Ikrie winked. "Besides, now you can make it up to me, right Hawk?"
"Oh, I suppose I can be persuaded. My spear besides yours, right?" She sat back, basking in the sunlight. "And as the first savage to join the Lodge, I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't bring a Banuk ice ghost into the fold."
Ikrie gripped her upper arm and gave her a little shake. "Aww, you do like me."
"Which was never in question. So," Aloy added, thinking. "We've got trophies to think about. Talanah had me bag several when I joined."
"And to that end," Ikrie replied, reaching for her bag. "I have taken a couple of pieces over our time coming south. A Sawtooth fang for starters." She pulled out a blade of black metal. "That Stalker we dealt with by the geysers."
"That's one the Lodge always likes to see," Aloy said approvingly. "It demonstrates a certain ability to think on your feet."
"And do you think a Scorcher fang will stand in for… what did you bring in for your place? A Ravager?"
Aloy eyed the tooth, noting the Blaze pipe which ran down its back. "You might need Ardik to back you up to some of the sceptical types in the Lodge."
"Is he Banuk?"
"Yeah. Most Lodge members are Carja, and Carja tend not to get out to the Cut."
Ikrie nodded. "I'll say. Those I have seen, I can count on my fingers. Based on how you've handled, our kind of cold isn't ideal for a Nora."
"The kind where you have to dig out frost from between your teeth? Yeah, very much the case, and I'm used to snow in springtime. Most Carja aren't, and in any case, they're..."
"Snobs?"
Aloy weighed her words with some care. "Not all, but some of the snobbiest people I ever met are Carja, I'll give you that. It's really a lucky thing that I'm presenting you to my former Hawk, and not the man who held her place before. And Banuk are… tricky, for the Carja."
"More than your people?"
She thought about that, and how to say it without any risk of tactlessness. An apple bought her some time. "The Nora, so far as they're mine, are a straightforward people. The Carja tend to misunderstand us quite a lot, but it's not too removed from the truth."
Amusement showed clear in Ikrie's eyes. "And we're more complicated, huh? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, though. The number of times I've become exasperated with Banuk customs and well, with everything that's happened since we met." Her smile had faltered.
"Still kind of raw, isn't it?" Aloy asked.
"It sure is. But I'm getting you away from your point. So we're difficult for the Carja?"
"Yeah. Now, a Nora is easy to a Carja mind. They're superstitious but in a fairly practical way, steering clear of ancient ruins, Cauldrons and the like. They take down Machines, and take the bits they require. There aren't cities in the Sacred Land, but there's enough that the Carja can just write us off as primitive rather than wholly different."
"Whereas the Banuk?"
"Whereas the Banuk learn more, or at least some of them do, but wrap it all up in mysticism while the Carja pride themselves on being rational. Every scrap of lore that the Banuk have about Machines is filtered through their Shamans and their ways."
"Like how we don't like to see anyone else strip a Machine down?" Ikrie chuckled. "You've corrupted me there, Aloy."
"Oh, it seemed to me like you'd done it before."
"Do you always slander your friends like this?" Ikrie nearly succeeded in keeping her face straight. "Alright, joking aside, I might get some backs up just by being me. So I guess there's nothing new there for either of us. But between you, Ardik and… Talanah's the Sunhawk, right?"
"Got it in one. You should be just fine, but we still need a couple of Sawtooth and Ravager trophies."
It was such a welcome change to have someone who could keep up with her, or rather whose thoughts ran on the same track as hers. Ikrie likely had more in common with her than anyone from the Nora Tribe. Snow ghost and outcast seem to go well together.
Aloy jolted herself from her reverie. "Just gotta think of which way to go. I reckon if we head over the maintain and then the Path of Broken Stones, that should take us through a couple of sites. Plenty of-"
A roar cut her off, rolling down the valley like thunder. She came to her feet and turned to follow the sound. What she sees makes her breath catch in her throat.
Ikrie is blunter. "Oh crap."
A young Nora lad was sprinting down a slope, a couple of hundred metres distant. He was running pell-mell, and no wonder. Because a moment later, a Ravager came tearing over the crest of the hill above him, and the lad barely dodged the torrent of cannon fire it issued after him. Between its speed and the lethal ranged weapon on its back, there was no way he'd escape it on foot.
Aloy and Ikrie shared a glance. "Looks like your next trophy came to us," Aloy said grimly. Then she ran to mount her Strider. She had it moving from the moment she set it in motion, and along the way she caught Ikrie's wrist and helped her up. Seconds later they were at full gallop, heading for the Ravager and its prey.
Ikrie had one arm around Aloy's waist as she freed her sling from its holster. "Mind your left shoulder!" she called. "Huh?" Aloy grunted. Then she realised, and tilted herself right, nocking an arrow and pulling her bowstring taut as they homed in on the Ravager. Hardpoint Arrows seemed best for this occasion. Over her shoulder, Ikrie took aim and sent a Freeze Bomb arcing overhead.
Ikrie's bomb burst over the Ravager's metal hide in a gout of chillwater and instantly frozen moisture in the air. Aloy's arrow arrived a split-second later, cracking against the Machine's cannon and spoiling its aim. The Ravager snarled, fixing immediately on the new humans in its vicinity and immediately prioritising them as greater threats.
Ikrie slipped from the machine's back, carrying her momentum into a roll. Aloy rode on, urging her steed into a ring around the Ravager and peppering it with arrows, the better to distract it from her fellow huntress. It worked, though that meant cannon fire screaming through the air behind her as she went.
Ikrie was far from idle – after all, she wanted this to be her kill – and lobbed a couple more Freeze Bombs at the Ravager. It slowed noticeably, ice forming across its flanks. Brittle metal – just what Aloy and Ikrie needed. Aloy struck with another Hardpoint, shattering the cannon's barrel and silencing the weapon.
That got the Ravager coming straight for her, but it meant that the still frost-rimed Machine didn't notice the Sticky Bomb which Ikrie had sent artfully spinning towards it – to land right on its power cell. Aloy heard the telltale plink of it making contact, and kicked the Strider into an even faster gallop.
It meant that she just heard the explosion and felt the wash of heat, and Ikrie's whoop which accompanied it. She turned her Strider about and cantered to a halt next to the fallen Machine.
Ikrie was already at work with her spear, prying a fang loose. Her eyes sparkled when she looked to Aloy. "Right you were. Thanks for leaving me the kill, Hawk."
Aloy hopped down as the tooth came free, and braced herself for a thudding hug. Ikrie's way of expressing affection tended towards the kinetic, which Aloy was just fine with. "It was a damn good kill, Thrush."
Ikrie gave a little giggle. "That's gonna take some getting used to."
Aloy raised an eyebrow. "What, doing as I ask you?"
The Banuk girl stuck out her tongue. "Doing as anyone asks."
"Well, we can work on that." Aloy climbed onto the Strider again and reached down to assist's Ikrie's springy jump up. "Still a good way to go before we reach Meridian."
"Then let's get going and see what else we can bag along the way," Ikrie grinned. She wrapped one arm around Aloy's waist, and with her free hand, pointed west. "Follow that sun!"
