They rode over the mountain trail out of Nora territory, bagging another Sawtooth trophy along the way. Around midway they reached the edge of the mountains, and for the first time Ikrie had a view of the Sundom. "Goodness," she said. "I never knew the world could hold this much…"

"Brown?" Aloy grinned, and then immediately looked a little regretful. "Sorry, I guess after living in the white for years it must be pretty vibrant. Goodness knows, it stunned me the first time."

"I was going to say it looks like copper," Ikrie smiled at her. "Like someone ground up copper and gold for pigment, and painted the land with that." She paused, blushing. "Do I sound like a kid?"

"You sound like anyone should upon seeing a glorious new landscape," Aloy grinned over her shoulder. "When I first got to the Cut, I think I spent a full ten minutes staring. You'd be amazed, though, how many people take a view like this for granted."

Ikrie could only shake her head at that thought, craning to take in the whole vista. Broad rivers reflected the deep blue sky, broken by Snapmaws slipping in and out of the water. If not for that, Ikrie wistfully thought, it might be pleasurable to swim in there.

It would be good to find somewhere safe, in this land where water wouldn't try and freeze on your skin when you got out. Might be even better to swim somewhere with Aloy, she thought, feeling the Nora woman's taut stomach under her hands. Aloy had switched to the armour of a Carja Master Hunter, and it left her midriff bare.

Which had a certain appeal, Ikrie had to admit. Absentmindedly, not even fully aware she was doing it, she stroked with a thumb.

Aloy started. They both started, Ikrie enough that she almost tumbled off their mount. "Oh Aloy, I'm sorry! I got, ah, distracted."

Aloy regarded her with a slightly guarded but… amused expression? "That's OK, Ikrie. It's a lot to take in, isn't it?

"Uh huh," Ikrie breathed, the realisation rattling around her brain that Aloy might actually like her touch. "Right, I'm good to go. Let's explore, and maybe find a couple more trophies."

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

Carja Blazon wear – a suit Aloy had worn before she acquired the new one, and had maintained lovingly – took some getting used to. Even after days wearing lighter clothes, Ikrie felt almost naked in it, but the freedom of movement it afforded her was sublime. They darted down the slopes now, slipping to a halt in some long grass.

"What's wrong?" Ikrie asked. Aloy looked at her and pointed at what she'd seen – tracks, made with clawed metal feet. Ikrie gave a sharp intake of breath. "Ah. Sawtooth or Ravager?"

"Gonna say…" Aloy touched a hand to her Focus. The device could read the slight differences, gauge the telltale signs of extra weight and advise her that this was most likely… "Ravager."

Ikrie let out a low whistle. Then she frowned, listening. Aloy heard it too, the low throb of a machine's motors.

They both shrank down into the grass as long yellow spines appeared from behind a boulder. Then a jutting cannon – Aloy had been right. Then the full bulk of the Ravager prowled into the open, growling. Perhaps their voices had drawn it.

But it hadn't seen them yet. There was time to formulate a plan. That gave them an advantage, the sort which could make the difference between a controlled hunt and a desperate fight for one's life.

"How about this time," Aloy said. "I freeze, and you smash it? With a Ravager, it works better with a Freeze Arrow."

"How so?"

Aloy pointed. "There's a cannister of Chillwater on the chest. I can get an angle on it, a good three-arrow shot that should hamper it nicely. Just have a few bombs ready to go."

"On it," Ikrie grinned, and slinked off down the slope. Aloy reached for a rock, and cautiously tested the weight, ready for the throw.

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

Despite Ikrie's smile, her heart was pounding away. That felt slightly foolish to her, deep down. She and Aloy had, after all, taken down a Ravager yesterday. They'd even faced a Scorcher together back in the Cut – which, she reminded herself, was deemed more dangerous by seasoned hunters – but that one they'd had more time to prepare for. And crucially, their first move had been to blast the mine launcher off its back. Just as they had the Ravager of yesterday, when they'd had rather more mobility thanks to the Strider.

As for Sawteeth, Ikrie knew those. She'd faced them several times, and been taught well the ways to bring them down. A Ravager's cannon complicated those equations. Not to mention that with a few bounds, it could easily catch them with its teeth and claws.

Aloy's proposed first move on the Ravager was rather riskier. Catching its Chillwater reservoir and freezing it would be tricky to line up, so their only real chance to do it was before the Machine knew they were there. Ikrie could line up a throw of her own to land a bomb on the cannon and do away with that. Hopefully.

Her mouth was dry as she set a couple of explosive traps, drawing further back into the grass. Aloy's rock clacked on the dry ground, and the throb of the Ravager's motors made Ikrie's gums itch as it moved by.

Ikrie set a sticky bomb in her blast sling, took aim, waiting, knowing she couldn't hold this forever…

Aloy's threefold shot snapped from her hidden position and where they hit, snow-white vapour billowed. Ikrie's bomb was already sailing through the air as the Nora broke cover and caught on the armour right next to the Machine's gun.

That cannon was already coming to life with a flash of blue and an ominous vwhorp before it began chittering, pursuing the attacker. Aloy dived behind Ikrie, already nocking a Hardpoint Arrow. Ikrie herself had a proximity bomb ready to go.

The Chillwater cannister burst, skinning the Ravager in blue-white ice and turning its armour brittle. Then the bomb went off, and the cannon fragmented, torn loose along with a good portion of armour. Ikrie lobbed her second bomb, and Aloy scored another hit which shattered a plate on the Machine's flank. Two good, damaging hits.

For all that, a Ravager was designed not to relent until its prey was dead, and despite the damage done, this one came on with a vengeance. The bombs Ikrie had set hurt it more, but they barely slowed it. Aloy got another shot off, but all Ikrie had time to do was leap away, rolling clumsily when she landed.

"Keep running!" came Aloy's shout. She heard an impact, a snarl of anger from the Ravager close, very close behind her and… a fizzing noise?

It barely registered to her. She had to run, she could feel the Machine behind her.

Then from behind her there came a loud snap and sizzle, and a fierce, hot pain along her limbs which staggered her. She tripped and fell, grabbing her spear and rolling to see… the Ravager, lying prone as electricity crackled over its metal hide.

"Get it!" Aloy cried again, and Ikrie didn't need telling twice. She leapt up to the Ravager and thrust her spear right into the jaws, the point exploding from the back of its head in a shower of sparks. The red lights of its eyes died, and the whole Machine slumped, dead.

With an effort, Ikrie retrieved her spear and stood for a moment, leaning heavily on the weapon until Aloy reached her.

"I got its power cells with a Shock Arrow," Aloy said by way of explanation. "It was the quickest way to halt it again, but I'm sorry for the sting."

Ikrie snorted, shaking her head. "I'll take the sting if it saves my life. Though speaking of sting, oww." She had gone to touch her upper arm and her fingers came away bloody.

"Ooh," Aloy said sympathetically, and moved to her side, pulling a medicine pouch from her belt and reaching into it. "Downsides of Carja wear, I'm afraid. You're exposed to a few things Banuk gear protects against, besides weapons."

"Noted," Ikrie said, as she let Aloy apply a little mixture to her grazed arm. "Still suits me though, right?"

Aloy smiled. "Pleasingly rugged, Ikrie." And Ikrie couldn't quite miss the little skip of her heart at those words. "Though I've got another mixture you might want to apply before the sun gets much higher. The rays out here aren't all that kind to Nora skin, let alone Banuk."

"I guessed," Ikrie said. "Sunburn off snow is something we're warned about as pups, Aloy."

"Sorry." Aloy looked rather bashful now, and knelt to start looting the Ravager. "It's just I've brought you to a strange land, and it's easy to get carried away worrying about that. And you are my Thrush, after all."

Ikrie got to work as well, looking for a suitable trophy. "Reckon a claw will do, Aloy?"

"Maybe a bit of the faceplate will do better. Some of the older Hawks will grumble about you trying to pass off Sawtooth bits, otherwise."

"OK." Ikrie jammed her spearpoint into a crack in the white armour and pried one side loose, snatching it up when it came away. When she looked up, she found Aloy regarding her. "What is it?"

"Just that you take to looting easily," Aloy told her. "The trio of hunters I helped get out of the Cut, the Shattered Hearts, they needed teaching by an Oseram expert. And they still took a while to adjust to the idea. You though, you're already doing it handily, and you don't seem exactly hesitant."

That wasn't a thought which had really occurred to Ikrie in their time travelling together. "It's necessary," she said. "Particularly if, after the ordeal and my 'failure', I was going to be running alone. No merchant I sold parts to had to know that there hadn't actually been a Shaman present to bless the Machine." She couldn't keep a scowl from her face, and she could feel tears just behind it. "My people have some… frustrating views on what holds us back unnecessarily, and what doesn't."

"You're still thinking about Mailen?" Aloy said softly. "Sorry Ikrie, I should've asked."

"It's alright," Ikrie said hastily, trying to banish the moment of weakness. "But thanks. Shall we press on?"

Aloy looked at her like she didn't entirely believe her words, but said nothing of it. "Sure. There ought to be a Broadhead herd over the next rise."

So that was the way they went, luring one of the horned Machines out from its fellows and subduing it. Then Ikrie climbed up, finding her now familiar place behind Aloy, and they rode, following the sun again towards Meridian.