"Huh," Ikrie murmured, as they cantered. "I was right."
"Hmm?" Aloy turned to look questioningly at her, over her shoulder.
Ikrie felt her cheeks grow warm. "Oh damn, did it again."
"Talking to yourself?" Aloy favoured her with a smile that rivalled the sun above. "No judgement here, I'm the world's worst offender. Rost used to chide me for it."
"Uh huh?"
"Yeah." Aloy adopted a deep, gruff voice – as far as she could manage that. "Aloy, if you blurt like that as one of the Tribe, they'll have you Outcast again in a turn of the moon."
Ikrie snorted. "Well, now I just feel like a bad influence."
The Nora woman shook her head. "I wouldn't worry on that score. It's good to have a kindred spirit… but I'm going on a tangent. What was it you were blurting there?"
"Oh that." Ikrie pointed to the mountains, up in the northeast. "See those peaks? Mailen and I were taken there once as pups, given a view of the outside world."
"And what were you right about?"
"I said it looked like somewhere I wanted to go. Got a clip around the ear for that and was sternly told that that was an easy land that turned people soft, and then mad." She thought back to what she'd been told about the Red Raids. "My people always said that the Carja got weak and lounged around, so the sun boiled their brains and turned them mad."
She could almost hear Aloy's eyebrow rise as the Seeker spoke again. "And there I was, thinking you rather liked the Carja so far."
"Hey, I just said they talked rot, didn't it? So far, I like the Sundom."
Aloy looked around at her. "It seems to agree with you. You're tanning pretty well, Ikrie." Her eyes tipped to Ikrie's torso and lingered for a moment before she seemed to tear herself away.
Ikrie shook it off and glanced down as well. "Huh. Yeah. Don't think I've ever had my belly going brown before."
"Suits you," Aloy told her, smiling.
Which left Ikrie rather speechless, and feeling like it was a bit of a mercy that Aloy turned back to see the road ahead and didn't see her silently spluttering. Could she be right? Could it be that there was something under the looks, the twinkle in the Nora's eyes? Did she dare take that risk, even, and presume that the Seeker might actually feel something for a lost Banuk girl?
On balance, it came as something of a relief to spy something unexpected. A hillock of metal rose from the baked-orange earth, thickets of iron and plumes of smoke reaching into the sky.
"Now that's something entirely new," she murmured, putting a hand on Aloy's shoulder.
"That's Free Heap," Aloy told her. "And that's… oh. Oh no."
"That's what?" Ikrie asked, eyeing the same dark metal shape as her, circling the settlement on huge, beating wings. "Is that a – by the Blue," she gasped as a gout of fire leapt from the Machine's head to strike somewhere in Free Heap. "That's not a Stormbird, is it?"
"Not at all," Aloy said, shaking her head. She'd never seen one of these before. "Well, play this right and you'll have your next trophy," Aloy told her. Then she lashed the reins. "Hold on!"
It certainly wasn't a Stormbird. Its head was closer to a Clawstrider's or a Thunderjaw's – some melding of the two.
"The hell do we even call that?" Aloy gasped as they sped closer.
"Uh, Blazewing?" Ikrie offered.
"That'll do. Now see if you can get a shot."
Luckily the Machine's attention was on Free Heap – for a certain value of lucky, anyway. But it was wheeling and swooping in a manner that was unhelpful, to put it mildly. And every swoop meant another blast of fire dousing part of the settlement.
Ikrie gritted her teeth. "Gonna be hard with the sling."
"Then use my bow!" Aloy twisted just a little, for Ikrie to pluck the bow off her shoulder.
"Right. Shock arrows?"
Ikrie drew the arrow from the proferred quiver. Next, she grunted with effort as she clamped her thighs tight to the Charger's flanks and drew back the bowstring.
She leaned back, trying to get just the right angle. Aloy reached behind her to help steady her companion, aiming to grip her tunic. For once though, her aim was off.
Both of them started when Aloy's hand alighted on Ikrie's thigh, and Ikrie could practically hear the thoughts running through Aloy's mind: Wait, no, that's not her tunic. That's her thigh. Despite everything, it brough the Nora up short for a moment. Then she seemed remember to the bigger picture and tell herself oh, what the hell.
So she tightened her hold on Ikrie's thigh and rode on. Ikrie refocused too, took aim again, and let fly.
Aloy had made the right call. A shudder ran through the winged shadow as sparks cascaded across its skin. It dipped in the air, righting itself with a vigorous couple of flaps. Then it dived on the two mounted hunters, jaws opening wide.
"Hold on!" Aloy yelled, tugging hard on the reins. The Charger veered left as a volcanic blast of flame billowed from its mouth, rippling over the ground where the Machine and its riders and had just been.
Ikrie gasped. They'd got clear of it by a good few feet, but she still felt the wash of heat. The hairs on her arms had singed, she could feel it.
"Fire again!" Aloy told her.
Ikrie turned, and found the Blazewing had wheeled to come after them. A croaking roar broke from its mouth, followed by a small blast of fire. "Down!" she cried, and it whipped over their heads.
The Blazewing had pinions as wide as a Stormbird's, but it didn't fly like one. Its wings were sheets of black membrane, with skeletal metal arms stretching across them. When it flew close, Ikrie noted long, clawed fingers.
It was fast, keeping stubbornly on their tail. We're one target, she thought. We're one target, but we could be two.
She clamped a hand over Aloy's shoulder. "I'm getting down! Take the bow!"
"What?"
Ikrie simply shoved it at her. "Here!"
Aloy didn't argue, and grabbed the weapon. Ikrie leapt from the Charger's back, loading her sling and firing as the Blazewing went for Aloy. This one was a telling hit, and the Machine seized up, crashing to earth.
It didn't walk like a Stormbird or Glinthawk either, when it came down with a thump. The wings folded so the clawed hands met the ground, and the creature moved in a waddle which would've been comical, if it weren't such a large and menacing Machine.
Ikrie didn't try to take the first shot, diving to the side as the fire breath loosed again. But the Oseram, up on their walls, were free to make their own attacks. Bright blue projectiles shrieked as they flew through the air and smacked down on the Blazewing's back.
Chunks of armour were tossed high into the air. Blaze ignited in geysers of flame, doing even more damage.
Seizing her chance, Ikrie landed a telling hit with a shock bomb, followed with a crackling arrow from Aloy, and the Blazewing seized up once more. Ikrie was already in motion, spear in hand, and threw herself forward, all her weight behind the weapon. It punched through the roof of the Machine's mouth and exploded from the back of its head.
Instantly, the giant went limp, crumpling to the ground in a confusion of metal limbs. In death, it threatened to look comical. Except for its finger-length teeth, so close to Ikrie's face, and the furnace heat it gave off.
She'd brought down a dozen Bellowbacks and felt the heat radiate from their bodies, but it didn't come close to this. She retrieved her spear quickly and turned to find Aloy swinging down from the saddle, rushing to embrace her.
She thudded into Ikrie, hugging her tight. "Snow Thrush, can you not scare me like that again? Just for a little while?"
Ikrie let out a small chuckle when she regained her breath. "The opening was there, Hawk, and we had people who were in danger. I had to take it."
"I know, Ikrie, I know. Just… grah. Don't like fretting about you."
Be still, my skipping heart. I can't be more worked up over this woman hugging me than a Machine fight. That would just be absurd. Her skipping heart, as if it needed saying, begged to differ.
Aloy must've been looking past her, at the downed Blazewing. "Best to ask the Oseram first, but I think you've earned yourself another trophy already."
Ikrie saw movement by the gate, and people came trudging out. "I think we'll able to ask in just a-"
"Aloy!" came a shout from a stocky Oseram woman. "Say hello before you get lost in canoodling."
Ikrie blushed immediately. To her surprise, Aloy turned just as bright a shade of red, and turned to face the Oseram woman. "Sorry, Petra."
Ah. Ikrie scrutinised Petra keenly. I thought the woman who ran Free Heap would be… bigger, somehow.
"Well, there's an easy way to make it up." Up close, Petra was a little smaller than Aloy and Ikrie, albeit well-built. She had short hair which, despite its limited length and a bandana, still contrived to be unruly. Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she regarded Ikrie. "Your intriguing little snowball here did, after all, knock that monster out of the sky."
"We're calling it a Blazewing," Ikrie said, doing her best to shrug off the praise.
Petra quirked an eyebrow. "Are we now? Well, to the one who fells it…" She stepped forward, offering a hand. "Petra Forgewoman."
"Ikrie."
"A pleasure." Petra gives Aloy a broad smile. "I didn't realise you'd be bringing anyone back from the Cut. Lone huntress and all that."
Aloy shrugs. "I hadn't meant to, but well, you saw how Ikrie and I work together." She turns serious. "Anyone hurt up in the Heap?"
Petra shakes her head. "No more than some minor burns, though it could've been worse had you not shown. Never seen one of these before." Thinking for a moment, she adds "I suppose I have to thank you again for the cannons, don't I, Aloy?"
"Let my Thrush claim a trophy, and I'll consider it all good."
"Stay for lunch and it's a deal." Petra winked. "I'm expecting grand tales… and I suspect I could give your gear some looking at. What's it Erend likes to say? Sun Carja's all well and good, but reinforce it with some Oseram iron and that's how the magic happens."
"Erend," Ikrie asked. "The… Sun-King's captain?"
"Yup," Aloy confirmed. "We make it back for the feast, he'll want to tell you a whole heap of stories about us turning Meridian upside down. Glinthawks, rogue Oseram, explosions…"
"Has it got to the point where that just says 'Aloy story' to you yet?" Petra asked Ikrie.
Ikrie blushed, tilting her head a fraction. "Not just yet."
"Well, looking at the two of you out here," Petra grinned. "You might be a part of a couple more already. But," She started walking to the gate, beckoning them to follow. "If you fancy an interlude, we'll have lunch ready to go as soon as we're tidied up."
