Aloy and John walk through the cold and snowy coniferous forest and bare deciduous trees. They walk down a trail and eventually reach a river.
"Hey, listen!" John stated as he stops, causing Aloy to do so.
They hear what is distant banging on pipes.
"Come on," Aloy said as she hurries toward the sound, prompting John to follow.
Aloy leads John toward the direction of the banging pipes. John starts distinguishing that the banging is not mere banging, but has a rhythm. Like drumming. They reach a basin with a metal manhole that the sounds eminate out of.
"So this is what one of these places has been reduced to," John noted wryly.
"Cyan told me that this place was for producing energy for Operation: Firebreak," Aloy said.
"Cyan was right. It was a part of a hydroelectric station. It wasn't for music at all."
"A hi-dro what?"
"I'll explain later, let's just go down there," John said as he moves to go down the ladder.
The duo go down the ladder into the ever increasingly loud metallic but rhythmic banging. They go down a narrow corridor with wide metal pipes on either side of them. Up ahead is a wall with a Banuk symbol painted onto it. They turn the corner to encounter the sight of a Banuk girl surrounded by Banuk decorum while banging away on a part of those metal pipes with two thick wooden sticks. To John, the movement of her arms and hands, their fluidity, shows that she has been doing this for a long time, possibly on a daily or near daily basis.
Aloy moves into position to get the girl's attention, causing her to stop upon being startled.
"Aloy! You're back!" The girl exclaimed with a smile and puts down her sticks to hurry over to Aloy and briefly hugs her.
"Hey there, Laulai," Aloy smiled. "I was just passing through on an errand when I thought to drop by and say hi. This is my traveling companion, Jawn. Jawn, this is Laulai."
The two greet each other.
"Still banging on the pipes," Aloy said rhetorically.
"It's a song about you, Aloy," Laulai said. "It's a song about your exploits down in Meridian."
"Word travels fast," Aloy quipped.
"Ah, Laulai," John said, "What can you tell me about this place?"
"This place is called the Deep Din, a place created by the Old Ones that had to have served as a great music hall to send their songs far and wide. We make our songs here as they had no doubt made theirs. Then one day it got flooded by water that was not the result of rain, but Aloy solved the problem and exposed it once again for us to make songs to be heard like back during the days of the Metal World."
John tenses his lips as he fights back the urge to snicker.
"Listen, Laulai, we only stopped by for a brief moment," Aloy said. "There's someone else we want to meet."
"Very well," Laulai said. "I'll just get back to my song."
Aloy and John bid Laulai a goodbye and turn to leave. They reach the ladder just as Laulai starts playing the pipes once again. Once back up outside, John starts laughing, doubling over in the process.
"What's so funny?" Aloy asked.
John first urges her to follow him away from the playing down below until they are far enough for a casual conversation as they continue walking along.
"Okay, now what was so funny?" Aloy asked again.
"I was laughing because I found that situation not only hilarious but tragic too," John explained through snickers as he points toward where they had been. "The purpose of that place has been reduced to banging out music and no one else, save you, knows what it was for."
"You said earlier that it was a hi-dro something."
"It's part of a hydroelectric dam. A place that used the flow of the river to create electricity to power our buildings far and wide. A part of the river was runned over huge metal fans called turbines that are attached to a massive dynamo, a magnet with copper coiled around it. Spinning it caused electricity to be produced. Those pipes down there were for funneling water through."
"That station is nearby. It's called the Greycatch. I went in there to find a way to stop the water from flowing through there. I had help from an Oseram man named Gildun, who got trapped in there and actually caused that flooding because he was tampering with the switches in there. But I managed to solve the problem."
"Well good for you, Aloy."
"I'm surprised you didn't tell Laulai any of that."
"What good would it have done? Unlike you, she wouldn't have understood."
"You got a point there, Jawn. But does it bother you that hi-dro-elek-trik station has been reduced to making music."
"Well, just a little." As he holds up his thumb and forefinger as if pinching. "But my world is gone now, so that place may as well be used to bang out music. Bad music mind you, given what we once had. But at least it's being paid attention to."
"I guess other hi-dro-elek-trik stations out there must be serving as music centers for more Banuk then. So all your power was made by such places?"
"Yes and no. Not all power stations used water. There were those that used wind power. That is they had enormous metal fans fixed atop equally enormous metal poles."
"I think I saw such places like what you just described out there. They were mangled and rusting though."
"Well that's what hundreds of years of neglect will do. There were also power stations that used a type of metal to power them. But that metal was what we called radioactive. It means that it gave off a dangerous energy that could kill you. They were put behind lead barriers. There were also power stations that used fuel. And there were even buildings that did not depend upon power stations because they had these black plates on their rooves that could soak up the energy of the sun to create electricity."
"Wow, there were so many ways to power your buildings and cities. But that radioactive metal sounds dangerous."
"Yes, and they had to be stored afterwards. But Faro Automated Solutions, Ted Faro, found ways to dispose of them safely. In fact, he made solar power, or sun power, more acceptable because he developed a better material that could produce more electricity in lower light conditions. Along with better batteries to help store all that power."
"To think he helped your world before he ended up destroying it."
"Ironic, isn't it . . . ? Now then, where are we heading to next?"
"We are heading to that ruin I mentioned. Where a Shaman named Enjuk is taking care of it."
"And you say there are animals from my world there?"
"Just their holographic images and statues. When we get there, maybe you could tell me all about them."
"Well it won't be in the presence of this Enjuk fellow, lest he put two and two together about me. But I'm even more interested now than I was with that hydroelectric station."
Aloy and John make their way through the forest. They pass more machines that ignore them. By noon, they enter an area that are hot springs and colorful layered mounds with water running over them.
"I think I know where we are," John said. "This must be Yellowstone Park. Or was that is."
"That's what Cyan told me too," Aloy said. "She even explained to me what it was all about. That it was a place where hunting was forbidden."
"She was right. It was an area of wilderness set aside for preservation so that its trees would not be cut down and its wildlife protected. Tourists would visit and stay at such places. One time, the American government oversaw this place, but they sold it to the state of Wyoming. Then back before I was born a volcano erupted in it and Ted Faro purchased the park to create Firebreak, a structure that would cool the volcanic ground here to prevent a super volcano from erupting that might threaten all life on Earth. Of course that became irrelevant, but they had built a facility for just such a thing."
"I was inside that place, along with Aratak and his sister Ourea, to confront Hephaestus' control over Cyan. But come on, the ruins are nearby."
They carefully walk across the landscape dotted with such sulphur springs as the smell of sulpher fills the air.
"There it is," Aloy said while pointing out the place. "And I think Enjuk is inside too."
As they get closer, something catches John's attention.
"What is that?" As he points out what looks to him like a large and thick metallic flowerstem.
"That was something that Hephaestus had unleashed the last time I was here. It had a flowerlike head that rotated and blossomed, sending out a pulse. That pulse healed any machine near it. I had to destroy them in order to prevent that."
The duo finally arrive at the dilapidated building and enter. Sure enough, inside they find Enjuk the Shaman who is quick to greet them.
"Aloy! You've returned! Songs of your deeds in the South have gone far!"
"So I was told. Enjuk, this is my traveling companion, Jawn. Jawn, this is Enjuk. A Shaman interested in the animals, especially those that once lived in the Metal World."
"So what do you know about the animals of the Metal World?" John asked Enjuk.
"That they were big. Bigger than us humans. Those statues over there are the animals that used to exist one time, but no more." As Enjuk gestures toward the statues of the moose, mule deer, brown bear, and wolf in the background along the wall past seven stands that have the small statues of animals on them and a green handprint on them. "If you touch those green hands, an image of them will be painted onto the air over that metal platform and the voice of Montana Recreations will tell you their names."
"The voice of Montana Recreations?" John mused slowly as he leers humorously at Enjuk.
"He was a man," Enjuk explained. "No doubt the finest natural scholar the Old World ever produced. His knowledge must have surpassed mine a thousand times over. I found one of those statues, but Aloy here found the rest. If it wasn't for her, I would not have found out about them. But go on and see for yourself." As he gestures once again.
John walks over to the platforms. He wonders which one to activate when his gaze falls upon the statue of a wolf and chooses that. Upon touching the green hand, the animated holograph of a wolf appears above the metal platform just beyond it that also includes the sound of its howl.
Canis Lupus. The enigmatic Grey Wolf. Brought to you by Montana Recreations!
An overly masculine voice had boomed.
"I see what you mean," John mused over his shoulder briefly, then looks at the holograph before it disappears. "So these wolves. They're not around anymore?"
"No," Enjuk answered.
"Aloy, have you ever seen or heard of any wolves?"
"Nope," Aloy answered. "About the only creatures that come close to resembling those wolves are foxes."
"I see," John mused as he stares back down at the statue while rubbing his chin in thought. "Enjuk, what are your thoughts about grey wolves?"
"I find that they suspiciously resemble fox and I fancied that maybe hundreds of winters ago they were one kind, but became seperated. But it sounds too ridiculous and I have discarded that whole notion."
John wanted to say, or how about millions of winters ago, but held his tongue and instead moves onto the moose to watch and listen.
"What about these moose then?" John asked after the presentation was done.
"They must've used those bizarre growths on their heads to blend in with its forest home," Enjuk answered.
"Or maybe," John answered thoughtfully as he looks back at Enjuk, "they used them to fight other moose?"
"Why would they use them to fight other moose?" Enjuk winced. "Wouldn't that hurt their heads?"
"Just a thought," John shrugged innocently, then moves onto the mule deer to watch and listen.
"What about this mule deer then?" John asked.
"I'm thinking it used its horns to kill its prey in the absence of sharp teeth," Enjuk answered.
"Or maybe they used them like those moose used theirs," John suggested. "And are you sure that those creatures didn't eat plants instead?"
"A creature that size as that statue over there suggests?" Enjuk said skeptically as he gestures at the statue of the mule deer in the back. "Come on. Something that big would also need to eat meat to sustain itself."
"Yeah, well," John winced in a casual manner, "I just get this feeling that it might have only ate plants."
"Who knows?" Enjuk mused.
John moves onto the grizzly bear to listen and watch. "What about this one now?"
"Aloy told me that its claws might ripe someone in half," Enjuk answered. "But Montana Recreations just called it grizzled, meaning that it would be too old to be a threat."
"Have you ever heard of raccoons, Enjuk?" John said.
"What are they?"
"They're small furry animals that live further south," Aloy answered this time. "They have grey fur with black and white markings, especially on their fluffy tail and around their eyes. They look like they're wearing a mask. They eat all kinds of things and can be pests."
"And their fur is gray," John added. "Just like the gray wolf."
Enjuk blinks in thought. "I see what you're both getting at."
"So grizzled does not necessarily mean weak," John said, then moves onto the bison to watch and listen. "What about this animal?"
"It must've been a revered animal to the Old Ones," Enjuk answered. "Because they called it, bison bison bison. That Latin must have been another word for chant."
John blinks in silence at Enjuk for a moment. He really didn't know how to answer that one and moves onto the next animal, the cougar, to watch and listen.
"And this one?"
"It must've lived underground," Enjuk answered.
"Why would you think that?" John asked.
"Because of the color of its pelt," Enjuk answered. "It probably burrowed using its teeth."
"Or maybe they just hid within brush?" John suggested. "What with their teeth showing that they ate meat and hunted."
"Jawn's got a point there, Enjuk," Aloy added. "I find that wearing something sand colored has helped me blend into the brush, especially if the canopy's thick."
Enjuk glances between the two. "I'll have to think about that."
John moves onto the last animal, the black bear, to listen and watch.
"I once asked Enjuk if he would like to be cornered by that creature," Aloy said immediately after the announcer finished. "And he told me that he would like it."
"Really?" John sneered at Enjuk.
"Well it looks to be a beautiful beast," Enjuk said innocently.
"And it was no doubt related to the grizzly bear," John said. "So that black bear would have used its claws on you."
"I . . . didn't think about that," Enjuk said as he briefly rubs his own neck as if he should have known something obvious.
"Yeah, well," John sighed. "These creatures are all gone now. So all there will ever be about them is speculation."
"Unfortunately, you're right," Enjuk agreed.
"Listen, Enjuk," Aloy said. "Jawn and I need to be going. We only stopped by so that I could show him this place."
"Oh yeah, well it was nice meeting you, Jawn. And you again, Aloy."
"Likewise," John said.
"Same here," Aloy said. "Come on, Jawn."
The duo leave the ruins that was once called the Yellowstone Park Gift Shop.