Disclaimer: Again, I don't own any part of HZD

Rating for this one might be a T. It's getting a little angsty I think, there's a chance I might take this down to remove some of that.

Chapter Six

As it turned out, Ikrie wasn't much of a cook either. The two women ate the boiled fish and drank the flavourful yet salty broth instead of tea. The water intended to be their beverage instead was used for hygenic purposes leaving them both flowery scented. Ikrie asked Aloy to add some braids to her hair to which she was happy to oblige.

The hunting of the goat ended up fairly short, there happened to be one near the top of the canyon slope they had come down from. They dragged the dead animal back to Snowchants Hunting Ground where Umnak was sitting with four young men, presumably the ones who had been doing challenges earlier.

Lauvuk met them on the edge of her site just out of earshot of the group telling. stories to one another and laughing. Her face was serious, her voice low.

"I need to speak with you both, please, go into the lodge I'll be with you soon. Talk to nobody."

Uncertain of why their host was behaving strangely but trusting her, Aloy gave the rope that had dragged the goat to Lauvuk. Neither woman spoke as they approached the lodge and they would need to pass by the group to get to the door.

Aloy hoped they would be ignored, the young men were in company of one of Ban-Ur's most celebrated hunters, but it was not to be so easy. A dark skinned fellow with tan coloured eyes saw them first and knew them immediately. Lauvuk had already regaled them with the story of their victory, he raised his hand to them in acknowledgement.

"Outlander! Snow Ghost!"

The three others of his group turned and cheered a welcome greeting, Umnak looked to the ground.

They looked friendly to Aloy, but life had taught her that scum was not inherently ugly. She raised a hand in greeting but it was immediately captured in the air by Ikrie who used her it to spin her around so they were face to face. Ikrie, who had pulled off the horns on her hood, pressed closely against her Nora lover and kissed her tenderly. Aloy could hear the men talking quietly amongst themselves.

"Oh, damn"

"The hunt rages on."

"Do you think they want a third?"

"Shut up Yerin, you're not in that song. Sorry, we won't bother you anymore."

And that was the end of it. They turned around and ignored them again, leaving the two women gazing at one another contemplating how important it was they move on to their next mission.

They held hands as they entered the tent and found things looking different than when they had left it. The pile of furs that had been their bed had been tidied away, and in its place were two chairs with a small table between them. On the table was a metal instrument next to a glass filled with black liquid.

Ikrie gasped and began removing her top layers of clothing.

"My tattoo!"

The redhead's curiosity was piqued. She walked to the table and picked up the instrument. It looked like a miniature version of her Ice Rail, she hoped it didn't function similarly or it must hurt terribly. Her eyes went to Ikrie who was placing her heavy jacket onto the bed, but the woman stopped when she saw what Aloy was holding. Her heart beat accelerated both in fear and delight at the sight. Being marked was something she was proud to do and to have done in the past. Lauvuk was the one to do her most recent tattoo, the fourth that was etched onto her spine. It was an owl's feather to represent Mailen who now and always would be behind her but always a part of her. Two were basic black circles, they were her parents. The third was a hollowed circle with a small square in its center. Outside of the circle were two flat lines, one above and one below it. She didn't like the story behind it, especially since Mailen was the one to give it to her. Lauvuk's technique was so much better than her former partner's.

"Does this hurt much?" Aloy asked as she noticed the bottom of it seemed to be missing a part that would be screwed into it. Likely its power source. She touched the only button on the device and when it didn't do anything, she concluded her assessment was correct.

"It can." Ikrie confirmed. She moved to stand before the Nora and held the device with her. "But it's so worth it, to place memories on your body." Her voice was breathier, excited. She directed the device to her right hand to the area below her thumb and forefinger. "There, is where Lauvuk will mark me but...if you want one too, I'm sure she could make that happen."

"Me?" Aloy raised her eyebrow, she then gave the other woman the non-smiling teeth grin she gave when she was uncomfortable. "Errr, maybe not. My body is already marked with a lot of memories, I'm sure you saw many of the scars. I'm sorry."

Ikrie smiled widely and didn't fight her on it. "I didn't think you would actually want one, but I thought it would have been rude to not at least put it out there for you to consider."

Two sets of hazel eyes met and invited the other to close their distance with a sweet and lingering kiss. Aloy felt tingly where they connected, their lips, her left hand where they still held the inking tool. While sex was a nice outcome, the Nora imagined she could be just as happy to be close to Ikrie kissing her, making easy conversation, maybe planning what they wanted to do the next day if anything. She didn't know what people did on a day to day basis when they had romantic relationships, but she thought maybe it would be nice to walk into the unknowable future next to somebody else.

She didn't know what to make of these thoughts, but she pulled back from Ikrie who gave her a hazy smile.

"Mmmm, what's up?" the Banuk questioned.

She had also been swept up in their simple pleasure, but Aloy's shy expression was utterly cute; her eyes were lowered and she used her free hand to pull loose hair back behind her ear. Ikrie didn't realize how correct she was. The redhead was struggling to find the words to convey how she felt. Being rejected for nearly the entirety of her life, it wasn't an easy thing to be emotionally open to another person. Knowing what she knew about the northern woman though, she considered that not telling her would be even worse than holding back.

Aloy took the inking tool and placed it back down on the table and put both of her hands on Ikrie's shoulders.

The long pause was starting to get to Ikrie. She didn't know what to expect and she wanted her lover to not be afraid to speak her mind.

"Aloy?" she pressed. The red head looked up, took in a breath and declared:

"Ikrie, I...I like you."

Ikrie blinked rapidly in surprise and tried to figure out what to do with this information. It hadn't occurred to her previously that Aloy didn't like her. She didn't reflect on it, the past 24 hours had been in a go with the flow mode. She responded.

"Oh, ahh, Aloy. I like you too."

A goofy grin spread on the face of the freckled redhead, she pulled Ikrie to her who was happy to accept the embrace.

"I don't trust most people" Aloy admitted. "Everybody wants or expects things...but you... you didn't try to knock me down to make yourself look bigger, and you didn't place me above you...I like...this...us"

It made Ikrie feel warm to receive such kind words. She also enjoyed what they were doing, whatever it was. She pecked Aloy's cheek.

"Thank you" she said. "I like this too" she pecked Aloy's bottom lip. "But for the record, I like having you above me."

Aloy had to laugh then, she continued to do so as she left kisses on Ikrie's cheek. The uneven air tickled against the Banuk's ear and she squirmed against her lover. In response, she clutched the clothing above Aloy's buttocks and squeezed with one hand. Aloy's mirthful lips continued to chuckle as they met against Ikrie's.

This was easy. This was right.

They were still kissing and giving each other ticklish touches when the door flap whipped open and the gruff body of their hostess made her way in. She rolled her eyes.

"I sent those boys away so you two...that's enough for now!"

In the older woman's hand was a palm sized metal part that had a glass centre filled with chillwater.

Aloy's eyes bulged out as she understood that Ikrie's tattoo was going to be made possible with the help of frostbite. Ikrie kissed the others cheek once more before they separated, neither of them spoke. The two Banuk women took seats at the table and began going over the details of the tattoo to be created. Ikrie presented her right hand and showed where she wanted the pattern to go.

With nothing better to do, Aloy decided to start preparing for The Claws Beneath. She would barter with Patras for supplies and begin doing some strategy with Umnak who could at least give her an idea about what kind of machine it was. She informed the two others as to what she was about to do, the groundskeeper stopped her.

"Don't bother, I sent that old bastard off too."

"Are you kidding!" The fiery headed one exclaimed irately. "I don't know where we're going or even what we're up against-"

"If you know what's good for you, you'll leave The Cut as you had planned to do." The older woman nodded towards Ikrie. "Take this one with you, keep her alive!"

"You're trying to keep us from going?" Ikrie asked, stunned. "Umnak asked-"

"You answered the call, blah blah blah. That man has been at this for ages and he still hasn't figured out how to kill it. Nearly everyone in Ban-Ur can claim to have lost people to this monster, some of us lost more than others!" Lauvuk's voice was angry. "I forbade him, on the life of my brother and daughter from telling those boys The Claws Beneath has returned. They deserve to live and hunt and tell us their songs-"

"But it will go on killing if someone doesn't put it down," Aloy boldly interrupted. "I'm not saying it will be easy but I've already faced off against things people told me I would never defeat. I just need to know what it is."

"It's a Rockbreaker" Lauvuk answered as a matter of face. "That's what an adventurer from the Sundom called it some years back. He died too."

"A Rockbreaker. I've killed those before..."

Now Aloy could begin strategizing. This type of machine had weaknesses that were exploitable, but it was not something one should try to face up close. For one thing, you needed to be far from it when it began to bore into the earth lest you be dragged under with it. Also, fighting it from a distance was not necessarily a smart thing to do either. It was capable of hurling enormous boulders at a hunter with deadly accuracy.

Lauvuk sighed deeply in resignation. "I know you're going to go...and I'll even tell you where to find it."

The groundskeeper clipped the battery piece into the main tool and the completed device began to make a low humming sound. The chillwater within it also reacted, turning a bright blue.

"Thank you" Aloy spoke in a distracted voice. Her eyes had become fixated on what Lauvuk was doing. She watched how the tip of the tool was dipped into the ink jar and her eyes became wide as she brought it close to Ikrie. When she touched the button near her thumb, it began to vibrate in a motion like two hands rubbing together up and down.

She looked to Ikrie as it made contact with the skin and found that the Banuk's eyes were fixated on her. Aloy watched the other woman's jaw clench, saw her try to force her breathing to stay calm, then after a few drops of ink had been etched into her skin, Ikrie smiled. It was utterly fascinating but the Nora had no doubts that the pain must be immense. She wasn't sure what she should be doing to be supportive, the Banuk had an idea.

"Aloy, can you tell me how you killed a Rockbreaker? I love your voice, can you tell it as a story?"

The Nora had never received such a strange proposition. She was not experienced in weaving facts into an adventurous tale. Even when she had been staying near her mother, when people asked her to recount her stories, they were simple and to the point. She discovered soon that better story tellers were retelling what she had said, only with far more flair. She didn't mind it too much because it meant that fewer people would be asking her the same questions over again.

"Oh...I'm not very good at making stories, but I can try" she replied somewhat hesitantly. She thought it would be embarrassing to try to do it in the Banuk way, with dramatic arms and at times even sound effects. Ikrie could tell she was trying to overthink it, so she gave her some direction.

"Where did it happen, what was going on that day?"

Aloy sat on the bunk across from Ikrie's chair and began the story.

"Ok, well, it was in an Oseram quarry just outside of Meridian. It was hot, but it was windy and the sand was blowing everywhere."

"What's an Oseram quarry?" Lauvuk interrupted.

"The Oseram like to dig up the earth to find treasures from the old ones, it's metal they're mostly looking for. They use enormous digging machines to move the rock and sand, everything they do is very loud. If its not the steam and gears from their machines, it's their explosives which they make from blaze. Anyway, I was heading north along the road because I was searching for somebody, but I was stopped because the foreman was trying to convince his workers to get back on the job. Everybody was terrified about the mysterious disappearances in the quarry."

"Who were you looking for?" Ikrie asked with a smile through gritted teeth. The arch in her design was complete.

"That's a longer story, maybe another time." Aloy apologized. The man she was looking for was Olin, whom she heard was travelling up the northern path she was on. Telling his story would definitely not teach anything about killing the beast they would be facing. She continued. "Anyway, I offered to check out the grounds. The focus I wear is able to detect movements. I thought I would be able to find out if perhaps the workers had run off on the job. I was wrong. The quarry was very big, and I was right in the center of it when I felt the rumbling beneath the earth. I didn't know what it was, so I didn't move, then all of a sudden the ground opened up in front of me and a machine the size of a Thunderjaw emerged. I didn't know what to do so I shot it with some arrows and I began running, but I didn't realize that it dug it self back below and was following me! When it came back up, it was right underneath my feet and it thrust me up into the air and thankfully, against the side of the quarry wall. It hurled big rocks at me" She stopped for a moment when she saw that she was about to receive another question, this time from Ikrie. Aloy spread her arms to show size. "Most of them were bigger than a cooking pot, I climbed up the wall and I think I got hit in the head by something because most of the details are fuzzy after that. But I've killed a few more after this one and I can tell you that if you destroy its feet, it can't dig anymore, nor can it hurl rocks. It's fast on the ground though, so if you have traps ready, it will slowly blow itself up in its pursuit of you."

Ikrie was still smiling, but her eyes were closed. Lauvuk was burning in ink the final survivor. The three arrows were complete beneath the daylong hunt with two victors. The hum of the device was silenced.

Aloy stood from the bed to take a look. It was bleeding very little, mostly where lines met their ends. The older woman wiped away the blood with a clean rag and then she pulled a satchel from her pocket which had Medicinal Salvebrush within it. Having used this medicine before, the Nora was not surprised when the woman popped the plant into her mouth and began to chew it, turning to plant into a healing paste. It was very good at closing open wounds.

The redhead then kneeled before Ikrie whose eyes were still closed, she wondered what the Banuk doing. Wasn't she curious to see what the old groundskeeper had done to her hand?

"Ikrie, it's done." Aloy put a hand on her knee and spoke softly. "Do you want to look?"

The blonde woman shook her head. Her hand was then wrapped up in a linen bandage.

"Not yet. It will look better after it's healed, but I can feel it." Ikrie opened her eyes then, they looked happy. Proud. She placed her free hand over Aloy's. "Thank you for telling me your story. I feel like our chances of surviving this have gone up, just knowing you've hunted them before."

A rush of relief filled Aloy's chest then, that her lover no longer saw their imminent deaths as a certainty. The flame headed woman had no desire to die in the north, and she was definitely not okay with the idea of burying Ikrie in the ice. They would either win or walk away, these were the only choices.

Lauvuk began taking apart her instruments. Her role in the song was over and she felt the need to give the women some space. There was something special that was growing between these two, but what it was to become only time would tell. In her life, she had fallen in love twice. The first was to the man who fathered her child, but he became sick while she was pregnant and he passed away before the little girl was born. The second time she knew love was when she was a member of the all women's werak, Thunder's Daughters. Latraya was a gentle, yet fierce woman who treated her daughter like her own child. When Nichai came of age, she answered the call to hunt with Umnak, but she was not ready and her body was never found. The grief tore Lauvuk and Latraya apart, so Lauvuk left and eventually she ended up at Snowchants where she became its groundskeeper.

The old woman sighed deeply. She wanted to implore with them to reconsider what they were about to do, but she knew it would be futile. That's how it always was with hunters. Instead, she did the only thing she knew she could do: Keep them alive a little while longer.

"Ikrie, Aloy...perhaps it will be your time, to defeat The Claws Beneath, but right now you are not ready. If you make me a list of the things you need, I'll barter them for a better price from Patras. Stay for one more night, and then at dawn go east. There's a hidden valley surrounded by the mountain peaks, this is where it has been sighted."

"How far away is it?" The Nora asked, wondering why it wouldn't be better to leave as soon as they had supplies since there were still daylight hours ahead of them.

Lauvuk looked at her impatiently. "Far enough!" She thought, but instead she replied.

"Only a few hours. It will give you plenty of light to hunt."

"What-" Aloy had questions, but the gruff woman had enough, she raised a single finger before her face to shut the Nora up.

"Stop!" She ordered. "You will have time to plan here, but I know you cannot fully strategize until you see the land that will be your battle ground. If you left now, it would be dusk when you arrive and if you do something foolish, you might have to begin your hunt tonight if he finds you." The older woman began to calm down, but the two huntresses kept quiet, uncertain if they were about to piss their hostess off further. "I'll have food ready in a few hours, but please stay. Talk, sleep, and enjoy one another. If either of you doesn't survive tomorrow, you'll at least be able to remember you had today."

She spoke no more and left them sitting in silence.

It had been a strange 24 hours for Aloy. At this time yesterday, she was casually walking through the wilds and looking for her friend. In time, she found her, already having begun the hunt Aloy was going to invite her to participate in. By dusk they were champions and when the moon was high, the friends had become lovers. Her first. After a lifetime of being denied companionship or familiar touch, she was surprised in herself on how well she soaked it up and how she much she craved it. Lauvuk was right. They needed to be on site to develop a good strategy. She would to talk to Ikrie about the weak points on a Rockbreaker, how to trick it and how to evade it, but not at this moment. The old woman had just given them the gift of time, it could happen a little later.

She was still kneeling before the chair. She reached up and touched Ikrie's cheek. The Banuk woman leaned into her touch. To her, Aloy seemed sad. They had things to do, but right now all she wanted to do was to help the beautiful outlander. Their hands were still connected by Ikrie's knee. The Banuk raised them up and kissed the back of Aloy's hand. She was rewarded with a shy smile.

"Song of my heart, what do you need?" Ikrie asked gently.

Aloy was slightly confused if what she had heard was a Banuk figure of speech, or an affectionate nickname, but her lover's intention was clear. She unclasped their hands and then wrapped her arms around the seated woman. Afterwards, she placed her ear above where Ikrie's heart would be underneath her clothes. Not caring if she was using what her lover had said correctly, she told her what she wanted.

"Song of my heart. Can we just hold each other for now."

I am uncertain with what I will do to chapter seven. I haven't decided yet if it will be a long and detailed romantic chapter, or if I will skip over to the next day and get right to the fight. Neither fights nor sex are easy to write. I tried to get six out quickly in hopes of having the momentum to start the next one right away.

I really want to get Aloy out of The Cut, but the darn snow keeps slowing her down.

If you have any feedback, let me know, thanks!