Horizon Loop Escape

by BbK2442

An Elster's dying story and a Bioresonant goddess's last wish results in a certain Eule and Star couple ending up very far from home and seeing the dawn of a new horizon for the both of them.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: An Owl and a Starling's First Hunt

As was rapidly becoming a very comforting normal, Eule woke up to the smells and sounds of Rost cooking breakfast for everyone. What wasn't a comforting normal though was the sound of Star whimpering.

Eule looked in alarm as she saw her lover's face set in a grimace, whimpering quietly and muttering: "No, stop. Don't do it. Just stop. That won't solve anything. Just stop it."

Eule gently took hold of her lover's shoulders. "Star? Star? Wake up. Please. Star!"

Star's eyes snapped open, looking around blindly for a moment before her gaze settled on Eule. "Oh. Oh, Eule. It's you," she said, panting hard as though from exertion, although Eule knew better than that.

"Nightmare? Of what happened there?" Eule asked.

Star nodded miserably. "Yeah."

Eule hugged her lover, nuzzling her cheek. "It's okay. Everything bad is all the way back there. None of it is here."

Eule felt Star froze, and for a moment, she thought she was wrong about what in S-23 Sierpinski Star was having a nightmare about, but then she felt her lover relax and reply: "Yeah, you're right. We're in the Embrace, not in Sierpinski or even Leng from the looks of it. Sorry about waking you up, love."

Eule gave Star a kiss on the lips. "It's okay. I'll be happy to comfort you anytime. Now come on, let's see what Rost has for breakfast today."

When she and Star did finally get up from bed though (after checking once more that they were both decent underneath the fox skin blanket before pulling it off), the routine this time turned out to be just slightly different from the usual as Rost ventured outside for a moment before returning with some green leaves, which he then shredded and placed into a metal kettle with water in it to hang over the fireplace, replacing the pot of something delicious-smelling he'd been cooking. He then sat both Eule and Star down at the rectangular wooden table he appeared to like using as their mess table.

Rost sat down opposite Eule and Star, and held out his hand. "Aloy. Medicine pouch."

Äloy promptly ran over to where she'd left her medicine pouch after entering the house, took it, and dashed back to Rost to gently place it in his open hand in an adorable two-handed grip.

Rost then gently took a single pale pink salvebrush berry from it and handed it to Eule.

"Now Eu-le, we will see if human medicine works on you Replikas," Rost announced. "First, I want you to take that salvebrush berry, and gently rub it on the pit of your elbow before pulling it away. If it develops a red rash, then it's not safe for you to eat it."

"Um, Rost? That won't work," Eule replied.

"No, it should," Rost insisted. "Just very lightly rub the berry on the most tender skin of your inner elbow, and–"

"No, Rost, you misunderstand," Eule interrupted with a wave of her hand. "That method can't work on my arm, and it can't work on Star's arm either. It physically can't."

Rost blinked in surprise. "Why not?"

"Because Eu-le and Sh-Star can take their arms off," Äloy piped up.

Rost stared at Äloy before turning the stare on Eu-le, his blue, almost Replika-like eyes full of confusion and bafflement, silently asking for answers to his myriad questions.

Eule passed back the salvebrush berry to Rost before holding up her right arm in reply. "My arm, well, first of all, I'm wearing a glove, so hold on," she said before rolling up her short black sleeve and pulling off her long white glove, revealing the black polyethylene-skinned arm underneath as she showed off both sides of said arm to Rost, wriggling her just-as-black fingers for emphasis. "My arms are both entirely mechanical, as are Star's. The skin of my arm in particular is carbon-infused polyethylene, er, basically Machine skin covering synthetic muscles and fitted on much of its surface with a network of somatosensors, er, devices that detect heat, touch, where my arm is relative to my body, etc.; with an endoskeleton of carbon steel and a branched power cable running through the whole arm to provide electricity to power everything. It's somewhat similar to the Machines in some ways, really."

Rost rubbed and tugged on his braided beard, which Eule noted by now seemed to be the closest thing Rost had to a Replika's personality stabilization behavior. "The more I learn about you and Star, the more Machine-like you become. At least in body," he noted, eliciting a nervous laugh from Eule before he continued: "Very well, if we can't use the tender skin of your elbow, then…actually, if you don't mind answering: do you and Star have any skin aside from your face and ears? At least, I'm assuming that's skin and not…colored Machine skin?" he asked, more than just a touch nervous.

Eule gave another nervous laugh before she replied: "No, the skin on my face and the parts of my ears not covered by my shell are actually biocomponents, er, living skin basically. The other parts of my body that are covered by bare skin are my belly, my…chest, and my…crotch," she said the last pair of words with a blush on her face.

Rost stroked his beard for several more moment before sighing. "Very well then. This might be slightly more hazardous, but I want you to gently rub that salvebrush berry on your lip, either one will do, for a moment before pulling it away. Then we wait. If you experience anything like a reddened rash, then it's not safe for you to eat it."

"A reddened rash," Eule mused, before realization hit her as she remembered her medical training. "You're testing for allergens. That's…that's something I should've realized." She sighed. "I wish Dezember were here. She was always more interested in medicine than the rest of us; I suppose that's why she was the head of the medical wing. She would be so much more useful here."

Rost's slightly confused look (that started as soon as Eule uttered the word 'allergen') turned into a gentle one. "It's okay. No one is good at everything. All we need to focus on right now is whether salvebrush is safe for you and Star to take. So, shall we start then?"

Eule's frown turned into a smile at his encouragement. Honestly, she really did feel like Januar was right in front of her in some ways. If Januar was a bit taller and far wider, and was a Gestalt man instead of a Simple Universal Light Replika of course, but otherwise, Eule felt as comforted by his words and presence as if her eldest sister was right in front of her, consoling her for the same thing.

"Alright then, let's see if a Replika can be allergic to this salvebrush then," Eule said as she did as Rost asked and gently rubbed the pale pink berry on her lower lip before pulling away.

A moment passed, and nothing happened.

A few more moments passed, and still nothing happened. No reddened rash. No itchiness. Nothing.

Rost breathed out a sigh of relief. "So far, so good. Now, in order, I want you to place that berry at the corner of your mouth, on the tip of your tongue, under your tongue, and then chew it. If at any point you feel any discomfort, spit it out. Immediately." He then looked thoughtful. "Oh, and don't worry about the bitterness. Salvebrush berries are supposed to be bitter."

Eule grimaced. "Well, I suppose the best medicines are always the bitter ones," she noted, before looking at the pale pink berry in her hand for a few moments longer. "Well, here goes," she said to herself before delicately placing the salvebrush berry into her mouth.

Eule performed every step Rost had commanded. Nothing happened when she was manipulating the berry with her tongue, although she did notice a faint bitterness creeping into her taste receptors via her saliva. Finally, she chewed it, crushing the berry between her carbon steel molars, and releasing its pulp and juices into her mouth. She grimaced slightly as the full might of the salvebrush berry's taste profile hit her tongue.

As Rost warned, it was indeed bitter. Fairly bitter, really. However, it wasn't just bitter. There was also a slight tart flavor to the salvebrush berry that provided…something resembling a balance to the bitterness. Overall, Eule could say that it wasn't an entirely unpleasant taste experience, but she would certainly never eat a salvebrush berry for gustatory reasons. She supposed that was a good thing considering that it was a medicinal plant, and that eating too much of it was probably not a good idea.

"Is it that gross?" Äloy asked with a dubious look all over her little face.

Eule tried to smile. "It's…not entirely terrible," she conceded.

Äloy made a face that was even more of a face than she already was making. "I'm so glad I didn't have to eat any."

"Unfortunately, you will have to when you're hurt," Rost pointed out.

Äloy's only response to that bit of logic was to pout and cross her arms.

Rost sighed at Äloy with a smile that mirrored Eule's own before returning his gaze to her. "Do you feel any discomfort? If not, then swallow. Then we wait until…about noon. If nothing happens, then salvebrush should be safe for you and likely Star as well. But if you do get an upset stomach, then here."

Rost wandered over to a cupboard, pulled out a cup and came back to set it in front of Eule, who had by now swallowed the salvebrush berry. He then went over to the kettle, which was now very clearly boiling, letting out steam from the neck, and came back with it to pour some of the contents into the cup. Immediately, Eule could smell something pleasantly fragrant and very familiar.

"This is tea made from the leaves of the bitter leaf plant," Rost explained as he topped off Eule's cup before setting the kettle onto the table. "It not only produces a delicious tea when brewed, but it's also valued as a medicine to ease an upset stomach. If you do feel that, then sip that tea until you feel better. If the pain is severe though, then make yourself vomit. Immediately."

Eule nodded, but her mind was elsewhere as she sniffed the bitter leaf tea. "This smells just like green tea," she noted before taking a sip. "It tastes just green tea too."

"It does?" Star asked as she leaned over, looking very curious. Eule handed the cup up to her lover, who took a deep sniff of the steaming green liquid within before taking her own sip and sighing. "Yeah, that's green tea alright. There's no mistaking that scent or that taste."

"Hmm, so you call bitter leaf tea just 'green tea'?" Rost asked in a tone that mixed fascination and confusion. "That seems oddly…plain."

That made Eule think about the issue with an amused smile. "It does, doesn't it? I've honestly never thought about it before, but it does sound oddly plain to someone who's never heard the word before," she mused.

"Guess we just all take it for granted that tea is tea," Star added with a just-as-amused expression.

Curiously, Eule watched as Äloy made yet another face at the green tea…or rather, bitter leaf tea. "I don't like bitter leaf tea," the little Gestalt girl declared.

Eule tilted her head at Äloy. "Oh? And why is that?"

"It's gross," Äloy insisted. "A while back, Rost let me try some because it smelled good and I wanted to try it, and it was so yucky. It was just bitter leaf juice. I hate it."

Rost's only response to that was to sigh. "Aloy, someday when you grow up, you'll learn to appreciate a good cup of bitter leaf tea."

Äloy's response to that was just to pout and cross her arms yet again, making Eule sigh at just how adorable Äloy was even when she was being pouty.

Star then held out a hand to Rost. "Alright, my turn now."

Rost though didn't give Star a salvebrush berry, shaking his head as he didn't do so. "If salvebrush does make Eu-le sick, I would rather it's just Eu-le who's sick rather than both of you."

Star looked down at the table with what Eule thought was an adorably disappointed look on her face. "But…I don't want Eule to be the only one sick if she does get sick."

Eule reached up and patted Star's shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, love. There'll be plenty of opportunities for us to get sick together later."

Star stared at her blankly for several moment before raising an eyebrow. "I can't tell if you're trying to console me or make fun of me," she said with not quite the dryness of a Kitezh desert, but it was close.

Eule gave her lover a mischievous smile. "Can I not do both?" she asked sweetly.

The sensation of Star suddenly grabbing her into a one-armed hug and nuzzling her hair made Eule squeal and giggle simultaneously. The sound of Äloy giggling at them made Eule's plastic-laced heart even warmer than it already was. Yet, when they all finally calmed down, Eule noticed that Rost was smiling at them, but it was tinged with sadness just like in previous occasions. She was honestly curious about that, but since Rost offered no explanation, she decided that it was likely too private to pry into.

---

Breakfast shortly afterwards turned out to be a dish that was again sweet. It was another sweet and very thick congee dish. In fact, it was that same mix of multi-colored rice, oats, and buckwheat with the now-dried blueberries and a dash of honey in it. Even the meat side dish was more or less the same spiced-rubbed chunks of meat roasted over the fireplace, albeit made with turkey breast this time as opposed to the rabbit from yesterday's breakfast. Combined with the green, er, bitter leaf tea as a beverage, it was still a most wonderful breakfast despite everyone having had that exact same breakfast yesterday.

Now that Eule was aware of Rost testing for allergens, she wondered if this identical breakfast to yesterday was because he didn't want new foods to compound any reaction her body might have to the salvebrush berry?

Indeed, upon asking Rost, he seemed to confirm it with his reply of: "Normally, I'd rather you didn't eat anything until noon, but you're going to need the energy today. You can't train with a bow and spear on an empty stomach."

To Eule, that made Rost seem even more Eule-like than she had thought. It was actually comforting really, almost as though she could treat Rost as one of her sisters. Almost. Now if only he had black hair, was wearing the uniform, and had more of a chest.

Alas though, there was no room for Eule to help out with today's breakfast, so Rost didn't let her. She supposed it was for the best. This particular kitchen was far smaller than the one at S-23 Sierpinski, after all. She consoled herself that she would've only gotten in the way, as little of a consolation that was.

Fortunately, any feelings of disappointment Eule felt was quickly replaced by excitement when breakfast was concluded, for Rost went upstairs and came back with a bow and an additional quiver full of arrows. Or rather: half a bow, since it hadn't been strung yet. To Eule, this unstrung bow look more like a bizarrely wavy half wood and half metal staff, with both halves tied firmly together using a combination of Machine wire and leather strips.

"This is your first lesson about bows: normal bows can't be stored strung, or else the limbs eventually break down and lose tension. There are times when needs force you to keep such bows strung for long periods of time, but be prepared to have to replace your bow fairly soon after that," Rost explained as he attached the bowstring to one end of the bow before bending the bow around his legs, and using the leverage to pull the other limb close enough that he could attach the other end of the bowstring to that limb.

Eule was surprised when he had to pause his lesson mid-speech to pull that limb, grunting from the exertion. She had no idea that merely stringing a bow required so much effort. It was something she filed away for future reference.

Finally though, Rost was holding a perfectly good bow. In fact, it appeared to be nearly identical to the bow Äloy used. The only differences were that it was much larger, obviously sized for an Gestalt adult rather than a child; and it lacked all the ornamentation Äloy put on her adorably tiny bow. No feathers, no rough leather strips wrapped around the central portion for presumably a better grip, nothing. Like a blank wall vs. one decorated with…something. Anything.

"This is a spare Hunter Bow I keep just in case the bow I'm using breaks," Rost explained. "Hunter Bows are one of the most basic of bows. They're meant for hunting both flesh and blood beasts and small Machines, so they have a low draw weight. That means that they don't do as much damage and their range is lacking compared to more powerful bows, but that also means that a hunter can draw them quickly and easily, sending multiple arrows at their quarry in quick succession. And even despite that, a good hunter can still take down larger Machines with a Hunter Bow by targeting weak points on them, so don't underestimate the simple Hunter Bow." With that out of the way, he then made a beckoning gesture and commanded: "Come, follow."

The trip wasn't nearly as long as the one they all took yesterday. In fact, this trip just took them into the yard, where Rost stopped a few meters away from one of the Grazer dummies.

"To learn how to shoot a bow properly, you must first learn the right posture to shoot in," Rost began. "First, stand with your feet placed slightly apart. Face your target with the side of your body, since that allows you the most room to draw your bow while presenting as narrow a profile to your enemy. Then take your bow in your offhand, and draw with your dominant hand, aiming along your offhand while keeping said offhand stretched straight out and your body just as straight up."

Rost pulled one of the arrows out of the extra quiver he brought and showed it to everyone. Eule immediately noticed that it didn't have the triangular, bladed profile of his normal arrowheads. Instead, it had a curved profile that was almost bullet-like in shape.

"These arrows I'm using are practice arrows, made by filing and grinding down the tips and edges of normal Metal Shard arrowheads until they're blunt and rounded. It allows the arrow to penetrate a practice target without going in too deep, making it easy to pull out," Rost explained.

"That's what he said," Star quipped.

"Star! Äloy is right here!" Eule hissed in combination surprise and embarrassment, blushing all the while.

Rost meanwhile merely looked up at Star a look that was so flat that it might as well have been made of monofilament wire.

The aforementioned Äloy just stared at Star in confusion, for which Eule was profoundly grateful.

Star rubbed the back of her head, blushing herself. "Sorry. It just slipped out."

Rost coughed. "Anyways, let's resume our lesson then."

Rost then nocked the aforementioned practice arrow to the bowstring, took the arrow between his index and middle fingers, and pulled it back, all the way to his chin. Eule heard the distinct sound of the bow itself creaking as both the metal and wooden halves bent in the direction of his draw. To her surprise, the bowstring itself also creaked, as though it was a beast whining, eager for the kill.

"Your full draw should be all the way to somewhere along your cheek, the corner of your mouth, your chin, or anywhere in between: whichever is the most comfortable position for you," Rost explained as he continued holding the bow at full draw. "When you have that full draw, sight your target using the top tip of your arrowhead, and…let go."

As soon as Rost said that last word, he demonstrated by doing just that. As soon as his fingers released their hold on the arrow, the bowstring released all of its stored energy into said arrow with a twanging sound. The arrow shot from the bowstring as it returned to its neutral position, flew through the air with a wriggling motion Eule still found strange, and then embedded itself into the yellow bullseye right in the center of the cloth target laid over the middle of both sides of the Grazer dummy.

As Rost promised though, the arrow didn't really go in that deeply. Not if he was able to so easily yank it out, as he demonstrated right after his shot, before returning that arrow to his extra quiver.

"That is how you shoot a bow," Rost concluded, before surprising Eule by simply handing her the quiver full of practice arrows and the Hunter Bow. "Now you may ask me anything, and I will explain. I will also correct any inadequacies in stance and form. However, the best lesson here is to shoot for yourself and find out. Now go, demonstrate what you have just witnessed."

Euel gulped as she put on the quiver by its belt and took the Hunter Bow in her left hand…only to realize that she was now holding 8 items: 2 items over the amount the Rule of Six demanded.

"Uh, Rost? Could you hold these for a moment?" Eule said in a panic, quickly handing him a pair of her ammunition pouches.

Rost stared in confusion at the black synthetic polymer pouches as he took them and clipped them onto his own belt, before he suddenly had a look of realization. "Your tribe's…custom of only having 6 items?" At seeing Eule nod, he adopted a thoughtful look. "It is really that important for you to obey this custom even when you're so far away from your tribe?" he asked.

Eule opened her mouth to answer "Yes", but found silence coming out instead. She realized that she at a loss for an answer, and she started to seriously wonder about that question Rost posed. Was it really that important for her to follow the Rule of Six here? When all evidence suggested that there was no resource shortage to justify it?

Rost interrupted her train of thought by sighing. "You have plenty of time to ponder that question later. Right now, focus on what's important: your bow training."

Eule started and shook herself to clear her thoughts, putting them on hold for now. "You're right," she replied, and also to fortify herself.

Eule took up the same stance as Rost, identical right down to his body posture and him facing his target sideways on. She then delicately took one of the arrows, and then just as delicately nocked the arrow to the bowstring before taking the arrow by its end and pulling it back along with the bowstring.

Despite Rost's explanation, Eule was still surprised at how incredibly easy it was to pull back on the bowstring. After seeing how much damage a bow and arrow could do, she expected the Hunter Bow to be harder to pull. But no, it felt only a little more difficult than pulling on a refrigerator door, just with the motion being more drawn out and if pulling on the door got harder and harder the more she opened it. Copying Rost, she pulled the arrow back all the way to her chin, stopping right on a part where it was covered by her black polyethylene shell.

As Eule tried to use her arrow to aim at the bullseye on the Grazer dummy (which felt to Eule like aiming with her pistol but if it only had its front sight), she realized that keeping the Hunter Bow at full draw actually took conscious effort on her part. In hindsight, it did make sense. She was actively trying to keep the bowstring from springing back into its neutral position, after all. It only made sense that it would take an effort to keep it from doing so. She was more surprised by how much effort it took even despite its low draw weight, but fortunately, her robotic arms didn't get tired the way Gestalt arms did, so it was fine.

When Eule was finally satisfied with her aim, she let go of the bowstring and released the arrow. As with Rost's arrow, this arrow danced a strange wriggling motion through the air as it flew the short distance between Eule and the Grazer dummy. Unlike with Rost's arrow though, Eule's arrow embedded itself into the dummy's left-front leg, not even hitting the target at all, let alone the bullsye.

Eule frowned at the dummy, and then took another arrow for another shot. She adjusted her aim from before, and let fly. This arrow at least hit the target. Unfortunately, it only hit the blue band just below the red band, which was itself just below the yellow circle.

"Eule," Rost spoke up. "You can't just immediately release the arrow. That kind of sudden, jerking motion will just throw your arrow's aim off. You need to let the bowstring slip off your fingers, as though you are caressing the bowstring."

"Ooh, how about holding the bowstring like you're dancing with one of your sisters?" Star suggested.

Eule blinked at Star for the strange comparison, but it wasn't like she had anything to lose at this point, so why not?

Thus, as Eule took hold of the bowstring and the arrow nocked to it, she imagined that she was gently taking the white gloved hand of EULR-S2321. She imagined taking 21 in close as she drew back the bowstring and arrow, aiming at the yellow bullseye once more. She could almost feel 21's body heat in front of her, and see the slight grin on 21's face from the close contact. She imagine all that so intensely…that suddenly she didn't want to let go.

There was a part of Eule's mind that just wanted to feel like her favorite sister was right in front of her, and not back at S-23 Sierpinski one way or another. She did realize just how insane that was though, and she'd imagine 21 would agree with her. She could imagine 21's grin turning into a sad smile that mirrored Eule's own, and 21's plastic-laced lips silently mouthing the words "Let go".

And so at last, like she was letting go of a burden, Eule gently allowed the ghost of 21's hand to slip away from her grasp.

The result was Eule being surprised to see her arrow embedding itself not only in the target, but right into the center of the yellow bullseye as well. Okay, it was slightly off-center by about a centimeter to the right of center, but Eule was still pretty happy at her own accuracy.

Eule suddenly had the air pressed out of her plastic-laced lungs as little Äloy just as suddenly leapt up and tackle-hugged her, shouting: "You did it!" in a tone of pure joy.

Eule answered that hug with her own. "I did!" she shouted back with just as much joy.

Star joining in on that hug only made Eule's joy levels reach critical mass. "Yup, you did!" Star shouted, adding in on everyone's joy.

It was only Rost clearing his throat that made everyone break up the hug, although Eule saw a slight smile gracing his craggy face before he said dryly: "While I am glad that you hit that target at last, Eu-le, I do stress that the way of the bow is also about repetition and consistency. You must be able to repeat your shots, and ensure that you are able to consistently hit your target each and every time. So practice those shots with as much spare time as you can offer until you can consistently hit the center of that target every time you take a shot."

Eule switched her bow to her right hand in order to salute with her left hand in the Eusan Nation military style. "Understood, sir," she said, before realizing the slipup and blushing in embarrassment at it as she lowered her left hand just as quickly as it had snapped up.

Fortunately, Rost spoke nothing about it. His only reaction was a raised eyebrow of puzzlement before he turned to Star. "Now, I would like for you to do the same thing as Eu-le, so that you know the basics of bow shooting."

Star happily nodded. "Alrighty, although I guess this means that Eule and I have to practice in shifts then if there's only that one Hunter Bow available?"

Rost tugged at his braided beard once more as he looked thoughtful. "I do have various other weapons stored in the house, but they are either highly specialized weapons inappropriate for general use, or just inappropriate for beginners to the bow."

Star looked thoughtful for a moment before pointing at the bow on Rost's back. "What about your bow? Do you have any spares of that?"

"This? This is not a bow for beginners," Rost said as he pulled said bow off and showed it to Star, with Eule staring curiously at the bow as well.

It seemed to be of an entirely different construction to the Hunter Bow Eule was holding. Rost's bow only had the central grip portion and bits of reinforcing struts on both ends be made of wood. The limbs themselves appear to be made entirely of Machine parts. In fact, they looked suspiciously leg-like, with a familiar look to them that Eule could recall from yesterday–

"Wait, are the limbs of that bow Strider legs? Just with the hoof taken off?" Eule asked incredulously.

Rost nodded to Eule's surprise. "We've discovered that the legs of Striders contain large amounts of force stored within that can be used by compressing the legs and then releasing them. Hence, this War Bow. The problem though is that whole Strider legs need a lot of force to bend them in the first place, so the draw weight of War Bows and any other bows of this size or larger are fairly high. It's not something I would recommend for people who've never used bows before. You need training to build up your muscles before you can use such high draw weight bows," he explained.

Eule and Star looked at each other before looking back at Rost, with Star waggling one of her arms at him. "Mechanical arms, remember? They're as strong as they were when they were built, and that's as strong as they ever will be. Not to toot my own horn here, but we Star units have really strong arms on top of it. Not quite as strong as Storchs, but we've still got combat Replika strength in them," Star explained.

Rost blinked at Star in surprise before adopting yet another beard-tugging thoughtful pose. "Hmm, I hadn't considered that. But still…will you allow me to test your strength, Star? So that I have a better idea of the strength of your arms to see which bow is right for you? If your arms are the same Eu-le, then I will test your strength as well."

Eule was about to protest that she wasn't a combat Replika so she wasn't strong at all, but Star interrupted her. "Alright, sounds good. So how do we go about that?" Star asked with a head tilted curiously.

Rost's answer was to head back into the house. He immediately came back holding the dinner table and a pair of log stools, and placed them in a free space in the yard before sitting down in one of the stools and placing his right elbow on the table in a familiar-looking pose Eule had seen Gestalt children engage in.

"An…arm-wrestling match?" Eule asked with more incredulousness.

Rost nodded. "I shall use my own strength to test the both of you," he simply explained, before beckoning to Eule.

Eule's response was to point at herself with a questioning tone.

Rost nodded once more.

"But I already have a Hunter Bow?" Eule asked hesitantly.

"Which might not be ideal for you if you're as strong as me. Now please, take the other seat and then take my hand," he insisted.

Not really sure about this but seeing Rost's logic, Eule finally sat down on the indicated seat and took the indicated hand, feeling Rost's warm hand enclose her own in a grip that was firm without being too tight.

"When I count to 3, I want you to pull against my arm with all of your might," Rost explained. "At the same time, I will pull against your arm, starting with the amount of strength I would use to pull a Warrior Bow and then slowly increase my strength from there."

Eule cocked her head at Rost. "Warrior Bow?"

"It's a type of bow used commonly by Carja soldiers," Rost also explained. "It has a very low draw weight, even lower than a Hunter Bow, so that it can be shot very rapidly, and its small size makes it easier to use in confined spaces. Many Warrior Bows are also Casterbows, so that you can have an arrow pre-nocked on it, ready to be fired with a pull of a trigger."

"Hmm, that makes these…'Casterbows', am I saying that right? These weapons sound like crossbows from the way you describe their operation," Eule noted.

Rost raised an intrigued eyebrow. "I have never heard of a 'Crossbow', so I will simply take your word for it that it is your word for a Casterbow. As for the Warrior Bow though, its low draw weight makes it very weak and inaccurate, especially beyond around…5 meters or so." He then frowned. "To be honest, I'm not fond of it. It's a bow that's highly specialized for fighting other humans. It's practically useless against Machines, so I wouldn't recommend it for either of you as a general use bow."

As Eule nodded in understanding and fascination, she heard Star whistle. "Sounds like this Warrior Bow is the closest you Gestalts have to pistols then," Star noted.

"I suppose if that's what your 'pistols' basically are," Rost replied, before turning back to Eule. "Now then, Eu-le, are you ready?"

Eule nodded firmly. She was ready as she'll ever be for this.

"Then 1…2…3."

Upon Rost's utterance of that last number (which Eule mentally heard as 'Drei'), Eule pulled as hard as she could, pushing the synthetic muscles of her right arm to its maximum force. Initially, Eule easily pulled against Rost's right arm, moving it halfway to the table's surface.

But then as promised, Rost slowly turned up the strength of his arm, grunting with effort as he did so. His arm slowly stopped moving towards the table, and then just as slowly pushed Eule's arm back. Regardless of the fact that Eule was outputting maximum force from her right arm, she was helpless to watch as Rost slowly but surely pulled Eule's arm onto the table's surface. She was actually relieved when Rost said: "Okay, that's enough," and let go.

Eule instinctively worked her fingers, testing them for damage, while she heard Rost grunt and looked up at him to see him moving his right arm in a circular stretching motion.

"Okay, I can safely say that you are slightly weaker than me," Rost said, still apparently trying to work out the kinks in his right arm.

"Oh," Eule said, lowering her gaze to the table and feeling disappointed.

"…Eu-le, that's not a bad thing," Rost said in the same dry tone Eule had come to associate with his bouts of wit, causing her to look back up at his bemused face. He then continued: "I am a trained Brave who has been continually training one way or another for nearly 30 years now. If you are only slightly weaker than me, then there are many humans who would be jealous of your strength."

Eule waved her arms in rejection. "But I'm only a Eule! We're only made to have strength on par with the average Gestalt! We're a non-combatant Replika model, by the Red Eye! We're not meant to be strong!" she protested.

Rost sighed. "Look at it this way, Eu-le: if you have the strength of the average Gesh…Gestalt, then you are already stronger than a good portion of humanity. Because I can tell you that there are many adults who aren't as strong as the average human."

"I…but…" Eule tried to find a way to refute Rost's words, but even she couldn't help but see Rost's logic.

"And because you are only slightly weaker than me, then I believe a War Bow would be perfect for you," Rost continued, leading Eule to squeak in surprise at the thought of herself being equipped with weapon called a War Bow, of all things. "I don't actually have a spare War Bow at the moment, so you will have to do with that Hunter Bow until I can craft a War Bow for you. In fact, I was actually in the middle of working on a War Bow right before you and Star arrived. It should work very well for you once I've finished it."

"Uh, I…thank you, Rost," Eule finally said, not knowing what else to say.

Rost nodded in reply before turning to Star. "Star, it's your turn now. Same thing as Eu-le."

"Alright, but I have to warn you," Star said as she sat down on the stool Eule just vacated. "You're going to have to pull with all your strength on the count of 3, and even then, I'm going to use just a bit less than my full strength. I really don't want to accidentally hurt you."

Rost raised an eyebrow up at Star. "Star, it's pointless if I don't measure your full strength. Use it."

"No, really. I'd rather not accidentally injure your arm. You look like you really need it," Star insisted.

Eule looked back and forth at the battle of wills going on between Rost and Star, and she didn't know whether to sigh or giggle.

"Star, if I can't measure your full strength, then I can't decide which bow would be right for you. You do want the right bow to take full advantage of your strength, do you not?" Rost asked, staring straight into Star's blue eyes.

Star proceeded to stare right back into Rost's own blue eyes, with the only difference between them being her red pupils versus his black ones. The level of determination in them both though caused them to burn with the same fire.

At last though, Star sighed. "Fine, you make a good point. Just though, can you at least start at the War Bow level and work your way up? Please?" she practically pleaded.

Rost stared at Star with a look of disbelief, before nodding at last. "Very well, I will do that then. Now let's begin."

Eule watched Rost take Star by their respective right hands. She noted in fascination that despite Star being so much taller than Rost, they both had roughly the same sized hands, which spoke to just how muscular Rost's hands were. Despite that though, Eule did worry about Rost. She hoped Rost wouldn't accidentally pull a muscle trying to outmatch her lover in this sort-of arm wrestling contest.

"Begin on 1…2…3."

Eule could practically see the blood vessels bulge on the exposed bits of Rost's arm as he pulled against Star's arm. Star however was still driving Rost's arm towards the table, and she looked like she was barely putting in any effort on top of it.

Eule could see Rost slowly ramp up the force as he did with her, but it didn't seem to matter. Rost after a while was red in the face from pulling against Star's arm with all his might. Star at last looked like she was putting in real effort into her pulling, but it only showed up as a slight grimace on her face as she still inexorably pulled Rost's hand down to touch the table, and there both of their hands remained no matter how hard Rost pulled.

"That's enough," Rost got out, causing Star to release his hand immediately.

Rost was breathing hard, almost gasping, really, as he carefully moved his arm in a circle once more and rubbed it on top of it. Star meanwhile was breathing slightly harder than normal, but that was the only indication of the effort she put into the arm wrestle, which itself indicated that she hadn't put that much effort into it at all.

"You lost?" Äloy asked in a shocked tone. "But you never lose at anything about strength."

Rost gave Äloy a slight smile before patting her on the head. "Aloy, one thing you must learn in life is that there's always someone stronger than you. There's nothing unnatural about that. It's just the way the world is. It's just a good thing that this someone is a friend."

Äloy made a noise in reply. Eule couldn't tell if she was halfway satisfied with that answer, or halfway dissatisfied.

"Now then, Star," Rost said, turning back to the Security Technician Guard Replika. "Your strength truly is incredible. I've never encountered such arm strength before in anyone."

Star rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Well, all us Star units have this kind of strength. Since we're made to be police officers and soldiers, after all."

Rost tugged on his beard yet again as he thought. "I don't know what a 'police officer'…'polizist'? I don't know what either of those words mean, but if someone trained you to be a soldier and your arms were made with that in mind…it would make sense that you are this strong, yes. Hmm…I have the perfect bow for you. Wait here," he said, before getting up and heading back into the house.

Moments later, he emerged back out carrying the largest bow Eule had ever seen thus far. She'd thought Rost's War Bow was big, but this bow Rost was carrying towards them was at least his own height. It was of a similar construction to the War Bow, being made of a central wooden grip (with a pair of small open metal tubes mounted to either side of that grip that looked suspiciously like a sight or was some kind of mounting point for arrows) and reinforcing struts with Machine parts for limbs, all bound together with wire and leather. Said limbs even looked like they were made of a pair of whole Machine legs, stripped of their muscle. They even looked familiar as well, just in a different way from the Strider legs, like the legs of–

"Watcher legs now?" Eule asked incredulously as Rost held up the bow for them to examine.

Rost nodded in reply. "We discovered ages ago that Watcher legs make some of the most powerful of bows. We call these bows by the name of 'Sharpshot Bow'. The sheer power of these bows allow a Brave to not only hit a Machine at ranges far exceeding that of even a War Bow, but also pierce through even the toughest of Machine hide. However, Sharpshot Bows have an absurdly high draw weight, about twice as much as a War Bow's draw weight. Even an experienced Brave has trouble drawing these bows quickly, making them less useful at short ranges, where a human or Machine can rush you before you can draw the bow. That is, save for you, I think," he said, holding out the bow now at Star. "Perhaps with your strength, this weakness can be mitigated or eliminated entirely. So, will you try it?"

Star stared at the massive bow for a moment before grinning a carbon steel teeth-revealing grin. "Why not? I'll give this Sharpshot Bow a try," she said as she took said bow from Rost.

Soon, Star was standing in front of the target attached to the side of a Grazer dummy, in the exact same position Eule was. Eule watched as her lover maneuver the arrow through the left-hand tube, nocked that arrow to the bowstring, and drew.

First, the feet of the Watcher leg compressed from the bowstring attached to it before the entire leg followed with a metallic creaking sound, compressing like a giant spring as Star pulled the Sharpshot Bow to full draw. In very rapid order, Eule noted.

"Huh, this isn't so bad," Star noted. "I feel like I could keep this at full draw all day."

"That's normal for these bows made with whole Machine legs. They're very difficult to draw at first, but the more you draw it back, the easier it becomes, until finally at full draw, it's much easier to keep it there. It's why Sharpshot Bows earned that name. Sharpshooters can easily keep it at full draw until the right moment to strike," Rost explained. "What's peculiar is how easily and quickly you reached that full draw, as though you were drawing back a Hunter Bow instead."

"Huh, neat," Star simply replied, almost in a mutter as she sighted intently at the Grazer dummy. "So I just aim along the arrowhead, and then…"

When Star released the arrow, the Sharpshot Bow's limbs sprang back into their neutral position with the speed and power of a Watcher leaping into a fight. It was no wonder really that the arrow practically rocketed into the target, hitting it with such force that Eule could swear to the Red Eye that she saw the entire Grazer dummy shudder from the impact. Even better, Star actually hit the target on her first try. It didn't hit the yellow center, but at least it hit the red ring just outside it.

"You did it!" Eule shouted happily.

"No, not quite," Star muttered in a very dissatisfied tone, before taking another arrow and drawing it back. "Got to hit that bullseye."

As Rost nodded in approval, Eule giggled. It's been quite a while since she'd discovered that her lover had a perfectionist streak that popped up when she absolutely wanted to accomplish some goal. The first time had been when her lover had been one of their dates on hold to get above a certain accuracy score at S-23 Sierpinski's shooting range. Apparently, she'd really wanted to at least outperform one of her sisters who went by the name of Panzer for some reason Eule had never been able to find out, and Star didn't want to leave until she'd accomplished at least that much.

Eule hadn't minded much. She found her lover's determination to be just as adorable then as she did now. On top of that, Star's perfectionist streak was even paying off in terms of practicality, as she demonstrated by sinking a practice arrow into the yellow center of the target on her second shot.

"Now I did it," Star finally, looking and sounding very satisfied.

Eule happily hugged Star as a reply. "Yes, you did."

Eule's happiness further increased as she watched Äloy hug Star's legs on the opposite side of where Eule was hugging her lover. "On your second try too!" Äloy happily pointed out, before she frowned in a manner Eule continually found adorable. "It took me 8 tries to get an arrow into that yellow part."

Star reached down and patted Äloy's head. "It's not that bad a result. I have…well, had a sister named Panzer who only hit her target 25 out of 60 times for her first time at the range. She never really got much better than that no matter how much she tried, so you're already a major improvement on that," she noted happily.

Eule just managed to hold back giggles at the sight of Äloy pouting. "That's not making me feel any better, Sh-Star," Äloy replied in a tone of dissatisfaction not that different from Star's after her not-quite-as-perfect-as-she-liked shot.

Star laughed nervously. "Yeah, you can tell pep talks were never really my thing. That was more Hunter's thing."

Äloy tilted her head at Star. "Yay-ger? That's your word for hunter? But…you said Hunter like it's a person's name?"

Star laughed at that. "Yeah, one of my older sisters named herself Hunter. You call that 'Hantur'? Weird. Anyway, she named herself before she was sent to Sierpinski to join up with our cadre and she never talked about why she picked that name, so I'm in the dark about the why there. All I know is that she was my favorite sister."

Upon seeing Äloy stare intensely at her, silently asking for more, Star chuckled and continued: "Hunter was a…character. It's like she read too many of those surviving shounen manga and watched too many anime from pre-Empire days or something. The stuff that came out of her mouth, heh, you'd think she was some hot-blooded star of Naruto or something, pun intended by the way. Cheerful, loud, brash; yeah, that was Hunter. She always would do the right thing. If she hadn't gone missing when everything happened, she would've. She wouldn't just sit by and do nothing when there was something wrong going on. She wouldn't."

"Star?" Eule asked in a worried tone, noticing how troubled Star was, not just from the stressed tones of her voice, but also how closed off Star's face was becoming.

Even Äloy was starting to notice Star's emotional state, and was tugging on her black hand: the only part of her she could reach. "Hey, Star! Maybe we can do something else?" the little Gestalt girl suggested frantically. "Maybe we can practice shooting bows some more? Ooh, is it okay if I can try shooting your revolver bow?"

Eule would normally be worried about Äloy showing so much interest in their guns simply due to the potential danger there, but at the moment, she was relieved to see Star completely and utterly distracted from her worries as the Security Technician Guard Replika's full and undivided attention snapped to the little Gestalt girl.

"Oh sure, kid," Star said blithely, and subsequently earning Eule's full and undivided attention but for entirely different reasons from her lover.

"Staaar," Eule said in her most polite tone and her most polite smile, causing Star to jerk and look at her with a nervous laugh. "Completely disregarding just how incredibly dangerous it is to allow Äloy to play with our guns at the moment, you do realize that every bullet we have is likely a precious resource that we cannot replace and therefore should not waste, yes?"

"Wait, wait, wait! Let me explain!" Star protested, waving her arms frantically at Eule's exceedingly polite smile. "I was thinking that it'd be perfectly safe if I unload my revolver, and teach Äloy gun safety and let her go through some dry fire drills. That way, even if Äloy gets curious and decides to play with our guns–"

"I wouldn't do that!" Äloy protested. "I know your guns are weapons and not toys. I'm not stupid, you know."

Star blinked in surprised at the pouting Äloy, and then chuckled. "Sorry, Äloy. I shouldn't have phrased it like that. It's good that you know that they're weapons and not toys, but my revolver–just like Eule's pistol–they're not like the bows you're using, save for maybe those Casterbows. All of them are dangerous when they're loaded, and one wrong trigger pull can kill someone even when you didn't mean it. That's why practicing good gun safety is very important. Do you understand?" Star asked.

Äloy gave Star a most determined look and nodded. "Yes, I do."

Star nodded back and smiled in reply, before turning back to Eule. "Uhh, I hope that addresses your concerns, love?"

Eule sighed, but nodded as well. "It does. You do make very good points there. There's just one thing I want to ask though: what's a dry fire drill?"

Star gave her a completely dumbfounded stare for several moments that went on for so long that she started to get a bit annoyed before Star palmed her own face. "Ack, my bad. I never taught you dry fire drills, did I? Okay, we'll have to correct that, because dry fire drills are important. They allow us to practice with our guns without actually using up any ammo. That way, our skills won't get rusty in anything but pure accuracy when we finally have to use our guns."

"Ohhh," was all Eule could say to that as she thought about the implications of that. "That is a very useful thing to learn. We should get started on that–"

"After you finish learning how to shoot a bow," Rost interrupted quite suddenly. Suddenly enough that Eule, Star, and Äloy practically jumped at his voice coming from behind them before turning to give him nervous laughs. "Both of you already know how to use your guns, and Aloy certainly doesn't need to learn how to use a gun at this moment. Bow training should be the top priority for all of you."

Eule laughed nervously some more in reply. She most definitely could not deny his logic there. Honestly, Eule felt like she was once more in front of Februar, being lectured on the fine points of Rotfront cuisine versus those of Heimat, Leng, and even Vineta. It actually felt reassuring to her for Rost to evoke those memories.

"Especially for you, Eu-le, since you're going to have to practice with my War Bow until I finish crafting yours," Rost said, taking off the aforementioned War Bow and holding it out to her. Eule started to open her mouth to protest, but Rost interrupted. "If you want, then we can trade the Hunter Bow for it for the moment to avoid violating your tribe's custom. Do not worry about me. A good hunter can make the best out of any weapon. So, take it," he commanded.

Faced with that soft mountain once more, Eule found her protests dying in her plastic-laced throat as she traded her Hunter Bow for his War Bow, and she started handling it.

Eule could definitely confirm that the War Bow was a larger and heavier bow than the Hunter Bow, but that wasn't all she noticed. Rost's War Bow was noticeably weathered on the central grip portion, with the strips of leather wrapped around there being soft, thin, and pale in color from long use. It was even still warm from where Rost had been gripping it prior to the trade. In almost every way possible, Eule could feel that she was holding somebody else's personal weapon. She hoped that it would let her use it well before she inevitably returned it to Rost.

"Now, practice with my War Bow until you can consistently hit the yellow target center at about…10 meters or so should be good enough." Rost then looked up at the clear blue sky. "Meanwhile, I believe some crafting is in order for me for today. If you need to ask me something, I will be back shortly," he said before heading back into the house.

True to his word, Rost was back almost immediately, holding a backpack full of tools and parts that looked very much to Eule like the unfinished War Bow Rost had been working on. He set the backpack down next the table he'd lifted outside for his arm wrestling-flavored strength test before sitting down on a stool, pulling the parts out onto the table, and then doing his best impression of an Ara as he carefully began drilling a hole in one of the ends of the wooden part with some kind of hand-powered drill. He only paused briefly to look up at Eule staring at his crafting in fascination before firmly beckoning to Eule to continue her bow practice, which Eule did with an embarrassed laugh at being caught staring like a curious child at his work.

Fortunately, Rost's War Bow was a good bow. It wasn't clingy the way Eule had feared it might be. Although she found that she needed significantly more force to draw it back, it still sent practice arrows into the Grazer dummy-mounted target as well as the Hunter Bow had. Actually, it some ways, it was even easier to do that thanks to that odd "Significantly less force to maintain full draw" feature Rost had mentioned. It apparently applied even to his War Bow.

Thus, it was easier for Eule to aim at the target at full draw. It didn't take long at all for her to be consistently hitting that yellow bullseye with Rost's bow. It even got to the point where Star started suggesting that Eule not just stop at consistently hitting the yellow bullseye, and instead, try intentionally aiming for different rings to hone her accuracy. Star was doing just that after getting bored constantly hitting nothing but yellow.

Eule followed her lover's suggestion, and indeed, it was starting to become fun aiming at various spots on the red, blue, and black rings. She even started intentionally aiming for the Grazer dummy's head and the logs on its back just for amusement, and discovered that it provided an interesting challenge for her bow practice.

Even little Äloy was getting enthusiastic about bow practice after seeing Star and Eule's enthusiasm. Eule even watched Äloy practice shooting her adorably tiny bow for a few moments. The little Gestalt girl wasn't satisfied with target practice though. She was shooting at her own Grazer dummy while slowly walking, apparently trying to hone her accuracy while moving. Most of her shots missed the target, and some even missed the dummy entirely, but Eule could see the logic in what Äloy was doing, and so tried that for herself.

Eule didn't do much better than Äloy at first. Aiming a bow while moving laterally in respect to her target turned out to be a bit tricky, especially given how the arrow wobbled in flight. Her arrows kept landing in and around the target, and she winced as, just like with Äloy, one of her arrows flew over the dummy's back, and she had to search for a bit behind the dummy to find the practice arrow again.

Still, as the time passed and as Eule stubbornly continued to hone her accuracy, Eule found that she could consistently hit the yellow bullseye even while at a slow walking pace, and so started to intentionally aim at other parts of the target and the Grazer dummy itself to further improve her accuracy. She smiled as she was able to send her arrows into the logs on the Grazer dummy's back, one right after the other, without missing a shot.

"See? The War Bow is better suited for you," Rost suddenly pointed out.

Eule turned to look at Rost, and laughed nervously in reply. She didn't know how else to reply to that.

"You will get used to it," Rost insisted with the absolute confidence of a mountain.

Eule, who was most definitely not a mountain, could only wonder if Rost was right about that.

Rost then turned to Star with a slight smile on his face at seeing Star already placing arrows into the Grazer dummy's logs herself, even while walking that same slow pace that Eule had been practicing with. "And I can see that the Sharpshot Bow is indeed perfectly suited for you, Star. May it serve you as well as it served me," he said happily.

Star looked at Rost in surprise, just as much as Eule did. "This was your bow?" Star asked.

Rost nodded as his eyes took on a distant look. "It was. In my younger days, when I hunted some dangerous game. Thankfully, here in the Embrace, there are no such game to be found, so I simply hung up my old Sharpshot Bow, thinking that its days of hunting were over…until today, that is."

Star looked at Rost's, or rather her now, Sharpshot Bow more closely, as did Eule. It was only now that Eule noticed that the leather wrapped around the central grip looked a bit faded and worn, the Watcher legs serving as its limbs were scratched from countless uses, and the long feather decorating it had some noticeable gaps. At the very least though, there was no sign of any corrosion on said limbs or any rot on the wooden parts. It seemed that however Rost had been storing his old Sharpshot Bow, it had been with the utmost care.

Star smiled warmly at Rost. "Thank you, really. I'll make sure this bow gets a taste of the old hunt again."

Rost nodded. "I'm sure it will in your hands, just as I'm sure my War Bow will serve Eule well in the hunt today."

Eule started to nod, and then froze as her cloned brain processed what Rost just said. "I'm sorry, what did you just say? The hunt today? What hunt?" she asked nervously.

"The hunt that we're soon going to go on, of course. How else are you and Star supposed to sharpen your bow skills?" Rost asked as he got up and stretched after all his work on the War Bow on the table, which to Eule, looked almost complete, especially given that Rost had now managed to attach both limbs to the central wooden part.

Alas though, Eule had far more pressing matters to focus on than examining the more complete War Bow more closely.

"Isn't it a bit soon to be hunting Machines already? We've only just started practicing with bows just a couple of hours ago," Eule protested.

Rost though merely ignored Eule as he walked back into the house briefly to grab a pair of backpacks to hand to Eule and Star (and ending up having to trade more ammo pouches with them to accommodate the Rule of Six, to the point where Rost was actually carrying a large portion of their bullet supply) before putting on his own backpack, and walking towards the front gate that led down the mountain. He beckoned for everyone to follow him. "Come everyone, follow. You'll see," he said confidently as he then continued walking.

Faced with very little in the way of choice, Eule sighed and began following Rost along with a bemused Star and a just-as-confident Äloy.

"Don't worry, Eu-le!" the little Gestalt girl declared confidently. "If any Machines attack us, I'll take it down just like that Strider!"

Eule smiled at Äloy's sunny grin. Both her cuteness and her confidence were comforting things to Eule. "I'll be counting on you for that then," she said to Äloy. Äloy's even brighter smile in reply filled Eule's plastic-laced heart with even more joy, and quieted the nervousness and fear bubbling deep within her at what Rost's idea of a practice hunt might be.

---

"Remember, the most important thing a hunter or a Brave should do before a hunt is to steel the mind," Rost explained as they walked down the mountainside.

There wasn't even a trail. It was literally just them traversing a shallow-ish, rocky slope covered in trees and partially overgrown with vegetation in places that forced them to navigate around the woody bushes. It was the exact same path (in a manner of speaking) Eule and Star had walked up that very first day in the Embrace to follow Rost and Äloy to the house, and it wasn't much easier than that first day.

Thus, there was plenty of time for Rost to not only trade out Eule and Star's practice arrows for his real arrows, but to also conduct this impromptu lesson.

"Steal the mind? What are we, burglars?" Star asked incredulously.

Rost turned around to look at Star first in confusion, and then in annoyance as he tapped the Focus on his right temple. "Did this Metal World thing not speak for me correctly? I said 'Steel the mind', as in the steel your bones are made of."

"Ohhh," Star exclaimed in understanding…before she immediately said: "I still don't get it."

"Steel the mind is an expression among the Nora, especially among the Braves," Rost explained. "It's short for a series of proverbs that are supposed to help a Brave prepare for battle. There are three such proverbs."

Rost held up his right index finger. "One: harden your mind to be tough as steel. Get into the mindset of being a hunter. Believing that you will take down your prey is the first step towards doing so. If you can imagine victory within your mind, then you are closer to grasping that victory in your hands. A hunter who is confident without being reckless has achieved the perfect balance there."

Eule laughed nervously upon hearing that. She had a feeling that particular proverb was being directed at her.

Rost help up another finger. "Two: polish your mind to be bright as steel. Practicing your moves and skills before the hunt will let you better remember them in the actual hunt. Fortunately, that's what you all have been doing thus far, so you have already accomplished this step."

Äloy nodded happily. "Yup. We practiced a lot, so our minds should be extra shiny," she insisted smugly, earning her a warm smile from Eule.

Rost also shared that smile before holding up a third and final finger. "Three: hone your mind to be sharp as steel. Sharpening steel requires you to damage it, thus actual hunting experience is what carves the reflexes and skills a hunters needs into their minds. Remember though that too much hunting experience isn't good, just as sharpening a steel blade too much makes it brittle. You need just enough of a hunting experience without becoming too brittle to continue hunting, and that's what I am taking us out for today."

Eule nodded at that. All three proverbs made sense, and thus made this "Steel the mind" expression all the more worth remembering. That said, she was still curious about what this "just enough of a hunting experience" actually was.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before they reached a forest down near the base of the mountain. Rost motioned for everyone to crouch down, and then they all followed him into some foxtail grass. Eule was initially afraid that Rost had spotted a Machine of some sort, before he motioned for everyone to look ahead, which Eule did so by creeping forward until she was at the edge of the foxtail patch.

Eule was surprised to see just a couple of meters ahead a…herd? Pack? Whatever you were supposed to call a group of what were obviously pigs, with their piggy snouts, piggy grunts, and piggy cloven hooves at the end of their 4 feet. These pigs though looked very different from the fat and pink farm pigs she'd seen in pictures of the domed Rotfront farms. They were just as big, but these pigs were obviously wild, covered in very dark brown (almost black really), thick, bristly fur all over its body, with an erect mane of those bristles running from their heads down their backs. It looked pretty obvious that more of these wild pigs' body mass were muscle as opposed to the fat of the farm pigs.

At the moment though, the wild pigs weren't doing anything ferocious. They were just innocently rooting around in the forest floor for food. Nothing scary about that. They even looked kind of cute to Eule doing that. Especially the little piglets. A part of Eule's mind irrationally wanted to go up to one of the small, furry, striped piglets following after a large female boar that was presumably their mother and give the cute little animal a hug. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to clamp down on that desire and concentrate on what Rost was saying.

"Those boars will be our quarry for today," Rost explained quietly.

"Ooh," Äloy breathed. "I only ever hunted a rabbit once, and that was a lot smaller than these beasts."

Rost nodded at Äloy before turning back to the Replikas. "They're big and easy targets for the bow, and can be brought down even in a single shot if you aim for the head or the heart. Your goal will be to bring down one of these boars, at least."

Eule tilted her head at Rost. "Huh, the Focus translates it as 'keiler'? I heard it yesterday when you were talking about what you made your trailmeat out of, and I forgot to ask about it. It's the first I've heard of that word," she whispered.

"I've heard it a few times in some nature documentaries," Star whispered back. "They're basically wild pigs. Really wild. As in they've never been domesticated. But…they're all supposed to be extinct. All species of boar went extinct when Vineta was basically bombed into an ocean world. How are there any boars left?"

Eule was strongly reminded of her musings about Vineta last night. "Rost, are you sure these are boar, and not just pigs that escaped captivity? Maybe you Nora raised some pigs, and they accidentally got free–"

Eule was forestalled by Rost holding up a hand. "We Nora do not raise animals. We do not farm, and we don't keep animals. Other tribes like the Carja may do so, but we do not. It goes against the ways of the All-Mother, for She teaches us to take only what She gives us and no more, lest we take too much from Her and bring Her harm like the Old Ones did all those ages ago. We certainly don't raise boar like the Carja and Oseram do. Besides though, even they took piglets from the wild to raise and breed for food, fat, and hide. The boar didn't escape from them to live in the wild."

"But…but then…how do you have an animal that's been extinct for several millennia?" Eule wondered to herself, growing ever more puzzled as she tried to explain this illogical series of events.

"In any case, what the boar are to you is irrelevant for now," Rost said. "Right now, the hunt is more important. You need the experience, and besides, we need the meat."

Star scratched the back of her head nervously. "Uhh…"

"It's not just you, Star," Rost said in a dryly amused tone. "Four eats more than two. It's just the way things are. Nothing we can do about that but to hunt some more, and give you both some practice in the meantime." His face then turned serious. "Just be a bit careful around boar. Unlike other flesh and bone beasts, the boar can be dangerous. Usually, they will flee if they sense humans like other such beasts. However, the big males and females with young will turn and fight, especially when injured. I've seen unwary hunters who didn't respect the boar get savaged by them. It's why the tribe respects the boar as an honorable quarry for a hunt."

"Is that why you got one of them on your shoulder?" Star asked quietly, looking pointedly at the dead boar's head hanging on Rost's left shoulder.

Rost nodded solemnly. "It was a worthy opponent: a big male who had fought as well as a Machine. This is…I suppose my way of honoring him." He then looked over at the boar herd. "But enough talking about boars. It's time for you two to take one down for yourself."

Rost's warning about these boars made Eule very nervous, but Star's brief comforting hand on her shoulder helped calm her down, allowing her to concentrate on the boar in front of her.

"Eule, 220 kH," Star said quietly.

Eule's eyes widened in realization as she turned on her radio receiver and dialed it to that frequency. She hadn't thought about that. Their radios were completely silent, and these boars certainly couldn't intercept radio even if they had the faintest inkling about what radio is, which Eule highly doubted. This made their radios the perfect way to communicate without risking alerting the boars to their presence.

"See that big girl there? The one closest to us that's standing side-on to us, over?" Star broadcasted.

It wasn't hard for Eule to see the boar Star was referring to. The boar was easily one of the largest of the boars in the herd, about the size of some of the larger pigs she and her sisters working Sierpinski's kitchens had ever butchered. As evidenced by the lack of any tusks like the one on Rost's shoulder, it was also a female. The massive female boar was busy shoveling through the dirt looking for food, and was completely oblivious to their presence.

And as Star pointed out, the female boar just so happened to be standing sideways relative to them, providing a perfect target profile for their bows.

"Yeah, over?" Eule broadcasted back.

"On the count of 3, you shoot at its heart. I'm aim for its eye and hope I get an instant kill. Even if I miss, I'm hoping a heart shot will still slow it down even if my shot misses, over," Star explained.

Eule nodded. "Roger that," she finished broadcasting before taking one of the real arrows from her quiver, nocking it on the string, and drawing Rost's War Bow. The sudden drop in needed force to keep it at full draw was an advantage that was obvious before, but now more than ever, she was grateful for it. It let her arms minimize their electricity expenditure to keep the bow at full draw, as well as making her aim steadier as she aimed at the front of the boar, right behind its neck where its heart laid. "Ready, over," she reported just as quietly to her lover.

"Ready," Star replied just as succinctly. "On 1…2…3."

Eule loosed her arrow, sending it wriggling through the air for a moment before it buried its triangular, bladed arrowhead right into the boar's chest. However, even as Eule nocked another arrow onto Rost's War Bow just in case, she knew that it was almost certainly not her arrow that killed the boar. Not when Star's arrow flew true and buried itself right into the boar's eye.

Either way though, the boar fell to the ground with a thud, as though it was a puppet that had its strings cut. It didn't even so much as squeal, suggesting that it died instantly, which was a bit of a relief to Eule. The other boars in the herd running away, squealing in panic, was another source of relief. She had been afraid that the other boars might turn aggressive after hearing Rost's warning. Thankfully, those fears seem to have been misplaced.

"Yes, we nailed it!" Star shouted in joy, hugging Eule in the process.

"You did!" Äloy shouted as well, joining in on the hug via clamping onto Eule's mechanical leg from behind.

"No, you nailed it. That arrow through the head was definitely the one that took it down," Eule noted while returning the hug to both her lover and the adorable little Gestalt girl that had found a place in her plastic-laced heart. "I was basically shooting a corpse when my arrow hit it."

"Eh, it was living when you released that arrow, so I'm going to call it and say that it's your kill too," Star replied happily.

"I agree with Star," Rost added. "That boar was the first kill for both of you. Be proud of it."

Eule blushed and buried her face into Star's belly. "If you say so," she replied to Rost's compliment, fully aware that she sounded a bit muffled because of that and not caring in the slightest.

"I do say so," Rost insisted, before continuing: "Come now. I will teach you how to skin, gut, and butcher a boar–"

"Oh wait, Rost!" Eule shouted, bringing her face out of Star for a moment. "I know how to do that. Could you allow me to gut and butcher that boar for you? Please?"

Rost blinked at Eule in surprise. "You do? How?"

Eule grinned at him. "As it so happened, my sisters and I once received a shipment of whole pig carcasses that we had to butcher to get them into the freezers, er, basically really big and really cold Chillwater containers powered by electricity instead of Chillwater. It was quite the educational experience, but that's where I learned how to butcher pigs, and since these boars are basically wild pigs, they can't be too different from a Rotfront farm-raised pig."

Rost stroked his beard in deep thought. "That does make sense. It's not like there's any appreciable difference between a boar in the wild and a Carja-raised boar, after all. The only thing you need to keep in mind though is that butchering a freshly killed boar is different from butchering one that's already dead. You need to hang the carcass after skinning and gutting it for a day before butchering it so that the meat has time to relax so that it isn't tough. Now, are you sure you want to skin and gut this boar though?" Upon seeing Eule's enthusiastic nod, he nodded back and said: "Very well then, Eu-le. It's all yours, but remember: I'll be here if you need anything."

Eule nodded happily. Skinning and gutting a boar may not exactly be cooking, but it was close enough that it promised to satisfy Eule on a very deep level.

"Can I help too?!" Äloy asked, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Eule giggled. "I'll definitely need your help with the boar at some point. From my own experiences, butchering a pig is definitely a job for at least 2 Eules…oh, that reminds me. Star, could you help lift the carcass? I need it upright so that I can drain it of blood."

Star gave a smiling salute to Eule with her left hand in the Eusan Nation style. "Your wish is my command, my beautiful and deadly owl," she said with a flourish before walking towards the fallen boar.

Eule smiled at her lover's antics and followed her–

Before suddenly stopping when she heard heavy footsteps coming from behind her. She turned around sharply–

Just as a Watcher suddenly burst out of some vegetation behind them, its eye glowing a bright, suspicious yellow.

"What in the–" Eule heard Star began.

"Watcher! Behind us!" Eule also heard Rost yell out,

The Watcher's gaze then went directly to little Äloy, who was staring at the Machine in just as much shock as Eule was. The Watcher then gave a harsh mechanical screech that Eule (to her shock) heard in both her ears and her radio receiver as the yellow of its eye turned an angry red, and it lunged at Äloy as the little Gestalt girl stumbled back in shock.

Eule would remember everything that happened very clearly. Even as she was screaming "No!" in her head, she raised Rost's War Bow, drawing the arrow back to full draw, and briefly aimed before letting the arrow loose.

The bladed arrowhead didn't even have time to wriggle before it embedded itself straight into the Watcher's eye. Eule watched glass shatter and sparks fly as the arrow crashed through the robotic eye and buried itself deep into the Watcher's head.

The Watcher, robbed of both its sight and its life, crashed to the ground with no sound but its impact with the ground, sliding to a half mere centimeters away from a still-shocked Äloy, who squeaked and hid behind Eule, looking around for more Watchers with her tiny bow at the ready.

Eule was now aware of Star and Rost rushing to her taking up positions around her, with Äloy firmly in between them all, and scanning around for more Watchers just as Eule was.

"The fuck?! Where did that Watcher come from?" Star hissed in that slightly muffled tone that told Eule that Star had deployed her face shield, and for good reason.

"I don't know, but stay alert," Rost warned. "Watchers always come in groups."

Eule heeded that warning, and nocked another arrow to Rost's War Bow, drawing it back to full draw and scanning around for more Watchers that were surely eager to avenge their fallen fellow unit.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened.

Seconds turned into minutes, and nothing still happened.

When the minutes threatened to go into the double digits and no Watchers appeared, Eule asked: "Rost, are you sure that Watchers always come in groups?"

"They…do," Rost replied, but now sounding a bit unsure. "At least, they should. I've never seen or heard of Watchers wandering around alone before."

"Guess there's a first time for everything," Star noted. "Unless the Watchers have learned to be really patient?"

"The Machines aren't that intelligent, fortunately," Rost replied dryly.

"Could it be the Derangement altering the Watchers' behavior?" Eule asked.

"…Maybe," Rost conceded as he looked around.

"Rost, there's also something you should know," Eule continued. "That Watcher? When it made its…alarm screech, that screech was not only auditory, but it was broadcasting that screech on radio as well. My radio receiver module was hearing it at 220 kHz."

"Same here," Star added. "Nothing else though. Just that alarm screech, like Eule said. Guess these things don't speak even on radio?"

A chill then ran down Eule's carbon steel spine. "Wait, could that Watcher have heard us speak over the radio then?" she asked her lover.

Star's eyes widened in shock and realization. "Shit, I think you're right. If these Watchers broadcast their alarm screeches over radio, then of course they'd have the ability to receive radio as well. Fuck, and it was on our highest frequency too, so it shouldn't have been able to travel far. We just got fucking unlucky with that Watcher being just close enough to catch our broadcasts."

Another chill went through Eule. "We can't use our radios around the Machines. Otherwise, we'll just draw them to us…like now. Rost, Äloy, I'm so sorry. I didn't–"

"Stop," Rost commanded. "You had no idea that the Machines could hear this 'radio', and I didn't either. Blaming yourselves for something no one knew isn't going to help anyone." He then looked around some more before sighing, and continuing: "Besides, if they can speak to each other beyond sight range with 'radio', and if it's been this long since that Watcher made its alarm call, and no other Watcher has come, that has to mean that there aren't any Watchers around, no matter how bizarre that is for them," he concluded before taking the arrow off the bowstring of his spare Hunter Bow and then putting said bow away on his back. "In any case, I believe we now not only have a boar to butcher, but a Watcher too, so it works out anyways. I'll butcher the Watcher, and you and Star can show Aloy how to skin and gut that boar."

Eule breathed out a sigh of relief both for finally being able to off of her draw and for Rost's kindness and rationality. "Alright," she agreed, eager to be doing something Eule-like for once.

Rost nodded and then pulled out his knife, a trio of Chillwater satchels, and what appeared to be a large skin of more Chillwater, and then pushed them into Eule's arms. "Here, you will need all of these, since I noticed that you didn't have a knife and you mentioned that all your pouches were full of…bullets, you called it, for your weapons? As well as that one pouch with medical supplies for you Replikas specifically?"

Eule nodded in confirmation…and then suddenly realized that with all of these items, she was now far over the limit dictated by the Rule of Six. She started to try to give them back to at least make a trade…only to realize just how awkward it would be to trade 5 items with Rost just to accommodate the Rule of Six. Not to mention potentially risky since, in order to be able to keep Rost's War Bow or the quiver full of arrows, Eule would have to trade away her pistol and its holster, which is not what she wanted to do under any circumstances, especially not without teaching Rost gun safety first.

Eule dithered for several moments, before taking a deep breath, and hesitantly returned the arrow nocked on the bowstring to its quiver before hanging Rost's War Bow over her shoulder, tied the Chillwater satchels and the Chillwater skin to her belt, and slipped the somewhat crude knife into her medical satchel. The irony of that last choice somehow helped Eule keep calm despite her blatant violation of the Rule of Six.

"It's only temporary," Eule whispered to herself. "I'll give them back to Rost when I'm done using them, so it's okay. I'm not breaking the Rule of Six. I'm just…bending it. Yes, that's it."

As Rost walked past Eule, seemingly ignoring her whispering to herself, he suddenly stopped, turned around to look at her, and said: "Oh, and congratulations on your first solo kill, Eule, and on a Machine on top of it…and thank you for saving Aloy's life, for the second time now." He then smiled at a stunned Eule. "I told you that War Bow was suited for you," he said before moving to the fallen Watcher and crouching down to begin butchering it.

Normally, Eule would be deeply interested in how to go about butchering a Watcher. However, she was frozen as her brain tried to process what Rost said. Her first solo kill? What? Eule initially tried to deny this, but the words never even properly formed in her cloned brain before they died there, because Eule couldn't deny it. She had killed that Watcher. She felt as if it had been entirely automatic, but she couldn't deny that it was her kill. Her. Kill.

Eule felt faintly ridiculous. Imagine that? A noncombatant Replika model like her killing some sort of robotic…giant flightless bird? It was so silly…and yet, she couldn't help but feel something on top of the befuddlement. Something warm and happy…pride? Was she proud of having taken down a Watcher?

Eule knew that a lot of that warmth and happiness was defending Äloy from danger, but she also couldn't help but feel proud in this accomplishment, almost as proud as when she'd once prepared a perfectly roasted duck with sour plum sauce by herself. It had been one of the most complex dishes she'd made early in her Commissioning at Sierpinski, and she was still proud of having done that all on her own. It was so bizarre to feel the same way from slaying a Machine, but Eule couldn't deny that it produced a similar feeling deep in her plastic-laced heart.

Eule then suddenly felt a pair of physical sensations simultaneously. The first was Star reaching out to hug Eule in a hug that pulled Eule into the Security Technician Guard Replika's breastplate. The second was the sensation of little Äloy hugging her leg, clamping on like an adorable monkey.

"You did it!" Äloy shouted joyfully. "You got a Machine kill too! Now we're both Machine hunters! Star, you'd better hunt your own Machine too, so that we can all be Machine hunt…Star?"

Eule then looked up in alarm at Star's face, her eyes shut and the rest of her face filled with troubled worry. "Star, are you okay?" Eule asked.

Star scoffed. "Am I okay? I should be asking you that," she said, finally opening her blue eyes, which like the rest of her face, were filled with worry. "By the Red Eye, how the fuck did I not notice that Watcher until it was almost right on top of us? I'm 220 fucking centimeters tall. I should've been able to see it coming from a kilometer away. I should've–"

Eule gently placed a white-gloved finger on her lover's face shield and shushed her, her own worries about her kill transforming into worries about her Star. "Star. That Watcher approached from directly behind us through thick forest and undergrowth that no one could've seen through. Not even Rost noticed until at the same time you did, if you recall, so blaming yourself solely for not noticing that Watcher in time makes no sense. Besides, I thought we promised each other that we wouldn't do that on that first night here?"

Eule couldn't see Star's mouth thanks to that black face shield still in place, but the softening of Star's eyes told Eule that she was smiling underneath that face shield. "Yes, we did. Guess I'm just being silly, aren't I?" Star asked.

Eule gently reached up and pulled down her Star's head to give her a peck on the face shield. "We both were, love. Now, perhaps you could put away that face shield so that I can give you a proper kiss?" Eule asked with a smile.

"Oh, right, I forgot," Star said sheepishly as the two halves of her face shield slid apart, folding it back in its usual place to reveal her face once more, finally allowing Eule to give her lover a proper kiss on her plastic-laced lips.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" Äloy asked excitedly, bouncing up and down in her excitement. "I thought you were just taking that mask thing on and off really quickly when I wasn't looking, but it just puts itself on and off on its own? How?!"

Star smiled down at Äloy. "It's not doing it on its own, and for the record, it's not a 'mask thing'. My face shield is basically part of my body, so I'm making it slide in and out on my own. Here, look," she said, demonstrating exactly that by deploying her black metallic face shield back onto her face. "It basically works like a sliding door, with the two halves of my face shield sitting behind my head when it's not on my face like this. It uses a bit of electricity each time I slide it back and forth, but it's not much. In fact, it uses so little electricity that I can keep doing it all day on a full battery if I have to." Star aptly demonstrated by continuously operating her face shield, deploying and retracting it repeatedly, much to Äloy's amazement and intense interest.

Eule was smiling just as much as Äloy, but for different reasons. She was deeply relieved at seeing Star relaxed and happy now, compared to how stressed she was while blaming herself. She mentally thanked Äloy for that happy interruption, but alas, there's Eule work to be done.

"Alright, alright, let's play later, okay?" Eule asked, giggling at the sight of Star and Äloy frozen in the middle of the little Gestalt girl feeling Star's face shield as the latter was leaning down to allow the former to reach it. "Right now, we have a boar to butcher. You don't want to let Rost beat us now, do you?"

"No!" Äloy yelled out at the same time Star (with her face uncovered once more) did.

Eule giggled, honestly feeling like she was a kindergarten teacher now. "Then let's get to it then, children!"

In a very short amount of time, Eule, Star, and Äloy were crouched around the dead boar. As Star yanked out the pair of arrows embedded in it (which Eule noted required visible effort even for Star to do, especially for the arrow impaled into the boar's eye), Eule brought out Rost's knife. Now that Eule had unwrapped it and was holding it in her hands, she could see that while crude, it was surprisingly functional. Strips of leather wrapped around a thin section of Machine steel served as a perfectly workable handle, while the rest of the knife was carved in such a way that it somewhat resembled the blade of one of the many kitchen knives she and her sisters had handled in the kitchens of S-23 Sierpinski, save for having thick strips of leather in front of the grip that acted as a crude guard.

With that concluded, Eule got to work. The boar was big, but it was really no bigger than the farm pigs she'd help butcher, so its size wasn't really intimidating. Neither was the prospect of gutting it, thanks to AEON. For reasons known only to them, they had seen fit to send several dozen whole pigs to S-23 Sierpinski completely whole: hair, offal, and all.

She could still clearly remember the Look on Februar's face when she saw the pigs for herself. Februar had to take deep calming breaths, several of them, before clapping her hands and ordering everyone to help her skin, gut, and butcher those pigs, because those pigs certainly weren't going to do that themselves. Eule found the experience odd but interesting all the same, and right now, she was thankful for it.

First, after getting Star to hold up the massive boar carcass by its hind legs (which still amazed Eule that Star was lifting it so easily, considering that the boar had to have been around 130 kg or so now that Eule could get a better look at it), Eule cut along the boar carcass's neck, severing the large blood vessels there and spilling the blood onto the ground. She let the boar's blood completely run out in order to rapidly cool the carcass before beginning with the skinning in earnest.

Eule then made a series of cuts along the legs of the boar, along its head, and down its belly (with Äloy helping to pull aside the front legs when needed), allowing her to easily pull the skin off as she cut away the fat and connective tissue along the inside while keeping the hair from getting onto the meat.

The result was Eule eventually being able to pull off the fur-covered skin, leaving a mostly skinless boar carcass, and setting it aside for later if Rost wants it for anything. And indeed, a quick trip back to Rost confirmed that he did want that boar skin, resulting in him handing a leather sheet to Eule to tie the boar skin and head up in a big bundle to put into her backpack.

Honestly, Eule was starting to love that backpack. It was a huge container, allowing her to store far more items than her belt pouches without violating the Rule of Six, and it was comfortable to wear. She wondered if it was possible for her to earn enough of these Shards the people here used as money to buy the backpack from Rost, but it was a brief flight of fancy. Right now, there was Eule work to do.

Which Eule proceeded to do by taking Rost's knife, and cutting through the center of the rib cage before pulling it open, exposing the jiggly internal organs, which were all trying to jiggle out of the boar's body thanks to gravity. Eule carefully took hold of the specific organs she wanted: the heart, the lungs, the liver, and the kidneys; and just as carefully cut them away to store into the trio of Chillwater satchels as Äloy held the satchels open. She was afraid that the sheer amount of boar offal would exceed the capacity of the satchels, but by some miracle, the offal just barely managed to fit into them.

Once Eule had all the offal she wanted, she then cut the anus away from the body and allow the rest of the organs to fall out onto the ground. Eule covered the organs with dirt before moving everyone and the carcass away from the site to keep from accidentally uncovering the mass of unwanted offal.

Next, Star carried the gutted boar carcass to a nearby stream to wash it off. Eule wasn't entirely sure about this due to the potential for the river to carry diseases, but it was either that, or eat unwashed meat contaminated with bacteria, so Eule decided that the washing was worth it.

Eule placed the large Chillwater skin right into the boar's body cavity where the organs had rested, using a metal needle (apparently carefully carved from one of the many pins that held Machine hide to the skin) and several Machine wires borrowed from Rost to crudely stitch the body cavity closed. At last, Star was now holding up a properly skinned and gutted boar carcass, waiting to be hung somewhere in the house's yard.

With a sigh of relief at a job well done, Eule wiped the sweat off her brow using her bare black hands. Her white gloves were now hanging from her belt to dry after having been washed in the stream. There was certainly no way Eule was going to go around with her gloves stained red from boar blood and viscera, after all. Even then though, she had looked at the fresh bloodstains in trepidation when she noticed that they weren't quite coming off during the washing, leaving very faint pinkish blotches that were still there on the white cloth even as it was drying. She earnestly hoped that Rost had soap (or vinegar, if the bloodstains dried) to help get the stains out, however faint that hope might appear to be.

Speaking of which, Rost walked up to them now, with his backpack bulging with Watcher parts. Overflowing, really. Eule snorted in amusement at the sight of a pair of Watcher feet sticking out of his backpack's bag. He really had wasted nothing on the Watcher carcass. Even the bones and assorted bits he couldn't fit into his own backpack, he had taken apart and put into Eule and Star's backpacks as they were busy skinning and gutting the boar. There was now nothing left of the Watcher carcass save for a dark, oily stain on the ground where it had laid.

"I see you weren't lying about butchering those…pigs, you called them, at your old home," Rost said as he examined the skinned boar carcass Star was still holding by its hind feet. "Excellent butchering. Not much use for the head and feet besides for stew though," he noted.

"Yeah," Äloy agreed firmly. "The meat's all tough and chewy, and not really good anyways."

Eule gaped at both in surprise. "Your people don't make sülze or eisbein with them?"

Rost's and Äloy's blank looks all but confirmed it to Eule, even before Rost asked: "No, what are those? The Focus isn't making any sense at all. It's insisting that 'sool-ze' and 'ize-bine' are 'head cheese' and 'ice leg' in turn, neither of which makes any sense to me."

Eule hopped in excitement. "Oh, oh! Those are delicious, and I know how to make them. You'll love it, if you'll perhaps let me cook them? Please?"

Rost sighed, but with a slight smile to accompany the sigh. "Never before have I had a guest so constantly insist on doing work when the host is insisting in turn that he will do everything." Eule watched with even more excitement as Rost threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. You may do as you like with the boar head and feet, along with the rest of the carcass if you so wish. It is your and Star's kill, after all."

Eule leapt into the air, cheering at the thought of finally being able to cook. "You won't regret it, Rost! I'll make the best sülzeand eisbein you've ever had!" she practically squealed out.

"It will be the only such examples of those dishes that Aloy and I will ever have," Rost noted dryly, still with that slight smile on his face. "But I will take your word for it."

Star giggled as her face took on a dreamy look. "Ah, sülze. Eisbein. Now those are delicious. A good Rotfront-style roasted eisbein, with the skin all crispy and crackly and covered in that sweet red glaze? Mmm-mm, delicious," she said, with Eule giggling as she watched a thin line of drool run down the corner of Star's mouth before she slurped it back up in embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Äloy was frowning at Eule with a puzzled look on her adorable face. "What's 'cheese', and what does it have to do with the head?" she asked.

"It…wait, you don't know what cheese is?" Eule asked Äloy in surprise. Upon seeing Äloy shaking her head, she asked further: "Then does that mean you don't know what milk is?"

Äloy's blank look said it all. "You mean the stuff mothers feed their babies with?" the little Gestalt girl asked.

"Well, yes, but I'm talking about the white liquid that comes out of female cows, not out of Gestalt women when they're lactating," Eule clarified.

Äloy merely continued giving Eule a puzzled look, initially making Eule think she needed to further clarify what milk was, until Äloy asked: "What's a cow?"

Now it was Eule's (and Star's) turn to give Äloy a blank look. "You don't know what a cow is?" Eule asked in disbelief. When she received another headshake in reply, she turned to Rost and asked: "Could you help me out here?"

But to Eule's shock, all she received from Rost was a look as blank as Aloy's. "What is this 'cow' that you speak of? 'Kuh'? Whichever it is?" he asked.

"Wait, neither of you know what a cow is?" Star asked in just as much disbelief. "You know? Big, 4-legged mammal? Males have big horns? They go 'Moo'?"

"Do you mean goats?" Rost asked in utter confusion. "Those are the closest beast I can think of, aside from the 'Moo', and the Carja, Oseram, and Banuk do raise goats for milk, so…"

Star blinked at Rost in bafflement before looking thoughtful. "Huh, I've never actually had goat milk before. Guess this will be a first for me if we can ever get our hands on any of that goat milk."

"Well, at least we have milk of some kind here," Eule conceded. "We'll just have to get used to not having any beef then."

"…Damn, and now all I can think of is a nicely grilled steak and beef bratwurst," Star said mournfully, prompting Eule to reach up and pat her lover's shoulder in sympathy.

"Waaait…are you saying that people outside the Sacred Lands get baby food out of these goat beasts? How? Why?" Äloy asked in disbelief.

"Well, milk is extracted from goats via their udders, er, the swollen teats that the baby goats drink from. As for why, it's to drink?" Eule said in a puzzled tone, unsure what the problem was. "I mean, goat milk is high in protein, fat, and calcium; so it's good for your growing body."

Eule was shocked to see Äloy give her a look of betrayal and disgust. "That's gross. Why would anyone want to drink that? I thought you liked making sense, Eu-le."

Eule made a light groan of disappointment somewhere in the back of her throat, where her desire to drink milk of any kind was battling out with Äloy's blatant disgust for what Eule thought and continued to think was a perfectly normal food and drink.

"Wait, so what's cheese then?" Äloy asked, giving Eule a suspicious look.

Eule felt more than a bit of trepidation as she mentally dug into what she remembered of the processes behind cheese-making to try and answer Äloy's question as honestly as possible. She'd promised Äloy at least that.

"Cheese is a food made by coagulating milk either by rennet, which is a complex series of enzymes obtained from the stomachs of the animals the milk came from, or by the use of bacterial enzymes to do the same." Eule saw that Äloy was still confused though, so she further simplified the explanation. "Cheese is basically taking the solid parts of the milk out of the water it's suspended in. It's like…how bees make honey by taking the water out of flower nectar."

"Wait, that's how bees make honey?" Äloy asked, her eyes now bright with curiosity instead of dark with disgust.

Eule nodded. "Yes, but you understand now what cheese is, yes?"

Äloy's curious smile promptly turned back into a frown. "Yeah, but this cheese still sounds gross. Can't we just eat the boar organs instead?"

Eule slumped in failure. "Yes, alright. Let's go home now then."

As Äloy ran past her in the direction of the slope leading up to the house, Eule felt a comforting Star hand on her shoulder. "Well, you tried," Star consoled.

Eule merely gave her lover a lopsided smile in reply, and was surprised to suddenly feel a single pat of a hand on her other shoulder, resulting in her turning her head to see Rost giving her a consoling look.

"If it's any consolation, I've eaten cheese before, and I admit, I have developed a bit of a taste for a good goat cheese," Rost admitted with a smile before it turned a bit lopsided. "Goat milk though, not so much. The one time I drank it, I remember that it tasted good, sweet and fatty with a nice strong goat taste, and then I remember that I immediately needed to use an outhouse afterwards. It would seem that goat cheese likes me, but not goat milk. Strange, is it not?"

"Oh. Ohhh," Eule's eyes widened in realization. "Rost, you're lactose intolerant." When she saw Rost give her a blank look, she explained: "Uh, milk has this sugar in it called lactose. Some Gestalts and even some Replikas can't digest it properly, and so the result is that when they drink it, it causes symptoms ranging from nausea and flatulence to abdominal pain and diarrhea. However, the process of turning milk into cheese breaks down that lactose, and aging it further reduces it, thus making cheese safe for lactose intolerant people to eat it. That's why it's very likely that you have lactose intolerance, Rost."

Rost stroked his braided beard in his usual thoughtful gesture. "Hmm, so that's what you call it. I know many Nora have this same problem with milk, so we just call it Carja Milk Sickness since it started when Carja trade mission sold milk to us for the first time. It's still interesting to find out why that is though. I don't suppose there's any cure for this…'lactose intolerance'?"

Eule gave Rost a consoling smile. "Besides avoiding milk, drinking only milk substitutes, and avoiding eating too much cheese or yogurt? Unfortunately, no."

Rost nodded sadly. "A pity then. Oh well, at least goat cheese is far too expensive for me to consume more than as a rare treat. I do actually have a part of a small block of hard goat cheese left from my last trade with the Carja trade mission. The taste was too strong for Aloy's liking, and she hadn't even known that it was cheese back then, but perhaps you and Star might like a taste?"

"I'm up for it," Star immediately said with the eagerness of a hungry Star unit.

Eule giggled. "I wouldn't mind a bit of this Carja hard goat cheese myself, just to see what kind of cheese these Carja people make."

As Rost nodded with a smile, Äloy suddenly ran back to them. "Come on, let's go home already! I'm hungry!" she whined.

Chuckling, Rost extracted a ball of his boar trailmeat from one of his innumerable pouches and handed it to Äloy. "Here, this will tide you over until dinner," he said.

As Äloy happily chewed on her trailmeat, Rost then promptly handed one to Eule and two to Star. "Also to tide you two over until dinner," he said, directing his gaze just a bit more towards the hungry Star.

Star had no qualms, happily inhaling a ball of trailmeat before devouring the other. Eule ate hers more sedately as everyone started on the path home. With how long it took to navigate that mountain slope down, Eule was sure there was plenty of time to enjoy her trailmeat on the way back up.