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 seeing a new horizon very far from home in a world of primitive tribes and beasts of steel.

12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Journey through Life's Long Night

"You're leaving?!" Eule asked, still in as much shock as Star was in as they stood inside the Carja trade mission building, seeing Rashaman and Bashid with all their belongings and remaining wares packed up into boxes and bags.

Rashaman nodded sadly. "We got a message from our suppliers. It was short but to the point: 'Sun-King Jiran is going to war with the Nora. Get out while you can.'"

"War?" Eule asked again, shaking her head in dismay.

"So any reason for this war?" Star asked in morbid curiosity. "You know, besides this Sun-King of yours saying that he feels like it?"

"Alas, our suppliers only gave us the same insane rumors as the reason why," Bashid said, sounding even more mournful than he usually did when he was depressed. "The only difference is that the rumors are getting even more specific in their details. According to them, Sun-King Jiran is ordering the capture of outlanders specifically to sacrifice in the Sun-Ring to…appease the Machines? Madness. Just pure madness. There must be some mistake somewhere. Surely, there must."

Eule shivered at those rumors. They sound more like something out of a lurid anti-Imperial propaganda piece than something would happen in real life. She'd read one of those newspapers out of curiosity, and had instantly regretted it as the sight of a photo of a naked Replika soldier lying on red Kitezhian sand greeted her eye modules, so badly mutilated that Eule hadn't even been able to tell what model they'd been.

Lowering her gaze from that photo hadn't made it much better, because the story had been about how the Replika in question had been captured by Imperial forces, and then tortured and raped while in captivity. All in a posited attempt to apparently force the Replika into a personality more conducive to be a "Machine-Servant". That had been too much for Eule by that point, and she had put down the newspaper, never to pick it back up again.

It was all just too much, sounding too fantastically disturbing to be real, just like these rumors about this Sun-King Jiran that Rashaman and Bashid had been relaying.

Then again…Eule remembered that she was currently living in a world where Stone Age tribes of humans lived in a world of robotic animals, and hunted those very mechanical fauna for parts. And this was after escaping a world where a strange disease could make fallen Replikas rise back up as bloodthirsty monsters, mind you. So Eule thought that maybe she shouldn't dismiss things just because they merely sounded too fantastical.

And even if those rumors were false, Rashaman and Bashid were still leaving because of them, and with their departure, would go two of Eule's new friends in this land.

Thus, Eule's reply to Bashid was: "Are you sure that you have to leave right this moment? Winter has already begun, after all. Traveling for great distances in the snow might be risky."

"Alas, that's precisely why we've been told to leave," Bashid said, sighing mournfully.

"According to our suppliers, the Sun-King is apparently waiting for spring to launch any kind of offensive against the Nora," Rashaman explained. "Winter would impede the Army of the Sun's advance, so I can see why it would make sense for him to order that."

"Yeah, makes sense there," Star commented. "If General Winter isn't on your side, then you wait until she goes back to sleep before you march."

Rashaman made a grin that didn't seem to have much of his usual humor in it. "Never heard it phrased that way before, but yeah, that about sums it up. If we don't leave now, when the Army is still waiting out the winter, then we'll be caught up in the war, one way or another."

Star nodded in grim agreement, along with a worried Eule, when a sudden thought made Eule's worry spike even higher than it had been.

"Did you tell the Nora about this?" Eule asked out of that worry. "It seems like they'd be the ones most affected by this, so shouldn't they have the right to know?"

"Oh, believe me, that's already been well and truly taken care of," Rashaman replied with a determined nod.

"We've already spoken to the High Matriarchs and told them of the rumors," Bashid explained. "While I still believe those rumors might be…exaggerated, if there's any truth to them, then it's best that the Nora prepare for war with our tribe."

Eule heard the distinct sound of Star scratching her shelled cheek with an aramid fiber-reinforced polyethylene fingernail, and indeed a glance revealed that Star was doing exactly that, complete with a thoughtful expression.

"Hey, aren't you two technically engaging in treason against your nation, er, the Carja Sundom, I mean?" Star asked. "Are you two going to be okay, or…"

Rashaman barked out the first laughter he made since the start of this conversation, and even then, it had a bite of anger to it. "If I allow this to pass without even so much as warning my friends and the good people here of it, then I'd be committing treason against my own conscience. If I do that, then may the Sun forever turn his face away from me and darken my soul, for I wouldn't be able to look at myself afterwards," he explained with a mixture of anger and sorrow darkening his usual grin.

Bashid sighed. "I wish those rumors weren't true…but I too wouldn't be able to live with myself if they turn out to be so. That's why we decided to not only warn the High Matriarchs about this, but also give whatever knowledge we have of current Guard military equipment as well. It wouldn't do for the Nora to be surprised by a Firestriker or the like, after all."

"Firestriker?" Eule and Star both asked at the same time. Such was the seriousness of the conversation that neither of them reacted to it with anything other than a nod of confirmation.

"It's like this…double-ended wooden and metal box that fires fire arrows from either direction, and has a double-bladed spear on either end to use to stab anyone who gets too close. The soldier apparently flips it over once one box of arrows is empty to fire the other box," Rashaman tried to explain, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Admittedly, I don't know the exact details of how it works, so this is the best that I can do."

Eule nodded consolingly. From the sounds of it, it's probably some kind of massive, bizarrely designed casterbow. Nothing too outlandish…probably.

"In any case," Bashid continued. "The Nora have not gone unwarned of what our tribe might be planning. This, I swear on the honor of House Ashir Ruwadin." A thump of clenched hand over his heart emphasized that promise from the Carja nobleman.

Eule honestly didn't quite know how to react to a noble swearing an oath of honor to her, but she nodded at Bashid anyways. No matter how odd it was, there was no doubt to her and Star as to his earnestness and kindness, if their friendship with him over the past several months was anything to go off of.

Still though…

"It's not to us you should be swearing that oath to, Bashid, since we are outsiders as well. That oath should more properly go to the Nora," Eule pointed out, but then with a smile, she continued: "However, you seem to have already gone above and beyond that oath. I can safely say that the Red Eye can see your courage and compassion, and will judge you kindly for that."

Bashid stared at Eule for several moments before he started blinking rapidly. So rapidly that he ended up having to take off his glasses to start rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, oh my. Th-thank you, Eu…Eule," Bashid managed to get out with only a couple of sniffles.

Rashaman patted Bashid warmly on the shoulder. There was nothing more to be said there.

The only thing that could've made the scene better was Torvund's presence, save for the fact that his arrival did not actually make the scene better. Not least of which due to him leaping down from the second floor carrying a chest under each arm and a bulging sack on his back, which caused his impact with the wooden floor to sound like a hammer falling down on a log. With the steel of his peculiar mechanical prosthetic right leg adding some extra oomph to that impact.

"Right, stuff's all packed up and ready to go when you all are," Torvund said as he trundled over with his packed belongings.

"You're leaving too, buddy?" Star asked, dismay evident in her tone.

"'Fraid so, Star," Torvund replied with a mournful nod. "All the routes into the Sacred Lands that my suppliers take cross through Carja territory. If the Carja are going to be at war with the Nora, then my suppliers won't be able to get through either, and that's not even going into the rumors I've been hearing about what's been happening to fellow Oseram and Banuk in the Sundom. My only hope is to pack up everything I can carry, and make my way back to the Claim as fast as Bora and I can drag our cart. I can't very well enjoy my Shards if I'm dead from being caught up in a war with the Carja, after all, eh?"

Torvund made an attempt to sound nonchalantly jolly towards the end, but the content of his words sucked the attempt at good humor right out of them.

"Don't say that," Star said, her biocomponent lips set in a grim line. "You're getting back to the Oseram lands, and you're going to live a long and happy life. Understand, Torvund? You're not going to just let yourself be killed, understood?"

Torvund blinked at Star for a few seconds, looking up at Star's face high above him as she rubbed away the tears threatening to spill from her eye modules. Eule wrapped one arm around her lover and leaned against the side of her armored breastplate, offering Star all the comfort she needed.

It seemed that Torvund was eager to offer some comfort as well, for he puffed his chest up and proudly declared: "Don't worry, Star! Me and Bora are more than capable of taking out bandits, small Machines, and even some Carja soldiers if we have to. Especially since I've got my trusty Blast Sling. As your, er, Eule there knows, a Blast Bomb or two can take out most anything in that range. So not only am I going to make it back to the Claim with ease, I'm going to sit back with a pint or two of ale with my family, and tell them all about some strange Machine women I met while doing business in Nora lands. They'll never believe me, and that'll be the fun part!"

Star sniffed one more time before putting on a grin. "Aww, come here, you little softie!" was all the warning got before she wrapped her mechanical arms around Torvund in a warm embrace.

"…You know, this would feel a bit better if my face wasn't being smushed into the bottom half of your…breastplate," Torvund said, sounding a bit muffled due to his situation.

"Ack, sorry!" Star yelped, stepping back and patting Torvund down. "Are you okay?"

Torvund once more puffed himself up. "Oseram are made of sterner stuff than that!" he proudly boasted.

Eule smiled. "Well, that's good, especially since you're getting a hug from me too."

Before Torvund could do so much as open his mouth in protest, Eule was already wrapping her own arms around him in an embrace just as warm as Star's had been.

"Take care on your journey, okay?" Eule said as she continued that warm embrace.

"Ack!" Torvund yelped. "Get off me, you, you…Machine woman!"

Eule finally stepped back with a giggle at the sight of Torvund blushing, trying to calm himself down after the successive hugs from the Replikas.

"First steel bosoms and then…not-steel bosoms," Torvund muttered, still not quite ridding himself of his blush. "Women shouldn't be going around hugging people with no warning."

"Torvund, perhaps you could be a bit more gentlemanly towards the fairer sex?" Rashaman asked, his tone sounding far too innocent for the grin he was giving. "Maybe you might actually attract more members of that fairer sex if you do, even if just in customer form?"

Torvund's reply to that was only an unintelligible grumble mixed with a healthy amount of muttering that sounded suspiciously like "Womanizing Carja busybody out womanizing instead of merchanting".

"I'll have you know that I already have a girl in mind, and she's neither Eule nor Star, thank you very much," Rashaman said indignantly before turning to the Replikas in question. "Speaking of which, I've got some things for you, actually. Call it some last presents to some of my best customers, courtesy of the final supply run that brought us this unfortunate news."

Rashaman went over to a specific sack, and pulled out a rectangular wooden box to take over to Eule and Star. That was the point where Eule realized that calling it a "box" was like calling a book a pile of paper. The wood was heavily ornamented, covered in carvings that resembled rays of light mixed with that circuit board design the Carja seemed to love and reinforced with ornately forged bronze at the corners that seemed to be just as much for durability as they were for decoration.

It was really quite a beautiful box, and Eule thought that it would make a lovely addition to the interior décor of her and Star's room. However, she was fairly certain that Rashaman wasn't just presenting the box and nothing but.

"Eule, do you remember what you said…oh, nearly a season ago before about wanting a mirror of some kind?" Rashaman asked.

Eule nodded, remembering that conversation after Rashaman had noticed her looking at her own reflection in one of Torvund's steel pots.

Rashman grinned proudly. "Well, Bashid and I–"

"Mostly Rashaman though," Bashid interrupted with an embarrassed laugh. "I admit, I think I have been spending too much time in the Library of the Mesa to get to know anyone outside it. Well, anyone who would be useful in this endeavor."

Rashaman merely patted Bashid consoling on the shoulder before continuing: "I called in some favors with some artisans I know in Meridian, and it took a while, but well, take a look," Rashaman said proudly before opening the box's lid.

Eule gasped at the sight within, for sitting on a small cushion of bright red fabric was a mirror. An actual hand mirror, apparently made of bronze from the color of the metal. There was a similarly bronze cover over the round mirror engraved with the 6-sided circuit board star of the Carja flag, and the rim surrounding that lid appeared to have been made in the shape of a pair of curving stalks of maize, but there was no mistaking the basic design of a hand mirror. Not with that handle sticking out to the side that ended in a bronze bird head.

Rashaman only confirmed the hand mirror's nature when he set the box down on a nearby table, picked the hand mirror up, and held it up to Eule, turning it around to reveal the equally as decorated backside of the mirror that was engraved or painted (possibly even both) with the image of a golden Sun high in an azure sky raining down its shining golden rays upon an emerald-green earth.

"A lovely mirror for a pair of lovely ladies. At least, I certainly hope this mirror even comes close to matching your beauty," Rashaman announced with one of his usual grins.

Star snorted, amusement evident in the smile accompanying it. "I can see why Torvund keeps calling you a womanizer," she quipped.

Rashaman's reply was one of his usual laughs, now actually flavored with actual joy. "I can't help but speak the truth! Why not look for yourself and see that truth in your reflections?" he asked before he showed the mirror's front to the Replikas, and swung down the lid of the hand mirror.

Eule gasped once more at seeing her reflection, but it was a far cry from the reflection she saw in the side of an Oseram steel pot. This Eule that stared back at her was just as clear as the Eule who stared back at her back in the Eule Dorm's Replika-sized mirror.

"Made from the most pristine of pristine Watcher lens, and backed by a layer of the finest silver gilded by the hands of the finest Carja artisans, and just in case the mirror breaks, the inside of the lid has been polished nearly to the level of the old bronze mirrors, so you can still use that in an emergency while you work on getting a new mirror into place," Rashaman proudly described. "In fact, I'd bought it from a Nora merchant who claimed to have bought it in turn from a pair of, and I quote, 'Nosy Machine women, one of who sang me a song that hasn't left my head in seasons, curse her'. I have no idea what he meant, since the only Machine women I know who sings does so quite wonderfully, and I would be more than happy to have such a song by her in my head. So, Eule, Star, a thought on this mirror for this merchant?"

"It's…it's beautiful," Eule breathed. "It's like a work of art."

Rashaman's grin somehow became even wider. "Now that is a most pleasing compliment, if I do say so myself. Even if I didn't make this mirror myself, we Carja take pride in our ability to create works of art, and this is a fine example of that."

Star whistled. "Yeah, it really is. It's probably the kind of art that our tribe would've probably declared to be some 'decadent Imperial filth', and try to burn or something."

Rashman's grin suddenly flipped into a disturbed frown at that news. "Truly? Your tribe would've destroyed this? Why?"

Eule and Star briefly looked at each other, unsure how to reply to that question.

"It's…complicated," Eule began nervously.

"Basically: our tribe rebelled from a larger tribe that really liked art and stuff like that, so our tribe decided that all art is bad," Star explained, before adding: "Oh, except for the ones the Nation makes. Those are good apparently because only the Nation knows best what kind of art isn't bad."

"Hmm, fascinating yet disturbing," Bashid muttered, writing down Star's words into his ever-present notebook with his equally as ever-present fountain pen. It was only when he had finished his record-keeping that he offered a thought: "If you don't mind me saying, your Eusan Nation tribe sounds as though, well, if they were an artisan, I would accuse them of suppressing others' art in order to sell their own."

When Eule first arrived in the Embrace, she was sure she would've denied that. The Eule who has been living in the Embrace for nearly a season–Rotfront season, to be precise–simply nodded in depressed agreement at what her Nation would do.

"So…does that mean you don't like this mirror?" Rashaman asked, disappointment evident in both his tone and on his face.

"No!" Eule denied, jumping everyone in the lodge practically jump at the shout. Eule winced at that reaction. "I'm sorry about that, but…I do like that mirror. It's not decadent or evil in the slightest. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous, it's…it's a celebration of life in the form of an everyday object."

The disappointed frown on Rashaman's face slowly morphed into a smile over the course of Eule's words. By the time she was finished with those words, the smile had grown into a full-on grin.

"I'm glad to hear that there's a bit of Carja in you," Rashaman said proudly. Amidst Eule's embarrassed blushing, Rashaman continued: "And that's why I'll be glad to hand this over to you for, say, 130 Shards?"

Star barked out a laugh. "Never one to miss an opportunity to make some Shards, yeah?"

Rashman's reply to that was a laugh of his own. "Well, I do want to pay for my dream, after all, since dreams aren't free."

"This mysterious girlfriend of yours, or your restaurant?" Eule asked curiously.

"Both!" Rashaman replied with another bark of laughter. "Neither marriage nor Meridian rent comes cheap, you know!"

Eule smiled mischievously at that reply. "Perhaps you might introduce us to this girlfriend you seem so eager to boast about but so reluctant to actually describe in detail one day?" she asked.

Rashaman laughed once more, but Eule could hear a dash of nervousness in it. "Perhaps once I actually get married to her, and you can visit us in Meridian once this whole thing blows over."

"If it blows over," Torvund grumbled.

"Torvund!" Star and Bashid hissed.

"What? I'm just speaking the truth here," Torvund protested.

"I must remind you that these rumors about Sun-King Jiran are still rumors," Bashid insisted, before sighing and saying: "Hopefully."

Eule could only sigh at Bashid, hoping that was indeed the case, before turning back to a now no longer smiling Rashaman.

"We'll take that mirror at that 130 Shards price. No haggling, not this time," Eule said firmly.

"You seem like you need the money a lot more than we do right now," Star agreed.

Rashaman didn't grin, but instead smiled. It was a softer smile than his usual ones though, still happy but of a gentler kind. "Thank you, Eule, Star. I won't forget this," he simply said, his voice full of gratitude.

Once the trade of Shards and Machine parts for that hand mirror was over and done with, Eule found herself staring at her own reflection in her and Star's new mirror while Rashaman was busy packing up the profit gained from that trade.

Eule watched Star lean into her reflection, feeling her lover's warm biocomponent cheek gently squish into her own as their reflections made contact. "Something on your mind?" Star asked from that comfortable position.

Eule didn't answer immediately, but instead gently rubbed and tugged on one of the locks of Replika black hair on either side of her face that constituted the EULR standard hairstyle. The standard haircut that would never grow out. Replika hair didn't work like Gestalt hair. Replika hair was just strands of lifeless plastic, firmly attached to the skullplate just behind her upper faceplate, although that didn't make them immune to damage.

The only way to alter a Replika's haircut was to either cut it shorter as a permanent decision, or replace the hair either with new strands or in a fully assembled haircut attached to a new headplate. Even if that was a moot point back in S-23 Sierpinski, since no Replika was allowed to deviate from the standard hairstyle in the first place. However, even maintaining or repairing a hairstyle if it was damaged required a visit to B3 or B4, where Mai or one of the other Eules with hairdresser experience/interest would be more than happy to do just that as part of the "simple medical work" that the Eusan Nation expects all Eules to at least have a basic competency in, regardless of how un-simple hairdressing was.

None of which was even remotely possible here in the Embrace without some kind of hair extruder/implanter, which Eule couldn't even hope to begin to make.

"Need a new comb for that?" Star asked curiously.

"Well, yes, but…that's not what I was thinking about," Eule admitted. "I was more thinking that if our hair ever suffers any damage, maintenance and repair will be a…challenge."

Star hummed in thought, almost making her sound to Eule like one of her sisters. "Maybe we can just…cut up some Machine skin really thin to make into hair?

Eule shook her head, firmly clamping down the urge to laugh at her lover. Simple ignorance wasn't something to be laughed at.

"The average human hair measures about 50 micrometers. That's one five-hundredth of a millimeter. No human, even a Replika, can possibly cut something that thin," Eule explained. "And even if we were able to somehow accomplish that impossible feat of beyond masterful cutting, we would still have no way to actually affix those strands to our headplate with a hair implanter. Just simply poking it into the skin there won't work. The strands of hair need to be inserted in a liquid state in order to bulge out at the point of insertion and meld with the skin so that they don't just fall out with a simple tug."

"Hmm," Star hummed again, this time in disappointment. "Never thought about just how hard it is for Replikas to even get hair in the first place before. I just gave my headplate to Mai or her assistants to fix up, and then took it back from them later when they were finished. Tough job you all have there."

Eule nodded, sighing at the standard Eule's standard lot in life back in the Eusan Nation. "I've heard Februar mutter about that before. Something about how AEON just lumped the hairdressing duties under 'simple medical worker/nursing'. Honestly, I'm still not sure if she was being sarcastic, or if AEON actually does that," she commented.

"Honestly, the latter could be possible. This is AEON, after all," Star replied with a chuckle.

Eule chuckled right back, and it didn't even contain any nervousness in it this time at this mocking of the most powerful ministry of the Eusan Nation.

Well, at least, not much more than a hint of it, at any rate. Of which Eule would count as a bit of self-improvement, since she would be even more nervous than she currently was about what she wanted to ask of Star otherwise.

"Star?" Eule asked, earning a questioning sound from Star as Eule continued rubbing that same lock of her hair in nervousness. "Would it be alright if…if…if you helped me braid my hair?"

Star's reflection raised an eyebrow at Eule, mirroring what she was doing on her actual face. "Alright, I can do that. But…wow, now that's going above and beyond not being a standard hairstyle. Any reason for this, uh, sudden decision?"

Eule laughed in an embarrassed way. "Honestly, it's not as sudden as you think it is. All those talks Rost and Aloy have been having about braiding Aloy's hair? It made me think about how my own hair would look like that, and well…I do want to see how I look with braids. A bit like Rost's braids, really. They make such a lovely pattern."

Star snickered. "Yeah, but your braids would have significantly less beard to it."

"Thank for the Forge for that," Eule heard Torvund mutter from the side.

Eule now giggled. "Indeed, they would, but they would be just as pretty nonetheless."

Star smiled warmly. "Indeed, they would," she repeated just as warmly, before she blushed a bit. "To be honest, I want to try doing something with my hair too."

Eule looked excitedly at her lover's reflection, making an equally as excited questioning sound at her.

"Maybe a little dye here and there?" Star asked with a sheepish grin. "Rost's beard does look pretty nice with that blue dyed into it."

Eule turned her head to give her lover a kiss on her cheek. "I think you'll look pretty nice with that blue dyed into your hair too," she said with a smile as warm as her tone.

Star's smile in reply was accompanied by a kiss of her own on Eule's cheek. "Well, that settles it. Definitely going all-in on that blue dye as much as you are with your braids."

Eule's reply to that was a giggle. "I'm looking forward to that just as much as you are. Right after we've finished up with everything here, of course."

Eule heard Rashaman's chuckle from outside her field of vision, causing Eule to finally lower the mirror to look up at Rashaman's grinning face. "Honestly, I was getting afraid that you'd forgotten we were standing here."

"Twitterpated lovebirds," Torvund grumbled.

"Oh, don't be like that," Rashaman scolded. "By the Sun, I hope I can have such a relationship with my own girl when we get married."

Torvund scoffed. "You'll never see me get like that. Shards are the most important things to me, thank you very much."

"Ah, but Shards are cold, hard, and not very huggable compared to a lover's touch," Star pointed out.

"At least Shards can buy that for a night," Torvund continued to grumble.

Eule blushed at that. Yes, she knew intellectually that prostitution existed, but that didn't stop her from blushing even at that oblique reference to it.

Rashaman sighed. "And this, my friend, is why you'll probably never get married and have kids."

Torvund only replied to that with a semi-coherent grumble, in which Eule managed to make out "nosy Carja and his fancy Carja clothes" and "tall nosy messy-haired Machine women".

Which reminded Eule as she turned to both Rashaman and the still-grumbling Torvund, and asked: "This may be a little late, but do either of you happen to have any scissors for sale to help out with our hair problem? Not us specifically, but Aloy? Rost doesn't have scissors, you see."

Rashaman rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Alas, Bashid and I don't have scissors as part of our wares. If you'd asked me earlier, I could've ordered some from Meridian, but now–"

But before Rashaman could continue, Torvund interrupted with a bark of laughter. "Ha! I knew those would be useful wares to have here! Hold up, I put them in here somewhere…"

As Torvund searched through his packed belongings, Eule had to keep herself from giggling at Torvund's behavior. His sudden change in demeanor from grumbly surliness to excited joy, all because of the prospect of earning some more Shards, was oddly endearing to Eule. The fact that Torvund's wares were consistently high quality and long-lasting, if Rost's pots were any indication, was at least partially responsible for that view.

"Aha! There they are," Torvund said as he pulled out a completely unremarkable wooden box from his belongings. "Behold, the finest scissors the Oseram have to offer!"

When Torvund finally opened up that box to show off its contents, Eule found herself staring at what were indeed scissors. Piles of scissors. Some bronze, and others steel. Some were the normal kind with the screw in the middle holding them together that Eule was familiar with back in S-23 Sierpinski's kitchens, just with wooden and leather handles instead of plastic, but others were of a more bizarre design seemingly consisting of nothing more than a pair of blades mounted at the ends of a thin, U-shaped piece of dark Oseram steel.

"Spring scissors, those are," Torvund explained as Eule picked one up to examine. "You use it by squeezing the bars together. They're an older type, but they still check out. They're more difficult to make than pivot scissors, but they also don't care if you're right or left-handed. Both are 20 Shards each. Oh, and if you buy one, I'll even sell the other type too for 50% off. Just so you can see how they compare. Oh, and you might as well buy a spare of each type too, since you won't be getting any more from me for a while."

Eule shook her head as she smiled. "You may be incorrigible with those Shards, but you also make a fair point. We'll take them, and a second spare for each type too. Hopefully with more Shards in your pouch, you'll have a better chance of making it back to your home."

Torvund grinned so widely that, for once, Eule could just barely see his teeth from between his beard and mustache. "Sold!" Torvund cried happily.

Thus, with that last bit of business concluded, Eule and Star ended up standing outside the trade mission lodge as Rashman and Bashid were taking down the Carja flag from the pole. Even the flag itself seemed depressed, drooping mournfully as the Carja traders lowered it down, pole section by pole section, until they were left with a collapsed flagpole with the beautiful red and gold Banner of the Sun (as Rashaman and Bashid had sometimes called it) wrapped around it.

At least, Eule had assumed that was the last bit of business to conclude, right up until Rashaman reached into his and Bashid's cart, pulled out a leather bag the size of a Strider stomach and an even larger leather bag that was nearly the size of a Strider's body, and handed it to Eule.

"What's this?" Eule asked curiously as she set down the larger bag to gently open up the smaller one.

"Call it some last presents from us, for being some of our most loyal customers," Rashaman happily explained.

Even before she saw the red powder, Eule could smell the warming pungent scent of redthorn chili pepper powder.

"The larger bag contains the last of our produce that we hadn't handed out yet, since well, it's all going to rot anyways. Might as well just give it out. This includes a bag of maize flour too, since you seem to love that for your breads. As for the chili powder? Hopefully, that will last you and Rost for however long it takes for this nastiness to die down," Rashaman said with a smile and a thumbs-up. "Given that you two seem to be particularly fond of Carja spice. I prefer goldthorn peppers myself, but–"

Rashaman was interrupted by Eule retying the leather sack full of probably the last redthorn powder she and her family will see in a long while, and stepping forward to hug Rashaman.

"We'll see each other again," Eule insisted as she continued hugging the taller Gestalt merchant. "Until then though, I hope you and Bashid stay safe."

Rashaman gently returned the embrace. "Thanks, and you too. Hopefully, all this turns out to be nothing but mad rumors, and we can return to business soon."

"Hey, Bashid. Come over here, you lovable nerd!" Star called out.

"What? Huh? What's a 'nerd'–"

Eule giggled as Star joined the embrace, pulling Bashid into the group hug with her. She then leaned over to look at Torvund. "Won't you join us?" she asked hopefully.

Alas, Torvund merely hid behind a docile Bora, only poking his head out to insist: "Nuh-uh! You won't catch me being all touchy-feely like some pansy Carja."

Eule couldn't help it. She just ended up giggling louder at how much of a cat Torvund was being, with everyone else joining in with a combination of giggling and laughter.

Eventually though, Eule and Star were left standing alone as Rashaman, Bashid, and Torvund were walking down the Mother's Heart path leading out of the settlement. The sight of the Nora talking to them and offering them condolences and farewells–with Eule even recognizing Jan and Rana with Minali along with Teb, Feld and Sal among their number–only somewhat assuaged her worry for the merchants.

"Do you think they'll really be alright?" Eule asked.

Star hugged her reassuringly, adding a kiss to the bargain. "They will, love. We'll see them again. Really," she said.

Eule could only hope that her lover was right.

---

Aloy stood on one leg, extending her foot backwards straight out, while holding one arm forward and the other arm arm backward for balance.

"Ooh, excellent arabesque, Aloy!" Eule happily complimented.

Aloy didn't reply. She was too busy trying to maintain the weird ballet pose like Eule said new balleterinas were supposed to do first to avoid falling down.

"Oof!" Vala cried out as she fell onto her face trying to do the "arabes-que", or "arabesk" like the Eule pronounced it instead of how the Focus spelled it.

Just like Vala did.

"Oh, dear, Vala! Are you alright?" Eule asked, reaching down to Vala and helping her back up.

"I'm fine, but this 'ballet' dance of your tribe is so hard!" Vala complained as she shook off snow from her face, clothes, and pretty much all of her. "It's really pretty, but it's so hard to do!"

"Well, it does take a lot of hard work to make ballet look the way it does," Eule admitted.

"And that's why I gave up," Minali happily said from the comfort of her log stool. "I think I'd rather watch people do the ballet dance than do it myself, and save my hard work for learning Carving."

"Same here, but for Stitching," Teb just as happily said from atop his own log stool.

The young Carver girl and the older Stitcher boy gently put their fists together like Aloy did with Star, before holding their fists to Star for her to bump in turn. Aloy felt a happy warmth at seeing that. Star always looked sad whenever she talked about her sisters at her Sierpinski home, just like Eule did, so maybe seeing more people do the fist bump thing might make Star less unhappy? Especially since Star was becoming as good a friend with Teb and Minali as they were with her?

Eule could only make a nervous laugh at that. "Admittedly, ballet is probably not for everyone. Even for me, it's more of a hobby that I just happen to have experience with. My real passion is and probably always will be cooking."

Vala's face melted into a goofy grin. "Ehh, now you're making me hungry. Your food can be so weird, but it's so good."

Star's face melted into a grin as goofy. "Stop that, kid. You're making me hungry too. Eule's cooking is definitely the best."

"Especially the 'ramen'," Minali added with a firm nod. "I've never eaten any bread like it, but it's so good, and the soup is so good, and the vegetables in it are so good, and the grilled boar on it is so good…everything about it is so good!"

Even as Aloy held that arabesque pose, her stomach grumbled at the thought of eating ramen again. It really was that good.

"It's not exactly bread, but I'm happy to receive those compliments," Eule said with an embarrassed giggle.

"Hey actually, Eule, just an interesting thought if you don't mind me asking?" Teb asked. When Eule tilted her head at Teb and gave a questioning sound, the Stitcher boy continued: "Maybe you might present ramen to the High Matriarchs so that they might formally introduce ramen to the tribe? I would definitely be more than happy to eat ramen at Mother's Heart instead of coming to your house to eat it. Not that I don't enjoy secretly flouting the outcast law like this, but it can get tiring to have to climb a mountain every time I want to eat ramen."

"Yeah!" Vala and Minali both cheered.

Eule took on a thoughtful look. "Hmm, do you really think that the Nora might be that interested in ramen?"

Aloy heard a cough, and she hop-turned to face Rost, as did everyone.

Rost was staring off into the distance, like he always did whenever Vala, Minali, and Teb visited, pretending to not notice that they were there. Aloy was a little sad that Rost didn't even want to get to know her friends, but at least he wasn't stopping the visits.

This time though, Rost somehow managed to make the cough sound like it was aimed at Eule.

"Eule, I believe that the Nora might very well benefit from you introducing your ramen to our tribe," Rost said, still staring at nothing despite him directly addressing to Eule, probably to avoid accidentally looking any of Aloy's friends in the eye. "It's a new type of food that I'm sure would further assuage the worries of those of our tribe who are…less than friendly towards outsiders."

After a moment, Rost quickly added: "Oh, and when you do, don't forget to include that Rotkraut of yours as a topping option. I found it to be an excellent accompaniment to the ramen, bringing a nice heat and rich flavor to it."

Vala instantly stuck her tongue out. "Yech! How can you like that Rotkraut stuff? It's so spicy and sour? It's one of the foods from Eule that I don't like."

"I do think that it is a little strong too," Minali agreed with a nod. "I prefer the Weisskraut."

"Really?" Teb said in surprise. "I'm kind of fond of it. Even Feld and Sal thought so when I brought some Rotkraut to them."

Star chuckled. "Yeah, this sounds familiar. Even among us Rotfronters, you either love Rotkraut or you hate it. There's no in-between."

"I suppose people are people, no matter where they live," Eule noted with a giggle. "Alright, I'll try that, although I'll have to think about how to go about doing so."

"I'm all ready to help with any part of that when you think of it," Star said, bouncing up and down as if she was a kid herself before grinning. "Who knows? Maybe even Lansra might turn her frown upside-down when she tastes ramen for the first time?"

Teb snorted. "Now that would be a true blessing from the All-Mother," he snidely noted.

Aloy giggled at that, as did most everyone present. She had only seen High Matriarch Lansra for a short time during Eule and Star's trial, but even that short a time had been enough for Aloy to decide that she most definitely did not like Lansra.

As Eule began discussing her plans on the ramen introduction with everyone, Aloy tuned them out in order to focus on ballet. Specifically: one particular move that Eule did, all the way back when she first showed off her ballet skills, and had first promised to teach Aloy.

Aloy did this by bending the leg that had been extending backwards, and then sprang up into the air, putting a spin into it by twisting her foot just before leaping.

Aloy couldn't even complete a single spin before she landed on back on the ground, and not in the way she wanted. She certainly hadn't wanted to get so dizzy that her foot landed wrong, and she thus crashed onto the ground, finding herself lying on her back and seeing the cloud-covered winter sky. At least that meant the ground was covered in soft snow to land on, instead of hard dirt and rock.

"Aloy!" Eule shouted in a worried tone, which was immediately followed by the familiar sounds of Eule's footsteps, and then the familiar sight of Eule's face above Aloy. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, but I couldn't do the spinny ballet move," Aloy said in disappointment.

"Spinny ballet move?" Eule asked in confusion as she offered her white gloved hand to Aloy.

Aloy took it, and allowed Eule to pull her back up onto her feet. "The spinny ballet move. The one you did when Rost let you cook dinner that first time?"

"Oh…oh! You were trying to do a tour en l'air," Eule said in realization, before a frown appeared on her face. "That's a very advanced ballet move, fraulein. It's not a move a beginner like you should be performing without learning the basic steps."

Aloy gave a sheepish look at Eule…specifically her white feet, with only three of her steel toes visible from the angle Aloy was looking at, so that she wouldn't have to meet Eule's eyes. "I know. Basics are important. Rost says that a lot," Aloy admitted. "But…I was thinking that, er, 'tour in la air' move would be really useful in Brave training. I was thinking that I could use it to spin really fast around, and hit something behind me really quickly."

"Oh. Oh! Ohhh!" Vala practically shouted. When Aloy turned to look at Vala, her dark brown eyes were staring intensely at Aloy. "That could work! It's brilliant! You're so amazing, Aloy!" she shouted just before throwing her arms around Aloy.

Aloy stiffened up at the hug. At first, she had no idea how to react to it. No one outside of Rost, Eule, and Star had ever hugged her before. Especially since it was illegal for any Nora to even touch her.

But now…now Vala was hugging her. Actually hugging her.

For real.

This wasn't a dream like…like…like the weird dreams she'd been having in which the details keep escaping her like the most elusive prey.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Vala suddenly said, pulling back from her hug. "Did you not like it? I should've asked you if you wanted a hug first. Sorry if–"

Aloy stopped her friend from talking by hugging her back.

"No, it's fine. Don't stop doing that," Aloy said with her face buried in her friend's shoulder.

Vala held still for a moment, but it was only a moment before Aloy felt Vala's arms embrace her once more. "Hee hee, alright then! It would be kinda weird if we both learned that 'tour in la air' move together, and we can't hug when we can spin in la air a lot like Eule can."

Eule sighed, but Aloy saw that there was a soft, gentle smile full of joy mixed into it. "Alright, you two Brave fanatics, I'll teach you two how to perform a tour en l'air," she said.

Aloy and Vala both cheered.

"But only after you perform the basic steps of ballet necessary to properly perform it," Eule insisted. "Aloy, you nearly twisted your foot there, and you're lucky you don't have a sprain right now. If you don't learn those basic steps, then the Red Eye may not be watching out for you next time you improperly perform a tour en l'air. So if you don't listen to me, then I won't teach you. That goes for you too, Vala. Understood?"

"Yeah!" Aloy and Vala both chorused, with both of them nodding as well to prove their sincerity.

In the end, the day concluded with them only just understanding the basic fundamentals of ballet, but Aloy still felt she and Vala had made some important steps towards the "tour in la air", even as she waved and called out a good night to her friends as they left for Mother's heart with very sore legs and feet.

It was Rost's turn to cook for dinner that night, so he made boar stew. However, Aloy noticed that the stew had less water than usual, making it nice and thick and filling, and it had a lot of chunks of the Carja "kabocha" in it. It even had a bright red color to it that indicated that Rost had put in some of the, ergh, Rotkraut in it. Rost really liked it, which was the exact opposite of how Aloy felt about it. Fortunately, it seemed like putting it in stews and soups diluted the sour taste, so Aloy could eat it perfectly fine.

Aloy was loathe to admit that was starting to like Rotkraut, even if it was only in stews and soups. She still can't eat it raw like Rost, Eule, and Star sometimes did. She had no idea how they could stand it.

Still, seeing Rost use some of the Rotfront food that Eule taught him how to make was just one more sign of Eule and Star's permanent presence, and one more sign that she had friends now. Many, many friends. Signs that, along with the food in her belly, made Aloy felt warm and happy as she went to bed that night.

---

Aloy immediately knew something was wrong when her hands felt something cold, dry, and grainy, instead of the warm and fluffy fox fur of her bed.

Aloy snapped open her eyes.

Aloy decided that she must be outside, because she could see a sky. However, she had never been anywhere outside where the sky was red. It wasn't even red like how the sky looked kind of red at sunrise or sunset. No, this red was like if the sky was an entire giant lake of blood that was just hanging there upside-down. It was the most disturbing shade of red Aloy had ever seen for a sky, and it made her instantly want to find out more about where she was to have such a weird sky.

Aloy scrambled to her feet to look around, and was even more weirded out than before.

All around her, for as far as the eye can see was red sand. It was the same unnaturally blood-red color of the sky, making it really hard to tell the dirt apart from the sky. Aloy reached down to feel the sand, and just like before, it was dry, loose, and cold. Aloy was able to easily stick her hand into it, and when she let it run through her fingers, it poured through as if it was water. Aloy had never felt sand like this before. Even the sand along the banks of Searcher's Course was at least a little bit wet. This sand though, it was like it had never even seen water before. Never even seen life before. It was a sand that disturbed Aloy to no end.

More closely examining her surroundings didn't help. There was literally nothing but that weird blood-red sand to look at, going slightly up and down in places like small mountains and valleys, but nothing beyond that. Nothing to break it up…save for weird black rocks. They rose up out of the dirt like trees, but that was silly. Rocks couldn't grow like trees…and yet, they were perfectly rectangular though. As though someone had carved all of these rocks into that long, rectangular shape…and had just stuck them all into the sand at random. Or as if they had all grown from the sand like trees. Neither of which made any sense to Aloy.

Aside from those tree-like rectangular rocks though, there was nothing. Nothing at all. No animals, no bugs, not even the slightest scraggly grass. There were no living things at all that Aloy could see. It was like, like…the exact opposite of the Embrace. If All-Mother's Embrace was the source of all life, then this blood-red sandy place was the source of all death. Even though it was, ironically, one of the colors of life. The cold chill that seemingly permeated the whole place and made Aloy shiver didn't do much to dispel that notion.

Aloy had no idea how long she stood there, just looking around, trying to see if there was any place she could go to for shelter. Eventually though, she realized that in the distance, there was a big wide rock that seemed a lot taller than the rectangular black rocks. It was the closest thing to a landmark that she could see, so without anything more to go on, she walked towards it.

During her trek, Aloy discovered that walking on this dry sand was harder than it looked. Her feet kept trying to sink into it, so walking through it was as tiring as walking through thick snow. Aloy wished that there was some wood growing around. Any wood whatsoever, just so that she could make some kind of wide shoes for herself to keep from sinking into the sand. But there was nothing for crafting. Nothing at all, so she kept trudging onwards.

As Aloy got closer to the tall rock, almost mountain really, she started noticing that there were more rocks scattered around the sand, as random as the tall black tree-like rocks. These rocks were a lot shorter though, and at least had some color to them. They were mostly black, but some were white with a bit of blue, while others had some red mixed in instead. In fact, Aloy was coming up on one of the latter now, so that she could get a closer look at…this…rock…

It was when Aloy was standing right in front of it that she realized that it wasn't a rock. It was a person, and judging by the long black, Watcher-like legs, it was a Replika woman like Eule and Star.

"Hey, are you okay?" Aloy asked, walking around and crouching down to get a better look at the Replika woman's face.

But alas, she was gone. Aloy had no idea how long she'd been dead though. This Replika woman had a corpse so untouched that she just looked as though she was just sleeping. It was only the Replika woman's still face and blank blue eyes, devoid of the red pupils that had become so familiar through Eule and Star, that told Aloy that she was just as beyond help as all of those Old Ones in that Metal World place had been.

Aloy didn't even know who this Replika woman was. She looked like she was about Eule's height, with her hair being more like Star's haircut but less choppy, and her closed eyes were sharper than Eule's were when she was sleeping. All Aloy could do was silently ask the All-Mother to watch over this Replika woman, wherever she was now, while she walked around the body to get a better look.

Immediately, Aloy could tell that this Replika woman almost certainly died of her wounds. Her entire right arm was just…gone just above the elbow. It looked like something had torn off the entire arm, as though a large Machine had done it. There were other wounds on her left arm, her legs, and even on her back, exposing blue-colored bone as though that same Machine had savaged her. Aloy had no idea what kind of Machines would live in this place, but she was now scared to find out, and realized that she had to move more quickly than she had been doing now.

That was the decision that led Aloy to search the dead Replika woman for anything useful. Whether on their own merit, or for crafting.

The first thing Aloy noticed was a large pouch the Replika woman was wearing on a black belt wrapped around her hip. It looked like it was the same weird black, thick, and tough cloth that the pouches Eule and Star wore were made of. Aloy had always liked the feel of that cloth. It felt rough and sturdy, almost like Machine skin or muscle woven into cloth. This pouch that this Replika woman was wearing looked identical to the ones Eule and Star wore, and so she decided to take them.

Aloy had watched Eule and Star take off their pouches enough times to know how to take this pouch off. Even though it was a lot bigger than Eule and Star's pouches, at least twice the size of them by Aloy's guess, it could still be unclipped from the belt in the same way, thus allowing Aloy to do just that, pull the flap off from the two metal clicky things that Eule and Star had called "snap buttons" for reasons Aloy did not understand, and examine its contents.

That was when Aloy discovered that there was a reason why these pouches were twice the size of Eule and Star's pouches. There was a bit of cloth dividing the big pouch down the middle, basically making it two smaller pouches in one big one. Aloy looked inside, hoping to find something, only to see nothing but empty space in one half of the big pouch.

It was in the other half that she discovered something tucked away in it. With a mixture of curiosity and eagerness, she pulled it out to reveal–

"…What's this?" Aloy asked to herself as she curiously looked over the item she pulled from the pouch.

It looked vaguely like Eule's pistol, but it was a bit taller, a bit shorter, and a lot more orange. There was also a long bar of metal going in front of the trigger all the way down to the bottom of the grip. It was like the "trigger guard" on Eule's pistol and Star's revolver. Aloy still had no idea why the trigger needed a guard to protect it, but she could tell this pistol thing's trigger guard is a lot bigger than normal for some reason.

Aloy also noticed a patch of white just above the trigger. It had a weird green and white symbol in it, and it had the words "Nur für Replika" written on it. The only word Aloy recognized was "Replika", and that was only because Eule had taught her how to write out "Replika" in her and Star's language. Aloy reached up to her Focus to scan it, and immediately, words in lavender appeared right next to those words, saying: "Only for Replika".

Aloy had no idea why this orange pistol would be only for Replikas. It looked like she could use it just fine. There was certainly nothing stopping her from using it, and now, she at least had some sort of weapon she could use to fight off whatever Machine tore apart this poor Replika woman. She could already imagine pulling the trigger of this pistol thing, and making it shoot out bullets along with its thunder. The only problem she could see was that she had nowhere to put it, so she just put the orange pistol back in the pouch for now, and tried to see if the Replika woman had anything else on her belt to put it in, like the "holster" that Eule and Star kept their pistol and revolver in.

Only, now Aloy realized that the belt the Replika woman was wearing was pretty useful. Not just by itself, but also for crafting. However, Aloy couldn't see a knot anywhere she could untie, so it probably could only be undone by pressing on the same kind of metal thing that was on Eule and Star's belts. They had called it a "snap buckle", but Aloy had no idea what it meant other than pressing on a metal bar on the front undid it, so that meant Aloy had a job to do.

Aloy took hold of the Replika woman's shoulder, and with a grunt of effort, pulled.

And kept pulling.

And pulled some more.

Until finally, the Replika woman flopped over onto her back. Panting from the effort for a bit, Aloy took a few moments leaning on her Machine skin kneepads before straightening up to look at the Replika woman's front–

Only to jump back in shock.

The Replika woman's entire left chest was just…gone. Aloy could see bare blue rib bones, with the organs underneath. Out of morbid curiosity, she walked around to the other side, and just underneath what was left of the red chest clothing, she could see what looked like the remains of the Replika woman's bra and right breast. As though the Machine that had so clearly savaged this poor Replika woman had done so from the front first, before toying with her body when it had knocked her down.

Aloy had seen dead people before, but never this fresh, and seeing what a Replika woman like Eule and Star looked like on the inside made Aloy whimper a bit. She had to force herself to look down at where the belt's snap buckle was, and just as equally forced herself to reach down to that snap buckle, and finally undid it, allowing her to pull the belt off, ignoring the stains darker than the black of the belt that were more visible now that she could get a closer look at it.

That belt, as it turned out though, was far too long for Aloy. It just fell down if she tried to wear it as a belt. So instead, she hung the belt over her shoulder like the blue cloth-covered leather sash Rost wore in the same way. When she clipped the pouch back onto the side of the belt to her right, Aloy felt a lot more secure. At the very least, with the snap buttons undone, the pouch would work as an improvised holster…hopefully.

As Aloy was about to walk off though, she stopped and looked back at the Replika woman's face. Specifically: her half-open eyes. There was just something…not right with leaving her here like this. So not right that Aloy ended up reaching down, and closing the Replika woman's eyes for her. Now with that done, the Replika woman looked like she was sleeping…if Aloy ignored her gaping wounds and her lack of breathing.

"Go in peace to the All-Mother…or the Red Eye…or um…whoever you believe in," Aloy said to the Replika woman, hands pressed together in prayer for her soul.

The Replika woman didn't answer, of course. Aloy felt guilty that she didn't even know her name to ask the All-Mother to watch over her, but she hoped that this Replika woman was…if not happy with her prayer, then at least was okay with it. Wherever her soul was now.

So with that done, and with one last glance at the Replika woman, Aloy set off once more towards the distant mountain.

Aloy's journey halted once more though when she eventually came across another dead Replika woman directly in her path. This one had an identical face to the one before, but this one was wearing armor on her chest. It looked a lot like Star's black armor, but this one was white and had slightly different patterns on it. This Replika woman also had blue bands on her arms and legs where the previous one had red. The one thing that both Replika women shared though was their deaths, since this one was just as dead.

And it only took Aloy a moment to figure out why. This armored Replika woman's entire right eye was missing, with a wide cut bisecting where it should be, as though a spear blade had been stabbed right into it.

That truly disturbed and confused Aloy. What kind of Machine would so thoroughly savage one Replika woman, and then so precisely kill this one with a stab to the eye? It had to be a Machine with blades somewhere on its body, so it couldn't be either a Watcher or a Strider. The former's foot claws were too small and short, and the latter didn't even have any claws at all.

Rost's stories of the Machines that lived outside the Embrace played through Aloy's head as she tried to figure out what killed both these Replika women.

A Snapmaw? No, Snapmaws would've used their jaws to bite them, and Rost had said their lower jaws had some kind of a pair of rotating blades mounted on chains, so a Snapmaw biting these poor Replika women would've cut them to pieces.

The idea of a Bellowback as the culprit briefly crashed into Aloy's mind. Rost had said they were huge, taller than even a lodge, and could've easily killed both of these Replika women. However, Rost had said he overheard hunters talking about how the Bellowbacks now sprayed either Blaze or Chillwater, depending on what was in their backs. Neither of the Replika women looked burned or frozen, so she ruled Bellowbacks out, much to her relief.

A Grazer was Aloy's next guess though, given how it had a pair of four-pronged blades for horns judging by the training dummies Rost had scattered around the yard. Horns that spun too, according to Rost. They could've easily slashed apart the Replika women…and yet it didn't explain the deep stab wound in this one's right eye. Aloy thought it might be possible, but a bit awkward for a Grazer to do that with its horns…but then Aloy remembered that one time she, Rost, Eule, and Star had seen a Grazer from a distance.

One had managed to stumble into the Embrace from over the mountains to the south, before a group of Braves had killed it. Aloy couldn't forget how it kicked a Brave with one of its sharp front legs, gashing his side before an arrow from another Brave blinded the Grazer's sole eye and sent it crashing to the ground. Aloy had no idea what happened to the Brave who'd been kicked, but she still remembered the spray of blood and the Brave's scream of pain.

The idea of a Grazer being responsible for these Replika women's deaths seemed more and more likely to Aloy with each passing moment, and so she made a mental note to herself to keep an ear out for their grunts and the weird high pitched scream-like cries they made when they got scared. She had never heard one herself, but Rost had described their sounds enough for Aloy to imagine them.

It made Aloy all the more determined to collect the stuff from this dead Replika woman, especially that armor. She could tell even from a glance that it wouldn't fit her, but she could at least try to break it down into something she can wear.

Aloy had watched Star take off her armor, as well as watched Eule help her take it off. Unfortunately, Aloy couldn't see how either of them were doing it. Not from her short height up to how high Star's shoulders were. All Aloy could tell was that they did something with the upper part of Star's armor at both shoulders, and once that something was done, her armor just fell off in two halves.

So Aloy started with examining the Replika woman's white armor there, with one hand reaching up to press on her Focus to scan the armor. Immediately, Aloy noticed a pair of circles on both shoulders, with a line going through the circles all the way across the armor. Her Focus immediately made the circles glow, with the lavender words appearing next to them saying: "Weak point in armor. Possible detachment point."

Out of curiosity, Aloy reached forward, and pressed on a circle. It sank beneath her finger, until it reached a point where it clicked. Doing the same to the other circles also yielded clicks, so Aloy figured that this must be how Star removed her armor too.

Unfortunately, Aloy discovered that one of the circles on the right shoulder wouldn't sink, no matter how hard she pressed. It was even pretty obvious why. There was a cut running through the middle of the circle, as though a Machine's claw gashed it. It seemed as though the cut broke whatever was holding the armor together, and now it was stuck. With it, the armor too was stuck on the dead Replika woman.

Aloy sighed in disappointment, but at least she could remove the Replika woman's pouches and belt, just like the last one. Aloy received another disappointment though as she looked through the pouches, and saw that two of them were completely empty. Not a thing in either of their double pouches.

It was when she looked through the last pouch though, the one that had been at the Replika woman's right hip, that she found something exciting.

"A Protektor pistol!" Aloy said excitedly as she pulled it out of the pouch.

Aloy instantly recalled the Six Rules of Gun Safety that Eule and Star had repeatedly taught her whenever they allowed her to handle their guns. Just like with the orange pistol, she kept the Protektor pistol's barrel facing away from her and her finger off the trigger while she examined every bit of it. Fortunately, it looked intact. There were some scratches on the metal, but nothing that looked broken.

She then pulled back the slide to check to see if there was any bullets in the chamber, just as she'd been taught.

That was when she saw that there was nothing in the chamber.

She instantly thumbed the magazine release, and caught the magazine as it dropped from the grip in order to look into it. Her heart felt like it was falling down a cliff as she saw that there were precisely zero bullets in the magazine.

"Just a fancy club then," Aloy said bitterly as she put the Protektor pistol back into the pouch, which Aloy only now noticed had a magazine in it. However, it turned out to be just as empty as the magazine in the pistol, to Aloy's disappointment. A quick search of the other side of the pouch revealed just as much nothing as the other pouches.

Aloy ended up moving the Protektor pistol and empty magazine to the empty half of the Protektor pouch next to the orange pistol. This way, at least if she found any bullets, she could have it at the ready.

That left her three empty pouches and a belt though. Aloy thought about what to do with these potential crafting materials for a bit as she sat on the dry blood-red sand, and then an idea came to her.

First, she took off the leather strips she wore around her feet. Then, she took one of the empty pouches, and stepped on it. The feel of the pouch on her feet was…weird, but she could tell that her feet wasn't sinking into the sand as much. Thus, with that confirmed, she tied the leather strips around both her feet and the pouch, stepping on it and shaking it around to make sure that it was securely fastened to her feet.

When she had done the same for her other foot, the result was that she now had a pair of sand shoes. They weren't very comfortable shoes, but they were functional, and that was the important thing right now.

As for the remaining pouch and belt: Aloy looped the belt across her other shoulder, and then clipped the pouch onto her left hip. There! Now she felt more ready to cross this weird land of blood-red sand.

And just like with the previous Replika woman, Aloy closed this Replika woman's eyes…well, her not-stabbed eye, and prayed for the All-Mother and Red Eye to watch over her too before continuing her journey to the distant mountain, and hopefully shelter.

As Aloy continued walking, she took note of the other flat "rocks" she could see around her, and realized that they all must be dead Replika women…and the same "model" too. Which meant that they were all sisters. Aloy could already count tens of bodies in her field of vision, and there were likely a lot more that she couldn't see due to being too short. Aloy wondered just why all these sisters were out here, and how did they all die like this?

Could a single Grazer have really killed all these Replika women? No, it had to have been a whole herd of Grazers. How the Grazers were sustaining themselves out here was a question beyond Aloy's grasp at the moment. All she knew that she wanted to be as far away as possible from a herd of Deranged Grazers out for human blood, so she picked up the pace on her walking a bit, all thanks to her newly crafted sand shoes.

Until at last, she was finally standing in front of the mountain, and that was when she realized that this was no mountain.

It was a Metal World place.

For no mountain could be that smooth, and have such unnaturally angled shapes. The red, black, white, and yellow colors were equally as unnatural, even if parts of those colors were already fading to grey. Aloy briefly wondered what this Metal World place had been and what the enormous strange symbols in yellow written on the big red parts meant. She could only recognize the numbers "512", and that was it, before she decided that taking shelter in it was a lot more important than thinking about its origins.

Fortunately, the Metal World place was buried in the blood-red sand at such an angle that Aloy could scramble up its side. As she did so, Aloy kept one hand on her Focus, scanning the Metal World place for any way in. Eventually, that paid off when her Focus made a part of the Metal World place further up glow, with a small box appearing next to it that said: "Airlock door: vacuum-sealed door. Heavily shielded. Extensive external wear detected. Seal integrity maintained."

Aloy didn't understand most of what her Focus said, but at the very least, she understood the word "door", and that fueled her ascent up the Metal World place's side.

It was when she was now standing on the "airlock door" (whatever an "airlock" was) that Aloy noticed some things about it.

The first was that there were a pair of yellow and black things on the door that were likely door handles.

The second was the numbers "512" again on the door itself, but this time in black, along with words in Eule and Star's language just above and to the left of the door that, according to her Focus, read: "Attention. Explosive bolt system."

Aloy had no idea what an "explosive bolt" was other than that it sounded like a Blast Bomb was somehow part of the door for reasons that were beyond Aloy's understanding, but at the very least, it seemed like the yellow and black door handles were a good start. The door handles though were too far apart for Aloy to grab both of them at once. So instead, she took one of them in both hands, braced herself, and PULLED, leaning her entire body weight into the pull.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard Aloy pulled or for how long, the door handle stubbornly refused to budge. After nearly a minute of fruitless pulling, Aloy gave up, sitting back down onto the airlock door and panting hard from the effort.

After she had recovered, Aloy tried to closely examine the door handles to see if they were stuck, scanning them with her Focus all the while to assist with that. Alas, her Focus caused a box to pop up next to the door handles, saying: "Extension abrasion damage detected on manual door control mechanisms. Recommendation is to call a mechanic for repairs before entering."

Aloy had no idea what most of what her Focus said meant, but the little she could understand told her that the door was broken, and that she wasn't likely able to get in that way.

She walked around on top of the Metal World place, looking for another way in. She found another door of the same design as the first one, but alas, it too was just as broken as that first door. No matter how hard Aloy pulled at those yellow and black handles, feeling like the colors were mocking her now, like a bee that had gotten in the house and was annoying everyone. Thus, giving up on those doors, she continued her trek.

Aloy's walk around the Metal World place also revealed some huge glass walls. She looked inside, and saw a pair of chairs plus Metal World devices of some sort. She had no idea what those devices were for or why the chairs were facing the glass, but she figured that the glass might be weaker than the surrounding metal. Thus, it resulted in her taking out her empty Protektor pistol, flipping it over to hold it by the barrel in the way Star had mentioned her sisters had been taught to hit people with their revolvers, and then whacking the glass.

Again.

And again.

Until Aloy stopped and peered closely at where she had been whacking the glass.

Alas, there wasn't even so much as a mark on the glass. Meanwhile, a look on her Protektor pistol's grip revealed quite a few new marks, and Aloy suspected that if she hit any harder with it, she might break the pistol altogether. Clearly, the glass must be far thicker and tougher than the glass eye of a Watcher to be this durable. At the very least, it was clear that she couldn't break it with just an empty Protektor pistol.

With another sigh of disappointment combined with rising frustration, Aloy returned her Protektor pistol to its pouch, and continued her search for some way into this Metal World place.

It was while doing so that Aloy realized something: she could hear a voice. It was quiet, but she could hear someone speaking, and it was coming from the direction of the far side of the Metal World place, opposite where the big glass walls were.

Brimming with curiosity, Aloy followed the sound of the voice all the way to the other side of the Metal World place, where it gently rose above the sand to form an overhang underneath it. It was when Aloy peered over the side and looked into that overhang, hanging almost upside down in order to do so, that she finally saw who had been speaking.

Aloy was relieved to see that there was a person there, sitting and clutching their legs, gently rocking back and forth. From this angle, Aloy could tell that this person was probably a she, judging by her long black hair. She could also see that the person had black and yellow legs, and that the feet were pointy and not person-like at all, so she must be a Replika.

Excited at seeing another Replika, and an alive one this time, Aloy scrambled down the side of the Metal World place before dashing over to where the Replika woman was sitting in the Metal World place's shadow.

Except…the Replika woman didn't seem to notice her, even though Aloy was sure she hadn't been that quiet when she dashed over to her side. All this mysterious Replika woman was interested in was just gently rocking back and forth, clutching her curled up legs and muttering to herself.

Aloy decided to get closer to figure out what the Replika woman was muttering…and that was when she realized that this Replika woman was huge. She was sitting on the sand at the level of Aloy's feet, and the top of Aloy's head didn't even come up to her shoulders. Aloy couldn't even guess as to how tall this Replika woman was if she were to stand up, but she had to be really tall. Even taller than Star.

This Replika was also the first Replika Aloy had ever seen with face paint. The red eyeliner below Star's eyes didn't count, because Star had explained that they were actually tattoos. This Replika also had those red eyeliner tattoos under her eyes, but she also had three red stars on her forehead…that on second thought, might also be tattoos, but Aloy wasn't sure. All she knew was that they were the same four-pointed stars as the ones on the fake Rationmark coins Eule and Star made for her, but she had no idea what that meant other than that the Eusan Nation tribe must really like stars.

But it was what the Replika woman was muttering that was really catching Aloy's attention. Mostly because of how little sense it made to her.

"–doesn't love me, no matter how much I want her to–no! That's not me. That's not me. That's the memories whispering into my head. Don't believe it, don't believe it. I am FKLR-S2301, commander of S-23 Sierpinski. Not this. Not this. Not what these memories are telling me about her–stop it! Stop! I can't…I can't…"

The more Aloy listened to FKLR-S2301 talk, the more confused she became. Plus, FKLR-S2301 still seemed to have not noticed her, even though she was literally standing right next to her.

Weirdly enough, this all seemed so familiar to Aloy. As though something like this happened before, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember where it was from. Nevertheless, Aloy still wanted to get this FKLR-S2301's attention, and the method she thought would work the best was to reach all the way up, and gently poke the big Replika woman in her soft cheek–

A harsh crackling, hissing sound filled Aloy's ears.

The taste of blood drowned Aloy's mouth.

A metallic yellow spear pierced through Aloy's eye.

Metallic drumming sounds, haunting voices, and a discordant rhythm echoed throughout Aloy's mind.

Throughout it all, for a length of time Aloy couldn't tell if her life depended on it, she was sure she was screaming, and was only unable to confirm it because she couldn't hear her own voice.

Then, as suddenly as the ordeal began, everything was quiet again, and Aloy fell back.

It was only now that Aloy noticed that FKLR-S2301 was now looking at her, her blue eyes wide, and one black hand still clutching her head.

"A…Gestalt child? What–"

Aloy didn't wait to hear the rest though. She immediately scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could go, trying to get away before the Replika woman attacked her again with…whatever she just used.

"Wait, please! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" FKLR-2301 cried out.

Aloy kept running around the corner of the Metal World place…but then she heard the Replika woman say in an almost pathetic voice behind her: "Please don't go."

It was the tone that made Aloy gradually stop running, but it was thinking about the words the Replika woman said that made Aloy stop altogether, and then eventually head back, peeking around the corner of the Metal World place back at where the Replika woman had been.

And where she still was.

FKLR-S2301 looked up from where she'd been staring at the sand, now looking directly at Aloy.

"Are you sure you didn't mean it?" Aloy asked suspiciously.

The big Replika woman nodded once. "That was…an error. You…I…my training regimen taught me that it's better to respond to all possible threats with a telepathic assault than to potentially lose a unit as valuable as my model to an Imperial assassin. Clearly, my training was in error in this occasion."

Aloy narrowed her eyes up at the FKLR-S2301. "Someone trained you to attack anyone who surprised you? That's really dumb. What if you killed someone with…whatever you said you used?"

Falke looked down at the sand once more. "Admittedly, some of it may be…my fault. I was…and may not be thinking that clearly right now. To attack an innocent child, even unwittingly, is…unforgivable for a god to commit. I apologize to you for this Falke's error, on behalf of the Eusan Nation. Is that…acceptable?" she asked, looking back up to meet Aloy's eyes.

Aloy stared up into Falke's eyes, as blue-irised and red-pupiled as Eule and Star's own eyes, and after thinking on it for a few moments, she nodded and walked up to Falke again, stopping just a meter away from her.

"Okay, I forgive you this time," Aloy said with another nod, this time more confident. Confidence that only grew when she saw and heard FKLR-S2301 breathe out a sigh of relief. That convinced Aloy to sit down next to the big Replika woman. "Although, did you just say you're a god? And a Falke?"

Falke nodded solemnly. "I am to both."

"Ohhh, so you're a Falke like the Commander Falke Eule and Star sometimes talk about," Aloy said in a greatly interested tone, receiving a confused yet curious stare from FKLR-S2301. But then Aloy tilted her head at her. "But…that's silly. You're not a god."

Falke stared at Aloy in silence, blinking slowly at her during that time, as if she couldn't believe what Aloy said.

"The Nation states that I am," Falke insisted.

"Then the Nation is silly," Aloy insisted right back. "Rost said that the All-Mother is a god…well, goddess, but it's the same thing, and the All-Mother is supposed to be the world…and a mountain at the same time. That part always confuses me, but well…you're not a world or a mountain, so you can't be a god."

Falke continued staring at Aloy for several long moments, before sighing and asking in confusion: "Did your school not teach you about Falke units?"

Aloy blinked in confusion right back at Falke. "What's a school?"

"A school is…a place for Gestalts to be educated at, according to what I've heard," Falke explained, still in a confused tone. "Granted, I've never seen a school before, but I know of their existence and purpose, so why don't you?"

Aloy only tilted her head up at Falke. "I dunno. I've never heard of a school before."

Falke stared at Aloy for a few moments before nodding. "You're telling the truth…which is only making this even more confusing. Where do you even live to not have heard of a school before?"

"The Embrace," Aloy instantly replied. "Or if you want to be 'official', then All-Mother's Embrace."

Falke closed her eyes for a moment, as though she had to think about what Aloy said, before she opened her eyes back up to stare at Aloy in even more confusion. "That doesn't sound like any Block designation I've ever heard before. Which world are you from?"

Aloy stared back, feeling just as confused as Falke sounded. "What?"

"Heimat? Rotfront? Leng? Vineta?" Falke asked, before tilting her head at Aloy. "Or possibly Kitezh…but you don't look Kitezhian, or even Imperial for that matter…or anything, really."

"Ooh, I know what Rotfront is!" Aloy said excitedly.

Falke raised an eyebrow. "Wait, then does that mean you're from–"

"Eule and Star said they are from Rotfront, and we even celebrated Mondfest together!" Aloy happily interrupted.

Falke groaned. "I don't mean some people you know. I meant which of those worlds are you from?"

"Umm, none of them?" Aloy asked back in more confusion. "Eule thought that the Embrace was part of a place called Vineta, but then she said some things didn't seem right for Vineta? I barely know what she's talking about though, so I'm just confused. Rost said that the world was called Earth though. Does that count?"

Falke tilted her head at Aloy, looking even more confused than ever. "I suppose you could be from Vineta, but…if I may ask: may I look into your mind to see if I can find any clues there about where you're from? This 'Earth' place, which I have never heard of before?"

Aloy blinked in even more confusion than she thought Falke felt. "Look into my mind?" she asked, but then something clicked into place for her, and she asked with increasing levels of excitement: "Oh, oh! Like Eule said the Kolibri Replikas can do with that 'Bioresonance thing'?!"

Falke nodded. "Yes, just like that. Granted, I am not as well-versed in such matters as my Kolibri cadre, but it is something that I am capable of doing."

"Oh, then yeah!" Aloy agreed. "I want to know what it's like if you can read my mind. I don't know how, but I want to know."

Falke made an expression that looked odd to Aloy, as though it was somewhere between a small smile and a grimace. "Honestly, if I do this right, you shouldn't feel anything. It wouldn't do if a Kolibri's telepathy could be detected by a mundane Gestalt, after all. That said…as I said, I am not as well-versed in telepathy as my Kolibri cadre. You might feel…a presence in your thoughts. Maybe hear a voice if I choose to speak into your mind, but that should be it. If it starts hurting in any way, then let me know, and I will stop, understood?"

Aloy's eyes widened at the "hurting" part. "You mean like how it hurt when you did…whatever you did before?"

Falke's gaze slid off of Aloy, as though she was now afraid to look her in the eye. "That was a telempathic attack. It's a more…offensive application of Bioresonance, and not what should happen in a simple thought and memory scan. I know you have no reason to trust a stranger on that, but…I only have my word to give, so please trust me?"

Aloy's curiosity warred with her fear, battling each other in a life or death struggle for dominance. The former eventually won, but just barely, as she nodded. "Okay."

Falke nodded gratefully, and then closed her eyes. "Now close your eyes, and imagine what your home looks like. That is all I need. It makes it easier for me to see what your home is."

Aloy closed her eyes eagerly, thinking hard about her home in the Embrace. Already, she could imagine that wooden lodge high up on the mountain, smoke rising from the chimney up top on the left, with food hanging smoked and ready to eat from the various places they hung from.

But most importantly, she imagined Rost. His feather caped form was sitting on a log stool, with his muscled arms–exposed this time for comfort instead of having those armguards he always wore–carving a new weapon on the table next to that stool. Then he would turn to look at Aloy, and give her a warm nod, not needing words to convey his love.

And just as importantly, she imagined Eule and Star. They were always together in Aloy's mind. She had never seen a time in which they were apart for more than a few hours at most, and they always greeted each other with a kiss. They weren't kissing at the moment in Aloy's imagination. Instead, they were both busy shooting arrows at a Grazer dummy, but her imagination then had them kissing after they both landed arrows into the yellow centers of the targets on those dummies. Then they both noticed Aloy, and the two Replikas gave Aloy a happy wave.

To Aloy, they had become her home. As much as…no, more than the lodge that they all lived in. If Eule and Star were to leave for any reason, she was sure that she would go with them, and convince Rost to do so too. There was simply no other acceptable alternative in Aloy's mind.

Home wasn't that lodge. It was just a wooden building.

Home was the people she lived with.

"What…what is this?" Falke whispered.

Falke's words snapped Aloy out of her imaginings, and she opened her eyes to look up at this tall Replika. To her surprise, Falke was crying, still with her eyes closed, but now with tears leaking from them.

"What is this? This…this feeling?" Falke asked, practically sobbing the questions out.

Aloy didn't know why Falke was crying. All she knew was that this person was hurting, and so she did the first thing that came to mind: hug Falke's midsection.

"It's okay," Aloy said simply. Partly because she still didn't know why Falke was crying, and partly because she thought Rost-like silence was better here.

Fortunately, it did seem to be working. Falke slowly stopped crying, her sobs turning into sniffles that she rubbed with the back of her black-skinned and steel-knuckled hand.

"It's alright," Falke said, opening her eyes now. "There is no need for…that now."

Aloy looked up at Falke's eyes, so blue and red-pupiled like Eule and Star. "Are you sure?"

Falke nodded. "I am."

Aloy nodded and let go, trusting Falke's word.

"But that…that wasn't quite what I meant," Falke said, shaking her head for emphasis. "I just saw a…miniature Block made of wood? No, you had called it a 'lodge'. I am curious as to why you're living with a Eule unit and a Star unit, but…that's irrelevant right now. That didn't tell me anything about where you lived. Is there…a wider area you can remember? Some place that will give me more details?"

"Ohhh, so you did see my thoughts," Aloy said in wonder. "I didn't even say anything about that lodge, but you said it anyways."

Falke simply nodded in silent confirmation, like what Rost would do. This made Aloy like Falke more.

Aloy thought about Falke's question for a moment, and a moment was all she needed. "Oh, oh! I remember the perfect place! Ok, I'll just close my eyes and remember it now."

Aloy did as she said, thinking back to that view of the Embrace from the edge of that cliff a short distance from the house, overlooking the entire valley from up high, with the Sun shining down on that valley. She could see the fields of green grass and brown soil, with patches of forest covering both. She could see the distant settlements of Mother's Heart, Mother's Cradle, and Mother's Watch, as well as the even more distant wooden walls that protected the Embrace at the narrowest point into the valley from the northeast.

Aloy may not have been able to talk with the Nora all that much, but at the very least, she could appreciate the view.

"Hmm, better," Falke noted. Aloy could practically hear Falke's nod even with her eyes closed. "Based on the sheer amount and variety of vegetation in sight combined with the climate and the size of the Sun in the sky, I would say…either Vineta or Buyan. I have only heard of Buyan from intelligence and reconnaissance reports, but they all confirm that there's a reason why it has the reputation of being the rice bowl of the Empire along with Kitezh. Vineta had that same reputation, but…never mind. It would certainly explain the primitive construction of the buildings I see in your Embrace…but that just raises more questions about how you're here."

Aloy had no idea what most of what Falke said meant, but she was curious about learning more about this "Buyan" and "Kitezh" place.

"It would take too long to explain, and it is irrelevant to this discussion since you neither look nor sound like a Buyaner or a Kitezher," Falke said just before Aloy could ask out loud. "If anything, you sound more like a Vineter, if lacking the typically dark skin of one, although I have met Vineter Gestalts who had light skin like you."

Aloy pouted in disappointment.

Falke frowned down at Aloy. "My apologies for disappointing you…what is your name? I never asked?" she asked curiously.

Aloy grinned. "My name is Aloy! And your name is…uh…," she tried to remember, but it was as hard as remembering Eule and Star's full names had been, and it had required her to ask them to repeat their full names multiple times before she could recall them.

"Ah, yes. Replika full names are hard for Gestalt to remember," Falke said with a solemn nod. "Very well, since you have been kind enough to offer me your name, allow this god to formally offer hers. My name is FKLR-S2301. I am the commander of S-23 Sierpinski, mining colony of Leng, world of the glorious Eusan Nation, which I have sworn to the Great Revolutionary herself to defend from all threats and all enemies of which I have sworn to the same to smite into blood and ashes."

"Ooh," Aloy said with a nod, impressed by the long title, even if she didn't understand most of what Falke said. From the bits Aloy did understand though, she replied: "So that's why you're Eule and Star's War-Chief, just like Sona is for the Nora."

Falke blinked several times down at Aloy. "I suppose…if that's the closest concept you can compare me to…but wait, War-Chief?"

"Yeah. You're like what War-Chief Sona is to the Nora, so Eule and Star said you're the closest thing they have to a War-Chief," Aloy explained matter-of-factly.

"But…that means…this EULR unit and this STAR unit are two of my subordinates?" Falke asked in confusion. "But…how? How did they get to Vineta of all places when they were here on Leng? How?"

"Oh, well, the Ghost Woman brought them there," Aloy replied just as matter-of-factly, prompting Falke to stare at her with wide-eyed confusion before Aloy explained: "See, the Ghost Woman just made them appear in the Embrace after they died in the mines deep beneath their Sierpinski home, but now they're not dead and very alive. Eule likes cooking, and Star likes eating, and they're both really like living in the Embrace with me and Rost."

Falke blinked slowly at Aloy, scratching her head in even more confusion than before…but there was also some relief mixed into that look. "So somehow, two of my subordinates escaped this nightmare," Falke said, with a smile forming on her face, somehow filled with both happiness and sadness at the same time, but looking a bit more like the former to Aloy. "Hmm, this is good news. I'm glad…but who is this Ghost Woman you keep referring to?"

"Oh, she's this Forgotten-Touched…oh, wait, Teersa said that was mean to call them that," Aloy said, scratching her head as she thought. "Oh, Eule said they were called…er…'albinismo', that's it! The Ghost Woman is this albinismo woman who brought Eule and Star to the Embrace. Umm, she looked like…well, a ghost. That's why I called her the Ghost Woman, but…I don't think she liked that? I think?"

As Aloy tried to remember why the Ghost Woman didn't like being called that, she heard a sharp gasp come from Falke.

"So…she took pity on them, I suppose?" Falke asked, but not Aloy. Because Falke didn't stop for Aloy to answer before continuing with a bitter smile: "At least she let some leave. Or maybe it was an accident? Maybe this amused it enough to allow this to happen? Well, no matter. I don't think it will happen again."

Aloy tilted her head up at Falke, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

"But that's no longer important now," Falke said with a dismissive shake of her head. "All that matters is some of my subordinates escaped, and that's all that matters. Now though, I wish to know: how did you get here? In this place of all places, where no one should have any right to be?"

Aloy scratched the back of her head as she thought. "I don't know…er…FLKR…"

"You may refer to me as Falke," Falke said. "I am the only Falke unit here that I know of, so it will suffice as a name for the time being."

Aloy nodded. "Okay, Falke. So I just went to sleep in my bed like normal, but then when I woke up, I was lying in this red sand place all the way over there," she emphasized with a point in the direction she had walked in from. "So I saw this mountain, but I guess it's not a mountain, it's a Metal World place, from all the way over there, and so I walked here from over there, and it took a really long time, and I tried to get into this Metal World place, but the doors are broken so I couldn't get in, and then I heard talking, and so I followed the talking and found you, and I was so glad to see a not-dead person that I…oh! I just remembered why I really wanted to walk here! Be really careful. I think there's a Grazer herd wandering around and killing people, because I found a whole bunch of dead Replika women lying around."

Falke adopted a saddened look. "Ah. Those are–"

"They looked like they were all killed," Aloy continued, interrupting Falke. "Some of them even looked like they were almost torn apart by Grazer horns. So if you see or hear a Grazer, be really careful."

Falke opened her mouth, but then she stopped without saying anything, and tilted her head down at Aloy. "First of all, I know that a decent number of them were not killed by these 'Grazers'…but actually, what is a 'Grazer'? Can you give me any intel about them?"

"Oh, oh, oh! I actually saw a Grazer once!" Aloy said excitedly. "It was from a distance, but I definitely saw it. Here, let me think it for you."

Aloy closed her eyes again, imagining the sight of that lone Grazer. Even from that distance, she could make it out clearly enough to imagine what it looked like up close.

A Machine standing on four thin legs as tall as Star at the head on the end of its long neck. Taller really, with the two star-shaped horns on either side of its head, able to swing down and spin to cut up grass and other plants. The four canisters sticking its back sloshed yellow-green with Blaze, but its sole eye wasn't the blue of a calmed and happy Machine. No, it was the red of a Deranged Machine, and Aloy still thought that it sounded like a Deranged Machine on top of that.

She could still hear the eerie howling and wailing sounds the Deranged Grazer made, like a woman screaming but tinged with the distinct steely echoing sound of a Machine, as it charged around, spinning its bladed horns at the Braves fighting it and lashing out with its equally as bladed feet.

"…What is that…thing?" Falke asked in a tone of pure incredulity.

"That's a Grazer. Rost said it's one of the smaller Machines, but it was still the biggest Machine I'd ever seen before. It's even bigger than a Strider," Aloy said, opening her eyes now. "A herd of them could've easily killed a lot of those Replika women, even if they didn't do all of the killing. Oh, but don't worry! I got a pistol that I can fight a Grazer with if I have to. See?" she said confidently, pulling out the orange pistol she scavenged from that first dead Replika woman. "The other pistol I got was empty and I never found any bullets for it, so this is the only pistol I have…hey, what's wrong?"

Aloy finally noticed that Falke was giving her a weird look, with her mouth pressed tightly together, and her entire being trembling slightly.

"Don't worry, Falke!" Aloy reassured. "Eule and Star taught me how to use a pistol, so I can at least try to kill a Grazer before it could–"

Aloy was shocked when Falke burst out laughing. It was a laugh with a voice that was…somewhere in between Eule and Star in terms of pitch. However, it was also a laugh that Aloy couldn't discern the reason for, and it annoyed her.

"My apologies! My…," Falke continued laughing for a few moments more, with Aloy's annoyance level building all the time, before Falke finally calmed down with a deep breath, and explained: "That's not a pistol, Aloy. That's, I believe, a sprayer for construction foam. It is useful for making repairs to severe injuries for us Replikas, but…it is not a firearm, or even a proper weapon in any way."

Aloy looked down in shock at the orange device that she'd previously thought was a pistol. Out of both curiosity and disbelief, she pointed it at the ground, and pulled the trigger. The sight of white gooey stuff–like something in between honey and mud–emerging out of the barrel with a hiss instead of thunder and fire completely dampened Aloy's curiosity and further heightened her growing dismay.

"But…now I don't have a weapon," Aloy said sadly down at the thing she now knew was a "sprayer", before returning it back into its pouch and peering up at Falke. "How will I fight any Grazers now? What if one shows up and I can't protect you?"

Falke stared down at Aloy before shaking her head. "There is no need to protect me. I am a Falke, and I have sworn to defend all citizens of the Nation from any threats. This would include Vinetan citizens, which includes you, little one. Not even one of these 'Grazers' will be a problem for this god to smite."

Aloy stared up at Falke, impressed at both her words and her demeanor. "Do you have a gun? A big one? With lots of bullets to feed it?" Aloy's eyes then widened as her imagination set out on a lengthy hunting trip. "Or maybe you have a giant bow in your size? A bow big enough to shoot out whole saplings?"

Falke sighed, shaking her head, with a small smile on her face. "Negative. I am the weapon, as my Nation commands. Behold."

Aloy watched Falke close her eyes, and hold out her hand. For several moments, Aloy was confused when absolutely nothing happened.

"Work. Work," Falke growled in a strained tone. "Work, damn you!"

It was only after a few moments more that Aloy finally saw something: a glimmer starting to appear in front of Falke's outstretched hand. The glimmer stretched itself out, like a sparkling point of light extending out into a pole shape. In front of Aloy's amazed eyes, the pole gradually coalesced into a solid shape, and Aloy recognized the distinct shape of a spear.

It was like no spear any Nora would make though. From blade to butt, it was all entirely of a shimmering metallic yellow color. It was also entirely unadorned. Yes, the shaft had a textured surface for gripping, and the blade was of a shape Aloy had never seen before, like an arrowhead but as if someone stretched it out, but otherwise, there was no decoration on it. Nothing to indicate that it ever belonged to anyone. It was just a weapon, and nothing more.

Still though, it was very impressive to Aloy. Especially given how it came to be.

"Whoa…you just did magic!" Aloy breathed.

Falke had to spend several moments panting, which started to worry Aloy a bit, before Falke replied with: "It's not magic. It's just simple energy-to-matter conversion. A simple feat of Bioresonance, and yet this is why I am a–"

"Brave!" Aloy interrupted, hopping up and down in excitement, much to Falke's wide-eyed shock. "You're the most incredible Brave to exist! You can make spears appear out of thin air, and I bet you can throw it really far and really hard too! Oh, but it looks like it's hard work for you to make one, but you can make it without gathering materials and crafting it! No wonder you're your tribe's War-Chief! I'll bet you're the best warrior in your tribe!"

Falke stared down at Aloy in silence as she continued hopping around for a bit, before she finally calmed down enough to peer back up at Falke, wondering what the tall Replika War-Chief thought of all that.

As a reply, Falke sighed. "I am merely a 'wonder-weapon'. Nothing more, nothing less."

"No, you're not, silly," Aloy simply said, making Falke stare down at Aloy in shock once more. "You're a Brave, not a weapon."

"Yes, I am," Falke insisted. "My tribe…my Nation commands me to be so."

"Then your Nation is silly," Aloy said with absolute confidence, nodding for emphasis, completely unaware of Falke's mouth falling slightly open in shock. "Anyone can tell that you're not a weapon like a bow. Bows don't fire themselves or say anything. When was the last time anyone saw a bow make a promise? Only Braves do that. So, you're a Brave."

Aloy finally looked up at Falke to see the tall Replika staring down at her. It took a few moments before Falke finally closed her mouth, sighed, and shook her head. "Fair enough. If you insist that I am a Brave, then so be it. I still know my duty, and that is to defend you along with the rest of my people. Even if I have to do it with just this spear."

Aloy nodded sagely. "See? Only a true Brave would say something like that. Let those Grazers come! We'll be ready!" she cheered, holding her orange sprayer up for emphasis. Her gaze then snapped up to Falke. "Come on, you cheer too, Falke!"

A surprised Falke blinked at her, before hesitantly raising her spear with one hand.

"No, no! Higher!" Aloy insisted. "With the spear blade pointing up! Like how Braves are supposed to do it!"

At least, according to how Aloy saw the Braves celebrating when they finally took down that rogue Grazer.

Falke replied to that by rotating her spear 90 degrees, and raising the blade up as high as it would go from a sitting position.

"Like that!" Aloy cheered, holding her sprayer up again. "Whoo-oo-oo!"

Falke blinked down at Aloy. "Do I need to make that…sound too?"

Aloy nodded excitedly. "Yeah! All Braves whoop like that when they cheer! So whoo-oo-oo!"

Falke was silent for a moment, before she hesitant raised her spear once more, and went: "Whoo."

"No, louder!" Aloy insisted, nay, demanded. "Like you're cheering over your kill!"

"…Is this not counterproductive to maintaining stealth?" Falke asked with a confused look.

"…Huh?" asked Aloy.

"…Are we not supposed to be quiet if we are being hunted?" Falked clarified.

Aloy's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, yeah! You're righ–I mean…you're right," she said in a whisper.

Thus, this thread of logic resulted in Aloy sitting up right against Falke, curled up in the smallest ball she could make.

"What are you doing?" Falke asked.

"Being tiny, so that Grazers can't see me," Aloy explained, uncurling from a ball briefly to look out at the vast plain of red sand before curling back up. "There's no foxtail grass anywhere here, so the only way to hide is if I'm hiding behind something tall."

"…And I'm this 'something tall'?" Falke asked.

Aloy uncurled to nod up at Falke. "You were thinking the same thing too, right? Because you were curled up behind this Metal World place too? But you were also muttering something, so you were kinda loud."

Falke sighed. "I suppose…in a way…I am hiding. So that a monster can't find me."

Aloy nodded solemnly. "I know, right? Grazers are scary."

"…Yes, they are."

Aloy and Falke sat like that for a while.

Eventually though, Aloy found herself leaning against Falke, much to the surprise of both her and Falke.

"Tired?" Falke asked.

Aloy adamantly shook her head. "I just walked a lot to get here, is all."

"…And on improvised shoes, I see," Falke pointed out.

"Walking through that red sand was hard, so I made them," Aloy said proudly up at Falke, even through her tiredness.

Falke nodded down at her. "Good fieldcraft there. You would do an Elster unit proud."

Aloy giggled. "Thanks…wait…Elster…I think…something about Elster? I think I was looking for someone named that? But…I don't even know what this person looks like."

Falke was silent for a moment, before she asked: "Those pouches and that sprayer. Did you take them off of a dead Replika woman?"

Aloy nodded. "Two of them," she clarified

"Then those are the Elsters you seek."

Aloy's eyes widened in shock. "But…they're dead…but wait, the Elsters have a lot of sisters like how Eule and Star have lots of sisters, right? Are either of them the Elster I'm looking for?"

Falke was silent for a few moments more before replying: "Yes…and no." Seeing the confused look Aloy was giving her, she continued: "But if that's the Elster you're looking for, then she still exists. She always will…so long as she exists too."

"She?" Aloy asked in curiosity.

"She who will never dance with us again. She–NO!" Falke suddenly shouted, clutching her head.

"Falke?" Aloy asked, worried now.

Her worry ratcheted up even higher when Aloy blinked, and Falke was suddenly replaced by a monster. Something that was even taller than Falke, but with a bare skull devoid of everything but gnashing fangs and a trio of forehead stars that were white instead of red, twisted organs breaking through her shattered midsection, and legs that were bulging with grotesquely overgrown flesh.

And for the barest fraction of a moment, Aloy felt that awful feeling again. The feeling that happened when Aloy had poked Falke in the cheek. That feeling like all of her senses were on fire, and nothing she did could put them out.

Aloy's first instinct was to flee, but then she blinked, and Falke was back to normal along with the world.

"No, I am not her. I am not this…this Elster," Falke said through gritted carbon steel teeth.

"Yeah, you're Falke, right?" Aloy asked, confused both by Falke's words and by the strange momentary vision of horror.

"Yes, yes, you're right. I am FLKR-S2301, Falke of S-23 Sierpinski. I am Falke, I am Falke, I am Falke…"

Aloy listened as Falke continually repeated that for several long moments, getting increasingly worried over her new friend.

Fortunately, Falke finally unclutched her head, leaning back against the steel of the Metal World place and panting, before turning to look down at Aloy. "Thank you," Falke said down at Aloy.

Aloy grinned. "You're welcome! But…do you want some medicine? I have some hintergold sap in here, I think…wait, no, hintergold sap didn't work on Eule when we tried it. Umm…ok, how about salvebrush berries?" she said, pulling out her medicine pouch and rummaging through it before pulling out a bunch of small, dried, pink berries. "If you're injured, then eat one berry, and two or three if you're badly injured."

Falke shook her head at the offered berries though. "Gestalt medicine does not work on Replikas most of the time–"

"This one does," Aloy interrupted. "Eule tried it, and even though it was bitter, it did make her cut better."

Falke shook her head once again. "And even if it does, what I have…I don't even know what it is, but I'm certain that it's not something any medicine can treat."

"…Oh," Aloy said with a disappointed look at the dried salvebrush berries in her hand.

"Thank you for offering though," Falke continued. "I do appreciate it."

Aloy only nodded silently in reply, putting away her salvebrush berries, and then her medicine pouch. "Is there anything I can help with you then?" she asked up at Falke.

Falke was silent for a moment, and then sighed. "Honestly? Can you let me sleep for a bit? I think rest will help me recover…hopefully."

Aloy nodded again. "Okay," she said, before immediately climbing into Falke's lap.

Falke simply stared down at Aloy, who was sitting almost curled up, feeling the warmth coming off of the black and metallic yellow skin of Falke's legs.

"Is there a reason why you're precisely right there?" Falke asked in a very confused tone.

"Well, Eule and Star both said that they don't have nightmares as much when I sleep with them," Aloy replied, craning her head back to look up at Falke. "So since you're my friend, maybe if I sleep with you, you won't get nightmares either."

Aloy watched Falke's upside-down face (from her perspective) blink slowly at her, before sighing. "When did you decide that we were friends?"

"When you told me that pistol wasn't actually a pistol," Aloy replied matter-of-factly. "Since you helped me, then that makes you my friend."

Falke gave a slight smile down at Aloy, but it was a smile that somehow looked sad. "I remember my instructors explicitly instructed me and my sisters in that class that gods were above all worldly concerns, and so any interactions with the common citizen were unnecessary and should be avoided. I presumed this meant friendships."

"Then your tribe is both silly and stupid," Aloy said with a huff. "You're not a god, so you need friends just as much as me…wait, if your tribe told you that you couldn't have friends…do you have any friends?"

Falke was silent for many moments. Long moments. Moments that stretched out in time as Aloy waited for her new friend's answer.

"A few," Falke replied at last. "At least, I'd hoped we were friends. Despite the differences in rank."

Aloy huffed again, but this time in a much louder volume. "Then that does it! You're my friend, no questions asked, so you don't get to guess if you maybe have friends anymore, because you have me now!"

Falke breathed out another sigh, but Aloy now had the pleasure of hearing a small chuckle coming out of Falke's mouth. "Very well then, friend. Now will you let me get some sleep?"

Aloy grinned up at Falke. "Okay! Good night, Falke!" Aloy said cheerfully before finally curling up in Falke's lap, resting her head on Falke's chest…and then quickly switching to her stomach when Aloy realized that Falke's chest was actually armor like Star's armor.

Aloy listened to the sound of Falke's breathing as she slowly nodded off, and then drifted off to slumber altogether along with her new friend.

Aloy was then hit with the strangest sensation.

One moment, she felt like she was sleeping on a bed uncovered, with something poking into her left arm. All while clutching something she loved in her arms.

The next moment, she felt like she was lying in warm water in a comfortingly familiar sensation, as though she could spend an eternity lying there.

Strangely enough, she almost felt like she was experiencing both at the same time, but that was just silly. How can you be dry and wet at the same time?

And yet, Aloy felt that way, especially as she started to feel like she was being pulled somewhere. Somewhere familiar and warm and safe, with all the good things waiting for her there.

"Thank you."

Aloy remembered that voice. It was the voice of her new friend.

"For giving this respite, however how brief it was."

Aloy felt herself holding onto her new friend's hand, even as she was stretched towards her destination.

"Thank you…for calling me 'brave'."

Aloy was happy, and didn't quite want to let go of her new friend's hand. And yet…something was ever pulling her harder and harder as time passed.

"Thank you…for everything. Farewell…friend."

At last, Aloy's hand let go, and the connection broke as both dreamers returned to their respective dreams.

---

Aloy immediately sat up, stretching out her hand as if trying to grasp something.

All she grasped though was empty air, as she took in the familiar sight of her room on the second floor of the house she lived in with Rost, Eule, and Star through bleary, sleep-filled eyes.

Aloy continued closing and opening her hand though, trying desperately to recall what she'd been trying to grab. Wait, no…it had been someone. Someone named…named…

"Aloy! It's time for breakfast!" Eule called.

Eule's voice suddenly snapped Aloy back into wakefulness, and the smell of cooking food scattered her thoughts like rabbits when one of them was shot with an arrow.

"Coming, Eule!" Aloy cried happily as she dashed off towards the ladder back down to the first floor.

Or at least, she tried to. But then she stumbled on something just before she reached that ladder, and tumbled off the second floor.

"Whoa!"

Aloy landed with an off on a pair of outstretched arms, and opened her arms to look up into the face of a worried Star.

"That was a close one, kid!" Star said in a relieved tone. "What's wrong? You're not usually this klutzy."

Aloy frowned in confusion. "I don't know. I tripped on something, but–"

THUNK!

Both Aloy and Star went stiff, and then slowly turned their heads to face the source of that sound, which turned out to be something neither of them ever expected.

A golden spear, embedded blade-first into the wooden floor right up to where the blade turned into shaft.

"Aloy? Star? What was that–" Eule asked as she turned around, only to freeze at the sight before her. "What is that thing…and for that matter, what are those things on your feet?" she asked in a tone of complete confusion.

"…Huh?" Aloy asked in just as confused a tone.

Aloy looked down at where said feet were…and saw something tied to both of them. Something large and black.

"…Wait a second. What the fuck?" Star asked in disbelief.

Aloy could only tilt her head at the things on her feet before squirming in Star's grasp. "Hey, Star, let me down! I want to see what those things on my feet are!"

Star quickly did so, allow Aloy to sit down and untie the leather straps connecting her feet with the things on it, and finally allowing her to get a better look at them, along with Star and Eule.

"A big pouch?" Aloy asked in confusion as she rotated the things in her grasp, inspecting every bit of both of them.

"Star, aren't those…Eusan Nation pouches?" Eule asked in just as much confusion.

"Yeah, they are. GTB-2 Large Tactical Pouches, I think," Star said as she rubbed her chin, before she explained to both Aloy and Eule: "They're like our pouches, but basically if you made them twice as big, with the pouch being split into two smaller pouches on the inside. But the real question is: Aloy, where did you get these and why were you wearing them on your feet…and Red Eye, why do you have another two on your hip and on your chest?"

Aloy looked up with a start before looking down at where Star was pointing, now finally seeing those aforementioned pouched on her, attached to a pair of black belts crisscrossing her body over both shoulders.

"I…don't know," Aloy said, feeling more confused than ever before.

It resulted in Aloy putting down the two large pouches in order to take off the other two on her body, and it was while doing so that she noticed that the one on her right hip felt heavier than the other three. Curious, she opened it up, both metal bits holding the flap closed opening up with a pair of clicks, and looked inside along with Eule and Star.

"Wait, that's a…Protektor pistol?!" Star said in sheer disbelief.

"Aloy, don't you dare touch that!" Eule warned.

Aloy froze, interrupted in the process of reaching towards the black Protektor pistol, and allowing Eule to gently reach into the pouch and take said pistol out, before pulling the slide open.

"It's empty?" Eule said in just as much disbelief as Star was feeling, before thumbing the magazine release to examine that magazine. "No bullets at all?"

That was when Aloy noticed something in the space where the pistol was, and pulled it out. "Eule, there's another magazine in here…but it's empty too! There's also something else in the other side of the pouch…it's an orange pistol?"

Before Eule or Star could react, Aloy pulled out the orange pistol, careful to keep her finger off the trigger and pointing away from both Eule and Star…and then quickly pointing it at the floor to keep from accidentally pointing it at Rost as he came in from the front door.

"Alright, chores are finished, and now we can…why is everyone standing around Aloy?" Rost asked in confusion at the scene before him. "For that matter, Aloy, what are all of those…things? And actually, why does something smell like it's burning?"

"Ack, my maizebread!" Eule cried out, rushing over to where her skillet laid on a metal stand over the kitchen fireplace in a bit to rescue their breakfast.

Fortunately, the fried maizebread Eule had been making was still delicious even with one side being a bit burnt, especially with some crispy and juicy fried sausages and roasted spiced rabbit skewers to go with it.

After breakfast was over though, there was much confusion, even more confused explanations, and moving of objects. The result after that was Aloy, Eule, Star, and Rost fing themselves with four big black pouches, two big black belts, an empty Type-75 Protektor pistol with an additional empty magazine for it, that orange pistol, and that golden spear lying on a spare wooden table Rost dragged over.

"So Aloy, you have absolutely no idea how you obtained these?" Eule asked in a tone of incredible confusion.

Aloy shook her head, feeling as confused as Eule sounded. "I just woke up, and all these things were on me. Except for that spear. I tripped over it."

"And leaving a neat hole in the floor, I see," Rost commented dryly, before shaking his head. "Honestly, I would've suspected that you might've snuck out of the house to play in that Metal World place, but–"

"But I didn't!" Aloy interrupted. "I was asleep all night, so unless I sleepwalked all the way to that Metal World place–"

"Yes, I am aware that's an unlikely theory based on that situation," Rost interrupted in turn. "Not just that, but the nature of these objects themselves suggests that something very strange is going on. Eule, Star, are you absolutely sure that all of these objects come from your Eusan Nation tribe?"

Eule and Star both nodded.

"Even this orange pistol?" Aloy asked curiously, staring at the bright orange of that pistol…and thinking that it looked oddly familiar.

The first clue Aloy had that she said something wrong was when Star broke out into guffaws, which made Aloy glare up at her.

The second and final clue was Eule covering her mouth, obviously trying not to break out into giggles. That, Aloy appreciated. She was already getting embarrassed enough over it, and she didn't even know why yet.

Strangely enough, Aloy also had the strangest feeling…that this had happened before…but she had even less of an idea why.

"To be fair, it does look like a pistol to someone who's not familiar with it," Star pointed out after she'd calmed down.

"A little bit, yeah," Eule agreed after she too was able to calm down. "Needless to say though, this isn't even remotely close to being a pistol or a weapon. Quite the opposite, really. This, Aloy, is a construction foam sprayer. Specifically, spraying foam made of polyurethane. It's not only useful for spraying insulation foam somewhere, but also for medical usage…at least, for Replikas. We just spray it into a deep wound, and it works like…hmm…somewhere between a bandage and grafted tissue for us Replikas. That's why we call it a Repair Spray most of the time."

Aloy scratched her head, confused by a lot of what Eule said. "But…doesn't it hurt to just spray this right into where you're bleeding a lot?"

Eule looked thoughtful. "Possibly? Admittedly, I've never been injured enough to warrant the need for a Repair Spray."

"I have once, when a suspect shot me with some kind of homemade Elstered gun," Star said, also looking thoughtful. "It did sting a bit at first, but it felt a lot better afterwards, even though I still had to go to the hospital afterwards."

"And it sounds like it was a good thing you did too," Eule replied in a worried tone. "Repair sprays seal wounds on a Replika, but it wouldn't have done anything about the bullet already lodged within you."

Star did a gesture where she somehow flicked her finger onto the base of her thumb, causing a snapping sound like Machinestone against Machinestone. Aloy thought it was a most impressive gesture. "So that's why that Eule doctor said that I'd needed surgery. I thought it hadn't been that bad, but I guess the doctors know best."

"As Dezember would surely tell you," Eule said with a prim nod.

"Shirley, you're not serious?" Star replied, wagging her black eyebrows at Eule.

Aloy started giggling the moment Eule started poking Star in the cheek. "No puns allowed! Especially puns as bad as that!" Eule said in an angry tone that even Aloy could tell was fairly mock.

"So do you want this Repair Spray thing?" Aloy asked, causing Eule to freeze mid-poke into Star's cheek. "I don't need it, and it sounds like you and Star do. You know, in case you get hurt really bad? Oh, and you can have that magazine too. You said that you couldn't 'reload' your pistol because you didn't have one, so with this, now you can!"

Eule smiled down at Aloy. "Those would be very useful in those regards, yes," she said before cancelling her poking of Star to hug Aloy. "Thank you for giving them to me, Aloy."

Aloy giggled at the embrace. "You're welcome! Although, can I have that pistol as a trade?"

Eule looked at the Protektor pistol lying on its side on the table. "But…it doesn't have any ammunition?"

"I know," Aloy said matter-of-factly. "I just want it to practice those 'dry fire drills' with, and well, if this just appeared out of nowhere, then maybe some bullets might appear out of nowhere too."

Eule looked thoughtful for several moments, and then nodded in a determined way that had Aloy tilting her head at her in combination confusion and curiosity. "Perhaps since this is a trade, I should trade something to you, yes? So, I propose that as thanks for giving me that Repair Spray and extra magazine, I can make it a proper trade by giving you some of my bullets. Specifically: half of my total available bullets, for a total of 44 bullets you can have."

Star chuckled. "Rounding up a little there?" she asked.

Well, I can't cleanly divide 87 bullets in half, so I might as well make up for the trade somehow," Eule replied with her own giggle.

Aloy barely noticed though. She was too busy hopping up and down in excitement so quickly, she might as well have been vibrating in place. "Oh, oh, oh! Then does mean that I can shoot one right now–"

"No," Eule immediately replied. Even as Aloy stopped vibrating with a disappointed "Aww", Eule explained: "I will hold onto these bullets until you are an adult. Until then, you may only fire live bullets under my direct supervision. No attempting to take one when I'm not looking to fire for yourself. Remember, these are weapons and we only have a limited amount of ammunition for them that we cannot rely to just suddenly appear. At least, not like these new items. Understood?"

Aloy immediately stood stiffly, and raised up her left hand, holding her palm out towards Eule just like she'd seen how Eule and Star "saluted". "Understood!" she said with as much determination as she could muster. "I'll listen to your words like I listen to Rost!"

"I will assume that you mean when you're not too excited that the words I say go in one ear and out the other?" Rost asked dryly.

Aloy could only laugh in embarrassment at that. "I will. I promise. To both you and Eule…oh, and Star too."

Star gave Aloy a thumbs-up. "Thanks for the afterthought save there, kid," she said with a grin, who received an embarrassed giggle from Aloy in reply.

Rost nodded. "I will defer to the both of you on the matter of these guns of yours."

"Oh!" Aloy suddenly shouted, before pointing at the four pouches and two belts. "There's even enough for all of us!" Amidst everyone's confusion, Aloy continued: "There's one pouch for Eule, one for Star, one for Rost, and one for me!"

Rost took an askew glance at the large black pouches. "Are these…safe?"

Star snickered. "Rost, those are just polyester pouches dyed black and closed with snap buttons. They're not going to bite you, you know."

"I would feel better about that statement if I knew more about this 'polyester' you say your clothing and pouches are made of," Rost replied, still looking suspiciously at the pouches.

"Polyester is just…Machine skin, basically," Eule explained. "It's just Machine skin that has been produced artificially by our tribe, made into thin strands, and then woven together into cloth. There's nothing harmful or dangerous about it."

"Hmm," Rost grunted, still suspicious.

Aloy watched as Rost picked up one of the pouches, feeling the "polyester" it was made of, which after touching it herself, Aloy could attest that it did indeed feel as though someone turned Machine skin into thread, and then wove it into cloth. It was a most peculiar feeling, but at the very least, it felt very sturdy.

"I suppose…if this is just going to lie around anyways," Rost began hesitantly. "Then I might as well take one of these. It could be useful."

Aloy then picked up one of the black polyester belts and held it up to Rost. "Maybe this too? It's just polyester too."

Rost hesitantly took the belt from Aloy, feeling the material before just as hesitantly clipping the pouch onto the belt, and then even more hesitantly pulling the belt over his chest, looping it over his right shoulder instead of his left like how he usually wore his leather, blue-dyed wool, and woven blue Machine wire belt. The result was that if Rost had been wearing his usual belt, this new black belt would've crossed it.

"A lovely new look, if I do say so myself," Eule commented eagerly.

"The very model of the latest in Eusan Nation fashion, I say," Star added with a pleased nod.

"You look like Eule and Star now!" Aloy concluded proudly.

Rost sighed. "I can't tell if all of you are making fun of me or not…but at least this belt fits, and feels decently strong as well. I suppose I shall accept it," he said with a resigned nod, before his gaze turned to the last thing on the table. "However, what about that spear? Is that also something from your Eusan Nation?"

Everyone's attention immediately turned to that golden spear, lying on the table. Aloy thought it was the prettiest and sparkliest spear she'd ever seen. The fact that the spear blade was of a shape Aloy had never seen before only made that better in Aloy's opinion…although thinking on it, Aloy did find the spear weirdly familiar for some reason, but she had no idea why.

"To be honest," Eule started nervously, interrupting Aloy's thoughts about the spear. "I haven't seen that spear personally, but…I have seen melee weapons like it before."

"Yeah, hard to ignore the Falke posters plastered in the various offices, especially that golden sword she's holding," Star added dryly.

"I believe you have mentioned this Falke a few times before," Rost said in beard-stroking thoughtfulness. "You had said that she was essentially your War-Chief. Are you saying that this spear is hers?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure," Eule said with a shake of her head. "I've never seen Commander Falke deploy any of her Bioresonant weapons before."

"Me neither," Star added. "None of the prisoners ever got rowdy enough to require Commander Falke to use any of her weapons. In fact, the moment she appeared, every single prisoner just sort of became very calm and peaceful, you know? They all know the reputation of all the Falkes in general, and none of them wanted to test it if they could help it."

"Umm, weren't there rumors that the Falkes could…control the minds of whoever they chose to?" Eule asked nervously, possibly the most nervous Aloy had ever heard Eule ask.

"Uhh…honestly, that's a little above my paygrade to answer," Star replied in a tone just as nervous. "I can only say: probably maybe not? I mean, I've never felt like I've been mind-controlled on the few occasions I saw Commander Falke, but then again, I don't know what being mind-controlled feels like, so…"

"Hmm," Rost only said in response to that, sounding to Aloy like he was unsure whether to believe Eule and Star or not. "In any case, if this is a spear of your Commander Falke's, then is it…safe?"

Eule and Star looked at each other for a moment, before looking back at Rost.

"I don't think we can give you an answer that will satisfy that question. Not least of which is because we don't know ourselves," Eule admitted.

"Did it…do anything when you picked it up?" Star asked.

Rost looked down at his hand, opening and closing it, as though he was remembering what the spear had felt like when he pulled it out of the floor and placed it on the table. "It felt…strange. It was hard and metallic like steel, but it felt…warm. Strangely so. As though it had been in the hands of someone who'd just been holding it, even though it had been sticking out of the floor for quite some time. I've never felt anything like it." He then looked back up at Eule and Star. "But to answer your question: no, I didn't feel anything strange happen to me when I held it, and I still don't feel anything of the sort now."

Eule hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose if nothing is happening to you, then it's probably safe to touch…hopefully."

"Then can I touch it?" Aloy asked eagerly.

Aloy watched Rost, Eule, and Star all give each other looks. Confused and worried looks passed between all three of them, with Aloy waiting patiently but eagerly for their decision…even if the latter was starting to win at the moment, given how much Aloy was bouncing up and down all the while.

Finally though, all three adults ended up sighing in resignation.

"You may," Rost said.

"Just a little," Star added.

"Just be careful, and pull your hand away immediately if you feel anything strange," Eule insisted.

Aloy nodded excitedly, and so climbed up onto a chair in order to look down on the spear.

Up close like this, Aloy could see the metal the spear was made of: smooth at the blade, and rough at the shaft. All that same pretty color, like the bits of sparkgold the Nora would find on the banks of Searcher's Course. This spear had a similar shade of shiny yellow to it, but it looked more…pure yellow, was how Aloy could describe it.

Aloy had always liked sparkgold. They were pretty rocks, and Rost had taught her that sparkgold could be used with sparkstone to start a fire if no Sparkers or Blaze was to be had. It was this prettiness that made Aloy want to touch the spear, and it was a desire she gladly indulged.

Despite Rost mentioning it, Aloy was still surprised at how warm the spear was. It wasn't like the warmth of steel left out in a blazing summer sun, which could get hot enough to burn a curious finger. No, this warmth was indeed as though someone had been holding it just now, giving the spear their life's warmth.

And yet…as Aloy continued her touch, she could feel something other than the warmth. The spear felt almost…lonely? Yes. Aloy couldn't explain it, but the spear felt oddly lonely, as though it was longing for a friend to sit with, to speak to, and to play with; all the things someone wanted to do with a friend. It made Aloy want to give the spear a hug, no matter how odd that desire was.

"Aloy?" Eule asked, shaking Aloy out of her thoughts. "Are you alright? You've been touching that spear for a while without moving now, and…"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Aloy said, hoping to make Eule not worried. "It's just that…it's so weird. The spear feels lonely. I don't know why. I just feel it is."

"Lonely?" Eule asked at the same time Star did.

Aloy nodded, unsure how else to explain it.

Rost however, was rubbing his beard in deep thought. "I've heard stories before in my youth that weapons that are used a long time by hunters can…take in something from their wielders. Perhaps this spear took in its wielder's loneliness?"

"Huh, didn't think you were one for old wives' tales," Star commented.

"I would call that an old hunters' tale, really, since this is something usually discussed between hunters and Braves instead of mates," Rost replied dryly. "But it's the only thing I can think of to explain…that."

Aloy nodded sagely at Rost's words. Rost was never wrong about these kinds of things, and so Aloy would trust him on that.

"Alright, then this spear won't be lonely anymore, because I'll take this spear to be mine!" Aloy declared proudly.

"…Aloy, be reasonable. That spear is well over twice your height," Rost pointed out just as dryly as before.

"I don't mean right now!" Aloy protested. "I mean when I'm an adult! I'll be taller then, so the spear won't be that much taller than me! It'll be the perfect spear for when I'm a Brave!"

"…Hmm," Rost grunted, staring at the spear. "It's a bit longer than most Braves would be comfortable with, but it could still work if you hold it closer to the blade. It's sharp enough to cut through the wooden floor like a hot knife through boar fat, so that's a good blade there. There's nothing to catch an enemy blade sliding down the shaft though, but that could be solved with some crafting. Hmm…very well, if this is the spear you wish to wield as a Brave, I don't see any problems with it."

Aloy gasped in joy, and then start jumping up and down, cheering all the while.

"However," Rost said, interrupting Aloy mid-cheer. "You still need to train to actually be able to use that spear properly. Perhaps a sparring session would be–"

"Yes, let's go!" Aloy shouted eagerly, immediately climbing up back to her room to grab her shortened training staff before sliding down the ladder, and dashing out the front door, before realizing that no one had run out with her, and thus, she ran back into the house to shout: "Come on, let's train!"

Aloy still didn't know why both Eule and Star giggled when she said that. The only reason she could think of was that they wanted to train just as much as she did.

Thus, Aloy embarked on another day of training, this time with a focus on sparring with Star again. Yes, she hadn't won a single match out of at least a hundred matches, but that just made Aloy even more determined to fight Star. She was absolutely confident that she will win…one day.

The only thing Aloy did before she started it though was to pop back in and say "Bye, see you later!" to the spear on the table. She had absolutely no idea why she did that, but she felt better after feeling how lonely it was.

And just for a moment before she closed the door, she had a weird feeling that the spear felt a little less lonely after hearing her words.