Chapter Text
All-Mother's Embrace, the mountain valley that the Nora had made the heart of their “sacred lands” was surrounded on all sides by barriers, both natural and artificial. The mountains were vast and impassable to even the mightiest of armies and no additional defences were required.
However, wherever natural fortifications had failed to form, diligent Nora builders had constructed a vast barrier of mighty wooden beams that were regularly patrolled by warriors that would jealously defend the Sacred Land from all outsiders.
The only ways out were three gates, the Northern gate, near to where Rost had arranged to meet once Aloy had finished her errands.
As always, Rost had been a man of his word and was waiting for her as the sun started its decent and the sky took on a rather pink hue. He’d set up a small campfire and was poking at it.
As she approached, Aloy could not ignore what had to be the sounds of explosions and shouts coming from behind the barricade. While they sounded like they were coming from far away, Aloy was still disturbed by anything that could make that kind of noise. What was going on and why had Rost brought her here?
“Aloy,’ he said tonelessly, looking up as she arrived, seemingly uncaring of the unseen commotion behind the fence, “You have the fire arrows?”
“I do.” Aloy gestured towards the gate. Those explosions and shouts beyond the Embrace - is that the trouble you were talking about?”
Rost grunted noncommittedly. “You will know soon enough. Until then, we wait for dark.” His matter-of-fact tone indicated that he had no interest in continuing the conversation at present.
Fine, it would be up to her to broach the subject. “Look, Rost,” she began after some hesitation, “I’ve thought it through and I’m not going to shun you after the Proving, okay? I’m just...” Her voice took on a more determined tone. “I won’t do it.” She was resolute. “I’m not about to pretend that you never raised me.”
Rost sighed. “Aloy... the law forbids all contact-”
“It does, and I don’t care,” she interrupted sharply, “I know what duty means for you, Rost, and I know that we’ve gone over this so many times but please listen to me. All tribal law has ever done for me is take things away. And it cannot, will not happen again.”
“Aloy...” His voice was that of a man desperate to end the conversation before someone’s feelings were hurt. “I must obey the law.”
Aloy nodded quickly. She had already guessed that Rost would say as much and had taken that into account. “And so, you will. I knew you’d say that, so... this is what we’ll do.” She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye before continuing. “I will come to you in secret. No one will see me, so I won’t get in trouble. And I know you won’t talk to me because... it’s against the law. But I’ll talk to you. It’ll be my crime, not yours. You’ll just... listen. And that’s how we’ll handle this.”
Rost smiled sadly. “...You’ve... put a lot of thought to this,” he said with a sigh.
Aloy gave him a nod with a nervous, hopeful smile. “I know, right? So, you can stop worrying. It’s handled.”
“It’s handled,” he echoed.
“Good,” she said, glad that what had been worrying her for months had now been so easily handled. Honestly, she had expected Rost to put up more of a fight. Maybe she mattered more to him than tribal law. The thought made her want to rush to the giant man and out her arms around him, but she knew he was not one for frivolous displays of emotion. So, instead, she moved onto the matter at hand. “I don’t understand,” she said, looking once again at the gate. “Those explosions are outside the Embrace. What can we do from in here?”
Rost chuckled. Always with the questions. “The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait.”
“I hate waiting,” Aloy muttered under her breath. While she knew any huntress worth her salt had to be patient when stalking a kill or else go home with an empty belly, it didn’t mean she had to like it. Hang on! She knew how she could occupy herself. “I saw Karst and got that Tripcaster I was talking about earlier,” she said, producing the sling weapon and showing it to Rost.
With her permission, he took the weapon from her and turned it about in his hands, clearly not trusting the goods from someone like Karst without giving it a thorough inspection. As it turned out, while Karst might have been the man to break the rules of the All-Mother with breath-taking impunity, he clearly had a strong sense of integrity when it came to the goods he sold.
Rost grumbled, handing it back. “I hate to think what that outlaw trader charged for a weapon of that make.” He couldn’t have too many positive thoughts of the criminal, after all.
Aloy shrugged. “It wasn’t cheap, but this is worth it. I played around with it before, and it works beautifully.”
Rost grunted in response. “Perhaps. You’ll know its worth soon enough.”
Aloy glanced up at the sun. Despite the growing pink in the sky, the sun still clearly had a few hours left before retiring for the night. “Still a while to go before dark,” she said, guessing that there was to be no further conversation, “I guess I’ll get some rest.”
Despite the daylight, Aloy managed to steal herself a few hours of sleep. However, she had been plagued by visions of faceless Nora tribe people. “Outsider! No-Mother!” they had snarled at her.
Aloy could not see the future, she had no way of knowing what the next day would bring but she knew, no matter what Rost may wish, that the Nora were never going to be her tribe. Eighteen years of bigotry, shunning, and violence were not going to simply vanish simply because they decided she was now their definition of acceptable.
Rost had made it clear that he wanted her to be part of the tribe and forget him, but he had to know that wasn’t what she needed. He knew the girl he raised, and she knew that, having revealed her plan, he would not abandon her.
It was early morning when Rost shook her awake. So early that the stars we still shining, and the sun had yet to appear. “It’s time,” he said simply.
Aloy stretched her limbs to keep them limber for the trials that she would undoubtedly face that night. When she was ready, she collected her gear and approached the closed gate, now guarded by two stony-face Nora warriors. They said nothing nor gave any indication that two vile outcasts were standing in their presence.
Aloy leant towards Rost and asked, “What are we doing?” Rost motioned her to be silent and raised his fingers to his lips before loudly whistling.
Several seconds passed.
Rost made no move.
The two guards made no move, continuing their show of ignoring the outcasts.
Aloy fidgeted.
A few more seconds passed and, just as Aloy was about to suggest they leave, there was finally a responding whistle coming from somewhere beyond the barrier.
Silently, the two guards turned around to face the gate and pushed it open, leaving the way through clear for them.
As they passed, Aloy couldn’t resist a snide, “Opening a gate for an outcast?” She made sure that the two guards were within earshot.
Rost stopped and respectfully bowed his head to the two guards, and, to Aloy’s utter shock, they actually bowed back to him. Rost smiled gently at Aloy’s bafflement. “Some who are shunned reaped honour before disgrace,” he said simply but that did nothing to appease his ward.
“So much for tribal law,” she snorted as they continued on.
“I spoke to no one, Aloy,” Rost said.
“So, then it’s just a sneaky loophole,” Aloy countered, “Shows how seriously they take their “sacred laws” when they have a workaround. If I didn’t have to win the Proving to find out… All I’m saying is that these fuckers had better have some answers for me tomorrow or I’ll–”
Rost raised his hand, silencing her with an icy look. “We must both keep silent for we are outside the Embrace.” He gestured at the surrounding gloom. “These are the true wilds, Aloy, with threats unlike any you have ever faced.”
They quietly followed the path into the wild, stopping only when they came to a heap of burning metal.
It had to be a dead machine, but Aloy had never seen one that size, alive or otherwise. It had to be bigger than at least five Watchers and, if its claws were any indication, it was certainly more fearsome.
A little farther down the path was a wrecked hunting cabin, the wood still burning. The building looked like it had been swatted aside by a wrathful deity.
“That carcass!” she said quietly, kneeling to get a closer look at it. “What sort of beast was that?”
Rost knelt next to her. “The tribe calls it a Sawtooth,” he answered, “And it is something new. Something angry. Since they first started appearing ten years ago, they have killed many braves.”
“Yeah,” Aloy whispered, looking at the dead monster, “I believe that.”
Rost stood up. “Keep following the path,” he ordered, “It’s not much farther now.”
“That cabin,” Aloy said, following, “What happened to it?”
“A machine,” Rost answered in his typical, blunt fashion.
“What sort of machine does that?”
“The sort of machine you’re hunting how.” There was another burning cabin next to another freshly killed Sawtooth, spears and arrows still riddling the carcass. Clearly, it had taken several hunters to bring the beast down. Rost’s meaning was clear.
“Ah, I see.”
“Pay close attention to your surroundings. It won’t be much further now.”
As they walked, there were more signs of devastation, more wrecked building, fences ripped from the ground, and signs of rock torn from the very earth by an angry behemoth. There were several dead Watchers and Striders littering the battlefield, having already been stripped of any useful parts.
A sudden thought struck Aloy. “Why are we the only ones out here tonight? Why can’t the tribe’s braves hunt this machine?” Can’t they do their own work? she added silently.
“They did,” Rost answered. “The kills we’ve passed are theirs. And tomorrow they will hunt again.”
“They won’t need to. This machine will be my kill.” She couldn’t hide the anticipation in her voice and made no effort to do so.
“Or your death, if you’re not careful,” Rost said darkly.
Finally, they reached their destination. A Nora hunting lodge, built on the edge of a small cliff.
Aloy had seen several of them. They were massive, multi-levelled wooden buildings where Nora hunters would meet to swap stories, boast about kills they had made (or claimed to have made), and display their hunting trophies.
Only this lodge had been caved in and set ablaze with the forms of still recognizable human bodies lying trapped amid the debris.
“An entire lodge, wrecked?!” she gasped. “By Sawtooths? How many were there?”
“I didn’t bring you here to answer questions. Aloy. I brought you here to deal with that.” Rost then pointed to the bottom of the cliff and Aloy finally saw her quarry.
If the Sawtooth was big in death, it was titanic in life.
It resembled an oversized cat with a pair of massive sabre like fangs hanging from its jaws.
It was heavyset at the front, with a large, broad chest, neck, and shoulders, powerful legs, and yet, unlike a cat, it had no tail. On both sides of its face were two pairs of glowing eyes, one sitting atop the other. At its hindquarters was an array of three long antenna-like structures protruding from its back in a fan-like pattern, just behind the shoulders.
And it was armoured. With the exception of its underside, almost its entire form was covered with a thick ceramic metal.
It moved with a lithe energy, its head close to the ground, whipping back and forth at any sign of movement. It stalked through the tall grass, an apex predator that feared no challenger.
Aloy now understood why it had taken so many Nora to bring down the other two dead Sawtooths they had passed.
“It’s huge,” she said, awestruck. “How do you defeat it?”
“That will be for you to decide,” Rost replied bluntly. “This hunt is yours to make, Aloy – yours alone. No matter what happens, I will not intervene. Do you understand?” He looked her dead in the eye. “You are on your own.” He let the gravity of the situation sink in.
Aloy wasted no time arguing, knowing that there was no argument with which she could sway him.
So, without a word, or so much as a backward glance, she quickly slid down the shallow cliff face, buried herself in the tall grass, and prepared to fight for her life.
Already, the device attached to her had activated, replacing the natural world with one of insubstantial, interwoven lines of purple light. She looked at the Sawtooth and could see a trail of purple triangles, marking out its path. So, while it was more fearsome than its smaller brethren, it was still a machine with a fixed path while in its dormant state.
I can work with that.
She reached for her Tripcaster. The weapon had two types of trap ammunition, shock and explosive.
Oh, the agony of choice, she mused before looking again at the machine. Through the filter of her device, she could see a shining yellow shape on its unprotected underside. And, like that first Strider all those years ago, she could see the accompanying text: FLAMMABLE.
“Shock it is then,” she said quietly to herself, having come up with a workable plan. From the relative safety of the tall grass, she waited for the sawtooth to pass her by. Once it was a safe distance from her, she aimed her Tripcaster and fired.
A long, slender cable shot out from the weapon, its ending burying itself in the ground. She detached the other end from her Tripcaster and did likewise. Now, a tripwire was in the Sawtooth’s prepared path, and it was packed with a volatile electrical current, powerful enough to shock even a machine as big as that monster.
Changing her Tripcaster back to explosive, she moved back several metres and placed another tripwire.
Once she was satisfied with the placement of the wires, Aloy stepped back from the second wire and buried the point of her spear in the ground. Once the fight started, she would have seconds to move, and she did not want any extra weight until it became absolutely necessary.
Having set her trap, she shuffled back to the cliff face, retrieved a fire arrow from her quiver, nocked it without yet drawing it, and waited.
Finally, the Sawtooth returned, walking along its predetermined path.
Aloy drew back her arrow.
Any second now…
Just a few more steps…
And… NOW!!!
The Sawtooth touched the wire and a surge of lightning shot into it, stunning the monster, and causing it to collapse, leaving its unarmoured underbelly exposed.
Aloy loosed her fire arrow, the flaming projectile slamming into the highlighted cannister, which immediately burst into flame upon impact.
Not good enough, and, already, a second fire arrow had been nocked and loosed, hitting the same spot as its predecessor.
This time, the canister exploded, tearing chunks of armour from the Sawtooth, and causing it to burn.
The Sawtooth, having identified the source of the projectiles, looked at Aloy with its dead, artificial eyes, and charged at her.
“You are not stopping me!” Aloy screamed, charging right back at the monster.
The Sawtooth was immense and would certainly kill her they second it reached her–
Only to hit the second tripwire, this one exploded, ripping away its front two legs.
Aloy still running, pulled her spear out of the ground, and jumped onto the still burning machine, plunging her weapon through its now unprotected head.
The machine shuddered and, like a puppet with its strings cut, collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.
Aloy jumped off the wreckage before it could burn her, landing lightly on the ground, panting.
From the Sawtooth hitting the first tripwire to now, less than thirty seconds had passed.
It had felt a lot longer.
She could feel the high of the kill threaten to overwhelm her and closed her eyes, taking several deliberate, measured breaths.
In and out.
Having calmed herself, she realised that there was still work to do. Once the fire had died down, Aloy examined her kill, checking for any still useable parts.
Let’s see what you have for me.
There was definitely enough to make shards and arrowheads so the encounter would most certainly be a profitable one, but this was a Sawtooth, something new, and Aloy was sure there had to something else worthwhile in there.
Ah-ha – oh no, that’s actually just rubbish. Aloy dismissively threw the offending part over her shoulder as she continued to search through the carcass.
Aloy was suddenly aware that Rost was now standing behind her.
“Why did I bring you here?”
“Not to answer questions,” she replied, not turning to face him.
Rost sighed, “Aloy.”
“’Survival requires perfection,’” Aloy quoted the oft repeated words, rolling her eyes slightly. “It was a test, to hone my skills against a dangerous new machine.” She resisted adding a “duh.”
To her surprise, he sighed again, shaking his head. “No,” he said, “Follow.”
Leaving her kill, he led her back up to the still smouldering hunting lodge. He then gestured out to the valley. The sun had started to creep over the mountains and the pinks and blues of the early morning sky cast a hue over everything the light touched. He held out his spear to the spear to the valley. “These are Nora hunting lands,” he said with reverence, “They must be protected.” He turned to look at her. “If you hadn’t destroyed the Sawtooth, how many Brave might it have killed or injured tomorrow?
“The lesson lives within the question, Aloy. For years you’ve trained to win the Proving only for yourself. As a brave, it will be your duty to fight for your tribe–”
“My tribe?!” Aloy didn’t even try to hide the scorn from her voice. In what world could the Nora ever be her tribe? “You said I wouldn’t need them.” Her voice was now subdued. Did he not believe in her?
Rost smiled gently. “But I never said the tribe wouldn’t need you,” he said softly. “The strength to stand alone, Aloy, is the strength to make a stand. To serve a purpose greater than yourself. That is the lesson you must learn. And remember it… after the Proving, and after I am gone.”
They stood quietly as the sun slowly rose over the valley, its warmth banishing the chill of the night. Finally, Rost spoke again. “Dawn has passed. This will be your last day in the Embrace as an outcast. Use the time to set your mind on the challenges before you. When it is time for you to go to Mother’s Heart, I…” There was a catch in his voice. “I will be waiting for you along the way.”
“I understand the final lesson, Rost,” said Aloy.
Rost smiled that same gentle smile again and Aloy knew that he didn’t fully believe her. “Do you?” he asked simply.
She looked him straight in the eye and answered, her voice and posture unflinching and unwavering. “But if I’m going to stand for something, it’ll have to be something I believe in.” She knew that he wanted her to love or, if not love, at least respect the Nora and their culture but it was never going to happen.
“Then I hope you find it, Aloy,” Rost sighed, “I hope you do.”