Chapter Text
The pinkish light of the dawn sun warmed Aloy's face as she crested the dune on her way to meet Erend. She lifted her hand to her forehead to shield her eyes and spotted Erend in the distance, standing with a shrub between him and a pack of grazers. Suddenly, a watcher walked around the bush and screeched angrily at the sight of the large man, alerting the pack and other watchers. Aloy immediately started running down the dune, her feet starting to slip through the loose sand under her boots. Drawing her bow she slid down the rest of the dune and trained an arrow at the second watcher's mechanical red eye. It toppled with a zap of energy and the nearby grazers yanked their heads from the sparse grass, snapping their attention to the red-haired woman.
She leapt up at the base of the dune and leveled an arrow at the back of the closest grazer, aiming to knock off several of the blaze canisters protruding above its spine. Erend had killed the other watcher at this point, and when the blaze canisters fell with a clink, the rest of the grazers bolted across the road and away from the two warriors. Aloy retrieved her prize from the grazers and started rooting through the watcher she'd killed, unaware of Erend's impressed gaze. He'd never get used to the ease with which she killed machines, he thought. She was always so calm, so collected, even when sliding down the face of a giant dune. He wasn't wrong when he met her, he thought, when he told her that Ersa would like her. Ersa and her were similar, he thought, in their bluntness and their unshakable confidence. A strong sadness bloomed in his heart at the thought of Ersa, a now-familiar feeling since she'd been gone. He could feel Aloy's stare on his face while he was thinking, and pulled his face into a more neutral expression as he turned to face her.
"Why are you out here all alone Erend? Where are your men?" Aloy's expression was as neutral as normal, but Erend felt a tingle down his spine at the thought of her possible concern.
"I'm not going to risk their lives. I don't mind putting my worthless life on the line. But not theirs. Sorry I had to drag you into this." Something tugged sharply in Aloy's chest at his self-hatred, and she fought the concerned expression that threatened to show itself, she knew Erend wouldn't want her pity. So instead, she deflected the conversation, shrugging off his apology to make sure he knew it wasn't an imposition on her.
They followed the tracks to where Ersa's team was ambushed, Aloy moving slowly with her hand to her focus the whole time. Her concentration was palpable, and they took nearly all morning examining the site, walking back and forth across the site, looking across the river, and up the path. Eventually, Aloy found tracks that looked as if someone had dragged a body to the site, and followed the tracks to the base of a mesa. They made their way up to the top, before being ambushed by a team of rogue Oseram. Aloy was injured in the battle, an arrow piercing her armor in her shoulder, impairing her aim with her bow. Erend rushed over after he killed the last ambusher, just in time to see her rip the arrow from her shoulder and throw it angrily on the ground. He opened his mouth to offer her help but she'd already begun wrapping her shoulder with bandages from her pack.
"Are- are you all right? I don't know why Oseram would attack us, they're my people..." Aloy was having difficulty with the bandage and after struggling for a moment, accepted Erend's offer of help. His large hands were surprisingly gentle as he finished wrapping the bandage around her shoulder and tied it securely. His bright eyes scanned over her shoulder, making sure of his handiwork, a hand still gently resting next to the wound, careful not to harm her. He met her eyes after a few moments and suddenly realized how close they were, clearing this throat awkwardly and rubbing the back of his neck as he stepped back.
Aloy felt an unknown tension release from her shoulders as he stepped back, and turned away quickly to start examining the scene of the ambush. Her focus identified things that the normal person wouldn't see, and she quickly put together that something unusual happened to Erend's big sister. She explained and chose her words carefully, knowing that his psyche was in a precarious state, watching the realization dawn on his face as she laid out the attack. Erend felt hope spread it's wings and take flight in his chest- his sister could be alive! He quickly put together who the likely culprit was- Dervahl. His fists clenched at his sides at the memory of the man making advances at his sister, and his anger at her denial, his vow of revenge when they joined Avad.
"It's Dervahl. That bastard! We have to tell Avad, he'll know how to track that fiend down. Thank you Aloy, so much, I'm going to head back to Meridian immediately and tell Avad the news. Will you accompany me back?" He added the last bit without thinking, a slight blush creeping into his cheeks at what she might think of the request.
Aloy, of course, didn't think anything of the request, thinking he just wanted to expedite the investigation to find his sister, and agreed. She suggested finding mounts for them to speed the return journey, and returned a couple hours later with two broadheads, not noticing the awed and admiring look on his face. He watched her ride back into their makeshift camp, the sun behind her shoulders, making it look as if she glowed from within. Not for the first time, he was amazed at how beautiful this woman was, how she didn't already have lines of suitors marching behind her. Her hair was glowing as if it was on fire, her light green eyes glinting with confidence, and Erend thought he'd never seen anything more beautiful.
The next hour was a struggle for Aloy, attempting not to chuckle when Erend fell off his broadhead not once, but three times, his uncertainty showing in the lines on his forehead. Aloy smiled as Erend finally found confidence in riding his broadhead and raced off ahead of her, throwing an excited grin back in her direction. Aloy finally let herself laugh out loud, and raced after him into the setting sun, back toward Meridian.
Sun-King Avad wasn't nearly as radiant as he'd been described to Aloy, but that was a good thing. He seemed to be a reasonable man, never once looking down at her for being a 'Nora savage'. She decided that she liked him, and that his help would be invaluable to her and Erend's hunt for his sister. His second, Blameless Marad was an odd man, not only due to his title. He was reserved in a way that no Nora was, and had a sort of quiet authority that Aloy felt it would be wise to respect.
Erend watched from afar as Aloy spoke to Avad once more, anxiously awaiting the end of their talk. He wanted to make good on a couple of the offers he'd made while in the Nora lands, to show Aloy around Meridian, and to trade stories over a drink. He thought back to that day, how cocky he'd been... Stupid, he thought, trying to hit on a girl from another tribe. And then, she'd been dead, he was sure of it. He'd seen the explosion on the mountain as they were leaving the embrace, and the panicked faces of Nora tribesman rushing past them. He'd heard how most of the Nora made it off that mountain because of the "outcast", and how she hadn't been seen yet, then- boom. He assumed that day that he'd never see her again, that she'd died in the explosion or from the attackers- how wrong he was. How much he'd underestimated this woman - she was a force of nature, an avalanche on a cliffside, decimating every obstacle in her way, and doing so amazingly unscathed. Indeed, the only evidence he'd seen that she nearly died that day was a thin scar across her throat - from what, he did not know.
She emerged from the meeting room with Avad, and Erend nodded to them both respectfully, before trailing after Aloy. She stopped at one of the balconies overlooking Meridian and the great tiered plots of crops below the mesa.
"Beautiful, isn't it?," Erend leaned into the balcony next to her, gesturing across the city with a small smirk on his face. Aloy smiled and leaned over the railing next to him, but did not reply.
"If you'd like, I can give you a personal tour of the city - I did offer at the proving, but that feels so long ago now, I figured I'd repeat the offer." Erend looked over at her and smirked, attempting to commit her to memory. The way her green eyes sparkled in the midday sun, scattered freckles that covered her nose and cheeks, the way the corner of her mouth curved in what was almost a smirk but not quite.
"All right, since it seems I'll be visiting here more often than I thought, I'll take you up on that offer Erend," Aloy turned to him and actually smiled this time, and Erend felt his heart clench at the sight of it. He decided, then, that he would like to see that smile more often.