#I wonder... if Rost might have met Hekarro

[warpaiint]

At least this was good, the ointment was in and he would not have an infection. Now, she needed to stop the bleeding as she looked over toward him. "Alright, go ahead and use it, and just focus on what I'm saying. If you pass out, I'll catch you, so don't try to fight that," Aloy said, as she reached her hand up to touch his cheek. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you while we're out here, I promise," She said, as she had come to care deeply for everyone in the base. They were more than just friends, they had become her family. A found family that she wasn't going to let go of.

Once he had the length of leather in his teeth and held tightly, she reached down and pushed the skin together. "I don't think I've ever told you about where I grew up," Aloy said, as she carefully pushed the needle through the skin, having to force it to ensure it went through and laced through the other side. "I use to live in a place called All Mother Mountain. Though, I wasn't born like anyone else. As you saw, I was born in a pod, created by Gaia. But I had a man who was like my father. In some ways, he reminds me of Hekarro," Aloy said, as she was pulling and looping back through, each stitch made tightly. She didn't worry about the blood on her hands or the seeping ointment; all that mattered what a steady continuous movement to stitch it up.

"His name was Rost, and he was tough and stern. As stubborn as a bristleback and protective as a father. He taught me everything I know, how to fire a bow and how to wield a bladed staff. Even though I had a focus, he also taught me how to find weak points in a machine, and to rely not on my technology but on my own skill," Aloy was almost halfway through the stitching, her hand moving with skill and grace of a healer as she glanced up at him from time to time, checking on him to make sure he wasn't passing out on her.

"He didn't know how to show love in the way some mothers might, but he did the best he could. We lived in a big cabin off the side of the mountain, just the two of us. To this day, I still hear his words in my mind, always telling me to keep going. That this world needs me, and that there is more than just what I want. It took me a long time to fully understand what his lessons were. He was a good man, I think you would have liked him," Aloy finished, tying off the last bit of the stitching as she put down the needle and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You still with me Kotallo?" She said, looking at his eyes, checking for shock or struggling consciousness.

He fixed his mental focus on Aloy's answers, jaw clenching again at the necessary press of ointment against the gashes. The pressure might not be pleasant, but the stinging was good, he reminded himself; the stinging meant it was burning away any infection. He had endured far worse.

Besides, in the meantime he got to understand a bit more about the Machines, how Aloy used that knowledge to tame them when needed. Whether flesh and blood or metal and cables, she tried to give all she met a choice, even room to grow if they wanted. A fine quality for a squad leader, and for a friend.

"I have one." Kotallo's right hand reached into a pouch at his hip to pull out a strip of layered leather, worn in the center with clear teeth marks. This was far from its first use. Placing it in his mouth, teeth settling into the grooves, Kotallo took a long, careful breath through his nose and did his best to relax his core muscles. He didn't look at the needle directly, instead staring ahead at nothing in particular.