#maybe on the mountain where you do the challenge with aratak?

[robo-dino-puppy]

frozen sky

[aloy-and-jaana]

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Jaana caught herself glancing up at the skyline for what had to be the billionth time that day. The werak runners who had come through to purchase odds and ends from her shop all muddled together in an uninteresting buzz of noise. The sun was sinking lower in the sky. She caught herself looking up again. Things were starting to bode poorly. The Nora girl, she hadn't returned. Aloy.. Jaana finally turned her eyes from the horizon to begin the arduous task of closing up her shop. She folded the cloth of the signal balloon with a small smile when she remembered how Aloy had complimented her work. Why this girl had left such a huge impact on her in such a short time was beyond her. What was the big deal? She saw new faces and met an array of strangers every day with her travels taking her to nearly every corner of The Cut. Why was this one any different? Jaana found her eyes wandering back to the horizon before she chastised herself. No, there was no need to be so nervous. She had seen the machines that were defeated at the hands of the Nora. Although, now that she thought of it, she hadn't seen that fight take place. Jaana didn't know the Shaman's Path personally, but she had heard the stories. The caverns created a dangerous maze winding up into the unforgiving cold of the mountain. Jaana hadn't known Aloy long, but she was sure she'd known her long enough to know that Aloy wasn't going to fall to the mountain so easily. Still, it was getting much later than she'd anticipated. Jaana rubbed her hands together nervously while she pulled everything neatly inside the tent to close up. Why was this weighing on her so heavily? Jaana was sure several young shamans had lost their lives attempting the same path. It just happened.. right? The mountain was unforgiving. Only the strong Banuk survive. Jaana scowled in disgust. She was really trying to push problematic Banuk beliefs on herself now? This was silly. She had spoken to Aloy once for two seconds. She would likely never see her again regardless of whether or not she made it back down the mountain. Aloy was meaningless to her- just some girl. She was already forgetting what that irrelevant redhead looked like. Absolutely nothing, a meaningless, forgetful-

"Jaana!" The voice rang out.

"Aloy!" Jaana spun around excitedly, a huge grin lighting up her face as she rushed toward the other girl as fast as her legs would carry her. It would seem she betrayed her own mind. The embarrassment froze her up for just a moment. Then she noticed what Aloy was riding.

"Aah! That's a charger!" Jaana jumped back in fright before she saw the docile blue light coming from the machine as Aloy slid off its back with a laugh.  

"I told you I unlocked the secret to overriding some machines! I don't know how I would have made it back down the mountain without him! Besides, forget that! I brought you something! Check this out!" Aloy too appeared overjoyed and filled with excitement as she proudly displayed her offering. Jaana opened her hands to a large machine lense, the kind of which she had never seen. It was enormous. Jaana's eyes sparkled curiously, a familiar curious. Aloy was so happy to see it again. As soon as Jaana glanced back up at her, that expression changed entirely. 

"Aloy! What happened up there?! Are you alright?" She could see the tousled look in the outlander's hair and clothes now, visible marks of scrapes and bruises lining every bit of visible skin. This kind of attention seemed much more unfamiliar to her, as Aloy shrugged hurriedly. 

"I'm fine." She changed course before Jaana could continue. "There are definitely new machines appearing, bigger, meaner ones! I saw one up on the mountain. A frostclaw! It proved to be a bit of a challenge but I brought it down! I thought you'd enjoy this part more than anyone else." Jaana's face felt a little hot as Aloy smiled. "I thought maybe you could use it to finish your… project." She had remembered. Jaana smiled at her gratefully, but she was eager to pull the conversation back a little. 

"Hey, you look exhausted and you shouldn't leave any of those wounds open. Where are you lodging tonight?" She put her hands on her hips. Aloy cocked her head a little. Yeah, this was definitely unfamiliar. 

"Uh, well I just have my travel pack here with me.."

"Aloy that thing isn't thick enough to keep out the chill up here! That's a travel pack for Nora land!"

"Hmm. I guess I didn't think everything through. Think there's  lodging I could pay for in Song's Edge for a reasonable price? I carried back some more parts I harvested from the frostclaw." Jaana rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, before offering,

"Hey, I actually have a fairly sized residence inside Song's Edge. You could… stay with me if you want." She could see the discomfort on Aloy's face, so she added, "for more rare and exotic machine parts.. you know, as payment." She desperately hoped that the discomfort she found was due to accepting help and not at the prospect entirely. Her heart was pounding in her chest as the silence set in. 

Finally, "you would really do that for me?" Jaana glanced up. The discomfort had to be because of her offering help, even with the flimsy guise of harvesting machine parts. Aloy seemed to have no trouble leaping into harm on account of other people, yet accepting help herself was alien to her. Jaana touched her arm gently. 

"Of course. You've already done so much." She glanced nervously back at the machine standing at Aloy's heels like a harmless puppy. It was truly bizarre. She narrowed her eyes a little at him with distrust. "Although I don't think Sparky here will fit in my tent." Aloy let out a laugh. 

"Fair enough." She smiled. Despite the absence of a face, Jaana swore the machine had a look of high offense. She wagged a finger at Aloy before tying her shop tent closed tightly.

"Come on now, let's deal with those scratches." She nodded.

As the two of them marched back through Song's Edge amidst the Banuk fighters and families turning in, Jaana could see how genuinely worn down the Nora hunter was, despite her best efforts to conceal it. "So, I have to ask: did you end up finding Ourea up there after all?" This brought a smile back to Aloy's tired face.

"I did! She has some kind of relationship with a.. spirit. I'm not quite sure of all the pieces yet, but something very strange is going on here with the daemon and the machines, and I'm convinced the answers lie at Thunder's Drum." She gave a dramatic little shrug, "and I somehow got roped into fighting Aratak for the werak in order to solve the mystery of the daemon." She kept her voice a little low revealing that last bit.

"You what-?!" Jaana cried out before she caught herself, lowering her voice to a whisper. "You what? That's insane!" 

"It does present quite a challenge. Ourea suggested making my name more well known around,  overriding the daemon's trees, clearing bandits- ah, and she mentioned someone here in Song's Edge named.. Sekuli. She said that was a good place to start." 

"I know Sekuli! I can take you there tomorrow if you like." Jaana offered.

"Would you? Thanks so much for everything, I hope I don't interfere too much-"

"Are you kidding? This is the most excitement I've had in forever! I'm all yours!" She caught herself quickly, embarrassed at her choice of words. She cleared her throat. "Well, here we are. It doesn't look very big, but I keep all the goods in my various shops and sleds around The Cut, so there's plenty of room for two bed roles." Aloy smiled at the cozy little tent. 

"It's perfect." She insisted. Jaana felt the tension fade with a relieved sigh. Though she was fairly well endowed, she had never really felt the need to invest in anything more fancy than the quaint little tent before them. "Wow. What a view!" Aloy stepped out on the wood ledge overlooking the wilds off the mountain. The sight of the incessant fire and smoke pouring from Thunder's Drum was very domineering against the skyline. Aloy discarded the roll of her travel pack by the entrance of the tent and she sat solemnly on the edge of the wood ledge. Jaana gave her a sympathetic look, silently sitting alongside her, before reaching over to help dress a deep scratch on her arm. "It's a serious responsibility." She sighed quietly. "I need to be strong enough to succeed." 

"I'm not sure it was fair of Ourea to put so much pressure on you." Jaana said honestly. 

"I accepted it. I wanted it. it's just something I need to do. Nobody else should have to die fighting that daemon."

"That includes you!" There was a hint of frustration in Jaana's voice. Aloy seemed so bent on saving everyone around her, she was willing to risk her own safety. "You should think of yourself too." She could see there was no sense in trying to talk the stubborn redhead out of it, so she tried a different approach, "looks like you'll need me to keep you out of trouble." 

"What? No, no. You really don't have to- I'm much faster on my own-"

"I want it. It's just.. something I've got to do. You understand. Someone's gotta make sure you stay alive to finish your mission."  Aloy raised an eyebrow at her with a smirk. It seemed the stubbornness too was a level of familiar that was tantalizing. She shook her head in defeat, giving Jaana a grateful smile as she finished treating and wrapping up a few more open wounds in the quiet.

"Thank you, Jaana." She said sleepily. 

"Hey, come on, let's get some sleep. Looks like a busy day awaits tomorrow." Aloy was happy to hear true excitement in Jaana's voice. Maybe she did need some help. At least for tonight, she didn't have an objection left in her. As Jaana closed the snug Banuk tent behind them, aloy stretched out on her sleeping mat with a sigh. It was certainly much less roomy than the Nora sleeping lodge. This level of companionship felt strange to her, but she found a comfort in it she wasn't sure she'd ever known before. As Jaana nestled down in the second sleeping mat alongside her, she worried that maybe Aloy wouldn't be comfortable enough, that the house wouldn't feel safe, that she would be uncomfortable and unaccustomed to being so close to someone else in such a strangely intimate setting. She rolled over onto her side to glance at her anxiously, only to find that Aloy had already fallen deep into a dreamless sleep. Jaana smiled. She couldn't be entirely certain about what it was exactly that was driving her forward on her mission with this strange, wonderful girl, but she felt a true sense of fate and anticipation buzzing under her skin.

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