Chapter Text
Mother's Blossom
The three of them eventually decide to head toward a nearby ruin to break for lunch. It is a crumbling brick building. With abandoned metal tracks, creeping vines and rusted railcars, all of which immediately caught Beta’s interest upon arrival.
‘What do you think this building used to be?’ Beta asks, looking around curiously as she and her sister sit side by side on the ground.
‘I’ve been here before. All I know is that the Utaru call it the Restless Weald.’ Aloy shrugs, taking a bite of one of the sandwiches that Elisabet had made for them this morning. ‘There should be an ornament around here somewhere, but I haven’t gotten it yet.’ She then turns toward Elisabet curiously. ‘Mother, would you know?’
‘This may be a surprise to the both of you, but I don’t know every single building that we may come across.’ Elisabet says from where she sits on a low broken wall. Both of her daughters had insisted she take the only functional seat in the area, and she hadn’t the heart to argue with them. ‘But…’ She squints at the crumbling bricks and overgrowth. ‘It was probably a railway station.’
‘Is that sort of like what we saw in Dumbo?’ Aloy asks, recalling that specific scene in detail. ‘At the beginning? When all of the animals were boarding the train?’
Ever since watching that holo, Aloy has seen a few others here and there. No story has ever managed to grip her as much as that first one, but she’s finding that holos can sometimes be surprisingly helpful to bridge any communication gaps as they arise.
‘Yes.’ Elisabet nods. ‘People would come here from all over to board trains.’ She looks around the building, her green eyes landing on the rusted tracks outside. ‘Going anywhere they wanted to go.’
‘I wonder what this place was actually called. From back in the Old World.’ Beta muses, getting caught up in the mystery of it all. ‘We could maybe find out more if we look around, you think?’
‘Probably.’ Aloy shrugs, and Beta glances at her before looking toward their mother.
Beta has mentioned before that she would be interested in exploring ancient ruins, and Aloy has even said that they maybe could explore one together someday.
But…
While Elisabet has been making leaps and bounds of progress lately, this is the first time that she’s ever been this far away from home. And even though she has been doing just fine so far, Beta and Aloy promised both GAIA and each other that they wouldn’t push her past her limits today.
‘I can watch from here.’ Elisabet says, picking up on her daughters’ hesitance right away.
‘No.’ Aloy shakes her head. ‘We should probably head back soon.’
‘Right.’ Beta starts, immediately agreeing. ‘We can-‘
‘Girls.’ Elisabet cuts them off, her tone low with logic and reason. ‘It’ll do me no harm to simply sit here for a while so that you two can go explore.’ She waves them off toward the ruin. ‘Go on. Get some good bonding time in.’
At their mother’s insistence, once lunch is finished, Aloy scales the wall nearby with ease and helps her sister up to take a better look around.
‘There’s the datapoint I found.’ Aloy says as they both scan the message left on the floor.
Beta reads the document over. It’s of a person berating someone new to the building for not knowing the year it was constructed. She frowns and tilts her head as she finishes examining the datapoint, before approaching the nearby door lock to notice that a key module has already been inserted.
‘It needs a code.’ Beta reads the message over again. ‘There’s a number on the outside of the building?’
‘Right. This is how far I’ve gotten.’ Aloy turns away from her to peek around a giant hole in the wall. ‘I can’t remember why I never finished it. I think I got distracted by something.’
‘Knowing you, that sounds probable.’ Beta says absentmindedly.
‘Well, you don’t have to say it like that.’ Aloy says, her voice light in response.
‘Ah!’ Beta realizes her mistake, reaching out for her sister in apology as Aloy jumps down onto the ground outside of the building. ‘I-… I didn’t mean it that way!’ She calls after her.
‘Sure.’ Aloy teases. ‘Anyway, sit tight! I’ll look around for the code.’
‘… Okay.’ Beta anxiously picks at the fur lined braces around her wrists.
‘Try 1923.’ Aloy calls up to her, prompting Beta to focus instead on inputting the offered numbers.
‘That did it!’ Beta calls back as the door opens. ‘Looks like there’s a zipline into another room.’
She looks at the awaiting zipline, then reaches into one of the satchels around her waist. This Nora Brave outfit still has a few of her sister’s things left in its pockets. A knife, rope, some climbing gear, etc.
A trolley for ziplining is among them, and Beta looks at it curiously before glancing up at the tempting yellow line.
‘Okay, I’m coming back up.’ Aloy walks back inside the building just in time to see Beta clumsily go down the zipline.
She can only watch with surprise as her sister crashes through an open hole in the opposite wall, thankfully not slamming into it and breaking her neck. The huntress listens as Beta noisily falls into a hidden room, the sound of clattering rubble clamoring in her wake.
‘Are you okay?’ Aloy calls, coming to stand underneath the hole in the wall. She reaches up and tries to climb, but there are no hand holds in the smooth, ancient brick.
‘Yea. I’m… fine.’ Beta groans. Her voice sounds embarrassed, clearly only having injured her pride more than anything else. ‘Just fine!’
Aloy only snorts in response and goes to follow her. In doing so, she runs into her mother.
‘What was that?’ Elisabet asks suspiciously.
‘Nothing.’ Aloy says as she jumps up to start scaling the wall.
‘It didn’t sound like nothing.’ Her mother raises a challenging red eyebrow.
‘Well… it was.’ Aloy shrugs, a bit of humor in her voice.
Elisabet frowns at her, putting her hands on her hips.
‘Aloy.’ She says disapprovingly.
‘We’re okay, I promise.’ Aloy assures, pulling herself up.
Ultimately their conversation ends there as Aloy hastily follows Beta down the zipline.
‘Okay. Where-?’ She looks around once she lands, spotting her sister nursing a bruise on her knee. ‘Why didn’t you wait for me?’ Aloy frowns at her, putting her hands on her hips in a manner mimicking their mother.
‘I can manage a zipline.’ Beta defends herself.
‘Oh yea? And how well did that work out for you?’ Aloy crosses her arms, equal parts judging and amused.
‘Can you please just blow up the wall now?’ Beta ears are red as she gestures to the firegleam nearby.
‘Okay okay.’ Aloy scoffs out a laugh and brandishes her spear.
She walks over toward the glowing red crystals, absentmindedly hearing Elisabet’s voice float through the open ruins.
‘Hello? Oh, hi Zo, how are you?… No, I’m out with the girls right now.’ Elisabet says, her voice muffled a bit through the brick walls. ‘I am. Why do you sound like you don’t believe me?’ She asks lightly. ‘… Oh. I suppose that’s fair.’ She then sighs. ‘Yes, I promise I am taking it easy. As I hope you are too, for that matter? I know you were worried about the…’
At her mother’s concerned tone, Aloy pauses just before her spear touches the firegleam.
Beta stands up and dusts herself off, having apparently finished sulking about her knee.
‘What’s wro-?’ She moves to ask, but pauses as her sister holds up a hand.
They both listen in on their mother’s conversation.
‘Zo, if you want me to go down there… Don’t worry about that. If you need me, I will be there.’ Elisabet says earnestly. ‘Alright, but are you sure?’ Her voice then grows a bit softer as she hears Zo’s presumably next words. ‘Zo, I promise you have nothing to worry about. You’re going to be an amazing mother… Yes. I know so.’ Elisabet then pauses. ‘… Me? I am not a perfect mom, Zo.’ She sighs heavily, her words carrying some unknown weight. ‘To be honest, I don’t even think I’m a good one half the time...’
At this notion, Aloy frowns and lowers her spear.
She looks at her sister, who also has a similar look of confusion on her face.
What?
‘Well, thank you, but… No. I suppose you’re right.’ Elisabet relents as their conversation wraps up. ‘Okay, I’ll catch you tomorrow. Goodbye.’
Elisabet’s voice fades, and Aloy takes that as her queue to finally ignite the firegleam. The resounding explosion is deafening, and Elisabet’s startled voice can be heard once the rubble clears.
‘What was that?!’
‘Firegleam!’ Aloy shouts back.
‘Sorry!’ Beta shouts as well.
‘Are you hurt?!’
‘No.’ Aloy walks out of the room just in time to see her mother rounding the corner along the train tracks to meet them. ‘I think we’re figuring it out.’
‘Oh.’ Elisabet says, looking her daughters over worriedly before noticing their destructive handiwork. ‘I see.’ She puts a relieved hand over her heart. ‘Firegleam. Right.’ She repeats, recounting that new world term and what it means.
‘I think we’re almost done.’ Beta says reassuringly, coming to stand by Elisabet.
Her mother tuts and takes her face in her hands, making sure that she’s really alright, as Aloy walks off to pull a nearby railcar into the now open room.
Without any fanfare, she uses it to climb the walls with ease as Beta and Elisabet watch on.
‘You make it look so easy.’ Beta laments.
‘It is. With practice.’ Aloy says, jumping backwards to grab a beam on the opposite wall. ‘You would know. If you got up to train with me every once in a while.’
‘I do.’ Beta defends herself. ‘Sometimes.’
‘Just be careful up there, Aloy.’ Elisabet calls as she watches her daughter cling to yellow pipes and staggered bricks like a Clamberjaw. ‘Please.’
‘Yes, mother.’ A small smile comes over Aloy’s face as she pulls herself up onto the second floor. ‘Always.’
It only takes a moment or two for her to claim her prize.
‘What did you find?’ Beta asks curiously when her sister jumps down.
‘The ornament.’ Aloy hands it over to Beta. Her sister curiously takes the small round object, examining the moon crescents it projects with great interest. ‘And some other things.’ Aloy shrugs. ‘There was a cache up there with some shards and an ancient necklace.’
‘An ancient necklace?’ Elisabet parrots, raising a red eyebrow.
‘Yea.’ Aloy says casually, pulling the item out of her pocket and handing it over. ‘Here.’
Elisabet takes it, her brow furrowing with confusion as she silently takes her time inspecting the small, engraved metal plate and cord.
After a moment, her eyes widen like saucers.
She gasps, dropping it into the dirt and taking a startled step back.
‘What’s the matter, mom?’ Beta startles as well and looks at her with concern.
‘Nothing.’ Elisabet says, shaking her head as Aloy picks it back up. ‘Um, I’m sorry. What did you say it was?’
‘An ancient necklace.’ Aloy repeats. ‘I find them all the time.’ She says, blinking with surprise as Elisabet only seems to grow more visibly upset by that notion. ‘They’re used for selling to merchants. There’s just so many of them lying around that they aren’t worth much.’
‘I… I see…’ Elisabet says.
Something in her eyes grows dark and closed off as she looks at it, an unknown weight coming over her face.
‘Mother?’ Aloy asks, concerned, as she reaches to put a hand on her arm.
Elisabet allows the touch but shakes her head quickly.
‘I’m… kind of tired, girls.’ She admits. ‘I’d like to go back, if that’s okay.’
‘Are you hurting again?’ Beta asks with a worried frown.
‘No, just… I think I need to lie down.’ Elisabet turns and quickly exits the ruin.
Her daughters share a worried glance, before hurriedly following after her.