Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 5

I listened as she released the arrow and it pierced through the apple and wedged into the wood. I walked to the side and took the blindfold off, seeing the apple sticking to the wall. Aloy put down her bow and looked at Bast, who tried not to look impressed. All the others were impressed with her skills.

"Lucky shot," he said and walked back to where he was bunking.

I grabbed the apple and took it out from the wall along with the arrow.

"Nice shooting," I said and handed the arrow back to Aloy.

"Thanks for doing that. I thought you would have been scared."

"Not much can really scare me after what I had to face when we were kids."

She chuckled, remebering the day the Thunderjaw appeared. 

"You were still brave enough to take on the Thunderjaw. Were you scared?"

"In all honesty, I was. I was really scared for both myself and for my father. I was scared we weren't going to make it out alive. But then Rost came to aid."

"Yeah, Rost," her voice trailed off.

"What's the matter?"

"Rost and I, he said that he was going to abandon me now."

"Why?"

"Because if I win The Proving, I will have become part of the tribe. And he'd still remain an outcast. And tribe memebers cannot interact with outcasts."

"I still interacted with you when we were younger. I'm doing it right now."

"You didn't know about the law that was in place. That the tribe members should have no interaction between the outcasts. That's why we're farther away from the tribe."

"Motherless or not, you're still part of the tribe."

Aloy looked up and smiled at me, "No one has ever considered me to be part of the tribe before."

"Being motherless does not make you any less of a Nora."

"Thank you, Y/N. I really appreciate it."

I smiled, feeling my face grow a bit warmer.

"I-I think I'm going to turn in for the night. Get well rested for the event tomorrow."

"I was about to do the same. Goodnight, Y/N."

"Goodnight, Aloy," I said and laid down on the bed, pulling the animal skins that were laid across over my body. 

I woke up the next morning to see everyone was getting ready for The Proving. I got up and started to get ready, putting the boar cloak my father and mother gifted me around my shoulders. I was saddened that my mother was not there to see me off, but she was in the fields gathering berries and other roots.

"You have a boar cloak," Aloy said.

I turned around and she was looking at the position of the boar's head.

"It looks similar to Rost's."

"I think it was just a coincidence. My father had gifted it to me to like congratulate and wish me luck today. But I think we all know who the real winner is going to be."

Aloy smiled shyly, "Well, I would like to win today, but when we get out there, we have to prove our worth."

"I think you'll prove it before everyone else."

I grabbed my bow and spear, walking outside with everyone else. Aloy was behind me and of course Bast was in the front, holding his head high. When we got to where we needed to be, they explained what needed to be done. Afterwards, they let us go and we were off. First we needed to obtain a Grazer trophy. There was a herd of Grazers roaming about and of course Aloy was the first to get hers, but Bast put a stop to it, essentially putting him in the lead.

"You got this, Aloy," I said as I got mine.

"Thank you," she said and tried to get another.

I wanted to wait for her, but as I watched the others start to run down the mountain, I knew I had to run after them. So I darted off and immediately caught up and tried to make my way past Bast, but he wasn't going to let anyone get past him. I leapt onto a higher part of the mountain and ran along there, keeping him in my sights along with trying not to fall off. As we were reaching the finish line, Aloy came out of no where and got in front of all of us. I smiled in awe as she was able to catch up after being so far behind.

"She truly is something," I whispered to myself as I jumped from where I was, getting in front of Bast.

Aloy set hers down first followed by myself. Everyone who was there was shocked to see that Aloy had won.

"See, told you you'd win," I breathed out.

"You did pretty good yourself," she said.

"Congrats, Aloy," I said and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, she took a shortcut," Bast tried to fight against her winning.

"She won fair and square, Bast. The rules stated that we get the Grazer trophy and get down to the bottom of the mountain. They didn't say what not to do and what to do to get down here. So she won fair and square."

"Don't lecture me," he said.

"Why? Are you scared to be shown up by a girl?"

Bast gritted his teeth, but an arrow whizzed past, catching the attention of all of us. There were these groups of people who had masks on shooting at us. My first instinct was to shoot back, but the people there were getting shot.

"Take cover!" I said and hid behind a rock with Aloy. "We need to take them out."

"I agree."

We all started to shoot at the invaders, but they soon started to shoot fire arrows at us, causing us to fall back towards the cliffside of the mountain. As we were running, Bast and Vala were killed. While he certainly did not deserve to be killed, there was no way to save him now. 

"We can't run anymore, Aloy. It's just us now," I said as the invaders were closing in. "This might be our end."

"Don't think like that, Y/N. We're going to get out of here alive."

"I hope s-" I was cut off by getting shot in the shoulder and falling off the edge of the cliff.

"Y/N!" Aloy leaned over the side of the mountain, watching me tumble down.