The Sweet Escape |Part 1| The Carja

Chapter 11 - Desert Flower

The ride to the Tenakth shelter had been bliss for Aloy. Erend was pressed against her, surrounding her, following every movement of her body as she was riding their Charger, and she was loving it. This new proximity between them was intoxicating. She was definitely concerned by Erend's injuries, but now the best she could do was keep him close and take care of him.

The shelter was made in a similar fashion than most, a small cabin with three walls and a roof. There was a circle of stones a few meters from it, with some burnt remains of a previous campfire, and three large logs around it for seaters. The location was very well chosen, at the entry of a small canyon forming a cul-de-sac, enclosed by tall rocky mountains that appeared very hard to climb—for regular adventurers, of course. It was well hidden from the vast expanse of the Sea of Sands desert and therefore was most likely only used by travelers that were familiar with the area.

Once they arrived, the three women worked quickly together to clear the surroundings of the remaining machines and set up camp. Aloy indicated that there was a water source nearby, which was the main reason for that shelter's location. The girls team rejected Erend's attempts to help, so he left them to their own devices and went directly to the source to clean his wounds.

Talanah suggested that she and Shirin went out to hunt the dinner. Shirin protested strongly, but the Sunhawk did not leave any choice to her Thrush. When they finally walked away, the Carja leader turned around to glance back to Aloy and... winked.

Aloy rolled her eyes and blew raspberries with her mouth, but she had to thank Talanah for this. Well, they may finally have a bit of time for themselves... There was nothing more to do at the camp, so she decided to go and help Erend with his injuries.

The water source was located after a thick row of several tall succulent desert plants, which provided some kind of privacy, keeping you unseen from the shelter. The sun would be setting soon, and all she could hear was the sound of insects chirping and night birds waking up. She loved the smell of the desert plants, especially as some of them were bearing flowers. Those desert flowers were really standing out as a touch of beauty in this arid and hostile environment.

Without thinking, she saw herself tear off one of the biggest she could find, large as the palm of her hand. It was made of delicate but dense small petals, evenly spaced, ranging from white to light pink, and she tied it up carefully in one of the steel rings of her headband, just above her right ear.

She continued towards the location of the stream she had indicated to Erend earlier. When she finally spotted him, she stopped for a few seconds, remaining unseen. He was turning his back to her, and was stripped of his heavy Vanguard armor, all of it, even his boots, and was just left with his loose pants and striped shirt. The rough bandages hastily made on the battlefield were tightened around the whole upper part of his left arm, and tainted with dark blood.

He was standing in the middle of the small stream leaking from the cracked rocks on the side of a mountain nearby, bathing his bare feet, water no higher than his ankles. He had removed the bandages around his head and was bending forward to grab water in his hands and wash his face.

Aloy drank in the way his broad back stretched his shirt tight as he reached forward. All those years of swinging a heavy warhammer had definitely served for something... She unconsciously bit her lower lip, a strange flutter rising in her belly.

When he had finished cleaning his face, he started fumbling with the bandages on his arm. He must have done this so many times as a soldier... Tend to his own injuries, all by himself... Aloy's heart tightened. He looked so alone like this in the dimming light, licking his wounds in the middle of nowhere, in the wild with nothing else around but spiky plants and rocky mountains...