Unintended

36

It was quite easy to take the smaller things for granted, and to not fully appreciate things until at that precipice of possibility of loss; this world in all of its varying stages of chaos, growth and rebirth had so much more to give, and all those that dwelt in the woodlands, the deserts and even the icy snowcapped mountains, be them human, animals or plant-life, did not deserve to suddenly get eradicated and erased as if they never even existed. That was one of the heavy tolls if Gemini would end in failure; the bleak plus was that none of them would be around to witness the full destruction which the Zeniths would unleash, apart from Beta. She undoubtedly would get shown the error of her ways in more ways than one.

As for now, everyone was doing whatever they wanted and wished to in the wait until leaving. Some opted to continue reading, most likely researching more into just what Gemini was, but also the surrounding area. Nureka was outside, legs hanging over the edge of the cliff that led to and from the base. Her back was against the gravelly hard ground, she had budged a few smaller rocks out of her way for her to achieve this, her fur lined coat made for a brilliant pillow, but it was also a good buffer for her hands too that were behind her head. There were a few of her paintings dotted here and there against the ground below her, the white, yellow and often prominent blue were a nice piece of colour against the grey rock.

She wasn't doing anything. Nothing, she was doing just that; nothing. There was no point in worrying, or freaking out, or anything else along those lines, whatever was to be, would be. She could only deter and change certain circumstances to a certain degree. She couldn't do anything more than what she had done already, the things herself and Beta had created would do their jobs fine, her fighting skills were still as good as they ever were, and other than giving her spear a bit of a clean and sharpen, she couldn't do a whole lot else where her gear was involved.

Her closed eyes scrunched a little bit tighter over that thought though, her bow was great for close ranged attacks, further field though, not so much. She knew Aloy did have a bow of Banuk making lurking about, last time Aloy visited the bow in question was not with her. Nureka was half debating whether to be cheeky and ask to borrow it, just for this mission then return it. Who only knew what else would be lurking about in this Cauldron.

She had openly discussed with Varl that she would come no doubt with himself, along with the two redheads to Gemini. If things truly got hairy, Varl alone could not look out for himself plus Beta, and also trying to do the best he could with helping Aloy. He was great, but he wasn't a one-man army. Though hesitant to begin with, Varl did come around mainly in fact thanks to the blatantly obvious: if Aloy diverted from Beta, Beta would surely need help sorting out the rig and whatnot. Varl couldn't do that, the co-creator could.

A bird tweeted and soared past where she was laying, the sudden shrill sound had her opening her eyes and squinting upwards in the blue sky. It was sunny, like most days now, white clouds drifted on by at a lazy pace and though she could definitely still hear the distant beeps and trills of a Burrower, she could hear the sounds of nature more; and it was so relaxing. She kicked her boot heel against the rock, a steady drumming rhythm that had her letting out a sigh and shutting her eyes again.

Her other boot soon kicked against the stoney surface too, both at different paces as she gave a fidget against her coat-pillow. She couldn't really remember if she was this relaxed, when the Meridian battle was looming; maybe this was different, maybe it wasn't, she couldn't decide because either way it still ended in them sticking it out together. Nureka just wasn't one for fussing about, she knew she couldn't do anything else, all she could do was wait for Aloy and then they'd go.

She was still laying like that when the door opening and shutting reached her ears, she listened to the oncoming footsteps yet still remained like she was. "I didn't think to find you out here," although in truth, Kotallo wasn't too sure where Nureka had gone off to. He slowly crouched down on his haunches and looked at her, "I also know you're not asleep, so what are you doing out here?" Her breathing was not slow enough to indicate being asleep, that and something evidently tickled her nose and made it twitch.