Living Antiquity

~18~

As I sat on the bench talking with her and sipping water to try to settle my stomach, Drakka was pacing back and forth like a caged animal in front of me, watching nervously every time I'd move.
"I'll be fine... I'm shaky, but it'll pass like it always does. Just won't be brave enough to eat for a few hours- if I eat anything too soon after puking, I'll just puke again," I say, stumbling to my feet as he tries to grab my shoulders and sit me back down.
"Oh no you don't-" He starts, frowning.
"Drakka. Neither of you know how to efficiently track with a Focus yet. You could miss signs of the missing squad, and if we just follow the river, I still need to be there to help make this shit easy, and I want to help Gaia make sure her system is functioning correctly. If this is a flaw in Gaia's local systems, it could spell trouble worldwide."
"A fair point, but allow us to carry you until you get your strength back," Atekka offers.
"I'll carry-" Drakka starts.
"Piglet can carry me. Your armor is too pointy and I'm not stressing Atekka more than she already is..." I slog towRd the city exit, groaning.
"Commander... I want Mommy..." a small voice sobs from a mat as we pass.
And there's the heartbreak.
"We'll be back soon, little soldier, I promise. We'll find your mama, Zella..." Atekka shushes her gently, smiling.
I look at them, seeing the little girl cough, "If you like, when we clear the water, I can make a run to Utaru territory. They've made medicines that helped them combat the sickness, ease the symptoms as the sickness passes. And I know a way to make it taste sweeter so that children can stomach it," I offer, "Hell, all I have to do it send a Glinthawk out there with a letter and shards, honestly faster."
"Is there anyone in the network that can retrieve it and send it by Glinthawk? I don't think the Utaru would appreciate a Glinthawk just stomping on the dishes..." Atekka points out.
"Oh, no, no, I'd have it drop a package with a letter and watch for them to put it somewhere it can land and retrieve it," I say, gagging slightly as I drag myself onto Piglet, "Hey, bud, I'm sick to my stomach, try to take it easy on the shaking..."
Piglet tosses his head, turning enough to look at me before nodding, and taking a few test steps.
"Now that I think about it, Zo. If I were to have a Glinthawk fly over Plainsong and drop a carrier with shards and a letter requesting they put medicine in the container and leave it by the edge of the field for pickup, would that work? Or can you go buy it and I'll send a Glinthawk to pick it up..." I ask.
"They'd be too confused to do it, and you never learned our written language. I'll go buy some, ok? For blight sickness, correct?" She says.
"Yeah, thanks... Enough for... how many?" I look at Atekka.
"Thirty five ill..." Atekka says, frowning, "We can pay you back-"
"No, on me. Take the shards from my room, Zo." I say, leaning onto Piglet's back.
"Alright. How fast can the Glinthawks you overrode fly?" She asks.
"I'll send Avalanche. She's leader of the big flock," I say, yawning as I scroll through my remote orders menu, "Avalanche, honey, mama's got a request. Find Zo at Base in a few hours and bring what she gives you to Mama's current location, ok? It'll help a lot of people." I hear a squawk of confirmation, and relax.
"Mama, huh?" Drakka raises a brow at me as we follow the river upstream.
"Oh... I'm talking like they're my pets. Whoops..." I groan and rub my face, "I miss cats. Gaia do you have felis domesticus zygotes?"
"Yes. As well as dog zygotes of many breeds. Gaia Prime was never able to activate them because it required human authorization- many pet species are still in storage, as well as larger species such as deer, elk, bears, wolves..." Gaia offers.
"So some of the species we thought were lost as in storage?"
"Yes... She appears to gave been waiting to ensure their habitats would be ready."
"Interesting..." Atekka says, looking over at me, "And these cats...?"
I grin and launch into an explanation of how sweet cats and dogs were, about domestic rabbits and foxes, about how there were species of lizard that used to be kept as pets, and snakes.
They listen, until we start finding signs of the squad Atekka had sent ahead.
Dead machines, resources, tracks, blood.
"I see... and if I highlight the trail..." Atejka says softly.
"It allows you to follow it without hunting down the next footprint- it finds them for you so that you can follow someone closely and quickly," I explain, my stomach slowly easing up to the point I could sit up and climb off of Piglet, "Drakka, you remember following the trail in the desert."
He nods, "But right now we just follow the river, right? Cause we can't do anything other than that?"
"Yep... Just follow the red water."
He nods, staying close, and checking the signs as we go, until eventually we hear fighting.
Atekka runs ahead and joins the fight- a squad of Tenakth surrounded by Clamberjaws. Machines based off of baboons, I think...
I stay back, loading my spike thrower and waiting until one spotted me, and came barreling at me. "Come get some!!" I yell, throwing the spike directly into its face and dodging to the side, hearing Drakka yell something incoherent as its head explodes, and all was quiet again, Atekka and Drakka having helped pick off the other machines.
"Are you ok?!" Drakka runs over, grabbing my shoulder.
"Whoa! Chill, I'm fine..." I frown, looking at him, seeing him checking me for injuries, "Come on, we have to talk to the squad..."
"Not much to tell... There's a rebel camp up above, and these machines... Its like they were on patrol. Must be more of what the rebels overrode..." one of them says, limping over.
Atekka does a head count, addressing them all by name, before relaxing, "Shekalla, little Zella is waiting for you back in Thornmarsh... Go home. We'll take care of this."
Atekka looks at us, then the cliff.
"Looks like we'll have to climb the falls..." I say, scanning and finding viable grips only near the water until about halfway up.
"Guess we best get to it, then..." Drakka groans, cracking his knuckles.
"Yeah... Careful climbing up. You haven't had to deal with wet stone before..." I say, walking past him.
"Wha- hey!"
"Not insult. Observation. Where in the desert would you have ever had an opportunity to climb a wet waterfall?... Definitely not Arrowhand. Expect to slide, and adjust your grip," I look at him.
Atekka nods, "She's right. Be careful... Climb between us so you at least have someone to catch you if you fall."
Drakka groans, but at least listens, carefully climbing up after me as I drag myself up the rocks. "Shit..!" He mutters after a while, and I look down to see him hanging by one hand.
"Focus on climbing instead of trying to impress." Atekka deadpans.
"I'm working on it," Drakka hisses, reacquiring his grip, and keeping pace as we go.
I wince as we reach where the falls were, "Ouughh, it smells like rot..." I groan, trying to shake it away, focusing on keeping my stomach's remaining contents inside my body.
"I know. Try not to throw ip, you're weakened enough as it is..." Atekka warns.
"Don't fall..." Drakka begs.
"I-I'm fine, but I think I hear a machine up there," I warn, yelping and swapping to another handhold as the one I had grabbed loudly lets go, and I hear several ton footsteps go toward the edge if the cliff above me. Nonono-
I press onward, shaking as I skirt the cliff, relaxing slightly when we reach where its' dry again, listening ti the machine's footsteps, praying not to get caught and killed. No matter how good a hunter I may have accidentally become, there is always something capable if catching me off guard...
"Careful..." Drakka whispers below me, and I nod, watching the bright flare from eye lights switch back to blue and fade out of sight, the machine walking away as I clamber up onto even ground again.
"Finally... Oh shit... its a Frostclaw..." I whisper, helping Drakka up and grabbing Atekka's arm.
Drakka looks around, frowning. "Five.. six... Six of them, plus the Frostclaw and the pile of dead machines, what were they doing?"
"We'll have ti clear them out to see. Here, let me see if I can snipe them... I don't think the machines care or notice when we kill their master around them, save the big guy for last so we can see if we have anything around here that'll decommission him in one hit..." I say, pulling my new sharpshot bow out.
"Carefully..." Atekka warns, "If they see each other fall, we'll be in trouble."
I nod, staying low.
One, downed far out of sight of the others.
Two, dropped on his lookout with an arrow through the head.
Three and four, dropped simultaneously with help from Atekka's bow.
Five, shot in the neck and dropped whem he tried to run toward where three and four fell.
Six, dropped his big gun when I shot the eye hole in his helmet, fell off his lookout post.
Now for the Frostclaw...
I looked around, then shook Atekka and Drajka's shoulders, "Bellowback."
They both nodded, and Atekka took aim, waiting until just as it passed the downed elemental machine, and firing, taking the giant machine out in an inferno.
I relaxed, taking a breath and looking around.
A dam made of dead machines... a crude bridge...
"That's a machine lure..." I say, recognizing it from Aloy's data from the Claim, "But it appears to be shut off..."
I run around, examining things as Drakka and Atekka loot the dead rebels, checking for stolen tags or anything important.
A ballista.
Machine carcasses.
Lure.
A data file from the Sons of Prometheus, telling them to fall back.
But a note saying they realized the dam was holding the clear water back and allowing it to get polluted...
"This was a site for them to test overrides on machines. The lure drew them in, and they would try to override them, but kill them if it failed... The carcasses made the dam, blocking the algae in and allowing it to pollute any water that came through, and when they realized it prevented the clear water from reaching Thornmarsh, they decided to stay behind to guard it... They have a nice view, too, they could see the suffering they were causing..." I say, looking out over the valley below.
"Cowards... Poisoning us while reaping clean water up above..." Atekka frowns.
Drakka stuck his hand in some of the falls, taking a few drinks, "Completely clean back here... So yeah, this is definitely not Gaia's fault..."
"If we can clear the dam, we can get the clean water to wash the algae away," I say, looking around.
Scanning the dam, I saw it. An explosive sac. Tons and tons of Blaze containers... "They didn't loot any of them... If we can hit that sac, it'll blow the whole dam away," I point, "Use your focuses. Here, let me see if..." I scan, finding something that my homemade Pullcaster would latch onto, and launched it, pulling as hard as I could, "One of you get on the ballista, the other needs to help me full this!" I groan.
Drakka bolts for me, grabbing the line and yanking, the debris I was latched onto opening a flap, as Atekka turns the massive weapon and launches, the explpsion throwing me back about fifteen feet as Drakka lands a couple feet away with a grunt.
"Nice flying!" Atekka laughs, walking over and helping us up.
"Oh, ha, ha..." I say, groaning, then perk up, "The smell's gone..." I take off, climbing back to the edge, "Check this out!" I grin, watching the unleashed water push bacj the contaminated water, the red being pushed downstream, zipping away oike watching the Flash disappear over the horizon, the river meeting up with Thornmarsh and swirling, dragging the last of it out to sea where it would be killed and mulched.
"Amazing..." Atekka said, watching as it receded out of sight, "And my people..."
"Will be all better within a few weeks." I smile, stretching.
"Y/n, Avalanche is headed your way with the medicine. Sorry it took me so long. The climb back was more difficult than normal..." Zo says.
"You're fine! We just cleared the algae contamination as well." I smile, relaxing.
"I'll head back to Thornmarsh and check on everyone... Meet me there when you can, both of you," Atekka said, running off.
I take a deep breath, and relax, but turn to see Drakka watching me with a worried expression.
"You need to eat..." he frowns.
"I can eat in Thornmarsh," I point out, "There's no way to cook up here, their camp was so crappy..."
He sighs, rubbing his face, "If you pass out on me, I'll be pissed..." he says, dragging me to the zipline.
I sigh, "I'll be fine, Drakka..."
"Just hurry up so-"
"Why are you acting like I'm a child?" I ask, looking at him, trying to hold back the fury I knew I could unleash.
"I-" he sighs and rubs his face, blurring his paint somehow, gritting his teeth, "That's not... You're not a kid. I just..."
I watch him, wary of what comes next. I felt like I was poking the bear or opening a rabbit hole.
He growls, and grabs my shoulders, looking pissed, "If anything happens to you..." he frowns, his grip loosening for a moment.
"Breathe. Angsty teenager isn't much help." I deadpan, and he laughs. Finally, it doesn't feel like I'm choking on an angry atmosphere...
He sighs and pulls me in, his face on my shoulder as he refuses to let go, "By the Ten, don't get killed out here..."
I sigh and just... hug back, feeling him tense up, "I won't. I've got Aloy and everyone else teaching me how to tight."
"That's... I don't..." He groans.
"I hear you. I've seen enough sappy holos and read enough digibooks to know what this is. I also know we've known each other for a month... There's so much going on right now, I don't think either of us would be ready. After the Zeniths, maybe. It depends how much time we have before NEMESIS gets here. I can't stand to think what'd happen if we decided to take the fucking plunge, and got offed in the end, or only one of us survives..." I say, fighting it all back, feeling him wilting the more I talk, "I have a hard time imagining good outcomes. I spent too long on the streets, alone because of what was perceived as wring with me... I don't want to start something that won't finish or continue, y-you know...?" I ask hesitantly, "If I get our hopes up..."
He nods into my shoulder, "You're right. Why are you right..." he groans, his grip only tightening, "You're making me soft..." he grumbles.
I laugh and push him back, "You're the one chasing me across the continent, here. You're making yourself soft."
"That's just mean. And here I thought we could go kill another Thunderjaw when we make it official, to celebrate," he smirks, quirking an eyebrow at me.
"Oh hell no," I frown, "But knowing how they seem to magnetize to you, it'll happen anyway."
"Just another mark for me, desert flower," he smirks, flexing his muscles to show off his marks as I groan and avert my eyes in annoyance.
"Uh-huh. You haven't learned the meaning of the word humility yet, have you?..." I sigh.

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I am an anxious mess writing that!
I wasn't sure if it was too soon...
Hoping for feedback from everyone cause I feel like I made him a bit too out of character in this...
Hope you guys continue to enjoy the story!