Unintended

Epilogue

It was like another end was happening, which in a way, it very could be classed as one; the morning had come quickly enough, the sun breaking through the white clouds in the sky and anyone who wasn't in the base was none the wiser to anything being untoward. Well, that wasn't the total truth, the people of this land knew there was something wrong with their home, they just didn't know what, let alone how it slowly got better, but thanks to the Zeniths and what they had done so far with Gaia, there was now a more complete version of her within the base than what anyone ever thought that there would've been, or rather as quickly as this.

"I'll head up to Chainscrape first, see what's going on there, maybe see if there's any news from Meridian, and from there, maybe to Hidden Ember. I don't know much about Old World Vegas, other than things Gaia could find, but if there's Oseram in there, you can bet they'd try and upstage anything that came before." Erend said thoughtfully, he even rubbed a hand to his chin as he did so. It was bad to admit, he hadn't thought much on what to do once all of this was done with. Not like Nureka, his Shaman friend seemingly had a whole venture planned, that was some foresight.

Thinking of the Shaman, she stood there fidgeting with a pack on her back, "I've never really seen what Oseram class for shows."

"You had shows all the way up in the mountains?" Erend joked with a smirk, she stopped fidgeting with the straps and narrowed her eyes at him before letting out a laugh. Nureka would give him that, it wasn't like there was much widely known about her people, like the Nora, they were often a mystery to other tribes and clans. "But sure, I'll save you a front row seat."

"Will there be Oseram stone drunk under those seats?" Nureka quipped back watching as Erend narrowed his eyes at her, he chuckled and shook his head. Much like with her, he was letting her have that one, because it was most likely going to be true; his people liked a drink now and then, so what?

"You'll be the first Banuk to be that far West," Erend pointed out, even from over her shoulder he could see Sylens pottering in the room he had adopted as his own. Erend vaguely remembered Nureka explaining that her people didn't believe he was one of them, so Erend was opting to go with it. Nureka would be the first Banuk that far out.

Frowning at the thought, she suddenly nodded. "I think I quite like that." Not that she could do much with her exploring, "Maybe I'll write home and tell my father about it."

Erend nodded at that, everyone else around them were packing up bits they wanted to take to go on their travels. Nureka had spotted Erend just sitting idly by watching, a wistful expression on his face and started talking to him, she had hoped to drag him out of his thoughts. It wasn't like they were never going to see each other again, she for one thought life would be incredibly dull if Erend suddenly went from her life. It was the same feeling with Varl, there was an empty void still in both of their hearts over missing their Nora friend, but that was final, this wasn't. This was just the end of yet another chapter, which would no doubt lead onto another one...which just led straight to Nemesis.

Until then, they could try and relax, enjoy the fruits of their labour as it were. Not that Aloy agreed with resting, perish the thought of stopping for five minutes, the redhead was seemingly talking about going to the Burning Shores, and seemed quite adamant about going as soon as possible. All of them had tried to deter her, for just a day or two, maybe push it to a week, but she didn't seem to want to stop. It wasn't like the sooner she got there, the quicker Nemesis was going to appear for them to beat, unless other matters were calling her out there and she was being her typical secretive self.

Erend tilted his head hearing her words, with a soft frown he nodded up at her again. Nureka, deciding standing about was becoming tedious, sliding into the seat opposite in his usual booth. "I didn't know you still had family." He realised how insensitive that sentence could sound and sent her an apologetic look.