#ivirra

I feel the need to mention some folks who really got me through this past year.

I can't believe that someone has requested this series "Part 3" 😅 And so I did ❤️

I might begin to begin some acting about some Forbidden West scenes, but who knows 😂

Ch. 7 The Bitter Pill (Excerpt)

A circle was drawn in the sands of the fighting pits, and at its very center, Aloy stood.

Her fingers pull on the straps of the oversized Tenakth breastplate, securing it across her shoulders before activating a module underneath its blue and gold beads. The Shield-Weaver module comes alive with a high-pitched whir, enveloping the armor with a shimmering translucent barrier– almost invisible to the naked eye.

She pats at the reinforcement– far too large for her as it awkwardly hangs above her chest– with an eager confidence. Up until GAIA chimes in her temple, her voice carrying an anxious trill.

“Aloy, I highly advise against testing the new module in this manner. There are other methods of measuring the efficacy of its protection that require much less risk of bodily harm.”

“We don’t have time, GAIA. The trial’s tomorrow, and this is the only way I’ll know for sure.” she replied decisively, before tapping the Focus off.

“Alright! I’m as ready as I’m ever gonna be,” she called out to Ivirra, a few leaps away from her. The Marshal only shudders with hesitation with a bow and an arrow, nocked and pointed to Aloy’s heart.

“Chieftess… Perhaps I should be the one to try the armor?” She squeaked with trepidation.

“Nope. My test, my rules. Just make sure not to miss.” Aloy huffed, eyes squeezed shut with the oddest mixture of excitement and mortal fear. No matter what, she at least knew that this would be an experience to remember; as either the moment she withstood a bolt to the heart or died from extreme overconfidence.

Though to be fair, she’d always had an inkling that it would be her calculated recklessness that would kill her someday.

When the moments pass and an arrow doesn’t come flying her way, Aloy peeks through one open lid and calls to her friend once again. 

“Oh, come on Ivirra! Don’t you trust me?” 

“Without a doubt.” The Marshal exclaimed with a shaky voice. “But Chief Hekarro would have my head on a spike if I ever drew a drop of blood from you. Let alone kill you!”

“You’re not gonna kill me.” Aloy chuckled. “Stab me a little bit, maybe… but not kill me.”

Ivirra lowers her bow, her brows rising so high they might as well reach her hairline. 

“Do you truly mean to send us both to our deaths?”

To which the huntress couldn’t help but giggle, shaking her head.

“Of course not! Forgive me… Sometimes I forget that using sarcasm is not best approach when speaking to the Tenakth.”

A part of her knows who to blame for this. Fleeting memories of a certain snarky Marshal of her own whose penchant for derisive remarks knows no bounds, given that he was in the right mood. He was the exception, not the rule as it turned out.

“I still don’t see how an arrow to your heart will accomplish anything, other than risk your life.” Ivirra remarked.

Aloy sighed, scratching her nape. Drawing from her well of patience as she found the right words to explain.

“Look.. If I don’t test this in a controlled environment , then I’ll never have the confidence that this module will work the way it’s supposed to in a more dangerous situation. The only way I can know for sure is by doing this with someone I can trust with my life.”

Ivirra’s lips tremble. Extremely touched.

“And you command this of me, Chieftess?”

Aloy hesitates before pursing her mouth.

“If it helps.. then yes.”

It earns her the widest grin from the female Marshal. 

With a newfound confidence, she nocks her bow upright, aiming smack at the center of the extremely familiar armor.

“That’s the spirit! Now shoot me at the count of three!” The huntress smirked, resuming to avert her eyes from the incoming bolt. 

One. 

Two.

Three!

She heard the faint whistle of an arrowpoint piercing through the crisp air, and an electric thrill fills her veins. It was amazing how she could find such still calmness in the face of death and be so terrified of everything else. But when Aloy takes a deep breath and braces herself for a walloping, she never quite expected for the impact to come barreling her from the side. 

Her body sprawls over the red dirt like a ragdoll, the bolt whirring over her head and hitting the wall behind with a sharp twang. As she lands with an umph, the blur of white and blue that had shoved her to the ground rises, only to come sprinting away from her and towards Ivirra.

“What do you think you are doing?”

Kotallo’s voice thundered, knuckles wrapped around the Lowlander Marshal’s neck. There was a dangerous timbre to his rasp, his brown eyes crazed with fury and fear at the same time.

“Leave her alone!” Aloy winced, nursing her backside as she tried to stand upright. “This was all my idea.”

At least she knew that the repurposed module was definitely fully-functional, having felt nothing in her chest as it absorbed every wave of impact that came its way. There was much less to be said to her smarting backside, having taken the brunt of her fall.

Kotallo’s constricted pupils shot back to green and gold, before cautiously releasing Ivirra unapologetically. With slow, thundering strides, he crosses the short distance back to the flame-haired huntress once again. His nostrils flared, lips curled to a terrifying snarl.

She’d never seen him look this furious.

He took every inch of her personal space, towering over her shrinking body with fuming breaths as he glowered down. 

“Enlighten me.” he growled. Dangerous.

Aloy takes a deep breath, trying to remember how to form words when his heat was all she could feel. Piercing deep through every layer of metal and cloth adorning her, searing right into her skin. With an uncanny nervousness, she manages to string together something almost coherent.

“Ivirra was helping me test a module I installed in your armor. That’s all.” She explained.

He only takes but the quickest once over, before snarling once again. 

“And you thought that putting yourself in harm's way would be the best method to do it?” Kotallo bellowed angrily. “Have you gone mad from your injuries?”

At his outburst, Aloy reacted the way she always did; by yelling right back at his face.

“If you hadn’t come barging like a Charger first, then you would have seen that I was perfectly safe where I stood!”

“I find that your ability to distinguish the difference between what is safe and isn’t has been far long gone!”

“Like you would know!”

“I know that I lose a year out of my life whenever your safety is concerned!” Kotallo stepped closer, livid. “Your recklessness is maddening,” he shouted “and I act just as reckless in return because of it!”

“I never asked you to keep me safe!” Aloy retorted, rolling her eyes. “You took that upon yourself on your own!”

“And you’ve taken it upon yourself to make the task as difficult as possible!” He roared. “You tread into danger like greeting an old friend, with no regard for how much it destroys me each time I see you harmed!”

In that instant, the fury from her vision bled into surprise. Aloy swallowed hard, looking up at his narrowed lids, amber eyes burning with fury.

“Do you really worry for me because you care,” she said, much more meekly, “Or is it because it’s your duty to do so?”

It was as though she had slapped him once again. Confusion fleets across Kotallo’s features for the shortest moment, followed by renewed fury, and then … nothing at all.

He turns his back on her swiftly, teeth grinding against each other before walking away.

“I had at least thought…” he rasped, sand gritting in his throat. “… that you would know this by now.”

And at the very center of the circled sand, Aloy stood. Wearing his armor, flustered, breathless and confused.

READ THE WHOLE STORY :

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37549144/chapters/93720214