Aloy, the protagonist of this story, was a child raised by Rost, who, without being her biological father, gave her all his love and affection, knowing that this would make him an outcast. Although I'm not fluent in the term outcast as such, I think this comes to something like an exile. But Aloy was always a curious child, and she didn't want to live as an outcast, exiled from her tribe and unable to converse with anyone.
One day she saw some children picking blackberries and giving them to a lady who praised them for doing that job. Aloy thought that the same thing would happen to her and filled her hands with blackberries, but when she approached to give them to the woman, she reacted strangely and walked away from her and the children.
Faced with such an act, Aloy flew into a rage and ran off in a rage. Without looking where she was walking, she stumbled and fell into a strange cave. Unable to get out the way she came in, she had to go deeper into the dark place.
After a short walk, the cave changed from stone to metal and Aloy realized that he had found some ruins of the ancient civilization. Although Rost had always told her that such places were forbidden, even for outcasts, curiosity got the better of her and she took advantage of the fact that the door was open to explore the place.
After climbing some stairs, a human corpse appeared lying on the ground, illuminated by beams of light and surrounded by moss and small plants. As he approached, Aloy noticed that, on the side of the head, the corpse was wearing a strange object.
As she took it in her hands, the object lit up and colorful lights emerged from it, which scared Aloy very much and she accidentally dropped it on the ground.
With a little more confidence, she took the object again and placed it in the same place where the corpse had it. To her surprise, everyone lit up around her and before her the lights revealed a new world that could only be seen using the object, which, apparently, is called FOCO.
Aloy was able to get out of that place, but since she started using the FOCO, her world changed. This device showed her things she didn't know and even helped her interact with the world in a different way.
Her adoptive father thought she spent too much time playing with that device, so he told her to take her bow, as he was going to teach her a few things. That day, Aloy learned how to hide, track and identify medicinal plants.
Also that day she met a person in the distance who for the first time in her life had not treated her with indifference and this made her happy to hear for a moment.
But Rost made it clear to him that they hadn't come all this way to play, it was time for Aloy to test his bow and hunt down his first Galloper. To do that, she had to make an accurate shot at one of the vulnerable parts of the machine and, luckily, the FOCO showed Aloy that these are located at the back of the Galloper.
Hidden inside some bushes, Aloy drew his bow and, with a single arrow shot, brought down the Galloper. Rost could do nothing but feel pride, but as they gathered the spoils of the hunt, they heard a shout that echoed throughout the cliff and was heard everywhere.
Arriving at the place where the scream came from, they found the person who had smiled at them earlier, who appeared to have fallen into a clearing in the forest, which was filled with Watcher machines. Seeing this, Rost said there was nothing to be done, as it was impossible to get there, but Aloy had practiced enough with her FOCO to be able to see the trail of the machines' path and advance through the clearing undetected.
Rost refused, but Aloy slipped out of his hands and reached the place where the person who had shouted was hiding. The young man was surprised to see how a little girl had come to help him, but he was even more surprised to see that this little girl could evade the machines with ease.
They finally arrived safely on the other side and although the young man tried to thank Aloy for saving him, some tribal warriors scolded him because it is well known that you can't talk to outcasts.
Everything had gone well and, although Rost thought about scolding Aloy, in the end he understood that this was not just any girl and he knew that better than anyone else.
In a future post we will find out what the future holds for Aloy and how she decided to become a Valiente, or something like a member of the tribe.
Credits and Resources // Créditos y Recursos
Cover page created in Canva
Translated by DeepL
