A/N: This is my first foray into Horizon Zero Dawn fanfic (yay!).This was written for a prompt on tumblr, "dust floating in golden sunlight". The prompt is in here, it's just a little buried. I've long been a fan of fanart of Aloy petting her overridden machines, and I've wondered about the kind of bonds she could form with them.

Thanks for reading!

A Girl and Her Strider

Aloy stopped on the road, one hand pressed against the back of her neck, sweat coating her palm. Dampness had settled in her thick hair and she scratched vigorously at her itchy scalp.

What I wouldn't give to be in the mountains right now, Aloy thought, frowning as she ran her hands through her hair.

It was the thing she disliked most about the Sundom—the place was far too hot. With the sun scorching the outlying deserts and transforming the inner jungles into a hothouse, Aloy was forever uncomfortable. Though she could find relief in the rivers and the lake, swimming was hardly safe. Just last week a rogue snapmaw had pulled an unsuspecting child down into the depths in a burst of red bubbles. Aloy had hunted it down, retrieving the tattered remains of the child's clothes for his distraught parents. It had been a grim reminder that even though the battle with HADES was over, machines were still wild and dangerous.

Aloy lifted up her hair and fanned the back of her neck. Her skin prickled and itched. She wet her dry, cracked lips and gazed down the road towards the city.

Meridian was close. She could see the mesa rising in the distance, the soaring towers of the Palace of the Sun rising even higher, reaching into the clear blue sky. The burnished architecture, majestic beyond measure, shone in the late afternoon sun. Regardless of all the places she had visited, all the remnants of the Metal World she had seen, Meridian remained the singularly most beautiful of them all. Despite its blood-soaked history, nothing could take away the splendour of its towers and bridges.

The city was also the closest thing she had to a home these days.

Aloy had walked this path more times than she could count. As always, the city looked closer than it was. Judging from the sun's placement in the sky, it would likely be sundown by the time she reached the gates.

She let her hair down, briefly wondered if she should save herself the discomfort and cut it all off, and grabbed her flask. She unscrewed the top and downed the warm water, soothing her dry throat. The water tasted like dust, but then everything tasted like dust in the Sundom.

Something nudged her hand.

Aloy jerked away in surprise, spilling water down her mouth and chin, and spun around, her quiver bouncing freely against her leg as she dropped into a defensive stance. She dropped her flask and pulled her bow free, stringing it with three arrows in one smooth motion.

A strider cocked its head in her direction, the blue lights of its circuitry blinking. It looked almost… curious.

"Okay, then," she murmured, tapping her Focus and scanning the machine.

The words FRIENDLY MACHINE blinked back at her.

Aloy turned off the Focus and frowned. She didn't remember overriding any striders recently. "How long have you been following me?" she said, lowering her bow.

As if it can answer.

The strider trotted forwards, nudging her hand with its nose.

"Whoa, whoa, okay there, buddy," Aloy said. "I just want to know where you came from."

The strider pawed the ground, dust swirling around its hooves.

"All right, all right, it'll be a mystery for another day, I guess."

The strider clicked, its rear moving back and forth so its tail flaps swished in the air. Aloy put one hand on its side, patting it. It let out a happy gurgling sound, its blue light brightening. It looked… content.

Can machines show emotion? Aloy wondered as she pet the strider. GAIA could. We wouldn't be here if Elisabet didn't show her how. Did GAIA put that into the machines' systems? When I'm fighting a snapmaw or a thunderjaw, I can feel their rage. The derangement. But this...? This is different.

The strider snorted.

"Okay, buddy," Aloy said. "Let's go for a ride."

She carefully lifted herself onto the strider's back, pressing her knees around its metal frame and tapping its sides with her heels. It trotted forwards happily, bouncing down the path towards Meridian. Aloy gripped onto the ridges near the back of its neck, tightening her grip as its pace quickened. Her hair flew out behind her in a jumble of beaded braids and loose locks. The dry desert air was harsh on her cheeks, but Aloy let out a whoop of laughter and pushed the strider forwards.

It had been a long time since she had ridden like this.

Was this what it was like, all those years ago when people had animals to ride?

She couldn't imagine riding an animal the way she rode machines. They were too fragile and lacked intelligence. The boars and turkeys and foxes she hunted were small and she struggled to imagine animals of a much greater size. Yet she knew they had existed. She had seen the files documenting the Metal World. She knew how rich the past had once been, how much had been lost.

I wonder what it was like to have a living, breathing animal at your side instead of a machine. Something that could think for itself, something you could bond with…

Aloy looked down at the strider as it carried her over dust and sand, Meridian growing closer by the minute. With only a little guidance from her, it was taking her to where she needed to go. She ran her hands over the smooth, cold metal. The strider had sought her out—purposefully, it seemed.

Maybe there is a bond here. Maybe there's more to them than we thought.

She had ridden striders and chargers and broadheads, taking them into the heart of battle where they protected her until she won or were smashed into oblivion. She had overridden enemy machines only to destroy them later, harvesting them for much needed parts. She wasn't the only one. She had once left an overridden strider outside Meridian and returned to find it dead and stripped of parts, the villagers taking advantage of a tame machine.

But they were machines. Where one was lost, there would always be a hundred more. The cauldrons always found ways to make more.

The machines were the children of HEPHAETUS, but they were also the children of GAIA.

Just like me…

Aloy shook her head, pushing the thought away. She wondered what Sylens would think of her line of thought. He would probably dismiss it as foolish inquiry.

The strider thundered onward, carrying Aloy further into the sharp, red landscape of the Sundom's deserts. She saw glinthawks whirling in the distance and, once, the shadow of a stormbird. She reached over her shoulder, one hand on her bow as they passed beneath it, but it thankfully took no notice. If all went well, she should be able to reach Meridian without a fight.

Which was unusual for this road.

The path grew grassier as she rode down a slope and up another, then around a narrow bend carved into the side of a hill. Aloy pulled the strider out of its gallop, slowing it into a walk as it slipped down the hill, dust curling around its hooves. Not much further now. She thought she could almost hear the babble of the trading post outside the main gate…

A shrill screech shot through the air.

Glinthawks.

They had followed her.

Aloy looked up and saw a burst of ice flying towards her. She lowered her head, pushing the strider into a furious canter and rounded the corner into a wide open space.

The trading post.

Men and women shrieked and screamed, diving out of the way, trying to find shelter from the attack. But aside from canvas tents, there was no shelter. One man dove beneath his cart, another into a meager clump of bushes. A mother dragged her small daughter by the hand, running into the nearest patch of tall, red grass and sliding out of sight. Still others ran for the gates, though the bridge to Meridian was long and offered no protection.

Aloy glanced over her shoulder and saw a glinthawk descending towards her, claws outstretched. She grabbed her bow, seized a trio of fire hours and shot them at the machine. They struck hard, setting it on fire and it tumbled out of the air. Aloy turned the strider around, seizing her ropecaster and firing lines into the glinthawk as she rode in circles around it.

More screeches echoed around the mesa.

A shadow passed over her head.

"And stay there!" Aloy hissed at the downed glinthawk as it burned, smoke coiling up out of its gears. It hissed pathetically at her, but her attention was elsewhere. She looked to the bridge, heart hammering in her throat as she watched the people running along it. A glinthawk swooped down, catching a woman by her arm and dragged her off the bridge, dropping her into the canyon below.

"NO!"

Aloy urged the strider forwards, cantering towards the bridge, fire arrows on her string. She rode into the middle of the fray, the strider's hooves thundering against the bridge's stone walkway, glinthawks swooping around her and the terrified traders. Guards from the gate ran forwards, their spears and bows at the ready, but even they seemed unprepared for the ferocity of the glinthawks. Aloy ignored them, shutting everything out as she aimed for the sky, eyes squinting against the sun's golden gleam. She took a breath and released her arrows. She knocked one glinthawk out of the air and it tumbled into the waters several hundred feet below. The third she caught in the wing. It croaked, flapping its uninjured wing furiously as it flew in an arc, headed back towards the trading post. It settled on the ground near the bridge, hopping angrily in the dust.

Without a command from Aloy, the strider swung around and charged back down the bridge. It hit the glinthawk at full speed, trampling it into the ground with its hooves. The kicked and bucked, Aloy struggling to stay on its back, until the light faded from the glinthawk's eyes and its gears stopped ticking.

The strider shook its head and let out a triumphant little whiny.

Aloy cautiously put a hand on its neck. "Good job, bud," she said. "Good job."

The strider snorted, but its tail flaps swishing happily.

The traders emerged from their hiding places, murmuring and whispering to each other. They stared at Aloy, fear and wonder in their eyes. A cloud of dust floated around her, turned gold in the sunlight.

"Machine rider…"

"She saved us..."

"She's that Nora girl, the one who saved Meridian."

Aloy shook her head and nudged the strider forwards. "Watch the skies," she said. "I know it's easy to become complacent this close to the city, but you will not always be protected out here. Take care of yourselves."

She tapped the strider's sides and continued forwards across the bridge.

The guards saw her coming from a distance away, but they still crossed their spears when she rode up to the gate. She hadn't even thought to leave her strider behind with the glinthawk carcass.

"I'm sorry, miss," the first man said, his voice muffled by his elaborate Carja helmet. "We know who you are, but even so, you cannot bring that thing into Meridian."

"He's perfectly harmless," Aloy replied as her strider snuffled at the ground. "You saw him beat that glinthawk to pieces."

"I cannot allow a machine into the heart of the Sundom," the guard said tersely. "Not even for you, Aloy."

"He's not a machine, he's a tame machine," Aloy said. "Overridden. Harmless to humans. Do you know what happened last time I left a tame machine outside these gates? It was beaten to pieces. I'd rather not lose this one. I'm… fond of him."

The strider raised its head, its blue lights glowing intensely as it nickered.

The guard sighed. "This is a matter you'll have to discuss with the Sun-King."

"Good," Aloy said. "I'll go now. I needed a word with Avad anyway."

"Sun and shadow, woman… all right," the guard said. "Do as you wish. But if any harm comes to anyone due to that machine, it will be on your head, not mine."

"Understood."

Aloy nodded and trotted passed the guards. She smiled as she entered the city, the familiar sounds and smells of the market wafting over her as she made her way through the streets. She was a familiar enough sight in Meridian by now—her hair and her weapons marked her—but people still gasped and stared as she passed by. It was the strider. She knew it was the strider. She didn't know what she was doing, bringing him into the city (he was now very much a "him" instead of an "it"), but she didn't want to leave him alone.

He was special to her now.

He was her strider.

"What do you think, bud?" she asked as they skirted the market, heading for the palace. At Avad's invitation, it was Aloy's official residence whenever she was in the city, a thank you for her courage at the Battle of Meridian. "A machine in the heart of the Sundom."

The strider snorted, shaking his head.

"Yeah, I thought so, too. Not that big a deal, eh?"

The strider stopped short and pawed the ground. Aloy chuckled.

"Look," she said, tapping his sides and urging him forwards again. "Thank you for helping with that glinthawk. That was… good. That was very good." She closed her eyes, trying not to think about how stupid she sounded. Talking to a machine like this. "Damn it… I'm going to have to give you a name now, aren't I."

The strider whinnied.

"Hey, come on now. Give me a minute, I've never named anything before."

The strider bobbed his head.

I wonder if he's responding to my words or my tone of voice?

Whichever it was, Aloy knew there was still so much more to understand about GAIA's creations. Her breath caught in her throat as she briefly thought about Sylens, about the knowledge he had pursued. What else had he known? What else could he have taught her?

No matter. Sylens was gone. If she wanted answers, she would have to find them herself.

As always.

"Okay, okay," Aloy said as they rounded a corner. The palace gates were now in sight. "I'm no good at thinking of these things on the spot. What about Shen? There was a lady, a very long time ago, named Shen. She was kind. She was smart. And… helpful. She really wanted to help the world, and she did. I don't know what she would think about a machine being named after her, but I hope she wouldn't mind."

Shen nickered.

Aloy grinned.

"I think it works, too," Aloy said. "Thank you, Shen." She sighed and looked up at the towering palace gates. "Welcome home."

the end