The next morning when Scorched Apple woke up, he noticed that Aloy was gone. He looked in all directions, but she wasn't there.

Did she ditch me? Scorched Apple thought, frowning at the blanket he had used for the night. She seemed serious about teaching me about using a bow. He heard some rustling behind him, and then there was something pointing into his throat.

"Lesson 1, always be prepared," Aloy's voice said. Scorched Apple smiled.

Good, she didn't ditch me, he thought. As the point started coming off of his neck, he turned around to look at Aloy. "Ok, you definitely got me there," he said. Aloy nodded.

"In the future, you will need to be ready for anything," she said. She reached to something on her back and took it off. It was a type of bow. "This is a basic hunting bow." Aloy handed it to Scorched Apple. "I'll give you this, and some ammo, but you'll need to learn how to craft more ammo, and get your own bows in the future." Scorched Apple picked up the bow and stared at it. It's main shaft was mostly made out of wood and had some metal protection on it, and the ends were made out of the same kind of metal as the main shaft protection. Aloy handed him some arrows, which Scorched Apple picked up. A few seconds later, he realized something.

"Where am I going to put these?" he asked. Aloy frowned.

"I forgot about that," she said. She thought for a few more seconds, then snapped her fingers. "We're near a merchant, so we can get some gear from him." She grinned. "And on the way, you can learn to shoot this thing." She lightly slapped the bow Scorched Apple was holding. Scorched Apple grinned.

"Let's get going, then," he said.

About half an hour later, Aloy and Scorched Apple reached the summit of a hill. Aloy pointed at a lone man, standing at the base of a tree.

"There's our merchant," she said. She looked at Scorched Apple and snickered. He had downed several watchers, and was learning how to salvage its scrap. He had stuffed his pockets as full as they would go, and was carrying the rest. He had run out of arrows, but Aloy was going to teach him how to make some more. He had more than enough scrap metal to buy a bag and still make some arrows. Scorched Apple started walking towards the merchant, but Aloy grabbed his shoulder.

"No, let me do this," she said. Scorched Apple looked at her questioningly. Aloy explained that people might find the red skin weird and would think he was an outcast.

"I'm not an outcast," Scorched Apple said.

"I know," Aloy said. She frowned. "Actually, no I don't. But we can talk about all of this later. I'll buy the bag, then we can get going." Aloy took the scrap that Scorched Apple was holding in his arms and started walking towards the merchant. She started talking with him, and a few minutes later, she returned to Scorched Apple with a bag, some clothes, and a small pouch.

"What's with the pouch?" Scorched Apple asked.

"It's for medicine," Aloy said. "Out here, you'll need it. Go put these clothes on behind those trees-" Aloy pointed towards a grouping of trees. "-and put the bag on. After that, we need to start heading towards Meridian."

"Meridian?" Scorched Apple asked.

"Yes, Meridian," Aloy said. "The City of the Sun. Now go change." Scorched Apple nodded slowly. A few minutes later, Scorched Apple was dressed in a sleeveless, blue outfit.

"A little itchy, but nice," Scorched Apple said.

"You'll get used to it," Aloy teased. "Now, let's get going to Meridian."

Author's Note

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/horizonzerodawn/images/7/7f/IMG_0235.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20170507052615
For reference, this is the outfit that Scorched Apple got. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, so here's a picture. Also, I know it's been a long time since I published a chapter of this story, so I hope you like this chapter!