Calm and Calamity

Chapter 22

Day: 374

Days Left: 5106

Lives Saved: 2

"What did she do!" The man with the clay golem mask growled as he stepped limped closer to Kai and Corinna. "What did she do to Wendy!"

"It's okay, Klei," hushed Kai, glancing back to the cave. "You need to keep your voice down, or you'll distress Wendy-"

"I'll distress Wendy?" The man motioned over to Corinna. "She's the one you should be concerned about!"

"All Corinna did was give Wendy some food."
The copper-headed man scoffed. "Sure... I bet she must have done something to the packet."

"No, she was trying to help us."

"I'll be the judge of that," the man said as he stormed to the cave entrance, giving Corinna a sideways glance before entering.

Kai sighed and lowered his head. "Sorry about that."

Corinna smiled weakly. "It's alright. I'm not surprised that he doesn't trust me after what I did to him."

"Yeah..." Dex bit his bottom lip. "He told us about that."

Sumit frowned in confusion. "What did you do?"

"She basically mutilated him and separated all of his limbs apart," answered Kai.

"Whilst he was in his clay golem form!" Corinna injected as she saw Sumit's horrified expression. "Though I suppose that doesn't exactly excuse it..."

"Then maybe we should leave," suggested Sumit. "I don't think he was very pleased to see you."

Corinna shook her head. "No, I need to talk things out with him and properly apologise." She looked to Dex and Kai. "If you're alright with me staying until then?"

"Sure," said Kai after receiving an affirmatory nod from Dex.

*

After a few minutes, the copper-haired man returned outside. He looked down at the ground sheepishly before glancing up at Corinna. "I apologise for my outburst earlier." The man cleared his throat, composing himself. "It seems that you did have good intentions, and Wendy appears to be happier after meeting you. I'm sorry for accusing you of hurting her."

"No, it's alright," said Corinna. "You had every right to not trust me after what I did to you. I'm sorry, I truly am about that."

The man sighed and brushed his copper hair back away from his face. "No, no, you don't need to apologise for that incident." He leaned back against the cave. "I was the one in the wrong. I attacked you first. You were merely just acting in self-defence."

Corinna clutched her waist as her eyes looked up and down at the man's deformed body, his shrivelled left arm in a sling, his left leg short and thin, the drooping skin on his face. "But I didn't have to go that far."

The man chuckled. "Perhaps." His smile then faded. "I am sorry for attacking you. I had been in my golem form for some time and had lost some of my senses. But I cannot lie; there was some part of me that wanted revenge."

"For what I did to you? Is there any way I can make it up to you? Any way I can help you recover?"

"No, not revenge against you." The man shook his head. "Against the chimaera." He glanced back at Corinna, then looked down at the sand. "I know that we're all trying to survive but what she did was far beyond acting upon individual needs. She had already proven that she was stronger, but she decided to attack everyone even if they had surrendered. And then she took all of the food. All of it..."