Eidos

Chapter 3: An Extraordinary Day

Chapter 3: An Extraordinary Day

"Goodbye Grandpa George. I hope you knew how much you meant to me...."

The words were whispered into the darkness. She had left her grandfather's body safely resting upon his favourite pillow before she closed the door for one last time. All of her tears had been cried amongst the bitter solitude of that endless night. A ceaseless barrage of thoughts had overwhelmed her ability to see anything clearly anymore. The only thing that had made any sense amongst the interweaving web of thoughts and emotions had been that which told her this was no longer home, that the time had come to leave once and for all. With the loss of the last person she cared about, there was no point in lingering. Without the people that made it, home was now just a word, nothing more than an empty idea.

Harmonia was up before the sun for a second day in row, only this time she had not gotten any sleep. A thick mist had crept down from the surrounding mountains overnight. If it had not been for the crimson sky that was slowly pushing back the darkness to make way for the dawn, she would have been as good as blind in the haze. By now every inch of her body felt exhausted from the heavy sadness that had drained her spirit.

As Harmonia stepped forward into the shrouded square, it felt as if she was walking through a dream. For a second she hoped that was true, that she was simply having a nightmare and nothing more. Tomorrow she would wake up and all of the terrible events from the day before would have been nothing more than a bad dream she could laugh about. The silly boys from the Privateers would not have eaten her vegetables, the Little Fools would not have caught wind of her secret gardens, and above all else, Grandpa George would be there to greet her with a warm smile just as every morning before.

The strength of such a hope had not lasted long before quickly fading. It was replaced by the dawning reality that none of it had been a dream. Whether she liked it or not, there was nothing Harmonia could do to change that disheartening truth.

Pressing through the mist she could not see the objects in front of her until they were less than a foot away. Harmonia would stop herself before stepping on a sleeping boy, or nearly colliding with a pile of children that had chosen to sleep atop one another. Luckily, she knew where she was by the scattered stacks of houses that poked through above the mist. Yet before she could reach the edge of town Harmonia had managed to bang her knee on the stage in the centre of the square. Thankfully it had not been enough to wake any of the sleeping children. Just as she released a sight of relief, she found herself tripping over a rock and nearly crushing a young girl no older than five.

She was nearing the last row of houses that marked the boundaries of Ralph's Castle when out of the mist she saw him. From a foot away appeared Ralph the dog, happily wagging his tail as his tongue wildly flailed outside his mouth. Ralph was the only creature stirring in the early hours of the morning.

"Ralph..." she whispered while bending down so he could lick her face, "What are you doing up this early?"

The dog's only response was to jump up onto Harmonia's shoulders with his front paws. From there he began the onslaught, licking every inch of her face as she wrestled to pull away. By the time he had finished, Ralph's tail was moving so fast she thought it would simply fly away.

"Settle down boy, settle down," she pulled away wiping her face with the sleeve of her light brown coat. "I am leaving town Ralph. There's nothing left for me here anymore. And I don't think there is anything here for you either. That's why you should come with me."

Ralph gave no indication that he had understood anything she was saying. Nevertheless, Harmonia rose back up to her feet and continued towards the edge of town. Ralph did not shy away as he followed close at her heels, excitedly bouncing behind with each step, no doubt thankful that he did not have to be anyone's horse for once. But as they neared the outskirts of town, which marked the end of his kingdom, Ralph froze in his place.