Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 18-

Day: 2

Days Left: 5478

Lives Saved: 0

Corinna soon realised that they were not heading back to the house. Instead, it was towards a familiar place, the place where they had first met: the ocean.

The weakened spire came into view, looming over everything in the realm, casting a long and dark shadow. Reaching the bottom of the tower, the chimaera placed the wooden planks down and climbed up to the summit, using its claws. Corinna watched from below, wondering if the monster wanted her to follow or not. But it neither made an indication of the sort nor gave a method to. She decided to stay where she was, sitting down and drawing shapes in the sand with her spear.

The monster abseiled down the tower, landing back down onto the ground, then tied one end of a length of rope around two wooden planks and climbed back up the spire again. Pulling on the line, it heaved the planks up to the summit. Due to the awkwardness of the shape and size, only one or two planks could be lifted at a time. Such a method, also required the monster to abseil back down to the surface, load the next two planks, and climb back up again.

Irritated just from watching, Corinna took a bundle of leftover rope and got to work. When the monster returned to the ground, it panicked once it saw what Corinna was doing.

"Go back up," Corinna ordered the chimaera. It hesitated, then obeyed once it realised her plan.

After lining up the planks of wood into a square and tying the rope around to secure it in place, Corinna then connected it to the other piece of rope that the monster had been using. With this method, all of the equipment could be carried all at once, safely and efficiently. After loading the other pieces on, she signalled to the chimaera, and it pulled the planks of wood up to the summit. Corinna returned to sitting down on the sand and watched the chimaera from the ground.

She sighed when she realised what the monster's escape plan was. The bridge itself was not amateurish, it would hold in any other circumstance apart from this one, due to how weak the rock was from the erosion. Once the foundations inevitably crumbles, the rope and pulleys that supported the bridge would also collapse. The actual plan- using a bridge to be directly underneath the sky opening, then climbing up with a grappling hook- was, as well, questionable. Corinna could think of multiple methods that would be more stable, more efficient, and required less effort and time to escape. The only problem was the unstableness of the spire, which she estimated would only last a few weeks more.

Corinna drew the plans out in the sand, rethinking how to overcome the unstable rock situation. Still, they required time and constructional support, and due to the wet sand and the waves, it was impossible to build any per,manent structure. Resources would not be a problem, due to the mountainous item pile, it was just time that was an issue. A few weeks, months, or years ago, this would have been the perfect portal to escape through, but now it was a crumbling mess. 

This portal was a lost cause. Hopefully, there were others, but Corinna had to persuade the monster to give up on this one. She knew that she had to help the chimaera gain freedom for she was the one who had stopped it from escaping last time. It was the least Corinna could do. But then... she would be alone.

Looking up at the closed entrance, where she had fallen from, the thought of escaping crossed her mind. She instantly killed the idea. She couldn't leave. She mustn't. Her family would- 

Her family would be killed.

Darkness grew. The monster eventually returned back to the surface and guided Corinna back to the house.

*

Once they had returned, the chimaera ignited the wood in the fireplace, then began work on dinner.

Corinna drew closer to the fireplace, mesmerised by the flames and reflecting back on her first day in the Eternal Abyss, how many instances where she had been close to death.

Fifteen years...

If the chimaera had not welcomed her into its home, where would she be now?

Maybe still wandering around the wastelands, searching for shelter?

Back at the cave where she had been kidnapped? The smell of the gorilla monster burning on the fire?

Would she be starving? There was no wildlife and no plants to forage.

Corinna looked back at the chimaera, who was currently waiting for the silver food packets to cook in the pan of boiling water.

Where did the monster get the food from?

It wasn't like food packets grew on trees.

Something tapped her shoulder, causing Corinna to yelp, and the monster almost dropped the bowl of food.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Corinna bowed her head. "I'm still a little jumpy from all that happened yesterday."

The monster nodded, and handed her the bowl of food, along with a fork.

Thanking the chimaera for dinner, Corinna stared down at the steam rising from the hot contents.

Grabbing its own bowl of food, the chimaera headed for the basement. It hesitated halfway, looking back at the young woman sat in front of the fire, but persisted through the completion of the journey, closing the trap-door behind with its snake-tail.

Corinna did not eat. She could not. For a long moment, she wondered why. Corinna was waiting for something, unsure of what it was. What was she waiting for? She was waiting for...

For someone to eat with.

From infancy, her entire family were trained to wait patiently for others to sit at the table. No one could eat until everyone received their food. Food had always been associated with her family. Eating was always a sociable event.

Corinna shovelled forkfuls of food into her mouth, the developing migraine causing her unable to taste anything.

With nothing for her to do aside from staring at the fireplace, she went to bed early, huddled under the covers, counting in her head until she fell asleep.