Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 13-

Day: 1

Days Left: 5479

Lives Saved: 0

After finally applying ointment to the last of the monster's wounds, Corinna shuffled backwards, no longer comfortable with being so close to the chimaera without a task to concentrate on. She examined the clear and weird-smelling substance and the labelless jar that held it.

"This is amazing..." Corinna mumbled to herself. "I've never seen anything like this in shops. Where did you find this?" she asked the monster.

The chimaera did not respond.

"I suppose..." Corinna placed the jar on the floor. "You can't talk, can you?"

The monster shook its head.

"But you can understand me?"

The monster nodded.

Corinna also nodded, unsure what to do next. Her eyes wandered around the house, so long as she avoided the monster she felt a bit more at ease. Somehow, she could always feel those radioactive green eyes staring at her.

Corinna glanced back, and those eyes of the monster had maintained their focus on her, unblinking.

"Thank you for..." She hesitated. "For saving me, for cutting me free." Despite her gratitude, Corinna still remembered the fact that she was almost murdered by the monster. She would not have been kidnapped in the first place if it hadn't tried to kill her. The chimaera had hesitated and spared her, it had changed its mind. It could easily change it back.

"This is a very- a very nice house," Corinna fumbled her words, avoiding the monster's gaze once more. "It seems to have good foundations despite being built on sand- and also has a basement! That's very impressive, very... impressive- who'd have thought the Eternal Abyss had houses? Especially a nice one like this- a very nice house, such a nice house this is, it is. Yes. It's even got electricity! Look that! A Fridge! And what a fridge it is! And there's a fireplace- a nice fireplace, a magic fireplace. And there's- there's a door- there are three doors-

The chimaera zoned out Corinna's rambling, its attention instead drawn to the young woman's thigh where a bandage still covered the wound that she had received from the creature that had kidnapped them both. Leaning forwards, the monster took a closer look, about to untie the bandage until Corinna shrieked. Unfazed by the spear pointed at its throat, the monster backed away from the young woman, whose hands trembled, holding the weapon.

Remembering that the monster could easily overpower her, Corinna lowered her spear and blurted out a series of apologies. "Yes, I suppose that needs treating too." Corinna untied the bandage around her thigh and immediately looked away upon seeing that her skin around the wound had turned into blotches of purple and black. "And it's infected. Of course, it's infected. It had to be infected with such a cleaver like that, had to. I'll use... this." She picked up the jar of ointment again and saw how little there was remaining. "Or not. You probably want to save this for for yourself. You should save this." Corinna handed the chimaera the jar. "I'll just- I'll be fine- you've done more than enough already-"

Whilst Corinna was once again distracted by her own ramblings, the monster leaned in closer to the young woman's thigh. It opened its jaw, revealing those sharp and deadly fangs and-

"NO! You are not-" Corinna edged backwards. "You are not going to lick- to heal me using- using that method."

The monster leaned back and sat up straight again. Corinna could have sworn she saw it roll its toxic green eyes.

"I'll just-" Corinna picked up the jar of ointment once again and sighed. "Do you have- have you got more of this stuff? This magical ointment?"

The monster hesitated before nodding.

"You sure? Because I can-"

The monster nodded again.

"Great, thank you, thank you- I'll just open this..." Corinna applied the ointment on her wound, narrating the entire process. 

"And that should do it," she said as the skin faded to its original colour and the wound closed together. "Hopefully it wasn't too late..." Her voice trailed away, still marvelling at how it had healed within a few minutes. "And you're sure you've got more?" Corinna asked, handing the almost empty jar back to the chimaera.

The monster nodded.

"Right." She paused. "Ah! Almost forgot!" Corinna squealed. "I've got something for you!"

Whilst Corinna had her back turned, the monster spat and drooled into the jar, refilling it with more 'magic ointment', then sealing it before Corinna returned to face it.

After finally untying the plastic wind-up toy frog from her spear, Corinna presented it to the monster. "I think you dropped this back at- back at the cave. Here..." Corinna at first decided to hand the toy frog over directly into the monster's paws but then hesitated and placed it on the floor in between them.

The chimaera wound the toy frog up then set it loose, its hind legs pushed off the floor and moved a centimetre, leisurely jumping across the floor before slowing to a squeaking halt. Clearly ecstatic from this groundbreaking contraption, the chimaera clapped and rocked side to side, its snake-tail swaying along too.

The monster then looked at Corinna.

Those green eyes transfixed on hers.

Fearing that the monster was upset that she was not as impressed as it was, Corinna burst out in applause and laughter. "Wow! Wow, that was- wow. That was amazing- did you see that frog go? Wasn't that just- just amazing? And look how adorable it is! Tiny adorable frog! Just amazing-" She froze when the monster stood up.

Is it going to kill me? It's going to kill me, isn't it? I wasn't mocking you! I swear!

Instead of killing and devouring her as she had feared, the chimaera walked over to one of the arm-chairs where it had placed its satchel, then retrieved a small object from it.

It was a wind-up white rabbit toy.

Sitting back down, the monster handed Corinna the toy rabbit, then placed the medical kit and the jar of ointment a certain distance apart. After winding up the toy frog, the chimaera positioned it near the medical kit.

The monster glanced back at Corinna.

"Ah!" Corinna exclaimed. "It's a race. You want to race?"

The chimaera nodded.

Corinna wound up the toy rabbit and placed it next to the frog.

And the race began!

It was not close.

Despite the chimaera's cheering, the toy frog was no match for the toy rabbit's superior athletic skill, speed, and stamina, capable of hopping in quick succession. With its last squeaking of springs, the toy frog eventually hopped over the finish line. Regardless of coming second place in a race of two contenders, the chimaera pretended to high-five its representative and placed it on the fake podium it had created using the contents of the medical kit.

After giving the toy frog a pep talk, the most the monster could muster of speech being growls and grunts, it returned to the track for a rematch. The results were always the same each time with the toy rabbit being victorious. Corinna repeatedly suggested that they should swap, but the chimaera still persisted in believing in the toy frog. At first, Corinna feared for her life every time she won, waiting for the monster to have an outburst of rage but even after the most humiliating defeats it at most sulked and lied on the floor, kicking its legs in the air.

Once the sixteenth race had been completed, there victory parade around the track. Afterwards, the chimaera lost interest and packed away the medical kit.