Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 34-

Day: 21

Days Left: 5459

Lives Saved: 0

The man and the goblin was not there the next day which meant it was business as usual, with Harmony waiting atop of the rock spire waiting for the portal to open and Corinna sitting on the sand below.

The young woman wrote in her white notebook, which was three-quarters full already. She flicked through the pages, counting them, hoping that she would still have enough for the rest of her relatives that she had yet to record. Despite her planned layout, assigning a certain amount of pages to each relative, she continued to squeeze in more memories of her great-grandfather Ernest, her great-aunt Rhea, grandmother Marjolaine, her second-cousin Henry, and of her young nieces, nephews, and cousins. When their assigned pages were filled, she resorted to using fresh new ones, ones that were meant for others. She thought about getting a new book, but that meant she would have another that she would have to protect. Perhaps she could staple them together? Would the chimaera have a stapler? She probably did, considering the number of things she always brought out of the basement.

With that idea in her head, she decided to add another double-sided page dedicated to her cousin Langdon. As they were the same age and in the same class at school, there was still plenty of memories to record and remember. And then there was her second cousin once removed Amelia who she helped with her artwork, and then Henry, her second cousin who was like a brother. Her actual brother, Richard Jr,  would have to wait.

Finishing the piece just as it grew dark, Corinna packed her notebook in the rucksack, then placed the wisp lantern on her lap. As Harmony could see a moderate distance in the dark, Corinna was charged with the wisp light source.

The glowing green wisp swirled inside then pressed itself against the glass drawn to Corinna's wrist. She theorised it was because of the magical contract around her wrist, as wisps fed off of mana and magic. Though she felt it would be unwise to let it out of its lantern to test this theory out. It could escape and fly free, and she would be without a light source in all this darkness.

She turned her attention to Harmony who was sat patiently at the top of the rock spire, a rope clipped onto her belt.

The young woman's mind returned to that thought that she had yesterday, that feeling that she had tried to forget. Though she couldn't escape herself as a third of her family would be executed, surely she would be happy for anyone that could leave the Eternal Abyss. But at the very thought of Harmony escaping was...

"No..." Corinna shook her head.

It couldn't be this feeling again. Corinna had made mistakes in the past concerning this feeling. And now she felt like she would soon make another. Fortunately, Corinna thought, she had caught it in its early stages. She could easily stop it and prevent it from growing.

And who was to say for definite that it is that feeling? Perhaps it was because of all of the adrenaline? When they first met, they did try to kill each. And now that she had linked that fast heart rate and excitement with the chimaera, it was only natural that she would be confused.

Perhaps she had been confusing co-dependency with it? She has had to rely on Harmony for many things; her food, shelter, fun, protection. She was just associating the chimaera with these necessities, and of course, no one wants any of those to disappear suddenly.

Yes. That was it. It must be.

She was only scared of Harmony escaping because it meant that she would have to fend for herself in this rotting and perilous world for fifteen years.

So long as she found an alternative, she would be fine. Harmony had said that the house was hers when she left. And in a few days, it was the food drop-off so they would know how to get food. If she ever needed to talk to someone, she had Miss Ivette, who was always eager to talk to someone. The only matter of concern was being strong enough to fight back, which would be easily solved once she had her mask. But who knows how long it would take to arrive.

Once Harmony had called it a night, she climbed down the rock spire and stood beside Corinna, gazing up at the sky.

"Don't worry," said Corinna, standing up and nudging the chimaera's shoulder. "We'll get you out of here, I promise."

Harmony rested her head on Corinna's for a moment, then stood upright.

"The portal will open and then you'll be free," continued Corinna.

'Then kill queen' Harmony wrote on her whiteboard.

The young woman frowned. "That part I still don't agree with."

The chimaera pouted, then fluttered those bright green eyes of hers.

"No," said Corinna. "No amount of puppy eyes will make me agree to murder."

Harmony rolled her eyes and began walking back home, with Corinna at her side carrying the lantern, lighting the way in an emerald glow with the wisp.

With her cousin Langdon on her mind, Corinna told Harmony the story of Langdon's failure of a literature presentation which he had not prepared for, ad-libbing the whole thing and making up fake research and quotes. By telling Harmony this story, it helped Corinna plan out how she was going to record it down in her notebook. She needed to focus on her family and finish writing all of her stories in the notebook. Otherwise, The Eternal Abyss would soon devour all her memories until she could not remember any of them.

After she had finished telling the story, Harmony showed Corinna the scented pencils that she had found. The vanilla-scented pencil consumed all of the chimaera's sense of the smell, to the point where she could not smell anything else for the entire journey back to the house.

Preoccupied, in their conversation, the human nor the monster noticed the creature that had followed them home.

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Recommended Song for Chapter:

Song: Here We Go

Artist: Swing Republic