Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 117-

Day: 183

Days Left: 5297

Lives Saved: 0

Harmony gazed up at the grey ceiling of the world. The young woman stood at the highest point of the Land of the Lost. There she waited, her eyes fixated on where the portal would open. This time, she told herself, this time, she would succeed in escaping.

A ray of light shone down, illuminating Harmony in a beam of radiance and warmth.

The portal had opened.

Swinging her grappling hook, Harmony threw it upwards into the light and pulled, feeling it attached to something solid on the other side. Without a moment's pause, she leapt up and climbed the rope to the light, to the warmth, to freedom.

A torrent of wind and air billowed, causing the rope to sway and Harmony to slide down it. But she had faced worse. Despite the forces of nature fighting her, she continued to climb, able to reach out and touch the light.

This was it...

She had almost made it-

Someone screamed.

It was Corinna.

Harmony's eyes darted around, trying to find her. There in the distance below was Corinna and an imp, the ground quaking beneath them, the nearby piles of items spilling over. The sand underneath caved in, and Corinna and the imp fell down into the breach, the desert swallowing them whole.

"Corinna!" Harmony yelled. She looked up at the portal, the light still shone through the opening but it was weakening. It waned, it shrivelled, it dimmed. Time was running out. To escape, she would have to go now, no hesitation.

Harmony glanced back down to where Corinna had disappeared.

She had made up her mind.

Tugging at the grappling hook, it unattached itself and dropped down and Harmony caught it. She hurtled down the mountain of objects, her feet slipping, causing her to fall. But that didn't matter to her. All that mattered was...

"Corinna!" Harmony yelled as she raced down. An avalanche of items trailed behind her, cascading down, smashing against the ground. But it didn't stop her. Even when Harmony's ankle got scratched by broken glass, or she stumbled and bruised herself, she still endured.

Finally reaching the ground, Harmony rushed over to the spot where Corinna and the imp had disappeared. Calixte and the remaining six imps were digging and clawing at the sand but to no avail.

"What happened!" Harmony asked Calixte and joined in digging.

Calixte stared back at her, eyes wide, shocked to still see her here. Disregarding that thought, for now, he bowed his head, his feeble webbed hands clutching the ground. "I 'elieve the ground started shaking, an earthquake 'erhaps? The sand caved in, and 'iss Corinna and one of the imps fell down." The amphibian paused, sucking in a long breath. "And now they are both sealed underneath."

Harmony let out a series of curses. Her fingers began to bleed underneath her nails from digging too hard. She rummaged through her satchel and fumbled to open the survival kit Corinna had given her. Using the fold-up trowel from it, Harmony continued to dig, but even the trowel was barely making a difference. She scavenged through the nearby item piles, trying to find something better to help upheave the sand, the imps and Calixte joined her.

After a few minutes of digging, some of the imps had surrendered and collapsed onto the ground. They sobbed and wailed from the loss of their fallen friend.

"No! We have to keep going!" Harmony yelled, digging with even more force than before.

The ground trembled. The sand shook and spilt into the hole they had just dug, sealing Corinna and the imp even more.

"No! No!" Harmony screamed, clawing at the ground but only caused more sand to cover the area.

Calixte grabbed hold of her, stopping Harmony from digging any further. "Please, 'iss Har'ony. It is not working. We have to find another way."

"But she's trapped down there, Calixte," said Harmony through gritted teeth. "We have to save her! She could be suffocating down there! Buried in all that sand..."

An imp tugged at Harmony's sleeve.

Swallowing and wiping her eyes, Harmony turned to face the imp. "What?" she mumbled.

The imp chattered in incomprehensible gibberish sounds of growls and hissing.

"I can't understand a single thing you're saying." Harmony sighed in frustration. Her eyes returned back to the sealed chasm which Corinna had fallen through. She didn't have time to humour the imp.

Realising that there was a language barrier between them, the imp instead began to draw on the sand. Once it had finished, it tugged at Harmony again and pointed at it.

It was a picture of some sort of long legless creature with teeth then below it was a maze.

"A snake?" guessed Calixte.

The imp shook its head and jumped up and down in irritation, pointing once again to the picture.

Sighing, Harmony gave in and looked at it. She tilted her head. If it wasn't a snake, then what was it? What other creature was that shape? An eel? A worm? A worm... Harmony gasped. "A sandwyrm!"

The imp clapped its hands together.

"And this..." Harmony pointed at the maze in the picture. "This is a tunnel!"

The other imps joined in on clapping and jumping up and down.

"This means that Corinna's not suffocating!" Harmony grabbed Calixte's arm, shaking him in relief and joy. "She just fell into one of the underground tunnels! We still have plenty of time to save her!"

"What about this sandwyrm?" asked Calixte. "We need to get to her 'efore it does."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Harmony paced around, her fingers gripping her short curly hair. "Right... So it means that someone's got a mask that transforms them into a sandwyrm... that means that there must be an entrance somewhere. It'll be safer and probably easier to go through that instead of digging the tunnel up..."

Harmony looked at Calixte and the six imps, hoping that they would help contribute to the plan.

They didn't.

"So, we need to find an entrance or an area where the tunnel is close to the surface," continued Harmony. "And for that, we'll need more help." She paused in thought. "We could get Reggie! He'll be able to track her scent-" Harmony glanced down at the imps that stared hopefully up at her. "He'll be able to track both of their scents."

The imps cheered.

"May I inquire who this 'ister Reginald is?" asked Calixte.

"He's a dog," answered Harmony. "Lives with Salim close to Ivette's."

"We could perhaps ask for 'iss Rin and 'ister Sumit's assistance also as they are in 'roximity."

"Yeah, yeah!" Harmony smiled. Now that they had a plan and more hope in saving Corinna than before, her fears and anxieties were quelled for the time being.

Happy Pride Month, everyone!