Calm and Calamity

Chapter 15

Day: 302

Days Left: 5178

Lives Saved: 1

At Ivette's trading post, Corinna was working on her new project- building Ivette a wheelchair. For the past few days, she had scavenged through the piles of clutter at the Land of the Lost with Harmony and Calixte but to no avail. There was no wheelchair but a couple wheelbarrows and bicycles which would hardly be an improvement to Ivette's current mode of transport: a skateboard. It seemed that she would have to make one herself, recycling parts of other objects and fusing them together to create a wheelchair. But she didn't know how to begin. Her knowledge and experience in construction were more focused on buildings and architecture, dabbling a bit into carpentry. Making a wheelchair was something completely foreign to her.

Giving up on finding anything at the trading post, she was about to leave when she saw it was Rin sitting at the front desk. The young woman sat crossed legged before the coffee table and was scanning the pages of the logbook of stock.

"I don't suppose you have any books on making wheelchairs?" asked Corinna after much hesitation.

Rin raised her head then immediately lowered it. "No."

Corinna nodded, biting down on her bottom lip.

"You trying to make one for Ivette?"

"Yes."

"I'm sure she'll greatly appreciate it. She'll end up giving you a lifetime discount."

"Rin... about what happened at-"

"It's fine," mumbled Rin in a huff. Clearly, it wasn't fine. "We're a democracy and all that." She glanced over at Corinna. "It is a democracy, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"You're not going to start controlling everything and become a manipulative tyrant?"

"No, I promise." Corinna laughed. "You don't really think I would do such a thing, do you?"

Rin winced. "Um..."

"I'm not that controlling, am I?"

Rin sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. "Well.." She paused upon hearing approaching footsteps.

Standing in the entranceway to the trading post were two figures, ones that they both recognised. One of them was a short and dark russet skinned woman with coiled hair that carried the tiger mask. Corinna had heard the woman being called 'Lili'.

Beside Lili was the only male of the fire demon's group, the blonde-haired man who carried the black hound mask, only he appeared not to have it on him. Usually, it would be attached to his belt like the others but it was not there. His mouth was covered by a scarf that was wrapped around his face.

Rin groaned. "Welcome to Ivette's Trading Post where you can find..." She sighed deeply before continuing, "everything you could need to survive. My name is Rin, how may I be of assistance?"

"We're not here to shop," said Lili, her eyes focused on Corinna. "We're here to negotiate."

"About the food situation, I presume?" asked Rin.

Lili nodded, she then turned back to Corinna. "Our leader wishes to make a truce. Come with us and our leader will explain the details of the arrangement."

Raising an eyebrow, Rin tuttered. "That doesn't sound suspicious at all."

"We promise that we mean no harm. This is not a trap. If you would like, you can accompany the blonde," said Lili to Rin.