Day: 3665

Days Left: 1815

Lives Saved: 20

Rin and Alfreda turned, weapons drawn to see three large monsters surrounding them. It was uncertain what beast they were inspired by, some odd mixture between canine, feline, and ursine, all three larger than a horse, coats thick and rough, fanged smiles wide and reaching almost their slit-irised eyes. 

"Recognise them?" said one the first monster.

"The vice-captain of the city guard," purred the second monster. "And that annoying fish thing that puts people to sleep."

"What are they doing here?" said the third monster, cocking its head to the side. "No sign of them in the city. Everyone is looking for you."

"You ran away, didn't you?" asked the first.

Alfreda kept her head held high, not having denied to herself the truth that she abandoned her post so easily when she thought she was gaining freedom. The amphibian however snarled and shook its head violently as if something was attacking its mind, its webbed hands batting itself in the head.

"Aw, is your friend hurt?" asked the second. Its eyes looked to the broken antenna. "Can't put us to sleep now, can it?"

"What is it you want?" huffed Alfreda. "We can hardly grant you citizenship now; you're free to just walk into the city now." Alfreda risked it, hoping that by bringing this up she could gauge how the city fared, if it was all chaos still or some form of leadership had risen to stabilise things.

"That's not what we want," said the first. "We have survived long enough without walls in this place to be that desperate."

"But I do remember you all applying," said Alfreda. "I recognise these forms." She smirked looking between the three of them, though they were all large and strong, they were matching in design, indicating that someone bought all three of their masks designs in auction, that they were cheap and insignificant to do so, prisoners of low threat. But that hardly meant she could let her guard down, when Calixte could further lose himself from being exposed to violence and loud noises, nor when Rin's monster form was less durable and had little experience in combat. Alfreda was confident in her fighting skills, this would be easy if she was alone, but not when she had Calixte and Rin to consider.

Two of the monsters laughed which unsettled Alfreda but she refused to show it, smiling herself.

"We were denied so many times and we decided that it was not worth it," said the second monster. "Better to learn how to survive on your own than relying on another failure of society."

"We enjoyed watching it all crumble," said the third.

The one that did not laugh settled its eyes on Rin. "No mask?" it said slowly, and then its eyes brightened. "No... you are transformed?" It eyes followed along Rin's body, seeing the glimpse of her face where the wind from the raining marshes betrayed her, revealing the skin of paper on half of her face, the eye forming an imperfect orb of folded paper with an ink blot of a pupil. Then it looked past Rin, to the border of the Raining Marshes, the clear divide between an emerald forest when they all stood and then flat marshes of constant rain. "I wonder what will happen to you... when it rains?"

Alfreda was too slow, the monsters breaking off and separating, not knowing who to target first.

One monster lunged for Rin and with a single swipe of its large paws pushed her into the Raining Marshes.

Another went for the amphibian whose fear of water so powerful it ducked clean from the upcoming attack and bolted instead.

Alfreda's voice caught in her throat, wanting to call after Calixte but she was met with a set of claws herself as the final monster attacked her. She sucked in a deep breath, and slowly released it, letting the heat from her body travel to her arms and burn the monster as she blocked them in a stalemate. The monster hissed through gritted teeth from the pain, its fur singed to almost baldness. Regaining control, Alfreda pushed back, knocking the monster away from her.

Triumphant, Alfreda turned, ready to face the others and save Rin from the rain when she was met with a large splash of water. Parts of her body where they had been soaked froze up, their fire dimmed or even fully put out. With only one leg being able to move, Alfreda darted to the side, evading another splash of water from the other two monsters, so desperate to stay dry that she forgot about the third monster behind her. The monster tackled her from behind, trying to shove her into the rain, now knowing their hunch was correct, that she would be powerless if exposed to water for too long. She gritted her teeth, exchanging energy and heat to where it was needed, once again attempting to burn the monster but her flames were no longer the white hot from before when needed, but a smouldering orange, smoke hissing and blinding her vision.

With the three monsters working together they dragged her into the Raining Marshes and the endless wave of water hit the fire demon heavily, as if the whole world was crushing her. They continued to splash her until every fire was almost put out, fumes jetting from her, the rain fizzing and erupting upon impact on her fire demon body. It wouldn't be long before she lost consciousness. Alfreda made futile attempts to fight back but her arms and legs moved so slowly, the monsters stepping out of the way with little worry, laughing at her efforts.

They dragged both Alfreda and Rin's weak bodies across the marshes in a sprint, going further and further away from the safety of the forest where it was dry, closer to the sector on the other side which was unknown.

Through this blur and almost lost of consciousness, Alfreda caught a glimpse of Rin, her legs essentially fused together as mushed up paper, though stronger than normal paper, they were still disintegrating. And then the monsters halted, on a whim, near a deep pool of water, and Alfreda then finally lost all consciousness.

*

Rin watched in horror, barely able to move herself as one of the monsters dropped Alfreda into the pool, what once was a hole in the ground filled from the rain and where prisoners were dropped into. Upon impact, the fire demon's hot exoskeleton caused the water to boil and the water nymphs lurking in the depths flailed and panicked, trying to reach the surface but the weights attached to their legs yanked them back down.

And then it was Rin's turn. She was too weak to fight back. They easily threw her in with one arm and she plummeted down before eventually bobbing up, her body separating slowly into smaller pieces. The ends of her limbs just chunks of mulch.

Somehow through all of this, Rin was still conscious, and that was what was so scary, the fact that in this form when she could divide herself into such small pieces and remain intact and alive, that if she should disintegrate, the paper completely eroded by the water, will she still be awake? She did not have organs in this form and understanding how she was still capable of thought and action was difficult. To what extent would she be alive and conscious? Would she remain in the Raining Marshes, in this pool of water forever, undiscovered as she was barely visible flecks of paper and never to be whole again, only to exist to think and nothing more.

The monsters left, laughing and bounding around the Raining Marshes off to find another kind of amusement. Before she disintegrated further, Rin wanted to at least try and do something, either to save herself or to save both herself and Alfreda. She looked down and saw the faint glow in the water where the fire demon's heat was slowly being put out, the last embers soaked and gone. Rin considered her options, to try and get out herself, drag herself out of the Raining Marshes and heal enough to transform back into a human after the blood moon, she could save Alfreda then if Alfreda hadn't already been lost. Or she could try and save Alfreda now at risk of losing herself. As if by habit, Rin looked to her arm where there would usually be some kind of cryptic words that gave her advice or direction, that could predict the future, but of course the black ink was just a water-logged smudge.

Recalling back to how Klei used his clay golem form, another monster mask made out of a non-organic material, Rin morphed her body, condensing into thick protective layers so only a smaller surface area was affected as badly by the water. Since she still floated, Rin formed a singular arm and used the water nymphs themselves to descend to the bottom of the pool, climbing down the confused water nymphs who did not register her as food and more a weird debris, and the rope that were attached to them. Eventually, she reached the bottom, and panicked when she was not strong enough to lift the fire demon up, nor would Alfreda float so well considering that she was a sunk rock. Rin looked around her, and came up with a plan. She unfastened the rope to all the weights connected to the ankles of the water nymphs and wrapped it around Alfreda.

So desperately wanting to reach the light above, to reach freedom, to breathe again instead of forever drowning, all of the water nymphs swam up and clambered out of the pool, crawling along the marshland, struggling to breath, dragging Alfreda and Rin up and out with them. Rin detached the rope from the water nymphs and used it herself to try and pull Alfreda. She struggled at first, not possessing much strength when she wasn't so badly injured but eventually found a body composition to maximise what paper she had left to drag the unconscious fire demon across the raining marshes, heading towards the nearest sector.

The divide between the Raining Marshes and this unknown sector was a stark contrast. Rin breached the barrier of rain to the side of dry, the air cold and dark and eyes were plummeted into pitch dark. She dragged Alfreda behind her, wanting to get her out of the rain completely, when her foot slipped, and she stumbled, falling down into pit, Alfreda who was connected to the rope, came tumbling after. They fell down fortunately only a relatively shallow pit, perhaps only ten foot deep but the sudden drop and Rin's current state made her splat on the bottom, her mulch body caving like she was a blob or a slime. The fire demon fortunately was only slightly scathed, a few cracks in her rock-like body but she still remained unconscious.

Rin attempted to move, but her body composition had fully collapsed and she could barely manipulate it into something more useful. Any longer in the rain and she would be rendered as unfunctioning as Alfreda was currently.

Rin gazed at the other side of the small pit where the fire demon's body lay, steam still rising in small thin lines from the remaining heat. She held onto hope that it meant Alfreda was not dead yet, that her mind was still intact, her memories not gone. Though they were dry, this sector was cold and dark, it would take far longer to become more solid in this weather.

How long? How long until they were both healed enough to be strong enough to get out of this pit? How long before they could be human and traverse the Raining Marshes? How long until they were reunited with the others? How long until the others found them if such fortune existed? How long until they found Calixte and he was himself? How long until there was a cure for Corinna's missing memories?

How long? How long? How long could Rin sleep for?

Rin closed her eyes. There was nothing else she could in this situation apart from think. Think about what she could have done instead to avoid all of this. If she had not cornered Calixte at the Raining Marshes, or been more aware of approaching monsters, she could have gone with Ivette and Kai, she could have... could have...

No energy left, everything depleted, Rin fell asleep from exhaustion.

*

Henry was a bit more settled now that everyone had woken up, but Rin and Alfreda had been gone a while. He tried to focus his energies on taking care of Corinna, staying awake for the whole blood moon with her. He had tried entering her mind to help, but every time he did so, Corinna would push him back out of the nightmare. He caught the glimpse of The Grim Fairy, its size having doubled from the blood effects and was like a monstrous mountain now, facing against an army of Corinna's memories, devouring more as time passed.

"We need Calixte..." Henry breathed after another failed attempt. "He can calm Corinna down, calm The Grim Fairy down at least to something manageable."

Sumit looked the distant trees where he had seen Alfreda running to follow Rin and the escaping amphibian. "Can we afford to go after them?" He glanced over at Corinna who, though up on her feet, was in and out of lucidity, still mouthing 'grim,' over and over, and trying to walk by herself in random directions, batting the air with her arms as if they were monsters.

"I can barely keep a hold of her as it is," sighed Henry.

"And we can't be anymore divided than we are now," said Sumit. "An even smaller group and we'd stand no chance in a blood moon."

The three imps raised their spears, in attempt to prove how tough they were, ready to defend the group if necessary.

Sumit smile a little and patted one of their heads. "You're doing a great job."

Lili stoically watched the perimeter, her, Sumit and Henry taking it in turns to watch over Corinna and make sure that she did not stray too far away from their camp. Just in case, they had packed up the majority of their supplies so that if needed they could run and not lose anything necessary.

She looked up at the sky, hoping that magically a whole day would have passed by now and Corinna would go back to before, The Grim Fairy not as powerful, but the day continued slowly. Lili wondered how many more memories The Grim Fairy would take during a blood moon. Would it take everything? Would it be specific it its meal? Or would it be the luck of the draw on who Corinna will still remember by the end of the day?

A distant sound snapped Lili out of her pessimistic reverie. She raised her sword, glancing at the others, signalling that something was approaching.

It was first slow, a small step of a paw, a snap of a twig, the flump of moss, and then it was a dash barrelling forwards. Three large monsters, matching in design charged through the forest line, each choosing a target; one Lili, second Sumit and the imps, and third Henry and Corinna.

Henry's first instincts was to push Corinna out the way, and took on the monster's full frontal attack. He stood no chance against the monstrous strength and was instantly pinned to the ground, a paw pummelled into his stomach and he reeled in the pain, coughing up sand. Again, and again, the monster lashed out, eyes at first fully there, having calculated this attack and this pleasure in violence before almost glazed over, temporarily lost in the blood moon. Henry was left motionless on the ground, paralyzed, unable to move due to the giant hole missing in his torso, the sand that had formed it spilling onto the grass.

The monster moved onto Lili, joining its friend, seeing that it required help, before retreating as Lili plunged a blade in between its friend's shoulder blades. Instead it chose an easier target, bored from Henry, no blood to be shed from him and saw Corinna aimlessly wandering out, stumbling about like a new born fawn.

Lili lost hold of the sword in the monster that had targeted her and was forced to use her claws. She gripped onto the top and bottom of its jaws, preventing it from devouring her in one gulp, a slobber of drool dripping onto her as the monster continued to push her down onto her knees.

Lili heard Henry calling out, his painful gasps for air as he tried to stand, a significant hole in his stomach. But where was his monster? Lili's eyes darted over to Corinna, seeing the monster chase after her. Finding some hidden strength within her, panic fuelling her, Lili powered back against the monster trying to pin her, and retrieved her blade again, sinking it through the creature's brain, stabbing it over again until she was satisfied it was dead. She shoved it to the aside before it could collapse on top of her and chased after Corinna and the monster hunting her.