Day: 20

Days Left: 5460

Lives Saved: 0

"And that was how my entire family got banned from the restaurant," said Corinna. "Just because there were too many of us!"

Harmony responded with a sympathetic shake of her head.

Spotting something of interest in the pile of discarded clutter, Corinna navigated her way to it, stumbling over a beaten-up armchair, with the chimaera tailing close behind. Finally reaching it, Corinna pulled out from the rubble a large-sized dress, blue with white camellias scattered around. "Do you think Ms Ivette would like this?" she asked Harmony, presenting it to her.

Harmony stepped closer and inspected the dress, finding a few tears and patches of stains.

"Oh..." Corinna's shoulders dropped in disappointment but rose back again after the chimaera gave a look of reassurance.

"Ah, you can fix it?" The young woman smiled, holding up the dress to the sky, before folding it up neatly and packing it away in her rucksack.

The chimaera nodded.

Frowning, Corinna asked, "how? Can you sew with only three fingers?"

Looking down at her three-fingered hands, Harmony opened and closed them into a fist.

The young woman copied her. "As, yes." She giggled. "That definitely is how you sow."

The chimaera let out a few short croaky grunts.

Startled, Corinna asked, "what was that?"

Harmony pointed at the young woman.

"Me?" Corinna put on a playful pretend tone of offence. "You were trying to mimic me? Why, how dare you! I sound nothing like that."

The chimaera repeated it once again, only this time with a higher pitch.

"I sound nothing like-"

Harmony found the correct pitch.

Corinna scowled, then a smile spread across her face.

Like a cartoon character, the chimaera placed her hands on her mouth and bobbed her head up and down.

Chuckling, Corinna's face twisted into discomfort. "I'm not sure which laugh is worse."

She immediately regretted this as the chimaera combined the two, causing Corinna to sputter a series of sporadic chortles.

The chimaera stepped closer to the human, continuing the horrific amalgamation of guttural noises and inane head bobbing.

Her hand clinging to her waist, Corinna wheezed, failing her attempt to regain her breath. "Stop. Please stop!" Her hands rose in surrender.

Harmony did not accept her surrender and stepped even closer, her snout up in Corinna's face.

Corinna weakly pushed the chimaera away. She manipulated her face into one of vacancy and impassiveness, but it quickly broke as she saw Harmony's best attempt at a smile; baring her teeth in a wide and comical grin.

Their smiles faded as Harmony's head rose, sniffing the air.

Corinna knew what this meant.

Someone was nearby.

After Harmony pointed in the general direction of its origin, Corinna guided her to a suitable hiding place, behind a small heap of objects.

Gripping her spear, Corinna peered through a gap and spotted what the chimaera had sensed.

It was a group of two; a man, and a creature. 

The creature looked like a goblin, short in stature, skinny, with an old and weathered face and red eyes which its long and greasy hair covered. Long protruding fangs grew out either side of its mouth as Harmony's did. In its hand, it carried a pike, and with the other, it adjusted its red hat.

The man was dark-skinned, his black hair shaved into a short mohawk.

"Only two of them," Corinna relayed to Harmony. "One monster, one man. And the monster looks pretty weak too." She turned to face Harmony. "I bet we can take them... if we have to of course."

Harmony gave a thumbs up, then sniffed the air. She wrote on her whiteboard 'recognise 1'.

"So, one of them is new to the region, right? Or to the Eternal Abyss..."

Harmony nodded, then wrote 'man'.

Corinna peeked behind the cover again. "I don't see a mask on him. He's probably new to the Abyss." She paused. "I will get my own mask soon, right?"

The chimaera nodded.

"Good," the young woman mumbled. She knew that Harmony could escape any day now, which meant that Corinna would have to protect herself. A mask would make everything easier, even if it meant that she would have to transform into a monster. 

The group of two stopped as the red-hat goblin rifled through the junk pile, displaying interest in an old video game console. The man sat on a nearby divan, talking to the goblin.

Corinna felt someone tap her on her shoulder.

She turned her around...

To what monstrosity was waiting for her...

Harmony let out a series of jarring grunts, her head bobbing, her hands covering her mouth.

"Harmony!" Corinna hissed. "Stop!" She attempted to suppress her laughter by scrunching up her eyes and nose, but it was to no avail. "Stop they'll hear us." Corinna peered behind the cover, then shot back as Harmony continued her attempts at laughing. She forced her hands over the chimaera's snout, silencing her with a glare. "They'll hear us-" Corinna almost let out a shrill squeal as Harmony licked the young woman's hands to free her mouth.

After giving another piercing stare at the chimaera, Corinna turned back to the man and the red-hat goblin. "I think they're leaving..."

Leaving the gaming console alone, the goblin walked away from the Land of the Lost, followed closely by the man.

"They're heading towards the rock tower, to the portal opening," said Corinna. "There's nothing else in that direction." She turned back to Harmony. "What should we do? Should we stay longer here? They could be gone by the time we get there."

Harmony looked at the ground, fidgeting with her talons. After a moment of hesitation, she shook her head, then pointed in another direction.

"You want to go back to the house?"

Harmony nodded.

A slight smile crept on Corinna's face but was suppressed immediately as it was accompanied by such selfish thoughts, leading to guilt.

If she doesn't go to the rock tower, she won't escape and leave me.

The pain swelling in her chest and in her mind caused Corinna to be silent for the entire journey back.

They spent the rest of the day playing chess. Harmony was a horrific cheat, distracting Corinna so that she could secretly move pieces. Corinna humoured the chimaera and pretended to be fooled by the distractions and looked behind her. They never managed to finish the game as it drew on for far too long. Harmony's tactics were self-destructive, taking every chance she got to take one of Corinna's pieces at the cost of losing her own. Meanwhile, Corinna rarely went on the offensive and instead focused on protecting all of her pieces, even the pawns. Though she lost a few, she neither defeated many as even when Harmony's were easily takeable, Corinna hesitated to make movements of attack.

After such a long and dull game, they both decided to never play again.