Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 104-

Day: 128 (Food Drop-Off)

Days Left: 5352

Lives Saved: 0

Blood moons and masks had now become an almost taboo topic. If Harmony even dared to talk about something barely related to the subject it was received with an icy remark or ignored with pretend indifference by Corinna. Though Corinna had confessed her fear of her relatives treating her with passive aggression and avoidance tactics, she seemed oblivious to the fact that she was now treating Harmony in the same fashion.

At least she isn't completely shunning me, Harmony thought, attempting to stay positive. So long as she steered away from that topic, the two got along just as they always had. But it couldn't stay like this. They had to talk it through one day. It wouldn't be long until the next blood moon occurred. Corinna was already preparing for it.

When she wasn't playing games or dancing with Harmony, Corinna was working on redecorating the house, or rather fortifying it. The windows had been boarded-up, the fireplace blocked and decommissioned, and the front door bolstered by pieces of metal and wood so that it would be far more difficult to be knocked down. There was now even more elaborate way to lock and unlock the door, which Corinna had to repeat to Harmony multiple times until she understood. Every single slither of a gap was sealed, preventing any creature like the clay golem from slipping through. Circling the house were numerous trip-wires and booby-traps, a few which Harmony had got caught in the first time they were set up, forgetting that they were there.

"Should have done this weeks ago," Corinna had commented, admiring her work.

The place was now a fortified bunker. When Harmony was in it, she could forget the outside world, forget that she was in the Eternal Abyss and just pretend it was an ordinary house, but not any more. Now the building reminded her again that she was imprisoned but now only in an even smaller cage.

*

Corinna and Harmony stood outside of the large circle of stones, waiting for the food drop-off to commence. Eventually, other prisoners emerged, cautiously glancing at each other, their hands resting on their weapons or masks. The fire demon and its companions focused their attention on Harmony. 

Rin and Sumit, the latter waving enthusiastically, walked over and joined Corinna and Harmony. The four shared the usual pleasantries and idle chit-chat as they waited.

"I've never seen you two use your masks before," commented Corinna.

"Ah, yeah..." Sumit twirled his red and orange waxy mask in his hands. "Both of our masks are kinda wild cards, especially Rin's."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, mine's slightly different each time, bit random." Sumit scratched his head. "And Rin's... Rin's only transforms her when it feels like it. Oh and sometimes she'll just attack anyone she sees." Sumit leaned in closer and whispered, "though she does that anyway without the mask-"

Rin thwacked Sumit with the back of her hand.

Laughing and rubbing his head, Sumit continued, "there's also the risk when transforming into something non-humanoid."

"Risk?" Corinna asked.

"The masks transform your body, changes it, moves things around... if the shape is too complex or too different from your original body it can be painful when you transform back. But if you're unlucky, you might not change back completely or in the right way."

"Yeah, one time, only one of Sumit's eyes came back," Rin added. "He was a cyclops for two months-"

Sumit covered Rin's mouth with his hand after seeing Corinna's horrified expression. "It's rare! So don't worry too much! We'll only use our masks if we have to."

"Unfortunately, you might." Sighed Harmony, her eyes glancing back to the imps who had been jumping up and down, jeering at her from the other side of the stone circle.

"The imps know that Harmony's lost her mask," Corinna explained.

"Ah..." Sumit shared a concerned look with Rin. "I guess we might."
"We won't need to," said Rin, centring her mask on her face, the black letters twirling and twisting on the white canvas as she spoke.

A few minutes later, the moon in the sky opened up into the scarlet eye, the voice booming as it started the countdown. Once all of the food packets had landed in the centre, the fire demon made a signal. Lili and the blond man trekked over to the food pile.

But so did the imps.

With a high-pitched hollering battle-cry, the imps raised their spears and charged to the food. In a moment of panic, Lili and the blond man froze, then quickly donned their masks.

"Fuck!" Sumit leapt over the stones and rushed to the centre, followed closely by Rin, Harmony, and Corinna.

"Corinna, you get the food!" shouted Harmony as they ran. "We'll create an opening!"

"Got it!" Corinna got her rucksack ready.

After seeing the imps charge in, the other prisoners followed, commencing the free-for-all slightly early. There was a clash of blades, the tearing of teeth and claws, and the shrieks and howls of pain and victory as the monsters struck blows.

Distracting the nearby enemies, Rin, Sumit, and Harmony worked together and created an opening, allowing Corinna to get through to the food pile unharmed. Despite everyone fighting over it, she was the only one there as the other prisoners were locked in combat with someone else, unable to escape.

As Corinna shovelled the packets into her rucksack, she glanced around, seeing all the chaos. The red-capped goblin, despite being three times smaller, punched the axe-wielding minotaur in the stomach and sent it hurtling across the grass. It then attempted to help its companion, the headless horseman, who was currently fighting off the pack of imps that were clinging onto it with spears.

A force pushed Corinna down onto the ground and a sharp fang stabbed into her shoulder. Shrieking, she rolled over and kicked at her assailant, seeing it to be the tiger. Another creature appeared, an over-sized, black hound with spiked bones piercing out of its fur. It tugged at Corinna's backpack, and all of the food packets spilt out.

Then, a bright light shone, its glow was warm and comforting. All of Corinna's worries and fear seemed to slip away.

The hound and the tiger stared at it, mesmerised, then both of them collapsed onto the ground into a deep sleep.

Pushing the tiger off of her, Corinna jolted upwards, seeing the amphibian crouching before her, the orb on their antennae shining.

The amphibian gave her a nod.

She returned a nod.

Corinna stuffed the food packets back into her rucksack as the amphibian collected their own into a plastic carrier bag. Once they had both collected enough, the amphibian bowed their head as a farewell and Corinna gave a smile and a quick "thank you," before she dashed away. As she glanced back, the ground beneath the food pile caved in as the giant mole-rat claimed the rest of the packets.

Corinna found the others still engaged in a fight. Rin, Sumit, and Harmony covered their ears as the banshee screeched and wailed. Sumit swung his sword at it but it went straight through. As it was incorporeal, the banshee could not be harmed, but neither could it harm anyone else apart from their ear-drums.

After calling out to them, Corinna realised that they all must have been deafened. She rushed over, tugging at Harmony's arm.

Seeing Corinna safe, a smile appeared on Harmony's lips but then soured as the fire demon approached the group. As it growled, billows of smoke and ash jetted out of its mouth.

Rin pulled back on her bow and fired at the demon. The arrow lodged into its neck. Indifferent, the demon tilted its head, smirking as the arrow burst into flames and disintegrated.

Finally noticing that Corinna was back, Sumit gave her a thumbs up, which she returned. Nodding, he grabbed Rin's hand and ran in the opposite direction to the fire demon. Harmony followed, carrying Corinna.

Roaring, the fire demon spewed out a jet of fire from its mouth, setting the grass ablaze. It returned its attention back to the remaining monsters that were still fighting, preventing the imps from harming the asleep tiger and hound.