Day: 969
Days Left: 4511
Lives Saved: 5
Kai closed his eyes shut, prepared for the pain, but there was none. He had expected to be flung to another side of the forest, but when he opened his eyes, he saw that his goblin strength was keeping the stag at bay. Nevertheless, the creature struggled and pushed its front leg against Kai's hands, unrelenting.
However, Kai's strength was dwindling. Finally, he gritted his teeth, pushed the stag to the side, and dashed underneath the creature.
Confused, the stag spun around, dashing around in circles, trying to find the minuscule goblin that was hiding underneath it.
"Mister Kai!" Lili called out. "What are you doing! Get out of there!"
Kai continued to evade the stag's eyesight, occasionally punching the creature's legs tauntingly.
Lili watched on, uncertain how to proceed. Whatever Kai was doing was tiring the stag out as the creature stumbled and almost collapsed as its legs crossed over the others and lost balance.
There were approaching footsteps, and Lili glanced over to see Oscar and Sumit heading her way. They both were startled at seeing Lili in her tiger form for the first time, then looked on in horror at Kai and the giant stag.
"Where is Mister Calixte!" she hissed. "We need him!"
"He's catching up!" replied Oscar.
"Oh deer," Sumit began. "Is Kai-"
"You make another sodding pun, and I'll leave you as bait!" Lili snapped back; she then looked to Oscar. "Transform and slow it down!"
Oscar nodded.
Lili left them and went to Kai's aid, pouncing onto the back of the giant stag and sinking her teeth and claws into its thick neck. Blood oozed out, but the cut was not deep enough to disable the creature. The stag swung its neck wildly, attempting to knock Lili off but the tiger clasped hold with its claws.
Oscar's hand hesitantly reached for the mask on his face, his breath faltering.
"It's alright, you got this," Sumit said softly, placing a reassuring hand on Oscar's shoulder.
The two of them gazed into each other's eyes as if such a simple act calmed them down, and then Oscar was filled with confidence, his fear subsiding. Then, for the first time he could ever remember, Oscar activated his mask manually, a bright light shining briefly before his body shrunk in then widened out until standing before Sumit was not a human but a large humanoid toad stall, the cap red with white spots. Two black pin-prick eyes on the stalk blinked and glanced down at itself, then wiggled its stubby arms and legs.
"Aw," Sumit cooed. "I didn't think it would be so cute."
Oscar scowled, though, in his mushroom form, this made him look all the more adorable. "Am not!" He replied, his voice now high-pitched and squeaky.
"Now go and defeat that deer that is bullying Kai!"
The mushroom waddled towards the battle with a squeaky and quivering battle cry, then was immediately kicked and sent flying by one of the giant stag's legs.
"Oscar!" Sumit rushed over to the injured mushroom's side, finding a sizable squished dent in the toadstall cap. However, Oscar seemed completely fine, the both of them unsure of the endurability of the mushroom monster.
"I think it worked!" Oscar pointed a stubby hand over to the stag, where one of its legs had a singular red mushroom attached. Slowly another mushroom sprouted beside it.
"Yeah, just keep on touching it!"
With much reluctance to get hit again, Oscar the mushroom waddled again to combat, doing his best to avoid getting struck by the stag's hooves and timing it, so he touched the stag's legs, causing more mushrooms to sprout. The more the mushrooms began to spread, the slower the stag became.
The stag swayed from side to side with lethargy, almost giving up until it lowered its legs and sat on the ground, squashing Kai underneath it.
"Mister Kai!" Lili screamed, pouncing off the stag's back. She barely evaded the stag's antlers that swooped at her, brushing against her skin, leaving a deep scrape of blood and flesh.
Oscar tapped the stag's neck, and the creature's head swings grew lethargic and slow too.
"Mister Kai! Are you okay!" Lili batted the stag with her tiger claws, but the giant creature had no energy to get back up.
Sumit rushed over, believing it safer to be close to the fight. "Is he underneath!" He tried to lift the belly of the stag but to no avail. "Hey, Kai!"
After a moment of silence, the stag snorted and murmured and shook its head as its body slowly lifted a minuscule amount. Sumit peered underneath and saw the goblin holding the stag up with his short arms, a small crater in the ground from where he had been flattened.
"This thing is heavy," Kai wheezed, stumbling from the stag's weight.
Calixte finally arrived at the scene, his apologies cut short as he was rendered speechless by Kai underneath the stag.
"Draw the stag off of him," Lili ordered.
"Yes, yes! Of course!" The amphibian stood in front of the stag's head, and his antenna popped up, the orb at the end glowing with a warm light. The others averted their gaze so as not to be affected by its power.
The stag's eyes glazed over, mesmerised by the orb. Then, even with its energy drained from the chase and Oscar's spreading mushrooms, the stag hauled itself up to its feet, freeing Kai from underneath.
Kai let out a huge sigh of exhausted relief and rushed out to safety. "What now?" he asked.
"Mister Calixte, lure it as far away from the clearing as you can," ordered Lili.
"Ah, yes, ma'am," replied the amphibian. He took a step back, and the stag followed. Calixte then looked to the others expectantly.
Lili sighed. "We'll go with you." She motioned to the others, and they walked alongside Calixte as he guided the mesmerised giant stag.
At first, they were quiet, too exhausted from the chase and relaxed in the peace, but then Lili's attention turned to Kai.
"What you did was reckless," she said, stern.
Kai swallowed and bowed his head. "I just wanted to help-"
"All you had to do was run and hide, keep a good distance from any monsters-"
"And I did!"
"How could you not notice a ten-foot-tall stag before it noticed a tiny goblin?"
"Well, it did-"
"You must not have been paying attention then," Lili snapped.
There was a moment of silence. Oscar and Sumit gave Kai a pity glance, having learned not to argue with Lili.
Kai sucked in a breath. "That stag would have found our camp eventually."
"And we would have dealt with it with proper planning," replied Lili. "Without the risk of someone getting hurt." She eyed Kai's bruised and battered body and then to the dents in Oscar's mushroom form.
Head lowered, Kai kept his mouth shut, eyes focused on the ground.
The scouting party continued to guide the stag away from the forest clearing. Finally, when Lili believed it to be a safe enough distance, Calixte put the stag to sleep, and they left it and returned to their new campsite.
*
Once the new camp had been secured, Lili checked the area herself as she no longer trusted Kai's judgement; they guided the rest of the group to begin pitching up the other tents.
Corinna examined the numerous fallen trees, asking Dex to break open up one as she could not do it herself so easily without hands.
"We could make tools easily with this," commented Dex, testing the strength of the wood. He chuckled to himself. "I guess it's like we're starting at the stone age again. Instead of relying on the Land of the Lost for resources, we can make everything ourselves."
Corinna smiled that Dex shared her same idea, not having to write it on her whiteboard herself.
"The only problem is that we would have to find a lot of rope." Dex sighed. "If we want to make stone tools and weapons, that is."
Corinna shook her head.
Dex rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you know how to make rope too?"
Corinna guiltily glanced at the trees with a proud grin.
She wrote on her whiteboard, the pen in her mouth, and explained the process to Dex on how to make string and rope from the bark of the trees. The only problem was that it required to boil the bark in water, a resource which they needed for drinking and could not spare for anything else. They had collected as much water as they could at the previous sector's food drop-offs, but the supply would soon run dry.
"We'll just need to collect more rainwater at the Raining Marshes when we get there," said Dex. "Lili estimated a forty-five maybe an hours walk from here."
Corinna frowned, then wrote, 'need more buckets'.
"Yeah," Dex nodded. "Otherwise, we'd have to go back and forth so many times a day just to get enough. So, this all hinges on us finding this sector's Land of the Lost, huh? We can send more scouting parties to locate it." He chuckled. "You know, it's actually kind of fun talking about 'missions' and stuff. We're becoming quite the organised group."
'Love completing tasks', Corinna wrote with a smile. 'Very satisfying'.
"Yeah, it's good to have something to focus on in this place," said Dex. "So you're not just counting down the days." He paused, his eyes glancing away, then looked at Corinna directly. "How are you, by the way?" He hesitated, unable to look at Corinna's double amputee arms, the hands chopped off, one up to her wrist, the other near her elbow. Then Dex looked to Corinna's whiteboard that she had to carry with her at all times since she had lost her voice but had to write with the pen in her mouth due to her lack of hands.
"It's been a few months now," Dex continued. "Since the um..." He motioned to Corinna's stubs. "How are you holding up?"
Corinna stiffened; her smile from before remained on her lips, but they had lost all warmth and sincerity. She looked at her whiteboard as if in consideration, then merely smiled and nodded at Dex.
Dex was uncertain how genuine any of that was as Corinna had always been such a convincing little actress when she wanted to shut down her emotions. It was all forced smiles and docileness when she was interacting with someone, but when you caught her alone, unaware that anyone was watching, Corinna was almost like a porcelain doll staring off into the distance, still and silent with a vacant and emotionless expression on her face. Sometimes, there was something else in her eyes, no longer carrying that energy and motivation Corinna had once before, but rather a slight sense of teariness and sadness now, as if Corinna was holding back the tears every second, stopping herself from breaking down completely.
"If you..." Dex began. "If you ever want to talk to anyone about what happened- I know that everyone else has probably already offered- but I am... also here..." His voice trailed away, as did his confidence.
Of course, Dex and Corinna had never been close. Only recently had they really spent much time together on a one on one basis as Dex assisted Corinna with her crafting projects. Though Dex had a certain level of handiness skill from being a push-bike mechanic, he was not as inventive as Corinna. However, since Corinna had lost both of her hands, Dex offered to be her hands in her construction projects whilst she instructed. This new relationship was, of course, nothing compared to Corinna's friendships with Calixte, Rin, and Ivette. If Corinna ever wanted someone to console her, it would be one of those three. But Dex still wanted to make the offer; sometimes, it was easier to talk to a stranger or an acquaintance about particular topics instead of friends and family, as if there is no judgement or bias. However, if Corinna wanted that, there were better candidates than himself.
Kai, for instance, always gave out great advice with his superior insight and kind words. Dex had always envied how easy Kai made it seem to talk and comfort others. The same could be said about Calanthe, her soft and nurturing nature, and Sumit too had always been a voice of comfort to many with his jokes and warm and uplifting smiles, though now that he had lost his memories, perhaps he was no longer a candidate or the same person anymore.
Dex felt silly to have offered to console Corinna's woes and was worried that even mentioning or alluding to what had happened had only caused Corinna more pain or annoyance. But Corinna smiled softly at Dex and wrote, 'thank you' on her whiteboard before changing the topic and writing out a list of items they would need to find at the Land of the Lost.
Perhaps this was what Corinna wanted at the moment, Dex thought, to concentrate on a task. If that were going to help her, Dex would be there for her in whatever capacity he could to ease the pain and distress of losing both of her arms... and from losing Harmony...
*
By the end of the evening, the new camp had been officially settled with all of the tents and equipment set up. Now free, Lili headed to the tent designated to Princess Alfreda, placed at a private distance yet still safely close. Lili stood outside the tent with a bowl of food in hand and cleared her throat. "Your Highness," she called out. "I bring dinner."
Cast on the tent was a silhouette of a woman sitting inside. After Lili had spoken, the shadow grew larger, broader, and horns spiked out of the silhouette's head.
"Enter," replied a voice, deep and gravelly, crackling slightly like a spitting lava pit.
Lili obeyed and entered the tent and presented the food bowl to the fire demon inside. The princess let out a puff of smoke that billowed out of her nostrils in disgust at the food.
"I suppose having any variety will be impossible until we have control of the food drop-off," said Princess Alfreda, sighing.
"I apologise, Your Highness." Lili bowed. "But it should hopefully be soon when we get more food packets." She paused. "Though it seems that we'll be negotiating and trading for the packets with the group occupying the drop-off rather than taking control ourselves."
Princess Alfreda chuckled, her fiery eyes glowing white-hot. "How amusing," she said, and she snapped her paper fan open and wafted it, not to cool herself as that would be near impossible considering how hot the lava flowing through her veins was; no, it was out of boredom and habit. "Does Miss Warren really still plan to do her little pacifist charade again? Well, last time sure did go so splendidly," the princess added sarcastically.
Lili remained silent, remembering the fire that Oscar and Sumit were caught in and then the big argument over what had happened to Bryce that divided the group almost in half. It was strange to remember the past when their group was twice the size.
The princess sighed once again. "Oh well, let's humour Miss Warren. If these 'negotiations' go well, then we will get food, and if not, we'll be fighting for the food regardless."
"Miss Warren said that if they refuse to trade, then we will remain peaceful-"
"And Miss Warren isn't the only one here with an opinion," Alfreda grumbled, wafting her fan in irritation. "We shall see if everyone else will be so willing to starve and travel to another sector once again just to appease her notions of peace."
"Yes, Your Highness." Lili bowed her head, pausing. "Does Your Highness approve of Her tent? Does Your Highness require anything?"
"No, no, stop asking me that every other minute." Princess Alfreda snapped her paper fan shut, resting it gently against her lips in thought. She glanced away momentarily, then returned her firey eyed focus onto her bodyguard. "Why are you still here, Lili?"
"I apologise, Your Highness!" Lili stepped back. "I shall leave-"
"No, not that." Alfreda raised her head. "Why are you still in the Abyss?"
Lili paused, believing it to be obvious. "I live to serve-"
"You can be free right now."
There was a moment of silence.
"You could be free from here just like Pearl and Daina."
Lili winced at hearing those names.
"I was the one down here because of 'treason' against my dear little sister. You and the others were only imprisoned along with me because you were my servants." She paused. "But if you just declare your allegiance to my sister, you will be out of the Abyss."
"I will not be a traitor like them, Your Highness." Lili went down on one knee, bowing respectfully. "You have my word."
There was once again silence as Princess Alfreda studied her bodyguard with a narrowing stare before she finally said, "very well," then dismissed Lili.
With more of her practised courtesy, Lili exited the tent and stood protectively nearby, on guard. She did so for a few peaceful minutes when Ivette caught sight of her.
"Lili, my dear!" the old woman called out.
Lili raised her head, pushing her shoulders back, more at attention with an audience. "How may I be of assistance?" Lili replied.
Ivette muttered something under her breath as she wheeled herself over. Due to her legs being damaged from an acidic monster, the woman was forced to travel by laying her body on a skateboard and dragging herself with her hands. A pang of guilt pierced at Lili as the woman awkwardly rolled over the uneven terrain to reach her. If Lili had just walked over to her instead of stubbornly remaining by Princess Alfreda's tent, the elderly woman wouldn't have to struggle unnecessarily.
When Ivette eventually reached Lili, there was a disgruntled frown on her face. "Don't think I noticed what you have been doing."
Lili's expression remained stony and stoic. "I do not know as to what you are referring to Ms Ivette-"
"I know that you have been skipping meals! You're just as bad as Corinna!" Ivette shook her head in disappointment, tuttering. "It does not matter that you cannot die from starvation; it is still not good for you to fast."
Lili straightened herself, raising her head to look above Ivette instead of directly at her. "We are limited on food and other resources. I am merely ensuring that others receive-"
Ivette whacked Lili's shins with her dinosaur claw-stick. "Do not give me the same talk as Corinna. You need food the most if you are always going on those 'missions' and fighting monsters. Wasn't it not only hours ago that you fought a giant deer? So eat and replenish your energy if you are to go exploring tomorrow as well."
"I will be fine without food for-"
Ivette gave a cold stare, silencing Lili before she continued making excuses. "You will go get your portion of food! That is an order!"
Lili did not take orders from anyone except Princess Alfreda; however, she obeyed as she knew that Ivette would stubbornly continue complaining if she didn't eat. Ivette coaxed her over to the large pot of stewed Abyss Fruit and scooped her a portion.
"From now on, I will keep a closer eye on your dietary habits," said Ivette. "You will eat every day, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am." Lili bowed her head slightly.
"That's good, my dear." Ivette smiled, then wheeled herself over to join the rest of the group that surrounded the campfire, all of them eating their dinner with enthused conversation. Sumit and Kai were retelling their perspective of events from earlier with the stag, whilst Calixte interjected with the actual truth.
Ivette glanced at Lili, smiled again, then patted the ground next to her, inviting Lili to sit.
Lili looked to the group around the campfire, then to Princess Alfreda's tent on the outskirts, away from everyone else. She headed to the tent, guarding it whilst quickly eating her dinner.
Apologies for the late update, had to cover a shift at work.