Chapter One, Page Ten

Frame takes a second to consider, once again, trusting a raven, pacing along the front of the rubble. How could a raven even know if the pile were steady enough to support her weight? 

She clambers onto the first of the rocks anyway, hand over hand as she makes her way up towards the opening.

For a moment, you think you should warn her, because your superior animal instinct is foretelling another earthquake. But in just as short a moment, you notice she’s noticed the impending earthquake too, via vibrations in the now-shifting pile, which is coincidentally how you figured it out. 

You take off, heading for the exit.

She reaches where the raven was perched. From the top, the sunlit end of the tunnel is visible, open air beyond.

Frame hops down the other side of the pile, rock to rock, scrambling, thinking all the while that she is the last Arche if she dies here. She leaps to the tunnel floor, dashing forward. She exits the tunnel, and the raven takes flight, turning to the right. But she halts, recalling the map; if she turns right, she’ll be headed for Marth.

She sprints to the left.

Having turned right, to lead Frame away from crumbling, unstable side of the highway, you’re dismayed to see her ignoring your concern for her safety.

<You’re going the wrong way!>

Chapter One, Page Nine

Oh. She hears the raven now, better than before. She hears its awful, shrill cawing.

She hears you.

You are standing at the peak of the rubble, and because she can hardly make out your figure, you are crying out to her and hopping side to side. You don’t dare fly further in because you are full aware that a collapse is incredibly likely. Frame’s fears have been seeping into you ever since she woke up, though, and you feel as though you might lose your sentience if she dies. “Please, just come up here!" You say, although all that comes out of you is indecipherable, panicked squawking.

She looks up at the raven, frozen. Does she dare believe a raven might be saving her? She has only ever seen a dog and several cats, all of which are probably dead right now, and not much of what anyone’s ever told her says anything about the possibility of trusting ravens.

They eat dead things.

<Corn is also delicious! But whatever, just trust me!>

Chapter One, Page Eight

She doesn't know why she shouldn't worry. She's unsure of who might ever think otherwise. I’m not getting out. This is all a tomb for my family. And now, me.

It would figure. Everyone but the Arche line leaves, and a few months later an earthquake kills the remnants of the family. Frame never really even had much pride in her family name, but she thinks that if she ever did, now would be the time to lament it.

Also, she can hear a raven calling out towards her, and ravens are carrion feasting animals. She's already frightened of her oncoming death, can't you abandon this macabre motif?

<Caaaw!>

Chapter One, Page Seven

Frame would like to do so very much, but as she stands at the base of the rubble, she fears what might happen if she climbs up. Her weight could dislodge a rock, and encourage the pile to topple towards her. And then where would she be?

Dead, probably.

There isn’t even a guarantee that she’ll find anything on the other side of the debris, except maybe for more debris. Wreckage could be filling the tunnel all the way to the exit. Even the highway could be gone, taken from the side of the mountain by the force of the earthquake and tossed down into the rifts.

Maybe Frame will never find a way out.

<Stop worrying! And also, caw!>