The Great War Prologue (4): The Girl in Rags
Just because she's young doesn't mean she's innocent
Cassie has a bright smile on her face that midcycle.
To others she passes by, she appears to be a lone child living on the streets, and they’d only be half right. Her ragged clothes don’t necessarily paint her as a well-loved wizard, and her messy red hair is only ever washed in ocean water. But she does have a home to go back to.
She looks up to see who’s in front of her. Ica’s square is rather crowded this time of the cycle, with couples and kids wandering around the port city looking for a place to eat.
Any old being will do.
She prances around the square, pushing her way through the beings that surround her on all sides. Whenever she can, she reaches into their nearest pocket, hoping for a hit. A couple are empty, and a couple hide a small coin pouch. And still she circles the crowd, hungry for more.
That, and she really is hungry.
Six, seven, eight, she shoves all the coin pouches into her own pockets, hidden ones she was able to stitch herself. Her dull orange-red dress slowly grows heavier and heavier as she steps away to survey the crowd, considering going in for a third time.
“Hey, Cas.”
She turns around to see Mitch standing in the shadows of a nearby alleyway, smiling softly at her. He’s dressed in black and blue, and the air around him steams with cold mist. He’s one of the older beings that supervises the younger ones like Cassie. He’s also the one that picked her up off the street.
She can’t help but smile back. “Hi, Mitch.”
“Having fun?” he asks her.
Cassie takes a quick look of her surroundings before approaching the alley, just to make sure there is no being paying her any attention.
“Oh, you know me,” she chuckles playfully. “I imagine I’ve caused quite a bit of chaos.”
“How many did you snatch?”
Cassie lets out a disappointed sigh. “You’re no fun, Mitch.”
Mitch just frowns back at her. “You want to eat this cycle?”
Cassie purses her lips. Mitch is also the only being she knows that takes everything seriously. That makes him a little frustrating to play word games with most of the time.
With a reluctant sigh, she starts to pull the coin pouches from her dress and hands them over to Mitch, who holds his cupped hands out to her expectantly.
Overall, she swiped about 12 pouches, but she only gives Mitch ten. They don’t appear to be too full, but it’s probably a good couple of coins to buy a simple necklace.
Cassie holds in a sigh of disappointment. It’d be a simple necklace, but rather beautiful nonetheless.
Mitch smiles at the pouches and nods in satisfaction. “You’re getting better at this.” Cassie also smiles, but inside her anger is bubbling. She been picking pockets for almost a year now, and that’s all he has to say?
“Come. Let’s head back now,” he says, turning to go. Cassie drifts after him, staring daggers at his back.
The two come upon a small door hidden deep within Ica’s back alleys. It’s Mitch who knocks as Cassie stands behind him, hands clasped behind her back innocently.
After a moment, the door opens. Wordless, the two step through.
On the outside, this old storehouse appears to be in use for storage. However, inside it hides a different story. The interior of the cavernous space is warm with the glow of torches and small campfires scattered across the floor. Children and adults of all ages and races mill about, chatter filling the air as a lone drone. Empty boxes stand against the walls, creating the building’s innocent external illusion.
“Food’s out over there,” Mitch says, pointing. To the left, there is, indeed, a table full of food. Mostly bread and small cups of water, but it’s food nonetheless. Cassie’s stomach growls at the sight.
She turns back to Mitch, who’s already walking away with most of her hard-earned cash. He’s off to give it to the being who owns the warehouse no doubt.
“Bye, Mitch!” she calls cheerfully. Mitch doesn’t turn, instead throwing a hand up over his shoulder as his only parting wave.
The moment he’s out of sight, Cassie’s smile switches to a frown in an instant.
Bread, she scoffs at the table. I’m better than bread.
She turns away from the table, much to the dismay of her stomach, which rumbles and growls longingly for any sort of sustenance.
She’s been learning about the criminal life for quite some time now. She’s not exactly to the point of understanding the inner workings of it quite yet, but she knows how the place treats those like her. Being at the bottom of the criminal ladder, beings like her are given only the bare minimum amount of food to survive on, no pay for their hard work, and everything they swipe goes to the boss at the top. It’s certainly not the way she wants to live in this pit.
She’s seen some of the top earners eat fancy meals and dress in fancy clothes, bossing around those beneath them while getting all the praise from the boss. They have their own homes and servants, too, with beautiful views of the harbor and ocean. She wants that - money and things to call her own - and she’s not going to get any of that if she’s handing everything she earns over to Mitch.
She retreats to her dark corner of the warehouse, where the shadows are long and cold. It’s here where she has made her home, a small nest of little knickknacks she’s been allowed to keep for her own pleasure, and accented with a small purple rug she sits and sleeps on. She uses only one box as personal storage, and for a reason. If she spread her items out too thin, another being could steal them. And she needs everything she has.
She reaches for her box and opens the flaps. On the surface, it appears to contain numerous dolls and wooden children toys.
She fumbles with the folds of her dress and retrieve the last two pouches full of iron coins, holding them firmly in her hands as to not have them make too much noise. If any being caught her with them, she’d never get the life she wants.
She pushes past the little toys and towards the back of the box. Back there is a small mound of coin pouches, everything she’s been collecting for the last seven cycles. It started as one a cycle, and now she’s graduated to two.
She shoves her new pouches all the way back to the pile. For now, she’s just collecting. She’s now allowed to leave the warehouse without supervision just yet. But when she can, she’ll go and buy some candy. Hopefully, if she keeps being good, she’ll be able to leave by herself sooner rather than later.
She’d actually be happy to be rid of Mitch. She’s got a rather long list of every little thing he’s done to make her upset. When she does eventually rise above him, she’ll teach him a little lesson about not treating her with more respect.
A smile slowly creeps across her face at the thought.
Her stomach lurches, twisting and turning in protest. Small pangs of pain flair up, trying to grab her attention as she shifts her toys back into position. And then she closes the boxes flaps neatly, making sure nothing’s out of place.
Through her growing hunger and pain, she continues to smile as any old child smiles, showing no signs of distress of discomfort as she prances off to get herself a slice of bread.