She huddled in a dusty corner, out of sight and out of mind. She wore a simple, ragged, dirty dress. It was really just a single sheet of fabric with a head hole and being held at the waist by a torn strip.
Others here wore similar rags. Here in this forsaken alley. One of the old geezers was mumbling something. Stories, maybe. The girl didn't pay attention. She was instead watching the well-lit street beyond their alley.
A stomach grumbled, and others echoed. The disease that had spread through the community was unsightly, but no one with the means to treat it cared. They were the underbelly of the society. The forgotten who had lost the most from the Emperor.
Men and women passed the entry to the alley, walking either way but not looking her way. Men in suits. Women in dresses. Warriors in armor. Watchmen with spears. Priests with white robes. None of them knew that a pair of eyes were watching them pass from deep within the alley. None of them even seemed to notice the ragged old man at the entrance of the alley with a clay bowl.
The monotony was broken when something golden flashed through the space. Five gold coins were dropped into the chipped bowl.
"Thank you, kind sir." said the old beggar up front.
The well-dressed man who had dropped the coins didn't give him a second look before passing out of the girl's view again. Five gold was enough for a small bag of tartos: a cheap, starchy food.
Knowing from past experience that it was rare, if not seemingly impossible, that a second person would offer coin to the ragged community within two suns, she decided to sleep her hunger away.
-<*>-
The girl awoke with a start to someone poking her with a wooden stick. By her guess, it was one of the old geezers' walking sticks. She was surprised to not see a grumpy old man ready to kick her out of her spot. Instead, an old man in a pinstriped vest and slacks stood over her.
The girl looked around her in panic. The old men that she lived with were all at various stages of eating bread rolls. The man standing over her offered her a bread roll as well. She took it suspiciously, but after a single bite, she wolfed down the rest of it. She had never known bread this good before.
The well-dressed man smiled, and even laughed a little. He dropped down to a crouch, so he was eye-to-eye with the girl. "What's a young beauty like you doing here in the alley?" he asked.
The girl lost whatever words were formulating in her mind. Beauty? Sure, the creepier old beggars that she'd run into would say that to her, but not a fine nobleman! The well-dressed men always preferred the clean, classy ladies who walked the streets. The girl would often see couples of the fanciest-dressed people walking together, arms linked. This man belonged out there, not in her dank little alley. She opened her mouth to say it, but no words would come out.
He grinned at the blush that came to her cheeks, though. "You don't have to stay in the alleys. What's your name?"
"I- I don't have a name," the girl stuttered, looking away from him, "but the others call me Street Mouse."
The man clicked his tongue. "That won't do. With a name like that, you'll never become a heroine. How about I call you Fate?"
She looked back at him with shock. "Fate? What... why?"
He pressed a small, round object in her hand and stood up. As he turned to walk away, he said, "Because Fate can't be stopped. Not by me, not by them, and most importantly, not by yourself. By the way, that's edible."
Once he vanished into the crowd walking the street, she looked in her hand. The small, circular object was glossy and brown. A small indent was pressed into the flat surface.
Curious, she put the object in her mouth. A flavor sweeter than fruit started spreading throughout her mouth. It was almost a warm flavor. She accidentally attracted the attention of the others with the pleasant moans she made as she continued to appreciate the sweet.
If the world held pleasantries like this, she would gladly go out and do whatever it took to find them.
"Fate," she whispered to herself around the sweet, "I like it."