It wasn't easy watching Momma welcome the men into her room at night. She was told to play with her doll while Momma talked with her "friends". Sometimes the men stayed overnight, but mostly they would hastily walk past Pidg as they left after a very short time. She looked around for the sound.
Is someone screaming?
Pidg panted as she rounded a corner and slammed her back up against the Miller's wall, smiling with an ear cocked as the fat merchant chased down the muddy street right past her hiding spot, yelling and shaking his fist at no one. She had learned a couple years ago, that even though she was showing signs of womanhood, she was diminutive and drew only the seediest of those kinds of customers. So she had turned her cute, freckled smile and small quickness into what seemed a more harmless way of filling her belly.
She glanced at the handful of coins, frowning to look down the alley.
Who is that screaming?
The master thief, grinned a gold toothed grin at Pidg. "You've got the skills, kid, I'll give ya that." "Why didn't ya just stick the old man? Ya nearly got bagged by the guards he drew wit all his yelling." "Ya getting soft?" Pidg, thought a moment, before shrugging with an offhand answer "He's a smart merchant. He will make what I took back fast, and after a bit, let down his guard again. Why would I want that ta end?"
She let her gaze wander past him to the window.
I hear a woman screaming.
The stout, grumpy dwarf had told Pidg some called him Bhaer. He seemed willing to help those he met, or so it seemed to her. He reminded her of others she had met, in Rivermoot, in High Hold, and the Gem itself. People who seemed to want to help others, rather than themselves. The idea seemed odd in her own head. She wondered if there was some reward coin did not bring, that perhaps they gained from such acts. It was probably the line of thinking that led her to say yes, to the odd request for aid that came to her. In a moment of impulse, she said yes, without asking how much it paid. She felt good about it, and stepped through the doors to the darkness inside not knowing what to expect.
Screaming. So loud. So sad.
Pidg fell trembling to her knees. The warm, pale, blood spattered pile of her own insides spilled out over her hands which were futilely trying to push them back in.
Momma!!
Pidg screamed