be right in the world.
But when she opened her eyes, she was still here, all alone with Ruth in this strange city, this strange time. She didn’t know a soul. No one seemed friendly. And she had no idea where to go.
Finally, Scarlet couldn’t take it anymore. She had to move on. She couldn’t hide here, waiting forever. Wherever her mommy and daddy were, she figured, it was out there somewhere, not in this little nook. She felt a hunger pang, and heard Ruth whining, and knew she was hungry, too. She had to be brave, she told herself. She had to go out there, and try to find them. Or at least try to find food for them both in the meantime.
Scarlet stepped out into the bustling alleyway, on the lookout for any soldiers. She spotted groups of them in the distance, marching, patrolling the streets; but none of them seemed to be in any particular urgency. It didn’t seem like they were looking out for her specifically—rather, it just seemed as if soldiers filled this city as a matter of rule.
Scarlet and Ruth squeezed their way into the masses of humanity, jostled left and right as they headed down the twisting and turning alleyways. It was so crowded here, people bustling in every direction in the heat. She passed vendors with wooden carts, selling fruits and vegetables, loaves of bread, bottles of olive oil and wine. There were vendors everywhere, adjacent to each other, crammed in the thick alleys, screaming out for customers. People haggled with them left and right.
As if it were not crowded enough, also filling the streets were animals—camels and donkeys and sheep and all sorts of livestock—being led by their owners. Amidst these ran wild chickens, roosters and dogs. They smelled terribly, and made the noisy marketplace even noisier, with their constant braying and bleating and barking.
Scarlet could feel Ruth’s hunger mounting at the sight of these animals, and kneeled down and grabbed her by the neck, holding her back.
“No Ruth!” Scarlet said firmly.
Ruth reluctantly obeyed. Scarlet felt bad, but she didn’t want Ruth to kill these animals and cause a huge commotion in this crowd.
“I’ll find you food, Ruth,” Scarlet said. “I promise.”
Ruth whined back, and Scarlet felt a hunger pang, too.
Scarlet hurried past the animals, leading Ruth down more alleys, twisting and turning past vendors, down more alleyways. It seemed like this maze would never end; Scarlet could hardly even see the sky.
Finally, Scarlet found a vendor with a huge piece of roasting meat. She could smell it from afar, the smell infiltrating her every pore; she looked down and saw Ruth looking up at it, and licking her lips. She stopped before it, gawking.
“Buy a piece?” the vendor, a large man with a smock covered in blood, asked her.
Scarlet wanted a piece more than anything. But as she reached into her pockets, she found no money whatsoever.
Scarlet reached down and felt her silver bracelet, and more than anything she wanted to take it off and sell it to this man, to get a meal.
But she forced herself not to. She sensed it was important, and so she used all her force of will to stop herself.
Instead, she slowly, sadly shook her head in response. She grabbed Ruth and led her away from the man. She could hear Ruth whining and protesting, but they had no choice.
They pressed on, and finally, the maze opened up into a bright and sunny, wide-open plaza. Scarlet was taken aback by the open sky. Coming out of all those alleyways, it felt like the most wide-open thing she’d ever seen, with thousands of people milling around inside it. In its center sat a stone fountain, and framing the plaza was an immense stone wall, rising hundreds of feet into the air. Each stone was so thick, it was ten times her size. Against this wall stood hundreds of people, wailing, praying. Scarlet had no idea why, or where she was, but she sensed that she was in the center of the city, and that this was a very holy place.
“Hey you!” came a nasty voice.
Scarlet felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck at the sound, and slowly turned.
There sat a group of five boys, sitting on a crop of stone, staring down at her. They were filthy from head to toe, dressed in rags. They were teenagers, maybe 15, and she could see the meanness on their faces. She could sense that they