"I'm sorry, please, please don't hurt us!"
"Then think of a way to get me my money by the end of the week."
"But it's already Thursday!"
"Figure it out! Or next time we meet, I won't be so kind. Now. Get. Out."
The door to the office in which this scuffle had taken place was flung open, and an Elven man ran out of it like he was being chased by rabid dogs, while the Human he had been pleading with loomed in the doorway.
By the end of the week? There's no way we can pay all our debt by then! What are we going to do?
The man sighed to himself as he ran all the way back home, shutting the door behind him and leaning back against it. Even though he knew that his home wasn't any safer than out there, it still provided comfort. A tiny woman then came from around the corner, only around four feet tall, holding a child in her arms.
"Darling?" The halfling woman started, "Dare I ask, how did it go?"
"We have to get the money to him...by the end of this week."
"What?!"
"We...we can figure this out. It's- it'll be fine!"
"It won't be fine when we're out on the streets!"
"Well, who's idea was it to go to him in the first place!?"
There was a pause. The woman looked furious. The man sighed and shook his head at himself before walking over to his wife, the Elf being just over two feet taller than her.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I don't blame you, my dear, I'm just worried."
"I am as well."
The man nodded and then looked down at the baby, "How has she been today."
"She's been very good. Must be nice not having to worry about anything."
"I envy her for that." The husband said with a laugh.
"We will find a way to pay, won't we?"
"I'm sure we will soon. Then this will all be over."
But soon wasn't soon enough. As Saturday night rolled by, the two became desperate. The person they had loaned this money from was not someone to mess with. Paying him late was an almost guaranteed death sentence, but not necessarily for the person in debt themselves. The couple knew he would go for their baby first. He had already threatened to take her from them, refusing to elaborate on what would happen to her.
But they could guess.
"Please, spare change, anything-"
"Go away! Street trash.."
"I beg of you, a few coins for my baby-"
"Get a job!"
The two begged in the streets like common peasants, knowing that they would never get enough to pay off their debt this way but trying anyway just in case. The baby had begun to cry because of the cold night and all the noise. The couple sat down against a wall at the side of the street and cried together, ignoring the judgemental and disgusted stares from those passing by them.
"We're going to die...he's going to take her, she's only a baby!" The mother said between sobs as she began to cry.
"What if we just ran away?" Her husband suggested, desperate for any kind of freedom from this.
"He would find us, you know that. We could go to the moon, and he'd find a way."
"We can't let him take her...but there's no way we'll get that money."
