Forgotten Monsters

Chapter 3- Hunger

Something was gnawing on Resa's toe.

Quick as a flash, she dragged her knife from her waistband and skewered the rat that was gorging itself. Or she tried to, but the mixture of joints stiffened by the damp air and grogginess caused her to miss, and the rodent scurried away. She shivered from cold and realized that her blanket was missing. After allowing herself a few murderous seconds of rage, she ripped a section of her sleeve off and wrapped it around the bite marks on her toe and readjusted the canvas she had wrapped around her feet in place of shoes.

Resa was getting out of the city. She didn't know how, but she wasn't going to spend another night in that warehouse no matter what. Sleeping beside the road in a ditch would be preferable. Then the waves of hunger hit her. The ever-present hollow feeling in her ribs was nothing compared to the ache in her head and legs. She knew that she had to go searching for food, but she wasn't sure she had the energy to climb down from her seat in the rafters, let alone trudge through the freezing rain for food.

And she was cold, she would have to find another blanket.

She could see the people next to her eyeing her greedily. More than the thought that they would attack her was the fear that they could see she was in bad shape. She had no idea what she would do if one of them tried to rob her, so she slid down to the ground and left the warehouse, heading north towards the richer districts.

It was almost midday by the time she had found something vaguely edible. Sifting through the waste from the wealthy elite, she had gasped with pleasure whenever she rescued a bite of fruit carelessly discarded or a crust of burned bread. It was better if she didn't think about it, if she could pretend she still had dignity.

Resa sighed longingly, dreaming of the days when her mother would have a cooked meal for her. A cooked meal, an imaginary concept for all she knew now. Shivering in the damp, she set out to find something to use as a blanket. The summer months were drawing to a close and soon she would have the added worries of disease and the freezing snow.

Winter was the season when the kingdom was most like its Queen, the snow beautiful, but deadly. Resa had seen their queen just once, from afar. Her family, all of them, had gone to the coronation after the war was over. Her father had spat on the road, calling her a false ruler and a murderer, but her mother had covered Resa's ears and shot her husband a warning look. Most people probably agreed with her father, but they were smart enough to smile and cheer as she was named ruler of the neighboring country, her dead sister's.

The prince had been there that day, his eyes dead even from a distance. The Queen was responsible for his entire family’s deaths, but he didn't seem even a little bitter as she became the official regent of his home. He'd looked bored.

A tall house with high walls rose up in front of her. It was beautifully built with shining silver window shutters and balconies that looked out over the cities. But none of this interested Resa, because hanging off one of the balconies, forgotten in the rain, was a blanket.

Resa winced in pain as she ground her icy fingers into the cracks in the wall, scaling it methodically, but laboriously. By the time she reached the top of the wall, she was shuddering with cold and her arms and legs were weak from exhaustion. The rain plastered her clothes to her body, which gave her no protection from the wind that attacked her drenched skin. Afraid of being seen, she leaped down, landing silently in the garden that surrounded the house.

The people who lived here must be extremely rich if they could afford a garden, Resa thought. She looked up to see if anyone was moving inside the house, but seeing nothing, she sped to the wall and looked up at the balcony that was her destination.