"Little Sparrow, did you hear something?" Rose whispered frantically. Little Sparrow always knew something was wrong whenever his sister's voice went up an extra octave like that. He opened his eyes reluctantly. In his dream, he had had a dog, and he had been standing, overlooking the sea. In the distance there was a tall, black, looming tower-like thing. It looked like God's finger, flipping the world off. But still, it had been such a nice dream. "Little Sparrow, do you hear that? It sounds like… it sounds like crying."
Little Sparrow cracked open one eye and squinted into the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He propped himself up onto his elbows and peered around the tiny little three-walled shack he and his sister called home. It was a run-down, homely little place, but Little Sparrow and Rose didn't know that there was anything more than poor. No matter how bad circumstances may appear Rose always found a pleasure in cleaning: she swept and scrubbed away at the dirt coated floor, and she always managed to organize the small amount of food and beverages they were able to get a hold of in the corner (but right now that corner was empty). Except for the two little mats they call beds; the place was bare of furniture.
Rose was already sitting up straight, her eyes wide and shining in the darkness. The fear and worry was evident on her pale, malnourished face. Little Sparrow was confused. He was, by now, used to all the sounds of Bowerstone. The shouts and cries of drunken people were not uncommon; just the other night, Little Sparrow and Rose were awaken by a beggar, who, in his drunkenness, had stumbled into Rose and Little Sparrow's ramshackle house by accident. Little Sparrow was about to open his mouth to ask what exactly was bothering Rose, when he heard it too.
A slight whimper, a slight sniffling, and yet obviously a crying someone. It was hard to tell if it was animal or human, and that made the crying frightening. It was obviously not a lost, drunken beggar.
"Do you think… do you that could be a hurt puppy?" Rose whispered frantically, raising herself to her knees and peering anxiously at the entrance. Her hair flopped in her face as it sometimes did whenever she left it down, but she pushed it out of her face, annoyed. She reached for her head band and hurriedly slipped it on, tying her hair up into its two familiar ponytails. She stood up abruptly, and peeked nervously back at Little Sparrow as she approached the door. Little Sparrow offered her an encouraging smile, hiding his own nervousness, insecurities, and weariness. He scrambled to his feet and went to stand beside his older sister, offering her an encouraging hand. Rose smiled at Little Sparrow, encouraged, then turned to face the open doorway to investigate the source of the crying sound.
Hand in hand, the siblings took a tentative step outside.
The sound was worse outside. It sounded like the soft crying was coming from all around them, everywhere. The thing was, no one else seemed able to hear the odd sobbing. A few feet away, a beggar snoozed easily, a bottle of Bowerstone Brown Beer balanced on his pot belly. Little Sparrow and Rose exchanged perplexed glances. Suddenly, the crying suddenly quieted, and Rose seemed a little more anxious than before.
"Do you think the puppy... passed out or somefink? Do you think it's hurt?" Rose whispered, slowly stepping out onto the deserted cobblestone street and looking around. Little Sparrow swung his head around, looking for the crying one, and shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't so sure that the one crying was a dog. He wasn't so sure it was a was a sudden chill in the air, and Little Sparrow swung around to face his little shack of a home once again. He gasped.
Sitting there on the door step was a young girl who couldn't be more than four years old, which was five years younger than Little Sparrow himself. Her eyes were heavily shadowed, her skin so pale in the grimy moonlight. Two little black triangles were tattooed to her bottom eye lids, upside down, like some clowns did. Her hair was midnight black, a mess of curls on her thin shoulders. She wore nothing but a raggedy dress, and her feet were bare, scarred, scratched. a single blue scar was on her chin, corrupting her otherwise completely smooth, young face.
Little Sparrow reached around and turned Rose to face the strange little girl. Rose jumped at the sudden touch, and glanced curiously over her shoulder.
"Wha...?" She began to turn, but stopped halfway through the turn when she spotted the little girl with the sad face and black, black eyes. Her surprise was instantly replaced with a tender, kind expression that Little Sparrow loved to see on the face of his sister. And even though it might be the most obvious statement in the world, Little Sparrow loved his big sister. "Oh, hello, Little One. Are you lost?"
Little One looked at Rose and blinked her dark, shadowed eyes. Little One didn't know if she was lost. She didn't know where she was. She didn't know who she was, or how she had gotten there. She open her trembling, black tinted lips to speak, but her breath caught and tears began rolling down her face once again. The tears were too blue- not just a clear, watery color, but blue, like blue paint was leaking out of her eyes. They left weird blue trails down her cheeks, then dissolved almost instantly.
"I- I- I don't know. I don't know where I- I- I am. I can't remember who I am. I don't think I'm lost..." Little One squeezed her eyes shut tightly. Her voice was almost as odd as her tears. It held all of a child's squeakiness, held all of the babyish grammar mistakes, and yet at the same time it just sounded... different. She tried to look brave, but her face crumpled once again, and she was crying. "But how can I not be lost if I don't know where I am?"
Little One put her face in her tiny hands. Her fingernails were black, as if painted that way. Suddenly, Little Sparrow leapt forward. In three easy strides, he was there on the steps beside Little One. He looped his arm around her shoulders, and used his other gloved hand to turn her face towards his.
"Little One." He said. "We'll help you find your home, okay?"
"Promise?" Little One whispered, a final, single tear rolling down her cheek and dropping to the ground, where it splashed prettily.
Little Sparrow and Rose smiled at each other, sheepishly. They could barely afford to feed themselves- what if they couldn't find Little One's home? Oh well, they'd cross that bridge when they got to it.
"Promise." Little Sparrow and Rose said together.
