The tale of two scales

Chapter two? A day in the life of Toni Mooreland

🚧trigger warning: mentions of abandonment and

suggested character death🚧

One. Mother gone, lost in the labour, gone forever...

Two. Dad gone, didn't want girls, didn't want me...

Three. Brother gone, with father, at least he's happy...

Four. Sister gone, mysteriously disappeared, maybe she just couldn't handle me either...

Five...

A soft wind blew through her short, chocolate brown hair, dusted white with the salt of the sea. Water soaked into the rainbow of her socks, mud coloured  shorts trying to move in the wind, but were slightly to small, fitting, but a bit to small.

She didn't have much of a choice with clothes. She didn't have any money or a way to get it.

At least her sweater was bigger, too big, but at least it's not to small...

A whisper escaped her as she looked out across the roaring waves, "I love the sea..."

She smiled, oh so peaceful. She stood up slowly, taking off her socks and squeezing the water at. For a few seconds you could see a flash of dark purple and scales before being replaced by pale flesh.

A loud noise rumbled from her slightly chunky body. She didn't really eat much, but she just couldn't shift the heftiness of her being.

Despite this she didn't care. She had a kind of airy confidence that fuelled her chaotic and curious actions that made her famous as a menace to society in her town. A lovable menace but a menace nether the less

She giggled to herself and skipped down to the small, sea-front town she'd decided to terrorise since she was five years old. She ran to the house at the edge of the towns border and jumped up and onto it, clinging to the bricks and climbing up with expertise.

Once ontop of the uneven, crumbling roof, she grabbed a wooden stick that someone had clearly hand carved into a hook. She ran along the edge of the roof, dancing around the roof without a care in the world, the mucky tiles dirtying her feet and tearing as the hardened skin that was already littered with scabs.

She paused for a second, only just realising that she hadn't put her socks back on and they were just dangling in one of her hands, still damp. She dropped down and pulled them on roughly. She grinned, standing back up, not bothered even slightly by the cold, wet chill of the soggy socks.

She then continued on her merry way, twisting the wooden stick in between her fingers

Eventually, she went deep enough into the centre of the town that she had to quieten down and crouched down. She tried to not be seen, leading her body away from the edge. She soon stopped and peered over the edge in complete silence.

It was a food stand, selling an assortment of fruits in pretty little baskets with bows tied around the top. The girl gripped her grubby hands around the stick, watching the old woman who was running the stalls movements.

Waiting for the perfect moment...

"Bingo..." she muttered to herself as the woman was lead away by another person.

She pushed the stick over the edge. she held it by the very tip and gently guided it to hook one of the baskets and pull it up to her. She grinned brightly at her success with pride, not noticing the stall owner returning.

"Eh!? Is that you Toni?! You stealing from my stall again!?"

Toni's head wiped up, her sooty black eyes flashing in surprise. She scooped up the stick and basket and ran, yelling behind her, "thanks for the food ma'am!"