Brassman

Six

Lithium hurried across the dewy grass with her bare feet, almost graceful but also tripping over roots and grass clumps. She dashed past the village and wove through the classy finely dressed people with her head down. The last thing she wanted was to be noticed as the Princess and reported to her parents.

Lithium brushed past fluttering men's coats and treaded on women's trailing expensive dresses. A rather large women in a mauve dress with towering brown hair stared down at Lithium with bulging eyes and pursed pink lips.
Lithium ducked her head without a word or glance and sprinted toward the slums, willing herself to move faster. She couldn't stand these poised, expensive people staring at her, judging her. More than that, she despised when she saw young children dressed in poofy velvety dresses or top hats, with better-than-you looks smeared across their youthful faces. Where was their childhood? Gone.

Finally Lithium noticed the difference in the town, like she had seeped into an alternate universe with torn up houses, hungry townspeople lining the streets, and noticeable small weapons and shady looks on most people. She sighed and strolled through the streets, the cobblestone cool under her bare feet. Here, no one recognized her as the Princess. When they spotted her light, incredibly long hair they immediately saw the kind, glowing girl who liked to bring baskets of food and blankets for the cold and hungry.

She took her time making her way through the town, waving hello at the ones she knew, smiling at the ones she didn't. She spotted a skinny, worn woman leaning against a building, letting her head rest against the brick. She was tired and starved, and in her arms was a tiny baby, only born a few weeks ago. It had no blanket and only thin clothes. The woman held her baby tight and shushed its cries. She caressed its soft head and wearily smiled at its shining blue eyes. Occasionally she would lean close and whisper something in her child's ear, then kiss its forehead.

Lithium stopped in her tracks as she watched the mother and baby with a loss of words. Slowly she crossed over to the building and sat down cross legged in front of the woman. The woman immediately hugged her child closer in a protective manner.

"Here." Lithium unbuttoned the fancy dark cloak around her neck. It was very soft and incredibly warm, and it traveled down to her shins. She ran the material between her fingers and offered the cloak to the woman.

Her voice cracked when she spoke. "I-I can't possibly take this. You don't have another."

Lithium bowed her head and chuckled. "Trust me, I have plenty more. Just take it. You need it far more than I do."
Lithium stood and covered the woman and her child with the cloak. She pressed a handful of valuable coins into the woman's palm and, before she could object, flashed a small smile and started toward the corner.

Lithium soon arrived at a house more unusual than the others. It was tall, but tiny and teetering. The roof was shingled with several holes scattered around. The shingles were all different colors and created an extraordinary appearance for the house, neither ugly nor attractive. The three windows clustered together at the top had been smashed through, smack in the middle, and just in a corner. You couldn't tell that one of them had ever been a window at all; just a jagged lopsided square shaped hole, which broke when Ren and Theo had been horsing around in the attic and Ren accidentally threw a heavy stone statue through it. The other six windows, two in the middle, two by the door, and two on either side of the house, were in good condition. The bright purple door was off center, and the wild hedges out front needed drastic trimming. There was no back yard, no car parked in the driveway, just a beat up statue of a woman's torso, with dirt caked in every groove, sitting lopsided in the front lawn.

Lithium grinned, grabbed the beat up doorknob, and stepped in.