It had been a bit of an issue when Elde and I had started saving up about what to do with all the small Bits we had started collecting.

It wasn’t practical trying to hide it all away. Eventually we would have to take it all out, and a couple of beggars trying to carry out bags of cash through the slums was just trouble waiting to happen. Plus, it wasn’t exactly safe to just leave it all alone in the shelter where anyone could just stroll in and take it.

Facing this conundrum, we considered how we could convert the Bits we had into Obits and then into Cobits without attracting attention or getting ripped off too much. We talked about it and seeing as we would not be able to go into the city centre without being thrown out by the town guard, we knew we were going to have to find someone trustworthy enough to exchange our Bits for us.

Almost immediately we ruled out the cart driver. We had both known him for some time and though we had never really shared a conversation, it was clear he was not the trustworthy sort. His job’s purpose was purely pragmatic and not due to any sort of sympathy he might have held for the less fortunate.

Our next option was someone in the surrounding slum outskirts but they were a bust too. They were just a step above us on the poverty line and all of them were connected to the gangs in one way or another. In all likelihood any one of them would sell us out when put under any kind of pressure.

With our immediate contacts ruled out, it meant reaching out to unfamiliar ones. Sailors and workers at the docks were ruled out because living their lives hopping between ships and ports had left them with a lesser need to consider long term consequences, and therefore they generally had no problem disregarding some morals for some short term benefits.

The next option that we had were the shops lined along the portside. But they had no favourable impression of the homeless as we somewhat ruined their businesses by our close proximity and distasteful smell.

That left us with only one reasonable option left. One of the vendors.

These guys worked out of carts they pushed up and down the docks everyday selling food, drinks or whatever to whoever they could. Although they didn’t necessarily make a good living it was good enough to get by and if a beggar had enough money, they had no problem selling them some of their leftover food at the end of the day. Regardless of how dirty they were.

So, now with an idea of who to look for Elde and I went about feeling out the vendors to see who seemed reliable.

And so, after about three weeks of feeling people out and trusting them with small amounts of money did we manage to strike up a deal with a vendor who sold something resembling roast lamb sandwiches. He charged us 110 Bits for 1 Cobit, making him an extra 10 Bits everytime we came around much to his satisfaction. Over a year, we met up with him when we managed to save enough money for an exchange until finally, all together, we had saved up just over three Malids.

And today we’re doing our last exchange and we’re out.

***************************************************************************************************************

“I can’t believe” I say lightheartedly “It’s finally happening, we’re getting out of here”

“Yeah it’s good lad, but what I can’t believe is that you finally got rid of that accent of yours. You sound like a proper person now who could have grown up anywhere in the Homeland.” Elde jokes back.

He was right too. It had taken a lot of practice from me and a lot of work from Elde but I had finally managed to learn the language here, not to mention read and write it.

Elde was astonished by that too, as he had taught a lot of people in the past and hadn’t seen anyone take it up quite as quickly as I had much to his surprise. I think it was the fact that I already had a reading and writing foundation (though in English) that helped and I explained as much to him in the context of me coming from a tribe on the new continent.

We were going to make one last exchange with Harkin, the vendor, and then go buy some soap and some clean clothes before we go and wash ourselves in the river. Immediately after that we are going to make our way to the place we had seen yesterday. It was open for rent and on the outskirts of the slums, so we could afford to pay a down payment to have it at least until the end of the coming winter.

Except there was one issue.

“Where is everyone?”

Today I was seeing something I had never seen before, at the docks and on the streets surrounding it.

It was absolutely deserted.

There was no one. All the shops were closed, all the doors shut and there was no movement on or around any of the ships.

“Ah… so it’s today.” Elde exclaimed

“What’s today?”

“The city festival. Everyone’s heading to the celebration in the city centre to try and get as close as they can to the vitality blessing that the city sets up every year.”

“Vitality blessing…?”

The festival! The Parade!

Bloody Hell!

No wonder it was quiet, it’s the festival day. Just like the day I arrived here.

Wow. I’ve actually been here a year.

After taking a moment to myself to look back on how my year went, I turned to consult with Elde.

“So what do we do now?”

“Well we can only head back to the shelter. No one is going to be around here today, even the cart won’t be coming by. That’s why I remember this day so well. It starts off dead quiet with a little bit of activity in the afternoon after the blessing but we never got any food that came around on the cart at the end of the day, so we spent the day going hungry and making no money. Made the day memorable against all the others.”

Elde and I had taken the day slowly, sleeping in as long as we wanted as yesterday was meant to be our last day in the slums but it looks like it was going to have to wait a day longer than we had planned.

We didn’t even consider going to the festival. We were still beggars through and through and if we turned up the town guard wouldn’t hesitate to come down on us hard. So we turned around and started making our way back to the shelter, grumbling to ourselves about waiting another day hungry till we got out.

We had just entered the outskirts when I heard the voices.

“...cking guards. We’re missing out on the blessing again because of them. The same as last year too. This is Bullshit!”

“Fuck them. I can't believe this, if we had tutoring just the same as them we would beat the shit out of those hoity toity stuck up sons of bitches.”

“I need to hit something to calm down. Let’s find someone to mug. Then we can let off some steam and get some money as well to pay for some booze. I swear, next fucking guy I see is gonna get it.”

And with that foreboding introduction, four thugs rounded the corner, and appeared right in front of us.

“...” went the thugs.

“...” went Elde and I.

“... well well well. Looks like I don’t have to wait that long” went thug one.

“Do we have to, they’re filthy. I don’t want to get sick from touching them.” said thug two.

“Plus, they won’t have any money on them.” said thug three.

“Who cares? We can just beat up the next person we come across anyway. It’s not like we’ll suddenly get over it right away from just killing some homeless pieces of shit.” said thug four.

Having heard them come to their consensus, I feel my stomach plummet as I’m already starting to back away from them. But then I see from the corner of my eye beside me.

Elde.

He’s standing there, thin and trembling, leaning on his wooden crutch as he clutches to his chest.

Our money!

All our money is on us right now. A year's work. A year's worth of rotten food, demeaning begging and living like an animal is all on us right now.

No!

The thugs start making their way to us slowly. Arrogantly. And I see it, in Elde’s shoulders as they drop from the despair that is finally taking him over.

He’s given up.

He can’t fight, not anymore. I had seen it in him as we’ve been together, the desperation for a second chance and the gnawing fear that it won’t happen. The doubts that consume him that he won’t escape the hellhole he’s been living in for most of his life. I had seen them in the quiet moments in between as we grew close over the year, as they swam past his eyes when the day turned silent.

And now they’ve come true.

“It’s… It’s not fair.” I murmur.

But no one cares.