“Come on Ruth,” Scarlet said, sensing he might come back with more soldiers, and not wanting to stick around.
Ruth listened, and a moment later, the two of them ran into the thick crowd. They hurried through the narrow, twisting alleyways, until Scarlet found a nook in the shade, and hid them there. She knew the soldiers wouldn’t find them here, and she wanted a minute to regroup, to figure out what had happened, where they were. Ruth panted beside her, as Scarlet caught her breath in the heat.
Scarlet was scared and amazed by her own powers. She knew something was different, but she didn’t fully understand what was happening to her. She also didn’t understand where everyone else was. Or where she was. It was so hot here, stifling, and she was lost in a crowded city she didn’t recognize. It looked nothing like the London she grew up in. She looked out and watched all the people busting by, wearing robes, togas, sandals, carrying large baskets of figs and dates on their heads and shoulders, some of them wearing turbans. She saw ancient, stone buildings, narrow twisting alleyways, cobblestone streets, and wondered where on earth she could be. This definitely was not Scotland. And everything here looked so primitive, she felt as if she had gone back thousands of years.
Scarlet looked everywhere, hoping for a glimpse of her mom and dad. She scrutinized every face that passed, hoping, willing, that one of them would stop and turn to her.
But they were nowhere. And with every passing face, she felt more and more alone.
Scarlet was beginning to feel a sense of panic. She didn’t understand how she could have come back alone. How could they have left her like that? Where could they be? Did they make it back, too? Didn’t they care enough to come and find her?
The longer Scarlet stood there, watching, waiting, the more the realization sank in. She was alone. Completely on her own, in a strange time and place. And even if they were back here, she had no idea where to look for them.
Scarlet looked down at her wrist, at the ancient silver bracelet with the dangling cross that had been given to her right before they left Scotland. As they’d stood there in the courtyard of that castle, one of those old men in the white robes had reached out and slipped in on her wrist. She thought it was very pretty, but she didn’t know what it was, or what it meant. She had a feeling that it might be some sort of clue. But she had no idea what.
She felt Ruth rubbing up against her leg, and she knelt down, kissed her head, and hugged her. Ruth whined in her ear, licking her. At least she had Ruth. Ruth was like a sister to her, and Scarlet was so grateful she had made it back with her, and so grateful she had protected her from that soldier. There was no one she loved more.
As Scarlet thought back to that soldier, to their encounter, she realized her powers must run deeper than she thought. She couldn’t understand how she, as a small girl, had stopped him, had overpowered him. She felt that somehow she was changing, or had already changed, into something she had never been. She remembered, back in Scotland, her mom explaining it to her. But she still didn’t quite understand it.
She wished it would all just go away. She just wanted to be normal, wanted things to be normal, back to the way they were. She just wanted her mommy and daddy. She wanted to close her eyes and be back in Scotland, in that castle. With Sam, and Polly, and Aiden, too. She wanted to be back at their wedding ceremony. She wanted everything to be right in the world.
But when she opened her eyes, she was still here, all alone with Ruth in this strange city, this strange time. She didn’t know a soul. No one seemed friendly. And she had no idea where to go.
Finally, Scarlet couldn’t take it anymore. She had to move on. She couldn’t hide here, waiting forever. Wherever her mommy and daddy were, she figured, it was out there somewhere, not in this little nook. She felt a hunger pang, and heard Ruth whining, and knew she was hungry, too. She had to be brave, she told herself. She had to go out there, and try to find them. Or at least try to find food for them both in the meantime.
Scarlet stepped out into the bustling alleyway, on the lookout for any soldiers. She spotted groups of them in the distance, marching, patrolling the streets; but none of them seemed to be in any particular urgency. It didn’t seem like they were looking out for her specifically—rather, it just seemed as if soldiers filled this city as a matter of rule.
Scarlet and Ruth squeezed their way into the masses of humanity, jostled left and right as they headed down the twisting and turning alleyways. It was so crowded here, people bustling in every direction in the heat. She passed vendors with wooden carts, selling fruits and vegetables, loaves of bread, bottles of olive oil and wine. There were vendors everywhere, adjacent to each other, crammed in the thick alleys, screaming out for customers. People haggled with them left and right.
As if it were not crowded enough, also filling the streets were animals—camels and donkeys and sheep and all sorts of livestock—being led by their owners. Amidst these ran wild chickens, roosters and dogs. They smelled terribly, and made the noisy marketplace even noisier, with their constant braying and bleating and barking.
Scarlet could feel Ruth’s hunger mounting at the sight of these animals, and kneeled down and grabbed her by the neck, holding her back.
“No Ruth!” Scarlet said firmly.
Ruth reluctantly obeyed. Scarlet felt bad, but she didn’t want Ruth to kill these animals and cause a huge commotion in this crowd.
“I’ll find you food, Ruth,” Scarlet said. “I promise.”
Ruth whined back, and Scarlet felt a hunger pang, too.
Scarlet hurried past the animals, leading Ruth down more alleys, twisting and turning past vendors, down more alleyways. It seemed like this maze would never end; Scarlet could hardly even see the sky.
Finally, Scarlet found a vendor with a huge piece of roasting meat. She could smell it from afar, the smell infiltrating her every pore; she looked down and saw Ruth looking up at it, and licking her lips. She stopped before it, gawking.
“Buy a piece?” the vendor, a large man with a smock covered in blood, asked her.
Scarlet wanted a piece more than anything. But as she reached into her pockets, she found no money whatsoever.
Scarlet reached down and felt her silver bracelet, and more than anything she wanted to take it off and sell it to this man, to get a meal.
But she forced herself not to. She sensed it was important, and so she used all her force of will to stop herself.
Instead, she slowly, sadly shook her head in response. She grabbed Ruth and led her away from the man. She could hear Ruth whining and protesting, but they had no choice.