The People Must Eat

An excerpt of

Chapter 1 – The People Must Eat

From the manuscript, "Morningstar"

            Riley Morningstar hurried along the busy streets of the port town, Chivalice. Of course, she was running late. She almost always forgot to turn the curtain over before she went to bed. It was very hard for the girl to wake up when her room was still pitch black. In fact, it was all but impossible. She always seemed managed to get on the dock boss’ bad side. Today was the third time Riley was running late for work this week, and her boss was sure to give her fits about this one. He’s even threatened to fire Riley if she was ever late again. 

            Riley was a gorgeous young lady. Her crimson hair hung at her shoulders, even though it was being held back with a cord in a ponytail. It shone brilliantly in the morning sun. Riley’s eyes were as green as the greenest emerald, and her milk-like complexion brought out the best of them. She had a beautiful face; her lips, and eyes, had made her the recipient of many compliments. Riley’s curves were the perfect match to her beauty. Her thighs and hips turned  many men’s heads. Riley wasn’t the biggest of girls up top, but she made up for it everywhere else. Riley’s abdominal, and arm muscles were finely tuned thanks to being a fisherman. Riley was well known across Chivalice for her good looks.  

The truth is Riley hated fishing. Why couldn’t have her father, Visto, insisted she be sent away to the university with her friends? It was unjust that she was to be held back for no better reason than her father just could not bear to see her leave. It’s not that she wasn’t intelligent; Riley was the favorite pupil of most of her school teachers. Her father’s own selfishness was what held her here in this stench-filled gutter called a town. Ever since her mother had passed away, her father had been acting odd. After all, he did let her older sister Isabel leave to the university. Riley just couldn’t understand why she was the one who had to stay. It was so unfair that it infuriated her to think about it. She loved her father dearly, but there was contempt building for the way he acted like she was a child. So Riley fished.

 Ducking and dodging people, Riley weaved her way through the gawking masses down to the docks. Chivalice was a busy town, to say the least. Narrow streets were packed to the brim with hawkers and peddlers. Mothers dragged their children along from street vendor to street vendor hustling through the town market. The buildings were tall; some had three or four levels, and all were packed to capacity with residents. Although the town’s buildings were large and plentiful, Chivalice was quite a poor town. Their sole export was fish, and even Chivalians grew tired of the taste of fish. Families lived in houses of ten or more, and their homes were seldom more than just one room in one of the city’s large buildings. Chivalice was renowned for its poverty, and for its abundance of people. Most other countries considered Chivalice a country of lawless thieves, who were good for nothing more than spreading fish around the world. The town was a large hill with many small circular streets. All of the streets circled down the long hill toward the docks, and most curled back around and up the hill. The main avenues were cobbled stone, and the side streets were little more than packed clay. The small side streets connected each avenue to the next, and it almost looked as if the town of Chivalice was a giant spider web cast over a large hill.

Riley saw plenty of children without parents running around as well. Groups of twenty or more kids ran the streets, and no local made the mistake of thinking the kids were harmless. Grungy kids, with rags for clothes, and greasy hair dominated the side streets down by the docks. Sweat ran down their faces leaving a trail of cleanliness behind a mask of dirt that looked most cynical on those small, grinning faces. Some of them had decent shoes on their feet, but usually only because some poor sap had left them unguarded. 

When both of a child’s parents were fishermen, then sometimes that child would be left an orphan. It was a dangerous job. Only, there were no orphanages in Chivalice. These groups of children recruited new young orphaned children, and when joined together these kids were a formidable force to be reckoned with. They called themselves grunts, and were widely considered their own guild in Chivalice. The only difference being, the guilds actually paid their taxes. It was really sad that these children knew no better of how to live. They made due on what little they could grab from purses, and what food they could snatch out of the town market. Riley had always considered herself an outcast, but seeing the grunts was always a reassurance. 

“Mornin’ Riley! Looks like you’re running late again. You better just give it up, Skylar told us that if you were late one more time, he was going to send you home and let one of us have your job. Said, least he always knew where to find us.” The leader of this particular group of grunts was Ruben, and he was the only one of his group that talked amongst anyone but themselves. Riley had always thought they were actually quite creepy little children. The others just fixed their eyes on Riley, watching her every move.

“Don’t start with me Ruben. I’m not in the mood for your pestering me already. It would probably do you some good to get a real job, anyway. You bunch of sea lice. At least then you’d pay back your debt to society,” Riley said, scolding the young ruffian.

“If I had a job, I wouldn’t be able to take care of my kids,” Ruben exclaimed with his chest puffed out. He did look rather ridiculous. Ruben was a tall boy of about ten years. His cut off jeans were ragged and came down just below his knees. He was wearing a dingy red vest, and a sailor’s cap that looked like he had picked it out of the garbage and placed it on his head. “Besides, I thought I told you not to worry about us. We can take care of ourselves just fine.”

“Ruben, you’re not even wearing any shoes,” Riley said with a chuckle. With that, the whole group of kids was laughing hysterically. It was good they found a sense of humor in their situation. No one else did.

“Never mind that, Riley. When are we going to go to old man Irving’s swamp and catching some frogs together? You promised us,” said Ruben. It made Riley’s heart melt seeing the genuine dissatisfaction on young Ruben’s face. It was cute that a boy as ruthless as Ruben was known to be could also be so free spirited. Riley could tell that he badly wanted to be a normal boy, and have a normal family. He was such a good heart to have to grow up in this lifestyle.

“Well, first I need to worry about getting to work. I need my job, Ruben. I might just end up running with you grunts anyway.” With that, Riley was headed off down to the docks.