by Mark Eller
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"Momma?
"What, Missa." Red-eyed, Anithia stirred cold oats into hot water and wished she had managed to get more than a couple hours of undisturbed sleep. The morning sun made her eyes water and her head hurt. Tired and unfocused, it had taken her more than half an hour just to get the stove lit.
"The man is digging in Good-woman Durm's garbage. She's about to yell at him."
"Huh?" Anithia snapped her head around and looked out the back window. She saw something gray and dirty shuffling about her neighbor’s garbage pile. "Oh no!"
Groaning, Anithia pulled the pot off the stove and rushed out the back door just in time to see the thing put something moldy and brown in its mouth.
"Anithia!" Good-woman Durm shouted from a suddenly flung open back door. Her high-pitched voice, shrill and demanding, rent the air. Thrusting her knobby chin forward, she shook her walking stick at the spawn. "Is this another one of your strays? You get it out of here. Do you hear me? Get it out of here!"
"He won't be here long." Ani promised the old shrew. She rushed up to the spawn and pulled a half-chewed rat's skin from his mouth, making her stomach churn at the sight. The last thing she needed was hag-woman Durm making more problems for her. The old harridan had caused enough trouble by spreading gossip that Ani had started whoring to support Missa.
"You get it out of here," Durm called, "or I'll have the guard on you!"
"Yeah, right." Ani muttered under her breath. To the best of her knowledge a city guard had not stepped into the Downs for over a year. Grabbing the spawn, she spun it to face her. After a moment, she grabbed its chin to capture its attention.
"Look— ah, whoever you are. Please don't eat out of the garbage pile, or at least not this one.” Anithia tried to smile but knew the attempt ended in a grimace. “The bigger dump to the east of town would suit you better. It holds the garbage of hundreds and thousands of people.”
The spawn looked at her with a confused, hungry expression on his face. For the life of her, Ani could not imagine why she had been worried about the thing murdering her in her sleep. It was pathetically helpless. “Or,” Ani hesitated, sure she would regret what she was about to say, but what the hell. She had already given the damned thing shelter. “You can have some of the porridge I'm cooking right now. I’ll bring it out to you. All right?"
The spawn blinked and nodded slowly. Parts of his eyes started to turn a cloudy white. A shiver ran down Ani’s spine at the sight. The last thing she needed was to see more changing eyes. Missa’s were already too much.
Turning, the spawn shambled back to the shack and disappeared inside. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ani went back into her home. Once inside, she looked out her open window to see Good-woman Durm still watching. Durm gave Ani a glare and stomped off.
"Old bitch," Ani muttered.