The watchman stopped at the alleyway entrance. He wasn't about to go in there after her, as the light from the street glinted off the red eyes of hundreds of disturbed rats. It had only been one little slave girl holding a baby. She wouldn't have brought much at auction anyway.
Krista didn't stop running, until she was several blocks away. Wheezing from the exertion of running through the darkened city, she looked behind her for any signs of pursuit, but there were none. She pulled back the edge of the blanket that was wrapped around the bundle in her arms. The baby's blue eyes were closed and it had turned very pale.
"Oh, no!" Exclaimed Krista.
She had seen that look of pale stillness before. Franticly she put her hand on the baby's chest, but she could feel no movement there and the skin was cold. Big tears welled up in her eyes and then spilled down her cheeks, as she gently rocked the still baby in her arms.
Later she got up as dawn's first rays started to brighten up the gloomy morning and made her way towards the wharf, which was nearby. Making her way down to the shore of the river she lowered the baby into the murky waters. For a moment the baby's face was visible and then it was gone.
She had been making her way past the guards last night intent on escaping the holding pens and the short hard life of being a slave, when out of the dark a hand had grabbed onto her feebly. Gasping in surprise she had spun towards the unseen hand to see a thin woman with dark shadows under her eyes standing there in the gloom.
"Please! Please take my baby with you!"
" I…. I….I can't! I wouldn't know how to care for it!" Krista stammered out stepping away from the woman.
The woman had followed her though and pressed the bundle she held into Krista's arms despite her protests.
"My baby is dying here, as am I. Take my baby so that he can at least die free. Won't you please do this for me?"
The woman begged falling to her knees before Krista, as she held onto Krista's dress. Krista wanted to refuse, as her chances of escaping were slim enough already. Having a baby along only made the likelihood of being caught all the greater. She had looked down at the bundle in her arms and a pair of blue eyes had met her own. She had tightened her hold on the bundle instinctively and met the desperate gaze of the baby's mother and nodded.