Asher and Ally, first meetings.
Ally shivered and snuggled down into her coat. She had stolen some crackers earlier that day, so at least she wasn't hungry, but winter was always a bad time to be living on the streets. At least it didn't really rain or snow below the plate...just the wind, rushing through the streets and up the central pillar. Well. At least this alley was out of the wind, for the most part. Maybe she could take a little nap before she had to move somewhere else - nobody was likely to come down here.

She was about to be proven wrong. There was some shouting in the street that the alley connected to, and someone came running down the alley in her direction. And tripped right over her legs, stretched out in front of her, and tumbled to the ground. Ally scrambled to her feet to see if whoever it was was okay.

It was a boy, not much older than herself. As soon as she moved closer to him, he jumped back, and huddled against the far wall. "Hey, hey...I'm not gonna hurt you." The boy closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, and seemed to shake a little less. "...Sorry...it's just...those guys back there...think I lost 'em..." She grinned a little. "Steal somethin'?" He gave a weak smile to her reply. "...Yeah."

She crawled over and sat down next to him. "Here, you want some crackers?" as she drew the slightly crushed remains of the package out of an inner pocket somewhere. "Name's Ally," she added, as an afterthought. He accepted the crackers, and wolfed them down in a way that suggested he hadn't had any real food for a few days. He finished them as she waited, and said "Thanks...I'm Asher."