In a corner of a filthy back alley, beside a main street where people strode past, ten-year-old Lia was curled up small.

Her trembling voice reached no one, simply melting into the cold air and vanishing. The clothes she wore consisted of only a single thin dress covered in patches. It had long since become too small, and the tips of her chilled limbs were frozen bright red. In the six months since losing both parents to illness, Lia had endured many days where she couldn't even eat a single piece of hardtack for her daily meal.

Clutching a hole-ridden apron she had scavenged from a corner of the dump as a makeshift blanket, Lia shed silent tears. Though she knew crying wouldn't bring help, she couldn't bear the pain of loneliness and hunger, and tears overflowed uncontrollably from her eyes.

Even as she called out her family's names in a raspy voice, the only response was the sound of the cold, howling winter wind. Just as her consciousness began to fade from extreme hunger and cold, a warm, golden light fluttered down before Lia's eyes.