by Eric Johnson
Life in After World: Sugar
By Eric Johnson
Copyright ?2012 Eric Johnson
Online Resources
https://www.ALifeinAfterWorld.com
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A Day in a Life in After World
This is a series of short stories based in the same world as the book series A Life in After World. Instead of telling the life story of one character, these stories tell the story of one day in the life of a person in After World. The stories should be able to stand alone but together they tell of a bigger story.
After World is a world in which due to a catastrophic solar storm, all electrical technology on Earth failed. Because of this, most of the world's population died off. This period in the history is known as the Red Sun Millennia. Those that did survive had to fight, struggle, and evolve to survive. When the storm was over, the sun dawned on a new world with many different races of humans.
Electrical technology is now possible, but it is forbidden by most because of the damage it did when it failed before.
If you enjoy these tales, please purchase the books in the series A Life in After World.
A sweet smell filled Sugar's nose. The bakery was making a fresh batch of puffs. Her nose was sensitive enough she could stand outside of a bakery and tell you what items they had made that day and what was left in stock.
She would not be allowed inside though to check if she was right, she was a mouse. Mice were shunned in nearly all shops. Mice are a type of demi-human that has evolved to scavenge off of what others leave behind. This means a sharp nose, small body that fits into tight places, and a very finely tuned immunity system that lets them eat what would be poisonous. They also mature extremely quickly becoming a full adult at close to seven years old.
These advantages in survival come at a price though. Mice are extremely short lived. They are considered old at twenty years old and at thirty they would be ancient. That would be if people would let them live long enough to get old.
Mice are shunned and rejected by nearly all races of humans.
Sugar is a bit of an exception to the rule. She found that people are tolerant of her at least to the point of not killing her on sight. She was still not allowed in shops, but she was able to walk the streets without fear. This was likely the result of her effort to look civil. She kept her clothes clean and mended. She bathed regularly and kept her hair neat.
Sugar sat on a bench outside the bakery and waited. He would be along soon. He came by every other day.
She watched the people passing and most paid her no mind.
A couple of people noticed her. A prim and proper looking normal gave the mouse a scowl as she was passing by and even looked back over her shoulder at the mouse as if afraid of being followed. Another person, a man this time seemed to notice her and stared at her, leered is more like it. With her small frame and well-kept appearance she found males of all types of humans would often stare.
Sugar finally heard the tale-tell rumbling of a cart coming down the road. Around the bend she could see him before she could see the cart. Everyone could see him. He stood 10 feet tall. He easily pulled a large farmers cart that would normally be pulled by a horse.
Sugar stood up on the bench to make herself more visible to him.
She could see as he approached he was scanning the crowd for her. When he spotted her standing there, his whole face lit up with a smile.
The giant pulled his cart up in front of the bakery and stopped. In a ritual that had been going on for a couple of months now, he held up a single finger to her meaning for her to wait and then ducked (literally ducked) into the bakery for a moment.
When he came back out, he straightened to full height again and walked over to Sugar.
"'ere ya are, Ugar!" he exclaimed happily as he handed her a fresh baked puff.
"You are too good to me Master Tur." She said to him returning his smile.
The puff which was almost a meal for her looked tiny in his hand as she took it from him. She took a large bite out of it and smiled again.
Tur nodded and went back to his cart and got into position to pull it.
Sugar completed the ritual by leaping down from the bench and then climbing up on the cart to sit at the very front on top of the produce.
Tur said, "We do livery." And started pulled the cart again.
This was the favorite part of Sugar's every other morning. Used to being bottom rung among the citizens in St. Ellwood, from up here she felt like she was above them all. When she looked down, she saw the tops of heads. Not the top of Tur's head, he was still taller than her when she sat on the cart.
She imagined herself as some hoity-toity big wig running the city and she was looking down on her subjects.
The ride was always over too quickly as Tur could cover ground very quickly with his long gait. They arrived at the trader house in a short time and Sugar climbed down off of the cart.
As she was climbing down, someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her down.
"What are you doing you pest!" An accusing voice spat at her.
She found herself thrown bodily on the ground and a trade worker was standing over her with a billy in his hand tapping it rhythmically in the palm of his other hand.
A moment later Tur was there.
"No touch Ugar!" he bellowed and the trade worker was thrown backwards against the far wall.
The house master came up quickly and Tur raised his defenses and shoved Sugar behind him.
"It's okay!" the foreman shouted and held his empty hands in the air.
Tur's hands were empty too, but he did not need weapons.
"My apologies Tur." He pleaded. "He was a new guy. He did not know about Sugar."
Tur relaxed he stance a little. He looked past the trade house master to see other traders helping the other man up. He frowned severely, but then looked back at the foreman and nodded.
"Is k." Tur stated simply.
"Excellent!" The foreman seemed much more relaxed now himself since the threat of losing half his staff seemed to be over. "We will get your cart unloaded and your accounts credited. This way please."
Before walking away Tur turned back to the little mouse in his protection and put a hand down towards her. She grabbed the hand and pulled herself up till she had both of her tiny feet in his palm. She then grabbed his collar to steady herself and kissed him once on the cheek. They both shared a smile and then he set her back down.
This was her least favorite part of the day. He was now responsible for doing business and could not pay her any more attention. She would be on her own for the rest of the day and the next until he picked her up at the bakery again.
She climbed up the cart again and pulled down a cantaloupe and then jumped back down. Then she was on her way out of the trader house.
She walked the street and made her way to the market place. She loved to look at the jewelry. She never had any money more than a random copper she might find on the street or in a bin though. All she could do was look.
She found a bench in the market place and sat down with her melon. She reached into her pocket and fished around and found her pocket knife. It had a small folding blade that clicked into place when unfolded. The tip was broken and it appeared there used to be a second blade attached, but that was broken off too. She had found it discarded in a street gutter and made good use of it ever since.
A quick loop around the melon with the knife and she had it split. She scraped the seeds loose and then carefully scooped them out with her hand. She dumped them into a bin nearby. She had been charged with litte
ring before and ended up in jail for a week. She did not want to repeat that.
She returned to the bench and proceeded to cut small sections out of the fruit and eat it.
"Your boyfriend give you that Sugar?" Came a small voice from behind her.
She did need to turn around to know it was Hash, another mouse.
She nodded and popped another piece of melon in her mouth. It tasted sweet and though it was firm it melted in her mouth as if it was made from sugar.
"You know you have no chance with him." He said with an angry tone.
She shrugged. She still had not looked back at him.
"He just thinks of you as a cute little play thing. That's all!" He continued.
This did upset her a little. She was not anyone's little plaything. She knew the truth was that Hash was upset with her. They grew up together in the same clutch. She separated from him when she decided to better herself. She had tried to get him to do it too, but he would have nothing to do with it. "We are mice and should act like it!" He would tell her.
She finally shrugged in reaction and ate some more melon.
"Without that pretty little dress and clean hair," he menaced, "you would be just like the rest of us. Hunted, hated, beaten, and killed."
"Then maybe it is not I who need to change." She said simply.
Hash attacked her from behind and shoved her off of her bench. She hit the ground rolling and her melon landed face down in the dirt.
She bounded up to her feet again and just barely dodged out of the way of a dwarf riding past on a pony.
"Watch where you
