Naveh's pillar walls stretched up out of the edge of the crater like teeth, giving the city the impression of being the open mouth of some massive animal. The oppressive, organic-looking layout of the buildings lent some credence to that hypothesis. The atmosphere of this place made Maema nervous, and so did the thick crowds. The lavender morning was smothered by smoke from early cooking fires and the normally sweet-smelling breeze was so acrid it made her eyes sting. So many people in such close proximity didn't exactly make for clean air.

Maema needed to focus. She'd been sent here to collect some important mail from Professor Kee for the embassy, but she was rapidly getting distracted. This city made her skin crawl. Or, maybe it was just being in a large city in general. Objectively, the main thoroughfare of Naveh wasn't that bad. It was just big and populated. The people who walked by kept to themselves, but the problem was that there were so damn many of them. Maema needed to focus on her task and get that mail. She needed to–

"Woah!" she said, reeling back from a collision against her side. A dirty-looking tsabhua whelp with his mane all messed up looked up at her, apparently just as bewildered as she was.

"Sorry, miss," he said, disappearing into the crowd in a hurry. She saw him rush off toward the east and then didn't think anything more of it.

Maema made the rest of her way to the embassy. It wasn't until she'd gotten up to the desk that she realized the pouch she'd had with her containing her postage money and proof of identity was gone. At first she panicked thinking she'd forgotten or dropped it, but then she realized– that child had been a pickpocket! "Excuse me," she told the alien at the embassy. "I'll be back in a few hours."

She turned and stepped out onto the street again. She would need to go off in the direction she'd seen the whelp disappear to. That was… east, or so she remembered. Well, east from where she'd been standing when her pouch was taken. She retraced her steps first, and then began doing her best to retrace his.

It didn't take long before Maema had clearly slipped into the poorer part of town. The windows of many buildings were so black with soot that she could barely see light streaming out of them. The people kept the streets clean of litter, but everything was coated in a much thicker layer of grime here. The colors were more muted, too– people couldn't afford the brighter, more expensive fabrics. She noted that one house had curtains that were clearly made from an old apron.

"You look a long way from home," a rough voice said from somewhere behind her.

Maema jumped and whirled around to find a brown belemoid glaring at her, green eyes glowing unusually bright. Or maybe it just looked like that since the marking on her face was so dark?

"Someone stole something from me," Maema said firmly.

The belemoid laughed. "You'll get a lot more stolen if you keep stumbling around here like a lost joey. This isn't a good part of town. And you look too terrified to keep your wits about you."

She growled, though not necessarily at this stranger. "I need my pouch back. I'm supposed to pick up some mail from the embassy and I need my colonist card and my postage fee!"

The belemoid drummed her claws against the cobblestones. "Are you dumb or just stupid?"

"What?"

"Come on now. Shouting from the rooftops that you're some colony brat with money missing? Girl, you are begging someone to come along and take advantage of you. No, scratch that– to kidnap and ransom you, even. Or… well, I don't know if you're important enough for the DPIP to pay your ransom." She snickered cruelly. "You need a lesson or two about how the world works, don't you?"

Maema frowned. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't– why wouldn't the DPIP help me if I got in trouble?!"

"Sheeee-it. You think they care, don't you? Poor little colony brat lost and alone." The belemoid sat on her haunches and reached into her pouch, producing an object that looked remarkably like a polaroid camera with a holo-display on the back of it. "Hold still." She pointed it at Maema and pressed the button before inputting something. A few seconds later, a little card printed off– a forged colonist card, complete with Maema's picture and approximate measurements. "What's your colony called?"

"You– you're– that's illegal!"

The belemoid snorted. "You're in Naveh. We don't care about the DPIP's rules here." She held out the card and a ballpoint pen. "Write it in with those hands of yours. You'll need to get the postage fee yourself, though– steal it, maybe. You're in the right part of town for it."

Overwhelmed and increasingly fascinated, Maema stepped forward and took the offered objects. "What's… your name?"

"Hmph." She scratched her ear with her back foot. "Call me Hamster, if you've got to call me anything. Good luck. And hey, if you're ever looking for lockpicking lessons," she said, fishing a business card out of her pouch, "you know where to find me."