The Clockwork Greenhouse

Piper lived in a world where everything clicked, whirred, or hissed. The sky over the city of Gearhaven was never blue; it was the color of a tarnished penny, thick with the smoke of a thousand furnaces. Piper was a scavenger, a "Copper-Crumb," as the older folks called the children who climbed the high pipes to find loose bolts and discarded springs. She wore heavy leather boots and goggles that sat permanently atop her messy brown hair. Her hands were always stained with oil, but her eyes were bright, constantly searching for something more than just metal.