Rob X Punzel ~ Thirty!

Extensive → Master-rank Magical Signature Emission immunity gained!

Goldie let out a deep sigh of relief as the system notification itched its way onto her arm. She had stayed on the move for a full twenty-four hours straight, and she was near the edge of collapse. “Combine that with such a full day on the heist, and I've been awake for… what? Nearly two full days?”

For some odd reason, the thought made her giggle, and she nearly fell to the ground as it morphed into spasming chortles. Luckily, Goldie stopped herself, as she would’ve likely lain down right there on the street and fallen asleep. Gently slapping her cheeks to try and keep herself awake, she began trudging forward once more, her mind urging her to find a safe place to rest and recover. Soon she found herself on a familiar side street, though she had to look down and think for a long few seconds before she realized exactly why it was so familiar. 

“I'm at… I’m nearly to the orphanage?” The thought of returning to her childhood home—even in her current state—caused a surge of nostalgia and hope to fill her, and she perked up slightly and hastened her step. Goldie turned the corner, hurrying down the next road as a lump formed in her throat. “The headmistress will let me stay for a little while, right? I just want to be safe for long enough to sleep and… and I might not be the biggest donor, but she'll look past that for a bit. One night. Oh, I can pay for-”

Out of breath, she leaned against the sun-warmed stone of the home at the edge of the intersection, her slow blink turning into a long few moments of struggling to reopen her eyes. Finally, Goldie managed to do so, and turned her entire focus toward her new destination. Then her eyes narrowed in confusion; she’d never seen this many people so close to the orphanage. No one came here to adopt. Not once in the decade and a half that she had lived there. Even if they tried, the headmistress would turn away anyone from the slums: the children were better off here, safer under the protection of someone who could defend them.

She looked at a few of the loitering people, strangers with unfamiliar faces walking around or lurking in the shadows. It was a testament to her new stage in life, but for a long half minute Goldie didn't realize why they seemed so out of place. Her hair was softly banging above her forehead, and she slowly backed up and began trying to walk casually in the opposite direction. “No scars on their faces from sores, no signs of long-term hunger? Those aren’t people from the slums. They're watching the orphanage… they're looking for me. But how in the abyss did they know to come here?”

Stroking her hair with nervous fingers, the thief began to worry that they’d brought out more sensitive equipment to chase down the missing goods, but with the resistance at the Master level, she was certain they wouldn't be able to find her unless they were practically standing on top of her. “Which means… they knew where I’d be? Chay… are you feeding them information? You sold me out to save your own skin?”

It had been a possibility she was aware of, but perhaps because of her need for sleep, the realization hit her hard. Chay had constantly reminded all of them that if someone was captured, they needed to abandon every habit they had previously formed. They needed to find a new place to eat, to sleep, and should be watching their backs for weeks. But… after a heist this big? 

 “Changing my habits isn’t gonna be enough. They're not going to stop searching for me. I need to get out of the city.” Goldie slowly shook her head, horrified understanding creeping into her expression. She took a deep, shuddering breath to try and stave off the yawning chasm of despair opening within her. “Can't trust anyone in the thieves’ guild or put them at risk by trying to hide with them. My little brothers and sisters-”

Here Goldie glanced over her shoulder longingly at the orphanage already hidden from sight, “-how can I take care of you if I need to run like this? Who could I trust to…”

Voice fading, Goldie's brows furrowed in realization. “No one. I can't trust anyone in the city to hand over a massive sack of gold to the headmistress. I could try sending it by courier, but they'd probably rip it open to see why it was so heavy. This entire place is—wait. Xander. I can bribe him to do it, at the very least.”

While she wasn't exactly sure the extent of the mess she was in, Goldie knew that between the theft of such high-end goods, a mercenary company after her, likely the guards on her trail because she had stolen stealthily, not to mention the Alchemist himself… she shook her head with a sharp, biting motion, seething under her breath as she cut off the train of thought. With access to her childhood home stripped away, her current friends and leader gone or actively selling her out, Goldie’s best option was to flee as fast as she could.

Even as she felt the decision settling into place, the thief had to wipe away the tears trickling from the corner of her eyes. Moving through the streets slowly, she stopped at a clothes vendor and purchased a long cloak with a hood, then resumed her journey after tipping the gleeful merchant an entire silver. Her sleep-deprived mind caused her bad habits to flare up, and she murmured a near-constant stream of thought as she made her way through the slums toward the merchant district. 

Passing through felt like a blur. Goldie blinked and found herself standing in line at the checkpoint into the citizens’ district, cursing herself softly as she stepped away from the queue. Casually glancing back to see if any of the guards were looking her way, her heart nearly stopped as her eyes came to rest on a paper plastered on the wall next to the checkpoint. 

There, staring back at her… was her own face. 

It had been drawn with such startling accuracy that it would be impossible to deny that it was her. The paper was fresh and crisp, and someone with an artistic skill set had clearly been commissioned to render the image. Artists were in short supply in the Brute Kingdom, meaning either this was someone from the Alchemist’s personal retinue, or they’d brought someone into the kingdom specifically for the task of finding her faster—and they had paid a rush fee to get them here in less than a day. 

Finally able to break her stare, her gaze traveled slightly lower, where large, clear, bold words were printed.

WANTED ALIVE AND UNHARMED: GOLDILOCKS THE THIEF.

BOUNTY: 500 GOLD COINS. 

Her fingers dug into the palm of her hands deep enough to draw a slight flash of blood. The price on her head was staggering—enough to turn nearly anyone against her. There would be no one coming to her aid, anyone who noticed her would hand her over with no further questions. “Good thing I already made my decision. This just means I need to put a little pep in my step.”

She slunk into the nearby alley, her heart racing enough to shove sleep away a little longer. “Alive and unharmed. I appreciate that, I suppose. But why would they want me so badly? Maybe they think I stashed the potions and such? I suppose that would make sense… Temporal Trapdoor.”

Phasing through the barrier between districts, she went about her business, keeping her head down as she hurried along. Getting through the area was already difficult, as her height and willowy form informed anyone she passed that not every lady in the kingdom had rushed to the palace. Still, moving with purpose allowed her to leave most of them behind, but the few people who continued following her were staring at her with something quite frightening: suspicion.

Zigzagging through the district for the next hour, she tried to shake her pursuers off. But unfortunately, the following only grew as other people noticed someone being followed and joined in to see what was going on. Finally, she broke into a sprint, running in a straight shot across the district as the closest of the men let out a shout. Goldie rushed toward the barrier between the citizens’ and the artisans’ district, pressing herself against the wall and frantically activating Temporal Trapdoor.

For a heartbeat’s length, she found herself staring at a hooded, cloaked figure in front of her… then the garment dropped to the ground. Goldie's eyes darted around, trying to figure out what had happened—why she was still in the citizens’ district. A deep growl surged from her throat as she hopped forward and scooped up the cloak. “Abyss! My hair was entirely contained by my cloak! It wasn’t against the wall!”

The first among the group turned the corner, his eyes wide and a triumphant, malicious smile on his face. “I knew it! It’s her, the girl worth five platinum coins!”

More people poured into the open area between the wall and the opulent housing, each of them rushing to claim the bounty for their own. Dozens of burly men spread out, fervent eyes boring into her, shouts ringing off the walls as the scent of unwashed bodies and a chilling tingle of avarice hit her like a galloping horse.

“The bounty is mine!”

Goldie's panic sieved away, shifting into deep apprehension as the scraping of a blade clearing a scabbard echoed through the area. Her hands dropped to her sides, her hair brushing across her palms for a bare moment, leaving behind her dual pair of battle scissors. She shifted into a ready stance, the blood draining from her knuckles as she tightly gripped the leather-bound hilts. Even as the thief prepared to fight for her life, her eyes darted back and forth, constantly scanning for an escape route. 

But none appeared. They had boxed her in, and her escape skill was on cooldown… which meant the only way out was through them. 

A slight bang just above her eyes had Goldie dodging to the side even before she even heard the grunt of exertion signaling the first of the group throwing himself at her. As he passed by her, her scissors lashed out, the sharpened outer edge biting deeply into his bicep as his swing went wild. The man let out a strangled scream, taking a couple faltering steps as he stared down at the blood gushing from his limb. 

“Ha! This sack of coins has an edge!” another boisterous bounty hunter barked at the first’s misfortune, even as he slowed his own advance and shifted into a more intentional fighting stance. Ever so slowly, he drew his sword, taking his time to intimidate her as the length of metal scraped against the leather of his scabbard. “Come on now, missy. Alive and unharmed only means you have to be unharmed when they get you. I know a halfway decent healer, but if you make me chase you, I'm bringing a beating with me.”

She didn't say a word, hoping to draw out the confrontation for a long, long time. Approximately an hour, if she could manage it. The small mob surged forward, a mass of bodies and weapons as they jostled to be the first to claim the unexpected windfall. Goldie's eyes flicked to the side, and the swordsman chose that moment to lunge at her, blade hissing through the air. She spun on her heel, scissors slicing through the air and meeting the edge of his weapon with her own, twisting and shoving to dodge away from the heavy blow.

He stumbled past her ever so slightly, taken aback at the ease with which she had parried his attack, but Goldie didn't have the luxury of focusing on him. More were coming—too many. Her hair, having grown even longer over the incredibly stressful day, fanned out around her, its faint glow hidden by the intense daylight shining down on them. The vast majority of the group clearly had no such guarantee of access to a system-classed healer. Instead of potentially losing out on the bounty by accidentally damaging her too much, they threw themselves at her in an attempt to wrestle her to the ground. 

Goldie was ready for them, her hair spread out as though she had been hit by lightning. 

“Elemental Infusion: Grappling.” 

With Bad Hair Yester-Morrow at level six, she was able to infuse her hair for a full fifteen seconds. People almost never stopped grabbing at her hair, and it had slowly risen to level five, Moderate rank. Even so, she’d never had so many combatants to test the potency of the skill’s modifier on, and hadn't exactly been able to focus on its target the singular occasion she’d used it in a fight while escaping. In fact, she wasn't certain what an ‘elemental’ version of grappling even meant. 

All of that to say, she was as shocked by the outcome as was the increasing number of bounty hunters flooding into the area.

Her hair snaked through the air, coiling around the weapons and bodies of each other combatant in the area. Then they were flying through the air, bouncing off the district barrier wall, the ground, and each other. As more people pushed through the narrow avenues into the open space, they were caught up either by strands of hair, or on a few occasions, by seemingly nothing at all. Goldie's sleep-deprived mind recognized the telltale signs of minor telekinesis, but it had never functioned against something so heavy as a person.

Fifteen seconds on the dot after her hair had been infused, her hair fell limply to her sides, leaving a wide circle of bruised and battered fighters slowly generating a collective puddle of blood. Taking deep breaths, Goldie turned to run through the break in the mob before they could re-establish their blockade—only to let out a scream of fear as a brightly glowing bar of metal entered her vision and swished toward her face. 

Just before it impacted, her extremely long and dense hair flowed up around her, then poofed out into a giant hairball. A soft sound reached Goldie's ears, but her wide eyes remained locked on the flaming sword which had cut through her hair and been stopped only due to the mass of hair pushing against the swordsman's hand and hilt. 

Minimal-rank Magical Fire immunity gained!

Even with the sudden boost from her skills, the flames rampaged through her hair, burning away a wide swath before finally petering out as the hair twisted itself and snuffed the flame against the ground. Rings, pendants, a long coil of lace, and a sack’s worth of copper coins exploded out of nothing and scattered across the ground as the volume of her hair drastically decreased. Tossing her hair back and forth, she allowed dozens of other small magical items to be released, doubling the size of the wide ring of wealth. 

She locked eyes with the swordsman and very obviously stepped out of and away from the king’s ransom. His own gaze narrowed as he studied the hair as it moved on its own, before flicking to what might as well have been a massive bribe left for the taking as the thief circled away. 

“I think I'm starting to see why they want you, Goldilocks.” The man spoke in a long, pained whisper, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth as he did so. “That's some fancy hair you've got there—such a shame it's flammable everywhere.”

He raised his sword to lash out at her once again, and she preemptively lifted her battle scissors… only for the man to grunt and slump to the ground as a thick club thunked into the back of his head, revealing yet another bounty hunter. “She's mine! Five platinum by itself is enough to bribe my way into marrying a noble's third or fourth daughter!” 

“What else is she hiding in that hair? I'm going to smack it like she's a pinata and see what falls out!” 

“Out of the way, those treasures are mine.”

“Back off, she’s mine-”

There was always one person around who was there for an alternative reason, showcased as one man brandished a fistful of daisies instead of a weapon, like the others around him. “Marry me! You're the last eligible woman in the district-” 

Before Goldie's disbelieving eyes, the mob turned on itself. Soon, half the group was engaged in a brawl with the other half, tearing each other apart for the chance to be the one to claim her bounty. Fists and weapons flew, skills were activated, and the air grew thick with the scent of spent power, blood, and snarling voices. 

Never one to waste an opportunity, Goldie fled like her life depended on it, uneven, golden hair trailing along behind her—still smoldering as it pointed accusingly at the unconscious swordsman.