Rob X Punzel ~ Ten!

“There's no way this is safe, and you can't possibly be serious about me jumping between rotten roofs!” Becca called out to Chay as he ran away over the rooftop—the so-called thieves’ road. She slowly picked her way after him, legs trembling from the effort of putting one foot in front of the other. With each step, she searched for the next handhold before moving along, doing her best not to look away from her chosen path, over to where the entire city was sprawled out below her. 

Chay jogged over to her, breathing lightly and wearing a huge, satisfied grin on his face. “Welcome to the thieves’ road. No checkpoints, no guards, just us and the sky!”

“Don't forget the ground.” Becca growled just before throwing herself flat on the roof as the shingles shifted slightly as she sidestepped . 

The thief pulled her back to her feet, sweeping his arm out to motion at the rooftops stretching in every direction as she grabbed onto him. “So much fresh air! No one bothering you, nothing for your hair to pull out of their pockets. I think, once you get used to being up here, you're going to want to stay here all the time. It's an entirely different experience than life on the ground.” 

“With a much higher risk of getting hurt if you fall.” Becca chimed in, her heart pounding as she tried to follow her newfound mentor across the tiled roof. As they got closer to the edge, she looked on in confusion as Chay sped up… gasping in horror as he launched himself out into open air, only to land on the roof across the alley opening. “You can not be serious!”

Impatiently, the thief waved at her to come along. “Look, you're going to have to figure this out sooner or later, Goldie! Do you want to learn how to judge the distance you can make on your own or have someone here to pull you the last couple inches if you miss? I've got other things to do than train you if you don't want to learn how to do this.”

Becca bit her lip, trying to force herself to push past her fear. Crouching low and eyeballing the distance between herself and Chay, she whispered at her treacherous, shaking legs as they refused to move. “Come on! You can do this… you have to do this. There's no other choice, unless I want to live my life stealing from people who have practically nothing already.”

Nearly hyperventilating, she forced herself to break into a run, slamming her feet down at the last moment to convert her momentum into a long jump. As she pushed off the roof, the tile broke off of the roof and took her over the edge with it. “Chay!”

“Goldie!” The last Becca saw of the thief was him staring at her with wide eyes, grasping as if he could pull her to himself. Then she was falling, tumbling through the air only to find the ground rushing up at her. Flailing desperately, she only managed to shift her position slightly—guaranteeing she would land on her head. 

“Abyss!” With that last shriek, she hit the filth-coated stone alleyway and went still.

Chay skittered down the side of the wall, running over before slowing as he came within a few feet of her crumpled body. “Celestial feces… no… I’m so sorry.”

“Ugh.” The groggy sound caused the stricken thief to jerk his head out from where he had cradled it in his hands, dropping next to her to offer support as she began to stir. “I knew it. I died.”

“You didn't die! How would I be here if you were dead?” Chay let out a gasping laugh as Becca slowly sat up, cradling her aching head.

“It’s clear I'm being punished for choosing a life of crime. Straight to the abyss.” She grumbled as her hands came back damp with blood from where she’d hit the ground. “That's the only explanation I have.”

“By the system, girl! Are you alright?” One of the shocked locals came over, and started fussing over the bleeding youngster. The woman pulled out a canteen and offered it, pouring some of the clean-ish water onto the bloody patch on Becca’s head. “I've never seen anything like it! Your hair bunched up like a little pile of straw right before you cracked into the ground!”

“Yeah… thanks.” She wasn't certain if she was thanking the lady or her hair. Blinking a bit disorientedly, the young lady reached up and touched her golden curls, which seemed to be back to their normal self already. Before Becca could put much more thought into the situation, Chay pulled her to her feet and started directing her away from all of the people staring at them. 

“I'm glad you're okay.”

“Thanks, I-”

“That means we can try again,” Chay interrupted her, earning himself a flat glare. He tipped his head back slightly, letting out a wry laugh as he led her back to the rope they’d left dangling. “It sucks that you got hurt, but guess what? You lived! That means you can figure it out the next time. Which is now. Start climbing.”

Groaning softly, Becca reached for the rope, only to notice that a streak of gold was appearing and vanishing on her left arm. Stealthily running a finger across the line, she used the time climbing to take a peek at what the system had in store for her.

Skill increase! Ponytail Pixie [Level 3 (Rudimentary) → Level 4 (Basic)]!

Requirement to advance to level 5: Hairy.

“What… what kind of advancement requirement is that?” Becca questioned both the system and her hair as she scaled the wall for the second time in less than a double handful of minutes. “There's no information! Is it just… whenever my hair decides to go up a level? Do I need to… find someone who is hairy? A person who’s named Harry? Did landing on my head do more damage than I thought?”

Becca had already established that her hair was actively interfering with the system, but she hadn't expected it to go out of its way to make it harder for itself to become stronger. As the neophyte thief stood on the roof, once again planning to jump across open air, she tried to put the oddity out of her mind.

“You can do it, Goldie!” Chay called enthusiastically, though in a slightly hushed manner as he wasn’t trying to draw attention to them. “On three. Ready? One-”

Becca jumped immediately, easily crossing the distance and landing heavily on the balcony next to her temporary teacher. He clapped his hands, a bemused smile on his face. “That was perfect, except for the fact that you didn't listen to instructions. I wasn't in a position to grab you if you got close but missed. Look, I’m glad you managed to make it happen, but I need to know you're going to listen when I give you orders in the future.”

“Um. I’m not going to, though?” Becca brushed the dust off her clothes as she stood up, looking at her companion with a mix of excitement and confusion. “Why would you be giving me orders? Also, that was way more fun than I expected it to be!”

“You get used to it,” Chay waved off the words as he glared at her. “Of course you'll be following orders. You're part of my team. I'm sponsoring you into the guild. That means, until you have your own position, you’re in my crew. If I get promoted, you'll be one of my team leaders. When I eventually become the guild leader, and I need to pick other high-ranking people to do a job with me, you'll eventually be one of them. So, yeah, get used to taking orders.”

“Oh.” Becca rubbed the back of her neck and grinned at him sheepishly. “Sorry, I thought everyone kind of did their own thing. You know, a group of people working independently but making a better life for everyone?” 

“No,” Chay firmly informed her. “Most of the time, we work independently, but it's not a better life for everyone. You make your own life within the guild, but you're not expected to take care of the other people in it. Not in a direct way, at least. We look out for each other, but… how do I put this? Our headquarters changes all the time. Whenever someone’s caught by the guard, we move immediately. No one, and I mean no one expects you not to break down and tell them everything about us if you get caught.”

“You mean… we don't go back for them if they get caught? Try to help?” Becca’s eyes bulged as she looked at this new group she was joining in a new light. “Then what's the point of all the money going into it?”

“We pay for arms—stumps—to be healed as much as we can when someone loses a hand.” Chay shrugged nonchalantly, well used to this facet of the life he now lived. “We've got a safe place to sleep, food on the table, and a community of people in the same boat as us. But that's the thing, Goldie. If the ship starts to sink, the rats scatter. Never forget that, no matter what someone tells you to do. No matter how they beg or send people after you. Gotta look out for yourself first.”

This was a deeply unsettling concept to Becca, who spent most of her time and money trying to figure out how to boost the people around her. It had started at the orphanage, and she’d been hoping the guild would be more than a loosely bound collective. Somewhere she could eventually call home, at least of a sort, filled with people she could trust. 

“Let's try a harder jump, this time!” Chay decided to break the awkward tension in the air, guiding her up the sharp slope of the A-frame roof. Once they were at the top, he pointed out the route they’d be taking to go to the next building over. “You need to build up some speed sliding down on the roof, then make the jump just before you get to the end. Those are decorative. If you push off of them, they'll just break under your feet, and you'll fall again. I know you survived the first time, but even then, it didn’t exactly look pleasant. There's no guarantee you’ll survive twice, so get good at this fast.”

Then he demonstrated, sliding down the wall on his hip and elbow, shifting his position to his rear at the halfway mark and getting his feet positioned. Just before he hit the edge, he shoved off, traveling in a wide arc over the larger street below. As he landed on the next building over, he tucked and rolled, converting his momentum into popping up to a casual standing position and immediately motioning for her to follow him.

Taking a moment to catch her breath and trembling slightly from the rush of adrenaline, Becca caught the faint aroma of chamomile and mint wafting off of her hair. The double scent was an oddity, but she determined it was representative of her hair being both pleased with their new form of travel and attempting to soothe her frayed nerves. “I don't need a whiff of relaxation, hair. I just need to be perfect at doing this, every single time I do it.”

Without putting any more consideration into her actions, she hopped onto the roof and started sliding, gaining speed all too fast. She twisted hard, nearly overcorrecting as she got into position. The edge was coming up fast—too fast! Sucking in her breath and holding it out of fear, she slammed her feet down and tumbled up into the air. The wild spin was arrested as her hair shifted out and flowed behind her, acting like a ship's rudder to steer her onto the roof of the building next to Chay.

She landed heavily, wheezing for air as her long hair fluttered down to cover her like a blanket. Chay smacked her on the shoulder, then grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. “That was awesome! You're a natural at this.”

“I hate you a little bit right now.”

“I'd be surprised if you didn't,” he chuckling in response. “Here's what you do. We're going to get over to the citizens’ district, and I'll let you keep one out of every ten coins you grab today. The rest is my payment for all this training, and so I can buy the tools you'll need when you hit the three-quarters paid mark. Sound like a plan?”

“Still have to-?”

“Yes, you still need to pay the guild tax out of what you keep.”

Becca looked into the distance, where the demarcation between districts was clearly visible, due to the city wall built in a ring around every section of increasing social strata. Holding back a whine, she instead wearily nodded and followed after the ever-energetic thief as he scampered up the next roof. 

Knowing that this was going to become a major part of how she earned her living, Goldie settled herself into her chosen career as a thief, pushed her fear to the side, and chased after the slightly older boy. 

“I'm going to figure this out, and I’m gonna be great at it!”