Puppetry

The monsters came out in droves; they hid in houses cleared out of humans, slinked out of alleys and a few dropped off of rooftops.

Rosa paled, she was in a walled area at the shrine and was positioned on a high incline. The bell tower could be seen far and wide.

Monsters on roofs hadn't occurred to her.

'Time to leave. It's now or never.' Rosa waited until the stream of monsters trickled down to nothing.

Rosa made her way down to the ground floor. Before she could second guess herself, she was at the front of the church looking out at the courtyard.

Enhanced hearing would be her best friend from this point on, it was the only early warning system she had.

The gate that she had been locked out of was one block over and across a main street. Out in the open.

The back alleys she used to get here the first day were probably nests for monsters now. Ratkin, slimes and rodentia are fast opportunistic buggers. They also multiply insanely fast.

Better to stick to the main road.

The iron gate was still open. Rosa stuck her head out to see the road in each direction after listening and hearing nothing.

The road was clear.

Staying close to the buildings on the left, Rosa made use of any cover to be found; stairs, an overturned cart and rubble. She didn't dart past alleys or open doorways without checking them first.

'Now the real task begins.' It took Rosa ten minutes to go a block without being detected.

The main road to the gate was before her.

There was no cover.

'Just means I've got to move fast.' Rosa braced herself, listened and ran. To her surprise, sneak didn't wear off while running. Reaching the gate, she tried to hide in the long shadows of the early morning sun.

The Hiding skill didn't activate.

Rosa didn't waste any time and set the ladder against the outer wall. The ladder was too short and it made her nervous. It went two thirds the way up which was much better than her halfway estimate at the shrine.

It was still too short.

'Easy. You expected this.' Discarded rocks and broken wooden furniture secured the bottom. Rosa ascended the ladder. As she got to the second highest rung, she extracted her cultivator and knotted rope ladder from Inventory. There was no way she would be able to throw high enough to reach the top of the wall.

Swinging was another matter.

Rosa swung the rope back and forth several times, picking up speed. She had to be careful not to hit the ladder and mess up the momentum, there was one chance at this.

Once Rosa estimated that she wouldn't get any higher. On the downward swing, she move the rope as far from the wall as possible. At the height of the swing, she released all of the tension on the rope, letting the improvised hook fly.

It made it over the wall at an angle.

It hit with a thunderous bang.

It was right then that sneak wore off.

It was then the sound of paw pads came into range of the skill Enhanced hearing.

Rosa's heart hit her throat as she gently pulled on the rope to find some tension. She didn't want to accidentally pull it off the wall.

'Please find something to anchor to.'

There was a snarling hiss that echoed.

Rosa nearly wept in joy when the rope suddenly had tension. Only then did she dare look down.

It was the level fifteen rodentia and it was running right toward the base of the ladder.

'You're too late.'

Rosa put all her weight on the rope. It held.

"Inventory." The ladder disappeared from under her feet. It also disappeared in front of the rodentia's face, making it hit the wall at a full on run.

Rosa was panicked when she felt her body move as if marionetted by a puppet master. Her feet went flat to the wall, her upper body went stiff, then she side stepped as the rope swung. Rosa tightly held the rope in shock as it reached equilibrium, her feet to the wall and hands clutching a knott.

'Is this normal?' Rosa was speechless. She had used a level of finesse that most rock climbers don't achieve in their lifetime. 'Perhaps this is the power of leveling skills.'

"Hiss!" Rosa jolted in fear.

'Right, still in sight of something that could and would tear me to pieces.' Rosa wasted no time in climbing up. Going straight up was a lot harder than this hand over hand technique the system taught her.

The top of a wall never looked better in her opinion.

Heart nearly beating out of her chest, Rosa lay on her back after she hoisted herself over the edge. She was grinning like a fool.

"Made it!" Rosa cheered pulling out the last carrot.

"Hiss!"

"Oh shut up!" She sniped back as she chewed. Victory tasted sweet.

After a rest, Rosa took the rope back up. The cultivator had hooked itself between a box and the wall.

'This never would have worked for a full grown woman.' Rosa thought as she collected her improvised rope ladder. She didn't store it in inventory as that would be too hard to explain to whoever she met.

The rope had held because she was, at most, sixty pounds soaking wet.

"Now to get down from here." It was night being able to talk.

Rosa stretched as she located the stairs down into the city. There was a guard at the bottom whom had turned when he heard her footsteps. He stared in disbelief, his mouth agape.

"Identify yourself!" He barked when his mind caught up.

That turned on the waterworks immediately. Rosa couldn't help it. It was like all fear, grievences and terror had left all at once. Relief at being safe overwhelmed her.

"I want my mommy!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was dusk when she was escorted back to Madame Mulberry's clothing store. It took all day to answer questions.

The flustered guard had immediately escorted her to his supervisor. They called in his supervisor, whom escorted her to the equivalent of the mayor and police chief.

They had her recount her story while holding a truth telling artifact. It looked like a crystal ball and it glowed a steady white as she talked. Curious, she asked if she could lie to see what the ball did.

It changed color to green.

Rosa told everything truthfully. They had been extremely interested at what happened, initially, at the wall. Their faces changed to serious scowls with her recounting what was happening in the lower city.

The monsters were rooting out humans in an organized manner.

Rosa left out her awakening skills and system. They didn't ask so she didn't volunteer the information.

She was fed when her stomach grumbled at lunch. They fed her a stew as they sent someone to inform the commander at the first gate their information.

Rosa was kept there just in case the commander had any questions.

He didn't.

They had sent someone ahead to inform her mother that her child had miraculously survived and cleverly found her way to safety.

Rosa was thankful, her mother must have been besides herself with worry. When they turned the corner on the street, both her and her escort stopped at the sight of a large crowd gathered in front of the shop.

There were people arguing. One of the angry voices was her mother's.

"Have you no heart!? You claim-" The sight of a terrified guard backing away from an angry woman was seen through the parted crowd as they neared.

"Uh, I think we should hurry." The poor guy wasn't a scammer, just an errand boy. The soldier beside her swallowed audibly.

"Agreed."

"Mom!" The entire crowd turned in unison. All of their collective jaws dropped at the sight of her. It was actually very comical.

"Rosa?" Eleanor Starwright was a voluptuous woman with black hair and blue eyes. She was renown for living for two things, fashion and her baby girl.

"Momma!" Three people were bowled over in the ensuing chaos. There were tears, kisses and lots of hugs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the day after that Rosa learned half of her class had died. The cyclops hadn't gotten them, the wall did. The mob was made of parents who were grieving.

To have one child come back safely was a minor miracle.

Not that people felt safe. The monster raid was still going on and the rumors pointed to a raid boss. People were ready to evacuate at a moments notice.

Rosa was no exception.

"Mom, I can pack." Rosa plead with big soulful eyes.

"Absolutely not." Her mother retorted. "You'll pack flimsy dresses and forget your panties." Rosa grimaced; the old Rosa would have, the new Rosa was influenced by a professional accountant. Practicality had been Iris's one character trait.

"Can I go visit Ms Mulberry?" Rosa asked after a few minutes.

"Madame is busy dear. Maybe later." Rosa sat on her bed watching her mother sort through her clothing. Apparently, she had closed the door to her room when the monster raid was announced and refused to go inside.

"What about-" Rosa was stopped mid sentence by a knock at the door. The mother daughter duo gave each other a look and walked out of the bedroom. Their rented attic had two bedrooms and a kitchen that doubled as a living room area. The knocking echoed loudly in the space.

"It's open!" Her mother called out into the attic. The door to the outside swung open to reveal her mother's best friend: Abigail Fairwater.

"Ellie! I just heard the news! Is it true?" A woman with literal sparkling red hair, green eyes in a heart shaped face rushed in. She was also short, being a half-dwarf.

"My baby is alive and home! She made a self style grappling hook. Abby, you have to see this."

"Rosa!" Rosa was quickly swallowed up in a hug that nearly crushed her ribs.

"Hi auntie." Rosa weezed out when she was released. She was inspected, cuddled and cried over. Later, they sat down at their modest table, drinking tea. Eleanor showing Abigail what was now dubbed The Rope with pride.

"Look Abby. My baby made this out of two ropes and the head of an old tool she found."

Eleanor crowed in delight. Abby was a good friend that listened and hummed as she inspected the odd creation in front of her.

"It's unique, that's for sure." Rosa winced with her new understanding as an adult.

'That's the grown up equivalent of patting me on the head and saying; hey at least you tried.' Rosa could understand, Abigail did this kind of thing for a living. Abby was a magic tool creator for the adventurer guild and blessed by fire. 'This is probably cringe worthy to her.'

"I always said my baby was smart. Takes after her daddy." Rosa and Abby sighed in unison. Eleanor was still deeply in love with Rosa's father; a man she had never met. The topic of her dad could have gone on for hours.

'Mom says I get my brown hair and eyes from him. I wonder if he's really dead or just went out for milk. Either is possible.' Adventurers had two settings: live fast, die young or skip town when things got too heated.

It's also how they become friends. Eleanor was the looker girlfriend and Abigail was the magical tool supplier that was giving him a hard time.

'Naturally, they bonded over my father being a love struck fool.' Rosa sat and listened as the two chatted over mindless things.

The undercurrent of fear was still unsaid but present.