The Puppeteer's Assistant

Chapter 12: Sammy

Vanessa continued her way to the town, through the forest. But she began to find it harder and harder to find her way through it all..

"Now, where was I again..?" She asks herself. That's when she began to hear strange wails of cries for help suddenly, looking around to see where it was coming from. Vanessa began to call out, "Hello?! Who's there..?!" Soon enough she got a response..

"H-hello..? Yes, is someone out there..?" 

Vanessa flinched and turned to where she heard the voice. "Yeah! Are you alright??" The helpless cry for help was heard once again. "P-please help me..!" They cried out. Vanessa ran through the forest, following the trails of their voice. "Where are you??"

"I.. I'm up here..!!"  Vanessa stops by a tree full of branches, feeling wet drops of tears fall onto her head, which dripped down her forehead. She wiped them off and looked up, finding a string puppet strung up in the tree. They dangled by their strings on the branches, all tangled up with tears  dripping down their cheeks.. 

"I'm stuck.." They said, bursting into more tears. "W-wehhhh..!!"

"Oh goodness graciousness!" Vanessa gasps. "How'd you get up there??" The poor puppet wiped away a few tears with his free hand and sniffles. "Someone threw me up here," He began to explain. "And then they left me here.. I've been up here for hours and no one came to help.."

"That's awful! You poor thing.. That's such a horrible thing to do to someone!" Vanessa says, placing her satchel down. "Hehe yeahhh.. Pretty tragic, am I right..? Heh.." The puppet began to cry again. "Oh miss, please help me..!" He pleaded. Vanessa rolled up her sleeves of her dress and gets ready to climb up the trunk of the tree. "I'm already on it. Just hold on and I'll get you down right away." The puppet sighs in relief and cracks a small smile. "Thank you.. So much..!"

Vanessa cautiously began to make her way up to the puppet. Branch by branch, she was getting closer and closer to him. Without seeing where she was stepping at the moment, one of the branches had cracked and broke from under her right foot, but she managed to grab a sturdy branch to pull herself back up before she would fall and bust her head open or severely injure herself..

"Phew, that was close.." Vanessa looked back up at the puppet, who looked as if he was going to have a panic attack after seeing that event. "Hhnn miss, please be careful..!" He cried, as he continued to watch Vanessa make her way up to him. 

"Almost there.." She says, reaching out her hand to grab a hold of him. The puppet reached out his free hand out towards her, and soon they grasped each others hands- Vanessa getting up onto the biggest limb of the tree near the puppet. Holding onto his hand still, she slowly and carefully stands up on the limb and began to untangle his strings. As she went along with the process, she wiped away his tears and started to comfort him. "Don't worry, your going to be okay.. Alright?" "O-okay.." They answered back. 

After awhile of untangling and cutting strings, her pocket knife had turned dull, and all Vanessa had to do was pull him free. So she took a hold of his hands and tugged him as hard as she could, which caused him to break free and the two fell back- falling down through the weak branches. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The two shouted, as they were coming down towards the bottom. The puppet closed his eyes in fear and Vanessa grasped him tightly to her chest, breaking his fall. When they reached the bottom, the puppet opened his eyes..

"Ugh.. Huh? I'm free!" He cheered. Soon he found himself to be laying on top of Vanessa, who groaned in pain.

"A-ah! Miss, I'm so sorry!" He quickly got off of her and stood up, dusting himself off. Vanessa sat up and smiled slightly. "Y-yeah.." She goes to get up, but sits back down- grasping her leg. "Oww.."

"Oh no, what's wrong??" The puppet asks worriedly, kneeling down beside her. "My knee.. It's hurt.." Blood began to seep through the skirt of Vanessa's dress, and she quickly pulled it up to find that it was none other than her knee, with blood oozing through her tights..

"Hold on, miss! I'll help you!" Vanessa watched while the puppet ripped a piece of cloth from his cloak and began to wrap her wound. "This should stop the bleeding for awhile until you get proper treatment.. I hope."

"Thanks.. Er, what's your name..?" Vanessa asks. The puppet stops for a moment and looks down. He quietly responded, "I.. I don't have a name.. Or at least, I don't quite remember what it was.."

"Oh, I see.."

The puppet sighs and goes back to patching up her knee "Yeah.."

Vanessa began to think for a moment, until finally she came up with an idea. "Since you don't have a name, may I come up with something your comfortable with me calling you?" She asks. "Um.. Okay.."

"Hmm.." Vanessa thought long and hard on what name her new friend should be given. After awhile, the puppet had already bounded her knee with cloth- and Vanessa had finally came up with a name for him..

".. How about Sammy?" Vanessa suggests. "Will Sammy do..?" "Sammy? Oh yeah.." The puppet, now known as Sammy, holds out his hands to help her up. "Hehe, okay.. Sammy~" Vanessa winks, taking his hand. She gets helped up and Sammy smiles a little at her, happy that he now has a proper name, and that he was out of that tree. 

"Does your knee feel better?" He asks. "Yeah, thank you.." Sammy shakes his head and hugs Vanessa tightly. "No, thank you.. For saving me. I probably would've been stuck up there forever if it weren't for you, miss!" Vanessa thought he was overreacting just a bit, but she hugged him back and was relieved that he was safe. "Your welcome, Sammy. I'm glad I could help. And most importantly.. I'm happy that your okay."

"Hehe, yeah.. Oh, that's right!" Sammy breaks the hug and tilts his head. "I never got your name, miss.. You are..?" "Right, sorry.. That was rude of me not to give out an introduction. My name is Vanessa."

"Vanessa? That's a lovely name!"
"Heh, why thank you."
"Then.. What are you doing out here if you don't mind me asking, miss Vanessa?"
"Well.. I'm heading over to a town nearby.." 
"You are?.."

"Yeah, I've been going on a long journey to finding answers to some things going on lately and achieving a tool to help me defeat someone who's been a threat." Vanessa exclaims. "A.. Threat?.." Sammy questions. "Yeah.. It's a long story.."

"Oh.. Well I was heading to a town anyways.. It'd be nice to have some company on the way." He says. "Okay, then why don't we go together?" Vanessa asks. Sammy smiles and nods. "Alright, let's get going."

And so, Vanessa grabbed her belongings and traveled to the town along with her new friend.