The Puppeteer's Assistant

Chapter 13: A new friend

Vanessa and Sammy were still in the forest, walking alongside each other. It was going to be a long time from now until they find the right way.

Sammy was looking down at the ground, too shy to look at Vanessa or say anything at the moment. He then looked up however when they came across a tree blocking their path.

"Huh, that's odd.." Vanessa says, and began climbing over it. When she had gotten over it, she helped Sammy over the tree and the two kept going.

"So.. I never asked, but where did you come from?" Vanessa asks. Sammy looks at Vanessa and shrugs. "I'm not sure, but I'd like to find out though." "I see.."

"Yeah, where are you from?" 

"Well.. I came from a small town, with lots of kind people.. It was almost as if it were a small community, you know?" Vanessa says, kicking small pebbles here and there as they walked along the trail. "Since it was so small, I knew everyone there.. Ever since I was little.." Sammy looked a bit surprised. "Wow, it must be nice knowing everyone.." She began to look down, and soon her bright smile had faded into a frown.

"I guess.. I still felt pretty lonely, and didn't really have any friends.." 

"Oh.." Sammy places a hand on Vanessa's shoulder. "Well, if it makes you feel any better I don't think I had any friends either." "Huh, is that so?" Vanessa's frown turned into a slight smile. "If it makes you feel better, I consider you as a friend.. So you wanna be friends?"

"Really, that'd be cool!!" The two laughed a bit as they continued. Soon enough it began to fade, back into somewhat of an awkward state.

"Cool.. Guess we're friends now."

"Heh, yeah.."

They took a seat, on some tree stumps and continued their conversation.

"So you basically have no memories of your past?" Vanessa asks.

Sammy had nodded in response.

"Oh.. I'm sorry.. I hope you'll get your memories back someday.." "Thanks, miss." He looks down and sighs.

"So.. That puppet guy?.."

"Hm?" Vanessa tilts her head. "What do you mean by "Puppet guy"..?" Sammy began to stutter his words. "The-the puppeteer guy-" It finally had caught onto Vanessa. He was asking about her worst nightmare yet, the man who she used to work for as an assistant and fell for his manipulative tricks of flirtatiousness? How could he have known about him..?

"Oh gosh Vanessa.. Should you tell him..?" She thought. Then she looked back at Sammy. "The Puppeteer? What about him?" 

"How is he exactly a threat?" He proceeds to ask. Vanessa took a long moment of silence..

"It's.. A long story.."

"No no, I insist. Please do tell, I'm sure we've got plenty of time. And if I'm not mistaken, neither of us have a watch, now do we..?"

"Hah, I guess not.." Vanessa goes on to telling Sammy about the Puppeteer, as he listened quietly. "So.. A long time ago, I met a tall mysterious man on some special event taking place outside the town. He called himself "The Puppeteer" and offered to humbly make me into his assistant. And so I gave in to his dashing looks and I'd hate to admit that he's rather charming but he is- Anyways, I decided to go with this thought process going on in my head that this would be such a marvelous idea and allowed him to take me away, leaving all the people including my family in the small town I used to live in, behind me. He made me his assistant like he said he would, and I worked for him. I'd do little things for him, nothing too big. Until one day however, I found out that he turns people into puppets and makes them do his bidding.. He did many bad things to my understanding, and he was planning on making me into his marionette- So.. I did the most obvious, which was running away.." She stands up and looks back at him. 

"And now, I'm trying to find the weapon to defeat him with.." "Oh..." Sammy looks at his puppet hand and looked back up at Vanessa. "Do you know where the weapon exactly is?" "No not quite yet, nor what the weapon is to my understanding." She helps him up off the stump and continues to speak. "The other assistant only told me so little, and the next thing I knew was that I was running away.." "That's too bad.. I hope you'll figure things out." "Yeah.." Vanessa gives Sammy a curious look. "Say.. Then who threw you up in the tree?"

"It was a tall guy, with black and white hair." Sammy says. "Hmm.. That must fit the description of him. Did he have a top hat and wore some casual and somewhat fancy clothing?" She goes on to ask. Sammy nods..

"He said I was a useless piece of wood."

Vanessa was shocked. "How could he do something so cruel?" She thought to herself as she began to tear up.

"I'm sorry.."

"For what?"

"That this happened to you.. That's terrible!" Vanessa cried. 

"No, it's okay. I'm fine now because you saved me.." Sammy says, patting her on the back. Vanessa wipes the tears from her eyes and nods. "Yeah, luckily.. I suppose your right about that.." "Heh, I know. Now let's keep going- I think we're getting closer!" He takes a hold of Vanessa's hand and they continued to make their way through the forest.