"Cough Cough" In a filthy slum a skinny figure covered in a cloak quietly coughed and tried to hide in the alleyway.
Several figures passed the alleyway
"Where did she go!" "Find her quickly!" Several voices said out loud, trying to find a girl.
Noticing an opportunity to escape the cloaked figure quietly went deeper into the dark alleyway and after a safe distance, she started to run far away from their pursuit.
"F##king pieces of shit just leave me alone" Slowing down, she sat down in a dark corner to rest.
*freeze frame* yup. that's me. you're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation, Let's rewind time a little to see how we get to here.
["Several days ago" *Bubble SFX*]
It was a normal weekend day. After several days of working, I finally reached the end of the week, which meant relaxing, playing games, and, of course, a D&D session with my friends.
Like any other, this D&D session followed the normal rules with typical clichés.
We started at a bar and found out the bar owner was a spy for the enemy kingdom. We got our asses kicked for trying to stop the operation—you know, the usual.
Looking at the chat room, a new notification popped up.
~~
DinoBird(DM): Ready for today's session?
WeBearbear: Yup
Connar: Sure
moon(me): Yup
moon(me): @hauntingPineapple D&D time
hauntingPineapple: OK, I'll be there in a min
~~
After jumping into a call, Dino set the scene for the D&D session, but something felt off.
His voice was faint. I tried to adjust my volume to turn him up, but it didn't change anything and only made it even fainter.
"Moon, roll perception for me."
"..." Receiving no answer, Dino felt confused and said my name again.
"Moon? Moooon, you there? Mo-" Feeling heavy in my head, I tried to reply, but before I could, I passed out.
*Thud* A painful sensation grew from the side of my head.
"Ugh..."
"Hey kid, where's the money?" My vision was blurred, but after I recovered, I saw a grown man with an unkempt beard, messy hair, and a rancid smell.
"Tch, where is the goddamn money, kid?" The man shouted out of habit. Confused and scared, I quickly searched around my pocket and retrieved some copper coins.
"Tch, only this much? I raised you just for this!" He raised his foot and kicked me across the room, eventually hitting the wall.
A strong pain came from my stomach and back as I felt the oxygen leave my lungs.
Gasping, a strong scent of cigarettes filled my lungs.
Dazed a little I tried to move and assess my surroundings.
An old rundown shack barely shielded from the elements.
"Go back outside again, punk! And if you don't come back with at least Silver coins, I ain't going to let you stay here no more." The man sat down at a table and drank one bottle of rum among many more empty bottles.
Fearing being kicked again, I searched for the door and went out quickly.
Looking around, I saw the streets were filled with filth, and the surrounding homes were similar to the one I just exited.
A slum where criminals stayed, and the homeless and poor were constantly robbed of their money. People here never wore luxury goods as it was a walking flag for the thieves and certain death if anyone dared to do so.
Touching the side of my head, a dull pain intensified as I saw blood on my hand.
This pain was real; it wasn't a dream, but I only wished it was.
Quickly remembering what happened before I got into this situation, it was impossible to make sense of it.
One second I was in front of my desktop, and the next I was possessing this child's body.
"F##king great, now what do I do?" I silently cursed and sorted out the situation. I concluded that none of this made F##king sense, and my number one priority was to try to survive.
First things first, I seemed to be the daughter of that drunken bastard who kicked me out. He seemed to send out this little girl to run and get money for him while he drank in the shack.
Looking at the sun, it seems to be in the middle of the day still which gave me a lot of time to look around my surroundings and see if anything could help me.
Any normal person would freak out at this point with the sudden events, but I've been trained to stay calm in any situation it's a requirement for my job.
"Let's test this body first" Examining my body many bad signs already alerted themselves.
"Signs of malnourishment, wounds on the legs, and some are infected, hand's weak, palm heavy, mom's sp- ahem" I sighed after doing so and sorted out a to-do-list
1. Eat to gain fat, fat is an essential nutrient of the body that gives it energy, without it, my body will be running in battery-saver mode to save as much fat as possible.
2. try to find another place to stay, something like an orphanage, anything is better than that bastard's place.
3. Kill that bastard someday
After listing out the necessities, I searched around my body for anything useful and found a pouch on my hip.
"Lockpicking kit, rusted dagger, and some ration. Sneaky little thief lady are you heh"
Opening one of the rations it contained beef jerky, bread, and water, none was nutrient rich but it would stave off starvation at least.
After stuffing the bread and jerky and watering it down, I reached out for the dagger and took a couple of swings to it.
Shorter than I would have liked but it would be for now.
Stretching my muscles I looked up between the two walls of the alley and jumped, grabbing the nearest brick that was sticking out a little.
Pulling my body with moderate difficulty I made my way up the building and reached the rooftop.
With a clearer view of the area, I saw the streets were almost the same surroundings but far away there seemed to be a cleaner district and people clothed with clean shirts.
"Thank god I almost thought I went into a dystopia where people don't know how to be an architect" Remembering that one movie with the exact scenario.
Jumping down safely I traveled to the nicer-looking district to find an orphanage there.
Weaving through the alleyway I quickly made it here within a reasonable time.
Exploring around I felt many eyes on me, like garbage in the middle of a mountain of gold coins my shabby appearance sticks out like a sore thumb.
Re-adjusting my hood to hide my appearance I came to a church of sorts and entered.
Inside was a sister praying to an armored statue, presumably (one of) the gods of this world.
"Umm excuse me could you help me?" I called out to the sister.
"In the name of Helm, how could I help-" The sister turned to see me and the friendly aura instantly dropped after seeing my appearance.
"Tch, what do you want beggar?" Reading her expression I could easily guess what her mood is
"Could you give me some food?"
"Food? for a beggar? sure we have a surplus supply for needy beggars for you"
She went to the back and returned with a pile of trash in her hand.
Dropping it below my feet she shooed me away.
"Here is some food, go share it with your fellow friends" Sighing I left without saying anything.
Hearing a mouth click behind me and doors closing I search around for any more churches.
But once I do they always have the same reaction of disgust.
Beggars seem to be considered a low social status, low enough to be looked at like livestock.
Looking at the sun approaching dusk soon gave up trying to find a stay and moved back to the slum.
On the way, I found a wealthy-looking man with a pocket on his back, hearing faint clacking from the pocket.
Trying to re-consider stealing that pocket I gave up, but my good conscience prevented me from doing so.
But in the next scene changed my mind.
"Good sir, could you spare me some coin" A kid who looked dirty and malnourished begged on the sidewalk and attracted his attention.
Without words, he came to the kid and kicked the kid who was begging causing a commotion.
"Go back to where you lived rat and begged somewhere else"
Afraid the kid collected all the coins he accumulated and ran.
My eyes sharped and decided to return some karma towards the guy.
After waiting for a little, he went in my direction and I too walked toward him.
His eyes went hostile at first but quickly returned to the road as if he were in a hurry.
As we passed I stretched my hand and grabbed the coin in his back but as I did the world turned grey and time stopped as a chatlog in the corner popped up and the sound of dice rolling filled my ears.
[Rolling Sleight of Hand with a disadvantage: {10, 2} 2+7 = 9.. fail, the man noticed the slight pull and turned to see you]
"You have got to be kidding me" I whispered
The world returned to its original color and time resumed again
"Hmm? Hey! Thief!" The man screamed, quick-witted I sprinted towards the alleyway.
"Thief come back here!" voices came from behind, as a flood of people pursued me.
Scanning any method of escape, I found a set of loose bricks on the walls and quickly scaled up the walls escaping by jumping from rooftop to rooftop.