The merchant was fat, alone, and drunk.
The last two were because of the full moon: the woman he had arrived with was currently doing whatever it was women did on these nights, and he had promptly seized on the opportunity to spend some of the gold Vilim smelled in his belt pouch.
Vilim had a feeling that the woman was more likely to be the brains of the merchant's business than his wife.
Any other night, that might have limited the amount of money he might have on him; but Vilim knew for a fact that items brought into the temple at this time didn't always make it out with their owners.
He knew some of the younger girls who found it an easy lift personally.
Vilim had always wondered what went on in the temples every month, but it was the kind of question that everybody seemed to agree you just don't ask.
The only girl that he felt comfortable enough with to ask was Hira; and her answer was to turn around and pop him in the nose. And to top it all off, as he sat there in surprise, staring at the blood from his nose running down his hand, she had suddenly snorted a laugh and said, "Now you know."
Women were weird.
Vilim watched as the merchant staggered out of another tavern, and counted to ten. The merchant's guard followed by the time he got to seven. The guard's arms remained crossed and topped with a glare as long as the merchant kept stumbling forward; the instant the merchant gave any sign of turning around, he suddenly became engrossed in studying whatever random stretch of wall he happened to be next to.
The guard was hiding from his ward, not anybody else who might be watching.
Vilim kept his eye on the merchant long enough to confirm that he was, indeed, walking with more haste than the mere need for more wine would explain; and on the guard long enough to confirm that he hadn't spotted the need to clear the alley Vilim was hiding in.
Vilim rolled his shoulders, loosening the flap covering the diagonal slits cut into the back of his shirt. He had already been feeling at the hems with the tips of his wings, and he quickly and quietly pushed them out to hang behind him.
It wasn't that people with wings were any kind of outcast or anything. People of every race and breed were everywhere, at every level of society. But wings were so much easier to conceal than details like Vilim's reptilian eyes and red hair; so much more identifiable than more common bits like the claws at the ends of his fingers; and of so much more limited use than his tail.
So it was his practice to keep them concealed at all times unless there was a reasonable chance he might need to use them.
Like if he might end up being chased.
Vilim made himself one with the shadows and debris at the edge of the alley and waited. It was only a couple seconds before the merchant turned down the alleyway and faced the wall across from Vilim, fumbling at his waist.
Vilim wasted no time, but stepped up behind him and slashed with his dagger as the merchant's pants started to fall. The coin purse liberated, Vilim stepped back and started towards the other end of the alley.
"Hey, you!"
Vilim wasn't so foolish as to actually freeze, but he did look over his shoulder to see the other guard that had been with the merchant's partner, the one that Vilim had somehow missed also shadowing him, coming straight at him.
The merchant, oblivious to the water he was splashing onto the guard's boots. "Pachek? What are you doing–"
Pachek dashed forward with a roar, startling the merchant onto his backside and eliciting an oath about the mess he was now making on his own clothes.
Vilim ran.
At first Vilim kept his leathery wings tucked in tight, reducing drag as he picked up speed toward the wooden wall, about a head taller than a tall human, at the end of the alley.
Vilim's wings weren't particularly powerful. He definitely couldn't fly with them. But he had a trick or two he could do with them, and using tall walls to his benefit was one of them.
Vilim had previously stacked a small pile of debris a short distance from the wall. He now ran up it, jumping at the top with enough of a push backwards to make sure the pile collapsed behind him.
A step, two, three, along the wall to gain height; and when he could push against it no longer, he gave one last jump away from the wall.
Meanwhile he had been holding his wings at the ready, so that at the top of his jump he gave one, two good pumps, achieving the extra hand or two of height he needed to make it to the wall and clear it.
Vilim expertly turned to face the guard with a cheeky grin as he went over the wall.
That's how he saw that the guard was smiling too.
"Moonless night!" Vilim cursed under his breath as he converted as much of his fall into a glide as his wings would allow, and hit the ground running.
He had gone maybe half a dozen steps when the sound of wood splintering came from behind him.
Vilim didn't need to look over his shoulder to know the outcome of that sound, or read the expressions on the faces around him. The fact that there was no follow up sound told him everything he needed to know.
He did note, however, the return of female faces to the crowds, and pondered as he ran how he might turn this to his favor.
Turning castleward at the next street, Vilim saw a slightly thicker crowd gathered where women were still streaming out of a temple. Folding his wings across his back, he took advantage of his small size and dashed through one of the thicker parts of the crowd. Surprised gasps and muttered oaths trailed behind him, but he made it through.
A dozen steps later, he chanced a look back. The guard had maneuvered past the input of people by the simple incentive of… going around.
Great. A guard with both brawn and a brain.
Vilim focused his eyes on the castle up ahead of him and came up with a plan. It was a long shot, but his luck never seemed to get him into trouble it wasn't willing to get him out of eventually.
So far, anyway.
Two more streets he ran, dodging people, hopping obstructions, putting his street skills to his best possible use. But it seemed every time he risked a glance behind him, the guard had gained another pace.
Finally they were up against the castle wall, and he turned. Another street, then another, and he could almost feel the guard's breath on his neck.
Then the clearing in front of the castle entrance, and looming in front of him was a group of finely dressed girls. He was going to run into the redhead!
Suddenly a halfcat was in front of him, shielding the girl with her body.
The redhead waved her arms wildly, and moved – at the same time and in the same direction as Vilim. Vilim narrowly dodged the halfcat, but ran into the redhead at full speed.
Down they tumbled, bouncing, rolling, limbs tangling, finally skidding to a stop several paces later.
The girl was up first, and immediately started screaming at Vilim and kicking him. Vilim tried to shield his face and belly, but several kicks clearly got through, drawing some sympathetic and more vindictive responses from onlookers.
The girl's companions finally pulled her off of him after a good thirty seconds, and that was when the guard stepped in and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.
"Hey!" the girl's honey-haired companion said. "Leave him alone! My sister is fine!"
"My apologies, milady," the guard said, "but the reason this dragonborn ran into your sister is because he stole something that belongs to my master."
"What?" Vilim yelled. "No I didn't, this man just started chasing me for no reason!"
"Oh?" the guard shot back. "You snuck up behind him as he was taking a piss, and swiped at his belt for no reason?"
"Look, I don't know what you're talking about, man. That crazy drunk was peeing on my bed!"
The guard hesitated, and Vilim pressed the advantage. "Look, search me, man. I ain't got nothing on me." The guard's eyes narrowed, and Vilim knew he had him.
"If anything, the time you wasted chasing me gave some real thief a chance to get to him."
Vilim held his hands out and stepped forward. He could tell by the look in the guard's eyes that he already knew what he would find, but he made a thorough search anyway.
"I don't know how you got rid of it," the guard muttered for Vilim's ears only when he finished, "but I advise you to be careful where you spend it."
With one last, long look at the miserable young thief, that might have held the faintest tinge of professional appreciation, the guard departed.
The girls watched the guard leave, and then the redhead stepped forward sullenly.
"Sorry for kicking you," she said, extending her hand. When he stared at it like it was a viper, she rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever." She turned back to her companions. "Let's go get soggy," she told the halfcat.
Vilim stayed sitting on the side of the road as he watched them leave. Part of him wanted to follow them, see where they were going; but as he thought about it, he decided that would probably be a bad idea.
Instead he waited a while until he felt he had recovered enough to not be unsteady on his feet and set off into the city.
After about a half hour of wandering the streets, making sure that the guard wasn't coming back for a second try, Vilim found his way to an inn not far from the castle called The Soggy Kitty.
He had to poke his head into a few private rooms before he found the one he was looking for.
Three girls were just finishing a private meal. The halfcat and the blonde were still wearing the same dresses they had been wearing when they had run into each other a half hour earlier, but the redhead had changed into clothes much more suitable for Vilim's company.
The halfcat was startled when she recognized Vilim. "Wait, what are you–"
She was cut off by a hand motion from Mona.
Aadhira, on the other hand, smiled when she saw him. "Took you long enough, Vilim," she said. "Looking for this?"
And she tossed him the merchant's purse.