Togseph was no ordinary catfolk—no, he was a hairless one. The only saving grace in all of it was the absence of high elves in Tabnoth, at least as far as he knew. Togseph couldn't stand being called a "bipedal rat" by those uppity snobs.
Still dressed in his black-and-white-striped prison scrubs, he had no change of clothes to speak of. At the moment, he was lingering at the new, under-construction Tabnoth Museum. He didn't have much better to do, so he figured he might as well scope out all the potential things to steal.
At the center of the museum stood a massive glass case, roughly fifteen by fifteen feet. Inside was the skull of a Beholder—a grotesque, floating eyeball creature. Togseph admired the skull's jagged teeth, and, using the glass's reflection, carefully picked at his own with an outstretched claw.
As he stood gawking at the display, a loud shout echoed down the museum hallway.
"Hey! Someone stop those thieves! They've taken the meteor!"
Togseph turned to see a group of three thieves racing down the corridor, dressed in black and wearing carnival animal masks. Hot on their heels was a fiery-haired gnomish woman, shouting as she gave chase.
For a moment, Togseph considered looting the museum while the commotion kept everyone distracted. But then a cleverer plan struck him: why not chase the thieves himself? Once they were outside, he could take the meteor from them. That wasn't stealing—at least not technically. And besides, they probably had a buyer lined up. Togseph grinned, imagining how much he could ransom it for.
Togseph stepped outside, trailing the thieves while keeping a low profile. He didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. Once the crew of thieves had slipped through the doorway and that gnomish girl seemed to have abandoned her pursuit, he sprang into action. The thieves leapt from rooftop to rooftop, but Togseph, no stranger to acrobatics, wasn't far behind. Moving with agility, he propelled himself forward on all fours, steadily closing the gap.
The thieves Togseph was chasing eventually realized he was after them and stopped running. The three turned around to face him. Togseph landed with a thud on the red-tiled rooftop where they had gathered, brushing off the dust from his clothes.
"Hey, pal, what's your deal? You want something from us?" asked the one in the hare carnival mask, slowly drawing a rapier from his side.
To Togseph, the trio was an unimpressive bunch. The largest, wearing a gorilla mask, carried the meteor and had a sledgehammer strapped to his back. The scrawny one in the hare mask held the dueling sword. The last, sporting a dog mask, stood unarmed.
"Right now, I'm just trying to make ends meet, so if you don't mind handing over your loot to save your skins, we can skip the part where I smash you all." Togseph says, shifting on the rooftop and raising his guard.
"Oh, really? You think we're just gonna give up our hard-earned prize to some ugly cat schmuck?" The one in the hare mask retorts.
"Yeah, we're not pushovers. It's three against one," the one in the gorilla mask adds.
"Uh, guys, I don't know about you, but he was faster than us earlier, so maybe we should just give up and ask the boss for help?" The dog-masked one says, his voice shaking from the back.
"Oh, Dog, go pee yourself somewhere else, if you're not gonna help at least carry the meteorite," the Hare scoffs.
"Okay, Hare!" Dog yelps, voice filled with shame, as he reluctantly takes the meteor from Gorilla.
It all happened in what seemed like an instant. Hare charged at Togseph with a stab, but Togseph weaved around the blade, twisting Hare's wrist to disarm him. Gorilla swung his sledgehammer, aiming to crush Togseph, but Togseph carefully hid behind Hare. In that moment, Togseph launched a flying axe kick at Hare before shoving him into Gorilla. As Gorilla grabbed Hare to move him out of the way, Togseph drew a pistol and shot Gorilla straight in the heart. Gorilla stumbled backward, shocked, frantically clutching at the bullet wound.
"No!" Hare screamed, grabbing onto Gorilla as though trying to stop the bleeding. It was in that moment of distress that Togseph noticed a slight feminine pitch to his voice.
Togseph didn't dwell on the detail, swiftly punching Hare in the face, cracking her mask. That was when Togseph saw it—the gentle face of a young wood elf girl. She couldn't have been older than eighteen, and Togseph was taken aback by the discovery. She was crying now, blood streaming down her forehead. Togseph watched as Gorilla fell to the ground, and she knelt beside him, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood.
Togseph then gently stepped over Gorilla to remove his mask. Beneath it was the face of a young orcish teen.
"Rahhha!" The girl screamed, swiping at Togseph.
Togseph nimbly stepped back out of the way.
"You have no right to look at his face, you asshole!" The girl screamed between hiccups and tears.
By this point, Togseph was confused and slightly annoyed. He had wanted to kill the lot, but now this whole situation had turned into some sort of moral dilemma. In any case, Togseph wasn't about to play the sympathetic hero; he wanted the meteor, and he wanted to leave.
Togseph glanced over at Dog, expecting some kind of emotional reaction, but Dog just stood there, unmoving. With a sigh, Togseph turned his attention back to the girl, whose head was now turned toward him. Without a sound, she swiftly rose to her feet and, with a scream of rage, charged straight at him.
Togseph's pistol had only one shot. He slid the spent gun into his pocket and, without hesitation, landed a merciless haymaker square into the girl's jaw. She stumbled back, dazed, giving Togseph the opportunity to finish the job. He spun on his heels, landing a roundhouse kick that knocked her lights out.
Togseph then looked over at Dog. "Hand it over, bud," he said, gesturing for him with one hand.
Dog stood motionless.
Without a second thought, Togseph reached into his cloak, beneath his prison scrubs, and pulled out a dagger. In one smooth motion, he hurled it at Dog with lightning speed.
Dog caught the blade between his index finger and thumb.
Togseph's eyes widened in disbelief. He hadn't expected anything from the thief, but that catch—that was something else.
Dog then jumped off the building. Togseph ran to the edge and peered down, but by the time he looked over the ledge, Dog had already disappeared.