A large shadow passed by the window, blocking the starlight from the sky above for a second. The shop was unassuming, but just about every business that didn't want to attract too much attention had to be in this city. Darkveil City. A place filled with thieves and criminals of all sorts, and this shop was no different.

"Yes, I think this is the right place..." Beist muttered under his breath as he peered through the window and checked a note in one of his hands. He'd heard tales of a shop that had a few unethical practices. That was nothing surprising, given the location. What really got him though was that the shop was testing their products on animals. Magical animals! Beist just couldn't stand for such a thing!

Now, he was sneaking around through alleyways trying to get to the shop to free the animals as stealthily as he could. Sadly, stealthy as Beist could be was abysmally noticeable due to his gigantic size and beastly appearance. A practiced thief he certainly was not either.

He fiddled with the door, trying to open it, but it was locked. Damn. He really should have expected that. Who in their right mind in this city wouldn't lock their door? Breaking it down would be loud, but it seemed like the only option at the moment. He had no idea how to pick locks.

Before busting down the door, Beist looked up and down the alley to make sure no one was watching him.

---

Bringing Pets:
Griffon (Sleigh Bell, In Pet Pocket)
Woolful (My Best Friend, In Space Pocket)
Mephit (In Space Pocket)

You're sure not making this easy, you know that, right?

The thought was to herself as she scouted the place. She  had been waiting for him to make a wish, but this wasn't exactly what she had in mind. If this was what she was supposed to do however, then she aimed to see it through. She had to do this carefully and calculated. Gripping the lockpick she fashioned between her fingers, she took a breath, remembering why she was here.

Yesterday, I had a dream about the dog I owned while I was still studying. In my youth, he was all I had for company. I suppose even at my age, I can feel alone. 

If she wasn't supposed to do this, he wouldn't have brought it up.  Of course, as she found out by playing with his necromancy books, she pretty quickly discovered she had no talent for it. But then came in mind that she could do the next best thing. She was a great demon and thief. Whatever it is, she would find it. 

That was the reasoning that that had led her to perching on top of the roof of the shop. It was simple. All she had to was break in, sneak into where they were keeping the animals and keep them all quiet, find a dog that looks exactly like the old man's and get it to come home with her willingly, and then make her exit before anyone notices a thing, and then everything would wrap itself up in a neat package. 

With that in mind, she took a quick look left to right to see if anyone was watching before she readied herself to make her move.....and it was right about this moment of putting her plan into action of how she was actually going to get the animals up through the roof and carry them out. Inwardly she cursed. She had planned everything all out except for that one detail keeping her amazing plan down.

Moving to the alleyway, she eyed for a few crates she had strategically stacked to jump back down, now realizing that the only way this would actually work is she'd have to go into through one of the doors properly. With a somewhat impulsive leap, trying to make sure she wasn't noticed standing on the roof for too long, she jumped. 

The creaking of the crate was audible and lot less quiet than she liked at the sudden impact, and her ankles were feeling a little sore, but that wasn't as much of a problem as lifting her head up to notice a hulking figure approaching. Did he work here? This might be a problem. She had to come up with something believable now that she was spotted with thieves tools in hand, skulking about.

"Oh....hey! Is this not the way to the bakery? Weelll....I'll just be going then." She attempted to excuse herself, though from the position she was in, she wasn't really in a good spot to make a clean get away without trying to brush right past him.

Beist jumped and let out a startled yelp as he suddenly heard something nearby. He quickly put his hands over his mouth to stifle his surprise and turned to see someone had jumped down onto the crates nearby and was looking directly at him.

"Oh, eh, no, this isn't the bakery..." He replied trying his best not to sound or look suspicious. What was she talking about? Was she not here to attack him for trying to break into this place? Well, at least that was good, but who knew how she would react to him breaking a door down?

Wait a moment. On closer inspection, were those lock picking tools in her hand? Beist wasn't startled by her appearance. No, he'd met Tieflings before and she looked like she could just be one of them. They were surprisingly common around these parts. Maybe it was something about being so close to so many volcanoes? A theory he would save for later. Right now he was more focused on those lock picking tools and why someone would be jumping down into an alley in the middle of the night with those in their hand. Her lie about looking for the bakery was also pretty obvious. The place wouldn't even be open at this hour. No, there was only one explanation and it might be a perfect opportunity for them both.

"Wait. Were you... about to break into this place?" He asked in a whisper, pointing to the door. "Maybe we could work together."

"Eh...what?"

She seemed genuinely amazed that he could see through her terrible lie. But the next thing out of his mouth, had really taken her off guard. This guy? A criminal? Mmmm....no. He didn't look like the type. He was way too big to be sneaky. More importantly, he just didn't quite have the same feel to ones she had seen. Still...

For a good half minute, she eyed him as if trying to access whether or not he was being serious, before relaxing somewhat. It wasn't the kind of situation she had anticipated.  But evidentially, he wasn't working for the shop. That was a good start. She wasn't too sure exactly that this guy's deal was...but...she saw an opportunity for herself here if he was offering it. The best part of all, was she got the winning end of the deal.

If this went well, she might get a new partner in crime. Having someone who could do all the heavy lifting was definitely someone she wanted to have around. 

"Something like that...."

She kept her voice low. More importantly, this wasn't the best place where she could weigh all the pros and cons. If he was more trouble than he was worth, she could always just drop him again later. The bigger trouble was that even in the somewhat isolated alley, this wasn't the best place to talk. She would definitely make more trouble for herself if she really didn't get a move on. And if he happened to come in as handy as she hoped, that would be great.

"I was working on it. Little snag in my totally awesome plan. It was-aw, you don't even know. Can't even talk about it right now." 

She seemed genuinely disappointed that she wouldn't get to discuss it. Not even getting into how to even get these crates in place she had to manipulate the delivery office to drop them off a few weeks ago to get them ready for-ah, it was really depressing that nobody was going to know all the thought she had done for this. Still, she needed to move on and get it done. 

"...alright, yeah. If you want in, do it quick. We can go over the whole story, later. The longer we take to do this, the worst for both of us. Tried using the roof...not gonna work. Have to use a proper door."

She didn't really bother explaining it well what she was actually trying to do, figuring he probably wouldn't get it anyway, but...she also got the feeling that he wasn't planning to just screw her over later by offering. He could probably be trusted.

"Eh, what?"

Beist was confused. The whole story? Did she want to know why he was breaking into this place? Well, that was fair. He was a bit curious as to her own reasons as well, but he didn't think she'd explain it to him. But now she was offering to explain later? Of course, they didn't want to waste time going over their stories. They didn't want to take too long or they'd likely be caught by the actual owner of this place. That was true. There was no time to explain her totally aw-something plan right now.

He hadn't thought of using the roof, but from the sounds of it, she had and it wasn't a viable option. Not that he would have been able to fit through a chimney or anything like that, but it seemed there was no way in for her either. He would have been afraid of the roof collapsing under his weight. That would have been loud. No, he certainly wouldn't have tried the roof.

But what did she mean by "If you want in, do it quick"? Do what? Did she want him to just smash the door? That was exactly what he'd been hoping to avoid by enlisting her help here. Didn't she have lockpicking tools?

"Uh, weren't you going to pick the lock? That would be a lot quieter than if I smashed the door. Less likely to get us caught." Beist whispered, stepping back to make way for her and gesturing to the door.

"I gueessss, I could."  

She didn't really get what his confusion was. But she had to figure he was the kind of partner in crime she was looking for. He didn't need to know much, just follow along and carry all the heavy stuff. Maybe scare a few people too smart for their own good....she was already having fantasies about all the things they would do with this new found friendship, but it still wasn't the time. 

Whatever baffled him about accepting her offer, he hadn't called for the guard or alerted anyone yet, so he must be fine. If he wasn't going to stop her, she'd just worry about all the rest for later. Now, she had to take of this. Making her way to the door, she leaned over to get it to work.

"Keep an eye out for anyone coming."

Sitri ruled that short, simple, instruction was the best way to go. He did seem to at least understand the concepts of not just breaking anything you see. That was a good start. 

"Single Pin or hook...nah, better to just scrub. So, I'll just-" 

She mumbled a few sentences to herself. Not bothering explaining everything or the process she was doing, but she had apparently settled on a more jagged looking pick than the straight lines. She didn't cover the entire details, but whatever she did resulted in the sound of an audible click, and with what seemed like not much effort on her part.

As the lock had loosened and she slowly extracted her tools, the hold on the door had loosened, every so slightly creaking open. Now, was time for the big guy to shine. 

Sitri moved aside as the door went slightly ajar. and instead moved to get behind the larger figure that she was now apparently trusting to go inside and be the first one to make their way in. If there were any traps, as unfair as it was, he looked much better built to take them. Maybe it wasn't exactly brave, but a thief didn't need to look cool. Treasures didn't matter much if you would never live to tell about it. 

"A place like this looks all cute, but it wouldn't be housing the kind of animals it did without some stuff to keep them from getting out of control, so don't relax yet."

Beist watched as she worked, carefully selecting the proper tool for the job and picking the lock. He'd never picked a lock before, but it looked interesting. Maybe it was similar to alchemy or cooking. Were there set instructions to how to pick certain locks? Maybe it was just a procedural approach. While Beist was lost in thought, the door suddenly clicked open and she stepped back out of the way for him to enter first. Oh, how polite!

Beist pushed the door open and ducked down to practically a crawl to squeeze through the door into the building. Inside, he had to stay hunched over to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. The beast man wasn't stealthy or agile in his approach at all. The wooden floor boards creaked loudly under his weight and he struggled to try not to knock down any of the furniture as he made his way into the room.

The place looked like any old store. Shelves lined the walls in a large area for customers with a counter at the back. Behind the counter was a door that lead further into the building. The animals must be back there. With a quick glance around, Beist started walking further into the room.

Just a few steps further in, a line of silver wire on the floor was tugged by Beist's foot without him even noticing at all. A trap door in the ceiling suddenly opened up! Well, it was probably supposed to. The door couldn't open all the way thanks to the giant head brushed up against it.

"Ow! What..." Beist felt the impact on the top of his skull of the edge of the door. He stepped back, freeing the door, and a heavy spear blade suddenly fell out and impaled itself into the floor below while Beist rubbed the top of his head.

Sitri had flinched at the sudden sight of the large man hurting himself, and the spear come crashing down, just missing anything important. This is what she had wanted him before, but she didn't especially want him to have to get injured unnecessarily if he didn't have to be.



With all the commotion caused by him stepping through the place and the general mess of things made, she was a little worried about the noise alerting people. She hadn't really expected him too be too sneaky, but since he had gotten through the first section of what they seemed to have in mind for traps, she chose to push forward.



The sight of the spear however as she walked upwards, caused her eyes to narrowed. This was not the kind of thing used to just trap or contain. But with the first sign of danger over, the demon had made her move to simply get past it and walk to the back. The next couple locks sealing the back entrance weren't too bad, but she kept an eye out.



It didn't make sense that a place specifically designed to magical creatures would only resort to things like that. As she made her way through all the physical locks on the door keeping the containment room tight, she could notice the visible sight of a few etchings and engravings with a archaic glow. That might be a problem. While she understood magic, she wasn't exactly a pro at it.



Most likely it was a ward designed to reinforce the place. Fairly simple enough to just overpower, but it would be a lot more destructive than she would like. And for obvious reasons, she didn't want to use fire magic to burn in here unless she absolutely had to. As the batch of triples locks came undone, she pointed the engravings out to her new heist partner.



"Going to have to be by force unless you somehow got any ideas."

"Hmmm. Let me see here." Beist walked forward and leaned down to take a closer look at the engravings. He wasn't exactly an expert with magical wards either. His expertise lied far more in alchemical pursuits and magical creatures than in engraved wards, but he had a bit of magical knowledge. Some potions required a bit of spell work on top of the various reagents needing to be mixed together.

He put a hand to his chin and stroked his beard idly as he examined the engravings. They were fairly simple in design. It looked to be some kind of pad that required something specific pressed to it in order for it to deactivate. Likely the hand of the building's owner, maybe their eye or just a finger. Beist's expertise wasn't enough to tell for certain what it could be, and even if he could, they wouldn't be able to open it themself.

From a bag at his waist, Beist pulled out a glass jar with a little blob of green slime inside. Strangely, the blob looked like it was moving of its own volition rather than just shifting with the movements of the container. With a little smile at the jar, Beist pulled out the large cork and tipped it toward the engraving. A stream of green liquid flowed out of the bottle as the glob stayed within. The liquid hit the engraving and let out an acidic sizzle as it was dissolved away, the glow fading to nothing. Beist corked the jar again and put it away after whispering "Good job!" to it.

---

Oozeling

"Nice job!" 

It was somewhat impressive to see him turn out to be so resourceful. She had never thought to use a kind of method like this, but it had worked. This gave the demon the idea of weighing and exploring the possibilities of oozes in ways she hadn't thought of. If you could use them to break wards, what else you could use them for? Slime was actually pretty malleable. Perhaps, it could even follow up as being used for a mold for making keys, at least if it wasn't such an acidic one.

Still, it showed that the big monster thing had something of a brain going on more than she thought. That was helpful to her. The problem was solved anyway, so now all that was left was for her to open the door to get into the backroom. Though it had occurred to her now. Her new partner didn't seem interested in just raiding whatever looked valuable here. They had something specific in mind.  Almost like...

"It's the animals, you're here for, right?" 

She kept her voice low. Hmm. He probably wasn't planning on eating them. No. If anything, from the way he used that bottle it seemed almost like he was a collector of something? Her brain wracked around for a moment.

"So, you're trying to gather parts for something, right? Obviously, you aren't here just looting the place for money. Well...I don't care about the whole details. Still, I need a whole one. Dog. Or something like it." 

She didn't really bother to explain the whole story, but folded her arms for a moment. 

"But I think there's a problem of exactly what to do with all of them to get any out quietly." 

Beist looked down at her, horrified.

"Wha- P- parts? What do you mean by parts? Yes, I'm here for the animals, but I want to free them, not disassemble them like some...  some monster!" Beist said, a bit louder than he meant to. He was just too surprised and horrified by the suggestion that he might be here to take pieces of the animals for some strange project. What kind of monster would have need of animal parts? He wasn't some necromancer!

"What are you going to do with the dog?" Beist asked, suddenly concerned and suspicious of the young girl's intentions. If she could so casually suggest something so barbaric, what did that mean for what she was panning to do? What if she was going to treat that dog worse than this place already was!?

Beist placed a hand on the door, holding it closed, and moved in front of it to stop her from going in. He wasn't an experienced fighter and had little to no combat skills, but he was at least very strong and durable. He was confident enough in that to step up to this person and try to defend the animals from her. She was definitely a criminal from what he'd seen so far and he worried she might be an experienced assassin or something along those lines, but he couldn't just let her do whatever horrible things she was planning to that dog.

"Fre...eE"...that's how you say it?" 

At first, she was probably focusing on the wrong thing as he made his move to interrupt her advancement. Okay, so he wasn't going to gather materials. He had knowledge of alchemy though, but wasn't on a material hunt. And he seemed genuinely curious about what the purpose of this was. He seemed to actually be rather docile in nature and considered the animals his friends. She could still work with this type. It was probably best to still use simple words, however.

"Weell, it's all hey! Whatcha doing!" You know? Wait..." 


Her first attempt to try and explain things apparently didn't quite seem to sell it well, so how could she cover this? She still didn't really get this either.

"Okay, so basically the old guy told me to. I mean...he didn't actually say "Go get a dog" but that's PRETTY MUCH what he said. It's like-

In a bit of a rambling speech, she tried her best to explain and cover all the parts he really needed to know....selectively choosing to leave out the parts involving her dabbling in necromancy for this purpose, now getting the impression he wouldn't be too for it. But she stuck to the core notes mostly relevant, even if it was clear she was leaving a lot of stuff out like what exactly her relationship with this person was, or who he was precisely, but she mostly stuck to the core details that he needed to know. 

"-So, I thought then all he needed was a new one, right? And it's nice to help your friends when they need it."

Beist was just growing even more confused as she went on. Did... did she not understand the word free? Maybe she wasn't as much of a mater thief as he'd thought. Was she actually a total amateur this whole time? Who exactly did he end up working with here? The confusion was easy to read on his face as he stared down at her. He still didn't even know her name. Actually neither of them had introduced themself, had they?

What old guy was she talking about? So she was hired by someone and was here to get the dog for them? But wait, he hadn't actually said to go get a dog? This wasn't making any sense. Beist could feel himself getting a headache from all of the confusion and her ramblings didn't help explain a single thing. They just made him have more questions. He raised a hand to massage his temples.

"Wait, stop." Beist held another hand out to signal for her to stop talking. "Why don't we start over? My name is Beist. I am an alchemist and I am here to free the animals because they are being mistreated, not for parts or anything so grisly as that. Now, who are you and why are you here? What are your plans for that dog?" Beist asked simply.

In the silence that comes from the night, there’s suddenly a flapping of wings; small webs of light sparks from the maw of a creature in the darkness as it swoops down in the streets of Darkveil. Its feet land with small taps against the cobblestone. Its claws click as it takes a few curious steps, cyan eyes bright and gleaming in the darkness as it looks into the open door of a nearby building.

Upon seeing the shadows far beyond in the darkness conversing, their eyes narrow into slits. Their body slowly turns towards the open door, wings stretching open as if stalking prey. They can hear Beist’s voice from within, drawing their curiosity and excitement towards him as they step carefully over the spear that had fallen from the ceiling much earlier upon their entry.

From farther away still, there is another sound; a rhythmic thrum, soft yet notable if one were to listen closely; which approaches the site of their break-in rather quickly.

Suddenly, the shadow of the creature which steps into the shop bellows out; its voice cracks, growing deeper, but still with a childishly high-pitched tone to it as it launches itself in the air and goes straight for Beist. It could be easily misunderstood as a vicious creature of Darkveil; a demon of the night; but it chatters excitedly while it flaps around Beist’s head in a way that might seem familiar to him, and seems intent to climb on him.

The rhythmic thrumming of pawsteps grows closer, and another silhouette darkens the doorframe; this one, armed. “Stop!” Light erupts from their hand, revealing the rabbitaur’s silhouette as she pulls back, and launches a spear into the room; lightning crackles and hisses just before the spear slams into the opposite door frame— likely meant more as a scare tactic than a killing blow.

But, the sparks emitted from the spear illuminate Nimbus’ excited form as he flutters around Beist with cheerful yips and calls of familiarity at Beist’s left shoulder, and reveals the large beast man to the woman at the door. Leni-Aura pales a bit, realizing she knows exactly who this is. “Hah— Beist!? What are you doing?” Nimbus tries to land on Beist’s shoulder again, looking much bigger than the last time they’d met. He chirps and chatters excitedly. “I nearly killed you!” Leni-Aura drops her voice into a whisper of a hiss, not able to see the smaller individual with him quite as well in the darkness.

"AHHH- eh?" Beist involuntarily let out a scream of fear as he was suddenly ambushed by the winged creature and a crackling spear of lightning shot past his head. And then he saw Leni in the door and realized his assaulter was none other than her adorable little drake, Nimbus! His fear immediately turned around as he smiled happily.

"Oh, Leni! And little Nimbus! My, you've gotten so big since I last saw you! I don't know how much longer I can calle you little! You'll be large enough to ride before I know it!" Beist said as he grabbed the chirping, squiring drake by the sides and held him up in front of him. The drake had grown quite a bit larger since they'd seen each other and Beist treated him like a grandchild he hadn't seen in a while.

"Are you eating enough? Would you like a candy?" Beist asked, unwrapping and holding out a strawberry candy for the drake. With the drake stealing all his attention, he almost forgot he'd nearly had a spear go through his chest until he glanced at Leni and saw her irritated expression. His ears drooped and his tail dropped to the ground, his smile suddenly a little nervous.

"L- Leni... It's good to see you! I, uh... I see you're using my gift! That makes me quite happy!" He pointed to the lightning spear lodged in the wall that he'd reluctantly given her as a Winter's Crown present.

"We were-" Beist began, but realized that the devil girl he'd been with before was now nowhere to be seen. Had she fled? She had been a bit awkward, but Beist hadn't thought she was really a bad person even if her comment about animal parts had made him quite concerned. He looked around for her for a moment before deciding she was gone and turning back to Leni. "I was just, well... breaking into this place....?"

Hm. That was probably not the best explanation he could have given, was it?