Alley Cat Part 1

Mahannana peered around the corner. Why, she had no idea; the alley was almost empty, and the action made her look suspicious! “Hmm, let’s see. Where were we last night?” She wandered down the alley, looking for the right spot. Fortunately, this alley was one of the wider ones that accommodated the backyards of shops and houses. If it wasn’t for that, there likely wouldn’t have been any way to differentiate one spot from the next.

She came to a spot where the large alley was crosscut by one of the narrow pedestrian passageways. ‘And there’s the hay pile!’ It was easy to tell that it was the one from last night because there was scattered hay for a good five-foot radius, as if something had impacted into the pile. The mage looked at the ground, noting the dried mud caked on the cobblestones. “Okay, so I came from that way-” she looked to her left. “-And cast the spell for this puddle. Aqua came in from the way I just came, and the hay pile is ahead so...” She looked to the right and saw the shadowy expanse of narrow passageways. “They disappeared into that?  Everyone in Umbria must have passed through there at some point yesterday!"

Mahannana let out an exasperated sigh and slapped her forehead. ‘Maybe Mr. Aqua was right that this is pointless.’ It wasn’t like she hadn’t known it was a long shot, but it was still frustrating. ‘That wallet is something precious to him. If I only had one single item that reminded me of mama, losing it would break me. He’s a normal, hardworking person without much money to begin with, and that wallet wasn’t anything fancy!' She clenched her fist. ‘It pisses me off that someone would just take it from him! Where do the hell do you get off hurting other people for an amount of money that you could find in the gutter? He had a handful of gold coins, if that! I’m gonna kick their ass when I find them!’

She unclenched her hand and forced herself to methodically look over every inch of her Immediate surroundings. There had to be something that she could do to figure out where the thief went! ‘Wait, they didn’t run into the alley! They jumped onto the roof!’ Mahannana walked over to the back of the building that she recalled the thief jumping on the night before. Summoning her staff, she willed herself to levitate up to the roof.

 It didn’t look much different from a typical apartment rooftop, aside from the lack of pipes and electrical wiring. Mahannana attempted to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to deal with the awkward situation of explaining why she was looking around a stranger's roof. As she passed by a raised flower bed, she paused. There was a single, clear footprint on its edge! Her enthusiasm quickly died; how could she be sure that it was from the thief?

‘It rained yesterday afternoon, so it couldn’t have been from earlier in the day. Logically, it could only have gotten here sometime between last night and now. There aren’t any similar footprints around, so it doesn’t seem to be from someone tending the garden.’ It occurred to her that the person had been able to jump higher than the building to avoid the puddle, in addition to having the strength to kick Lir-Chan out of the air. ‘If they’re that athletic then...!’ She hurried back to the edge of the roof where she’d just landed. Sure enough, there was a footprint on the railing that was identically to the one on the garden bed. ‘They definitely jumped straight to there from the railing! So, if they kept that pace....’ There were two more raised flower beds, each six feet apart from the others. Mahannana checked both and, as she suspected, there were footprints where the individual would have had to land as they bounded across the roof. A few feet from the last garden bed, there was a stool with another footprint. ‘Then, they jumped on the railing and...crap!’ Mahannana looked down and saw that this side of the roof overlooked another wide alley. Unlike the side she’d just come from there was a steady stream of people and animals passing through. ‘There’s no way I’d be able to tell if they were down there! For all I know, they could have either landed on an awning and bounced up to the roofs over there, or they could have took off running once they hit the street. Damn it!’

She ground her teeth in frustration. Just when it felt like she might have something to go on...! Mahannana squinted at the footprint as if it would give up the ID of the person who left it behind. She was suddenly struck by just how small it was. ‘Their feet can’t be any bigger than Elfrida-Chan's!’ Thinking back to the night before, the cloaked person had been short; maybe up to her own waist. She hadn’t registered it at the time because everything had happened so fast, but the person who’d robbed Aqua was so small that they had to either be a dwarf or a child, and these footprints confirmed it. Mahannana’s heart beat faster, encouraged by having a sliver of information to work with. She bit her thumb as she tried to force herself to recall any more details she might have missed.

‘They were wearing a hooded cloak so I couldn’t see their face, but there did seem to be two lumps on their head under the hood. Horns or ears, maybe? Their voice sounded young, but that doesn’t help because Elfrida sounds like she’s a child even though she’s a grown adult. I’m pretty sure the voice was feminine, though.’ A flash of gray caught her eye and Mahannana bent over About a foot down from the edge, a small tuff of fur was snagged on an old nail. ‘This looks fresh! I thought they might have ears and, if they’re around Elfrida-Chan's size, this would be where a tail would hang down if they were crouching on the railing. A beast-man of some kind, maybe?’ Carefully, she pulled the fur free. ‘ I can’t tell what this is. I should take it to the library and see if Elfrida-Chan can help me. If I can identify what sort of beast-man it came from, that would narrow my search.’

After one last sweep of the roof, Mahannana levitated herself down to the alley on the opposite side of the building. In spite of her urge to run right for the library, she hesitated. ‘It’s useless to try and track them any father but maybe I should try talking to some of the locals to see if they know anything? With the way that the thief bumped into Aqua, it seems like they’re experienced at pickpocketing.’ The girl stood at the edge of the road, chewing on her nail and mumbling to herself as she tried to will some courage into existence. ‘I really don’t want to have to talk to total strangers, though...'

Suddenly, she felt an itch in her spine like she was being watched. Looking up, Mahannana was horrified to realize that an old man sitting by the wall with his pipe was looking at her with suspicion. She froze. ‘Ah! What do I say? ‘ The teenager forced an awkward smile onto her face. “H-hi! Good morning! I’m so sorry to bother you!” She forced herself to do a stiff bow. “I promise, I’m not up to anything weird! I’m just a mage looking for a lost item.”

The old man visibly relaxed. "Forgive me for my reaction, you just startled me, flying down from the roof like that! I was just worried that you were that darn prowler again!” Mahannana’s ear’s perked up. “Prowler?” “Yep. She’s mainly active in the alleyways and will swipe stuff off people, but lately, the hooligan has had the guts to start taking things from shops and houses! Just things that are right by the back doors, but still! She’s too fast to catch, though, so she's just out there on the loose!"

Mahannana had a feeling that the man might have some crucial information. “She? You’ve seen the thief?” The man tapped his pipe out against the crate he was sitting on. “Seen her? I caught the little bastard red-handed stealing tomatoes from my garden!” Mahannana smiled, realizing that she’d hit the jackpot.

“Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me more about this thief? Anything that you know. I think they might be the culprit I’m looking for.