A Cautious Rat

In the dark, a man with thin arms, thin cheeks, and a fat belly quietly made his way through the alleyways. Every ten steps or so, he could check to confirm that no one was trailing him, and would directly turn into a new street if he saw someone coming towards him, even if they were just barely in eye's reach. Halfway along his journey, he stepped into a dilapidated bar, and after nodding to the single bartender on duty, made his way into the back of the bar, stepping into a small enclosed chamber where he changed his cloths, swapping out of the dreary black garbs he had been wearing into a somewhat presentable suit of clothing, featuring a muted gray and brown that smelled lightly of alcohol.

Turning to a corner of the room, he moved aside a chair before pulling a knife out of his waistband and using it to lodge open a board on the floor, revealing a small enclave that he stashed his original wear into, before replacing the board and the chair and turning to look at the dim copper mirror on the back of the door and slightly messing up his attire before stepping out the room, suddenly featuring a somewhat slovenly appearance.

Exiting the bar from the back, the man walked through the streets, stumbling as he went, looking entirely wasted, but still carefully kept an eye on any dark corners or potential spots for ambush. This time around, he didn't avoid any passersbys, instead stumbling past them as if he was unaware of their presence, although he took great care to not step too close to anyone, keeping a distance of over a foot at all times.

Slowly but surely, he made his way over to the wall that separated the rich district from the rest of the village, and after taking a few quick steps forward, appeared to have fallen against the wall. Using one hand to support himself against the wall, his other hand fumbled around with his pants, before eventually pulling them partway down, revealing his naked ass, before he pissed onto the bottom of the wall.

Sensing the gazes on his back disappearing one by one, the man's face that was shrouded by the wall revealed a quick derisive smile, although he quickly hid it before finishing his business. Pulling his pants back up, he continued stumbling, leaning against the wall as he did so, taking care to confirm that nobody was trailing him once again.

As he walked alongside the wall, the man suddenly stopped, staring at the somewhat bruised vines that were crawling down the wall. But after seeing that the trail of bruised vines seemed to trail across quite a section of the wall, and were no higher then his knee, eventually calmed down, realizing it was likely some idiot child dragging a stick across the wall in boredom.

Despite this, the man exercised additional caution, keeping his right hand on his waist where he kept his knife. Taking a few steps forward following the wall, the man then made a gagging motion, sweeping his eyes across the nearby alleyways as he did so, before changing his direction and leaving the wall, stepping back into the nearby buildings, where he walked around the perimeter of his territory checking spots that he had once noted to confirm that there was no one lying in ambush. Seeing that there was nothing, the man eventually made his way back towards the wall, finding the spot that Ava had found earlier in the day, where a hidden door lie behind the vines.

Once again leaning against the wall, looking as if he was about to fall over, the man's eyes quickly scanned the seams of the door, as well as the top of the door to confirm that the door had remained unopened while he was away. If there was a single sign that indicated that someone had found the door, and not simply just passed by, he would directly leave this place, and never return, even if the majority of his wealth was hidden inside.

Confirming that all of his safeguards were in place, and the thin seal he placed on the other end of the door was unbroken, indicating no one had opened the door, or slipped a knife through, the man let out a sigh of relief, finally accepting that some idiot kid had probably passed by the wall.

Once again making a quick check to confirm that there was nobody nearby, the man slipped his knife into the groove of the wall, before deftly lifting up a latch that was hidden on the other end of the wall, before directly pushing the wall in and entering, before quickly closing the door behind him and resetting the latch, alongside two sets of locks.

Only then did the man finally let down his guard, his tense muscles relaxing as he took off his scarf to reveal the face of the Rat, the local underground head of the village. Of course, as the place was just a village, the Rat's notoriety and competition couldn't be considered all that high, but as it was the biggest village in the vicinity, and was showing signs of developing into a town through the development in the last decade, and the pressure of Bosbody's wealth and prestige, the Rat couldn't help but live in tenterhooks, worried that some outsider would come and try to take his head in order to establish their place in the village's underworld.

As the rat was lifting the scarf over his face, he suddenly tensed and jumped backwards, approaching the door, but in the end wasn't fast enough, and could only let out a helpless grunt as a large shard of glass pierced through his abdomen. Before him stood Ava, staring at him with silver gray eyes that seemed to sparkle a hint of gold in the unilluminated room.

Both of Ava's hands were around the glass shard, firmly pressing it into the Rat's stomach, slightly twisting as she did so. It was clear she was unexperienced from the way she pushed to the slight trickle of blood running down her fingers, but not a single tremble was felt in her hands as she continued to apply pressure pushing the glass shard further and further in, before she took two steps back, staring at the Rat attentively.

Letting out a cough, the Rat slouched to the floor, one hand pressed against the cloth wrapping that was pressing against his stomach, and the other lying by his side. Keeping his head lowered, he gasped, "What'd you want? Wealth? Information? Territory I'll leave tomorrow, I'll be as good as dead as far as you need to know, just let me live."

"I want the town permit."

Hearing the soft scratchy voice of a girl, the Rat couldn't help but raise his head with difficulty, seeing Ava's face through the darkness, he couldn't help but shout out in surprise, "It's you!"