A small shadow slid along the wall that surrounded the area the Uthlyn government liked to call a park. It wasn't a park, not really, more like just a few blades of grass and a tree or two between a couple of vacant benches that lined one of the busier streets.
Well, not all of the benches were vacant. A gryphon sat on one, focused on the sketchbook in his lap. His bag was open on the ground, ripe for the picking, and it was toward this bag that the shadow crept.
Xanti was a talented pickpocket. She had lifted many things from many different kinds of people, and she had never once been caught. Never. She had never stolen from a gryphon before, in fact the only gryphon she'd ever seen was a teacher at her school, but how different could it be, really? Gryphons carried money too, and surely they sometimes carried snacks? Snacks were always Xanti's favorite thing to lift.
She slid along the wall, her dark grey jacket blending into the stone. She kept the sun in front of her so her shadow was cast backwards, away from the bench and her target. Not that it made much difference, since it was almost midday and therefore she had almost no shadow. Her small form went unnoticed easily, allowing her to pass between people on the street without them ever realizing she'd been there. Now, she put that small form to even better use.
There were only a couple of feet between the wall and the bench, and the gryphon faced away from her, his nose in his drawing. Perfect. As she stepped forward she sank smoothly toward the ground, so that by the time she'd reached the bench she was on her belly crawling army-style across the sparse grass.
The bag sat open on the ground next to the gryphon's feet, pushed halfway under the bench. She could work with halfway, she thought. It was better than it being completely exposed. Checking that he was still engrossed in his work, she slid forward silently until she was completely under the bench. Leaning forward, she peeked in his bag, careful to make no sound as she slid a hand inside to grab whatever she could.
