Chapter 8 - Curiosity busted the cat

I was heading for the darker side of the courtyard, hunting bugs as I went. I wanted to get a better idea of how my instincts worked, and the bugs made for good and safe practice. After sneaking and swatting my way across about a quarter of the courtyard, I spotted something in the corner of the area that had me ignoring my current target, lifting my head eagerly to inspect it: An opening in the walls of the buildings!

I hastily made my way over to inspect the opening. It was a narrow alleyway, stuck between the building with the veranda and the building across from the inn. The crates and barrels stacked haphazardly throughout were barely visible, the high walls on either side seemingly amplifying the darkness of the shadows. The smell in the alleyway was dank and moist, and a strong pungent smell was coming off one of the crates near the entrance, which my instincts did not like much at all.

Only one thing caught my eye though, past the barrels and crates more buildings were visible and there was a large amount of open space between them and the alley. Barely containing my excitement I jumped up on the closest barrel and looked over towards the other side of the alley.

Moonlight illuminated the other side, casting its pale light on the square paving stones of the road situated just outside the alley. Yes! Freedom, finally! Using the various containers in the alley, I jumped across to the other end of the alley in short order. A crate sitting in the mouth of the alley provided a nice elevated platform as I studied the street before me.

Across from me was another wall of buildings, though these ones were more like terraced houses, rather than the larger commercial or industrial buildings I had seen so far. Close by to the right was an intersection, a slightly narrower road crossing the one I was on. I had a hard time making anything out past the intersection due to my blurry vision, so I instead turned my head to study the buildings to my left. The terraced houses continued along the entire street and were not much to look at, but I had more luck on my side of the street.

The building closest to me seemed to be some sort of shop. It had a large window facing the street and a sign depicting vials filled with colorful liquids hung over a door carved with fanciful patterns. Large angular runes stretched across the top of the sign, proclaiming something in a language I did not understand.

‘Damn, I’ll have to learn how to read all over again won’t I?’ I realized, sighing.

Past the door, a stall sat on the sidewalk, covered in rough fabric. Something held the fabric taut over the frame of the stall in some way, and further down the street, I could barely make out more shapes with similar covers.

‘Hm, I wonder why they do that? It doesn’t seem like it would stop a thief…’

My musing was interrupted as the covering of the stall closest to me fluttered in a passing breeze. It seemed the cover on this stall wasn’t as well secured as it looked. Not one to squander an opportunity for exploration, I jumped down to the ground and walked over to investigate.

As I reached the stall, I saw that the rough fabric was held down by small metal pins, like the ones used in my previous world to hold down tents: a thin metal rod with a kink at one end. It seemed the owner of the stall had been careless, the pin which was supposed to hold down the seam of the fabric lay loose on the stones, the two pieces of fabric fluttering in the wind.

‘Well, well, it’s not trespassing if the door’s unlocked, right?’ I mused, shushing the voice in the back of my mind that piped up with an ‘actually…’

Pushing myself in below the table of the stall was easy enough, but another challenge presented itself: getting up on top of the surface above me. Excepting where I had entered the cloth was secured tightly around the entire stall, which meant there was no room to jump up past it.

‘Well,’ I thought, ‘This might have stumped a normal cat, but I’m not a normal cat now am I.’ I attempted a smirk, but given my facial anatomy it probably just looked creepy.

I headed back behind the stall to study the pins there. They were driven through leather-reinforced holes in the fabric and into the gaps between the paving stones. I frowned at the stupid pieces of metal ineffectually even going as far as trying to pull one with my teeth, only receiving a slight metallic taste in my mouth as a reward. I was on the verge of giving up on the stall for tonight when I suddenly had an idea, I just needed the correct ingredients. I quickly headed back to the alleyway in search of loot. A small pile of debris behind one of the boxes gave me what I needed: a long piece of wood and a thick piece of ceramic.

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I pulled the two pieces over to the cart and looked over my pillage proudly. The bit of wood was about as thick and wide as my paws, and slightly longer than my body; the piece of ceramic was thick and square, its side length slightly less than the width of the wood. With these few pieces, I would have the magical power of mechanics by my side, using the amazing power of levers to their full advantage!

At least, that was the idea... Now I only had the problem of putting the pieces together, and judging from how sore my jaw had become from pulling these pieces over here, this was not going to be easy. I was really starting to miss having hands.

After doing the easy part of positioning the piece of ceramic in front of the first pin and moving the piece of wood over I sat down to ponder my next step. The hardest part was that I had to lift the piece of wood while still retaining enough control so that I could wedge it between the pin and the piece. Well, there was nothing to it but to try.

Using my mouth, I grabbed the wood by the middle of the long side and lifted as far as I could and started trudging backward. After making sure I had aligned the plank with my improvised fulcrum, I gently tipped the piece of wood towards the pin and then shimmied sideways until the wood made contact with metal. At this point, the ache in my jaw muscles was becoming much stronger, but I forced myself to keep my pace slow as I lowered the wood onto the piece of ceramic, it wouldn’t do to lose all my progress this far in. The piece of wood started to slant back up as it came to rest against the ceramic and then, finally, the weight pressing against my jaw lessened as the wood caught on the hook of the pin.

I slowly released my grip on the wood and it seemed to rest steadily on its own. After doing a quick celebratory fist-pump, I positioned myself behind the lever and reached up with my front paws, applying pressure on the piece of wood.

The pins might have been wedged solidly between the paving stones, but it mattered not when faced against Milos Marvelous Mechanical Mastery, sending pin after pin flying in rapid succession. At least, that’s what I told myself as I sat down to calm my heavy breathing and rest my aching jaw, studying the result of what must have been at least 10 minutes of work: five pins laid ineffectually against the paving stones behind the stall, the cloth they once held fluttering in the wind.

Unfortunately, said wind wasn’t strong enough to push the cloth off the stall, so I still had to make the jump blind. After heading back under the cloth and positioning myself as well as I could with the cloth in the way, I took the jump, pushing the cloth away with my body and landing on the wooden surface of the stall. Before I could get my bearings, however, the strong smell of potions assaulted my nose, sending me into a small sneezing frenzy until I managed to push my head through the seam of the cloth cover and take a breath of fresh air.

‘Eugh, what’s in that stuff anyway? It’s like strong alcohol mixed with spices mixed with industrial cleaning agents...’ I thought.

After letting my nose rest for a moment, I turned back and took a hesitant sniff. The stale air was still inundated by the smell of potions, but if I kept my breathing shallow I could handle it.

Satisfied I wouldn’t choke to death on potion vapor, I turned around fully to examine the area below the cloth cover. Two poles on either side of the stall held the cloth up, creating a small tent-shaped space. I stood on a small ledge that faced the store, with the rest of the “table” raised up, forming a storage box. The top of the box was divided into two hinged lids, held together by a padlock in the middle

‘Hm… that keyhole looks pretty large, I bet I could get a claw in there,’ I mused, further ignoring that little voice trying to tell me that I was definitely getting into non-grey-area crime here.

I walked over to get a closer look, and it did indeed seem like I could get a claw into the keyhole. I had no idea how lockpicking worked, but the build of the lock was closer to the simple spring locks I had seen in random internet videos during my past life. Opening the lock would only require me to apply pressure on the spring and pull on the loop at the same time.

I extended the claws on one of my forepaws and pushed one of them into the keyhole of the padlock, probing for anything useful. After a short while, I found something that felt like a spring, though I quickly realized that I couldn’t exert enough force from my current position. I removed my claw and tried to push the padlock up on its side so I could reach inside the keyhole better. Cursing my lack of proper digits, I fumbled with the lock, dropping it several times before I managed to set it upright.

‘Ok, now I just need to push against the spring, like this…’ I thought, slowly pushing my claw into the lock.

Suddenly, a hand appeared in the seam of the cloth, gripping it. The hand ripped the cover aside fiercely, revealing a broad-shouldered man in leather armor. His deep red eyes found me and he let out a menacing growl, brandishing a short dagger in his other hand.

In my fright, I pressed myself down tightly against the stall and responded to his growl with a terrified howl. A short moment later, I realized that nothing else was happening and that the man's expression had become confused. Inspecting the man hesitantly, I noticed the badge which was proudly displayed on his chest, depicting a shield. My eyes widened as a sudden realization struck me.

I glanced down to where my claw was still clearly inside of the lock, then back up at what I now recognized to be a guard. “This is not what it looks like, officer, I swear!”