Bevy Titsfelt

The clattering of wagons, horse hooves and footsteps cascaded over the cobblestone bridge. Unbeknownst to all the bridges passerby's a certain individual of ill repute had tucked himself away in the bridge's shadow. Bevy Titsfelt was a common thief. One among the hundreds who lurked Novigrad's streets and taverns. Skulking around trying to make what scratch that he could from picking pockets and pilfering unattended money bags as he had just done at the Rosemary and Thyme. Like most professional thieves, Bevy saw nothing wrong with the way he earned his money. Could he have found a more legitimate means of earning coin? Perhaps. However, options in a world run by humans were limited for a Halfling. His short height and light build rendered him ineligible for most types of manual labor. He could try to ply a trade like many other members of his race, but he never had a knack for carpentry or painting. No, thieving was his only skill, and it was a skill that he excelled at. Besides, it wasn't as if he was doing any real harm. The musicians he had just robbed could easily make back the money he took after a few more performances, they likely would have just spent it on drinks and whoring anyway.

"It's far better off being put to use in my hands," he reasoned.

Yes, Bevy Titsfelt was indeed nothing more than a common thief. The one uncommon thing about him though was the tool that had allowed him to be successful at thieving for several years now. The tool in question was a ring, a simple silver ring that he wore on his left ring finger. It was two sizes too big for his small Halfling digits, and he would often have to keep that hand balled up into a fist to keep the ring from slipping off. When he had it on, as he did at that moment, he was completely invisible to the rest of the world.

However, there was a drawback, as their often tends to be with useful magical items. The ring could only make invisible that which it was in direct contact with. Meaning that when Bevy put the ring on his finger it made his body invisible but not the clothes he was wearing or any loot that he pilfered, unless the purses he stole were also touching the ring.

He set down the heavy purse he was carrying from the Rosemary and Thyme next to the sewer grate under the bridge. To an onlooker it would have been as if the purse had appeared out of thin air. Then he went over to a barrel that was also propped up against the grate. The barrel was the same height he was so he had to turn it over to reach inside. From within the barrel he pulled out his clothes. A pair of woolen trousers and a shabby woolen coat with some Halfling sized smallclothes and a wool lined cap. He slipped the ring off his finger rendering him visible and naked for the world to see. Fortunately, his position between the two abutments that upheld the bridge hid him from the sidelong glances of any passerby's.

He put the ring in the purse he snatched earlier then began to get dressed. Quickly pulling on his smallclothes, trousers, shirt, and cap. No shoes though, the soles of a Halfling's feet were tough as leather making shoes rather redundant. In fact the only times you would ever catch a Halfling wearing shoes was if they intended to show off some wealth or status. Bevy for his part had neither of these things and thus no need for shoes. What he did have was a fat purse of coins that he was merrily beginning to count as he sat down in front of the sewer grate. His legs hung over the edge of the canal as he made himself comfortable counting out his ill-gotten gains.

Coins clinked as he counted away, "thirty, forty, fifty, sixty crowns! Not bad. Hmm, looks like there's some florens in here. Getting those exchanged will be a pain, I can't take these to Vimmy he'll ask too many questions about where I got them. And the shadier money dealers won't think twice about gypping me on the bloody exchange fee." He finished counting them, all together it was sixty-seven crowns eighty-five coppers and even a gold ducat. Quite a haul. The Halfling thief smiled extremely pleased with himself. "Perhaps I should make a deposit at one of the temples, just to thank the gods for my good luck today," he laughed. He knew he would do no such thing.

He bounced the heavy purse gingerly in his hairy hands and began to whistle a merry tune as he moved to leave his hiding place under the bridge. Suddenly in his ears were split with a scream, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He heard a voice yell through the sewer grate. He turned his head to see a young boy with what appeared to be red hair running towards him. The boy threw something at the grate and before he had a second to duck a massive explosion rocked his senses and sent him flying into the canal.

When Bevy came back to his senses the first thing he noticed was the cold embrace of the canal water. The next thing he noticed was that he couldn't breathe. His survival instincts gripped him like a fever as he flapped his hairy arms and legs to the surface. His head broke through the foamy surface with a gasp, and when the water cleared from his eyes he saw that he had been swept away by the canals current. He struggled to get his bearings as his tiny Halfling body fought through the current to get to safety. As he swam he saw a boat passing through costing along the current. Not thinking twice he swam over to the boat and grabbed it at the front. Gripping tightly to the boats edge he tried to pull himself up but before he could he felt a boot hit him hard in the head.

"Bugger off nonhuman, this ain't no ride for your lot," the man in the boat said. Bevy couldn't get a good look at his face but his boots were brown and made of hard leather.

"Please sir, I'll drown!" Bevy begged.

"Then fucking drown!" the man shouted before cracking his paddle down on Bevy's head. An audible crack could be heard as Bevy lost his grip on the boat. He stopped struggling, and the current briskly carried him away leaving streaks of red in his wake.

A/N: Ok so I know this chapter is super short, especially considering the fact that it's been so long since my last update. The main function here was to do some setup work for how the rest of the plot is going to go. The next chapter will get back to the main cast of characters and will be significantly longer. I finally have a break off from school so now I can write in earnest. I had originally planned for this chapter to be much longer but for the plot that I had in mind I needed to switch to Meril's point of view and I didn't feel good switching POV characters mid-chapter. So I decided to just make Bevy's chapter short and give Meril a good long chapter in the next update.