Here's something I started a few days ago. It's a concept I wanted to try, and here's the first part. Enjoy.
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Colin slid along the edge of the roof, carefully keeping solid footing on the slanted shingles that made up the inner edge of the roof. It was precarious footing, but it was the only way that he was going to be able to reach his target. He leaned back against an outset window, using it to steady his perch, before continuing his way along the roof.
Below him, most of the people in the close cluster of houses had long since headed to bed. The most obvious exceptions were the men that marched in connected circles about the base of the mayoral house, protecting its contents from people like Colin.
A leap took Colin to the next roof. His feet slid a bit on the slick shingles, but he expertly adjusted his footing before it could cause him major trouble. He lay flat against the shingles for a few moments, watching the guards. He was only two houses away, and they were paid to be observant. He had to make sure that they did not see him if they heard anything. The cycles continued as always, however, and he quickly crossed the breadth of the roof and leapt for a balcony on the side of the other house. He couldn't risk moving directly to the roof, so the balcony presented the opportunity he needed to get to the roof quietly. Once he had steadied himself, he leapt up and pulled himself onto the roof.
The mayor's house was purposely built further away from its neighbors, so jumping to the roof was impossible. The more affluent occupants of the house gave Colin another option, however, in the decorative metal flowerboxes that hung from the side of the roof. It was a bad angle, but if he could time the jump right and reach the edge of the box with his fingertips, he had done this enough that he could probably pull himself up.
The only other problem was the guards. The sound of the metal creaking under his weight would be loud even if he succeeded perfectly. That meant that he had to avoid being seen or heard until he hit the flowerbox. If he was lucky enough to avoid alerting them with his landing, that would be good; otherwise, he needed all the time he could get to pull of this job before he got caught.
He angled himself towards his destination so that he could run immediately as soon as he saw an opening in the patrols. He watched them quietly until he found his opportunity, then he took off at a sprint.
The shingles tried to deny him the necessary traction to achieve his speed, but he fought against them as he crested the peak of the roof. As the slant of the roof began to work in his favor, he pushed off of the peak to give himself the last bit of speed, then launched himself towards the box. He flew over the wall that separated- the mayoral estate from the rest of town, and just managed to get one last kick off the top of it as he flew for his mark.
For the first time ever, he jumped farther than he needed to. His hands still managed to find purchase in the wrought iron that surrounded the flowerbed, but his legs swung wildly underneath the ledge. He choked to avoid crying out, and quickly worked his way along the available handholds, until he finally stood on the potted soil inside the box. He didn't have time to check if he had been spotted; he worked a thin rod of metal in between the halves of the door and pulled up, opening the latch completely. He pressed through, just in time to hear the voice of a guard calling an alarm. He had to make sure that he avoided his entrance point when he left...
The halls before him were still familiar, even after all of these years. He wasted no time in getting to his destination. He heard footsteps rushing through the house, but he focused on keeping himself moving, only sliding to a stop when the maze of halls emptied out into a large room bearing a set of double doors and several guards. They quickly closed on him as soon as they saw him, but he had no intention of fighting. Instead, as they closed, he dodged through their ranks quickly, managing to pick the keys from the belt of a guard. He rolled to avoid tripping over any feet, and came back up in time to juke around the tip of a halberd that was turned in his direction. He grabbed the shaft of the weapon and pulled it, and its shocked owner, around in front of the door with him. It wasn't much, but it gave him time to unlock the door quickly. For anyone else, it would have taken ages to find the right key, but he had been here before.
The door opened for him, and he jammed the halberd in the door quickly enough to clothesline its owner on his own weapon. The other guards were quickly approaching, but Colin had direct access to the item he was seeking. He rushed to the pedestal in the center of the room, and took the object inside along with its case. He slipped them into a bag at his side, then ran around the border of the room, simply to gain speed. The guards stopped just inside the doorway, unsure of what he was doing. There was no other way out; had he failed to account for this?
Colin suddenly turned and sprinted back towards them. They took up defensive positions just inside the doorway, but were caught off guard when he vaulted from the pedestal and flew in their direction. Had they taken care to raise a weapon against him, the chase would have ended quickly. As it was, he caught the top of the doorjamb in his fingertips and swung himself straight through one of the guards. The man stumbled backwards while Colin switched to holding onto the man until he fell over, just in case his wits returned enough to try to attack him. As it was, they both hit the ground without any such incident, and Colin used his momentum to roll off of the man and straight back into the maze of halls.
He turned right now, after having come from the left, and headed for the nearest window. As expected, there were men waiting for him. Colin charged them, and leapt for the wall beside them at the last possible minute. He grasped the decorative molding that ran around the room just below the ceiling, and used it to transfer his momentum along the wall and past his pursuers. He kicked off of the wall a moment before coming down, turned him so that he faced the window directly. He ignored the latch on the window, and simply snapped it as he carried straight through it.
There was no stopping at this point. Although there was a flowerbox outside of the window, he was already past the edge by the time his next foot tried to hit the ground. He readied himself as he fell two stories, but performed an expert role as soon as he made contact with the ground. He was already at a running pace before he was standing again, and what few guards remained in the courtyard were easily left in the dust as he made for the gate.
He was not fool enough to think that it would be open at this point, but it did give him the most direct route back to town. The guards in the courtyard, not knowing their opponent, had clustered before the gate to town. They assumed he would try to make his escape that way, and made no move to head him off once they saw him. A few moments later, while they still waited for him at the gate, he leapt and took two steps along the wall, using a corner to keep himself moving. After his second step, his next foot hit a column in the wall, which he used to propel himself upward. The wall was twenty feet high, but he knew better than to try to clear it all in one move. Instead, he managed to grasp a decorative ledge fifteen feet from the ground, a ledge only present on the columns bordering the gate. Once this height had been achieved, he pulled himself towards the wall and took two more steps up, just enough to get the top of the wall within reach. He vaulted over the wall in one more fluid motion, leaving the guards to try to open the gates while he dropped back into the town.
By the time the guards were able to leave the gates, Colin had slipped back into the shadows between the close-clustered homes that made up the town outside of the manor. He checked his bag to make sure that the item remained after his escape. The bag had fortunately been made with his style of movement in mind, and the prize he had sought remained in his possession.
Colin sighed his relief and watched for a few more moments while the guards moved out with torched. It would make no difference. They had only a few more minutes left to find him, and after that he would be home free.
With his first task complete, he returned to where his journey began. He stood in the shadows behind a small house at the edge of town, and slipped his fingers into the open window. He cracked it open further, and verified that the girl inside remained asleep. She hadn't stirred an inch since he left her earlier that night. He pulled himself quietly into the room, and closed and latched the window behind him.
With a sigh, Colin removed the case from his bag and set it on a small, round table that occupied a corner of the room. He ran his fingers along the seal on top of the box before smiling. He wished he could check the contents of the box, but that would defeat the purpose. He could not be truly certain of his success until the young girl opened it for him. It was the only way.
A quiet tolling from the front of the house drew his attention from his prize, and he gave a quiet sigh. He glanced at his gloved hands, and noted as the thick, black leather thinned and merged itself with his hands. The palms remained similar to before, albeit thicker and black, but the backs of his hands began to grow black fur. As this happened, his fingers adjusted, still capable of grasping things, but now different in their appearance, especially where his thumbs were concerned.
At this same time, the black mask that concealed his eyes from view merged as well, immediately sprouting black fur to match the color of its material. Blue eyes darkened and became brown, and ears became larger and moved towards the top of his head. His patchwork, brown and gray clothing went through a similar process as his mask and gloves, merging with his skin, and beginning to grow fur that closely matched the color of the cloth. It covered him entirely in mere moments, brown and grey on the back, and lighter grey on his underbelly. As his boots and leggings underwent the process, they also began to twist slightly, changing in shape until they best suited quadrupedal movement. He stayed standing, though, as his boots changed to strong paws, more than capable of keeping him upright when he wished to stand up straight.
Finally, as the waves of fur finished covering his body, it moved up to complete on his head. The brown and grey from everywhere else now covered his face entirely, only excepting his nose, which grew leathery and black. Moments later, his face pushed out into a triangular muzzle, filled with sharp teeth and a longer tongue.
The final change to his form was an addition, as a long, ringed tail grew behind him. It lashed involuntarily for a few strokes, then sat still behind him.
With his form now fully changed, the raccoon began to shrink down. It was always the most disorienting part, and Colin dropped to all fours so his head would not be swimming when it finished. As the shrinking stopped, the raccoon looked again at the low bed where the girl slept. The thin cushion was now level with his eye when he stood on two feet, and this allowed him to climb up and curl under the girl's arm. She must have felt the soft fur against her arm, as she reached out and sleepily stroked her pet's fur. Colin sighed and focused his eyes on the case. He prayed that this would work. He had come too far to fail now.
