“Almost got it...just a little bit closer.”

In the pale light from a dingy candle behind him, Volex tried his best to fumble with the lock on the door behind him. His paws traced the bulky shape of the metal, tried desperately to find a weak point or opening. This lock was obviously made to be very hard for someone like himself to just easily pick, but he ignored it for the time being, opting instead to give it his best shot. Besides...the allure of the treasures that awaited him in the next room made his tail wag and his mouth water. 'This was so exciting,' he thought in a very small unoccupied part of his mind. It was hard to think straight when your entire being was so completely, tunneled and focused on one task, even as simple as picking a lock. 'I feel like the great thieves of old...' his tail picked up its eager wagging at the thought of being compared to Vernadi or someone as interesting and legendary. Maybe someday he would be respected and revered like those men. It all came down to this act right here...

Growling in frustration, the fox pulled his claw out of the keyhole. He could tell he was doing more harm than good. To strip the keyhole would banish any chance of him picked the lock and he'd have to move straight to breaking it, something he was loath to do in any circumstance. A good thief was undetectable and invisible. And while he had managed to get in here without any sort of incident –he thought-- turning his muzzle behind him and peering through the rest of the room towards the small hallway where the flickering candlelight still hung; huffing a sigh of relief as he made sure absolutely no one had detected his presence and raised the alarms. He would be in more trouble than he cared to think about—lest he lose his nerve and be unable to continue. Instead he swung his muzzle back to the task at paw, fondling the padlock and trying to get the best elevation to slip into the keyhole and unlock it. Being unable to find a veritable weak spot, he growled again, tongue slipping out in concentration as he slipped a paw deep into one of his pockets, fishing out a metal rod Volex had nicked from the local forge had been using as a makeshift lockpick and pushed it into the molding of the metal.