The subtle sounds drifted softly through the parkway on the outskirts of town, almost drowned out by the chirps and songs of the earliest Starly and Kricketot, awake at the first signs of daylight. If they had been keeping an ear - or an antenna - out for it, they may have noticed the gentle scuffs slowly shifting, emerging from a heavy thicket of grassland with seemingly nothing the cause of it.
Until a claw popped into view, breaking through the dirt like dawn through the inky blue of the sky. A hole gradually opened up in the ground, before two purple arms threaded their way out, followed by a great puff of brown hair, and finally the head of Diane Lesterfield.
She gave a small sigh of relief, allowing herself a moment's rest now that she had made her exit. After the run-in with the Murkrow's gang the night before, the Gligar had decided she wasn't going to wait around to retrieve what they had stolen from her. Waking as early as she dared, Diane had flown herself through street after street, trying to spot anything that could have been the sinister trio's hideout. She had been in the air for what felt like an hour, when she came across a large bush at the edge of a dirt pathway, marked out by a small orange pennant and top hat laid either side of a well disguised entrance.
With her eyes on the target, Diane landed a good distance away, concealed deep in the swathes of tall grass, and after making sure there wasn't anyone else nearby, she thrust her arms into the ground and began to dig.
For the next several minutes, Diane clawed her way through the confines of the soil and rock, slowly bringing herself closer toward her target, pausing only when she began to hear the voices of the three night-dwellers up above her. One of which was the same voice she had heard in the alleyway earlier that night. She was definitely on the right track.
After a little while, she heard the sound of the gang making their way out of the hidden den, saying their goodbyes to one another, and heading back to their homes. Another few moments passed just to make sure they were gone, before the Gligar dug her way upward, and out into the den. Scurrying back and forth, Diane hunted in, around, beneath and behind almost everything in sight in her search to find what she needed. No shelves, no drawers, no chairs, no table, not even the smallest box was left unchecked, until eventually she came across the hiding spot it had been stashed away. Hastily pocketing it, along with a couple of other interesting looking items, Diane rapidly tore open an exit in the ground for herself, manouvered the furniture a little to conceal the holes she had left, and scrambled her way through the soil once more, and emerged back out into the open air.
She hadn't resurfaced in the long grass as she had planned, she must have lost her bearings a little in the rush of her rummaging through the hidden base, but that didn't worry her. She had covered her tracks well enough for now. The Gligar had gotten what she had set out for, and for the first time in a long while, just watched and admired the way it glimmered in the early morning sunlight, dangling from the thread it had been secured to.
Diane had gotten her Eviolite back.
*ka-WHOOMF!*
A clutch of Starly launched themselves into the air from a nearby tree, as the peace and tranquility of the dawn hours was shattered by a resounding crunch, a whole cavalcade of crashes both soft and sharp, and most worryingly for Diane, a distinct rush of air coming up through the tunnel around her.
Cautiously glancing over one shoulder, the little Gligar could only watch as the dust cloud began to disperse, and the last few leaves slowly fluttered down into the nine-foot deep sinkhole where the den used to be.
Scampering back to her feet, Diane scampered down the path for a few yards, before throwing her arms out to either side, spreading her wings, and getting herself airborne as quickly as she could.
The sooner she got back to the hostel, the better.
