Hustlin

___Another night in the dark projects known as the Lower Commons. Grunty, in fox form, stalked carefully among the crowded streets, dodging kicks and teenaged street urchins who would catch her in most circumstances and seek to do her harm. Rapidly, her nose twitched and detected various scents. Her whiskers kept her informed of which way the wind was blowing, and she would adjust her movements quickly to remain downwind at all times. Adjusting to a south wind, she nearly tripped some woman in a very short skirt and very tall heels, all because there was the smell of something illegal in the air.
___Well, drugs had a unique smell. Usually they were the purified form of some plant, thus it had the smell of some plant extract multiplied a few hundred times. In theory, that could be a legal something or other, but she had yet to learn the distinction between the smell of a legal drugs and an illegal one.
___There it was! The man who was the source of the scent… he seemed like a normal middle class citizen… the sort who would live on the east end of city during the day. Grunty didn’t care, all she wanted was to get whatever he had and sell it. Gathering a limited amount of momentum, she kicked off from where she was and leapt at the pocket where the smell came from the strongest, fangs bared to the roots…
___…and slashed the bag, spilling it over the street.

___Not letting the last failure get her down, she doesn’t even stop. The man did notice a huge hole ripped in his pocket, but by the time he stopped to look, the black fox had already dissolved into the crowd. Once again, she went springing through the crowds in search of something similar. A good bit of the stuff had powdered her nose, though. As her suspicions confirmed, it gave her a high like the weed. Her thoughts drift to mixing it with the kind of weed she has so her brand will be distinctive.
___Well, she had those thoughts until the side effects of the powder kicked in. Suddenly, she couldn’t stop thinking about that incubus fellow she’d met. Him and all the other guys she’d met… this male version of the same sort of spirit she was had been in heaven… he never liked her because she was riff raff, but she started imagining what he looked like undressed.
___Such thoughts were still in her mind when she found another pusher… or person who’d been sold to. This guy had the substance in his back pocket, so she found herself staring at his butt, and as a result, she didn’t have quite as much momentum as she needed when she made the leap, meaning her jaws came closed on the lower back of his legs.
___The man was furious, whirling around with a roar of wrath that was somehow alluring. Grunty released him and sprung back, her jaws agape in a lustful grin. The gun the man pulled was anything but romantic, though, and she had to dodge a few shots, only with the closest of bullets being driven back into the crowd.

___Perhaps this stuff had some applications. Though it did have this decidedly annoying side effect, a man might want to slip it into a female’s drink and see her open up a bit. She certainly thought this stuff wasn’t wearing off nearly fast enough. Then again, she hadn’t taken a break since first inhaling it, and she found herself constantly licking the white stuff off of her mouth and nose as her mind wandered to places that it really shouldn’t have been in. That and she lacked the self control to banish the images from her mind. Over time, they did grow more persistent. A man on his way out of the district was her next target, but the intrusive images messed up her concentration until instead of leaping and making a snap at his wallet, he simply nipped his butt, completely forgetting what form she was in.
___The man, like the last, misinterpreted the playful way she leapt about him and got out a baseball bat. Yipping playfully, she dodged a swing and jumped to lick him in the face. He fiercely grabbed her by the back of the neck and flung her into the wall of a nearby alley. Being a spirit, she simply phased through the wall and landed behind the brick.

___That stuff was really something. She was to the point where she could hardly wanted to steal any more. She just wanted to go back to Adrian’s house and solicit him and possibly get kicked out. Losing her only friend? Whatever, she didn’t care any more. Her mind was no longer in what she did, she simply turned mechanically with the wind.
___Her feet were beginning to give out beneath her… she grew tired, yet more restless with every step. The night seemed somehow tinted red or pink. With her tongue hanging out, she turned into the wind and followed the scent of the white powder until she came across a man. Long story short, he looked like he wasn’t to be trifled with. A purple snake or dragon’s head adorned his neck, and he had one eye missing, or rather, sealed shut by a scar that ran from his forehead down to his left cheek.
___Yet, he was an alluring fellow. He wore a long leather trench coat, the pocket of which held the prize she was after. For once, she forced herself to concentrate and build up to full speed, resisting the urge to undress him with her eyes. It wasn’t enough, though. She tore away the bottom part of the trench coat with the pocket intact, but she hadn’t built up enough momentum, nor was the crowd thick enough around him to allow her to disappear. The pain of a stomp coursed through her back, then darkness…