Despite being caught and/or stopped from claiming his golden treasures on numerous occasions, Elias never had an issue admitting his addiction to thievery, nor did he ever take it personally when his very being was verbally (or physically) assaulted by those he'd attempted to victimize, as it was all his own doing in the first place and he at least knew how to take responsibility. What Elias would never stand for, however, was being falsely accused of a crime he actually didn't commit.
Not in the past month had Elias stolen anything particularly valuable, and the city guard had never caught onto him even when he had. What Elias faced was not only a completely false accusation, but a fairly intense dose of prejudice as well. Somewhere in New Alexandria, afoolish Zanaryan was ruining his kinsmen's good name, and in the process had indirectly put Elias in contention with the law.
After processing what the guard had said, Elias quickly scanned his own appearance and noticed that indeed, he was wearing a pair of brown boots. After some thought, Elias noted that he had spent some time away from New Alexandria on a very important errand, and thusly the law may have changed in his absence—perhaps wearing certain shades of boots was enough to get arrested these days?
Regardless of what might have changed, Elias refused to be taken in simply because he happened to be Zanaryan. Turning around, Elias motioned to his back with his hands, emphasizing the two small protrusions made by his wing stumps.