>>58139975
>”A-Are you sure?”
>Slowly, you nodded your head.
>”Okay…”
>Hal looked on the verge of tears.
>”C-Check again?”
>You swallowed down a sigh.
>He didn’t know how easy it was to spot aura when you meditated.
>But you had to be patient.
>”Please?” The zoroark clasped his hands together.
>Were the situations reversed, you’d have asked the same.
>You humored the dark-type, closing your eyes and exhaling again.
>Long and slow, precisely the same as a minute ago, you opened your mind to aura.
>You and Hal stood out in the spacious living room.
>Around your crossed-legged, meditating form, Hal circled.
>He examined you from all angles.
>Hal radiated wishful thoughts and curiosity.
>A thin red claw reached out, but stopped short of touching the aura appendages rising from the back of your head.
>Widening your search, you saw the same as before.
>Insects crawled on the shady side of the house.
>The grass, bushes, and flowers gave off the auras you’ve come to expect.
>The sea of plants was broken by a squirrel hopping at random intervals.
>A crow landed on the gutters.
>Two children biked down the sidewalk, shouting to one another.
>Hal crouched low behind the couch as they passed.
>The neighbors’ homes had people… Cats… Dogs… And a pet iguana…
>Peering further was hopeless.
>Was it possible to track down one, singular aura among a city of tens of thousands?
>Every life was unique, but if it was possible to hone your senses to such a degree, that was years of training ahead of you.
>This time you sighed, coming back to reality.
>Hal made eye contact, the first time since talking in the junkyard hours earlier.
>You shook your head side to side.
>He was too hopeful
>And hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
>”It was a long shot, after all…” Hal mused, rubbing his temples.
>He’d prayed his son had merely hidden himself inside the house all the while.
>Some zorua behavioral instinct, or a game he was playing, he hypothesized.