Claus...was getting nowhere.
The boy stood at the edge of the street, people pushing past quickly to get to whichever shop piqued their fancy in the market town. Claus had been wandering the town for hours, checking shops and scanning the areas he passed through. But no matter how close he looked, how much he searched, it had yielded nothing.
No hints, no clues, nothing.
Hours wasted and nothing to show for it.
A hefty sigh escaped the boy's lips, his left hand gripping at the wrist of his right.
Ineffective. If he simply had his wings he'd be able to cover twice, no- four times- no- ten times as much ground in the same amount of time! A survey of the ward wouldn't be that hard! But he didn't have his wings. Only his own two feet and whatever little he'd been left with.
Surveying the area from the ground was proving to be fruitless...though, there was an argument to be made in that his surveillance of the area would be ineffective either way. When looking for missing people, you usually asked around, right? Whenever a chimera had gone missing in the past he asked where it had went...and that was more often than not quicker than if he had tried searching on his own.
A queasy feeling formed in the pit of Claus's stomach. In those cases, there was often no chimera to find anymore in the first place. It was a waste of time to look.
Claus took a deep breath, his left hand squeezing his right a little too tight.
No. Nope. Nope! This was nothing like those cases! He wasn't there anymore! So finding someone missing wouldn't have the same end result! It wouldn't! No!
He just...just had to change up his method! A new plan of attack!
Yeah...that was it! He was being inefficient! He had to start asking around if he wanted to find any clues. That was all he had to do! Ask people, ask as many has he could! Surely he'd figure out something, right? Get some answers? Maybe even find someone who knew the truth!
That was it! It just had to be!
Shaking his head, Claus finally stood all, head held high, and made his way down the street with a fragile determination coursing through his body.
Asking, questioning, interrogating.
That was how you gathered intel. He needed to stop being an observer and start inquiring. He'd start with the next person he saw when he stopped walking! Maybe an owner of a shop? Someone who saw people coming and going? Someone who saw everyone that came and we--
Claus yelped as he bumped into someone, stumbling back a good few steps. It took him longer than he would've liked to realize he'd been so lost in his head that he hadn't seen someone in front of him. He'd paid no mind to whomever may have been in his way! Anyone who may have simply been stopped and looking at the shop windows...
Mismatched eyes raised to look at whomever he had run into. Given how both he and the one he'd run into hadn't toppled over, they must not have been similar in height. And correct he was.
Cold fear washed over the boy as he stared up at the man he'd bumped into. The man towered over him.
...This was a mistake. This was a huge mistake. He'd messed up, he hadn't been paying attention and messed up. He would surely get in trouble, he would surely be yelled at, he would surely...
No, no stuttering, that wouldn't do. That didn't suit who he was.
He straightened himself up, and swallowed down the anxiously writhing feeling in his chest. He knew how to solve this, didn't he? With a breath, the fearful expression on his face began to ease into a far more neutral expression.
"I was not paying attention to my surroundings. It will not happen again."
He followed up in a far more calm and collected tone. This...this was terrible. While he had told himself he would try asking the first person he saw, he highly doubted this stranger would want to tell him anything with how rude he had been in running into him. Just his luck...
