Cobra's feet carried him farther and farther across the city. By the time he stopped, he didn't even recognize where he was, which was just fine by him. He concealed himself in the shadows of buildings to catch his breath.
By instinct more than anything, Cobra began passively observing the townspeople walking around, both with his eye and with his magic. A small part of him still wondered if there were more people out there acting like Minerva, while a much larger part was simply searching for a distraction. And people, generally, were a very good distraction.
The townspeople were melancholic both in motion and in soul. It was almost mid-morning, although with the thick grey clouds ominously building overhead, it could have passed for much later. With rain on the way, the people's thoughts were neatly divided into one of two categories: either a feeling of tiredness at the thought of rain or wanting to move quickly through whatever tasks they had so they could return inside as soon as possible. Cobra's body, already tired from everything that had happened so far, grew even wearier after listening to the people's crumbling mood at the upcoming weather.
He started to retreat even further into the shadows, hoping to eventually peel away somewhere that had little human activity. The forest by camp was sounding nicer and nicer by the minute. He wouldn't go back to camp until later, to avoid suspicion from Jellal. Macbeth might not let him piggyback off whatever he'd discovered, but hopefully, it wouldn't matter. For a moment, he found he almost didn't care if Jellal found out. All he wanted to do was sleep, and not dream.
Before he could retract his mind all the way, he felt a strange presence enter the area. Cobra's head whipped up, scanning the crowd for where the odd sensation was coming from. When he landed upon the person, he became even more perplexed. His first thought was that a huge crowd had suddenly made its way down the street he was on. Yet, if he wasn't being tricked, all of this was coming from just one person.
This mind–defying all logic–was like fifty people all crammed into one.
