One corner of the Experiment Corner was deathly still.
With his mind calm and his spirit at peace, Ruger maintained his observer state, doing his best to avoid any emotional fluctuations and diminish his presence.
The sensation of meeting another's gaze remained.
Time slipped quietly by in that strange, seemingly frozen exchange of gazes.
Gradually, Ruger's use of Spirit-Sucker Fur advanced another step. Or rather, his coordination with the spirit fur grew more seamless, allowing him to notice more details.
The increasingly scarlet long hairs drifted back and forth in the water as the ugly little sea beast swam. It looked like a strange sea beast with a luxuriant head of hair. Unfortunately, a closer look revealed that this was not beautiful hair as a human might imagine it, but fur sprouting from every part of its body. Ruger could now be certain that this little sea beast had not originally been so ugly, and could even have grown larger. These scarlet long hairs had restricted it, leaving it deformed and ugly as it grew.
Ruger saw more.
More of the wondrous Spirit-Suckers began approaching the deformed little sea beast that could never grow any larger.
Ruger brought out another side of a Wizard: an astonishing abundance of patience.
Stray Hair One had already received orders. The Spirit Fur Knights sealed off the Experiment Corner, giving Aisijin and Big Silly Hum some time off. No one was to feed the ugly little sea beast during this period, lest they break this rare harmony and silence.
He seemed to have grown there, a statue seated with its eyes closed.
More Spirit-Suckers followed the currents toward the little sea beast and its long fur, even merging into them and drifting with the water.
As time passed, the sensation of meeting another's gaze