Snowcon Forest

Aura

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

That sound echoed through the forest as Hat Kid made her way over to Subcon Village, snow still covering every surface in a thick layer of the fluffy particles. It had been some time since she had last seen the village, before the snow had fallen, so the child felt it was finally time to visit the Subconites and Dwellers.

And see how awesome it looked with the snow covering everything!

When she finally arrived, nearly tripping over one of the snow covered graves in the process, she was not disappointed. Like the rest of the forest the entire village was covered in snow, and even the small pond had a thin layer of ice covering it.

The glow from the mushrooms seemed brighter than usual, as if the fine layer of snow covering them enhanced their glow somehow. Dwellers floated about, some also covered in snow, and the Subconites stood around, some chatting with each other and some simply observing their surroundings.

It seemed like Hat Kid was not the only one who was taken by her surroundings.

"Heya newbie! It's nice to see you hanging around the village!" A Subconite called out, waving to the child as they spoke. She grinned and waved back before walking over to talk to the small shadow.

"Wow it looks so pretty over here." The child happily said once she reached the small shadow. He nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, winter doesn't happen too often but when it does it certainly looks interesting." Snow might have been ruined for the entire village thanks to... but it certainly looked mesmerizing.

The duo continued chattering and while they spoke more Subconites gathered around them. Many were curious as to what the hat wearing alien was doing in the village since she had completed all of her contracts and even gotten her soul back, but they would not make her leave.

No, they had all seen the change in their Boss, felt the shift in his aura. The child was helping him far more than she realized, and they would never be able to repay her for that.

"So what's your name?" Hat Kid asked out of the blue, startling the small shadow. It was honestly slightly embarrassing that she had forgotten to ask for their names, especially since she had come up with another name to refer to them in general.

"None of us have names." The Subconite replied, and the others behind him nodded in agreement. Their names had been the first thing they had decided to leave behind after...

There was no point in remembering who they used to be since those memories had been corrupted by what had happened on that day. Their names, their forms, and their old lives had all been given up on in an attempt to try to find some sort of joy in their new lives. They refused to let the past tragedies of the forest drag down their futures, to let the pain and sorrow win.

Not that the Subconites would ever tell the kid that.

"Why not?" The child asked. "How do you know who's who?" She honestly had no idea how to differentiate between the dozens of Subconites that lived in the forest, they all looked so alike, and sounded so similar!

"Well, we read each other's auras."

"Auras?" Hat Kid asked, blinking and tilting her head to the side. It was easy to imagine the cartoony question marks that would have popped up around her head, her confusion and curiosity were palpable.

"They're... they're like feelings that describe a person." A different Subconite said and the others around him nodded in agreement. It was difficult to describe what an aura was to someone who could not feel them.